Traveling along our South African roads both tarred and sand, I love looking up to the hills and into valleys where I see little shelters, some alone and others grouped in clusters and villages, all home to fellow souls each finding there way through life.
#birds #blue #wire #fence #shelters #home #horizons #valleys #Africa #SouthAfrica #earth #land #smallthingswithgreatjoy #findingthings #searching #finding #art #artworks #mixedmedia
Waiting to e-migrate - Dec 2021
My little homes and shelters have started to make their way into my artworks. Birds flying, waiting, perched are still a most relevant theme for me. Birds migrate and have homes in more than one place. I’m about to emigrate but feel not nearly as brave as birds. For now we remain perched and waiting, with the ban on flights from SA.
#birds #wire #ochre #brown #light #Africa #land #earth #gold #umber #southafrica #wild #smallthingswithgreatjoy #findingthings #searching #finding #art #artworks #mixedmedia #art #faith #home #hut #shelter #migrate #emigrate #courage #heartsore
Saving birds - Oct 2021
My dear mother has always had a special connection with birds; wild free birds!! and thankfully has never held any captive in a cage. Perhaps my own connection with them in creating artworks is ‘through and from’ her. I have many memories of Mom rescuing and rehabilitating all kinds of birds in need; and then a few years back of a large black pigeon whom she found at her door, cold and close to death. After her care and nursing he fully recovered to fly off strong and well. He’d then return often, staying close by for several weeks at a time; coming to Mom as she’d call and feeding from her hand. Big Boy too would return with a mate, almost as if to introduce her to Mom. It was a remarkable relationship where seeing them interact utterly amazed and delighted me each time. This work makes me think of Big Boy who would wait at the end of their lane for Mom to ‘converse and connect’ a bit. Recently he returned again, staying still and close, not flying off. One morning he stepped into her warm hands, nestling for a while before gently laying his head down and simply, peacefully slipped by and on to another realm. Precious beautiful Big Boy. Precious caring Mom.
#blackbird #mom #caringforourcreatures #healing #comfort #gentle #home #shelter #sanctuary #birds #Africa #land #earth #gold #umber #ochre #southafrica #nature #smallthingswithgreatjoy #findingthings #searching #finding #art #artworks #mixedmedia #texture #art #faith #small #wild #free #birds
In An Empty Sky - Sep 2021
I’ve finally just finished the third panel for this series and so thrilled with how it’s turned out. Like these birds flying so freely, I feel like I’m been carried up high above on winds … albeit ‘winds of change’ that are to bring new things.
#surrender #birds #flying #sky #flight #freedom #skies #white #light #ochre #art #life #living #journey #travel #searching #Africa #joy #smallthings #earth #findingthings #searching #texture #art #artworks #kunst
Carrying Things - Sep 2021
Over the years, I have often returned to the theme of ‘carrying things’ and in particular, the ‘carrying’ of a lamb. In this work, the figure is carrying a lamb or young deer upon what appears to have been a weapon, that is now a platform to support this creature. How much I wish that we should be guardians and protectors of both domesticated (lamb) and wild (deer) creatures … as opposed to hunting and hurting them.
As art-postcards, the backs of these cards carry the message from Shane Claiborne about ‘peace-making’.
Along with Michael Martin; founder and executive director of RAWtools Inc. RAWtools turns guns into garden tools (and other lovely things), resourcing communities with nonviolent confrontation skills in an effort to turn stories of violence into stories of creation.
Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin are the authors of “Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence”
May we all increasingly be bearers of all that brings peace and restoration, rather than that which harms and hurts.
#gunsintogardentools#picturepostcards #africa #carrythelamb #allcreatures #myheartbelongstoafrica #mzansi #land #earth #pilgrim #lamb #deer #care #africa #southafrica #nature #smallthingswithgreatjoy #findingthings #searching #finding #art #artworks #mixedmedia #art #faith #small
Alongside the Wood's Wolf - Aug 2021
From Africa to Arizona
The night lighting in my studio made photographing this real tricky tonight BUT … I wanted to take a pic from within my studio and of something relevant in thinking of my artist-friend CARLA WOODY who is celebrating her birthday today.
