The Castle Summer Camp

I have just started promoting my new summer camp. I teamed up with a local music organisation Music in the Glen. They run most of the music events in the town and also the local kids arts festival, Feile Eile. I must say it was a lot of fun coming up with the ideas for it. We let our imagination have free reign. The concept is all about Magical Realms. We are resurrecting a local castle that is in ruins under the lake. Inside an inflatable tent there will be workshops run in music, art, historical warrior llike games to name a few of them. There is even talk of building forts and racing goats. I know I will have as much fun coming up with the ideas for the workshops as the kids will have doing them. I suppose the key to working with kids is to always have your inner child close by at all times. If your interested in the camp details go to www.musicintheglen.ie I can't get my images online at the moment so it will give you a chance to see the cute Brian Boru I painted!

Creativity In Old Age

Next week I will be exhibiting a textile piece of work with "my ladies" as part of the Bealtaine Festival. I call them "my ladies" because I am so fond of them all. They are a group of women who create with me every Tuesday morning in a day care centre for the elderly. Not one of them is elderly mind you. Their ages span from about early sixties to mid eighties. However they are all well able to take care of themselves.  I find such joy and comfort working with them. I don't know if I could call it work as that conjures up images of something difficult.  This is by no means difficult.  We have been together since February 2011. It wasn't meant to last longer than a year, funding! However I pleaded to stay (maybe begged a little) and we are still going. I started our first year introducing them all to different mediums and different ways to find inspiration, poetry, music, personal life, nature. We went to galleries to see how other artist did it.  However before the end of the first year I hit on their passion...embroidery. We tried a few different things, all quite prescribed, following patterns. My aim is to continually push them and to show them their own talent and ability. The piece that we are displaying is a group project, I set the agenda but a lot of it came from them and it is mostly made by their hands with their creativity and ideas.  At the beginning of it, I think a few of them thought I was a little mad and couldn't see where it was going. However we are all quite proud of what we did. It has yet to be framed and I am still up late at the kitchen table finishing a few bits. But 'It's Marvelous' to quote one of them. If this piece of material could talk it would entertain a crowd. So many laughs and stories got stitched along into it. Chocolate bickies and drops of tea were intercepted. But the overwhelming quality that is hidden in this piece of art is love. Love from me to 'My Ladies' love for each other and love for our embroidery that ties us all together. I don't know what I would do without my Tuesday mornings. I sit there and absorb the wisdom and joy and dream about our next project or the next exhibition we will go to. As summer approaches and the centre will be closing I wonder would it be over stepping the mark to invite them out to my house each week for tea!  I love art and I love my ladies and each week I have affirmed that creativity has a magic.

Nenagh Art Classes - Spring Term

Art Classes are back in Nenagh Arts Centre for the Spring term. I have reved up the imagination and come up with some nifty new flyers. I have been spending some time trying to define what it is I do and why I do it. I know why I think we should be all be painting or creating everyday and I can see the impact that art has on the people I work with. However I don't know if I am communicating this message.The new flyers are meant to start that discussion for me, let people know that this is going to be fun and excitting and that the art class belongs to them.

Do let me know what you think. Have I hit something here or does it all sound a bit bonkers?

Top Inspiring TED Talks on Creativity

I have been aware of Ted Talks for some time, but lately I went in search of some inspiring thoughts on creativity. One of my own personal hurdles on creativity is my reluctance to own it. When people ask me what I do for a living I say that I "work as" an artist. Not that "I am" an artist. In fact I actually say that I "work as" a community artist. God forbid I give myself all the credit. I have been thinking about where this would have come from. Being an artist is not something that you're encouraged to pursue as a career choice. When in school I was very focused and committed to art and didn't have much doubts around being an artist. However when I got closer to leaving school and applying for college something started to shift. It happened when everybody started talking about college and career choices. I began to feel a bit naive that I thought I could be an artist for a living. I remember one teacher asking me what I wanted to do when I left school and my reply was to be an artist, her response was "well that's nice as a hobby". That one innocent statement was the beginning of the doubt and had a big impact on me. I began to feel a bit stupid for thinking that I could possibly do that and also that it was even worth doing at all. In the end I applied for a course in design, thinking it was a more sensible option. One year in and I knew it wasn't me, too many straight lines and hours at a computer so I left to start a different journey.

It has taken me many years to come back to the place of wanting to be an artist again. Even though throughout all those in between years I have been selling paintings, drawing illustrations for magazines, teaching others to paint, exhibiting work and creating large art pieces with groups but not once would I say I was an artist. It was as if I was declaring myself to be KING. In the last few years I have been warming myself up to it by claiming to be a "community artist" because so much of my work is in the community sector.Other people call me an artist and many people around the town call me "The Art Lady". The Art Lady is a pretty cool title too, however from this day forward I am making a change, I will make the declaration and call myself an "ARTIST".

I heard once that we are the stories that we tell ourselves, well I am telling myself that I am an artist, it is what I always wanted to be and is also the one job that I have to pinch myself when I get paid because I fell that it crazy to be given money for something that I love to do and would be doing anyway.

I have selected a few talks about creativity and claiming creative roles in our lives. I think if we make creativity and art more of a norm then we won't have people telling us that its "nice as a hobby". I challenge those of you teetering on the verge of claiming such a title to go for it. Go all out and give your title some extra oomph. Choose from my list below and just think about the bank officials face when she processes your new claim for a loan and sees your profession!

Artist Extraordinaire

Creative Genius

Musical Maestro

Inspirational Poet

Now for the Inspirational Ted Talks

Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity and genius

Amy Tan on creativity and career choices

Janet Echelman on taking imagination seriously

Let me know what you think and if you have any occupation titles to add to the list.

Creative Christmas

Rosie and her Doll

I haven't written in months, not because the creativity has dried up but because it has been flowing in abundance and I haven't had a chance to catch up with myself. Between all the Christmas presents I have made and taking care of the new baby (and the rest), I just didn't have a moment to record any off it. However  I couldn't let it go without putting up some pictures of the presents I made for my two youngest. I have caught the knitting bug lately and have even found myself a guru, an ICA member and knitter extraordinaire. She even has had her work hanging in the Aras!! That is a serious badge of honour.

I found myself an enchanting book a few months back that really captured my imagination. It is called "Toymaking with Children" by Freya Jaffke (2003, Floris Books). The author basis all her designs and toys on the Steiner philosophy. The book emphasises the different phases of childhood and the nature of play. It explains how the simplest of toys are often the best as they allow the child to use more of their own imagination instead of allowing the toy to do all the work.

I picked out a simple knitted doll for the baby and also a knitted farm for my son. Both have gone down really well but already the mane has been ripped from the horse and the dolly's head is being pulled out a bit far from her body. I think it adds to the charm and I absolutely loved making them. As basic as they are, for me it was a real challenge to figure out the patterns and to get them made when everyone was in bed.

The Farm

I am finding that I am beginning to be sucked into the charm of crafts. Where before I think I was a bit of a snob, thinking that only fine art had any real artistic merit I am beginning to see the error of my ways and really embracing the skill and creativity involved in craft. When fine art was historically the domain of men, women found their creative outlet through their craft work. For many women creativity had to be built into every day life and the outcome needed a practical merit. I have seen the dept of skill that many women have and disregard as useless or would never give their creative input into a textile or knitted project much thought. This is a train of thought that I am hoping to continue in the coming months with one of my women's groups, exploring creativity in crafts.