Taratories Blog

Silence: Wales Residency

Yesterday I started off the day with a scone.  It was fresh out of the oven at Andy and Adams coffee shop next door and it was so delicious!  What made it amazing was the clotted cream and jam on top!  I have never tried clotted cream before and to tell you the truth, the name didn't sound very appealing.  After people at the cafe convincing me to try it I gave it a go and it was dreamy!  It was more like the consistency of butter but sweet and different. It changed my life.

On Sunday's in Corris they run their old victorian train through the town so I figured I would hop on while I was here!  It didn't go very far but it had some pretty views. 

At the end of the ride the train conductor gave us a tour of the place where they work on the trains and gave us a little history lesson.  This railway dates back to the 1850's.  The line was initially built as a horse-and-gravity-worked ramrod to carry slate from the quarries of Corris to other places.

It was a very cold day and by the end I was ready to warm up to some tea... AGAIN!  I have never drank so much tea in my life!  I am normally a coffee drinker but you can't drink coffee all day with all that caffeine and that is why people turn to tea to warm them up throughout the day.  Tea, soups, anything warm is all that sounds appealing.  Even when you are indoors it is cold everywhere.  I worked in my studio with a hat, robe, and house slippers on and I looked ridiculous but you will do anything to stay warm around here!

After my little train ride I spent the rest of the day working on my art.  I was not feeling very motivated to work on art but I pushed myself and ended up finishing up my third painting.  Creating takes such discipline.  Anyone who says that it doesn't is fooled.  After I was done it was evening and evenings are when I tend to feel a bit lonely.  I have never had this much solitude in my life and it is really bringing about some personal awakenings for me.  Last week I was taking everything that was new and processing my new surroundings and my new mission.  It took a week for me to unravel in a way.  The fast pace of my life back home needed to transition into this slow paced life I am in right now.  Now that I have slowed down I have been doing a lot of soul searching.  Sometimes the silence is so strong it brings a kind of buzz in my ear.  At home I am never in this kind of silence and it can be uncomfortable at times.  But I am learning to embrace it and see what it has for me.  

It is so strange to have such few options.  When I am alone in the house, I can either do art, read, listen to music, pray, write, or stare at the wall.  I have done all of the above but there are times when I feel like I need to fill the silence with noise such as wifi (which we don't have access to), or other people, or distractions.  When I am forced to be alone without those things it is very revealing.  What has been revealed to me so far is that even though I care about my art so much, I care more about the people that are in my life more.  Without them nothing else seems to matter.  I feel like i had art up on a pedestal where it shouldn't be.  The need for time to do art has been satisfied since I have been here and that has brought clarity.  I want to bring art down a couple rungs down the ladder when I go home even though I will always strive to find time to create.