The Frugal Kitchen
The sight of a fridge that has little else but ends and rinds and vegetable on their last legs (well almost!) strangely, satisfies me greatly, when it comes to making something to eat. I am much bolder and more inventive when I have to search through the remnants of the last weeks or fortnights shop. I end up by cooking something that I have never cooked before, this often means eating dispirit combinations of fodder but it is a little more interesting then having the same old reliable small selection again and again! Luckily I had some shallots hanging in the kitchen since I pulled them from the garden in the summer and some garlic that was starting to grow from cloves that I put into ground hoping they would grow into big bulbs of garlic. If only I could remember what I cooked!
On a memorable note, but not a gastronomic one! One day, while my Husband and I were walking the Camino de Santiago, it was February so many of the villages were closed down; that is to say that to a passing hungry walker there was NADA! We were so hungry for a couple of days that when we arrived at yet another shut down village we walked around the village searching for anything we could eat. February is a bad time for this! When we walked in the Summer we found lots of fruit and nuts. My eyes were out on sticks, to my delight I found a couple of onions someone had thrown into a ditch! Outer skins removed they were the main ingredient of our soup for dinner! We were staying in a little Refugio or hostel where some previous pilgrims had left about 10 straws of dried spaghetti and one or two other tiny morsels of food, these with the onion and some rosemary we found, I made an edible but quite disgusting watery soup! I did taste very strongly of rosemary and was very watery but it was hot and got us through the night. I remember we even decorated that Albergue with some art, I wonder is it still there!
James walking the Camino de Santiago, somewhere in Rioja, in February 2005
The Camino Years
Mixed Media on wall paper scrolls, Marianne Potterton 2006
Mixed Media Scrolls on walls paper, Marianne Potterton 2006
“Stars Swimming Dancing” Mixed Media on wall paper, Marianne Potterton 2006
“Transparent Woman” Indigo pigment and graphite on wall paper Marianne Potterton 2006
“Love Unity” pigment and black corn dye on wall paper Marianne Potterton 2005
We had a few interesting years living on the Camino de Santiago. We were looking after pilgrims who were walking and cycling or occasionally riding a horse. This is where I started to make scrolls using wall paper. We were renovating an old Adobe “mud” house, while creating temporary camping Albergues and herb gardens and some time based art pieces along the way. More to come soon!
Remembering to Soften my Gaze
My days of meditating have come to a stop, for the moment anyway. Doing something everyday without a break can get a bit much sometimes. I don’t like relaying on meditation to keep calm and aware, though it was great and I will probably take it up again today, after saying that! One of the tools that I found helpful was to soften my focus, this immediately relaxes my facial muscles and in turn the rest of me.
When we are making visual art or viewing it, our eyes go in and out of focus. Sometimes I like to paint or draw with my eyes totally closed. When we close our eyes our other senses become more sensitive. When we create art we don’t just use our sight even though it is very visual, we allow the other parts of us to be expressed in a visual way. Things often appear in my art work that my conscious mind has had no idea of at all about, but sometimes a while later I can see what it was about! It is all very very weird and spooky !! I wonder what the art made today will reveal in the years to come.
Happy Halloween to you all!
Look The Moon Is Out!
I listen to some Reggae music, it is so great! “They say that the earth is spinning around, I say the world upside down” Joe Higgs.
Sunset from the Secret Gallery, looking at the Aran Islands, Photograph Marianne Slevin
A Lovely little Shadow! photograph by Marianne Slevin October 2009
Creative Anytime
How do I fit the creative hour or two into my day? many people say. Well it can start anytime anywhere, you don’t need to have a studio or lonely garret to make art. I am not staying that it does not help, but it is not essential. I am not saying that this doodle in pancake batter is great or even good art, but it is practice in allowing the creative process into daily life, it is a start. Yesterday while I was weeding the garden I practiced being more playful with my weeding method, I would have looked quite peculiar to any an lookers, I am sure. Making art can have many elements involved, basically the whole of the person or people who are making it. Being mindful and being playful are two of the element that come to mind but everyone’s list will be different.
You don’t have to call yourself an artist to let some creative play into your day.
