clogs & quotes & random thoughts


Hare Wearing New Clogs, surrounded by random findings on my workbench 


at home I wear clogs



Yesterday we woke up to greens and whites: it had snowed a little in the early hours just as we were getting used to Spring. Last week I was sunbathing in shorts! This morning a white comfy blanket lay over our landscape, it had been snowing all night. Okay then I'm going to be working in the studio. It has been difficult to stay indoors these past few weeks as temperatures rose and we enjoyed a long, dry, sunny spell. After a dreary, seemingly endless grey Winter I was overcome by Spring-fever and out and about in the garden and all over the place. As soon as covid restrictions were lifted we all became very busy all of a sudden: visiting museums, shopping, eating out, going to the cinema, visiting friends, having friends over for tea and dinner, just like before! Of course there is a war close by, but that is only a palpable reality when you listen to the radio or watch the news on the telly. It is so big I feel there is not a lot I can do, and worrying about it helps nobody. 

In our day-to-day business we carry on with our small lives. At any rate I do.

Laurie Anderson in Norton Lectures 'the reason we are here is not to suffer or work, but to have a really really really really good time.' link click here

all the other 'quotes' in this post are hers 




'.....doubt, grief are your friends.....'



'the body doesn't really know how to lie....'

Simple Dog



juxtaposition

Dancing on her new Clogs in the Falling Snow, in Town
not sure I didn't like her better in the first version, oh well I can always make another one; I do like the Simple Dog, a collage with left-over bits


'I found out the hard way that making political art can be strident or start to be a kind of propaganda, seducing you with beauty and stories & answers. It can be too easy. As an artist, I'm not trying to fix things or looking for ways to make the world a better place. Or, at least, I don't admit it in public. When people say they want to make the world a better place, I think better for who? For you and your friends? Plus I don't really like being told what to do. I think you don't even know me. Don't tell me what to do.' my italics


talking of left-over bits, I love using them for new beings



or rather, they present themselves as wanting to BE

my art is about looking and listening,

inward and then outward,

I think


Already the snow has begun to melt and has almost disappeared whilst writing this post!

Meanwhile these 2 fellas watch me as I sit at my desk and work on the laptop. For years they sat on a table in our parents' garden and we have no idea where they come from. They seem at home here, which is more than most folks have....

Life is not fair, there has never been a Garden of Eden, a magical balance, all is flux and change. Menopauze is not a problem, it's a fact of life. Instead of fighting against the inevitable, I embrace, or at least after a struggle or two, I accept and am grateful, yes Grateful for Everything.











 








Comments

Marti said…
May I join her in a dance cause she is quite fetching with her clogs. I wear clogs as well. Own two pairs, one green suede, my grand kids call these clogs, "Grandma's Elf shoes" and the other pair, black leather with a bit of a heel. Comfortable, practical and they give me a tiny bit of height which balances out the shrinking that has occurred since menopause.

Know what you mean about spring and getting out: me, well I got carried away on our first warm days, temps in the 70's F so I planted seeds in a little plot only to have it get really cold and snow two days later. Weather here in New Mexico, the coldest in the 9 years that we have been here, snowed many times last month...was waiting for snow today for April Fools day! but just got soft rain.

Life, lived with a small l and it is good, filled with simple quiet joys, sometimes angst, at the state of the world but we do what we can, not to make the world better, but to help when there is need.

The only cloth I have made since the new year is a little peace/prayer flag for Ukraine, for the brave people of Ukraine. It hangs outside, wind blowing it, snow covered it...not many know it is there or can see it but the wind knows, I know, and spirit flows...
Saskia said…
oh Marti, please do! we, she would be delighted;-)

your green suede clogs sound lovely, I myself own 3 pairs, with heels and comfy
1 green, light weight, great for warmer weather
1 black, so-called schippersklompen, or skipper clogs, though I cannot imagine wearing them on a boat, clonking around on the decks!
1 pair of regular black clogs, a size too large, as they belonged to my mama and of course I kept them, and wear them
our pup Viggo likes them too, too much in fact as the black ones all have chips where he chewed on them, grrrrr, I call him The Terminator
my husband promises me he is training him to be a well-behaved dog, ha!
Nancy said…
The cut-out-creatures are really something! Adding that extra dimension helps them come alive! Yours and Marti's clog stories remind me of when my daughter was a tween, and dancing at our local studio...we searched high and low and found her some clogs, something the girls were into when slipping their tights footed feet into a shoe when racing off for class. It was a thing. I had those for years, even after she'd grown and left. I finally parted with them when they no longer fit me too. Anyway, your bits of living shared here make for a brighter world. Thank you.
Saskia said…
just the act of giving self permission to cut and use the figures in different ways has offered me room for more experiments on paper Nancy;-)
Liz A said…
I read this "When people say they want to make the world a better place, I think better for who?" and laughed, as I just wrote almost exactly that in a comment on the next post (I am reading backwards, or blog-wards of course) ... and so I would amend it to this: "I will endeavor in some small way not to bring more harm to the world today"
Saskia said…
haha Liz, isn't she, Laurie I mean, just brilliant that way, making one laugh ánd think at the same time; me thinks your proposed endeavour is a valiant one

tungsten

tungsten

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