Icons

I’m using this Blip as a way to help me clarify my own thinking so apologies.

In the early years of our partnership Ann was a prolific writer of poetry.  Sometimes she wrote them for me, sometimes for herself but also for the children she worked with as a Writer in Education.  I have two sets of these in folders which I’ve been re-reading, possibly with a view to putting them together as a book.  However, my main focus at the moment is to explore whether I can take one, or part of one, of her `winter’ poems and set it alongside an image I’ve created to go on a photo card.  Now I really don’t see myself as an illustrator, but years ago (maybe around 2002/3) I did create a digital drawing that focused on one part of her Winter Carol. 

But then I stop myself and think, that isn’t where I started from when I embarked on the idea of printing some cards - I started from the idea that it would be a good way to share some of the images I’d made over the last year.  So on reflection I think it would be better to keep the two projects separate.

So where does the icon and the teddy fit in?  My bed faces shelving the width of the chimney breast which mainly houses books (mainly Ann’s collection of poetry), but also has two shelves midway down where I display some small framed artwork and ceramics.  On the right side Ann had a small area where she displayed the icon she bought in Crete plus a few more small items including a photo of Mother Thekla.  I haven’t changed any of this, neither the things I displayed there and nor Ann’s corner of it (though I did bring Teddy down from her attic where he was feeling a bit lost and lonely).  

And the first verse of the poem I was reading:

Our first winter
we hibernate together cramped as in a cave
more of my books than yours
more of your clothes than mine
two lots of furniture
my cat your dog
who don’t get on
and windows that haven’t been cleaned for months

All of this made me reflect on my motivation for leaving things as they were, when things are very different now. I think it’s part of my comfort, my security - not just me hanging on to the past.  I’ll know when I’m ready to make changes.