Take Nothing but Photographs, Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Walking towards play and inspiration
Last week I wrote about relearning to play to release creative inspiration. My letter seemed to strike a chord with a lot of you and I wanted to thank you for your comments and questions. I also want to welcome the new subscribers that found A Nomadic Rose over the last week, it’s brilliant to have you here…
Taking my own words from last weeks letter to heart, I have started to slowly enter a space of inspiration, experimentation, and play. I began, as I always do, by immersing myself in the art of others, in this instance Rogue Theatre and Barbara Hepworth. I’ve written about Rogue Theatre before and I wasn’t planning to do so again. That was until the Spring show offered exactly what I needed, the moment I needed it most. As we made our way through the woods we encountered the Spring Hare, who guided us onward to find the Woodland King and hear his tale of Wild Awakening. One of the many, many, many things I love about Rogue is how they reignite my beliefs in spirit and nature and magic, releasing and reinforcing them for me. That is exactly what happened last week. Early in the play we were called upon to, ‘Sharpen your senses and peel your eyes, haven’t you heard the wild is on the rise.’ What a fantastic and accurate description for the kind of play I am relearning - the wild, hopeful, life-filled play that will bring out the best in my ecology and nature driven art.
I followed Rogue up, only a few days later, by the Barbara Hepworth Art & Life exhibit at Tate St Ives. One of the joys of living in St Ives is having Hepworth’s Garden within walking distance. This exhibition, which explores different moments and themes from across Hepworth’s career, showed me pieces of her work I hadn’t seen before. When searching for inspiration, one need look no further than Barbara Hepworth. When trying to remember how to experiment and play, Hepworth drawings and maquettes, both included in this show, are a guiding light.
So, filled with inspiration, I started to play.
Many of you will have read the saying “take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints”. It is a guiding principle for walking gently upon the land, for hiking and for wild camping. It is also a principle most of humanity seems to have forgotten. We take and we take, and the footprints we leave are bigger and messier and more destructive than ever before in the Earth’s long history.
The image of a footprint is a hugely loaded one, filled with potential meanings and interpretations. As I walk gently towards new ideas, I thought I would start with some footprints, and see where they take me. So far, I like them, and I liked getting paint all over my feet. Even these simple steps have inspired the next piece of play, so yesterday I ordered some plaster. I can’t wait for it to arrive!
As the wild awakes, and this first moment of play begins to release my imagination, I have also begun experimenting with wild food in the kitchen. But I will save those stories for my paid subscribers this weekend. For now, here’s a teaser from last nights dinner.
I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember, the wild is on the rise.