Friday 11 September 2015

The Unexpected Gift

Today I met with a group from Street Soccer and Mark from the Manchester Anglican Diocese. We chatted about the difference between physical courage, (rescuing somebody from a burning building) easy perhaps and moral courage, (being open to new relationships and having the strength to heal old ones) harder perhaps.

We talked about asking for help.How its hard when you don't have family around you or you've burnt some bridges. Hard when you have been rejected or the people who should be part of your solution (family and friends)are actually part of your problem.  Simple things like finding a baby sitter become tricky. Home isn't all its cracked up to be perhaps and places like St Aidan's become important as a place to seek refuge and reflection, a support network.

One story shone through as a symbol of what we are talking about when we consider the wider power of a gift. Two group members were having a tough time with each other. One decided to build bridges and brought in a cookbook the other liked. Given as a gift from one to the other a new bond was formed around a simple gift and a thought. We talked about how unexpected gifts with a meaning for the giver and the receiver where better than the ones we are obliged to give.  Flowers bought hurriedly from the garage when you forget an anniversary can be an insult but the same flowers bought just because you needed cheering up can mean a lot.

The group talked about their sadness when people leave the group under tricky circumstances. How they would like to see them again or tell them that they still think about them. And at the other end how do they welcome new people? Those who are wondering what the expect and we might be wondering about. We talked about words sent hurriedly over facebook and how slowing down what we want to send makes a difference. Illuminated texts likes monks created, text etched into wood, melted into glass, edited stories or poems or words sewn give us time to consider what we want to say and its meaning. When given gifts of words poured over can mean more.

We are hoping to keep chatting about ideas around the title "The Unexpected Gift" and perhaps we will create something profound together.

Friday 4 September 2015

Innovative Ideas

At the start of Project Shed the group of 10 Salford parents and their children sat down with myself (Artist Beth Barlow) and developed a series of ideas which they thought they might like to explore. Some were directly related to the idea of giving and others were related to growing and work on the allotment. So that we could see them more clearly these ideas were put into two spider diagrams.We have been meeting twice a week to practically work through the ideas. For me these have been like sketches, allowing us to test ideas ans see which resonate most strongly. Which provide the opportunity for transformation of us as individuals or the socirty we live in. This led to the usual mess one gets when one sets off on an artistic exploration. Periods of uncertainty when we were unsure which way things were going. But we pushed on and on reflection several of the ideas seem strong to me. To give us all the opportunity to reflect I developed blank template review sheets. Given to individuals to take away they seem to have fell on arid ground. Sat and completed in tandom with myself they bare more fruit. Reflection is a tedious and ugly, uneccessary thing to do sometimes but its almost always useful. If we don't understand where we have been how can we ascertain where to go next. The review sheets we have created so far are below. They give you an idea of the things we have tried and perhaps where we are going next. Click on each image to see it bigger.