I guess I'm a Welsh activist by proxy of my husband, who stood up, was counted, went to court and was fined for his part in raising awareness of the Welsh language in the 1960s and 70s. He and his friends went around Wales underlining place names and road signs in English and writing 'Cymraeg?' It begged the question about the status and use of the Welsh language by the UK government, local authorities and organisations of the time.
Rhys never thought in his lifetime he'd such a radical transformation of what was a second class language to Welsh as a language of equal status with English, enshrined in legislation in an elected Assembly that manages many of Wales' affairs. When he started teaching it was in the first and only Welsh medium Comprehensive school in South Wales. There are now many primary and secondary schools in Cardiff alone, with projected growth as a bi-lingual education becomes more essential if you want to work in Welsh government. It's easy to forget the struggle that went on for decades to reach this place.
On Friday we attended a concert marking 50 years of protest by Welsh singer Dafydd Iwan. When I first came to Wales, I misheard Rhys talking about him and for many months I referred to him as 'Dafydd, the One!' But, there is only one Dafydd Iwan. More than any other Welsh singer of his generation he represents the struggle of a small oppressed nation. He stands tall with greats like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. Dafydd sang to a full auditorium in the Weston Studio of the Wales Millenium Centre, and in telling his story he made no compromise for any non-Welsh speakers in the audience. He's not a great guitar player and many of his songs have the same chords but the vigour and belief with which he sings is truly inspirational. His songs are irreverent, funny, witty, and will I'm sure stand the test of time.
Accompanying him was his own band, Heather Jones who continues to sing like a Nightingale and a group of three women calling themselves, 'Grug'. The audience sang with fervour, especially in what feels like a new national anthem - 'Ry'n ni yma o hyd.'
Monday, 22 October 2012
Monday, 8 October 2012
GREEN CANTERBURY TALES
On Friday October 5th 2012 members of the Glamorgan Seed Group met up to beach walk round Swansea Bay, telling and inventing stories, and later planning our route for next year's walk to Canterbury, part of a pilgrimage across Britain weaving new green tales for a sustainable world. Below is some background from the first meeting at Cae Mabon representing ten groups across Wales. Ours is a women's group of writers, poets, artists, and storytellers.
The pilgrimage is open to all.If you are interested in forming your own Seed Group look on www.greencanterburytales.org.uk for more information.
"Each group will be unique depending on the individuals involved and the nature of the journey given their geography. It may be possible to build on pre-existing projects, organisations and contacts. This could lead to potential sources of funding. Some Seed Groups will want to attract young people who can be mentored as storytellers and pilgrims. Such groups will probably need to be aligned to pre-existing groups and to tick boxes regarding health and safety etc. Other groups may simply consist of a handful of self-responsible adults. If groups become larger walkers may need to be asked to sign disclaimers.
•Initially the Seed Group will need to cultivate their repertoire of stories, agree on a starting date and an itinerary. They may organise a public performance in this first stage. We’d like each seed group to give a minimum of 6 days or 3 weekends over the 5 months for their journeys, not including the 2 or 3 days in Canterbury. This does not mean every individual does the full six days, just that the group as a whole does so. We expect many story pilgrims will spend longer on their journeys. Some may want to walk or cycle the whole way.
•The Seed Groups will begin their story-journeys in a place of sacred, historic, ecological or political significance. En route they'll exchange with each other and with people they meet stories, songs and poems on a broadly green or land-based theme. Later they may meet up and walk with neighbouring seed groups. So participants will fine tune stories; perform to audiences encountered or organised on the way; listen to and gather stories from other seed-groups or from people met en route; and tell the tales of their journeys.
•The third phase of the journeys will be the approach to Canterbury. One group will come from Southwark following the route of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The final weekend in Canterbury will be a mixture of festival and conference (Confest) where we explore the importance of storytelling on green themes, tell the stories of the journeys, re-tell some of the original Canterbury Tales with contemporary twists, tell some of the old and new stories gathered en route, and enjoy poetry and song."
The pilgrimage is open to all.If you are interested in forming your own Seed Group look on www.greencanterburytales.org.uk for more information.
"Each group will be unique depending on the individuals involved and the nature of the journey given their geography. It may be possible to build on pre-existing projects, organisations and contacts. This could lead to potential sources of funding. Some Seed Groups will want to attract young people who can be mentored as storytellers and pilgrims. Such groups will probably need to be aligned to pre-existing groups and to tick boxes regarding health and safety etc. Other groups may simply consist of a handful of self-responsible adults. If groups become larger walkers may need to be asked to sign disclaimers.
•Initially the Seed Group will need to cultivate their repertoire of stories, agree on a starting date and an itinerary. They may organise a public performance in this first stage. We’d like each seed group to give a minimum of 6 days or 3 weekends over the 5 months for their journeys, not including the 2 or 3 days in Canterbury. This does not mean every individual does the full six days, just that the group as a whole does so. We expect many story pilgrims will spend longer on their journeys. Some may want to walk or cycle the whole way.
