Fables...am I ready!?

I think I'm ready...I hope I'm ready!  There are always butterflies, but I'm learning to trust that I DO know it, even when I'm convinced I don't.  Last year, I was utterly beside myself before the first performance, absolutely sure that I wouldn't remember anything and it would be an unmitigated, and hugely embarrassing, disaster.  And it went fine, I remembered everything, and the audience was gratifyingly enthusiastic.  So fingers crossed, the same will happen again.  As long as my children don't pass anything nasty on to me (next week is fine), they've both been sick!  My 'little one' (inverted commas because in no physical sense is she 'little' anymore, now being considerably taller than me), is home sick again today, and has been since last Thursday, poor love.  Doctor says it's a virus, so nothing but rest and lots of fluids, and trying not to worry about what she might be missing at school, will help.  At least it's sunny today, though chilly.

We've had some remarkable weather lately.  We're fine, but last week there were serious wild fires in the area, and storm warnings, all at the same time.  One home has been lost, and thousands of hectares of bush burnt out. We've had some unseasonably warm weather, including warm evenings, which is very unusual this close to winter, and wind and wild weather, but not everyone got the rain we got (we're on the south west side of a hill, facing the Great Southern Ocean, so we usually get rain even when people 10 mins away don't).  Warm nights and lots of wind is a recipe for disaster when there's still so much fire fuel lying around.  Prescribed burns got out of hand, and locals who should have known better lit bonfires to burn off, and things went rapidly pear-shaped, with major roads being shut.  Beloved informed me yesterday that our big tank is only a quarter full, which is a bit worrying this time of the year.  We've had rain, but not the usual autumn rains which should have filled the tank up much higher than that by now.  We'll need some serious weeks of serious rain if we're to have enough to see us through summer.

'Fables' music.

Just a quick post.

'Fables' is coming along, though I keep getting distracted by 'The Wolf Bride', but that's OK, they can inform each other!

Here is my original song about a strange and uncanny encounter.  I'll be performing it as part of 'Fables' in June at the Denmark Festival of Voice...although not with the harmonies (the wonders of multi-tracking!)



Note: there's a few seconds delay at the beginning, but I haven't worked out how to get rid of it without a lot of fiddling and phaffing in Garage Band, so I'll leave it for the moment...a job for another day!

The Wolf speaks...?

All along, I've left it to audiences to decide for themselves...does he speak?  Somehow, I imagine him, even when he's a man, as silent, speaking with eyes and expression, touch and gesture only, and it being enough.  It was enough for me.

But yesterday, in the car on the way into town (and luckily, Beloved was driving, or it might have been a bit awkward!) a poem in His voice came to me (or at least, the first stirrings of a poem), and I had to dig out notebook and pencil, and very messily scribble it down as the car bumped its way along South Coast Hwy.  I'm not sure it's entirely a poem in the Wolf's voice though, perhaps more like a poor translation?  For how could English ever encompass the inner thoughts of a Wolf?  Or of a man who is Wolf more often than man?  But then today a few more little snippets floated in.  So I wonder if there might be a book of poems from Wolf to Girl, in the new The Wolf Bride.  They seem to be following a simple pattern, short, single thoughts.  I'm probably a very poor translator, being a woman who does not actually 'speak' Wolf, but I'll do my best.  Who knows, they may not go anywhere, but I'm enjoying them right at the moment.

Some snippets from my journal...in no particular logical order...

25 August 2017

THOUGHTS ON COLOUR SIGNIFICANCE 

White:  Obvious for all the snow references, but also because in practical terms, white is a good colour to showcase artwork against.  Easier to make/get white stuff.  Old sheets, white paper etc.  I'm in two minds about the idea of leaves and roses made out of scraps of text.  I love making stuff like that, but: 

 a) I don't have much time  

b)  Do I need to spell it out all the time?  If I just have scraps of torn text/paper, which will rustle and can picked up and thrown, they will 'read' as leaves if I'm speaking about leaves, they don't need to be 'leaf' shaped.

 The idea of the rose is significant, it plays an important part in the original story (though it's an illogical part), and I wanted to include it in my story, using it a bit differently, and I have, and I'm pleased with how I've incorporated it, I think it works.  But do I need to actually have 'roses' in any obvious form in the Visual component?  I like the idea, but at the same time wonder it it's a bit 'naff'!

White is also innocence.  White/snow also prefigures death, or possible/almost death, in my story.  White is a kind of silencing blanket, like snow.  When spring/new life comes, greenness and sound (birds, streams) break through.

1 September 2017

-  Remembered from old TV series "Robin of Sherwood", and apparently a historical fact, that a 'wolfshead' was another name for an outlaw.  Presumably both had a price on their heads, and both could be killed with impunity.   

