Last week the nation celebrated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee which meant no My Time, My Space session. It is grey and overcast on the bank holiday Monday, and I felt the need for some quiet time in nature. A walk in the rain drenched landscape involves finding a path through the abundant crop field and we head towards one of his favourite wooded enclaves off the beaten track. Looking up we see a deer standing still, on the edge of the woodland, watchful, alert, ready to flee. We cross the boundary fence and quietly trace our steps through nettles, shade, trees and overgrown pathways. I decide to dedicate the time to the MTMS women and imagine we are connecting on the journey. Along the way I discover flint, wood, fern cones, a delicate branch rich with lichen and a handful of moss. I place my findings in my whicker basket and feel the weight of the fragrant damp collection and decide to take to the next MTMS session and create the woodland feel.
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Woodland offerings, colourful pearlescent inks for reflection, fragrant essential oils to clear, uplift & calm.
I bring the collection of woodland findings to the session and re-create a woodland feel, there is relaxation music playing as women enter - a Japanese garden wood flute CD, with nature arrangement on an offerings table, and on the creativity table, inks, paper & fragrant essential oils. I tell the story of my woodland walk in the rain and invite the writing of an imaginary story One Day I went for a Walk.... We all begin writing in different coloured pens, pathways to somewhere special, in a landscape or an environment that comes to mind, maybe with someone we care about, a special journey, a time and place, somewhere that is unique to each of us, perhaps finding along the way small offerings or treasures. For some it is possible to scribble thoughts on throw away paper, then fold them small and place within their journals; for another it is a place to just sit and sip tea.
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I'm not sure how long I can stay...
We discuss experimenting, seeing what happens when large amounts of water are drizzled and dripped, when brushes soaked with water is applied to create inky painterly patterns with thoughts of past and present.
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"It just looks a mess to me!" she said brightly.
Conversation traces themes of home, work, money, learning, relationships, childhood & motherhood...patterns of daily life, the need for routine, personal space, individuality
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| A memory of a special place & time... |
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| ....experienced from different perspectives! |
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| A time to transform negative to positive! |
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Looking down at my own piece of paper I am horrified to see that the inks don't do anything as I had expected. I look around and see beauty unfolding and amazing paintings, and observe that we could get rich selling the artworks as French impressionist masters. There is laughter and we discuss expectations and fears, how history affects and colours our present. Swishes of turquoise, magenta and greens mix with murmerings of dark memories and ideas for change as colours swirl.
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We acknowledge what we think are the most important things to hand on to our children...LOVE, RESPECT & TIME.
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"I am going to make memory boxes for my children,
so when I am gone they will know who I am really am " she said... |
With thanks to health visitor Judith for baking and sharing the wonderful jubilee cup cakes. We clear the table and decide women sharing with others is a really positive thing and a small seed of a plan unfolds of how to continue to meet after the ten MTMS sessions completes. There is the exciting news that textile artist, Paula Tew will be joining MTMS too, bringing her love of textiles, contemporary printmaking and Japanese culture to four sessions.
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