•The Seed Groups will begin their story-journeys in a place of sacred, historic, ecological or political significance. En route they'll exchange with each other and with people they meet stories, songs and poems on a broadly green or land-based theme. Later they may meet up and walk with neighbouring seed groups. So participants will fine tune stories; perform to audiences encountered or organised on the way; listen to and gather stories from other seed-groups or from people met en route; and tell the tales of their journeys.
•The third phase of the journeys will be the approach to Canterbury. One group will come from Southwark following the route of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The final weekend in Canterbury will be a mixture of festival and conference (Confest) where we explore the importance of storytelling on green themes, tell the stories of the journeys, re-tell some of the original Canterbury Tales with contemporary twists, tell some of the old and new stories gathered en route, and enjoy poetry and song."
La bohème
It's only in the last year that Rhys and I have become interested in opera. I always saw it as an elitist hobby. In Wales, however, regardless of class or income, many people enjoy classical music and opera in particular.
We live next door to two musicians who work for the Welsh National Opera(WNO) and one of them is Rhys's guitar tutor. My counselling room backs onto their music room where they rehearse. Sometimes my clients are privy to our very own secret concert of cello and violin, giving a melodramatic backdrop to the action in my room. All the musicians' children are also musical. Before their eldest son went to uni, we would often hear his beautiful piano pieces and singing as he practised for the entrance exams. More latterly their younger son has taken up the trumpet. We now get the theme tunes from, 'Eastenders', 'The Last of the Summer Wine,' and 'Wallace and Gromet.' At least the latter usually breaks the tension and gets a laugh. When a client's just lost their husband or is suffering from post-traumatic stress there aren't a lot of laughs.
So having had all this for free for so long through our adjoining walls, we thought we'd like to see the performances that go with the music, and now we're rather hooked. What helps is the sur-titles in English and Welsh. It still seems to take an age to hear a performer singing that he enjoys a drink, fancies another man or is leaving his woman. At least now we know exactly what's happening. The other great thing for ignorant opera goers like us are the pre-show talks. On this occasion Dewi Savage, who I remembered as an actor in the days when I worked for Spectacle Theatre, did the honours in a self deprecating way that got laughs from the predominantly silver-surfer audience. In these half hour talks you get to know a bit of the background of the life and times of the composer, in this case Puccini, and a synopsis of who loves who, who falls out of love with who, who gets jealous and who dies of consumption- and there's still time for a G&T before the show starts.
This WNO production of La bohème is conducted by Simon Phillippo, directed by Annabel Arden with David Kempster as Marcello, Alex Vicens as Rodolpho, Giselle Allen as Mimi and Kate Valentine as Musetta. The opera is set in Paris's Latin Quarter at the end of the nineteenth century and as the title suggests is the story of a group of bohemian artists who fall in and out of love in a garret, get jealous, and sing over each other in magnificent voices as Mimi dies of consumption.
We didn't go away humming a well known ditty as we did for Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. And we weren't quite convinced that the bohemians were in their early twenties-more like their forties, but we did enjoy the drama of the performances, the singing, the orchestra, and the atmospheric line-drawn set, pumping out smoke over the rooftops of Paris.
WNO is on tour with this production until the 1st of December 2012. www.wno.org.uk
We live next door to two musicians who work for the Welsh National Opera(WNO) and one of them is Rhys's guitar tutor. My counselling room backs onto their music room where they rehearse. Sometimes my clients are privy to our very own secret concert of cello and violin, giving a melodramatic backdrop to the action in my room. All the musicians' children are also musical. Before their eldest son went to uni, we would often hear his beautiful piano pieces and singing as he practised for the entrance exams. More latterly their younger son has taken up the trumpet. We now get the theme tunes from, 'Eastenders', 'The Last of the Summer Wine,' and 'Wallace and Gromet.' At least the latter usually breaks the tension and gets a laugh. When a client's just lost their husband or is suffering from post-traumatic stress there aren't a lot of laughs.
So having had all this for free for so long through our adjoining walls, we thought we'd like to see the performances that go with the music, and now we're rather hooked. What helps is the sur-titles in English and Welsh. It still seems to take an age to hear a performer singing that he enjoys a drink, fancies another man or is leaving his woman. At least now we know exactly what's happening. The other great thing for ignorant opera goers like us are the pre-show talks. On this occasion Dewi Savage, who I remembered as an actor in the days when I worked for Spectacle Theatre, did the honours in a self deprecating way that got laughs from the predominantly silver-surfer audience. In these half hour talks you get to know a bit of the background of the life and times of the composer, in this case Puccini, and a synopsis of who loves who, who falls out of love with who, who gets jealous and who dies of consumption- and there's still time for a G&T before the show starts.
