I have just realised I'd not published this, and it IS a good read into what was going on for me at the end of 2015. I don't know if it will publish in 2016 or now, but forgive the lateness or lack of timliness! Happy 2016.....
"I
have to say I’m not sad to see the back of 2015, even though 2016 means I’ll be
59! To have made it through the whole
difficult year, and to be able to pick up the brushes again by the end of it
is, in my mind, a feat of passion.
Passion to paint, that is.
Recovering from the loss of a parent takes time, and I venture to say,
we never really do – recover that is - , we become used to the idea that we’re
orphans in the world! I’m surprised that
I was able to begin work as quickly as I did – though by the time I did start,
it had been nearly a year, for other reasons, and I felt like I would explode
if I didn’t start to put paint on canvas somehow! Luckily, I still had a little bit of my
commission to finish….it was the perfect solution. That is, something I HAD to finish, to
create….and there was such joy in doing that little bit of creating that I was
disappointed that I had to stop again for the holidays…Thanksgiving right
through to 2016. Now I’m back; and trying
to tell you about it all!
I
was able to do one of my favorite Christmas activities this year – for the
first time since I began to go to Scotland actually, some 18 years ago! That is, I was able to spend a few hours after dark on Christmas Eve at Taos Pueblo.
They have a service in their chapel on the Pueblo just as the sun is
setting. Then, at the end of this service, the entire congregation takes all
the statues out of the building, and there is a parade around the plaza between
the two ‘houses’. There are farolitos
(bonfires) of different sizes….small personal ones in front of a home or places
to warm yourself, dotted around the central plaza, and two, massive towers of
pitch wood that are lit when the doors open to the church. At the start of the procession, are two
Pueblo elders shooting their deer rifles off at an angle, then the liter with
the Virgin, and dancers, drummers, singers, a guitarist…..I missed the lone
fiddler who once accompanied it all from the back. Its magic, and it was lovely to see that
despite the expanded crowds, it still was magic, if you chose to allow it to
come forward. I think this is where I’m
going to begin my work this year….capturing the memory of this night. No photographs, no sketches, no phones,….just
being part of the magic, taking it in.
All you’ll see today, are the sketches…. But wait for it! "