-  Thinking of a smaller painting, same style as large, for "The World Has Changed".  I'm thinking of her as a kind of witch figure, a mad old woman everyone is afraid of.  Thinking again of the idea of a mask, something she wears for a kind of shamanic shift into 'wolf mind'.  Is she looking through it in the painting, or holding/carrying it?  It is her link to her lost love, and also to the wild, non-human world.  A way of seeing the world through wolf/non-human eyes.  A different point of view, a different kind of consciousness.  A mask like this would not be strictly representational, may be more about essence/feeling when it is worn, rather than what it looks like on the outside.  She can't see what it looks like when she's wearing it, it's how it makes her feel that's important.

The odd inconveniences of 'the company of beasts'!

And some gratuitous photos of the culprit!

Fables is coming along as well, though I'm still at the first draft stage of each story, so I have WAY too much material at the moment, and need to seriously cull.  I've been fiddling around with music too, so here's a little of it.  I've always wanted to set Keats' poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci to music, but it never seemed to quite come together.  Ah, but then I got the bouzouki, and suddenly something started to emerge.  I don't think it's there yet, still need to do some fiddling...maybe it needs a bridge to break it up a bit, I'm not sure, but it's a start.  At the moment I'm planning on it appearing in Fables (in the 'dangerous faeries' section), but it may have to be discarded depending on how the culling process shapes up.  Of course, I won't be able to play more than one instrument...or sing a harmony with myself, in a live performance (if only THAT were possible!), but it's always fun to have a bit of a play in Garage Band.

Fables Notebook

'The Wolf Bride' sings again...

Well, I've got a looooong drive ahead of me tomorrow!  Five hours in the car (in dodgy weather too), heading up to Perth, to attend the Puppetry Workshop at Spare Parts Puppet Theatre for the next two weeks.  Luckily I'll have Lisa Knapp (The Hidden Stream) to accompany me on the cd player, and others I haven't quite decided on yet...hmmmm, some Gjallarhorn perhaps.

But, possibly foolishly, I thought, "I know, while I'm up in the Big Smoke, I'll see if I can squeeze in a house concert."  So with the help of some friends, I've got one organised.  I've never done a house concert before, so this is all a slightly nerve wracking learning experience.  But, I don't want The Wolf Bride to get packed away in a box in a corner of my mind, never to see the light again, so I have to start somewhere.

So it's all happening on 5th August.  Some original songs with the lovely Ginny to start off with, then into The Wolf Bride as the main event.  Fingers crossed my brain won't be a puddle of goop by the end of an intensive week of puppetry, and I'll be able to remember it all!

Here's the Soundcloud taster/promo again too, just in case someone pops along who hasn't been here before and wonders what it's all about!

Living Testament keeps popping up. Just found this...

Busily searching for something else, I came upon this article written for the Country Arts Network WA.  This is just a screenshot, if you'd like to read it all, the link to it is here.

At the bottom of the article there is a Vimeo clip.  I don't know who put it together, but it's rather lovely, and my beautiful girl features rather a lot. The songs used are "Dust Beneath My Feet", written and performed by yours truly (first rough iPhone recording, this one), and "Don't Be Afraid Of My Power", lyrics from 'Thunder: Perfect Mind', from the Nag Hammadi Gospels, music by the lovely Chrystal Rogers, performed by Chrystal with me providing harmony vocals. Also a very rough iPhone recording, Chrystal sang it for us during one of our rehearsals, and I added the harmony vocals later using Garage Band. Both these songs also appear on our CD, now beautifully recorded by the lovely Pete Grandison. 

Here's the Vimeo!

Denmark Arts Council's Brave New Works: Living Testament from Country Arts WA on Vimeo.

The Wolf Bride finds her way into the world...

Well, it all happened on the weekend, and despite being a nervous wreck on Saturday morning, it went beautifully.  So many lovely people with so many lovely comments, the venue was pretty full both times and by about twenty minutes in you could have heard a pin drop.  I don't know where else in the world I would have had the opportunity to do this at such a wonderful festival, but here in my own wonderful little town.  

And what a glorious weekend.  I saw so much amazing music from local groups through to international acts, spent time with my beautiful girls wandering about town and dipping into the smorgasbord of aural delights that was on offer.  And the weather was glorious too, beautiful sunshiney days and crisp evenings, a perfect winter holiday.  There's not much point in me trying to describe all the acts I saw, so I'll just add the link to the Denmark Festival of Voice online program so you can peruse the delights for yourself.  And all in a small country town of about 6000 people.