This WNO production of La bohème is conducted by Simon Phillippo, directed by Annabel Arden with David Kempster as Marcello, Alex Vicens as Rodolpho, Giselle Allen as Mimi and Kate Valentine as Musetta. The opera is set in Paris's Latin Quarter at the end of the nineteenth century and as the title suggests is the story of a group of bohemian artists who fall in and out of love in a garret, get jealous, and sing over each other in magnificent voices as Mimi dies of consumption.
We didn't go away humming a well known ditty as we did for Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. And we weren't quite convinced that the bohemians were in their early twenties-more like their forties, but we did enjoy the drama of the performances, the singing, the orchestra, and the atmospheric line-drawn set, pumping out smoke over the rooftops of Paris.
WNO is on tour with this production until the 1st of December 2012. www.wno.org.uk
Thursday, 4 October 2012
BEFORE IT RAINS
'Before it Rains,' is a powerful play written by Katherine Chandler and directed by Roisin McBrinn. It is a Sherman Cymru and Bristol Old Vic co-production. Set on an allotment and in the woods behind a tough Cardiff housing estate, it explores the relationships between an alcoholic, protective Mum, her autistic son and his street-wise, bullying friend. The violence we are told is occuring off stage creates tension on stage, slowly building, and erupting into a cataclysmic and explosive ending; in efforts to protect her son, the Mum provokes the wild friend (abused by his sadistic father) to take his own life. The event is truly shocking.
The cast of Lisa Palfrey, Craig Gazey and Harry Ferrier gave really convincing performances. The language felt authentic, but at times the script fell into 'telling rather showing' and there were some speeches that felt a bit too long. The set, designed by Alyson Cummins- a mound of earth, dug and re-dug by the autistic son, with pillars of the estate underpass doubling as trees in the woods, and ropes for branches, worked well and provided an evocative atmosphere. Pity the seating in Theatre 2 hasn't been updated with the rest of the building. Sitting for an hour and a half on a hard chair isn't great for one's concentration.
The play is on until the 6th of October at the Sherman. Under 25s are half price.
The cast of Lisa Palfrey, Craig Gazey and Harry Ferrier gave really convincing performances. The language felt authentic, but at times the script fell into 'telling rather showing' and there were some speeches that felt a bit too long. The set, designed by Alyson Cummins- a mound of earth, dug and re-dug by the autistic son, with pillars of the estate underpass doubling as trees in the woods, and ropes for branches, worked well and provided an evocative atmosphere. Pity the seating in Theatre 2 hasn't been updated with the rest of the building. Sitting for an hour and a half on a hard chair isn't great for one's concentration.
The play is on until the 6th of October at the Sherman. Under 25s are half price.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
PASSING THROUGH THE PAST
This weekend was one of our now irregular visits to the capital. The purpose of going was a school reunion. Eight of us have been meeting annually for the past six years. Last year it was at the Brighton races, this year it was at Petersham Nurseries, near Richmond. Reunions are funny things. You have a shared history. I knew these people intimately as a teenager, but our lives have all taken very different paths. It's fun to catch up but I'm finding that reminiscing over the same few memories that we seem to hold is starting to pall. I wonder about the meaning of the reunion to each of us. One friend, who I am in regular contact with, suggested I see the event as just a pleasant lunch with pleasant people and attach no deeper significance. Not sure I can do that.
So it seemed somewhat synchronistic that the following evening the play we went to see at The Royal Court Theatre by Caryl Churchill, called 'Love and Information' explored the different meanings that people in relationships (romantic and otherwise) attach to shared knowledge, memories and information. There were 57 scenes set in a white cube. Lightning scene changes accompanied by different soundtracks gave the piece momentum and vitality. The acting was superb, the direction by James Macdonald sharp and clever, the script quirky, funny and poignant.
The past featured heavily in the two visual art exhibitions we saw: Bronze at the Royal Academy of Arts and Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye at the Tate Modern.
'Bronze' presents a landmark exhibition of the finest bronzes from across the globe, from antiquity up to the present day, putting the spotlight on era-defining works by Donatello,Ghiberti,Rodin,Picasso and contemporary greats such as Jasper Johns and Jeff Koons.' As we opened the floor-to- ceiling doors into the exhibition, our mouths dropped at a half-limbed Roman figure, green with alabaster eyes, flying above us in suspension. Stunning drama to whet our appetite to a great show.
Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye' brings together his paintings, drawings, prints,photographs, sculpture and film to offer a new perspective on the Norwegian artist'. Much of the work was produced in the 20th century. His work was shaped by emotional and psychological states rather than a conventionally naturalistic representation of the world. There are a lot of self portraits and I found myself searching his face for knowledge of the inner man. His memories of a tragic childhood and his experience of ill health, nervous breakdowns, aging and a life of turmoil are evident in the colours, the distortions, the inter-play of the real and the spirit world in his work.
