In January 2020 I received news that I was to be awarded an A-n bursary for developing my clay-based research. The timing was sweet as the email arrived whilst I was at Guapamacátaro Centre for Art and Ecology in Michoacan, Mexico, where my research began. I was there thanks to a British Council Crafting Futures grant, which was supporting me to collaborate with Guapamacátaro and local ceramicist Gustavo Bernal in exploring working with wild clay as a way in to environmental arts education. I spent a wonderful month there, learning how to source, process and work with wild clay, sharing what I learnt along the way with the local schoolchildren at Guapamacátaro. Alicia Marvan (the director) and I were keen to see how we could promote the learning of local crafts through a simple pass-it-on workshop model, connecting local artisans with eager visiting artists and sharing the outcomes of their collaboration with the local community. You can find out more about my time there at www.cultivatingseeds.blog.

I was aware that, having had my eyes and heart opened to wild clay in Mexico, I would want a landing pad on returning to the UK to deepen and develop my practice. I applied for the A-n bursary to finance my place at a Hospitalfield Interdisciplinary Residency in November 2020 and to support me spending the following two weeks developing subsequent place-based research at Achpopuli Farm, a 69 acre regenerative farm in Inverness.  As a food grower and landworker myself, I’m intrigued by the potent intersections between art, craft, food, farming and agriculture and wanted to see what would emerge if I spent time working with clay, earth and plants whilst based on a working farm. In exchange for hosting me, I offered to deliver a few workshops at the local forest school in Abriachan, where I could share my learning and continue refining the workshops planned in Mexico. Facilitation is key to my practice, I love the unexpected conversations and new pathways that open up when we work and learn alongside each other.

Of course back in January we had no idea what lay ahead and plans involving travel, collaboration across countries and workshop development and delivery still seemed feasible. As the year rolled out and the COVID-19 pandemic changed our landscapes, my plans came to a halt. I lost all work I had lined up for the summer (I was due to be living and working in Norway as an artist’s assistant for 6 months), the Hospitalfield November residency was postponed till March 2021 and travelling from Devon up to Achpopuli Farm, Inverness, in the middle of a second lockdown seemed too irresponsible to risk.

As such, I have spent the past 8 months based next door to my parents in East Devon, gratefully sheltering in a small annexe that has had to act as home, studio, office and portal. I have felt very lucky to have woods nearby where I found a wild clay source and have been able to experiment little by little with what I learnt earlier this year, when my imagination felt bolder. The a-n bursary waits patiently in the bank, hoping to be put to good use in the New Year when, fingers crossed, the Hospitalfield residency and Achpopuli Farm visit will be able to go ahead. In the meantime, I am mostly trying to stay sane and remember the gifts of having a creative practice.

When I try to flesh out ideas or plans for this coming year, my mind fogs and listlessness threatens as so much is unknown and so much that previously felt stable has been shaken. When I bring myself back to this moment and this breath, I find my hands reaching for materials to make and craft. When I allow myself to get caught up in a process a different type of dialogue begins, one that is less articulate and focused but from which emerges a clarity and quietness of mind. I have been learning how to listen to clay, to let myself be guided by its plasticity and its alluring duality of fragility and strength. I am learning to be more patient, as you cannot rush a material that moves in its own time. And I am trying to remember that, whilst I may feel cut off from a creative community when I cannot facilitate workshops and share face-to-face, there is a strong online network available to me who I could make more effort to connect with.

So, here is a start.

More to come.


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