We're going on a bear hunt - revisited ♥

'We're going on a bear hunt - Revisited' Work in Progress  June 2014

Amy Dignam © 2014

Julie Swindel ♥

Julie Swindel is a mother of eight, yes you read that right EIGHT! When I started exchanging messages with Julie and found out, I thought that perhaps I had found the ultimate Desperate Artwife...

Julie tells me how she tries and keep her eye focused on art during her hectic lifestyle. Having attempted a few art courses she has never managed to finish them and therefore she considers herself largely self-taught. At forty she was able to have her own home studio (protected by a stair-gate!), allowing her to come and go from her work as and when. Julie says "I had my first daughter at 25, before that I had time and I wasted it, I had no perception of how precious life was. If you are desperate enough you learn to be flexible and adaptable. Every experience can be channelled into expression, frustration can become passion seen in a flurry of marks on the canvas or clay at the end of the day when the children are asleep. During day to day tasks a partition of my mind is always open to creativity. If circumstances are limiting I study the ordinary. Necessity has been the mother of my invention."

Julie's painting style takes me back in time to when I was studying art in Italy and experimenting with various subjects for my paintings. Her way of combining different situations in one painting makes the image become a narrative - almost like stills from a motion picture. Some of her work combines dream-like situations and reality, some others in - true Desperate Artwife style - relates to the everyday and private life. Death, memories, resignation, daydream, childhood... 

Dad

Her father's death motivated her to pick up the paint brush again, eager to try and hold his memory before it melted away from her.  Through this  experience, she discovered that art can be used as a form of therapy. Sometimes I think that artists are privileged because if it's hard to verbally express their thoughts and feelings then they are able to use their art instead. It is challenging but it helps in giving you a voice without you having to talk.

Fabrication

In "Fabrication", one can see a woman folding clothes from a washing basket while underneath a man is busy polishing and lining up shoes. Everyday home chores are surrounded by a background of a coastline and a cloudy sky. A flock of white doves are flying around, perhaps symbolising love and peace. Julie explains that this work is about how daydreaming  can help in life but how we also need to embrace the present moment. 

The other mother

I read  "The other mother" as another attempt of healing the soul. Julie painted this in reaction to having to accept the medical profession into her family after the birth of her disabled daughter. A narrow corridor,  green walls,  a blurred vision of a faceless doctor and nurse wearing white scrubs and walking towards you. They are surrounded by big red crosses that seem to shoot out of the painting. The painting is coming outwards, it's unstable and full of tension. Art is a tool that Julie constantly tries to exploit in order to better endure her life. 

Mausoleum of motherhood

"Mausoleum of motherhood"  was painted as a way to stop the swirling storm of images and emotions that were gathering as Julie dealt with the realities of motherhood against what one might think it ought to be (or how the media portrays it to be). 

Julie condenses her life experiences into her work and like a good book, it unfolds stories we all can connect to. And like a good book it remains with you long after you've finished looking at it. 

Amy Dignam 2014 ©

Black hole ♥

I was very lucky with the birth of my three children. All went well and there were no complications. This allows me to look back at those moments with a sense of peacefulness. 

With the passing of time, our minds often tend to magnify our memories, sometimes turning them into more intense experiences covering them with a thin layer of romanticism. That's why I remember all about those first cuddles and not so much about the pain that preceded them. Somehow, in my memories, that steady and acute pain softens and becomes almost pleasurable.

Straight after giving birth, whilst everyone is still whirling around doing all the checks, I found myself being completely still. 

As a "Madonna in Maesta'"  I'm sitting in the birthing pool holding my baby for the first time. We're still connecting through the umbilical cord. I can feel it and it hurts a bit. Yes, it's uncomfortable but I don't mind. I stay still and I let everybody look after me.

In that instant I become a black hole, a void in which things falls into and vanish. My worries, my fears, my future... all disappear in the abyss I created and for once only that moment existed.

Amy Dignam 2014 ©

This article is also featured on http://www.eggwombheadmoon.com/black-hole/

3 years since last I saw you ♥

Amy Dignam © 2014

My pre-Christmas time ♥

Hello everyone! Hope you're having a nice pre-Christmas! For as long as I can remember, Christmas time has been a time of sickness, not just for little ones but for us too. This week I have been fighting with all my power against an ear infection and finding it quite difficult to keep focus on my blog. However, today was a better day and I managed to use my birthday voucher (my birthday was back in September!) and was 'escorted' by one of my very good friends to the nail shop. I had a back massage, a foot massage, mani and pedi and even managed to have my eyebrows waxed! Check me out getting some 'me time' again! 

My husband is usually always happy to let me go whenever the opportunity comes but today he was a bit stroppy because "we have so much to do!"... yes, he's right, like all practical men he knows exactly how much needs to be done and how long it will take to do it... Well, needless to say I won!

Dixie also felt very festive today and wanted to go shopping with baubles for earrings. Again, my husband wasn't to keen on the idea...but needless to say she won too!!!

As always, I took pictures of this. I love documenting my children's experiments with the surrounding world. It almost feels like an ongoing collaboration... As with my soon to be featured 'cut out' project, in these images I was very attracted to the 'other subject' - the one that you didn't focus on at first. In this case it's me in the photographs rather than my beautiful Dixie, who has been severely cropped out. 

'The other subject' was an important detail for me. I tend to record my children's life all of the time by taking photos - all their little achievements and creative moments. But this time I can see myself behind the lens. Roles -subject and artist (mother and daughter)are merged within the context of the photos. My memories become hers and her memories become mines.

Now, it's almost 12 o'clock and I am really tired. I'm looking at the pictures I've taken today of my groomed nails and I can't help but thinking 'how long will they last?'... Whilst I was cooking dinner tonight I repeatedly checked them, making sure they still looked pretty and tidy. Tomorrow I will probably already have forgotten and in less than 48 hours I won't even care any more. That's because I know they won't last. The reality is such that I cannot be that careful. I am a full on mother of three who cooks 3 times a day from scratch, I have 2 children in nappies and a 6 year old who's devoted to craft activities. So what are the chances?

This is what my nails look like tonight; Sunday 22nd of December 2013 at 11:46.

I'm planning on keeping a diary to record all the 'accidents' my nails are about to encounter ... Come back in a few days time and find out what happened!

In the mean time Merry Christmas to you all!

Lots of love 

Amy xx

Amy Dignam 2013 ©