Old Year New Year

Amazingly we are almost at the end of the first month of 2025. I'm not at all sure where the month has gone to.

Last week Sara-Jane led the first poetry zoom session of the year.  The warm up exercise was to choose from one of five titles and write a poem or piece of prose.  I chose Between Silences.

Between Silences

Words were stilled.
Muted before the sounds
could reach the air.
Subdued, suppressed,
censored by petty debate.
Free speech gagged by order
of the righteous minority.

Outraged, a fearless few
stand to be counted.
Unwilling to be silenced
they speak the words
that some want forgotten.

It is said
that all that evil requires
to prevail
is that good men do
nothing.

The silenced rose up,
clawed back the words,
the thoughts, the rights
that the inconsequential hoped
to cast into oblivion.

Now no longer silent
the muted sounds reach the air.
No longer subdued, suppressed or
censored between the silences.

The theme for this Theme Poetry Session was New Year Traditions.  There are some really interesting traditions around the world.  Have a look on the internet for yourself.  I chose to write about the change from the old year to the new.

Old Year, New Year

Janus, the two-faced god
of Roman myth
looks back at the old year
and forward to the new.

The god of new beginnings,
of gates and doorways,
of choices and transitions
but also the god of endings.

His month of January
can only start
with the ending
of December.

The new year can only begin
with the finish of the old.
He stands in the opening
heralding the new.

Janus, the two-faced god
of Roman myth, looks back
at the past and ahead
to the days to come.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Commonplacing

I first learned about Commonplace books from Mary Brack in 2013.  It came to my attention again when reading Valerie Sjodin's blog post.  Keep scrolling through Valerie's post until you get to it!

I've long wanted to have a commonplace book but I always seem to manage to put it off.  There's always something else to do.  Plus the biggest stumbling block for me is starting - making the first mark on the page.  And I know I don't have to start on the first page.

Of course, the book is for me and not for anyone else but I still don't get going.  But 12 years on from first hearing about it, I've decided 2025 is the year to focus on one.  (See what I did there - focus!)

 I chose a Yop & Tom A5 dotted notebook.

As I've already said, I struggle with new notebooks - the white page that dares you to make a perfect mark - when you know that there will always be imperfection.  So I got some stickers and put them on random pages.

On this page I added Washi tape.

While I was tidying up I found a couple of things that I'd found a long time ago and had put in a pile wondering what to do with them!  They're now in the book.

I wrote out the chorus of a song I particularly like and decorated the page with two types of Washi tape.

Hopefully now that I've started, I can keep it going.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

A Precious Present

For Christmas the Hopper Juniors and Minis gave me a leather bound journal.  It came beautifully wrapped in a box and brown paper both of which will get a second use!

   

The leather is soft and highly strokeable.  Inside it's a loose leaf binder with beautiful cream lined paper.   I've removed a fair chunk of the paper and put it in an envelope to keep safe for later!

The issue was what to use it for.  I wondered whether to keep it until September 2026 and use it to record my life when I'm the Artist in Residence in Hurstville.  However it seemed a bit ungrateful to not use it for another 20 months.  And there's always that problem of putting something in a safe place.

And then not being able to remember where the safe place is!

And then it came to me.  Why not start now by using it to record any ideas I have for the residency between now and then.  Make the journal the safe place!

I started by making some dividers out of Kraft card.

I wrote out the poems I've written so far on the theme  of Captivity, Freedom and Identity.

I printed out my application for the Residency and put it at the front of the journal.

I've been using Claude.ai to research my theme.  I am amazed by this AI site.  I feel I got about 18 months worth of research if I'd done it in the library in less than 10 minutes.

I have pages and pages of notes on:

• words related to the themes of captivity, freedom and identity
• a deeper look at how the themes interrelate
• exploring the spiritual dimensions of captivity, freedom and identity
• exploring the psychological dynamics of the the three themes
• exploring the historical connections between them
• exploring the historical intersections
• exploring depression through the lenses of captivity, freedom and identity
• exploring the themes through Christianity and the practical applications

Then I tried captivity, freedom and identity in textiles.  It came up with

• the historical contexts
• symbolic representations
• contemporary artists
• cultural significance and resistance
• Underground railway quilt theories

I had seen a large installation by Chiharu Shota when we visited Adelaide in 2018.

And lastly I tried convict transportation to Australia and textiles which produced:

• convict skills and labour
• symbolic items
• resistance and identity
• legacy
• the Parramatta Female Factory

We have visited Parramatta three or four times and didn't know about this factory.  On my list to visit in 2026.

There's pages and pages of it.  Each of the sentences above has lists of things underneath so rather than write it out I've printed it out and put it in the journal.

I need a lie down now!

I'm really pleased with how far I have got with the journal.  It will be a repository for ideas, lists of things to take with me, and any more research that I do over the next year and a half.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice