Dear Hive Art-ists,
This is the front cover, the 'artist's statement' and the first page, of a book project I made in 2006 or 2007, throughout a long journey by bicycle-ferry-train, from Edinburgh, Scotland to Piran, Slovenia.
Like most of my art before I finally found my own home in a suitably magical place, this book was an expression of much dynamic energy, emotion, catharsis. Almost all my work before (and some after) 2011, has an element of struggle and turmoil in it. This first page expresses something of that - and, at least in my private view looking back, as the book unfolds it shows an unfolding of much tension... As with many journeys I've made in the world: the real trip is returning home, and finding oneself changed in some way; everything looking fresh and new.
I avoided documenting my art books for many years, as it is not my area of expertise. My mastery is in expression and deep-sentience, manifesting and gardening ;-) Taking and editing photos are not my favourite tasks, and the accurate depiction in digital format appears elusive....
Either way, I feel a calling to share my earlier work on the Hive blockchain, and commit here to share a page each day, and to speak more about the journey, and journeying in general, from my deep-sentience and healing point-of-view.
The journey was specifically for a two week residency in Piran, with a group of artists who I was attending Edinburgh College Of Art with, on the Art, Space & Nature MA course. The course was a collaboration between the landscape design department and the fine art department.
The MA had artists with a really wide variety of disciplines on it - from biochemist to dancer, painter to garden designer. I really adored mixing disciplines and having these less-compartmentalised discussions around art and our purpose in the world as creators.
The course was also interesting in that it had multifarious in-house or residential projects, both in Scotland and abroad. In the fast-paced, ego-driven 'reality' of that the college and the city, this meant artists getting cheap flights to particular locations, meeting up and creating in-situ... I only went to local and one European location, because I didn't want to either rush there or take a 'plane. My work at that time was all about presence, feeling and slowing down.
I was also healing at that time from a miscarriage and the subsequent breakdown of a relationship that was extremely important to me, as well as the recent loss of my mother and grandmother in close succession. My life at this time was saturated in grief and straining to keep my head about water, mentally, emotionally, financially, etc.
The journey and the making of the book helped me express difficult aspects of what was happening around me and within me, without my having to make sense of them in 'logic' or verbal language.
Thank you sincerely for witnessing...
BLESSINGS ON YOUR CREATIVE JOURNEY; AND SEE YOU IN THE NEXT POST!
