Coming back to the drawing board has taken time.
It’s an odd thing time…it can seem to drag its heels when we are waiting for something to happen or conversely there may seem never to be enough time as it passes too quickly.
We can get caught up in wanting to use our time wisely, productively, compassionately, creatively, focusing on what has to be done.
To stay in this each moment of time isn’t as easy as it might be.
The last months have had for me personally, themes of Transition, relationships, Rites of passage, Motherhood, Midlife and Reflection.
This, all in the darker wintertime of year, where everything seems to take on a slower, heavier pace.
Staying creative has been sporadic or so it seems.
My first born turned 18 just before Christmas.
A time of celebrations and shifting dynamics.
Realising my child is now an adult takes time to get used to, challenging, emotional, necessitating adjustment to inevitable change.
The rational workings out of the mind seem to sit uncomfortably if at all with a myriad of emotions which condensed are deep loving for this exciting phase in my daughter’s life and the deepest sense of loss of time which has gone before.
I can’t get that back.
I might say the same of my fast approaching transition into 50dom..I’ve been resisting even the mention of it.
Wanting to slow down time before it happens which of course is impossible.
Nostalgia, retracing a lifetime, fifty years of a lifetime takes time.. this thing that seems to be outside of my gift.
I’m being forced to grow up again, grow into myself my older middle-aged self somehow… Slowly adjusting.
Time has been spent going inward, reflecting on what has been and what might come.
A tentative longing viewed now with quite a bit of life experience under my belt.
Then as if to shake me from the daily draw to be still, I see the first shoots of Spring making their presence felt in my potted garden.
Each year I forget about them until they peek upwards.
Then I am reminded of how they were planted, their colours, delicate fragrance and beauty.
It’s a thing of magic and joy. And I remember the creative seeds planted and the wisdom of time in nature perfectly evolving.
2019 saw planting of creative seeds which are now beginning to flower in 2020.
- Paintings are in situ at the Elmfield Institute a centre for Inspired Living in County Down, with whom AFTS Ltd. will be collaborating in an event closer to the summer.
- …and back to my early roots in Cafeno47 County Tyrone
- The local Strangford creative Collective is up and running and AFTS will be offering workshops from March onwards.
- I am putting the final touches to Incognito 2020 submissions in A public Arts initiative in aid of Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation. www.incognito.ie
- Preparing to host an exciting workshop in collaboration with Cinemagic and Belfast City Airport sponsored Young Ambassadors in the Crescent Arts Centre early February.
- The first corporate project of 2020 will bring me to Mid & East Antrim Borough Council
One seed which I had planted then forgotten about was an application to be considered for an exhibition “Art Connects Women” Dubai March 2020. Delighted to share that AFTS will be representing Ireland in Dubai on International Women’s Day! Watch this space…
Creativity isn’t just about doing or seeing results, it’s about the process, sometimes unseen but nonetheless taking root, growing and then offering the aesthetic joy and surprise to us all!
Take your time…