Menokreatikkul; Cultural Cultivation

The human mind is amazingly elastic. Like elastic, if we are not careful of its needs, it can atrophy, solidify... It requires exercise just as all other parts of our bodies do. One of the amazements of nature is that, unlike your standard elastic band, the human mind is limitless in its stretch. I am of the opinion that to not use this incredible ability is to thwart some of the purpose of living at all. There is immense gratitude towards my parents who instilled in me and my siblings the thirst for that stretch, to keep adding new knowledge, discovering the new, admiring the old, and be ourselves, creators. 

You all know by now that my interests range quite widely, but there are some dominant threads... and without doubt, arts and crafts is one of the longest and strongest. It is one of the threads that binds me and Mac1 so strongly.

In the recent visit to Edinburgh, we did visit the exhibition of new work by one of our favourite contemporaries, Paul Furneaux... There wasn't one piece in this show that either Mac1 or I would reject! The one piece that was in my budget and of a size that would suit The Grey was, of course, already snapped up... I compensated by buying the catalogue.

We had a bit of a fan-thrill when the artist himself arrived in the gallery! He was accompanied by a couple who were clearly up for buying, and it was a delight to hear him discuss the works with them. Eavesdropping! I have learned that Paul is having an exhibition at Drum Castle (he's an Aberdeenshire lad), so I am working out a timetable that will enable me to be back up that way before the end of October.

Now, those paying attention will know that Mac1 is very artistic, her current focus being on printworks and collage. She is one who does not know the meaning of STOP. It's all go, go, go with her. One of her obsessions (I use the word advisedly) is her volunteer work at the garden of Little Sparta. This was the home, the work base, and - in the end - the memorial of Ian Hamilton Finlay, who was a poet who turned to visual art to extend what he wanted to say in his poetry. He was also essentially a pastoral poet. Mankind in nature was his subject. I encourage those who are intrigued to read the fuller bio on the home site. On the LSMP post earlier this week, you were given 'glimpses'...

Anyway, Mac1 helps the gardener with the quite extensive task of keeping the place from becoming a total jungle. However, she has just become a presenter of workshops there. Truth is, I most probably would not have found this place were it not for her, which is a shame, because some of the stoneworks (dry-stone dyking) made for IHF were created by our Uncle Andrew! It's a long hike up a farm track to get to the property, but as sissy had to go there to set up for the collage workshop she was running (20th July), she had permission to drive her vehicle up for unloading. We went on the Friday and were blessed with dry weather. It allowed me the time to wander around this property and revel in the tranquillity and inspiration.

I will share the nature parts of this visit in tomorrow's post. Today, the focus is on the various sculptural poetry to be found cropping up from under foliage, behind shrubs, corners of courtyards...

IHF had a love of water and boats, so quite a lot of his works reference this. He created three different pond areas, one of which is specifically designed for rowing. There were lots of model boats created and sailed there, too.

The plumbing in the house is fed by spring water (you'll see the source of that on Saturday). There has been a channel built from the rowing pond up the hill, to bring the water down into the house pond... sadly, due to maintenance, the flow had been terminated when I was there.

Many of the inscriptions on the various stoneworks were in Latin, French, or Greek, reflecting the artist's fascination with the classical period. Concrete poetry also plays with the look of letters and words, tricking form into becoming the poetry, and poetry the form. If you've learned anything about the YAMster over your years of reading here, you know that I love wordplay!!!

If you look beyond the stile, you will see some of the dry-stone wall - a sheep enclosure - that my uncle built. He also created a wall down in the meadow part of the property, but I can't find my photo of that (knitted brow, gritted teeth...)

He resisted and held the temples with great Jove.

The references to battles honoured those past, but also reflected the artist's own inner battles, as well as expanding and extrapolating on Man's constant battle with nature. By placing all these epithets throughout Little Sparta, IHF brought the worked stone back to the land, the words of Man into the foliage and ultimately shows that the works of Man will always be just that one step separate from the totality of nature.

The building that was the workshop and gallery was transformed into a temple...

Tomorrow, as mentioned, I will share more of the plantation/garden, and next Tuesday, there will be some more of these scenes - and I didn't photograph everything!!! It's a truly wonderful place to visit. Let me leave you with a few more of the inscribed works...