Women, Walking and
Wellbeing
Last
Monday I held the first of my walking workshops. This one, ‘Women, Walking and
Wellbeing’, looks at our attitude to walking, here in the UK, and includes exercises on
creative way-finding and place making and introduces the art of Psycho-geography.
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| Woman walking. |
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| Colourful and textural detective work. |
It
went well and everyone enjoyed themselves, the venue worked and the coffee and
cake was appreciated. On refection, I find that it is only when I am actually
running workshops that the content and engagement can be improved.
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| Finding landmarks. |
I
went to see Germaine Greer at a new arts venue, The Quarterhouse, in Folkestone
last week and found her talk ‘The Disappearing Woman’ interesting but quite
sombre. What I decided I would take home from the talk was a determination to
make more women visible. So, let’s get out there, get walking, see and be seen!
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| Some interesting 'clues' to navigate by. |
Everyone on my course said a main part of the enjoyment of the day was meeting
other like-minded women.This is important.
Learning by Doing
It
is through doing courses that they evolve into something quite inspiring for
both the facilitator and the participants. I have now changed the time frame
and the subsequent costs, tightened up the content, added more dates (next date
is 30/03/15) and created a workshop package for each participant to take away
with them.
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| Using modern methods and post-it notes! |
I
am away next weekend at The Eden Project in Cornwall. I am really looking forward to it,
it is a ‘Big Lunch Extras’ event and it supports people ‘to bring about
positive change in neighbourhoods right across the UK’. There will be ‘an interactive
and varied timetable of workshops, activities and inspirational speakers
alongside time to explore and network with others.’ This feels to me like the
perfect timed opportunity to participate.
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| Foreshore detail: low sun, tide running out. |
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| Foreshore, larger view. |
I
am getting a clearer vision of how my MA Design research and subsequent work is
going to evolve into a far reaching and positive ‘movement’ for many. I want my
work to be improved by attending courses and events such as this one, but I am
also keen to make a living by it. I haven’t applied for any funding yet, as the
actual vision needs to be very focused and clear on who it is for, where it
will be, what it is exactly and how it will be applied. I feel that I am so
close now.
Writing
I
am starting with a book which will be finished by early May and the writing of
it will be funded by a crowd-funding campaign. I have been researching about
crowd-funding for a while and followed some very successful ones on social
media. It is not easy but it is possible. The campaign also identifies the
market and is therefore very useful if/when approaching a publisher.
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| On of my paintings was published in last years 'Earth Pathways Diary'. |
I have
been looking at the possibilities of self-publishing too. There are many online
options; one that has been recommended to me is ‘Lulu’. The initial problem I
can see of using this ‘platform’ is that they only produce books with glossy
covers. Strangely this bothers me, I expect my book to be beautiful to look at,
I have a wealth of images that I can use which include photographs and my own
and others original artwork.
Beautiful Books
Even
when I used to get my photos developed back in the day of processing labs, I
used to prefer the matt finish over the glossy one. So I realise that the
aesthetic of the book is as important as the content, to me. I have been
looking through many of my own books at home and others in libraries recently,
pondering their shape, style, weight, layout etc.
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| Even the form of the words on the page can be evocative and beautiful. |
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| Page from a 1950's book of the countryside, showing page border detail. |
There are many that I own
because how they look appealed to me first. There are others, but few, that
have comprehensive and valuable text, but are a bit clumsy in their look.
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| One of the shop displays showing some books back in 2014. |
I
think the feel of a book and its content are both important. My friends own a
shop called ‘Number Seven’ in Dulverton, Somerset
and I know that they are persuaded by this too.
A wonderful book that I am working through at the moment. I don't know whether Number Seven stocks this one.
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| This book I know is stocked there. Such a beautiful cover. |
Their
bookshelves are full of the most exquisite books, colourful, beautiful and
precious. Davina also organises a ‘Walking Book Club’ that takes people out
into the surrounding wonderful wild countryside, to discuss the book that they
have all been reading.
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| Photo by Davina Jelley, taken at one of her walking book clubs, a couple of years ago. |
The
club is open to all, the books are available from the shop, to buy and there is
a welcoming atmosphere to all that join in.
So
next time I will blog, it will be after my Eden experience. Hopefully I will come back
inspired and enthused for setting up more local projects, engaging others and
connecting people to place.
(I completed my MA in September
2014 and recorded the last two months of it in another blog called www.thesaltwayfarer.blogspot.co.uk
Please feel free to look at
that anytime, as it is from that, that I am where I am now.)
