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Robin Paris - Recent News and Events
January 2012
I've been in my new house since mid-November now. It's great! The buzz of the unknown…
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Two doors along there's a footpath straight up to the moor, passing between fields on the way. It leads eventually to the Hurlers and the Cheesewring, two well known features on Craddock Moor, one natural, one man-made. The Hurlers is a Bronze Age grouping of three stone circles. Traditional lore says they are people turned to stone for disrespectfully hurling on a Sunday (hurling being a traditional Cornish game). The Cheesewring is an amazing geological phenomena, a huge stack of weathered granite slabs. The nearest part of the moor is Long Tom Moor, named after the menhir turned Cornish Cross of the same name. In the opposite direction is Trethevy Quoit, a Neolithic burial chamber standing 2.7 metres high and topped with a very large capstone (3.7 metres long, 20 tonnes). All are astoundingly inspiring of the awe kind.
The village and parish are also steeped in mining history, primarily tin. Ruins of former engine houses, chimneys and associated buildings and spoil heaps abound, but I don't feel drawn to these other than where nature has reclaimed. What will be interesting (to me) is whether and how the mining history influences my work, and when I might become aware of that.
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Moving was one big hassle. Packing anytime is a chore, even small-scale like bike panniers when cycle touring. I thought last winter I'd gone through pretty much everything and reduced my 'stuff' but still there were 'things' I wondered if I really needed. Because my current home is intentionally not permanent (waiting for the ideal to come up) I graded things into: A will need; B may need; C unlikely to need (so leave packed and stored); D def don't need (endeavour to recycle or pass on). My new year resolution is to leave this house with less than I arrived with, a challenge already being addressed.
Not being well didn't help, hard to admit as I try to stay fit and healthy. A combination of frozen shoulder and bronchial asthma, just what's needed for packing and moving boxes. Back in early July I thought it was only a pulled muscle in my shoulder, the kind that rights itself after a few hours or days, though the sudden lump on my arm and occasional strange pain was worrying. The offer to buy my house also came in July and naturally became the focus of my time. Resignedly a few months later a visit to the doc led to hospital scans and eventually diagnosis: frozen shoulder being a relief after the earlier suggestion of ruptured tendon! At its worst I couldn't even tuck my shirt into my trousers or hold the kettle while filling it, I was living almost one armed. Sleeping was uncomfortable. Packing was slow but aided by some very kind friends.
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Something dusty? musty? spore-containing? in my house (I think I know what as it's the third time it's happened now) brought on an allergic reaction which itself led to a hellish cough and bronchial asthma. I usually sneeze like there's no tomorrow with dust, but not with this culprit. I carried on packing but was out of breath all the time, resting after every 'activity'. Despite a fortnight with a herbal remedy in the end, with deadline day looming, reluctantly but gladly (because it worked) I took steroids. A bonus was finding shoulder relief as well as returned breath, though the herbs may have helped. The shoulder is now about 95% normal (though I keep overdoing it) but strength in my arm needs building up. No recurrence of asthma.
I gave up my work storage unit too, moving almost everything back here (a few things are stored elsewhere). The bulk of that storage was for framed batiks, slotted into large purpose built racks, and a range of wooden frames for stretching fabric for waxing (hence, 'stretchers'). The frames store on shelf brackets and are designed to fit inside each other to save space. I have far more than I need for myself, but for workshops they are a necessity. But when paying for storage like I was, I have to wonder whether the cost of that justifies the small income I make from teaching.
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So… to the future. I feel free to work again which is such a release from those hampered days with the house and studio on the market. But being a rented house the kind of work I can do is limited. Using hot wax is pretty much off the agenda with no extractor fan and smoke alarms in every room. There is an outside building (the office) which could possibly be used in warmer weather but its low ceiling means wax fumes just where I want oxygen. But that's OK, as I have this 'rented house' time earmarked for fulfilling ten projects (some creative, some administrative and some research). First off is working with paste resists and organic vats learned from Michel Garcia last summer. The old chemical woad vat came over with me but is now exhausted (ie used up) so I'm buzzing with anticipation…
But frustratingly I cannot completely switch off and immerse myself in work (which is how I do it best) while also looking out for somewhere new to buy. All being well I will have moved again before next winter, that's the plan anyway.
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