This doodle in my sketch book became the inspiration for mud map making
Walking to and from the studio each day, I have found myself counting my steps. When I was creating some drawings, monoprints and mud resist patterns, I realised I was making a map of my daily walks to and from the studio.
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Gnarled oak trees on Wistman’s Wood, Dartmoor.
Is there still magic in the world? At Wiseman’s Wood on Dartmoor in Devon, the ancient oak trees entwine their branches to whisper their stories. You start to feel the presence of otherworldly beings all around. Strap on your boots and go!
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Invoking the spirit of Michelangelo, I tried out stone carving. I find it difficult to create in 3D but was keen to try new things. Starting with no clear plan, I hoped that the stone would to speak to me. It did!
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The library nook window - when the sun shines in it is heaven!
Finding a cosy nook to read in feels like home, especially when it is wet and windy outside. The ghosts of great writers, thinkers and artists once tarried here or walked the 1,200 acre grounds of Dartington Hall estate in South Devon. It’s easy to imagine their benevolent presence as I settle in this year of post graduate study.
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Everything feels better with a cup of tea. View inside Figaro, our motorhome.
Learning new things is exciting. But it can also be really, really challenging. The first days of mastering life on the road in a motorhome have been eventful in the extreme. It’s been a crash course of leaning, with plenty more adventures to come.
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One of the 91 collage postcards I made in 2018 to document my travels. Maybe I’ll do it again as a mapping practice this year.
How can we use the motions of our body to create marks and can these marks become maps that lead us back into an active arts practice? I contemplate these ideas as I pack my bags (again) to travel to the UK this week. Walking and mapping will help me document my 10 months away.
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Osteomancy -The Bones Speak (detail) 2023 -(application reject)
It’s disappointing to reject artworks you know you have laboured over. Painful as it may be, we have to ‘kill our darlings’, the works that we have spent so long with, they no longer feel fresh. Instead, think of these as pilots, leading the way for the better works to follow.
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Beach sunrise on the rocks, Minjerribah, north Stradbroke Island.
I’m drawn to rocks for inspiration, especially the bedrock upon which we build the structures of our lives. Looking closer, it is the striations and seam lines, the tiny holes in the rocks that are the most interesting. The cracks where change is most evident, bringing elemental forces in play.
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Boats in Yamba marina
The call to adventure is strong in me as I succumb to weeks of restlessness, like the Sea Rat in The Wind in the Willows. Taking any kind of journey, creating movement of one kind or another, changes the energy, exhorting us to become wayfarers all.
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Two experimental collaged cards which led me into my Stitch in Time daily collages in 2010. I still like the red & black limited palette.
It takes courage to follow that path less taken when the ‘crazy restlessness’ of creative adventure takes hold. Rather than throwing out your early artworks as ‘ugly ducklings’ they can be viewed instead as creative ‘markers’, leading you on a journey of discovery.
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