Fossils, flowers and a collage of pictures

I've had the Artist's Way weekly tasks pinned up on my desk this week as a way to urge myself into action. I've been quite excited about these as they involve doing, not just thinking. The ones I've been tackling have been:

• Find 5 pretty/interesting rocks
• Find 5 flowers/leaves
• Create a pictorial collage of your past, present, future and your dreams.

The thinking behind these tasks is all about appreciating yourself, your surroundings, and recovering a wonder and sense of possibility about the world.

For the first task I spent the evening at Kimmeridge Bay. Kimmeridge is a rugged, windswept bay full of smooth clacking pebbles and soft grey sand. The sea is shallow and warm, alive with forests of seaweed and swirling glittering grains of dark sand. I come here not only for the breathtaking views and gothic romance that clings to the cliffs, but also for the fossils and sheer beauty of the rocks. Here are my five finds:

For flowers, I didn't have to look much further than my garden. It's bursting with colour at the moment. From the indulgent red roses, to the sunshine dandelions, it's a kaliedescope of plants bursting into bloom.

The collage was really fun to do. You can see mine below, but first I'd like to share the process with you as I found it uplifting, insipiring and satisfying. Ideal for days when things are getting you down and you need something simple and fun to get you going.

First, arm yourself with at least 10 magazines - any kind of magazines. Don't limit yourself to only what you normally read but pick up free leaflets, or publications that grab your attention becasue of pictures, or colours, or words. The most important thing is that you are going to be ripping them up, so they need to be ones you're not intent on keeping. My stack included old copies of Wanderlust, Muse, Mslexia, Bookseller, Young Writer, National Trust, and Gardners' World.

Once you have your pile, limit yourself to twenty minutes and go through the magazines ripping out pages or images that appeal to you. Maybe you see something that reminds you of your past, or you notice a picture that embodies hopes for the future, or an image that encapsulates now, or maybe you rip out a page that just calls to you for whatever reason.Don't be too choosy, go on instinct, you can always discard later.

After twenty minutes you should have a good stack of images. Now it's time to arrange these in a pattern or an order that you like. Take a couple of sheets of newspaper, a stapler, some glue, sellotape and get to work arranging them. You may like to cut images down neater, and be more choosy about what you include. But try to work quickly, letting your instinct lead you. This is about throwing out a reflection of yourself and your memories and your hopes and dreams - it's not about constructing an artifice.

Once the collage is done, step back and admire. Then hang it somewhere special. Share it with others, or keep it private, whichever you prefer - but use it when you are feeling lost, or down, and it should brighten you, invigorate you and make you smile.

Mine is on the wall of my study. I'm really pleased with it. I love the combination of elements that I recognise as being intrinsic to myself: themes of fantasy, literacy, childhood, travel and exploration, wildlife - all this runs through my blood and is reflected in the images I chose. It reminds me of the colours of my soul whenever I begin to feel a little faded. Here's the finished collage, and some close up details.

My favourite image, without doubt, is the woman about to dive off the rock. It symbolises how I want to be: brave, fearless, bold, bright and daring. plunging into the unknown with a smile on my face.

This is how I aspire to be.









That's all for now. I have a crafty night planned tonight with two of my most favourite people - I can't wait.

Bye for now,

rb x

A date with an artist...

Or rather, an artist's date (see last blog post).

When I talked about this last time, I emphasised how artist's dates are supposed to be for you and for you only (i.e don't bring a friend along). The more I thought about this, the more I felt it was probably aimed more at people who have regular jobs, a family, and basically no time for themselves at all. For me, it's different. I am on my own pretty much all the time. So for my artist date this week, I decided to make a concious effort to surround myself with people.

As proof that the universe supported this decision an old friend of mine who I don't see very much emailed to see if he could stay over as there was a wedding in the area. Normally my defense mechanism would kick in: social interaction is dangerous - avoid! avoid! avoid! But this time, I overruled it and set myself to manual control. Basically, I said 'yes, come and stay.'

As the weekend drew nearer I was plagued with misgivings. I worried we would have nothing to talk about, that there would be awkward silences, that I wouldn't get him off the topic of Playstations and X-boxes. All in vain! In fact we sat up until 2am drinking red wine and talking about books, tv, film, love, relationships, travel... most nourishing for my inner-artist, and my soul. The best bit was a late night text from another friend inviting me to join her for a long walk in the countryside the next day. My friend and I were delighted to accept.

Sunday was sultry and hot and G and I roared off into the Dorset countryside with a picnic in my rucksack, memory card in the camera and a taste for adventure. We arrived in the car park of Badbury rings raring to go.

Badbury rings is a beautiful spot. An old Iron Age fort overlooking Dorset country. The inner sanctum is crowded with beech trees and sun dappled paths. I felt like we were entering a fantasy novel by Charles De Lint, I'm sure if we had waited long enough a spirit guide would have appeared and asked us to choose a path and follow our destiny.

However, we had many miles to tread and so we began the journey proper on a long roman road, the sun high in the sky and feeling like we were in the beginning of the movie 'Stand By Me.'

What followed was one of the best days I've had in a long long long time. We spent a perfect June afternoon bumbling about the countryside. We got lost a little, adventured through fields of barley and fields of 'hmmm - not sure what it is, beans maybe? peas? cabbage?' that grew higher than our heads and were splashed with the red splatter of poppies. We dabbled in streams as clear as air and as cold as ice. We ate lunch in the shade of an old 13th Century church. We followed a river that twisted and turned through meadows rich with flowers and dragonflies and we waded through a river-ford when we realised we'd missed the stile.



We arrived back in Badbury Rings car park just before 5pm and there was a flurry of activity as we all changed in or around the car. It was time to take G to his wedding reception.

The evening was spent getting lost down country lanes, chatting in pubs and politely gate crashing weddings to semi-dance to a fantastic Gypsy Jazz Band.

A wonderful wonderful day.




And yes, I have continued my morning papers. Next post will be revealing some of the tasks I've been working through this week.

For now though, here's a quote to ponder...

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."

Until next time,

rb x