All this and a conversation with my brother about our childhood memories made me wonder about my own childhood memories, how much I may have suppressed, reshaped or distorted. I feel quite inspired to embark on a new phase of creativity to explore this through different artistic mediums. I may be passing through your past on my way. I would love to hear from you if you have any stories, thoughts or feedback on this theme.
Thursday, 23 August 2012
EDINBURGH FESTIVALS 2012
It's festival time again and I've just got back from a literary feast in Edinburgh. Here's a brief round up of the shows I saw at the Fringe, the International and Book Festivals. First the serious stuff:
- 'Krapp's Last Tape' by Samuel Beckett and directed by Fiona Baddeley, featuring Tom Owen (from 'Last of the Summer Wine'). An old man listens to recordings he's made over the past forty years reflecting on his life and relationships and prepares to make his final tape. It's a very moving and sad play and was brilliantly performed.
- 'The Fantasist' by Theatre Temoin & Cie Traversiere. The play explores 'the murky depths and glorious heights of bipolar illness through a stunning collision of puppetry, physical theatre and original music.' I came out of this one reeling; it was so powerful. Again, brilliantly performed, with the puppets adding a surreal and disturbing quality to the story.
- 'And No More Shall We Part' by Tom Holloway, directed by James MacDonald and co-starring Bill Patterson as Don and Dearbhla Molloy as Pam, performed at the Traverse Theatre. The play 'looks at what happens when death comes into the room.' Pam has a terminal illness and plans to end her life. Don doesn't want her to, but she needs his help. The story raises ethical issues about a person's individual rights and autonomy and the impact of euthanasia on their partners. The performances were so convincing that audience members were bawling and hugging each other as they left the theatre.
- 'Gullivers Travels' by Jonathan Swift performed by the National Theatre of Romania. We'd seen their amazing production of 'Faust' a few years ago and perhaps were expecting too much. It's a very visual production with great imagery and set, a wonderful avant-rock score and huge ensemble, even featuring a live stallion on stage. However, not knowing the intricacies of the story I was often lost and confused. Gave us lots to talk about though.
It was a relief to see some comedy interspersed. This included:
- Shappi Korshandi, an Iranian stand-up comedienne with stories of her filthy sex life
- Jarlath Regan, an Irish stand-up comedian with a show, entitled,'The Audacity of Hope and The Inspirational Stupidity of Perseverance.' Funny, but seemed a bit mild after Shappi.
- John Shuttleworth, a Yorkshire comedian/storyteller trying to play the organ with a show described as, 'weird,whimsical and wacky'. His followers were in hysterics at every throwaway remark. There was one song about the tragedy of having two margarine cartons open in the fridge at the same time. I'm now a follower.
- The Dog-Eared Collective's new show,'You're Amazing. (Now Look At Me) ' Fast, physical, funny and surreal sketches of their world. They are all great performers, but couldn't take my eyes off the versatile Joanna Hutt. Partly because she looks the spitting image of her mother as a younger woman. And partly because her mother was sitting next to me.
Other shows included:
- 'Julia Donaldson's Children's Show ' Julia acted and sang her stories against an illustrated backdrop, accompanied by her husband, other actors and children from the audience. Stories included The 'Highway Rat', 'Paper Dolls' and 'The Gruffalo', performed in the Scots language. Over 600 children and their parents sat enthralled. Including us.
- 'The Big Bite-Size Breakfast' We had Menu 1: 'Vintage 1940's, which included strawberries,croissants,coffee and four very clever short plays by Lucy Kaufman on the theme of Vintage.
- 'Chapel Street,'by Luke Barnes. This was part of the Old Vic's New (meaning 'young') Voices programme. The play was performed as two interweaving monologues telling the individual stories of the teenagers' drunken Friday night out and the aspirations of a disaffected generation. Clever writing and excellent performances by Cary Crankson and Ria Zmitrowicz.
There was also a lot of eating, imbibing, strolling, meeting friends, chatting and soaking up the rush. If you have never been to the Edinburgh Festival, you really should. You'd love it!
PS I slept for a solid thirteen hours afterwards.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
TORCHBEARERS
'Torchbearers' is a Valleys Kids and Wales Millenium Centre Co-production-the result of a long standing partnership with South African artists and community arts organisations. It is part of Wales' Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival.
The programme describes it as,
' a spectacular cross-cultural performance, which celebrates the extraordinary achievements of Valleys Kids and their inspirational creative partners in Wales and South Africa. Together, they are succeeding in changing the lives of disadvantaged individuals in their communities through engaging them in the arts'.
