IT’S CHRISTMAS!

Christmas is in sight, don’t ask me which actual day it falls on I just know it is soon and once I close Number Seven on Christmas Eve, that is when I know the relaxing can start.

The run up to Christmas can be a hectic one, it is easy to be swept along and place unrealistic pressures on our shoulders to make it all just so. However there are days during the holidays, those special lull days of simply walking, reading, eating and talking or more specifically planning – of looking back at the past 12 months and of mapping out your expectations for the coming year. I love these family discussions, they are some of the most inspiring that we have.

The holidays also give us afternoons for making, for writing and sketch booking by the fire; fashionably now called ‘Slow Time.’ Sunday mornings this year have become poetry writing days in the Jelley house – who would have thought it! When I joined Chris on his recent Poetry Pin walk it crossed my mind that I had no real sense or idea that when the project began in March that here we would be, at the close of 2014 having recorded, photographed and documented ours and other participants responses to the new build at Hinkley Point, and more surprisingly finding it a catalyst for our own creative writing, sometimes inspiration comes from where you least expect it. When Chris talked about the project initially, made those tentative plans and sort funding many months, if not now years ago, it was such a ‘what if’ and you never fully visualize where it will all lead, if anywhere.

SAW’s Momentum project for this year’s festival is currently open for submissions. Now is the time to think maybe this is where your work will naturally lead you , and yet still be surprised come this time next year where that creative journey has actually taken you. Some artistic practices insure that you know the exact outcome when you are in the making process, dictated or constrained by  the cost and materials involved. Others are more intuitive, you may have an idea for a painting or drawing in your head but it will evolve and change whilst the brush is in your hand. When designing textile prints I would often sketch a little thumbnail to the side before starting but more often that not the finished design would be quite different. All creative journeys are as individual as the artist and it will be very interesting to see how and who wishes to tackle and draw inspiration from the theme of Momentum. More in depth details concerning this and other current SAW projects can be found here

These Winter days of planning are little thumbnail sketches for our lives…

I wish you all a creative 2015 and hope you are looking forward to supporting, celebrating or being part of the arts in Somerset this coming year.

Published on December 20, 2014 // Davina Jelley