These two posts were read by someone in Germany this week.
When I look at my website stats I often wonder what causes people to read something from years ago, and not what is current. Maybe they come back later, I don’t get that much detail!
But I’m always curious, so I re-read those odd posts to find out what I was writing about. On more than one occasion this has been useful, and this is no exception!
Two posts from four years ago nearly… what they show is that although my output is all over the place: drawing, textiles, sound, writing, ceramics… my thought patterns remain constant. What this means to me this morning though is that my plan for the year ahead is spot on… go back to the woods of my childhood and explore. Those woods and that childhood (that I have actually come to see as a little unusual) made me the artist that I am, the parent I have been, and the grandparent I am becoming. I’m keen to see this all from a different angle. I will never tire of it because it’s how I am made. The political opinions I have and the subsequent decisions I make are rooted in those trees and the freedoms I had and grew up with. Sometimes taking them for granted, and sometimes being reminded by my parents that such freedoms don’t happen automatically. They need to be defended and fought for sometimes.
So as I grew to be nearly 65… the work I do now, in my head at least, is more sharply political. But it retains an element of playfulness hopefully.
I don’t know to what extent and effect these factors are communicated to my audience, but we shall see what the year brings…
Elena Thomas 