Stitching Alone and with Others
Tomorrow the show for the MA courses in Falmouth ( Woodlane campus, 6-9pm) opens.
The part-time student taken part with a group show in the Garden Studio.
Here is a glimpse of my contribution and a few thoughts……
Wool is my medium and my companion.
Wool is renewable and sustainable.
Wool is warmth, comfort and calm.
Wool teaches me respect for the sheep.
Wool teaches me patience and perseverance.
Wool connects me to the origin of our cloth.
Wool connects me to the land and to life.
Resting in my backyard, knitting my summer shawl, quit music , a coffee and the dog under the table.
sometimes it take a bit of mental discipline to actually follow and do what I know to be beneficial for me, such as quite times.
the summer appears to be a time full of activities, swimming in the bay, dog walking, taking teenager to the beach for barbecues and surfing, Summer festivals, left, right and centre, Penzance just had the LitFest ( more in a separate post about my KnitLit afternoon last Saturday.
It is good to remember those precious moments of sitting still, hands gently moving and breathing ………..
I am essay writing and as it is heartbreaking to sit in front of a computer on such a beautiful day, as it is today, I am grateful for the chance to completely be immersed in the thoughts of Sustainability and Art and where I place myself. And I got roughly an idea…….. In the meantime, it is good to walk the talk and do a few stitches, almost to rewire myself and let the other brain half have a go…..
The idea of Six nations is a metaphor for the all non-human and human being, equal, it sees plants, insects, birds, fish, mammals and human as a nation with equal rights. An image which is strongly related to ideas from Deep Ecology.
Germany and Still Knitting to keep Me sane.
I am in Germany since last Friday, visiting my mother (85 yr) and I am in the great company of my partner Bill and my son Robin (15 yr) .
Surely and slowly my English dissolves and Courageous Bill, who is a wonderful English speaker looks at me with great concern as I become more and more not understandable .
my mother has minute memories of my school English , Bill does know the polite greetings and phrases and Robin is in theory bi-lingual ( he speaks wonderful German with our friends and there offspring).
I am always optimistic when I back for a visit to my mother; I back books to read, diaries to write, maybe even some watercolour paint and a sketch book. This time there is also a book about Deep Ecology for my MA! The time is spend with my mother, going into town , pottering around, going a bit mad with dealing with two languages , you get the picture.
So what does keep me sane in times like this is Knitting; a project small an simple to keep me and my fraying mind sane!
This time it is a pair of little slippers for my friend Bettina; we are off tomorrow to Minden for three days where my friends Michael and Bettina live with their three quite grown up children !
so the second slipper will be done by Friday night!
Happy Knitting!
P.S. If my grammar and sentence order is ever so slightly odd, read above again !
Sometimes I see something in this strange digital world and it feels someone has put into words,
what I feel. There is a sense of recognition and knowing.
These words from Toko-Pa and the image from Polina Yakovleva went straight to my heart:
Lightening Fires of Affection
‘So many of us are out at sea, looking for home. We try this way and that,
battling the endless march of adversaries, led by cynicism and apathy.
We fight them with every poetry we possess. We are gentle. We yield.
We get back to navigating our crafts.
Every once in a while, exhaustion can turn into despair.
The tiny flame, which takes our every resource to shield,
blows out on an unexpected gust.
Even then, lightless and alone, some of us remount our enterprise.
It helps to think of more than ourselves.
It helps to see the earth workers, the artists, the mothers,
the lovers, the singers, the poets and dreamers as threads in a web.
By ourselves we are fragile strands, songs with no listeners,
but together we are a relentless network.
Wherever there is depression,
there is colour made vivid by the grey.
When I feel this fog rolling in on me,
I light fires of affection in the hearts of others.
I tell them in tangible ways
how the life they live makes me live mine differently,
how precious and important they are to the rest of us.
That fire then becomes like a beacon which burns through
the grey and which I can sail towards.”
Toko-Pa Turner
http://toko-pa.com/2013/10/18/lighting-fires-of-affection/.
I found this on Facebook and I love synchronicity when it happens, also uuI discovered in the March/April 2014 Issue of Resurgence & Ecologist the following article:
The Dalai Lama – Hopes comes from the Heart
Hylton Murray-Philipson wonders what keeps the Dalai Lama going
It was said in the article the answer lies in the Faith of the Dalai Lama, not only in his religious faith as a Buddhist, but also his faith in young People.
One of his most fundamental beliefs is in non-violence, his long life experience has proved his believe, he has seen the Berlin Wall coming down, the end of Apartheid in South Africa and the British Empire coming to an end through Gandhi’s campaign of civil disobedience.
Countering a feeling of hopelessness he said: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito!”
The Dalai Lama emphasis on our common humanity, beyond race, religion, profession or status.
Furthermore he emphasis and is passionate about the need to act – TODAY. He say: there are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday and the other is called Tomorrow.”
In my mind every act, no matter how small towards a sustainable and respectful world to live, counts.
Every step we take, every decision we make and talk about is a step into the right direction.
It was a inspiring event and I feel very privileged to have been giving the the opportunity to show and share my work during this symposium.
Beyond the Toolkit was an Arts & Humanities-funded symposium organised by Falmouth University in collaboration with Arts for Health, Cornwall. The event was held in Falmouth University’s Academy for Innovation & Research (AIR) building at the Penryn Campus, Cornwall on the 19th and 20th February, 2014. Here is the introduction to the symposium:
Creative expression can make a powerful contribution to wellbeing and the healing process, and its benefits are recognised as social inclusion, economic growth and health promotion. Attempts to define the success of the mechanisms through which these might occur, however, tend to rely on straightforward models of impact assessment. This has resulted in a standardised ‘toolkit’ approach that may be replicated across differing contexts, art forms and audiences, but which neglects the material and experiential qualities of creative practice.
Beyond the Toolkit explores these benefits with an emphasis on the particularities of crafts practice. It focuses on…
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“In the old days, the old fellows were sitting around, all the women were laughing , joking – so all that conversation has gone into the basket.”
Verna Nichols , Tasmania
This quote gathered to much up, how I feel about my practise.
When I look again at the cloth were people have embroidered on on now 4 occasions, it seems as if I can still her the voices, the stories and the laughter. And I see as well those, how were quietly stitching, not saying much, but listing and still part, adding their stitches.
My practise has these two aspects
– creating spaces where people can experience again a communal situation, of working with their hands creatively and being with people
– working on my own with very slow technique using Embroidery, Knitting, Crochet and very recently hand spinning as a meditative activity
– Working with my “traveling” projects where ever I am, on the train, in Cafés, with friends talking at the Folk evenings in my home town
Sometimes when I pick up a embroidered cloth, or a hat, knitted from my own pattern and from well chosen wool, I smile as the memories flood back.
The more I think about it, the more I realise that the underlying intend for my activities, shared and alone is Wellbeing.
What wonderful opening of the symposium ” Beyond the Toolkit”!
It has been a great afternoon of meeting people who are going to give talks and workshops tomorrow in the context of the symposium.
I am very grateful for Fiona Hackney and her team who created this amazing event and cast the net to bring so many people together; people who bring their keen interest in the relationship of Craft and Wellbeing to this event and share their ideas, stories and experiences.
One of tonight’s speakers was Monika Auch, a visual artist and medical researcher. More about her work and her project “Stitch your Brain” tomorrow !!!
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