…So here is my invitation to you…step off the modern treadmill for a while and open yourself up to the sensual pleasures of making art. Take the time to experience the texture of handmade paper. Relish the sensation….

Do you have that enviable feeling of ‘belonging’ somewhere? A deep sense of rootedness - to a place, a community, a calling in life…?

People who have lived in same place for a very long time fill me with awe and wonder, and a kind of benevolent jealousy that is born out of a longing for belonging. And also the knowledge that it would never be the life for me because as a nomad you can never say you actually belong anywhere.

But the yearning for ‘home’ is very strong…

I needed to understand my own experience first, and started to think about it. How was I going to be able to convey the sense of awe that came over me when I first saw her? How do you describe the instant you first set eyes on someone and have a flash of knowing that you have an intangible connection, that you have fallen in love? It's hard enough to find words to describe those feelings. How to do it visually?

I know I'm not the first, nor will I be the last to have found inspiration in an ancient tree, but when you're in the presence of something that has lived for centuries, and wears its scars with dignity you can only wonder. I knew that I had found my muse.

‘The difficulty is in trying to relate the imagined world to the authorised version of it, which is secure and which people don’t want to have disturbed.’ (artist Tom Fairs)

…when we are all the time being driven by our pasts or projecting into the future, we are holding ourselves in a constant state of fear, though we may not recognise it.

Breaking out of that state by focussing on the Now is the challenge. Perhaps, without realising it, this is why so many have turned to creative pursuits in the current climate.

…..For a nano-second a tiny arc of sun appeared above the dark line of the land, and then it was gone again….

But that long-anticipated moment was also the moment of certainty fo the people - once again they had turned the corner from dark to light.

You could call it a moment of enlightenment…..

As I was pondering the question of a subject for this new post on my new website I decided to look back over things that I have written before to seek inspiration. It didn’t take long to reach a decision. It seems to me that what the world needs now is a leader with the integrity, charisma and wisdom of Nelson Mandela who led his country to freedom after decades of incarceration. I wrote this post originally shortly after his death in 2013 but, at a time when everyone’s freedom is seriously under threat, and hatred and mistrust are driving us apart, it feels utterly appropriate to repost it again today, because it is Freedom that is under investigation here and we could do worse than to re-visit Nelson Mandela’s legacy as a leader

It’s probably best not to think about it too much before you jump into the unknown. Desperation or despair, or both, are usually what drive us to hurl ourselves out of our comfort one. People often call it courage. In my case it was fear - fear of staying stuck in a place that was driving me to tears on a daily basis.

It all begins with an idea. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.