Category: Daily Practice

Photos & Poetry : February 2020

29/2/2020

This 7 day project comes from prompts within wheesht which is a new book by Kate Davies that I’m thoroughly enjoying reading.

At the end of each chapter there are creative assignments under 3 headings Make, Write & Knit*
I like to think of these as prompts.

Within Limits (Chapter 3) is a superb discussion about the advantages of creating with limitations or boundaries.
I love this concept as in my creative practice, I am always amazed how liberating & expansive boundaries & limitations can be.
It also fits well with my ‘use what you have available’ philosophy.

Any hoo: Chapter 3’s creative assignments (the short version)
Make: take a black & white photo each day of the week
Write: limit of 17 syllables (ie a haiku) over the next 7 days on a simple subject
Knit: using a 4x4 grid what might you create within a 16-stitch limit.
I’m not currently designing knit or crochet so didn’t do this (& likely won't even though I will be doing more of the assignments)

I decided to combine the ‘make’ & the ‘write’ prompts & this is what I came up with.
Tap/click on the photo gallery below & when it enlarges you can read the little poems ;)

I took 7 b&w photos & wrote 7, 17 syllable poems based on the photo.

I found the combination of photos & poems came quickly & easily which meant the ‘assignment’ was a lot of fun and hilarious !

Nothing quite like laughing at your own jokes hahahaha

mā te wā
Sal x

*Kate Davies is a knit wear designer & can be found here on Ravelry

February 2020 : Personal Map Making : Mixed Media Daily Challenge (part I)

10/2/2020

Day 1 Rearrange a map

Day 2 Shift your perspective

Day 3 Make backgrounds

Mapping has been such an important part of my life from when we travelled up & down the countryside as kids to my previous profession of medical imaging which involved interpreting the 3D human body & imaging it in 2D.
It’s no wonder that mapping occurs in my creative practice and having used monochromatic or greyscale for medical imaging for decades is undoubtedly the origin of my love of high contrast black & white images.

Over the past 2 years I’ve literally been mapping my thoughts & emotions in my creative practice. I’ve been exploring the connections & relationship between things which I often want to discuss but don’t want to articulate in words.
Landlines is pretty obvious - it’s just a statement of fact.
The kawakawa monoprint series has helped me facilitate healing & wobble my way through grief.
The most recent Māhoe Leaf series is probably a lot less obvious to others, unless like me, they see the decaying leaf as a metaphor for the pathological process within the brain that is dementia & that same dementia as the metaphor for the breakdown of our society.
I like to believe that my work is beautiful nonetheless & it’s not necessary for everyone to be able to see or even to know the unspoken dialogue . . . it’s there to be felt for those who need it

Day 4 Textures from nature

Day 5 Map your desktop

All heavy seriousness aside, this month's personal map making class on Creativebug is colourful, light, thought provoking & fun - OMG, so.much.fun.

e bonds’ daily mixed media Creativebug class celebrates maps in all forms, most importantly, the abstract concepts of map making.

e’s teaching style is amazing. She ever so gently guides you through a method or technique that is then yours to play with. The most wonderful thing for me is that each day presents a completely new aspect of ‘mapping’ about which I have never thought. It’s brilliant.

Here in NZ we’re a day ahead & kind of a day behind at the same time.
Every night, at about 9pm, Hugh & I sit on the couch together & watch the next day’s class which means I go to sleep thinking about it & usually by the morning I’m pretty excited to get my morning routine shizzle out of the way so I can scoot over to the studio & play.

Day 6 Make a grid

Day 7 No straight lines

I cleared my table deliberately the week before the class started & ironically the work I’ve put to the side is a map of sorts. It’s an extension of our ‘Listening to the Land’ series, it speaks of connection to place, also my leaf litter project & laments the loss of wetlands from the NZ landscape.
There’s an aspect of this new work, well several aspects actually, which i believe are incredibly significant for us as kaitiaki of this whenua . . . & that’s a story for another day.

A real positive of this class for me is that it's given me with an idea that is likely to be the basis of my next muka artwork and that for me is the most exciting thing of all !

I’ll keep you posted

Sal xx

Photos & Poetry : February 2020

February 2020 : Personal Map Making : Mixed Media Daily Challenge (part I)

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