bloowabbit: The Guesthouse

Showing posts with label The Guesthouse. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 December 2016

ABADID 13...Writing in 2016...

As well as drawing I also write. My time is not equally split between the two artforms but although I draw most of the time, every other day, the writing comes in waves and then seems to recede. I'm okay with that, I write when I need to or am consumed with a story that must be written down. The words will then tumble from me over the keys onto the screen and are edited again and again until I'm happy with how it reads. I speak them aloud to myself because the sound of them is as important as how they read silently in my head.

illustration and story in 'Bold'

At the beginning of this year I received a copy of an anthology which included a short story of mine - Art & Literary Submissions - and haven't had anything published since then.

doodle

Three short stories were written for Tenx9 at the Black Box but I didn't get down to the theatre to read any of them aloud. The first, Ageing, covered the life of my father and his personality change after having a series of strokes. And the 2nd, Mental, touched on mental health, raw, uncut and terrifying. There's a cathartic effect when you write about your own life and about the lives of those connected to you. A Cognitive Behavioural Therapist once told me that standing before a group of people to read aloud something about yourself can be a healing release of emotions previously contained or hidden. I found that by reading my stories at Tenx9 I unburdened something, even if that story had humour. The third story entitled Fear did have humour, set at the end of college when my grant had run out and I hadn't yet got a job or claimed benefits.

Tints, Shades and Tones re-do

I then wrote The Crow, a very short story about a vision or imagining I'd had. A powerful unburdening of negative emotions (always good to do). Sometimes the story dictates its length and you just can't extend or shorten it without altering its integrity. I did place this for submission in the Mslexia short story competition.

image supplied by Sinead O'Donnell

An interesting project, undressing the architrave, which involved me illustrating the writings of another resulted in my artwork being included in the event at The Guesthouse in Cork, Eire. It was interesting to complete work based on Sinead's writing which was very different to mine and which threw up such vivid images in my mind. There's some discussion about a selection of the writings and drawings being included on an Arts website - I'll link that when it happens.

Other bits and pieces I've written since January are for a novel I started two years ago. I had begun the story when I was fourteen and in 2014 I began to knit together a more cohesive tale. My PC wasn't working and I hadn't yet bought a laptop so I wrote it longhand. Later, on a laptop, I began to edit and reduce what I'd written to two-thirds of what I'd had. It totals 40k+ words and there are a few chapters in the middle which although have been planned have yet to be written. This year I haven't spent as much time on it but now and again a scene jumps to mind and I write it up. If I make a conscious effort to make a change next year it'll be to set time aside for this project.

I attach a little from the beginning of the story below, omitting some phrases and descriptions as they paint the setting and the culture of the characters (I'm not ready to share all yet). Unsure of how to publish a 'long' story I've been giving some thought to presenting this tale as a weekly comic strip...

Opening Paragraph from Novel

In a room hewn from rock its crystalline walls sparkled from the many candles. The Official Birthing Sister, Fortura, stood over a woman in a chair whilst calling instructions, demanding obedience. The woman, heavily pregnant and about to give birth, sat in the ornate chair like an uncomfortable queen. Her long red hair, lank with perspiration, shrouded her face as she dropped her head with weariness. The chair was huge, carved with the...stages of woman...The figures, arms entwined with each other, curved along the back and sides of the seat. No cushioning made the hard wood a difficult perch for a woman about to birth. A third woman, Donnia, watched silently. Yet by the gleam in her eyes and the hardness of her lips it was evident what she thought of this foolish ritual.

Yessa, tired of obedience, got up awkwardly, turned around and leaned over the seat with her legs bent. The long finely woven garment she was wearing trailed upon the stone floor, its embroidery trodden. Fortura spoke sharply.

'Sister, you must be seated until the moment of birth.'

'No!' the red haired woman replied, her voice hoarse with pain, ' I will stand.'

'You act like a Half Sister from the villages, Yessa. Be seated! Bear your birthing with dignity. Your offspring may well swell the numbers of our sacred...lines.'

Yessa had had enough. Heavily pregnant and uncomfortable with crampings she'd needed to stand. Turning to seek help with this truculent sister the enraged Fortura left. Once she was out of earshot the Half Sister whispered,

'Quick, Yessa, you are ready. Squat and push before the old harridan returns. It is how any woman with sense gives birth.'

