One year. Yep. One o’ these years…
One o’ those years. 2 0 2 0 . The one we all thought was going to be crystal clear. (Or I did). And maybe it was. Maybe it is time for world wide change and maybe 2020 made us ready.
Strangely, I have had a good year. Ok some things have been strange. But strangely enough those strange things made me appreciate the not so strange. And I have been no stranger. There are barely any strange bits left in my locale so well have I combed it. But stranger still…I k n o w there are still lots of strange and new things out there for me too. Strange. Ha. And I like it. I am made ready.
So. One year on… and a further call to us artists of Cumbria. What have we been up to?
In May we submitted artwork for a book..’Through the locking glass” and it was a remarkable and uplifting publication. You can see my documenting of it in an earlier post… ‘Through the think in’ glass’.
Here now, one year on and I have worked on through faith, hope and charity and rolled with f a t e , h o l e and l i b e r t e (the french one!) And these three words, these three ideas, were the starting point for my one year on submissions.
So. In the stranglehold of 100 words per piece i take you through my workings in pictures as well as few words….
Faith Hope and Charity were what I kept coming back to on my early solo lockdown runs. Recurring themes within my field of stained glass. ‘Through the think in’ glass was my reaction to those early fears and restrictions and the new learning how to be.
But the year got stranger and government restrictions gave me further time to swim, run, pause, think and read, as well as continue to work, often behind closed doors.
Faith, Hope and Charity developed into Fate, Hole and Liberte… which reflects and rolls with me better. (Blame Murakami. A Japanese writer)
And so we arrive at one year on….
Faith has turned to Fate for my artwork. And to represent it I used those most superstitious of birds, the magpie. The monochrome arrangement of the seven birds fell together by chance (!) during a streamed lock-in Friday night drawing session. (When did Friday nights become this !?) The leadlines represent the junctions and decisions thrown at us in life. And the orbs of colour being just that. Orbs of colour within our life.
Hope becomes Hole. And hole represents a safe, reflective space. Not so much a hole as more of a nest. Home perhaps; or the space or locale in which we have all spent more time of late, in thought. Going with the roll within our confines.
And nest egg brings us to charity…..
And charity brings Liberte… One year on, this is where I’d like to be. Free, strong, happy and brave to seize the choices that normal life presents. Starlings and clear blue sky used here. I think this panel is the optimistic sun rise that I just watched on the first day of 2021. See those loose and bold leadlines, like the free-handed daub from a broad brush.
I am Debbie Copley of dc stained glass studio on Allhallows Lane in Kendal. Sat beneath that town hall clock, (which at present is stopped!). Kendal has been a good place to be.
d c stained glass :: debbie's shed 