Be careful what you pray for …

I have had a very busy summer, particularly when I took my studio from home and Jelly Reading to reside in the Turbine House at Blakes Lock in the town centre. I had been planning it for many months understanding that a residency means … just that. I had to up every stick of my practice and take it to a redundant Turbine House, on the edge of and extending over a furious weir on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Here I lived and worked from 10am ‘til 6pm for 7 days. There was no plumbing or living accommodation, so I went home each night. It was a most extraordinary experience and beyond explanation. I hope the results of which will be revealed next spring when I return.  As I said, I was prepared with 13 characters and the bones of a story, but I wasn’t confident that my skills would portray them fully. The story was far too bony and my skills negligible.  In my trepidation I gazed into the seemingly purposeful waves of the weir and prayed …

The Turbine House is a museum and open to the public and popular with sightseers especially during the school holidays. So, while I pleaded for inspiration, I got visitors, not exactly what I needed but they proved to be my saving grace. Especially ‘the man with a camera’ about whom I will talk more fully later, he, like the interested visitors kindly prodded and poked exposing my raw unknowingness. Providing vital questions that while I was able to answer immediately (because I was somewhat prepared) but more importantly I was able to address them more fully later and since, when time and space allowed. I was able to imagine and write more complex stories for my flawed yet well intentioned dolls, or superheroes as they had become in my stories and little films in their home beside the canal where it mets the Thames.