Of Muses, Princesses and Men in Kilts

Now, didn't I come up with an intriguing title there! And it's true. I was going around like a whirling dervish today trying to fit as much in as possible. That's the problem with hibernating. Once you awake from that state you realize that you have almost missed quite a few exciting happenings and have to fit it all into  this week.  Today I met up with goddesses, as well as princesses, a trapped boy, and a handsome chap in a kilt.

First up was Gillian Cooper's exhibition Unsung Muses in The Scottish Storytelling Centre in the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, located in John Knox House. I wasn't going to miss that show and it's still on till the 21st February. It's located next to the very nice coffee shop area. I enjoyed seeing how Gillian is developing her goddess theme.

On the way out I tried very hard (oh yes, I did!) not to look at the extremely tempting bookshop located in the Storytelling Centre, but somehow out of the corner of my eye I spotted an image of Su Blackwell's amazing paper sculptures. She is one of my most favourite artists making paper cut imagery from vintage books. Once I had seen it and saw the book was filled with her art it became a must-have. It's a fairytale book called: The Fairytale Princess; Seven Classic Stories from the Enchanted Forest. By Su Blackwell & Wendy Jones. To make it even more special it contains some of my most beloved fairytales such as Rapunzel, The Princess and the Pea and Sleeping Beauty. Needless to say it came home with me.

After all that excitement I stopped several times in the Royal Mile to take pictures. It pays to look up there as well as through the openings of those old Closes (narrow alleyways in between buildings). I saw the amazing carving at the top of the entrance to Paisley Close and you can see it at the top of this blog. It has an interesting story attached to it which goes as follows: on the 24th November 1861 35 people were killed when the rotten timber supports of the building collapsed and workers trying to free the trapped inhabitants heard the cries of a young boy (Joseph McIver) saying: "Heave awa men, I'm no deid yet."  When the new building on the site was finished both boy and words were commemorated with this sculpture. 

A bit further in the Royal Mile, I discovered the kilted figure standing on a beer barrel to advertise the Celtic Craft Centre Kiltmaker.

And with a bit of luck there will still be time for some stitching today. Very rewarding. 

Synchronicity and Su Blackwell

As regular readers of this blog will be aware, I love finding examples of synchronicity. or serendipity as it is also known, in life. Whenever it happens (and it does very frequently to my intense delight) my heart gives a happy leap. The Su Blackwell synchronicity event is even more special as a total of three happenings came together, in a very short time frame. And I wanted to share them with you so we can all celebrate what the universe gives with such a generous hand.

The first thing that happened back in December was that I received an e-mail from my very good friend Lenna Andrews (who lived in Connecticut at the time!) alerting me to the opening of an exhibition by Su Blackwell in Edinburgh (only 15 miles from where I live in the Scottish Borders). You can read all about my visit to that exhibition on a previous blog post here.

The next thing that occurred was that I received the last issue for 2009 of the Dutch magazine Libelle. My mother treats me to a subscription as a Xmas gift every year and it's one of the few Dutch language publications I read on a regular basis. Can you imagine my amazement when I saw one of Su's artworks on the front cover. You can see it above. The text reads: almost 2010. I have no idea why it found it's way there but I was delighted to have this large picture of a piece I had loved in the exhibition.

Then very recently I was reading a blog post by another of my on-line friends, the art quilter and fellow lover of all things sparkly Tristan Robin Blakeman and I really could hardly believe my eyes when he too featured some gorgeous pieces by Su on his recent blogpost.

Of course the fact that Lenna, Tristan and I like the same art is hardly a revelation. We love each other's work so we must share similar tastes. But to have all this pop up so close together in time (although definitely not space!) is like a fairytale to me. Very appropriately as Su's work is very magical and fairytale like in its conception and execution. In fact, one of her works was build on the base of a book about fairytales. And a magic wand was wielded to make all these events come together!

Day out in Edinburgh

I spend today in Edinburgh. Very unusually for me (I'm not really a public transport sort of person!) I used the Park and Ride facility. Edinburgh has been a nightmare to drive around in lately as they are putting in a new tram line and this means finding out where to go on every trip. And just as soon as you get to grips with one route, they change it overnight! Anyway the tram activities have been suspended for the festive season but that same season means problems with parking so the bus looked like a better option. And it was although you have to keep in mind that the bus time tables should be filed under Fiction!

The reason I went was the exhibition by Su Blackwell called: All the things I love are going to disintegrate. You'll never guess how I got to hear about it so I'll tell you (illustrating once again that life is stranger than fiction!). My very good friend Lenna (now hopefully safely arrived in Florida!) received a notification about Su's exhibition in an e-mail. As it was rather difficult for her to drop in all the way from the US (!), she passed the e-mail on to me and although I could not make it to the opening last night I went today on the first day it's open. There aren't many pieces, but they were so beautiful that I could only stare in total amazement and enchantment. Here is the link to Su's blog where you can see pictures for yourself. She has already sold 3 pieces (despite them being over £3000 each). Why, oh why don't those pesky lottery tickets come good!!! I really adored the way the paper sculptures left shadows on the side of the box frames, adding to the fairytale feeling.

Above I'm showing you a picture of Dundas Street in Edinburgh where the Scottish Gallery is located. If you're in the neighbourhood, don't miss it!! I felt Lenna was with me in spirit but it would have been so much better if she could have been there in person!!

Of course I wondered around Princes Street to do some Xmas shopping and discovered the Christmas Market was already up and running, full of lovely wooden stalls with continental Xmas goodies.

I discovered poffertjes for sale (a typically Dutch delicacy) and found it impossible not to indulge!!

I think they must have had some alcohol in them as the next thing I did was really quite insane (although I enjoyed every minute of it!!). I spotted the big wheel going around in the fairground and in a moment of madness simply had to give it a try. You can see the Scott Monument in the background of this picture.

The opportunity to view Edinburgh from above was too good to let slip and with my camera in action I went around several times. You can see the new tram lines in Princes Street on the picture above and the picture of the Xmas market shown earlier was also taken from the wheel as was the one at the top of this post!

What a day!!