Mabon Goddess

Dismantling Home, Packing and Letting Go...

Dismantling ones home and packing up possessions is an enlightening experience.  I find myself examining objects and books more closely than in a long time, sensing their importance, feeling their weight and meaning in my life.  Do they add something or represent the past?  Do I value them enough to want to pack them and store them? Will I be happy to see them again in a few months time? For many of them it’s been a heartfelt yes! For some it is a very grateful no.

But it’s not only the physical that we reassess at times like these; it’s the internal clutter as well.  I’m more acutely aware of how differently I feel since I first moved in here.  I contemplate how my life will be when next I unpack.  I acknowledge a deep understanding that sudden though this move is it is happening at the perfect time and all is moving forward toward an exciting newly shaped life.  It is time to say goodbye to hiding and eternal isolation within my fortress of books, of steeping in the juices of my private world.  It is time to welcome in the shift, the motion of the Universe inviting me into fresh life again.

My tree-house gave me a semblance of peace and time to heal.  I travelled the world and came back to its welcoming arms. I sunk in the cushioning sound of birdsong and forever winds.  I have let go of so much over the last three years, burned letters in quest-fires, made footprints in red canyons and upon frozen lakes.  My internal world feels renewed and inspired. I can breathe deeply and laugh loudly without fear or regret.

So now I shed the burdensome diaries of many years despair and the dead-weight of unread books. I feel lighter and freer as I step into the beginnings of my handmade life and look forward to eventually moving into the house of belonging (from David Whyte's wonderful poem).

Holistic Garden

Hitchin's 'Rhythms of the World Festival' has a rather wonderful secret. 

Hidden in amongst some trees to the side of all the busy music madness of the main festival, is the Holistic Garden. 

A peaceful haven of healing and happiness.

This year I volunteered to help out in the Tea Teepee,
an enchantment of herbs, china tea cups, organic cakes and flapjacks. 

As I can't post the marvellous scents and flavours here are some images that
I hope will give you an idea of the magic we brewed there.

Hanging an Exhibition

Irena Willmott / Justin Hawkes

Since October when I got my dream job, I have been learning about curating as I went along and it’s been a great deal of fun!  I have hung my own little exhibitions before but never a large body of work by other artists.  It’s been an interesting process, one that has developed as I’ve moved from instinct to knowledge brought by experience.

Anji Jackson-Main / Brigitte Anne Hague

To me it’s important to create something that gives the viewer a way in, rather than something that shuts people out.  I sometimes feel that stark white walls around a lone painting is just making the viewer do all the work, which of course is fine but rather daunting and perhaps a little limiting.

Justin Hawkes / Irena Willmott / Mel Fraser

I am a passionate writer and reader of stories, children’s, fiction, history, biography, whatever takes my interest.  In this last show particularly I am aware that the way the pieces are positioned, the choices I have made as well as those of the artists, tell a story.   A story of form, texture, colour, detail and simplicity. It has never quite worked as powerfully for me before and I am struck by the thought that my creativity has also taken part, I have joined in the artist’s dance. 

Christophe Gordon-Brown / Mel Fraser

A colleague of mine once said that he thought I should just let the Art speak for itself, a fan of white walls and space.  Whereas I came from the angle that a loose theme or common thread made it easier to speak to the public.  I still feel that has a place, the themes really were very loose and never restrictive to the artist.  However I guess I am now feeling braver and more able to express myself creatively here, instead of keeping it quietly under wraps.

Brigiite Anne Hague / Bob Crooks

Alan Foxley / Anji Jackson-Main

There’s a lovely flow about this exhibition despite the fact that the artists were chosen almost at random, just because we liked their work.  There was no overarching idea other than to bring some fabulous work together.  Perhaps I have moved out of my own way at last and gone with an emotional response to the work rather than an intellectual one.

Mel Fraser / Anji Jackson-Main

It was interesting how as the artists delivered their work and I hung the show, each piece eased itself into a given space organically.  The texture of the carved stone alongside felted and embroidered material, the masculinity of one piece softened by the femininity of another, the arching colour of a painting echoing it’s twin in a sculpture.  As the last sculpture settled in its space the work seemed to sing to each other.

Anji Jackson-Main / Justin Hawkes

These pictures don't exactly reveal the flow but hopefully give an idea of the connections and perhaps a little of their song.

Irena Willmott / Justin Hawkes