Wednesday 22 April 2015

Cyfaredd 6: The Italian House

Haia Pawb (Hiya Everyone)

In an earlier blog post I talked about literary associations in and around Bridge, where I had stayed for a few days. When I arrived in Corris, I wondered what sort of literary associations I would find. Given I'm staying in Wales, the home of the bards, there must poets and poems and tales touching all parts of the landscape. What I found surprised me.

On one of my walks, I wandered past a property and did a double take. Concrete and brick structures representing different Italian buildings and architecture styles filled the gardens. I didn't get a chance to wander around the place, as it isn't open to the public, but below are some photos taken from the road:




Wilfrid Owen 'homage'
A E Housman 'homage'
Close up of the A E Housman
The last three photos comprise my 'hit' of literary association for the town so far. The constructions seem to be reproductions of gravestones for Wilfred Owen and A E Housman; if not reproductions, then some sort of homage to the two poets.

The reproduction villas, plazas and towers, the crenelated walls (using bricks showing the markers names), the tombstones (if that;s what they are), were built by a local man, Mark Bourne. He had visited Italy in the 1980s and been inspired by the architecture to produce his own versions.

The proper has passed into other hands since Mr Bourne's death, but I haven't heard if his 'folly' will be maintained and opened to visitors sometime in the future.

By the way, just a couple of corrections and additions to previous posts:
  1.  A good friend pointed out that in my previous post the hawthorns were in fact blackthorns.
  2. I have placed a link in the post on Alan Garner to the publication of his speech.
I hope all is well in your parts of the world. And for those who told me they liked my jackdaw photos, here's another one:


Until next time.

Pob Hwyl
Earl

Monday 13 April 2015

Cyfaredd 5: Spring is a-coming in?


Helo Pawb (Hi Everyone)

Over the last week, we have had glorious weather here in Corris. The sun has been out, birds have been chorusing in greater numbers, and buds are appearing on trees. When I went for a walk on Tuesday, I had to take off my jacket, so warm it had become, though I haven’t acclimatised enough to be like the locals, some of who were almost in t-shirts. For a while it looked like spring had finally arrived, but then the rain and mist returned, sometimes at the same time (see short video below). The last two days, especially, have almost made me feel homesick: sun, then drizzle (or mizzle, as my Cornish friend would say), then rain, then sun—like the famous Melbourne ‘four seasons in one day’.

Below are photos from my various walks to show how the seasons have been changing, sort of, around Corris:

Late Winter
Winter trees
Afon Dulas, looking upstream
Frost on fields
On a clear day you can see for miles. View from a local lookout.
Waterfall seen from the same lookout, days later, after rain
And then the mists descend

Some signs of Spring
First buds (on a blackthorn** bush)
Blackthorn** flowers
First daffodils (Wales national flower)
Lambing season, though I missed taking a photo of the lamb
gambolling around its mother
Afon Dulas, looking upstream, with sun-scald*
Corris in sunshine
Or Not
And then the mist and the rain (filmed today)
Whatever the weather, I am loving my time here. The folks here, in the village and with Stiwdio Maelor, are welcoming and helpful, my studio is a great place to work (plenty of quiet thinking and writing times), and the landscape is inspirational.

On my last trip to Britain, I fell in love with jackdaws. Not sure why. They just seem to have an interesting mix of solo and communal activities.

Jackdaw warming itself on a chimney pot
Sometimes I hear one overhead give a single ‘chak’ and other times when one bird is excited or there’s a whole flock of them:‘chaka-chaka-chak’. Here’s a photo of two having a chat :)

'So, how's the weather?'
'Cold with a side order of wet. Don't you just love it!'
I hope wherever you are, the weather is feeding your soul in some positive way.

Until next time.

Pob Hwyl

Earl

(* See Robert MacFarlane's article on nature language.)

(** My good friend Grevel Lindop pointed out that what I had thought were hawthorn bushes were in fact blackthorn bushes. Thanks, Grevel.)

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Cyfaredd 4: A Primer for Being an Artist-in-Residence

Helo Pawb (Hi Everyone)

As some of you may know from recent Facebook traffic on the Stiwdio Maelor page, a group of volunteers has been cleaning up the mess left behind by an artist-in-residence. So, in response to this situation I offer the following tongue-in-check list of rules for those wishing to be a part of a communal artist residency:

1.     Do leave the kitchen in a mess after you cook a meal. The other residents, whose art is obviously not as important as yours, have nothing better to do than clean up after you.
2.     Do leave the ring around the bath after you have had one. This will impress the other residents as to how hard you work at your 3D organic art or your volunteer activities elsewhere.
3.     Do take all the rolls of toilet paper in the place to use for your amusement. Given that the shops are miles away, this gives the other residents the chance to exercise their creativity.
4.     Do leave the tap on after you get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water. What a wonderful environmental statement about the amount of water in the world.
5.     Do leave the heater on when you visit friends for a few days. The organiser of the studio loves paying big heating bills. And if the place catches fire, the locals and other residents can enjoy the bonfire and bring their marshmallows and potatoes for a good feed.
6.     Do use the food belonging to other residents. You are more deserving than they are, obviously.
7.     Do have new friends stay overnight in vacant rooms, because the next artist in resident loves sleeping in dirty sheets.
8.     Do borrow without permission tools, iPod speakers and digital projectors from your fellow artists. Their work does not have value, so they can afford to spend time looking for lost possessions.
9.     Do deny any wrongdoing on your part and shift the blame to the other residents, who would love to take the blame because they are so awed by your personality and your art.
10.  To make room for your work, do shift furniture out of your living and studio spaces into communal areas and the private rooms of the organiser. No need to ask for permission. Nothing else matters but the art and the admiration of those who come to see it.
11.  Do arrange an exhibition of your work without asking permission of the studio management. What does it matter that strangers will be wandering through a studio complex that is meant to be a private working and living space?
12.  Do construct an enormous installation, which involves tons of labour by yourself and others you recruited to haul the materials to your studio. Then, to have your art make a real statement to the world, leave the installation for posterity, or till the studio is required by another visiting artist. Don’t worry about the takedown and removal costs in labour and time of the work itself and the materials you didn’t use. Such concerns are trivial matters for a great artist such as you.
An artist's impression of a mess
Many of you have probably experienced similar attitudes in shared houses and can add more examples of selfish behaviour.

On a more serious note, I also offer this list of Twelve Commandments for being a successful professional writer. The list is a modified version of one presented and discussed at a workshop given by the Australian SF writer Sean Williams a number of years ago. For those practitioners in other fields, not necessarily the arts, you can substitute appropriate actions.

1.     Read a lot
2.     Write a lot
3.     Write what you love but be aware of the market
4.     Define your version of success and take concrete steps towards achieving it
5.     Be professional at all stages of your career
6.     Listen to everyone
7.     Be visible
8.     Challenge yourself, always
9.     Never believe you’ve figured it out, because everything changes
10.  Work hard
11.  Develop a community
12.  Sustain self-belief

Until next time.

Pob Hwyl

Earl