Scottish Water Mythical Presences 2

...following to the previous post...

Kelpies
These are shape shaping aquatic spirits haunting rivers and streams. They usually appear in the form of a horse but can also take a human form.
"These water horses can also appear in human form. They may materialize as a beautiful young woman, hoping to lure young men to their death. Or they might take on the form of a hairy human lurking by the river, ready to jump out at unsuspecting travellers and crush them to death in a vice-like grip. Kelpies can also use their magical powers to summon up a flood in order to sweep a traveller away to a watery grave."
The sound of a kelpie’s tail entering the water is said to resemble that of thunder.
Keywords
horse
woman
flood
watery grave
thunder

Reference
https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Kelpie/

Bean Nighe
Her name means washer woman. She is a ghost haunting desolated rivers or lonely pools.
Detailed infomration can be found on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_nighe), so I am not going to copy them here.
Keywords
woman
wash
lonely
death in childbirth
mournful dirge


https://www.spookyisles.com/2014/07/bean-nighe-the-celtic-washerwoman-prophetess-of-doom/

Just to get started

Here I am, at the kitchen table drinking my morning coffee and having a go at this reflective journal. An experiment. To test myself and see if keeping a reflective diary can really benefit my work and give a positive input to my practice. Keeping a reflective blog is what I ask my students to do when developing their research projects. So, why not do it myself at the beginning of a new project? I will ask myself the three main questions that I ask my students to ask themselves to become reflective practitioners: Why do I work in the way I do? How do I develop solutions to creative problems? How does my work relate to other, current activity in my field? Now that the first post is written, it's just a matter of keeping going...

Back at Work

After a busy summer working with students and marking, I am back at work for my exhibition. During summer I have taken notes and drafted and sketched ideas. I have also refined the aims of this specific exhibition and considered opportunities for the future development of this project. So, to summarise my thoughts: The November exhibition will be inspired to and focused on two myths: Asharays and Ceasg (or Maighdean Mhara). The techniques that I will use are: instant photography, cyanotype on fabric, digital collage. Lead installations will be part of the exhibitions. Texts (possibly on screen)

My Statement and an Official Beginning

My work has always focused on the creative exploration of places and on how myths, legends and oral histories permeate the space around us and possibly shape the way we interact with it. These ideas are at the base of most of my installations, performances and multimedia artworks, from Raining Buddhas (2009) to Until the End of an Everlasting Day (my practice-based PhD outcome in 2012), from Edges (2011) to This is the Way the World Ends (2015). I believe that how we perceive and contemplate the land affects the way we treat it, and ultimately impacts on how we live within it. Reconnecting with ancient myths, legends, beliefs and local traditions concerning specific spaces and places around us would help us stop, reflect on and listen to our environment and develop a deeper awareness of it, and consequently a more thorough interconnection with it. I also believe that, in order to give strength to my visual/creative reflection on the environment and to integrate environm...

Thinking, Breathing, Exploring, Creating

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