Monday, March 19, 2012

process as just that

...yesterday was Mothers Day in Ireland and my perfect gift was time to myself in the quietness of my studio. An odd way to celebrate being a mother perhaps but after an intense week where everyone in our house was ill it was what my creative soul really needed.
I've been wanting to paint for a while but getting around to it has not been so easy.
Sitting with two hours stretched ahead of me painting was not something I could slip into.
So I started where my brain was at and a sort of continuation of a letter to a friend.
Process 1, took the letter and shredded it. Roisin Markham
This shredding is not something foreign to my process but it may or may not be connected to the paper play process from the visual theatre workshop I took recently in Waterford.
Being really open with process means that I allow my creative energies to wander undirected rather like a form of doodling. So not taking out my paint brushes to paint was a little frustrating but it did not seem right.
Process 2, looked a bit like the nest I had designed in my head
....but  obviously flat
I wanted to combine the torn letter, my thoughts from yesterday and have a different voice within it hence the choice of the sports section from an Irish news paper. I started thinking about patterns of behaviour and how we break them or make them. Patterns...



the play continued and eventually I did paint on top of the nestled text, but it was horrible no rhythm rime or symmetry. Very displeasing to the eye, muck or as I oft refer to the painting process #dross. But processing the dross has commenced which means it brings me closer to painting fluidly again. I look forward to that.
After the studio session I took the dog out for a walk it was lovely to see the blush of Spring on the trees:
Springs blush appears on the trees @ Ballygarrett finally. 2012


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

the trees tell a different tale

terrible exposure it fails as a photographic exposure but... I love it!
this is more visual commentary then text, written or verbal...
further south the buds have appeared
 the relationship with camera, tree and me continues

Saturday, March 10, 2012

a letter to a friend


I sat in my studio thinking about you this morning. I thought about your comment "shaking Winter off"... as I mentioned hibernation and nesting both came to mind. Preparation in different forms.
Of course there are always elements in the studio to move around, prompt, group, draw - photograph.
The nest was given to me as a gift from a dear old friend at the opening of my solo exhibition"Of Earth and Soul"  in 2010. It is a wrens nest carefully crafted with sticks, moss and sheep fleece.
The little nest half way down is needle felt it came about from a needle felted ball that I made during my show "of words and stitch" in 2011. When making the hug tokens in February this year I cut one in half and discovered it was hollow so it seemed obvious to needle felt it into a container, a little boat, a nest. It is Buchon de Cher a springy type wool. The outside has a Hebridean fleece needle felted as a sparse layer. The oak leaf is one I collected last autumn from an oak close to the studio.
As I sat in my studio this morning I thought what would we do if we had to make nests - what would we create them out of - I was thinking both in making an object de art and the concept as an analogy. I really wanted to paint but found myself dreaming of making an object. A lacy interwoven nest with sheep fleece and strips of paper - with written words a long. A sophisticated crafted wonder... But instead of making it a jewel I wondered about sitting where I was at the table in front of the windows and just making a nest out of things I could reach? Discarded paper on the floor, string, some scraps of fabric, pinku fleece, cushendale fleece... so the process started. I unwrapped the wrens nest to remind myself of what an amazing artist nature is. I keep it in that very bright pink tissue paper in a box that is the perfect size for it. I started photographing it and that always leads down a side track - a fruitful one usually.
Yes that is a bicycle wheel behind it... my studio has many curious things in it. This morning I enjoyed quiet solitude writing, shaping, making and photographing.

Friday, March 9, 2012

budding

what's that expression
The darkest hour is just before the dawn...
I feel I am on the cusp of something  - so close.
Almost tangible yet not quiet there...

Perhaps it is a reflection of spring not quiet being full in yet - the trees are still bare with limited signs of budding.
Like the trees I am in transition...

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