Goodies in the post!

Just a quick post about some of the lovely things that have turned up in my PO box recently.  We don't have a mail box, we live too far out of town for the Postie, so Hubby brings home parcels every morning after work.  Quite often, they're bike bits (hmmm, ANOTHER package of mysterious bolts and washers and things completely unknown to me!).  But sometimes, they're for me!

Delicious things from Hedgespoken.  I can't help myself, I've followed Rima's blog and loved her stunning work for close to 10 years now, and my first hearing of 'Sometimes a Wild God' a few years ago got me completely hooked on Tom's magical poetry.

I've also been a fan of Karen Davies' work, and her lovely blog, for years too.  I've been coveting her beautiful hare hangers for so long.  But I can't quite afford one at the moment, and time zones being what they are, I'm never awake when she lists new ones and they're always gone by the time I next check.  So I bought a set of hare post cards instead, and a couple of lovely notebooks.  

Serenity Press, a local (well, Perth based) publishing company produced this lovely book by Kate Forsyth and Lorena Carrington.  My favourite story (probably no surprises here) is 'The Singing, Springing Lark', another Beauty and the Beast tale.

I will get on shortly, and post an update on where I am with 'The Wolf Bride'.  I'm starting to get panicky!  I've realised that essentially I have 4 weeks before I have to be ready, and I've got soooooo much still to do!

This is not a Wolf Poem...

Last week, I went along to a local writing group meeting, catching up with old friends and meeting some new.  I brought some 'wolf poems' along to read, but then wasn't sure if they would make sense to anyone who hadn't seen 'The Wolf Bride' and I didn't want to spend ten minutes explaining.  So I pulled another poem out, nothing to do with wolves at all, and said, "I'll read this one, this is not a wolf poem."  And another wonderful writer present, Renee Pettit-Schipp, thought that was the title!  And we had a chuckle, and Renee said she still wanted to hear the poem called "This Is Not a Wolf Poem", because it was a great title.  So it's been on my mind the last few days, and early yesterday morning (about 2:30am, as it usual!), words started to come.  Of course, it IS a wolf poem.  This time it's the girl speaking...oh dear, is that now going to be the next part...it never ends!  It's still not quite there yet, but I like where it's going.

This is Not a Wolf Poem

This is not a wolf poem.

For there are no words that I can bring to heel

To make you hear

The pulsing of his heart

Beneath my ear 

As we lie skin to skin.

I have no spelling skill

To fetch the smell of him,

Mouth bloodied with a winter kill

Each hair on his back frost-kissed in white

Breath hanging in cloud

Each silent footfall

Falling soft,

Into this small closed space

As you sit

Book balanced on knee, half-empty

Cup at your side.

I have no consummate tricks of the tongue

That you might lie back

And rest your head upon

His warm and gently undulating flank,

As eyes and thoughts drift lazily up

To seek blue nothingness between

New green-gold leaves in Spring.

This is not a wolf poem.

For I can no more easily conjure him,

Captured and pinned

To white page with sharp, black marks,

Than I can sing an ocean

In a line of wet, blue ink.

© Christina Cairns 2018

There are a few lines I'm still not happy with, so more tinkering will ensue.

There are also new pictures and experiments, but time is flying on fast and I've got to get everything sorted because I've got less than a month and a half before this happens!  And I'm squeezing in a new song and a new bit of story, so I have to learn that off by heart as well.

I took the drawing I posted last time, and turned it into a pen and ink painting.

Then I thought it might be an interesting experiment to add the text of the poem to it.

Then I thought this might be a nice style to use for illustrations for a little 'Wolf Poems' book.  I made a book a few months ago, in a very different style with only one illustration, but I don't think that style sat well with the rest of the 'project'.  I think this works better.  Just need to do a whole bunch more now!

Some poem editing, and drawing ideas.  I think quite a few of the Wolf Poems need to be edited and reworked before I make the book.

Another illustration...without text.

And with text.

Playing with paper stock ideas.  I think a heavy off-white will suit best, somewhere between the top two.

Simple, very rough, set ideas.  But I don't know if this will work, and I'm not sure where/how much space I will have in the venue yet, so all a bit up in the air at the moment.

Thought it might be interesting to show the paper cut-out, without the light, to show how it's constructed.  Again, very rough idea, using old cardboard.  

Working on the large visual journal which I will have on display.  I'd got to the point where I was feeling more and more restricted and was over-thinking far too much, so a couple days ago, I decided I needed to have a few pages of just pure play.