Carla loves forests, art, layers and texture as much as I do. She though is way more adventurous and brave than I am; so this figure walking through the woods with a wolf for a companion seems appropriate.
Happy, happiest of birthdays dear Carla, from me to you; from my studio in Africa to yours in Arizona. May today be wonderful and then for the year to follow be overflowing with all that you hope for and dream for yourself, and more.
PS. in trying all manner of means and places in my home tonight to capture the true Colour (still failed) and texture tonight; as you will see in two of the pics. the best place in the end was between the whiskey and the onions on a shelf in my kitchen … 🤨😀
Ellen's Three - April 2021
My daughter’s Mom-in-Law , chose three ‘shelters’ from my recent collection of houses, huts, shacks and dwellings of all types.
They continue to bring joy and calm in the making, created typically at the end of day that has been filled with chores and admin and studio work.
The little grouping of three work well together, as if to keep each other company even.
Ellen explained in a text (that she agreed I could share) of how each hold significant meaning for her:
“… they represent facets of my life: The School House - my job and my passion; The Cape Dutch - reminds me of the church where we got married in, and of my faith; The Rondawel brings back memories of The Kruger Park, one of my all-time happy places, of Africa and my proud heritage of being proudly South African .. “
Ellen is a remarkable woman of faith; with an unwavering commitment to her family and of unyielding passion and zest in her vocation in the education profession where her strong leadership skills as principal benefit all who encounter her.
I admire her love of life, adventure, travel and her limitless supply of deep heart-felt compassion, empathy, kindness and a never-ending well of generosity.
She is the ‘heart’ of her home, of her school, community and within our combined families, and reflects for me all that ‘shelters’ are meant to be.
I know she will continue to provide refuge to all whom she encounters.
Stillness. Rising.
Some works hold personal meaning and are of particular significance for me.
Created on a wood surface with marks evident that it was, before, ‘a tree’ … lines of growth-rings; indentations where from the protective bark has been stripped; and a wound from which a branch once grew.
I had attempted several compositions. None sufficiently authentic.
Keeping it close I hung it on a solitary crude nail above my work desk, for three years.
Then quite suddenly, during the 2020 lock-down, what it needed became clear: A figure. A dog. Birds.
The process was a simple, quiet one. Work was executed then sealed. It was done, finished. I hung it back on the wall, holding it close.
A figure surrendered both to the air and the earth. Exposed. Rising. Still. Liberated.
The companionship of the wolf-dog; loyal, watching, protecting. Always close by. Still but fierce. Birds in the air. Where do they come from, and where do they go? We are here. And then we are not.
To surrender to the Still, is perhaps how we rise; above ourselves, and all that would hold us.
And then. Simply. Waiting. We find. We are free.
War-weary, dusty footed itinerants and perhaps a whole lot battered and scarred. But free.
sur-real-time(s)
This past week has felt especially surreal for me.
Possibly that the year now nearing ‘an end’ has been filled with so much, and at the same time, filled with nothing-ness; that it all has been so ‘strange’; that time has seemed to stand absolutely still, and then that it has also rapidly flown by. A year of exaggerated paradoxes.
This week’s posts of art include images from reference photographs that I took in 2008 and 2009.
The images of the little ‘waiting-figure-in-white-shirt’ and of the little ‘red-riding-hood-cloaked figure’ were captured from people walking alongside roads just outside of Clarens in the Free State.
Waiting and Shielding.
The little ‘pink-shirt-girl-running’ was photographed in Nottingham Road whilst road tripping the Midlands Meander.
Running forward.
I look at their images placed among scratches and marks, colours dull and rich, textures formed and smoothed, bits and pieces of photo from another time and then also from today, maps collaged with roads and rivers ending and merging; clay … sanded, scraped, even burnt with red hot heat, all coming together to form new contexts on a surface.