We went to see the show on Friday to a packed auditorium. The show is highly ambitious with a cast of what seems like hundreds-South African dancers, actors, gymnasts, actors, singers and musicians-mixed in with singers, actors, dancers, musicians and young people from Valleys' communities. It is a love story of a South African girl and Welsh boy, who meet on the film set of 'Zulu' at the time Nelson Mandela is imprisoned. They are now old reminiscing about those days.
The production is awesome and it almost seems disloyal to be at all critical as I'm a great fan of Valleys Kids since I worked with Richard Morgan and Margaret Jervis, thirty odd years ago at Rhondda Community Arts and what was then Penygraig Community Project. I loved the African input-it was so professional and slick, I was moved by the dancing, the music score by Paula Gardiner is inspiring and the singing fantastic. The production is energetic with a great set designed by Mary Drummond. For me a weakness lies in the script by Laurence Allen. It isn't always clear and at times I found it confusing and repetitive. The casting of a mixed race South African, seemingly representing the old Welsh man as the young boy was confusing. This wasn't helped by some poor sound, although given I was having problems with my own hearing at the time, it could have been me. However, apart from that it is an amazing achievement.
It's going to be performed at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on November 8,9.10 2012. Well worth the airfare!
The programme describes it as,
' a spectacular cross-cultural performance, which celebrates the extraordinary achievements of Valleys Kids and their inspirational creative partners in Wales and South Africa. Together, they are succeeding in changing the lives of disadvantaged individuals in their communities through engaging them in the arts'.
We went to see the show on Friday to a packed auditorium. The show is highly ambitious with a cast of what seems like hundreds-South African dancers, actors, gymnasts, actors, singers and musicians-mixed in with singers, actors, dancers, musicians and young people from Valleys' communities. It is a love story of a South African girl and Welsh boy, who meet on the film set of 'Zulu' at the time Nelson Mandela is imprisoned. They are now old reminiscing about those days.
The production is awesome and it almost seems disloyal to be at all critical as I'm a great fan of Valleys Kids since I worked with Richard Morgan and Margaret Jervis, thirty odd years ago at Rhondda Community Arts and what was then Penygraig Community Project. I loved the African input-it was so professional and slick, I was moved by the dancing, the music score by Paula Gardiner is inspiring and the singing fantastic. The production is energetic with a great set designed by Mary Drummond. For me a weakness lies in the script by Laurence Allen. It isn't always clear and at times I found it confusing and repetitive. The casting of a mixed race South African, seemingly representing the old Welsh man as the young boy was confusing. This wasn't helped by some poor sound, although given I was having problems with my own hearing at the time, it could have been me. However, apart from that it is an amazing achievement.
It's going to be performed at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on November 8,9.10 2012. Well worth the airfare!
THE EXHIBITIONISTS
The Exhibitionists is a BBC Cymru Wales series, a collaboration with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, followed five individuals with no formal art background as they were set a series of tasks, the first time ever a museum has allowed such extraordinary access to its important art collection for members of the public to handle, discuss, and put on show.
Helping them along the way have been two figures in the Welsh art world. Osi Rhys Osmond is a highly respected Welsh painter and a Senior Lecturer of Art at Swansea Metropolitan University. Karen MacKinnon is Exhibitions Curator at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea.
As finalists, Efa Thomas, a musician and Cardiff journalism student originally from Criccieth, and Julia Manser a charity sector worker and keen Swansea City FC follower, were given their own exhibitions in the National Museum's new wing for modern and contemporary art, Gallery 24. Those visiting the gallery were asked to vote for their favorite exhibition. Efa received the most public votes with her theme of destruction and identity.
We really enjoyed the series- a bit of a cross between Masterchef and the Apprentice. The contestants were all very different, coming from a range of backgrounds and ages. In some ways they were all winners, because what was asked of them would have been challenging to those with a knowledge of art and art history. None of the contestants had any art background. We've often thought that the Museum has been rather conservative in its curation, although there are exciting exceptions, such as the bi-annual international Artis Mundi. We'd heard that there are storerooms holding treasures which the public never get to see. Until the recent extensions at the Museum, contemporary collections in my view didn't have a lot of coherence and were displayed in poor light. I found them depressing. But the new exhibition rooms shine great light on older and new work. And when was the last time you saw an exhibition of women's art there? Well, there's one on now!
We were eager to see the exhibition and last Friday on entering the Museum we caught sight of Julia Manser, the runner-up, whose theme for the competition was women. I approached her and told her we'd made a special journey. She'd just given a talk (we didn't know about it) but said she'd do it again just for us. We were given seats by the warden and sat down while Julia warmly and enthusiastically explained the reasons for her choices and gave background to the lives of artists such as Gwen John, Sue Williams, and Siani Rhys Jones, to name a few. She's clearly learnt an enormous amount and enjoyed the whole experience. She brings a fresh, personal and enthusiastic heart and mind to her selection. Her captions are witty and some made me laugh out loud. Not the stuffy way the Museum may do it. Efa's selection is very different-her themes are destruction and identity, with works by Ifor Davies, Iwan Bala and more contemporary, younger, less known artists. She brings the same fresh creativity to her curation. I really hope that the Museum will learn how much more accessible that makes our experience. Because of the tight time scales of the series, there's no catalogue available yet.
