Wishing

The Sunday scribblings prompt of 'three wishes' opened up my imagination. I started thinking along the lines of how to make the world a better place. But then I wanted to look at people in general and how often we wish, and what we wish for. Whenever I see a shooting star or catch a falling leaf I make a point of wishing that everyone I love is happy, safe and healthy. I have started some sketches for a few illustrations, but have so much marking to do that i'm finding the creative process rather slow and interrupted. Ironically all I want to do is paint and experment today, and i've had so much time in the past. But hey! At least I my imagination is buzzing...

The illustration above is one I did for 'The boy who cried wolf", I am really interested in fairy tales and what they mean. I love the metaphors they use, especially the older versions.

Poetry Thursday: Ted Hughes

I've been looking through some older work and I've always quite liked the feel of this piece. It makes me think of howling winds and suits the stormy weather we've been having. The poem makes me shiver...


Wind

This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Winds stampeding the fields under the window
Floundering black astride and blinding wet

Till day rose; then under an orange sky
The hills had new places, and wind wielded
Blade-light, luminous black and emerald,
Flexing like the lens of a mad eye.

At noon I scaled along the house-side as far as
The coal-house door. I dared once to look up --
Through the brunt wind that dented the balls of my eyes
The tent of the hills drummed and strained its guyrope,

The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace,
At any second to bang and vanish with a flap;
The wind flung a magpie away and a black-
Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly. The house

Rang like some fine green goblet in the note
That any second would shatter it. Now deep
In chairs, in front of the great fire, we grip
Our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought,

Or each other. We watch the fire blazing,
And feel the roots of the house move, but sit on,
Seeing the window tremble to come in,
Hearing the stones cry out under the horizons.

~ Ted Hughes

Inspiration

'Fireflies' by Penelope Dullaghan

What a trying day it's been. I have spent all my energy trying to inspire my students, and mostly it went well. There was however one who became quite aggressive in his response to my constructive comments. On a normal day this would not upset me, but confrontation was the last thing I needed today, and sadly it really affected me. I love teaching, and enjoy a challenge, but there are days when I wonder...

To my delight I got home, after a long drive in the rain, and discovered the print that I ordered from Penelope had arrived at my doorstep. It is beautiful. I'm always keen to see how she is progressing as an illustrator, her blog is an inspiration to me in this time of self evaluation and change. I long to re-invent myself every five minutes, but even more just to be able to enjoy being creative again.


When it comes to inspiration the one who does it for me every day is my sister. From the moment I was born she has been one step ahead of me, treading the path first to make sure it is safe for me to follow. She tried things and convinced me not to, she has bravely gone through experiences that I have learnt from and she has always supported me through the choices I have made. I followed her to art college, as her little shadow. It's great now to see how different we are and yet how similar at our core. As I read the words she writes I am inspired ever more, I am so proud of her. So the first person I rang after my testing day, yup my big sister, for soothing words and the pep talk that I needed... Love you sis x

There once was a little girl who spent far too much time daydreaming…

Yesterday saw my very final counselling session marking a three year anniversary. It was an enjoyable end, a joy to be able to say that everything is going really well at the moment and that I feel ready to deal with anything that comes my way. I have finally realised that there will never come a point where I can draw a line and say 'this is it!'. This IS it, my life as it is now, and I can't waste any more time waiting for it to start. It's happening every second. I've made some plans, one being to travel more, I have an ambitious idea of going to Brazil!. Mainly I want to start being creative and enjoying it again. As an illustrator I got stuck doing commissions that I didn't really enjoy, never wanting to turn anything down. Now I am teaching more I have time to work on my own ideas, I just hope I can pin myself down to a couple!! The picture above was something I did years ago. It was for myself as a response to 'Like Water For Chocolate' one of my favourite books ever. Read it soon if you haven't already.

Right...

Time to stop delaying and get on with it...

The Woods

'The Woods' by Rose Vickers

I went to an open studio exhibition yesterday and met some amazing creative people. It's strange that now I finally feel ready to be myself people seem really keen to get to know me. I exchanged emails and am looking forward to visiting them again. The image is a light box made using a hand cut stencil by an artist called Rose Vickers, whose studio was sadly shut. I'm definitely going to try and meet up with her. The words are beautiful in this piece:

"The
woods
were lovely
dark and
deep
but I have
miles to go
before I
sleep"

I wonder where this is from, sounds like a strange fairy tale...

A Beginning

This blog is a way for me to record my ideas and observations. I finally feel that I am awake, I have slumbered for so long and held on to so many sad memories. It is time to begin a new journey where I can be creative and strong and unafraid. I don't want to waste any more opportunities, and blame it on the harder moments in my life. So here I am, and I'm going to make the most of it.....

My first post

illustration from "La Princesse au petit poids" by Anne Herbauts