Recently I took part in an exciting challenge organised through the Wordsworth Trust. Following a recent visit to St Oswalds Church an Grasmere, a number of artists and designers from the Lakes Collective, together with local Poets, collaborated to produce a lovely exhibit of art inspired by poetry.
My chosen poem, 'A Silent Poetry' by Sarah Hymas.
What the relic is to the original,
this church is to its God;
a word contains its thought.
To question demands more,
like arch on arch offering more light
than plaster. Faith is speechless.
Only air distinguishes between
the layering of rushes
and feathers on a wing.
The same air turns yews to music
to shade to silence
to the brimming of this breath
so everything before and beyond
is lost, so deeply here,
like the towering river, the bells -
water and rope, running
through our fingers, cannot
be held or stopped
to be named or sung
except by the blackbird
pulling worms from the grass
too busy to look up. It takes flight
as brother, sister,
a shadow overhead, underfoot.
I found it quite difficult to choose a poem, simply because they all speak to me in many ways, but the common thread is the historical element within layers of history which linger in the space of the church.
The Silent Poetry. Lead me to question, what is language, what is being? Dealing with the concept of time, what makes that moment what it is?
I interpret "A Silent Poetry" as a relationship between elements and environment. One needs the other to evolve, silent and un noticed, yet produce some of the most stunning micro worlds, landscapes. Unwritten poetry.
As a landscape artist, Im influenced by the texture and colour that is provided in nature.
I was drawn to the lichens on the grave stones which have silently evolved, largely un noticed over the years, growing a millimetre a year. A visual passage of time in nature, a reaction between element and environment.
"Only air distinguishes between
the layering of rushes
and feathers on a wing.
The same air turns yews to music
to shade to silence
to the brimming of this breath
so everything before and beyond
is lost, so deeply here,". Sarah Hymas
The micro existence of lichens possess a language of their own, unwritten, beautiful, "A Silent Poetry".
I created a small handmade book, a study of the gravestone lichens.
The exhibit can be seen at St Oswalds Church until 8th October 2013
