Warmth, Hope, and Everything In Between
I need you to sit with me for a minute.
Picture this: warm sun, a car parking in the street, soft limestone walls, two familiar dogs, conversations about the multi-layered reality of human beings. There’s a view of the parish church, yellow paint on old tarmac, the smell of my grandparents, a blue sea and an open sofabed.
Now, shift: misty air, chirping birds, a damp garden bench, a fluffy puppy, conversations about tea—the dinner kind. The view is rolling hills, orange leaves on a green lawn, the smell of freshly brewed coffee, bare branches, and a very thick duvet.
One brings warmth, the other brings hope.
I was in Malta for a few days, and now I’m in Derby until Tuesday.
Neither place is entirely “me,” but both shape the way I move through life.
So far, I’ve created with the weight of the hot sun, the tangled relationships, and the expressive edge of the Mediterranean. I draw lines that hold the anxiety of my past and choose colours brimming with the warmth I found there.
Now, I’m not surrounded by those things. Their weight is lighter. Instead, I carry questions of identity—how do I represent where I’m from versus embracing where I am? How does my line meander across the page now? What story is it telling? And how do I help it speak?
Right now, I feel like a warm yellow, jagged thick line, surrounded by a smooth, soft pale blue shape. (Okay, maybe that shape is a bit more structured than I’d like!) So how do I work with that? Can I create work that is both internal and external, old and new?
Could this be the starting point for a series of drawings? Do you differentiate colours between what you grew up with and where you are now? How would you draw that memory? Is it anxious or smooth, abstract or figurative? Is there another colour that finds you in the in-between? If you’ve ever left “your” first colour, did another one call to you? And most importantly, what is my colour now?
Two pieces I’ve made: one created in Malta—soaked with sun, memory, and family—and another finished here, shaped by these thoughts and a new sense of self. Each reflects the colour, energy, and questions you’ve just read about. I hope you find your own thread of meaning in their lines and shades, wherever you are.
Catch you next Friday!