I always reread my last post before writing the next because sometimes the same things are washing around my head and I want to write with continuity rather than repetition.
I think Christmas, and these very short winters days provide a sort of annual root-deepening feeling. I gather my family around me, I cook and bake, clean and tidy my home ready to receive friends and family. I put up the tree, wrap presents and think about them all. Our first born son has moved closer to home in the last few weeks and it is wonderful to have his family within a five mile radius, with our second son the other side of that circle… no more three hour drives up the M1! My brother and I are now at the top of the tree… no parents or parents in law to care for for many years now. There is a sadness, but also a joy in gathering the younger family around us, and we now have a toddler to watch over, and be besotted with.
I find it difficult to think about work at this time of year, although there is a small corner of my brain ticking away on ideas for January, like a slow cooker … smells eminate, but they don’t need attention just yet… and I am reading still, in between the domesticity. It’s a time for nourishment, not output.
Although I do have one important job I want to tackle over the holiday, possibly on Boxing Day when everyone else is out at a football match: I have taken over the care of Kate Murdoch’s 10 x 10 cabinet. See it here on Kate’s website…
http://www.katemurdochartist.com/10×10.html
Kate is moving studios so doesn’t have space, so I’ve adopted it, on the understanding that if the call comes, she can use it again!
So it’s been installed in my sitting room in Stourbridge, in the state that it left her London studio.
So on Boxing Day, I think I’ll give it a coat of paint. I’ll listen to some new music, and patiently make may way through all 100 apertures. I feel it’s an honour and privilege to give it a home, this backbone of an important art work. I’m very much looking forward to dressing it with my own objects!
(I won’t be asking visitors to swap, that’s Kate’s job!)
This feels like nourishment too…
Thank you so much Kate ♥️
