The Mind. Best friend or Boss?

No one else knows us as well as our minds do, they've been with us from the beginning, seen everything, been through everything.  
Above all, they've protected us.

Like an incredibly clever, generous but, lets be honest, a pretty bossy friend, they're always there to help out.  When we're not looking they pop up with a solution/reminder, they'll create a sense of guilt to keep our moral values in place, hoick us back in time to a memory we'd much rather forget... and they think this is the only way to help. 

But they're doing this in order to protect us - from getting into the same scrapes again. 

We're pretty damn privileged to have such great mates, but ... god, they can be pushy.  And, frankly, they don't always know best.  There are other ways too ...

So they just need to be asked (very gently) to leave us alone sometimes.   

Learning how to quieten the mind has got to be one of the hardest but most exhilarating things I've ever done.  

When I manage to get there (and with practice this is getting longer each time) it feels like I've come home.

 A physical sensation of complete peace over-rides everything.  Worries disappear ...

Guilts and anxiety's dissolve. 

And problems get fixed.

I'm seriously recommending you have a go at this Mindfulness Meditation lark!

I'll definitely be including an element of it in my Sculpture Classes from now on.  For more details on where and when, go to: http://www.katenewlyn.com/

Today's Sculpture ...

Today's sculpture: Tribute to the Dispossessed is another piece made in Turkey last summer, inspired by the book I was reading at the time: Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres.

The book is set in the same village I was staying in, Kayakoy, a hauntingly beautiful ghost town, once occupied by both Greeks and Turks alike.  

But at the end of the 1st world war Ataturk (the father of modern Turkey) set in place a whole range of social reforms, including the enforced emigration of thousands of Greeks from their Turkish homes.

Louis de Berniere captures the agony of this in his astonishingly beautiful book, and inspired me to make a portrait of one of these exiled Greek women.

I then took it to the top of the ruined town, to a little church, as a Tribute to the Dispossessed.  (An idea given to me by my good friend Racey Vance with whom I was sharing the cottage).

Tribute to the Dispossessed By Kate Newlyn. Kayakoy 2013

Next year I'll make a portrait of a Turkish woman who's life was similarly disrupted by the enforced "importation" from Greece to Turkey, in this extraordinary "swap". 

I haven't really analysed why this is so important to me, there must be some sort of connection I feel with the situation these people found themselves in.  But in a way, it doesn't really matter, not knowing.  Ideas for Art bubble up from unknown places sometimes - its the expressing of them that's important.

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(If you haven't read Birds Without Wings : do.  Is especially this year -100 years on.

~ ~ ~

I'll be regularly posting pics of sculptures on this blog now,

But if you want to see the ones already on my website, here's the link:

http://www.katenewlyn.com/

Goat-Keeper

"Goat-keeper" by Kate Newlyn (For Bronze)

This is the sculpture that I feel most about at the moment.

She was a goat-keeper in Turkey, I caught sight of her sitting in a dry field among her goats.  It was just a glimpse, nothing more, as I walked along a hot, dusty road on my way to sea.

Something about her stillness and patience moved me.  The fact that she probably spent a lot of time sitting in that field with those goats, I wondered what she thought about and how she felt.  

From that fleeting glance she seemed sort of content, not lonely or bored or impatient.  Just there.  And that was enough.

I made the sculpture when I got back to the cottage I was staying in.  It was one of those rare pieces of work that make themselves, no effort needed, just a little time.

I'm so glad I did.

I hope I see her again this year.

~ ~ ~

I'll be publishing images of these relatively new sculptures onto my website soon, (http://www.katenewlyn.com/) but I'll post them here first.

Happiness

I decided to be happy too, dispite the MS diagnosis.

  

So I've accepted all the help the NHS is offering me, (which includes these wonderful Meditation classes) I stopped working myself into an early grave, checked out if I'd be fit enough to do the work that's essential to my life and, having got the OK from the Medics, started setting up another High Sea's adventure for this coming summer, one of my Sculpture School events: a week of sculpture on a boat, cruising the south coast of Turkey.  

This is our boat.  

90 foot long: loads of space for 12 people to hang out, sunbathe, sculpt, wind-surf, swim, canoe, and basically have a bloody good time.

These are some of the lovely folk who came last year

I'll be teaching for 3 hours in the mornings under the cool of the awnings out on deck, while our captain sails us to our next destination.  We'll drop anchor in a different bay each day, one of hundreds scattered along the glittering coastline, fringed with pine forests and thick with the scent of herbs. 

Great meditation spot

Sculpture exercises will be simple and fun, with results that always amaze my students (and still amaze me, after years of teaching)

Sculpture workshop on deck

We'll be eating delicious food, freshly prepared by our on-board chef and served by lovely stewards...

Lunch in another sparkling bay

we'll have a say in where we fancy going, the captain consulting us on a daily basis, so if we fancy cruising down the coast to the sunken city or up to the Rock tombs, its totally up to us...

Fethiye Rock tombs

There'll be freshly made pancakes passed up to us by local pancake makers.

tea-break c/o the fabulous pancake lady

There'll be meditation sessions in the mornings for anyone that fancies joining in... 

Perfect spot for meditation and for snoozes

and G 'n' T sessions as the sun sets over the mountains...

Heaven on earth

And each night we retire to the luxury of our cabins...

The Dulux Cabin

Luxury Cabin

One of 2 Twin Cabins

One of 2 Double Cabins

Lovely ey! 

All cabins are booked now - but if you fancy coming next year, contact me soon.  There are only 12 places available and they tend to get booked up fast. Check out my website if you want to know more about it ... http://www.katenewlyn.com/  

Now onto the next thing that's going to make me happy ... a walk in this clear evening with my lovely dog.