These little people from then, would be young adults now. In my artworks, they remain children.
And then, that these works will soon travel across oceans to convey still new messages and meanings for new ‘owners/custodians’ in lands that I do not know, but know of. Lands my ancestors came from. Lands that I am both connected and disconnected to.
Time is such a strange thing I think.
The Beauty of Silence and Freedom
Any creature held captive in a cage of any sort is cruel.
For this reason, I cannot begin to appreciate art or design that further popularizes the notion of the birdcage.
Seeing and hearing birds is a wonderful and hope-filled reminder of freedom. That it exists. Despite us.
During the initial lock-down here in South Africa as trucks and cars, planes and trains and we, all came to a standstill, many friends said how they were noticing and loving hearing the birds sing.
There is so much to be found in silence and in stillness; beauty, freedom, joy; hope … and knowing.
.
.
““In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.” - Robert Lynd ”
Swing. Swing high and away.
My last post recalling childhood memories of building shelters and hideaways took me back to my first home where we had a most wonderful and glorious swing made sturdy and strong by my father. It allowed us to swing really high way into the sky.
We were never afraid.
I would sit upon on it for what I recall as hours; it might have just seemed that long.
I’d swing high and low, and fast and slow. Other times I would simply stay solitary still in the warm happy sun, allowing the day’s breeze to sway me to and fro, my thoughts drifting to other places as my bare feet trailed in the dusty red earth, making circles round and round and round some more.
It was soothing and mesmerizing.
Quite a few of my recent works have included a child swinging from the sky.
Perhaps there is a longing for the comfort of those days and to be able as then, to swing high into the sky
Home and Hope
At the start of the year, before the Covid Lock-down, I began fashioning little houses, shelters and shacks from clay.
I would make these at the end of a day in my studio, resting-in-the-play of creating them. I had no intention of making as many as I have. They just kept emerging. Small, larger, and then small again. Huts and houses; cottages and cabins; and some that look like they could be from the future.
As a small child playing with the neighbourhood children, we’d build shelters of some kind or another: bed-linen tents: magical wigwams; sturdy and rickety tree-houses; underground burrows and make-shift shacks from found-anythings. We would gather and build, proclaiming dominion in our childhood kingdoms, and in finding safety from ‘the baddies’.
We all began school. The play stopped.
Pat and I have always loved home-making. Having just settled in our new home (after a grueling four years of renovating what was a total derelict) perhaps I subconsciously began reflecting on what ‘home’. means, and of what ‘home’ provides.
The Lock-down has seen many of us re-evaluate our living space; that it be a place of shelter and of sanctuary where we perhaps now not only find rest of an evening, but where we more than before prepare our meals; where we work; learn; teach; and even where we now plant, grow and harvest; and then that it be a place where we connect more intimately than before with family and close friends to celebrate and to mourn. Hopefully too, our homes have become a place where we play and create, discover and Find Things.
I will continue to show some of these little musings alongside my mixed-media works on Instagram and Facebook, and I certainly will continue to play and to rest in them as I reflect with deep gratitude for the home we call Hope Streams.
Still Connected
It has been a long time since I’ve posted anything here. I do not want to write about this period of Covid 19. I have many thoughts and emotions; all mixed and ranging from anger to gratitude. So that’s all I’ll say.
One thing for sure though is that as for many of us, the appreciation for human connection is ever more appreciated.
Whilst the lock-down has disallowed meeting in person; there is no force or power that can prohibit being connected ‘in-spirit’ with thought and prayer and on the backs of memory.
I have been busy in my studio, more slowly, but steadily and surely.
One of the processes that I truly love so much, has been that of a postcard exchange. I have been exchanging art-postcards with Joan Martin since October 2012 and with Ana de Vlieg since April 2014.
It is wonderful to receive these cards (usually in person, over a cup of coffee and or meal shared) where we each in turn respond to the image on the front of the card, and to the message behind. The cards have come to be a recording; a map of our lives and which solicits memories of both joy and pain.
