The Wayfarer's Year

This photograph seems to encapsulate how I feel right now. It was taken (by the wondrous Sylvia Linsteadt who came to visit! but more of that another time) in the early autumn sun as I strode across September-coloured Dartmoor with my baby boy on my back. This has been the most treasured and difficult of all the years of my life so far. I have had to learn to be a mother whilst we totally reconfigure our life. Building our Hedgespoken home and travelling theatre has taken all the energy we could muster and then it has kept on taking. And I continue to be stretched in more than three dimensions by the challenges and alchemys and incandescent joys of motherhood. Nevertheless I seem to keep on striding, and my back continues to hold strong enough for the weight it carries.

My creative life burns clear, though its outlets are small and fleeting. I draw when my boy sleeps and gradually have managed to work enough into the (many) dark hours with a biro and my head torch to create a perpetual calendar - The Wayfarer's Year - a kind of wall frieze showing the passing seasons as a traveller's road (the year) winds through them. It is printed on recycled card and folds out to a 12-month art piece. You can buy them for £12.50 in the Hedgespoken shop here, or on etsy here. They'll be good for any year or any time of year, of course!

I have also contributed manually to our truck build - tiling the kitchen with babe on back! This home of ours is being built with great care and craft, and has come on further since this picture was taken. If you'd like to see a little video update (with us looking very tired!) and hear more truck news, do go over to the Hedgespoken blog and look.

  

This little painting is titled Incantation Under a Winter Sun - another small creative achievement in the baby-sleeping moments. It is a prize in our Hedgespoken Winter Raffle, for which tickets are available here - you could own this original painting for just £1!

The sun seems far off now, our days are mud-drenched and rain-splattered and fog-hidden. Each trip to collect water is slippery and my bones ache with tiredness. We are still not in the truck, though another year turns, and expectations and plans must be readjusted. How do you stay positive whilst the challenges of uncoupling from a former life and building a new one mount? The dream must continue to be kindled, which is hard in these damp, dark days. I can't quite believe that my baby is 10 months old (and crawling!), and that Christmas is just days away! From within the fog and the slog of this year, a bright fire still burns, and I carry its embers over the threshold into 2016, a stronger and utterly changed woman from the one I was last year-cusp, and holding in my heart and arms the most golden of all things in my life: my son.

On walls in six of the seven continents...

I WAS RECENTLY SENT a picture of my Weed Wife print framed most exquisitely, and thought that it deserved to be shared with you here. This picture (above) was sent to me by Stacey Carroll whose father made the amazing wooden frame to fit the Weed Wife perfectly; it sits on Stacey's altar as an honouring of her herbalism work. 

It always excites me to see photos of my paintings in other people's homes - the many ways people choose to frame them and the different places and ways they display and use them. As I address envelopes to send print orders to places with unfamiliar street names and postal codes across the seas, I wonder about those doormats where the envelopes will land, and the walls on which the prints will hang - what kind of places are they? What kinds of people live there? And of course, it is always delicious to get a little glimpse into these worlds! So I thought it'd be fun to share some of the photos of my work on far away walls that people have kindly sent me. 

This one (above) showing my calendar hanging in a cozy kitchen is from book artist Abby Nolan in Missouri, USA.

And this one (above) is from artist Lynn Hardaker in Regensburg, Germany. You can see the roofs of the city through the window beyond my Picking Up Sticks and Väinämöinen Sings A Ship.

Here two of my pictures - Soup & Pipe and Telling Stories to the Trees flank an oval clock in the magic-brewing kitchen of Michelle Bergeron-Martin in Ohio, USA.

This cozy nook (above) harbouring my Atching Tan print in the Highlands of Scotland is in the home of jewellery carvers Geoff & Fuggo King of Woodland Treasures.

Here (above) my Dark Mountain print, framed beautifully, hangs in the inviting Prague hallway of David Binar.

A mask watches over the walls of Burnard Burns in London, UK, where a few of my works can be seen.

Here (above) my calendar hangs sweetly in Suzy Davies' kitchen in Herefordshire, UK.

This wonderful studio wall, where a couple of my images share the inspiration-space, belongs to sculptor Jason Parr in Norfolk, UK.

