Side by Side

The artist Carol Peace is about to hold an Open Studio and Gallery Exhibition of her work in Bristol. Her email invitation uses this wonderful piece of sculpture and it really appeals to me.

side by side
equal
souls and soles exposed
heads held high
dignified
open
proud
the arm round the back
loving
tender
supportive
not belonging but sharing
one another with
each other
and with us.

Who would you write to if you could?

leemingwei.com

 

How profoundly moving. Standing in a gallery space in Dean Gallery silent, curious.  In the space is a beautiful Eastern-styled three-sided booth with a single step up to a low writing bureau.  On all three sides are carefully designed slots to hold envelopes.  "Please remove your shoes before entering the writing booth" - is this request in respect of the project being the creation of a Taiwanese-born artist? In respect of the spiritual art of letter-writing? Or perhaps in awe of the addressees on the envelopes...

To Emanuelle
To my brother and my sister
Gordon, PM
Pour Piotr
An Artist Among Artists
Whoever in the Whole Wide World
Robert
God
Budda
Wonderful Grandparents
x x x
We Are the Wise Ones

I am writing these down trying not to disturb the woman who is kneeling in her stockinged feet writing her letter in the booth. Another, older, woman enters the room. She must have come up in the lift - our reverence is temporarily agitated by the digital voice announcing that the lift is now going down. This new arrival walks straight up to the booth and lifts down an envelope, opens it and reads the contents. I am shocked; i feel voyeuristic but cannot help glancing across to see what is written therein. It has been 4 years today since our first meeting and... She returns the contents, slots the envelope back in its place and removes another on which is written:

Dear God...

The younger woman in the booth has finished writing. I imagine her folding the sheet of paper (her back is to us) and then she begins to rise back to her feet, places the folded sheet inside the envelope and then finds a home for it with the others. On it is scribed:

God of Life

So who would i write to?  Why didn't i write a letter while i was there?  Why don't i just get on and write the letters, send them to those still living, mourn those who i didn't write to sooner...?  I am uneasy with the idea of leaving a letter in a public place where others can read it, judge me, laugh at me and i feel sure that i would try too hard to make the letter "good" knowing that others might indeed read it.   And yet i write and publish this blog and i guess reading my blog is like reading a private journal that i have chosen to share with the world...

What about you?  What would you do?

Fine...don't think in Edinburgh, part 3

As the afternoon breezed by the clouds got ever more windswept and interesting!


Broughton Street is always full of signs, notices, objets d'art... well worth a visit!

Fine...don't think in Edinburgh part 2

The wedding party struggled with confetti in the breeze
failed to get on to the roundabout where the photographer wanted to take some "arty" photos
and all seemed to be having a lovely, happy time

The wedding had taken place in the Mansfield Traquair Centre at the foot of Broughton Street - full of Phoebe Traquair work

life on two wheels in Edinburgh - rapid? dangerous? the only way forward?

fine...don't think in Edinburgh...

From Tollcross to Barony Street on foot
i saw Starbucks (mmmm),
Festival fireworks preparation in Princes Street Gardens (whizz!pop!bang!)
a guy trying to light his juggling batons with a malfunctioning lighter (aaaahhh)
a wedding celebration
a bicycle and a scooter outside Rapidos
and some interesting signs...


In Princes Street Gardens this mural caught my attention

a woman standing watching helped him out by lending him her lighter

and the signs i saw helped me to stop, rest and be...

Curve at the Bield

A pair of giraffes - one of Darwin's greatest inspirations
Lesbians scrawled across their graceful necks
What can i say to people who know almost everything?
Warrior pose in studio - oh how i want that studio!
Walden Pond in Massachusetts -
stunning light - sky and water reflecting each other's beauty
branch of a tree framing the scene
leaves of autumn gold, bronze and copper
variously backlit by the sun.
Across the pond words appear:
Mysteries of Christianity

A scrap of writing from Resurgence

A finger maze by Chris Drury (more truly a labyrinth)
MORAL shouts above it
and beneath it a card sticks out
brazen, immodest - the Queen of Hearts
in the intimate embrace
of another Queen of Hearts...

And from the bottom corner of this fabulous trump card
snake two trunks extended into sand,
plaited like a loaf, created by Goldsworthy.

CURVE is important, softening the collage
yet also emboldening.

And then we come to the piece that began this particular process -
a gorgeous barn owl peering out of its nest site in a derelict barn.
Entitled HOW the words wisdom and grace
appear and at the foot of the sheet:

EXERCISES IN THINKING.

Divine Abidings at the Bield

Today was truly wonderful, the only downside being that my camera broke down before i had captured the completion of the creative process. So here are some of the moments of the journey in picture and in word.

The Bield is a special place near Perth, Scotland. Gail and i first travelled there as friends last summer and have returned several times for simple retreat days, creative and reflective.

[to bield means to shelter in Scots]

...wandering outside, collecting. A leaf curling at its fingertips, browning in the elements; a twig discarded and forlorn; lichen in pale hues of green; a feather sodden and dulled; a flower plucked; a grass tugged.

Collage Process
Start with the card, collect some items and brush glue across the card. Create the river - add, remove, change around... Let the space speak, see it as it is inhabited - blue fabric suggests sky, brown tissue the earth... wasteland or wild places?


Large sheet of burgundy card,
tissue and crepe paper -
blues, greens, white;
fabric of hessian, satin, wool,
bubble wrap, chippings,
foam cut-outs;
PVA glue, hairspray, tape;
magazine clippings -
words, phrases, letters,
boots, cows, flowers, birds, fairies, trees,
scenery - a dead body floating face down in the water.


Does the swan fly through the sky
or does the air carry her graceful body effortless in the space?
A fairy swims up there
a butterfly flaps and a damselfly swoops
all under the piercing eye of the falcon.
Two cows stand on the river's edge
udders full, minds wandering
as they meditate on the items that drift past.
A pair of walking boots stand to attention,
laces untied.
Is the body beached below the owner?
Did he drift past the cows?
Did the falcon notice?
The body bleaches slowly -
driftwood now,
encompassed in art.