We received the CDs for the Living Testament just in time to make one of the showcase performances into a CD launch.  I had great fun belting out 'Rahab Rock!' again, up onstage with a mic this time, happily satisfying any long buried ambitions to be a 'rock chick'.

And there's my beautiful girl!

The Wolf Bride also got the 'sand printer' treatment!

And if all that wasn't exciting enough, I applied for a two week Puppetry Intensive Course, at the wonderful Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, and was accepted.  Cariad Astles from the UK is coming out to run the second week, so I'm thrilled and excited to be getting the chance to follow up on another passion.  Maybe I'll be able to incorporate puppetry into future Wolf Bride performances!

So I'm looking into the possibility of holding a house concert up in Perth while I'm there.  And there might be a few more opportunities in the near future down here in Denmark before then too, I had lots of requests from people wanting to know when it might be happening again.

Phew!  I'm still recovering from it all!

A little music...

Just a little something to listen to, to make up for not posting more map book pictures as I promised.  I will get to it, but the last few weeks have been very busy, emotionally and physically, with biggest munchkin graduating from primary school, getting ready for high school (she might be ready, but I'm definitely not!), school plays, school camps, last minute recording projects for my music course...and more!  I'm looking forward to the holidays.

Both of these songs were recorded at the Denmark campus of the Great Southern Institute of Technology.  I've had a wonderful year there, so will be back for more next year.


A poem written for the map book, which then became a little book, and then became a song.  Mythological inspiration of course.





And another one with mythological inspiration.  I found a book of short stories about Trickster characters in my local library.  In the introduction it warned that most cultures that have a Trickster in their folklore suggest the best way to avoid him (and occasionally her) causing chaos in your life, is to never, EVER draw his attention to yourself.  So I wrote a song about him!  This may well be the first happy sounding song I've ever written.  My awesome classmates provided my backing music...I just sang!




With a bit of luck, I will get some more map book pics up before Christmas.  But if not, please everyone have a safe and joyful holiday season.  I sincerely hope next year brings the world more joy than this year has of late.

How life in a small country town turns out to be BUSY!

Yes...I know...It's been quite a while.  But I promise you, I haven't been lounging around in my PJs and ugg boots in front of the fire all winter (just some of it).  I've been BUSY!

Big things are happening.  Firstly, there's this...probably the biggest.

We have bought a small slice of paradise, two and a half acres to be exact, and are now in the midst of getting shed quotes, fencing (pulling out old and putting in new), water tank arrangements, and house designs, and all that goes with building from scratch on a blank canvas.  Not something we've done before, so it's all a bit scary.  But exciting.  At this stage, we're planning on a strawbale/mudbrick combination, but nothing is settled.  It's going to be a BIG couple of years.

Then there was more music as a student at Tech, more gigs, even some recording.  I even got to play a shiny black electric guitar and pretend to be a rock chick for about 5 minutes (though, sadly, I think those days are long past for me really!).  

And for the last few months, I have been busy making a book.  A book of maps, though not ordinary maps.  More maps of the mind, of the imagination, maps of thoughts.  As part of the 'Brave New Works' arts festival held here in Denmark every year, an exhibition titled 'Everything is a Map' was held, and so, silly me, I decided to create a book of maps.  I didn't realise quite how much it would take over my life, and for the last couple of weeks I've done not much other than live, breathe and (not) sleep maps.  Indeed, I didn't actually sleep at all the night before it had to be handed in, which was actually a week and a half AFTER the deadline, but thankfully, I was granted a special dispensation and allowed to let that pass by, and I scribbled the last few words on the last page before rushing into town to drop it off as the exhibition was being set up, to open the following day.  Yes, just a little tight! So tight in fact, that I didn't have time to take any photos.  So I have a few 'teaser' pics that I took of some of the first pages, but I promise to post photos of the whole book when the exhibition is over and the book comes home.  But, PHEW! what a job!

There were also walks along the glorious beach at Greens Pool, looking for maps in rock and sand and sea, as the sun sank down in the west, and where, it seems, 'X' may actually mark the spot.

As part of my music assessment, and as an extra submission for the map project, I recorded a song version of a poem I had written a few years ago.  My friend and fellow student played lovely cello.

And last but not least, as I remembered that today is Remembrance Day, I have posted a song I wrote about my own Granddad's experiences in the Great War, and my feelings when I visited the battlefields in Belgium where he fought.  It took me quite a few goes when I first recorded this, to get through it without having a bit of a blub, so it is very rough (I will try and record it again when I have time).  But I managed to sing it at a Spirit of Peace community event held in town last weekend, and my mum was in the audience to hear it.  And I didn't cry.  It's called 'Passchendaele.'