The shape of water and some other good things in Wales.

 

I am back in Wales. In the tiny village of Y Ferwig at Createspace Wales. 

Feeling very lucky to be here, keeping cool while the south east swelters.

Trying to think positively while all around me the world struggles with Covid-19.

Finding it hard.

So this morning I typed a list of positive words about this place. Things to be grateful for.

One of the traits of resilient people is to be able to identify good things around them, however small. 

 

I found this  TED talk about resilience a helpful reminder of how to keep going when the going gets tough.

The words that came to my mind mostly relate to nature. I have been walking down single track lanes to the coast, marvelling at the abundance of plants in the hedgerows. Feasting on blackberries and swimming in the bracing sea at Mwnt beach.

Here is my list.

HEDGEROW

BLACKBERRIES

SEA

SUNLIGHT

QUIET

BIRDSONG

SWALLOW

DEW LADEN GRASS

PINK STRING

COBWEBS IN THE MORNING SUN

SEA MIST

COLD SEA SWIMMING

THE SOUNDS OF SUMMER

COWS CHEWING 

GNOME PARTY

VERDANT

Most self explanatory. Gnome party is happening right now in the polytunnel at the top of the garden. 

It is a signal of hope.

Of how the imagination allows freedom, particularly if you are a child.

gnome party in the poly tunnel

Pink string; a cheerful choice. 

pink string

Talking to cows is always worthwhile.

inquisitive cow

Late afternoon sun on the roadside flora.

hedgerow

Some paths are a little too lush. Nettles and brambles in abundance.

verdant pathway

And of course there are the campers.

With a view of the sea from the top of a field.

All very tidy and organised.

It is the sound of happy holiday makers rising up onto the cliff top from the beach below that I refer to in 'the sounds of summer'.

A hundred happy people's voices melded into one characteristic soundtrack.

a room with a view

tidy campers

I have collected some leaves and flowers and had a go at mono printing.

hedgerow monoprint

leaves from the hedgerow

Finding inspiration is a struggle right now.

I am uncertain where all of this is leading. 

So I keep reminding myself that inspiration comes when it is ready. It is OK not to have a plan.

I'll just keep walking, and occasionally come across moments of magic that set me free.

Like the sight of sunlight on the sea at Mwnt from the top of the cliff.

A meditative moment that will linger long in my memory.

Throwing grass and letting go in the Hebrides

Luskentyre, Harris

Harris, in the Outer hebrides.



My favourite place in the world.

I went for just four days, determined to do very little other than walk, write and take some photos.

I was thinking all the while about ways to do very little, or as I thought of it 'practically nothing'.

I found a few ways.

Collecting shells on the beach was my first.

On Scarista beach I collected sea urchin fragments. They reminded me of Paul Kenny's work, 'Heaven or Las Vegas', Ross strand, Mayo, 2008, shown below.

Why so rectangular, when a sea urchin is round, I kept thinking.

https://paul-kenny.co.uk/photo_5003362.html

My fragments were less varied in colour.

homage to Paul Kenny, 2019

I photographed them on my notebook and then dissembled the arrangement, not wanting to copy Paul's work.

I found a number of sheep with lambs to talk to.

lamb and ewe, Harris 2019

My favourite was this brown one.

We had a good chat, eye to eye.

I said more than she did.

I revisited all of my favourite beaches.

I had forgotten how white the sand is, and how clear the water.

Such a sense of space and freedom.

Luskentyre, Harris 2019

And when I had tired of walking on sand, I decided to explore the old coffin road that crosses the island from west to east.

Coffin Road, Harris

By this time I was so good at doing practically nothing that I started to play a little.

I searched for circles of lichen on rocks, but the rocks were mostly unappealing.

Still trying to do nothing in particular I waited for three o'clock.

It came.

I walked on, and was soon drawn to some curling grasses by the roadside.

I pulled some and held it, trying to photograph the curling blades with the road ahead.

Then I threw some into the air to catch the wind.

It flew.

I tried to throw and capture it on my camera; not easy with one hand.

I failed over and over.

But the very act of throwing gave more pleasure than I care to admit.

