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!

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.

Nenagh Art Classes

Children's Art - Saturday Afternoon
Explore a range of craft and art based activities. Children are encouraged to discover their own creativity and interests. We will be using a range of meduims and also looking at the work of well known artists.
Ages 5 to 7 yrs @ 2pm, Ages 8 to 12 @ 3pm.
Eight weeks, cost €85, Starts 1st October

Adults Art Workshops - Thursday Evenings
Get in touch with your iner artist and find your own inspirations. Open to all abilities for a relaxing and social evening.
Eight weeks, Thursdays 7.30 to 9pm
Starts September 29th, Cost €110

To book a place call Olivia ph: 087 6380201 or email olivia@creativehouse.ie. All materials included, cost can be paid in full or by installment.

New Art Classes

Clay Mask -

Creative House are now running art classes in the recently opened Nenagh Arts Centre. I am really excited about this. The new centre currently don't have any ongoing visual arts program and I am hoping that I can carve a place there for our courses. With the new baby I will be bringing in some help with the wonderfully creative Aisling Finucane  running the start of the children's classes. We are going to explore a range of mediums and craft projects. As always I will be bringing in ideas from well known artists but also encouraging the kids to find their own inspirations. Some of the art work will be displayed here and I will also post some tutorials so you can do the classes with your own kids.

The adults workshops will focus on helping people to get in touch with their creativity. I often find when working with adults who don't paint at home, they have a reluctance to let go and allow what ever is inside to come out. They can often spend a lot of time trying to get something 'right' and be 'good'. I suppose if the last time you did art was in school if can be very hard to shake that internal teacher. I hope to make the class a relaxing place where people are happy to explore and experiment without the inner critic.

I am looking forward to getting my hands messy.

Feeling Blue

Original Artwork by E. F.

I have finished working with the day care centre for the summer. The group of women (older people, elderly, active age, retired! not sure which term is p.c.) are all so different in their abilities, creativity and approach to art. However the one thread for me with them all is the need to help them see themselves with fresh eyes. I often think that my work is not to inspire, guide or teach, but to help people unlearn beliefs about themselves or about art that serve no value to them.

Above is a painting by one of the women who I find a big challenge on some days.  And those days are always the ones when she feels low. She lost her husband recently and comes to the centre for company and to get out of the house. I can't imagine what it would be like to spend your life with someone, share all your memories, raise children together grow old, make plans and then to wake up one morning and that person is gone. With all the years ahead to re imagine as a single person.

She claims to be no good at painting or drawing and only comes for the company. However each day she turns up beautifully dressed. She chooses her outfits to balance perfectly with tones and textures matching or contrasting and always a stunning piece of jewelry. If I try to tell her she is very artistic she won't believe me. She is also the one person who works so fluidly. Sometimes I put a still life composition in front of her and she uses it only as a starting point. The end result never looks anything like what is on the table, yet it is always so creative and unique. Everything she looks at she interprets but when she finishes she sees this as a minus not a plus and is always so critical of her work. If artists just plainly copied what was in front of them art would be so boring and bland. Interpretation is what makes it individual and creative.

When I return after the summer my focus is going to be on individual inspiration and developing  creative confidence. I hope I can make E.F. she her value and use art to help her feel inspired and revived and not something more to feel blue about.

*********

As promised I have been looking around for art that has a purpose other than hanging in a gallery (even though I love art that hangs in a gallery.)
I came across a really interesting blog site...

http://www.postsecret.com/

It is full of homemade postcards where people share their secrets. Some are funny and some are quite sad but it is all so interesting. Let me know what you think?





My Womb

I am currently six and a half months pregnant and it has got me thinking about the whole process of creation. Art work or any creative project has the same process as the creative process of nature, e.g. babies. First there is the idea (conception), then the actual making or growing (gestation) and finally the birth. However I think the process for babies can be simpler.

Creating babies has a clearly defined beginning, middle and end.  I am not negating the complexity and joy of bringing a baby into the world but I just find some creative projects just so damn hard to give birth to.  And with art projects I am often unclear of what I am trying to do until it is done. 

Above is a painting I did during my last pregnancy.  It is part of a series and related to the embroidery I showed last week.  The project is called 'My Head, My Heart, My Womb'.  It is based on my hospital stay in antenatal care during my last pregnancy. The paintings and ideas behind it were used as a brief or a starting point for work I do each week with women in maternal care in the Maternity Hospital. 

