A good day for burning

 Friday was a stunning and sunny day here in Armadale, and so we headed out to the garden, ostensibly to do some gardening (novel). We did however get a bit distracted and decided first we would do some art.

On our last visit we had gathered some posts for B to do his work with from a fellow called Toby. As we were collecting them I saw some of the fence posts had been slightly burned, and were charred in places. I REALLY liked them. Four of them came home with us.

I had no real plan except I could see them bundled together somehow. As B was fixing the cove post not long after we arrived this time, we chose to saw the charred posts down to give him some good lengths to work with.  

I looked at the charred posts and chose the best faces and we decided we should try to get a post made whilst we were here.  A few days later I thought - I want them to be black; not black with the raw timber still showing at the top, and we discussed if it would be possible. 

Today we tested the hypothesis.

Barry helped as ever with all the technicalities - he collected and presented me with all the tools I would need, and I hammered the four posts together.

Here they are standing. You can see what I mean about the raw/bare bits at the top.

And so we turned to flame and fire...

Mesmerising...

The final flame on one tip.

We doused it with water twice to make sure no embers lingered. Possibly less important in 10 degrees in Scotland than in an Australian summer, but old habits die hard.

And here they are, ready for their becoming.

I have thoughts about binding, about holding, about wrapping. 

Thoughts about balance about stone about rust.

Fingers crossed I can find a way to bring it to a beautiful conclusion.

I am also pleased to report that much digging and gardening did get done!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Each act of creativity becomes a form of prayer, if the heart is centred in the making”. 

 Jackie Morris (perhaps all art is ritual)

I really enjoyed reading this article that my friend Lesley sent me.  It made me stop and think about all the rituals we undertake; all the histories we continue to take forward, the traditions, and the honouring. As we make are the echoes back through time? Do we find ourselves placed somewhere in a continuum of the tradition? Can we find those who have gone before and feel a kinship with them?

As ever, everything depends on your personal perspective, values and belief systems, and I think perhaps an alternative word for prayer could be offering.  Offering suggests to me that creativity is an offering to the wider world, to the universe, to people's spirits. For me, prayer feels a bit different.

I feel as if if the heart is centred in the making are words to live by; and when the heart is engaged, beauty appears.

I oftentimes ponder does the heart lead? Does the head follow? Is it always the same or do different pieces emerge from different places? 

Perhaps all art is ritual, sometimes led by the head, sometimes led by the heart.

Detail, stitching copper remnants with copper wire... Peace Mends the World (2013).

Mending and cheering

I have no idea what happened or how it happened but this dear old grey beanie blew its lid the other morning!

From perfectly functional to unravelling before my eyes.

 

I sent out a quick SOS to a knitting friend Jo, who suggested I simply try to pick up all the stitches with wool of a matching colour and tie it off, and I added to myself, and hope.

So I headed to my trusty kit and found cream crochet thread and needles I use to stitch books. A good enough place to start.

I started to pick up the stitches, and had the odd moment of being not sure which direction to go in from, and also picking up only 2 of the 3 threads so there was a bit of unpicking going on as well.

Half way along I discovered what I think had happened, the wool thread which had pulled the whole thing tight to the crown had broken, so I tried to knot it and hold that bit together for a bit on its own.

There was absolutely no plan, or skill at play here, it was every thread for itself, in any direction.

I made it to the end after several ins and outs and pulled the thread through tightly together. I was still pretty fearful that I would have missed bits so just started doing a random stitch around the top knot kind of approach.

Which I then just keep going and going with. No finesse whatsoever, but it is bound down and stitched pretty tight. I hope it holds!

I have been thinking I might like to now try and make it look a bit pretty, or at least improve the stitching, but I’ll test it out for a bit first before committing further.

It felt good to have things in my hands again and be re-making, if not yet making.  We are away in Orkney for a bit now so things will be quiet on the making front for a few more days yet. I have been thinking and writing at least and some wee thoughts are swirling…

In between times I have been thoroughly enjoying the daffodils appearing.

The path to our washing lines, and some of their happy smiling faces…

Library Time

 On our last visit, we were home one day and saw the Mobile Library pull up along the road. It cheered me enormously to think of this lovely yellow truck making its way around the Highlands stopping in to deliver and receive books, bringing bookishness to the isolated areas. So happy.