We really enjoyed the series- a bit of a cross between Masterchef and the Apprentice. The contestants were all very different, coming from a range of backgrounds and ages. In some ways they were all winners, because what was asked of them would have been challenging to those with a knowledge of art and art history. None of the contestants had any art background. We've often thought that the Museum has been rather conservative in its curation, although there are exciting exceptions, such as the bi-annual international Artis Mundi. We'd heard that there are storerooms holding treasures which the public never get to see. Until the recent extensions at the Museum, contemporary collections in my view didn't have a lot of coherence and were displayed in poor light. I found them depressing. But the new exhibition rooms shine great light on older and new work. And when was the last time you saw an exhibition of women's art there? Well, there's one on now!
We were eager to see the exhibition and last Friday on entering the Museum we caught sight of Julia Manser, the runner-up, whose theme for the competition was women. I approached her and told her we'd made a special journey. She'd just given a talk (we didn't know about it) but said she'd do it again just for us. We were given seats by the warden and sat down while Julia warmly and enthusiastically explained the reasons for her choices and gave background to the lives of artists such as Gwen John, Sue Williams, and Siani Rhys Jones, to name a few. She's clearly learnt an enormous amount and enjoyed the whole experience. She brings a fresh, personal and enthusiastic heart and mind to her selection. Her captions are witty and some made me laugh out loud. Not the stuffy way the Museum may do it. Efa's selection is very different-her themes are destruction and identity, with works by Ifor Davies, Iwan Bala and more contemporary, younger, less known artists. She brings the same fresh creativity to her curation. I really hope that the Museum will learn how much more accessible that makes our experience. Because of the tight time scales of the series, there's no catalogue available yet.
The exhibitions can be seen at the National Museum Cardiff until August 19. Efa is giving a talk about her selection on Tuesday 14th August at 2pm. and the pieces of art can be seen on the Your Paintings website. The series is produced by Gwynedd-based Cwmni Da TV company.
Watch the last episode on iPlayer.
Friday, 13 July 2012
GREEN CANTERBURY TALES
This week I met up with a small group of women poets, writers and storytellers who want to take up the challenge to 'Walk for the Earth.' Our group,'Seeds of Inspiration', involves a kind of pagan pilgrimage to sacred sites, which we will circumnavigate at Beltane, the Summer Solstice and Lammas, before joining others at the Confest in Canterbury in September 2013. We'll be having conversations, gathering and telling stories and maybe even performing our work on green themes-if we can find venues. Below is more information about the project. If you would like to start a seed group of your own and join Walk for the Earth see www.greencanterburytales.co.uk.
"Storytellers, poets, musicians, artists and those concerned about the state of our world. You are invited to gather in your localities around Britain to make a story pilgrimage across the country towards Canterbury. We will walk, cycle, ride and use other forms of slow travel, declaring our care for the world through storytelling, poetry and music.
Starting in May 2013 we will converge on Canterbury in September 2013, celebrating our journeys with a conference-festival (Confest). This will be a 21st century Canterbury Tales on a sustainability theme: A WALK FOR THE EARTH.
We want this pilgrimage to be a positive affirmation of the power of the spoken word. Stories of people alive now will mingle with tales of old to honour both traditional roots and contemporary shoots. We will reach out to diverse groups of people. We will learn once more to love this venerable land, to move through it along highways and byways with a sense of adventure, respect and appreciation.
We want to keep asking ourselves and each other: ‘What matters? What can we do? How do we live?’ We want to give voice to the low impact, Earth-friendly, human scale, creative and courageous alternative to all that is corrupt and dysfunctional in mainstream culture. We are inspired by the thought of hundreds (if not thousands) of people from all over Britain walking simultaneously, as if along spokes of a wheel, and converging on an ancient sacred centre to celebrate simple yet immensely rich journeys." (www. greencanterburytales.com)
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
SCOTLAND,THE DRY
Who would have believed it? Three weeks holidaying in Scotland and no rain. Well, a couple of times it did rain, but we were en route for our ferries so it didn't stop play. Scotland in late May/ June was truly magnificent. On the Solway Coast, in the South we stayed at a caravan park that had been awarded a David Bellamy gold star. Set in woodland, the Hawthorn trees were in full bloom, looking as if a giant had poured double cream from a pitcher all over the woodland. Or, as I heard one child ask his mother,'Is that a snow tree?'