Finally I managed, just once,  to catch a tendril before it fell.

throwing grass, Harris , 2019

Somehow this one photograph captures everything that I was feeling.... a sense of freedom and lightness.

It is my favourite image from the trip.

Later I wrote some words to accompany it.

First I tried typing a note on my typewriter. There is no option to change and edit as one writes with a typewriter, so the first draft is quite spontaneous.

Later I revisited these thoughts and tried some different words in my notebook, writing and re-writing, playing with verbs.

I call them 'Letting Go'.

Letting go

throwing 

throwing grass

pulling

tearing

throwing

grass

pulling skywards

throwing windwards

throwing

blowing

falling

splaying

throw

pull

watch

blow

grip

pull

drop

fly

fall

let

go

 **************

Finding ways to do nothing was a good way to spend a few days.

I won't leave it so long before I go back next time.

Northton, Harris

On words, memory and the moon

homage to Paul Kenny © Caroline Fraser

Having a strange day today.

Clearing out a room for the purpose of redecorating I came across a diary from the millenium year that I had forgotten that I had written.

Back to memories again........

I also found my girl guide pencil and cat badges. What happened to all the others? I had an armful.

I wonder what I did to achieve these. We had no cat and we had no dog. OH has kindly searched the web for me and found that I had to care for an animal for 4 weeks.

girl guide animal lover badge

Perhaps it was a hamster.

I probably had to feed it just like I usually did........

girl guide artist badge

 And I was an artist as well.........

I wonder what sort?

All I do remember is that I learned how to change a car tyre. (- did I get a spanner badge for that?)

I became a Queen's guide.

Which then allowed me to leave.

I was not brave enough to say "I have had enough, thank you".

It has taken me about 50 years to be that brave.

Last weekend I spent two days in the company of one of my photographic heroes Paul Kenny

Paul kenny 'Seaworks' 

His recently published book is a thing of great beauty.

Currently he works with scanned objects, creating images with repeated motifs and laden with metaphor.

Circles represent the world, and squares represent man made objects.

Microscopic landscapes representing wider worlds.



He encouraged us to make images from the confines of a small square of the world that might represent other stories or landscapes.

framing the landscape

I got very stuck. An hour passed and I had not made any images.

Mr Kenny pointed me in the direction of a small round fungus and said 'that'll make a good picture'

No pressure then.

And I had been working so hard to try and avoid copying his motifs and style.

I did as I was bid, and added some grassy stalks.

I processed the image with the aim of making a moon or other planetary orb.

Homage to Paul Kenny © Caroline Fraser

And then today in my lost dairy I came across a poem that I wrote in 2000, and which had slipped my mind.

Poem

It feels as though they are meant to go together.



Along with some words from Robert Frost about writing poetry and his poem about the moon.

On poetry - by Robert Frost

Moons and words..........

Memories and images.

Forgotten and found.

I shall have to start cutting and sticking again; so much more pleasurable to read than a digital diary.

Oakville

Word association on my morning walk 06.30-06.45

empty take away carton

plastic fork

polystyrene cup

litter

cans

polystyrene

recycling

green

Jessie

India

litter

grids

put litter in archival boxes

still life

lighting

backdrops

keeping litter

plastic bags

rats

mould

archiving

Susan Hiller

museum

London

Sunday

lunch box; was lost and is found

breakfast

dog

food

dinner

plate

dog food on dinner plate

dog food in lunch box

my food in dog bowl

dog biscuits

my brother used to eat dog biscuits

dinner in dog

man eats dog food

cupboard

raid the larder

my mother had to put a lock on the larder to keep my brother out

British Airways

chocolates

wrappers

text

litter

my street

windows

entrances

flowers

cars

houses

collage

glue

tutor

research

grids

Hockney

pictures in frames

personal objects in wrong places

wrong pictures in frames

dissonance

mantelpiece

some thing will come of all of this



waffle

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that art students find the need to write on the toilet walls.
Seems the desire for fame overcomes the desire to keep works of art to the studio; the toilet walls are regularly re-painted to allow for new masterpieces