This time when I saw it drive up the road I was ready with my card. One of the first things we had done when we bought the cottage was to become Library members, and here at last was my chance!

Seriously, it really did feel like Aladdin’s cave in there. So many books. So beautifully organised. Such a welcoming librarian!

I borrowed a couple of books. They are only at this stop for 15 minutes so I felt I couldn’t dally. I have always wanted to read Ali Smith’s quartet and Autumn is the first volume so I grabbed it. I almost read it in one sitting it was that good. So clever, so observant, so gentle, so lyrical. 

I was chuffed that because we have no mobile signal where we are, the good old manual stamp was still needed. 

What a glorious sight, the story this tells, the memories it evokes…

I will return my books in a few weeks, and will definitely borrow again some time.

Thursday Thoughts...

“As readers, we are the conductor and the orchestra, as well as the audience” 

Peter Mendelsun (What we see when we read)

I oftentimes find the different ways folk explore the interplay between art and audience, and book and reader, really quite fascinating.

I certainly think that books can change you; and that each person reads a slightly diffenret book.

This quote takes us further along that path I think as it suggest to me that the reader is almost a co-creator with the author/writer.  How else to explain the notion of orchestra and conductor?  Both these roles seem to be either guiding the performance; or literally undertaking the performance.

So perhaps as readers we do both those things as we read - we guide the speed, the memories, the connections and associations; and we also undertake the process of reading - it is us doing it, performing it.  And then the audience is the recipient of the words, the story, the information and that too is us as we read.

Quite a bit of fun trying to get my head into all three roles!

... how to read the music...

Week 1

 So we have made the trek up and across the globe and once again find ourselves back in our beautiful, restorative cottage in the Scottish Highlands.

The first week is always one of recovery and re-settling, remembering the rhythms, the places and the ways in which we move through this part of the world, differently to Australia.

Not much creativity has occurred as we re-adjust, so here is a sequence of images from our first week.

We stopped overnight at Pitlochry and the heather was beginning. We have seen only the tiniest fragment of heather further here in the Highlands thus far.

After a week or so of heavy snow, we were fortunate to be able to drive safely 'up through the middle' rather than hugging the coastal main road. The remnants of snow and the clouds and the sky were magnificent. We stopped frequently to photograph the wonder of it.

' 

 

On arrival, our stones at the front door welcomed us once again. I always think of this collection as The World is a Circle - and here somebody has placed a peace dove which may have been felled by a storm or high winds.

The rock garden was fairly spare - Spring has barely had the chance to begin, and it seems as if each timid advance is followed by the need to retreat and take cover for a little bit longer. The tiny, resilient cyclamen astonish me with their capacity to be covered by inches of snow one week, then blooming bravely the next.

Our first morning here we headed for the cove and were rewarded with this wondrous turquoise colour.

Back at home, the daffodils have begun to show their faces. There are so many waiting to emerge, I hope they can find their way to blooming.

As ever, the light captivates and the fishing net drying poles fascinate. And the silhouetted horses...

A different perspective on the cove as Barry heads out to the edge on the other side.

I stayed where I was and turned around to capture this bluebird sky and the fence line...

And then this morning - snow and hail! This was the first round of hail, gathering in our front door mat, creating a beautiful black and white checker board.

Re-working

 Part of my art plan for the year is to work mostly with things I already have in the studio rather than purchase new items. I don't know why I haven't completely focussed on this idea previously, because I really do rather like the creative response to restraints like these.

So as part of tidying our house and the studio, I came across these images I had photographed and printed for Barry years ago. 

They were placed in this small folder as a reminder for him of some beautiful work. I think there were five in each folder.

This one has had its moments in storage it would seem!

The printer that could produce such stunning velvety blacks is long gone, but I thought it was a shame that nobody got to see them so I pondered to myself could I re-use a few frames and put them together and see what happened?

And so before we headed off I did just that and here are a couple of the results - impossible to photograph given the glass and the light in the studio, but you get the idea...

It's kind of nice to see the original work represented like this I think. A nice result and a way to share them a bit more.