Saturday 4 July 2020

This too shall pass...




This week I had to say goodbye to a place that has meant a lot to me. It was the place where I met my husband 30+ years ago, where I read Chaucer and King Lear for the first time, where I celebrated manically with a friend when we managed to get David Bowie tickets, where I put together the portfolio that got me into art college and where I returned to in 2018 to do the Fine Art course that has had the biggest impact on my life.

The Queen Alexandra campus is closing, and while my course continues on another site, I'm going to miss my little studio corner so much.

my studio space at QA
And I'm going to miss all the students who started this journey at the same time as me. They have all completed a Foundation Degree rather than the HNC/D I'm taking so are moving on to University to do their BAs.
But most of all I'm going to miss my tutor, who is leaving to work on his own art full time - something I think anyone who loves to make art always dreams of doing. He has been brilliant from the start. I couldn't have wished for better. Check out his work here:  https://www.johnorourkeart.com/
So with all this change - I'm not good with change - I've been floundering, not painting, not focused, constantly just moving things around while my brain tried to figure it all out. I've read poetry and prose from Hedgespoken revelling in the wordsmithery of Tom Hirons, Terri Windling and Jay Griffiths, built a shed, painted a shed and slept a lot.

Slowly emerging from this gloom, I'm hearing whispers of new ideas so in the Midnight quiet of hedgehog time, fox time, owl time I'm going to let those whispers lead me into the dark woods.