Suddenly it is December, and where did this year go? As an artist I have had a very busy year, deadlines following each other like pearls on a string. This week the snow came up here in the hills and I feel such a strong urge to wind down. Creativity doesn’t just pour out of a tap on demand, it is time to step back and regroup.
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Advent brings with it a time for reflection, going into a still place and lighting candles, rounding off and reviewing. My advent star goes in the window facing the road, so when you enter the village through Jericho you see our star from far. A recent advent in the north of Sweden I saw many beautiful advent lights like that, but on one walk along the river at dusk I encountered a really unusual one.
It was snowing with the crystals glittering in the remaining day light; the days are very short at this time of year. I came round a bend on the river path and encountered this image and it took me a while to understand what I saw: it was the big green house rising out of the thick layers of snow like some big creature with glowing eyes emerging out of the ground! An amazing sight to behold.
A Christmas Tree does not have to be only the traditional tree decorated lovingly in the living room. A favourite image of mine was a snow laden birch tree at sun down, showing a golden sky through the branches. This inspired me to create a mixed media interpretation which for me represents a magic Christmas tree.
I grew up on a farm where we would cut a fir tree from our own forest for Christmas; those are nice memories when you ski out into the deep snow of the forest looking for the right tree. It could take hours or no time at all. Sometimes my Dad would spot one from the windows with his binoculars!
At New Year not long ago I was out at midnight letting off those paper balloons with my sister. Our fingers got frozen so it was a challenge to fill the balloon with enough hot air from the candle, but one of them rose beautifully. I loved looking up following its course set against an indigo sky lit with snow crystals and fireworks from further away.
Christmas is also a time for fun and celebration. This large piece will go up in my living room this month. It is made from recycled materials, old hessian from the farm, dark green cord from my seventies flares, Swedish flags and decorated with colourful ginger biscuit cut outs. It will shine in competition with the real tree across the room. We will have light in our house….
Thanks for reading.
Ingrid
Artist Blog resurrected. For a long time I wanted to pick up the blogging again but it seemed to take up time which I didn’t have! In 2014 I will get started again I thought, and here we are, a quarter of a year in, just at a point when I have finished a big project and in that painful
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“Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand”. – Chinese proverb This is the time of year when I think about workshops, why I do them and what ideas I will put together for the New Year’s workshop programme. I go back and look at experiences from the previous year, what worked, what
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