This area is called the Scottish Riviera, and with its pretty villages and beaches it's easy to see why. It's a very undiscovered part of the country. Most people head north after Gretna Green. It's worth turning left and spending a few days strolling along the coastal paths and through the forests and woodland. The towns are uncrowded. Kirkcudbright (Kir-coo-bri) is our favourite. People are very friendly, the stone cottages with vaulted alleyways leading to pretty gardens are charming. Its good light encourages artists to settle and exhibit there.
Driving north through Dumfries and Galloway and then Ayrshire, we took the ferry from Ardhossan to the Isle of Arran, where we ate kippers for breakfast and had a view over Holy Island, where there is a centre for world peace. Unfortunately, the winds were too strong for the wee ferry, so instead we walked to the cave, where Robert the Bruce was said to have had an encounter with a spider, which inspired him to carry on his campaign to free Scotland from English reign.
Arran is said to be Scotland in miniature, with rich lowland pastures in the South and intimidating mountains in the North. It is quite wealthy and as one of the nearer islands to Glasgow has a lot of visitors. From Arran we took the ferry from Lochanza in the North to Claonaig on Kyntyre. Driving down to Carradale in Mid Kintyre we were able to view the mountains of Arran in late evening light from the opposite shore. Set against the mauvey-pink rhododendrons that dominate Kintyre's landscape, the scene was magical.
We stayed in a log cabin, that was somewhat dog-eared but in a great location- a holiday park set just behind a long sandy beach with forest walks. There I made a basic mistake, wearing three quarter length trousers on a forest walk. I counted 24 love bites from the mighty midge-and that was just on my right leg between foot and calf. Must be something about the plumpness of a female calf that midges go wild for. Rhys didn't have a single bite. Then, he was completely covered up. Repellent must be in short supply and expensive, because someone nicked my leaky one, left by the car during another walk. Midges love hot humid places and are pretty rampant from June to August. We bought midge masks-mine in pink and Rhys's in black, that look like see-through balaclavas. The sort of thing Michael Jackson made his children wear on visits to the zoo in New York. On a guided walk through the gardens at Inverewe in the North West Highland the whole group was wearing midge masks. We looked like we were at some kind of weird gathering of the clans.
We did the obligatory homage to the Mull of Kinytre, made famous by Paul Macartney and Wings, but after a few miles of one-track roads on the edge of a cliff with mist rolling in, we headed back to the safety of our log cabin.
Carradale is a great place to island hop and we hopped over to the little island of Gigha (Gee-ya), twenty minutes from Tayinloan in mid Kintyre. It's owned by its tiny community, seems fairly prosperous and has the beautiful gardens of Achamore. This part of Scotland, the West coast and Hebridean islands are washed by the warm waters of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, so there are many gardens donated by hard-up Lairds or their descendents to the National Trust of Scotland(NTS) and open to the public. The NTS has reciprocal arrangements with the National Trust of England and Wales, so if you're a Welsh member who thinks (like us) it's hardly worth the annual subscription because of the paucity of properties and gardens in Wales, it's worth being a member to take advantage of these Scottish paradises. Unfortunatel, Achamore isn't NTS.
From Kennacraig, a little further north on Kintyre, we made the two hour trip to the Island of Islay(Isla) -The Whisky Isle. There are at least seven distilleries making single malts and blended varieties from raw materials supplied from the mainland and using local peat in the maltings to produce the characteristic smoky elixir. Distilleries give guided tours and tastings for brands such as Laphroaig (Prince Charles' favourite apparently-not that I'm interested), Lagavulin, Caol(Cil) Ila. In late May there's a whisky festival, much loved by Italians,Germans, Americans and Swedes. Our landlady said it's a wild time to come. And we just missed it.
From Kintyre we drove ten hours up to the North West Highlands. At Ballachulish between Oban and Fort William we accidently managed to get behind the Olympic torch procession. The crowd thinking we were part of the support team, I guess, cheered us on with their Coca-Cola and Samsung drum kits. It was a relief to lose them at Fort William. There's only so much regal waving a couple in a Kia Rio can do, and concentrate on the driving.
We stayed in Aultbea in a lodge with a wonderful view of Loch Ewe and the spiky range of the Torridon mountains. Loch Ewe was a top secret place in WW11. It was the mustering HQ for the Arctic Convoys taking supplies to Russia. My uncle was on one of those convoys and I'm keen to learn more. Sadly, he died before I had the chance to ask the right questions.
We walked around lochs, more gardens, cycled, and walked to a lighthouse. We got a lift back with an ex-army couple, who'd been travelling for two years in their souped up jeep with their cat. I'm not a great fan of cats, to say the least. I sat frozen in the passenger seat in case the cat should take a walk over my back and attempt to sit on my lap. If I screamed our driver might topple over the cliff. Thankfully, the cat and I behaved ourselves.