The idea came to me with such ease, the paintings painted themselves and I was offered the job to work with these women with open arms.  I have spent nine months (coincidence) working with pregnant women, most have never painted before, producing beautiful images relating to there pregnancy and how they are feeling at the time. All of them are in hospital because of complications, some more serious then others.

During this time so many ideas of exhibitions and books were discussed and promised and all fell through.  I collected all the images, many of the stories and evaluated some of the women's response to the project.  However it hasn't been birthed. I don't know where to go now or what to do. I don't want to lose all this valuable work. 

So often projects, paintings, novels get lost in the womb. Perpetual gestation. So what is it about growing babies that I can learn from to bring this project somewhere? First, everyone is clear what you get at the end. Second, there is labour before the birth, and there is no avoiding that part.Thirdly, you have prepared yourself for the nine months of what is to come and allowed for space in your life to accept it. I think I will sit with these ideas of what exactly do I want and what sort of work is needed to achieve that. In the meantime I will start sharing some of those images and stories so they don't get lost in my womb, with the real baby.

Creating Space for Creativity

I have recently realised that I spend my week encouraging people to be creative and to use art to express themselves. However I do not practice what I preach. I find that my life has been so busy and that I spend so much of my energy trying to organise my work, my home and my relationships in a way that gives me more space and makes my life easier to negotiate.  As a mother of two with a third on it's way I was really searching for ways to be able take care of the family as best I could but to not lose myself in the process.  Being creative is what I do, in work I am referred to as 'The Art Lady' but lately I really have being feeling like a fraud.

Then I stumbled across some blogs about minimalism.  I have for a long time being interested in simple living but was never really able to feel committed to it.  Minimalism has much the same values but gave me a more practical way to incorporate it into my life.  Basically you pare down your life to what is of real value and importance to you.  It generally starts with the material clutter that you surround yourself with.  Over the last month I have reduced my wardrobe, the kids toys, household things and paperwork by about 60 per cent.  The was psychological impact was amazing.  I felt clearer in my head.  There wasn't so much to do. Even the everyday chores were easier.

Even though it is a process and I have more to do, I have finally found a way to create some space to be creative. The above picture is an embroidery piece that is part of a larger project I have been working on. It has sat in a box for months waiting to be completed.  There is not that much left to do, but there was never time or space to do it.  Tonight I am sitting down to finish it off.  I am also beginning real, tangible work on an arts festival that I co-created, and am getting excited about a sculpture I am doing, instead of feeling that it was another item on a to-do list.

Below are a list of minimalist sites that might spark something.

www.mnmlist.com

www.theminimalists.com

www.becomingminimalist.com

www.rowdykittens.com

Bring on the space and clarity, let us create.

Exploring Frida

Every week I work with a group of older women in a local day care centre. Most of the women have had no previous experience of art and many didn't even get to experience it in school.  For them to be "good" means to be able to reproduce something that is right in front of them.  I have introduced them to different mediums and subject matter, delved into the imagination and examined other artists work.  During the month of May we have a national arts festival for older people called Bealtaine, http://bealtaine.com/ which is to celebrate creativity in older people.  For this festival the group had an exhibition of their work in a local library.  Local dignitaries were invited and a well known artist opened it.  It was the first time that I felt that my work with them was going somewhere.  Each week when I propose something to do they all claim it is too hard and they couldn't do that, my challenge is to give them confidence and encouragement to do it and also to appreciate their work.  At the day of the opening I could see they were finally beginning to see themselves as artists and appreciate their own creativity.

In two weeks I am bringing them to see the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition in IMMA.  I am so excited myself to see the work as Kahlo is one of my favourite artists.  I hope the visit will inspire them and help them to view art as something other than painting a vase of flowers.  What I love about Kahlo is her honesty in her paintings and how she used her work and creativity as a way of dealing with and expressing what was going on in her life.  Art shouldn't be just done for the viewer, often I forget this myself and become paralysed by the audience who have yet to exist.  I am looking forward to how the women interpret Kahlo's work.

http://www.imma.ie/

New Journey

This is my first blog ever, I have only just began the journey into blog world and by stumbling across other sites realised how useful they are.  I work for myself as a community artist and always wanted an outlet for my work to be shown to others.  My philosophy in life & work is that we are all artists, we often just need the encouragement, support or inspiration to bring creativity into our life.  Often the journey is about trust and confidence in your own in abilities and sometimes it is more about finding motivation or space to create. I hope to offer readers some inspiration and nurture their own confidence by showing what I do and what the wonderful artists I work with do.

Enjoy