I spoke to Ingrid about my idea of making a medal that was a kind of talisman of positivity to keep in your pocket to remind you that there is still beauty and kindness in this troubled world. I also explained that I had been inspired by the paralympic medal, the letter from the blind visitor to the Barbara Hepworth museum and my research into how the blind see beauty – through their other senses (see previous blog post).
At this time I was thinking my medal would have a tactile Barbara Hepworth inspired ‘holey’ centre, with vignettes of woodland & beach on one side, mountain and night sky on the other to represent the aspects of nature I run away to when it all gets too much. I was thinking around the edge it would have ‘There is beauty in this world’ in english and braille, and I was hoping there would be away of making the medal interact with a phone to play sounds such as woodland birds singing and crunching leaves for woodland, waves crashing for the beach, mountain streams and squawking buzzards and eagles for mountains and hooting owls for starry sky.
Unfortunately Ingrid didn’t know of any way to make my medal make sounds as I wanted and also pointed out that the thickness I would need to achieve the Barbara Hepworth-esque centre would be too thick for the BAMs judges – they wouldn’t like it as it would be too 3d sculptural.
I explained the root of my idea was my summer contemplations about what I want to do and where I want to go with my studies. In the last couple of years in furthering my artistic education, the way I think about art has changed and I have learned a lot and grown, yet I found I still have a desire to get back to what originally inspired me to get back into Art – the local scenery around Abergavenny. The beauty and tranquility changed my life and I have an overwhelming need to try to capture it, as many local artists do! There is a large artist/designer/maker community in and around Abergavenny and Crickhowell with many local artists and galleries. Many capture the beauty of the area but nothing really compares to the feeling of actually being in the landscape. Here are a few of my favourites:
Louise Collis – Abergavenny Artist Oil Painter
Hannah Firmin – Crickhowell Artist Printmaker
Owen Shears – Abergavenny Poet – “Skirrid Hill”
Ingrid suggested if my medal was going to be designed to be kept in the pocket it should have a use – maybe as a viewfinder with GPS co-ordinates & *CLICK* it all fitted into place in my mind!
I could find a perfect viewpoint of the Skirrid, take a photo & the exact GPS co-ordinates. The image on the ‘head’ of the medal would be the image of Skirrid, but with the actual mountain cut-out, so you could go to the exact spot where the image was captured using the GPS co-ordinates, hold up the medal & fit Y Skirrid Fawr into the hole in the medal. On the tail of the medal will be a walking map from the spot to the top of the mountain, which brings in the whole ‘being in the landscape’ element rather than just looking at an image of it.
The walk makes more sense to me, as exercise and spending time in nature are proven to help with depression, which links to my idea for creating a positivity talisman – an escape from the negativity of both media and social media & the troubles of the world.
Mind website – What Can I Do To Help Myself For Depression
This took it to another level for me and rather than seeing this as an introspective personal project I now see it as a method of showing others the way – literally! With a map!
The relationship between the head and tail also makes a lot more sense to me, with the head being the starting point and the tail being the journey.
There is also the potential for this to be taken into Pewter and for the subject to be anywhere, making it possible to cross over from the BAMs project to the Pewter Live project.
I was thinking when I was growing up my grandparents used to live in Shottery, Stratford-Upon-Avon near Anne Hathaways cottage. Opposite Anne Hathaways cottage is a little brook where you can see the cottage but no-one can really see you – the tourists don’t know you’re there. They used to take me on a lovely little walk along the brook, where you can paddle in the clear water, take your shoes off and walk across the gentle weir, feed the ducks and I have seen foxes, badgers, woodpeckers…It’s where I used to escape to as a teenager when things got too much & it would be a perfect subject for someone based in the midlands. There are famous landmarks with accompanying nature walks all over the world.
clairemaloney 