slowly she turned

Another beautiful day began, as usual, at Currane House with breakfast and a view.

We randomly chose from this deck of cards that was at the studio. I had chosen a Tarot card on the plane, “Death,” which quite frankly scared the crap out of me even though I knew it was not necessarily a bad card. So it was nice that I chose “Life” out of this deck.

Today was a studio day and the view was spectacular from the studio window!

One of our art exercises had to do with personal symbols. We were to consider what they might be and then use them in our art. I immediately thought of the spiral and the broken circle, but then I realized that the broken circle has passed its expiration point in my life story, even though I still love it. Once I opened my mind to it, I realized that triangles keep showing up in my art and I am attracted to them when I pick up stones and fragments of shells. I also use a lot of lines and dots when I doodle. So when I thought about it, I worked with those symbols. However, I had loosened up a lot since I had arrived and found that I was working intuitively now, if you can call it working. It was more like freely playing.

This spiral popped off the page in the center.

Interlocking spirals. Both of these were a bit damaged in the transit home, but I can fix them. I love the background technique here with different acrylic mediums and gesso spread loosely with a palette knife to create texture.

Then I worked on my set of cards, although I don’t think now that they will actually become a deck of cards. However, it was a good idea to keep my brain from locking down. On some I left space for writing on later. Some I cut up and reused in other collages.

Finally, I chose a crow from a set of images and papers Sandra provided and collaged it over a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. You know the one. I like these colors.

I had a hard time stopping to eat dinner, although I always looked forward to it. The selection of dishes were always amazing. Something for everyone.

When we got home that evening, I decided that it might be the best night to visit the local pub, The Compass Bar, for a Smithwick’s. I sat at the bar and talked and listened to the bartender and the couple next to me. This is perhaps my favorite thing to do in Ireland. As the sun finally started going down, I noticed a large number of older men filing in, sitting at tables, and playing cards. I was told that it was a weekly game on Thursdays and that the women came in on Monday nights and played whist.

(Update after posting: for some reason the video is not showing in portrait format the way I filmed it. I’ll leave it, but it looks funky in landscape.) Click on the video below for my walk to the pub from our house. If you’ve wondered what I sound like, I talk about what I see along the way, mostly about the plants and the upcoming big game. Most of the houses have gated drives and the lots are fenced in an effort to keep the sheep out.