Very pleased to show you this one (above) - sent to me by Cherlyn Simpkins, a teacher in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK - here my rendition of Roald Dahl's words about magic hangs on her classroom wall: "And above all watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, for the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

This one (above) comes from the home of woodcarver Martin Hazell - as well as my calendar, you can see two of my original pieces amongst other wonders.

These two (above & below) show my prints and calendar displayed in Rebecca Elwell's shepherd's hut in the New Forest.

Here (below) my cards sit amongst small creatures in the home of Sally Mineur in Tasmania:

This lovely tableau by the phone (below) is from Kate Duerden in Surrey, UK.

And these next four lovely pictures are from shamanic healer & drum-maker Suzi Crockford's cozy cottage in Devon, UK:

Here below is a photo of two of my prints in the home of artist & ceramicist Marieke Ringel in Halle, Germany.

And this intriguing bookshelf (below) belongs to artist Jericho Moral in the Philippines:

I was excited to see this photo (below) - it shows the original of Soup & Pipe, framed beautifully, on Rebecca Wilson's wall in Ottawa, Canada.

In this one (below), we can see the Dia de los Muertos celebration altar of Anna Björkman in Sweden; there are two of my pictures - Anja in the Horse Chestnut and Sova Slova - amongst the other magics in there.

This one's from Aurélie Hesse in Romans sur Isère, France, and shows my calendar hanging on the wall of her jewellery studio where she creates fruit for her L'Arbre aux Abricots d'Argent (tree of silver apricots):

And here (below) my Smudge Fly sits in an art corner in the home of Becca Chapman in Pennsylvania, USA:

This is the hallway of Earthlines Magazine editor Sharon Blackie in Donegal, Ireland, where visitors to her home are welcomed by my Weed Wife:

These wonderful pictures (below) are from Carrie Osborne in Frome, Somerset who blogs her art and writing at Windsongs & Wordhoards. Here in her home my Alchemist is framed beautifully beside a box of wonders, nests and shells and skulls.. and my calendar hangs there too.

This one (below) was sent to me by Professor of Folklore and Mythology Ari Berk - you can see on his myth-filled Michigan, USA walls the original of my little oil painting on wood A Mountain Song to My Wordless Son.

And here (below) are two of my pieces on the creature-full walls of felt artist Charlotte Hills, in Nottingham, UK.

This one makes me smile, and is delightfully out of keeping with the rest. This is the home of a lovely man named Doris who lives in Norfolk, UK. Here my Sova Slova owl woman shares a wall with Lady Gaga!

This one's from Emma Welsh in York, UK - here my Weed Wife forms part of her Winter Solstice altar mandala:

Here (below) my Sova Slova print nestles on the walls of jeweller Miriam Boy of Silver & Moor, in Devon, UK:

And this one, taken at wintertime, shows my Feast of Fools wreathed beautifully for the solstice on book artist Abby Nolan's walls in Missouri, USA:

Here my calendar and The Alchemist framed beautifully adorn the home of Natasha Burge in Saudi Arabia:

And this one (below) is from Nathalie Desoil in Angreau, Belgium. The lovely frame was made by a French craftsman, and houses two of my works - Lodka and A Song to All Our Sorrows:

This group of photos (below) showing various works of mine in different settings is from the home of Teresa Interlicchia in New York, USA:

Very excited to show you this one (below) - it was sent to me by Amy Bogard in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, and shows my Concertina Eggcup Song print on display at the workshop where Carroll Concertinas are made - a more perfect setting I cannot imagine!

And these artful walls of magic and inspiration, where a good few of my works dwell, belong to writer and wonder-weaver Sylvia Linsteadt in California, USA:

And lastly, a whole wall dedicated to my work in the home of Adam and Rhen Garland, in Suffolk, UK, guarded by Cernunnos and a boar. Adam and Rhen visit my stall every year at the Weird and Wonderful Wood fair, and each year buy a picture. What a lovely thing for me to see.

I hope you've enjoyed peeping into other people's homes with me! If you have any photos of my work in your homes, do send them along, I'd love to see, and perhaps we'll amass enough for another of these blog posts! And if you don't yet have any of my work - come along and buy some here! It really warms my cockles to see the fruits of my paintbrush-and-soul adorning the lives of folks far and wide, and reminds me why I do it in the first place. Thank you all so much.