I’ve come to realise that creativity for me is a never ending process of filling myself up to the point where it overflows – if I don’t keep filling up with new stuff, the flow slows to a trickle and eventually stops. So I’ve learned to make time to seek out new things to inspire me, to devote energy into research as well as production.
A bit like this, though now I’ve drawn it I think perhaps there should be a hole in the side of the bucket for the ‘work’ to flow from, rather than it coming over the top…
The Creative Bucket (patent pending Tansy Lee Moir)
So I’ve been out and about, minus walking boots this time, a bit more smartly dressed for visiting galleries and all that.
I met up with a friend and first of all we visited the Peploe exhibition at Edinburgh’s Dean Gallery, properly known as the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two. It was quite busy and I was not able to take any pictures of course, so you’ll have to take my word for it that the paintings were masterful, striking, elegant and colourful. I loved the way the show documented the development of his work – moving through the rooms I was struck by how different the phases of his paintings were.
Across the road at the Gallery of Modern Art One, we saw ‘From death to death and other small tales’, a show of contemporary works which were in turns mysterious, thought provoking, puzzling, hilarious, irritating and wonderful – Ernesto Neto‘s work falls into the last category, with his sculpture evoking the internal structures of the body, ‘It happens when the body is anatomy of time’, 2000. I sneaked a photo of this one though it sadly fails to capture the fragrance of all those spices at the base of each tube-like form.
The following beautiful sunny day, eager for more, I headed over to the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh with the family.
I love the John Hope building, with its confident, innovative, sustainable design and its welcoming, comfortable spaces. It’s big and busy but it makes me feel at home straight away – I’m not sure what the architectural term would be but it seems to guide you round all its interesting nooks and crannies without ever making you feel like you’re lost.
‘Jalan Jati (Teak Road)‘ is showing in the main exhibition space downstairs and I loved the idea behind this project. It’s an exploration of the journey of a single piece of furniture – a teak bed found in Singapore, and traces it back to where the original tree may have grown. This is a wonderful partnership between scientists and artists with some gorgeous large scale collages made from direct prints from the bed itself.
Upstairs, through the restaurant (where we may or may not have indulged in afternoon tea) is ‘Leafing through Scotland‘, described as “A celebration of the Year of Natural Scotland with a selection of books and objects from publishers across the country.” In the display cases my daughters spotted both books and whisky which we have in our house too!
Finally, though it made no sense at all on the hottest day of the year so far, we toured the famous glasshouses… I don’t need to say anything more other than see these for yourself (with a few photos in my next post to persuade you) – fantastic!