Fragments

Thursday is the Spring or Vernal Equinox - this is a time associated with "The Greenman" and above is a picture that I did some years ago.

The original drawing was based on my middle son, when he was a teenager, and this son has also been on my mind these past few weeks, as his wedding takes place over the Easter weekend.

I think that part of my reluctance to be in the studio this past month is to do with my feelings around my sons wedding.

Or let me re-phrase that my feelings around becoming a "Mother in Law"!

Two of my sons are getting married this year. For the past month - I have not set foot in the studio - but I have been tending my garden like there is no tomorrow.

I love my two new daughter-in-laws-to-be. I am overjoyed that my sons are getting married and I am just so proud of all my children and their partners.

Yet somehow these imminent weddings have affected me more than I knew.
I thought I had embraced my age and in some ways I have - apart from the occasional moan about the fact that various parts of my body seem to be hurtling towards the ground - Gravity has a strange effect on the over 50's!

However at another level - I know these weddings are also a milestone in my life, and for the past month I have been in the grey time, the liminal phase of neither here nor there. Somehow, not the same mother I was - and - not yet the Mother in Law I will become.

Tending the garden has been my metaphorical rite of passage - cultivating the soil, pulling the weeds and moving stones. A way of separating from the Mother I was, actively nurturing my children (Although in truth - I have not had to do this for a few years) and moving towards the Mother I will become.

Now - I send them joyfully into this new and exciting phase of their lives, while I take my new place as the "Mother in Law"

This is work in progress that I started to-day. It is going to be composed of fragments. Fragments that I have saved over the years - from pieces that didn't work out, experiments, bits that I liked - but never got around to working into a picture.

Perhaps another metaphor for where I am just now.

Absence and Award!

I have not been in my studio for two weeks. The reality is that I probably wont have much studio time in March.

However, despite not being here Threadspider has passed on this to me.

Which I really appreciate.

The idea of the Excellent Blog Award, is to award it to 10 more people whose blog you find Excellent Award Worthy.

I would like to pass this on to:-

Seth at the Altered Page
He writes a very interesting blog, I particularly enjoyed his "pulse" series of interviews.

Jude at Spirit Cloth - her blog and her stitching are a mediation

Michelle Ward - whose work I think is amazing and she is so generous, with links, techniques and her writing.

Monica Magness at Girl gone thread wild. My experience of Monica's blog is one of such joy and vibrancy. In particular the Artists Squares she has organized.

Kate Smudges - who has just celebrated her first anniversary with her blog Kate Smudges in Earth, Paint and Life, and I feel that Kate's blog is like sitting down with a friend for a cup of tea

Also - Sandy at Garden Path. I have only recently started following Sandy's blog, and I am enjoying her images and her Haiku.

Apologies for the brevity of this post - normal creative posting will resume when my muse returns from being out to play!

No Apologies

Well - actually I do have one apology to make - and that is I am so sorry that I have not replied to all of you who took the time and trouble to leave a comment on my last post.

So thank you;-
Shirley, Dobby, Sharon, Threadspider, Paula, Judy and Linda I valued your input.
I have not looked at the piece since I posted it - and as I said in my last post I have done a bit more stitching.

BUT THE SUN CAME OUT

So I have been working in the garden and at the weekend we walked.

"A little piece of Heaven"

I feel so much better now that I have had some sun on my face. When we walked at the weekend , the weather was so wonderful that we were in T-shirts. What bliss.
(humm - the spell checker on bloggger does not seem to work - apologies for spelling errors)

Candlemass

Good walk to-day.

This is a vain attempt to loose weight before one of my sons wedding ...
7 weeks to-day - eek

Please click on the images for a larger view.

The Sun Came Out To-day .....

The sun came out to-day so I went for a good walk with a friend. Sunshine Exercise and Good Company - just what I needed.

There was a lot of water in the river, after the rains we have had.

I was so glad to see the sun.

The Sea ... The Sea

At the moment I am totally captivated by the new work that Vivian has on her blog. Her current art is speaking directly to my soul. It is also inspiring me to return to working with sea themes again.

It is strange - that now I am living about 5 minutes away from the beach how little sea imagery is in my work.

However - when I was living away from the sea - my work was about the sea. I missed it so ......

In 1988 - when I was doing my City and Guilds in Creative Embroidery. My part two theme was "the sea". One of my major pieces was a coat, which had seaweed and sea horses as decoration.

My father - who lived by the sea, sent me regular parcels of sea weed - so that I could draw it. How brave was the post man who delivered it!

Then in 1998 I was doing a lot of shows and exhibitions - the sea and all things watery, featured strongly in my work - again I was living a long way away from it and missed it a lot.

However here I am now - returned to my soul home, and prompted by Vivian I am pulled once more towards the sea.

The joy of having a theme that returns time and again over the years (decades) is that you have the opportunity to revisit the theme with new eyes and new perspective.

During Part 2, City and Guilds - my sea themes were large.

In 1998 my sea images had a melancholy - which perhaps reflected where I was in my life at that time.

And now - 20 years down the line - although the water and the boats appear from time to time - I am edging towards doing another body of significant work around the sea and my life beside it.

Friendship

"The Gang" - in our teens

I am feeling so much better - went back to the doctor yesterday and got different pills for the vertigo.

I am mightily relieved about this, as tomorrow I am off to a school reunion! Our class tries to have a get together about once a decade!

It is at this point that I:-

1) Wished I looked in the mirror more often - perhaps I could of done something about those wrinkles in my face a while ago.

2) Was more disciplined about things like moisturizer - then maybe my skin would not be like rhino-hide

3) Remembered to say "no thank you" to chocolate, coffee cake, new potatoes with butter and so on

But I didn't do any of these things - so there we go!

In our nearly 40's

Friendship is an amazing thing and throughout my life I have been blessed with wonderful friendships.
Some are fleeting and transient - a soul connection of two people who for that brief moment in a life time know that they are friends, this kind of friendship sometimes leaves the bittersweet memory of "if only ..."

Some friendships have a natural time span - they are wonderful for many years but then things move on and so does the friendship. No regrets - no blame - just the warm comfortable memories of shared laughter and shared lives.

Some are blossoming friendships - new and interesting in their newness - like the ones that are growing here in Wales since I moved back.

Also;- "cyber-buddies" the friendships developing because of shared interests, and ease of communication over the web. Friends who I may never meet in person - but who become friends nonetheless


Some friendships - are more enduring and my friendship with the three woman in these photographs has lasted for 4 decades! I think it is amazing.

We met at school when we were about 10 years old - and as we were at a boarding school our lives were perhaps more interlinked with each other, than those children who go to a day school. We have seen each others worst and best. My life is richer for knowing them.

We probably only meet up every few years as a foursome - but the joy of this friendship is we carry on just where we left off, it can be 2 years, 2 months or two weeks since we last saw each other it really doesn't matter.

This Spring the 4 of us went to Paris - to celebrate 40 years of friendship - although there was perhaps a little apprehension as to whether we would get on together for 5 days of constant company .... it was great and we had a ball. (it took me a week to get my voice back - and two weeks to recover fully - but hey!)

In our well over 40's!
Oh - Ok our 50's

Now all you have to do is guess which one is me!