I’ve had such a lovely start to year, whilst I’ve not made much in the way of my own artwork, I’ve attended quite a few workshops which have inspired me to experiment
The first was a walk around Markeaton Park in Derby on a ‘Sense of Place’ Walk, the Walk Leader instigated some very evocative questions and we discussed how the senses can be used to evoke memories of places, the history surrounding that place and what it means to us collectively or as individuals. It was a great start to the year, despite the greyness of the weather, it was fascinating to start to pinpoint what I had been feeling fro a long time, that places are important to our connection with ourselves, our past and futures, our connection to nature and band the landscape we live in.
This was followed by a couple of Sunday afternoon walks around Derby in connection with the Richard Long exhibition. His work is showing at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery at the moment and it has been a real treat to view these pieces of art and to join in with workshops that encouraged me to contemplate not only Long’s work, but my own. We experimented with land art, words and walking.
I was fascinated by the story of the man who ran the same route every day for 10 years leaving a track around the periphery of the field, it resonated with Long’s work and captured my imagination. I walked the route, worn down over the years, one way and then in reverse trying to gain a sense of why this field to run around especially when over the river, there were far more interesting fields. I didn’t get any sense of why he would do this for ten whole years without deviating from his route just the knowledge that I’m not sure I could be so dedicated with my short attention span!
Sorrel and Silk 