It is interesting to see how themes have emerged; themes of colour; subject matter and of concept. The cards too, reveal a friendship between creatives; and a creativity between friends.
Joan and I exhibited the first ‘series’ of our exchange in 2014 as part of our exhibition ‘Understory’. We expect to exhibit the full series again; especially since we near the ONE HUNDRED mark. My last card replied to Joan was card no. 91
We won’t reveal all the cards ‘till we’ve exhibited them as a whole. For now though, here is a glimpse of a few of mine exchanged with Joan.
UNFENCED - 2019, August
UNFENCED
With thoughts towards our land, her trees, seeds and metals from beneath; of nests for birds and places to rest; we fashion fences of wire barbed at times, across horizons possessing lands we think; yet rot and rust all to her soils repay. Birds of dust that flew, free and we, all birthed and returned to, the earth who never can be owned.
Moving Through - 2019, August
I just came across this lovely image sent to me by a client who’d bought several of my works off the Trailing the Trappist exhibition. I’d intended to share it a while back, but with building and renovating, then moving house and my daughter’s wedding, I’d forgotten I guess. But timing is everything. Always.
I shared the image on Instagram and then on Facebook, and only just now seen the relevance for me.
The relevance in both the subject matter then; of doorways, gateways and paths … of moving through. And now of the wonderful relevance of these works in the context of this particular image. With the light on the images … that the wall is in a passage, a through-way …. and with stairs behind.
All these things point to moving through …
I’m currently working on a body of work that continues with this theme. And so. I am deeply encouraged. On I press. Moving through.
Sheltered - 2019, July
I’ve started on a new body of work, and am enjoying stretching myself a bit with a few new elements however, I’m still so drawn to using images with umbrellas.
The significance for me perhaps is that an umbrella allows one to be in and among the usual hustle and bustle of things going on, but keeps us sheltered, safe and shielded from the onslaught of rain, from the glare of the sun and from all that’s about.
Umbrellas seem also to be as wings that like Mary Poppins, could float us off to somewhere else.
Perhaps the August winds that are, will do just that, transcending me to a new space. I hope so.
Walk with Wings - 2019, June
walk WITH WINGS
One of my own personal favourite-of-favourite works has just sold.
It has been in the gallery in Franschhoek for quite some time, waiting for the right person, and the right time to ‘see it’.
Sometimes we can’t run ahead, for whatever reason … we have to walk. Our wings, waiting for flight.
Incognito In Ireland - 2019, June
My daughter Andrea relocated from South Africa to Dublin at the start of 2018.
Working for William Fry, the first CSR event that she volunteered to work at was Incognito 2018; a public art initiative in aid of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
The connection for Andrea and me was particularly special, where her involvement was integral in the 2010 and 2014 everyONEcounts projects, where we raised awareness through art for the plight of Abandoned Babies and then for that of Human Trafficking.
Andrea has her Masters in Law with her thesis presented on anti-Human Trafficking. With a heart for social development and upliftment, she is also a creative and loves ‘the arts’ in all forms.
When she reminded me of this year’s Incognito, I gathered up a group of seven SA Artists who very willingly and lovingly contributed three artworks each, in a rather frenzied short space of time so that my son James could take the work with him on his flight to Dublin in January this year.
It was a great success in both Dublin and Cork.
Together - 2019, January
I was approached to donate a work to The Savara Initiative who were looking to raise funds and awareness for the outstanding and incredible work done to assist Township Dogs. It was a great, great privilege, honour and sheer joy to make this works.
Horseback riding, with dogs and birds - 2018 August
I couriered more works to the Art in the Yard Gallery in Franschhoek yesterday.
With 2018 being the year of the dog, I've used more images with dogs.
I specifically chose not to keep the dogs 'on leads' to represent a mutual and trusting friendship.
My childhood memories of long peaceful outrides with my horse, the birds flying around freely and of dogs all about, are always present in my work; along with pilgrims journeying along African roads and through fields. I never felt alone.
You can view all the works currently in Franschhoek here