Winter is a time of wonderful light. It spreads in long rays across the land or creates deep and vibrant sunsets over the lake. I usually choose a word to guide me through the forthcoming year. I have had fun with this process over the years including words like, threshold, inkling, expand, pilgrimage. Some of my . . .
There are reasons
It’s been a while, but there are reasons. Right now it’s summer and in this house, we are both double vaccinated. This has allowed us to experience a reunion or two of the whole family at once and to feel a lot more confident of seeing an end to the pandemic and it’s impact. The hedgerows and ditches are . . .
10 years of blogging
So it's ten years since I posted my very first blog. Over the years the writing part has increased but the photography has always been the starting point. Each blog, and there have been hundreds, began with a walk or maybe a trip somewhere, and the images from my camera for that day. In those days, shortly after the . . .
A sketchbook from the Covid 19 lockdown.
I'm suffering from a kind of lockdown brain fog. I think it's curable, but I'm not altogether sure. One of the bright spots of my pandemic days has been making these watercolour sketches that I have been doodling away on through out the last few weeks. They are mostly very small, very abstract and some people say they look like graphic . . .
A word for 2019 from all my talking to trees
We see trees. What more do we need? Maira Kalman Here is 2019. The new beginning is a special time of the year. Darker days are good news for nerds and introverts allowing us maximum time to read and journal. I've been mooching about with spider diagrams and wanting to grasp every attractive idea that flies past my . . .
She stood in a storm exhibition
She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails. Elizabeth Edwards It was my son who called me to the window as this deep pink sunset filled the sky. It never ceases to draw us there to stand and stare. You can keep your golden yellow streaky skies! Something about this deep pink, . . .
Golden in time
Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. You were born worthy of love and belonging. Courage and daring are coursing through your veins. You were made to live and love with your whole heart. It’s time to . . .
Rural life; it’s not all birds and bunnies
Living as a rural artist is challenging. Out here in County Waterford, we have to make our own fun as they used to say. We make everything up from scratch. Since leaving Framework the organisation I co-founded in 1994, I have had to review living out here in the middle of nowhere. Of course it's not the middle of nowhere if you are a . . .
Challenging invisibility by making an exhibition of yourself
It's all still sinking in. The hard work, the experience of exhibiting, the aftermath. Because I work in an alone space it shocked me on the night of the opening that people would actually arrive. When they came I was somehow still in the middle of the making. I had fallen out of bed that morning, showered, put on a blue dress and gone . . .
Dear Patti Smith
My friends! This is a repost from one year ago. It's always relevant! I am still a bit overwhelmed from the exhibition and the work coming out of it. Normal service will resume soon! "I’ve done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write a poetry book that maybe, you know, 50 . . .