Back – through the unknown remembered gate

‘My work evokes our experience of boundaries, borders, intersections and connection points, where times change, come together and sections separate. These are vital in order to evaluate beginnings and endings, the microcosm and macrocosm of nature and experience. On a higher level, focusing on the life in the space between events, tunes us into the energy of growth and change.

The natural spirituality drawn from our existence in the environment is my strongest influence with evidence of past human habitation and personal development. In a harmonious celebration, my work brings the past into the Present with unique results.

Positive ‘liminality’ Love

It’s been sometime.. Life has done that thing that it does on occasions and the universe has taken me by the hand and led me ‘Over here..!’

The key to all this as I am discovering has been with me all the time. The problem is that we look outside ourselves for salvation when the answer is always within.. Having said that, sometimes it takes ‘another’ to point this out to us.

To trust ones instincts and tune into the energy that is life, that gives life, is where one cannot fail to find happiness. RIGHT HERE if we spend enough time returning to RIGHT NOW. Becoming present in every day to day situation and receptive to what the world wants to give us.

My newest sculpture PRESENCE (FLOW) for Scarborough Hospital Maple Garden – funded by HAFNEY and ACE has been installed and receiving lovely feedback. The piece aims to enable the viewer to experience true peace within the contemplation of the work. To bring a mental and physical resting place for those who find themselves using the hospital as patients, families, visitors or staff. The garden is in the early stages of development but the sculpture and the spring sunshine are really bringing about a beauty to the space. May it bring to the visitors, just what they need!

Reflecting over the past year or so – things are really picking up. Hooray!

Two weeks ago I installed another private courtyard garden commission – relating to the landscape and beautiful setting of the coastal village of Robin Hoods Bay – Rise, very pleasing as they love it! And on the same day I resited a piece from the Sculpture Garden up to newly opened The Rathwaite Hall 5* Hotel which lies in an incredible setting within a valley and newly restored historic gardens on the Whitby to Sandsend road. Special thanks to their incredibly helpful Master Gardener Steve Little. The piece, Half Eternal is quite statuesque from the huge balcony but looks much further away in photos..

Two weeks later and I’ve been recovering from a serious bad back with two days almost completely immobile.

Well I’m back and need to get back into the studio to complete another private commission –Fold. For a beautiful hidden hill garden here in Scarborough on the South Cliff. Slight drawback is that the plinth is already installed (not ideal) and is Victorian in style.. There was quite a lot of huffing and puffing during the designing but all being well it should be fired and making the lady happy in the next two weeks.

To cap that, I was approached in the summer to make a double height piece for Scarborough Hospital Maple Garden. A new garden for the enjoyment and relaxation of patients and their families as well as hospital staff on their breaks and a place where people can talk and breathe in some fresh air that flows down from the vale of Scarborough and the hill tops of Raincliffe Woods. The designs are nearly complete and I should be able to begin that next week, all being well! The working title is Flow or Ebb and Flow, it refers to the tides but also the human energy and the natural change of seasons. How often do we moan about having the wrong weather? Stuff happens – if we tune into ourselves and the natural rythms and cycles of the earth, a great deal of stress might be avoided. Note to self: stop resisting and let go! The trees aren’t sad when autumn comes… Thiswork to be installed before Xmas!

I have also taken on a large scale series of 5 mosaics for Gladstone Rd Infant School here in Scarborough. The primary of which I attended when I first arrived in the town aged 9.

I think there may be another project blog about to start for this as this one? Well it’s for the clay work. My true love.

The results of North Yorkshire Open Studios have been both uplifting and reassuring. More names added to the mailing list and more works sold by far than last year. Some commissions have come in and one newly installed. Their testimonial is worth posting here, they are so pleased with the work!

“We’ve now got all of the pieces up, and they look amazing. I really can’t get over how fantastic the sculpture in the garden looks in particular. I spent all of Sunday in the dining room with both doors open, reading Sunday papers and just gazing at the beauty of it – its truly stunning. It really does look at home and fits completely.
Thanks, Gaby, for all the love you’ve put into it. You can rest assured that it has a very happy home. I can’t telly you how chuffed we both are.”

New commissions underway for two private gardens and a charitably funded local hospital’s peaceful garden.

Works that are ‘in your face’ may be trendy but we all certainly need the inner peace in our lives, that I aim to bring with my works. It is my strong belief that;

‘each one of us has an innate desire (an aspiration) to seek happiness and to overcome suffering’. – Dalai Lama

The inner calm that I find in the making is what I can offer as it shows through to the viewer in the sculptures.

http://www.jamesrushphotography.co.uk/2011/07/26/interview-no-4-gaby-naptali/

James Rush web designer and photographer and I talk about my work, background and influences with photos by James of some of my pieces.