This area is called the Scottish Riviera, and with its pretty villages and beaches it's easy to see why. It's a very undiscovered part of the country. Most people head north after Gretna Green. It's worth turning left and spending a few days strolling along the coastal paths and through the forests and woodland. The towns are uncrowded. Kirkcudbright (Kir-coo-bri) is our favourite. People are very friendly, the stone cottages with vaulted alleyways leading to pretty gardens are charming. Its good light encourages artists to settle and exhibit there.
Driving north through Dumfries and Galloway and then Ayrshire, we took the ferry from Ardhossan to the Isle of Arran, where we ate kippers for breakfast and had a view over Holy Island, where there is a centre for world peace. Unfortunately, the winds were too strong for the wee ferry, so instead we walked to the cave, where Robert the Bruce was said to have had an encounter with a spider, which inspired him to carry on his campaign to free Scotland from English reign.
Arran is said to be Scotland in miniature, with rich lowland pastures in the South and intimidating mountains in the North. It is quite wealthy and as one of the nearer islands to Glasgow has a lot of visitors. From Arran we took the ferry from Lochanza in the North to Claonaig on Kyntyre. Driving down to Carradale in Mid Kintyre we were able to view the mountains of Arran in late evening light from the opposite shore. Set against the mauvey-pink rhododendrons that dominate Kintyre's landscape, the scene was magical.
We stayed in a log cabin, that was somewhat dog-eared but in a great location- a holiday park set just behind a long sandy beach with forest walks. There I made a basic mistake, wearing three quarter length trousers on a forest walk. I counted 24 love bites from the mighty midge-and that was just on my right leg between foot and calf. Must be something about the plumpness of a female calf that midges go wild for. Rhys didn't have a single bite. Then, he was completely covered up. Repellent must be in short supply and expensive, because someone nicked my leaky one, left by the car during another walk. Midges love hot humid places and are pretty rampant from June to August. We bought midge masks-mine in pink and Rhys's in black, that look like see-through balaclavas. The sort of thing Michael Jackson made his children wear on visits to the zoo in New York. On a guided walk through the gardens at Inverewe in the North West Highland the whole group was wearing midge masks. We looked like we were at some kind of weird gathering of the clans.
We did the obligatory homage to the Mull of Kinytre, made famous by Paul Macartney and Wings, but after a few miles of one-track roads on the edge of a cliff with mist rolling in, we headed back to the safety of our log cabin.
Carradale is a great place to island hop and we hopped over to the little island of Gigha (Gee-ya), twenty minutes from Tayinloan in mid Kintyre. It's owned by its tiny community, seems fairly prosperous and has the beautiful gardens of Achamore. This part of Scotland, the West coast and Hebridean islands are washed by the warm waters of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, so there are many gardens donated by hard-up Lairds or their descendents to the National Trust of Scotland(NTS) and open to the public. The NTS has reciprocal arrangements with the National Trust of England and Wales, so if you're a Welsh member who thinks (like us) it's hardly worth the annual subscription because of the paucity of properties and gardens in Wales, it's worth being a member to take advantage of these Scottish paradises. Unfortunatel, Achamore isn't NTS.
From Kennacraig, a little further north on Kintyre, we made the two hour trip to the Island of Islay(Isla) -The Whisky Isle. There are at least seven distilleries making single malts and blended varieties from raw materials supplied from the mainland and using local peat in the maltings to produce the characteristic smoky elixir. Distilleries give guided tours and tastings for brands such as Laphroaig (Prince Charles' favourite apparently-not that I'm interested), Lagavulin, Caol(Cil) Ila. In late May there's a whisky festival, much loved by Italians,Germans, Americans and Swedes. Our landlady said it's a wild time to come. And we just missed it.
From Kintyre we drove ten hours up to the North West Highlands. At Ballachulish between Oban and Fort William we accidently managed to get behind the Olympic torch procession. The crowd thinking we were part of the support team, I guess, cheered us on with their Coca-Cola and Samsung drum kits. It was a relief to lose them at Fort William. There's only so much regal waving a couple in a Kia Rio can do, and concentrate on the driving.
We stayed in Aultbea in a lodge with a wonderful view of Loch Ewe and the spiky range of the Torridon mountains. Loch Ewe was a top secret place in WW11. It was the mustering HQ for the Arctic Convoys taking supplies to Russia. My uncle was on one of those convoys and I'm keen to learn more. Sadly, he died before I had the chance to ask the right questions.
We walked around lochs, more gardens, cycled, and walked to a lighthouse. We got a lift back with an ex-army couple, who'd been travelling for two years in their souped up jeep with their cat. I'm not a great fan of cats, to say the least. I sat frozen in the passenger seat in case the cat should take a walk over my back and attempt to sit on my lap. If I screamed our driver might topple over the cliff. Thankfully, the cat and I behaved ourselves.
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