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May blogpost - Short Stories

Friday, 18 November 2016

day 19 & day 20 of illustrating Sinead's writing...

Although not in time for the Event at The Guesthouse the final two days of Sinead O'Donnell's writing from her residency are now illustrated. I really liked Sinead's writing, a quirky mix of fact and fantasy. It was nice to get back into that mode once more.

Day 19

Day 20

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Thursday, 27 October 2016

Event at The Guesthouse arts centre, Cork

A performance artist called Sinead O'Donnell who is completing a residency in Cork has been writing her thoughts and experiences on her facebook page and I really liked what she was writing. It wasn't just the content which made images spring to mind, but it was the fantastical use of description, pulling in people from myth and from fame.

So I messaged her and asked if she would be interested in my illustrating what she wrote. And the result is a series of visual comic strips which has been included in an event at her residency.

The collaboration is an performance and installation event that takes place at 7pm on Thursday 27th October 2016 at The Guesthouse arts centre in Cork, Eire. Other collaborators are Irene Murphy and Catherine Harty. Food is shared at The Guesthouse events and on the Thursday menu is: Seafood Ramen and Rice Ball with Fermented Vege.

The following are a series of drawings created directly from what Sinead wrote on the days of her residency. What is made is a visual comic strip that can stand on its own or be read as an illustrative text to Sinead's writings. I drew images that formed in my mind as I read her words and sometimes these may not echo what the writer intended. A confusion develops. Further fantasy evolves.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Days 6 & 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Days 11 & 12

Days 13, 14 & 15

Days 16, 17 & 18

Undressing the Architrave
Thursday 27th October 2016 The Guesthouse
Sinéad O’Donnell, Roisín O’Hagan, Irene Murphy and Catherine Harty
This is a collection of action and intuition based works initiated by artist in residence
Sinéad O’Donnell that have developed through conversation, response to the city
and the experience of working and living within The Guesthouse. All works draw an
awareness to the ways of thinking embodied in specific spaces – the undressing of
the architrave. The physical properties of a space may sometimes obscure the ways
in which inter-activity is built into these structures. This is the reveal.
Sinéad O’Donnell’s Bleeding Venus questions how the notion of a place of display, a
butcher’s stall, disturbingly creates a way of thinking and looking parallel to our
dissection of the classical image of the female. Roisín O’Hagan brings a visual
narrative thread to Sinéad’s experience of navigating the city. Irene Murphy’s Bed
down is a growing installation that inhabits the existing library as a bedroom ,
Catherine Harty ‘s Ghost-worker charts the way an abandoned space may give rise to
fragile, floating and unhinged ways of being.
John Thompson

Sinéad O’Donnell
Sinéad O’Donnell is a Belfast based artist her work is rooted in performance art. She often uses her body to investigate both her own and cultural boundaries, particularly in relation to the restrictions placed on women. Despite deliberately avoiding the sensationalisation of the body, her works often promote strong reactions and emotions.
Video installation: Bleeding Venus
Location: ground floor sittingroom and second floor project space.
Performance: 8.00pm second floor project space.

Roisín O’Hagan
Roisín O’Hagan is an artist and disability activist based in Belfast who responded online to Sinéads social media blog written during her residency at the Guesthouse. Roisin created a graphic interpretation of this dyslexic narrative which Sinéad has compiled together with her text to create a series of comic strip drawings.
Drawings: Ink interpretation
Location: Stairwell

Catherine Harty
Catherine Harty is a Cork based artist who works in a variety of media including painting,
photography and video. She holds a Masters in Contemporary Art Theory from NCAD, and
Fine Arts Practice from Birmingham School of Art, University of Central England.
Video installation: Ghost-worker
Location: First floor office space
Creative Destruction, stuck in the ruins, buildings past and future, boom and
bust.....................flat lining.

Irene Murphy
Irene Murphy is a Cork based artist who questions the role of the artist, creative space, and
engages with a broader concept of creativity. A common link in her art is ideas about
performativeness, site specificity and communality with Murphy’s art acts being private
interventions into public space.
Habitat: Bed Down
Video installation: Breaking with stone
Location: First floor library

(info from The Guesthouse)

(for Kay, my sister, my art teacher and my patron)

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