Blogroll

The Artist.

| Mairead

1

(Karen)

This morning I went to visit Karen. Karen is an artist and she attended the September Success Teams. When she came along on the first night she did so because she wanted to make time for her painting but couldn’t see how that might be possible. She was working long hours at a job that paid the mortgage and there didn’t seem to be any space in her life for painting.

2

(Work in Progress)

About week three Karen still had no more time but the beginnings of a dream had started to form as she told her team about an idea for an art gallery with coffee shop. Then disaster struck…. Karen took a tumble and broke some bones in her right arm along with her shoulder joint. She was in terrible pain and couldn’t work…. what a disaster…. or was it?

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(Detail from one of Karen’s paintings)

Ok, the pain was terrible and she did need a lot of help from her very patient partner, but… now she had time…. (and she’s left-handed!) So she started painting. She hasn’t recovered enough to go back to work but when she does she intends to keep a space in her life for painting.

4

(Tools of the trade)

Now she has begun to sell her paintings, (you can see one in Roundwood post office) and soon she’ll be launching a website with her work (I’ll let you know when its up and running). She’s also started taking commissions and she’s thinking of starting an art group from her home in the Wicklow hills.

Don’t wait to break your arm to follow your dreams, Mairead.

Create beautiful things

| Mairead

The Yarn

(Mosaic sign over the door, sigh)

Today I went to visit The Yarn Room. They sell wool and wool type crafts like felt-making, they also have books. Being there reminds me that I love being around these colourful things. It also fills me with the possibility that I could create something beautiful. And the possibility of creating something beautiful is very attractive to me. The possibility has always been attractive, but the creating was scary….. What if I can’t do it? What if it’s not good? What if it’s ugly? What if I’m not that creative?

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(A robin who was happy to wait while I took his picture. See the beautiful blue sky today?)

In my craft cupboard there are lots of crafting materials. There’s coloured card, glue, stickers, fancy scissors, markers and paints. There’s material, lots of material and threads of many colours, wool and dyed blankets. And knitting needles and crocket hooks and buttons. And stamps and coloured inks. There’s a heat gun and plastics to make brooches and necklaces. And beads and wire and elastic cord, even hemp cord. I have jewellery fasteners and pendants. I have books, lots and lots of books to show me how to do lots and lots of crafts.

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(I like repeating patterns – you can buy these boxes in Avoca at Mount Usher)

I have collected these materials over many years with the intention of creating beautiful things. Then I’d put them  into my cupboard and close the door…. firmly. My cupboard has been sitting in the front room waiting. Waiting for the day I’d realise I am good enough.

Creativity teaches many lessons, go create, Mairead.

Good Work You!

| Mairead
The Deck
The Deck

Ok I know I promised I’d get out and take more photos….. I didn’t do it. Instead, I launched my new website (www.maireadhennessy.com) and it was wet and cold outside. But before it got dark on Sunday I did run out on the deck and take the three photos I’m sending you. I’ll take pictures tomorrow… maybe… hopefully.

The Moon
The Moon

I have high expectations for what I can accomplish in a given space of time and I feel guilty if I don’t do it. Not exactly useful or helpful or even nice. While we (Denis was a great help) were getting the website up and running I found two blog pieces from 2003. I didn’t recognise them and initially thought they were writing I had liked and saved to read later…… but they were mine!

The Blue Pot
The Blue Pot

Sometimes we don’t give ourselves credit for the good work we do and we only see what we don’t do or we only see the bad in what we do do (do be do be do).

Look out for the good, Mairead.

A belief is only an opinion we think is true…

| Mairead

(3fe Abbey Street Dublin)

Still here at 3fe, it’s very busy but they haven’t asked me to leave…yet! So yesterday, I was talking about tying ourselves to a belief. I have another belief to share.

When I was eighteen and making my career choices, I hadn’t a clue what to do. I didn’t want to go to college, but I also didn’t have another option. So I took my career counsellor’s advice and started an Electronic Engineering course. At the time I liked to knit and my big dream was to become a Mom, but none of that appeared on my Leaving Certificate results so it didn’t count…..

(Above ground station on the underground railway, Berlin)

The course lasted for four years… I lasted just over a year. I failed. That was my belief. Added to that was a belief that I could not study, and I was inferior to people who could and who had successfully attained their degrees.

After that in every situation where I would be tested on my ability, I froze….. In case it’s not obvious, freezing in a test situation is not conducive to passing the test. Oops.

(Railway art… detail from previous picture)

So…. self-fulfilling story.

Naturally, I did my best to stay away from test situations….. well… who wants to fail? But the funny thing….. the thing that was guaranteeing my failure was me and my story!

Choose a useful story, Mairead

Coffee shop writing…..

| Mairead

(Coffee Time)

Since I’ve been sitting on the sofa resting for the past four days, I’m a bit stir-crazy. So today Denis dropped me to the door of a coffee shop in Dublin and I can get back to my “coffee-shop writing”. He was going to Maplins, his craft shop, so I’m nearby on Abbey Street at 3fe. Strange name for a coffee shop? It stands for third floor espresso. There’s a story….

(Big lizard outside Berlin aquarium)

This guy, Steve, used to work in banking or the stock market or something and he gave it all up to become a world-class barista. True story… He set up a training room in his  apartment (on third floor) and within a year he had entered the world barrister finals in the US and had come in a respectable fourth. Now he sells coffee in different ways using very geeky gadgets. He and his team also sell very nice sandwiches and very yummy muffins.