And then that very afternoon, my biggest munchkin (who recently turned 17...how did that happen!?), who is also my 'wolf bride' model, came home with a self portrait scribbled in the corner of her History homework (I think the teachers are well used to my girls drawing on EVERYTHING they do), and it's an almost perfect fit!  How amazing!

School holidays are coming up, so it will be very crowded in the shed all day, everyday, so I imagine there will be lots of cries of, "Mum!  Can you move your STUFF please, I've got homework!"  So I may not get a whole lot of painting/drawing done.........

Hounds and trees and the Wolf Bride.

A quick pop-in post on latest bits and bobs.  Been doing some more scribbling and writing.  I'm at the stage now where I need to find a space where I can actually fool about with my vague set ideas to see if they actually will look/work like they do in my head (and as this is almost always a 'No', or at best a 'Not exactly', it's an important step).  I'm also beginning to practice running through the story and adding in some movement/mime and possibly some other more 'theatre-y' bits.  Nothing too complicated, I don't want it to become a piece of theatre and no longer an act of storytelling, but a few little things to enhance the experience would be nice.  Especially things that are simple, easy, and do not require a lot of complicated tech, or other people, because I would like this to become something that can travel without too much difficulty.

Firstly though, and most importantly, here's a Fergus photo.  As it's been winter here, and we only have a little fire, my poor boy does something feel the cold.  It's quite amazing how small he can make himself when he curls up.  I'm not even sure which bit is which in this photo, but he's got his blankie on, so he's happy!

Pics of a tree.  Because trees are cool and wonderful, and this is an especially cool and wonderful tree.  I think it's an old fig tree.  I just loved the structure of it, the gorgeous intertwining branches.  It looks like something out of Fangorn.  I might try and draw it, when I'm feeling particularly patient.

New scribbles in my "Wolf Bride' exhibition journal, and some more simple experiments with light and paper cutouts.  Still not sure if I will use this idea or not, perhaps it's just adding unnecessary fancy stuff in that only complicates...I will keep playing for bit longer and see.

A different 'Beauty'! The Wolf Bride...and Other Tales...Tails?!

I've been busy scribbling, drawing, writing...and painting too.  'Brave New Works' happens on the first weekend of November, and I'm in for the extended, deeper, richer version of 'The Wolf Bride', and decided that while I was at it, I might sneak in some other fairytale bits and bobs, and call it 'The Wolf Bride and Other Tales.'  I've also been experimenting with set/installation ideas, and refining what/how I want to perform this time.  Definitely not stuck in a chair, I want to be up and moving, though I'll have to sit down for the songs.  So I'll need to 'choreograph' movements and mime, and work out how to move from 'singer in chair' to 'actor on stage' fluidly and gracefully!  I recently had the great good fortune to be invited to join a wonderful bunch of creative local women, with arts practices eclectic and wide ranging, in a week long workshop with award winning dancer and choreographer, Clare Dyson.  What a brilliant time we had, with serious play, improvising and nutting out performance ideas around the notion of 'Object as Metaphor'.  And what a joy to spend a whole week with my head in that creative place.  So I've got ideas brewing!  And in the meantime, new paintings!

'Sleeping Beauty' is emerging.

She was going to have bare feet, but then I decided I needed some more red in there 

(and I'm not so great at toes!)

She's a very flexible 'Sleeping Beauty'!  I'm really pleased with the climbing rose twisting out of her hair, creating the thorns that envelope the castle.

I decided it was high time Oberon got his Titania back, as I sold the first one.  I also decided it was high time he stopped looking at younger women, and had a mature Titania more suited to his own age!  

Base drawing (found a photo of a lovely older woman on the web for reference, then changed it around a bit, but it always ends up evolving and morphing in the creation anyway).

Base drawing completed, graphite on canvas.

Acrylic over-painting, face almost complete.

Almost done, bit more detail to do on her hair.

Titania (II) complete.  I don't think she's going to take any nonsense from Oberon!

My Wolf is still speaking, new poems still coming.  I'm not sure how/if I'm going to incorporate these into the performance in November, it may be better to leave them as something the audience can read independently of the performance, in hand lettered poems on the walls, or little books of wolf poems for sale, perhaps.  Here's a new one:

In soft black earth

her heel's imprint,

a fallen shard of sky

in bright spring rain.

One paw on either side

I stoop to drink

the white clouds drifting

in her wake.

I think I will also have some of my little 'Snow White to the Woodsman' booklets in the exhibition, so the next painting might be Snow White.  But I still have lots of 'Wolf Bride' things to do, including one more big painting, a possible new song, and extended narrative, so we'll see.  I shall be busy!

Please remember that everything on this blog is © Christina Cairns, unless otherwise credited.