New Beginning ...

As part of my last tour The Dragon Tree I was resident for 2 weeks at The National Botanic Garden of Wales where my film & book launched in Theatr Botanica.

 

I performed the songs live
with musicians & dancers ...

and I had an exhibition in the beautiful Gallery.

Little did I know that from the end of this journey, would come a new beginning ...

It was snowing quite heavily and it was just heaven to sit in the beautiful Gallery meeting the brave who had slid across the white landscape to see me. There were over 250 people who came to the Arts Installation Launch in Oriel Gallery. I was blown away! Even on the snowiest days, there was still a trickle of people throughout the day. It was a very beautiful experience because as a musician/performer, my impact with the audience has always been very intense and full on: condensed into 2 x 3/4 spots, whereas this was a new way of engaging with an audience, a slow more indepth and personal way.

 There were hours when no one came to the Gallery, particularly early in the morning and this gave me time to reflect on the hard work from the year that had just passed & where it might take me next on my journey.

I had been awarded an  Individual Mainline Grant from The Arts Council of Wales to write A New Folk Story for the West Wales Coastline but post Dragon Tree there would be no funding ...

foto by Brian Crofft

 

It was life changing having the Arts Council Grant. It had funded me to find time for my own creativity where previously my life had become full of directing and supporting others. I decided in that moment that my own creativity was special to me: I pondered that before me, in history, there had been so many artists, in so many genres, that created simply & purely because they create, regardless of funding!

And so I decided, in this personal space that I had found through the Dragon Tree, that whatever happened next, by hook or by crook, I would find a way to make space for myself within
my creative life!

 

So there I was, sat with my Welsh Language Arts Installation Coed Y Ddraig in Oriel Gallery, in the stillness of a cold, snowy afternoon, when

The Tethered Fairy Ring came to me ....

Find out in my next blog, how this man, 

Bob Edwards, the volunteer who runs the Apothecary at The National Botanic Garden of Wales, became POP!