But it was the story that got me to have coffee here. Well of course it did, he gave up everything to do the thing he wanted to do? I’m in. Now that I’m here I’m ready to notice what’s different about this coffee shop? And it is different. It’s not squeaky clean, the colours are very bright, the shelves are like granny’s kitchen, not completely square, not exactly fitting and not plastic.

(Close-up of zebra stripes)

So that means it’s not exactly perfect either. Surprise, surprise. If it didn’t have a story I wouldn’t be here. Stories are really attractive to us and they are also really useful. The stories that lulled us to sleep as children. The stories we watched at the cinema or on the TV. The stories we believe about ourselves.

What do you believe about you? Mairead.

Ok we’re home now….

| Mairead

(Charlottenburg Palace)

Right, let’s get a few things straight. I will want you to remind me of these if I mention another holiday.

So pay close attention:

1. Irish-type weather suits me, even though I love sunshine…. it’s not my friend.

2. My delicate constitution is allergic to insect bites…… always bring bug spray….. and use it.

3. One museum a day is quite enough.

(Walk along the river Spree)

4. A rest in the afternoon is essential if I wish to go out “clubbing” (my word for going outside after dark).

5. Early morning starts help no one, all alarms should be set for a time after 10am.

6. Stick with the packing policy of just enough clothes, it’s working…… but maybe some more shampoo would be good.

7. Factor in some all alone time…. no comment.

8. Go for longer.

(Pink flamingos in the zoo)

Ok that’s it, my recipe for a happy holiday. I did have a great time, loved Berlin and the museums (I think we did five?) and the jazz clubs and the symphony orchestra and the zoo and the palace at Charlottenburg and the market and Unter den Linden and the cafes and the people and the history and the street theatre and loved, loved, loved the Segway! Possibly did a bit too much in five days though?

And so to sleep, Mairead.

A bit of history (apologies to history scholars)

| Mairead

(Lunch)

Ok we’re in Berlin… on the west side… not that it matters any more. But it used to matter. Back in 1961 they built a wall, the Russians did, all around west Berlin. Yes, the wall wasn’t just along a border between the two sections of Berlin, it went all around. So that the west bit was like a little island of democracy within the Russian territory (the Russians also owned east Germany).

(Checkpoint Charlie… it’s the little hut in the middle of the road… what can I say bad camera day…)

This all started after the second world war. Bits of Berlin were given to America, Britain, France and Russia. Then at some point before 1961 Russia fell out with the others and gave them the cold shoulder.

At the same time the bits that were not Russian were German and they began to rebuild after all the bombing and destruction. But the Russians didn’t have a lot of money to be building. So they patched up.

(If you push your nose up close to the screen and squint your eyes you might be able to see an old Russian Go Workers! mural)

Funny thing….. today that means that the east side (the poor side that didn’t rebuild) has beautiful architecture, while the richer side has architecture from the fifties (concrete and glass… and not in a good way.)

So, having money can be a block (of concrete) to creativity.

Embrace your poverty, Mairead.

Ps Up since four, forgot to pre-charge camera battery so only these photos! More tomorrow.

You are Here

| Mairead

(Where are we?)

In the cathedral building on the Rock of Cashel, there’s a map of all the buildings on the site. This map is on a stone plinth in the centre of the cathedral. Somewhere on that map there’s a label that says You Are Here. But of course we  all know that’s not exactly true…….. As a child playing in these buildings I used to walk my fingers around the map as if I was walking around the buildings.  But the real me wasn’t in the map, the real me was in the cathedral.

(Do birds have maps?)

There’s a map in my head too. It’s a map of the world around me. I’ve been drawing this map ever since I was born. It helps me find my way around relationships, around work, around society. It’s very useful. It’s also a bit misleading. Especially if I assume everyone else has the same map as mine in their head. The don’t. It also causes me a few problems if I think it’s real.

(Sometimes circumstances make the map incorrect…)

Like the map in the cathedral, the map in my head is just a picture, a representation of the real world. I’m not really in the map in my head, I’m here.

Get out of your head, you’re here, Mairead.

Learning to Swim

| Mairead

(Ellen, who showed me the Living with Beauty swim)

Our nice visitors are gone. We miss them. We do have a pair of shoes they accidentally left behind but it’s just not the same. So maybe it’s not “the clothes that make the man”, or the woman. These people made a big impact on me.

(Jess who showed me the Integrity swim)

Was it their interesting conversation? Or the presents they brought? Or the meals they cooked? Was it the way one of them kept tidying the house? Or was it the chance to be a tourist in Dublin with them? Although I really do like all those things, I don’t think that was it.

(Dan who showed me the Dead Zoo swim)

We had a goldfish for seventeen years. We had to keep getting bigger and bigger goldfish tanks because he got too big for them. One day he jumped out of his tank and landed flapping on the floor. We only realised what had happened when the dog started barking. When we popped him back in the tank, one of his fins was stuck to his body and he swam around in circles for a while….. it was a square tank. Next day he was back to swimming in squares and we bought a lid for the tank.

(Michele who showed me the Let Go swim)

I think I know.

When people have an impact on us it’s like jumping out of our tank. By the time we get back in we realise they’ve shown us another way to swim. In fact many different ways to swim and we can take our pick.

From a very tidy fish tank, Mairead.

ps A goldfish has a tiny memory, so he could be forgiven for going back to his old ways of swimming……