Hello All!
Greetings from New Zealand! This relatively brief email update breaks my prolonged email dispatch silence. The last six months have literally been a whirlwind of intense and at sometimes stressful study, research, editing, drawing, photography, writing, exhibiting work, graduating and most recently traveling. The last segment of the course was full of deadlines related to my thesis, our two exhibitions (one at the college and one in the nearby city of Bristol) and the work therein. I ended up doing an installation of my thought drawings, as well as continuing with my collaboration with Anna Keleher, which included a film installation of our Approaching an Exchange: Dartmoor project and a semi-choreographed walk on Dartmoor continuing our exploration there (which included harnessing the power of walking to churn butter!). These months were fruitful and quite simply full to bursting with learning, but also very stressful with seemingly too much to do in too few days. I have yet to update my website with recent work from the exhibitions, but keep an eye on www.clairelongarts.com. It will be updated soon.
Overall I was pleased with the course and the rich experiences and personal connections that came from it. My art practice, scholarly pursuits and general life trajectory was shaped and particular interests revealed and illuminated by the course and the time to reflect on what is important to me in life. It was a very concentrated year and I have many strands to pick-up and pursue further now in our travels and when we return to NM in the spring. Despite the amazing environments that I have experienced this past year, I have missed the high desert mountain environment with all of its ups and its downs. I am eager to settle into one place and make it home, although at the same time, conferences and residencies are already beckoning!
Since the finish of the course, Chris joined me and we managed to hitch up to Glastonbury, the Lake District, Scotland out to the Isle of Mull and Iona and then back down through England for the graduation ceremony. For the most part we had excellent weather and good fortune with hitching. We met some wonderful people and poked out heads into some very interesting worlds. People were very generous with us. Only on one occasion did we feel uncomfortable after accepting a ride. And only once did we get stranded and had to walk into a strange industrial estate to find a train to get us on our way.....the Scottish highlands are amazing and the Scots are wonderful folks. We briefly returned to Devon for my graduation, and to say final goodbyes to dear friends. We then headed to Ireland for 11 days, into Dublin and the Southwest. We thoroughly enjoyed Dublin (despite the rocous location of our hostel smack dab in the middle of Temple Bar), where we walked all over the city taking in sites, museums and guinness. We made our way around with a combination of hitching and buses. We spent 3 nights at the hostel at Dzogchen Beara, a Buddhist center on the Beara pensinsula, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea. Long walks and a little volunteering went a long way to slow our pace and relax into the environment. We spent Thanksgiving in a pub on the Dingle peninsula and didn't realize what day it was until one of the musicians pointed it out. We rode bikes along the dingle peninsula, enjoying the rapidly moving weather and stops along the way for ancient forts and beehive huts.
So now, I am writing to you from Waiheke Island, where we landed when we arrived, and where my dear friend from younger years, Gabrielle, has taken us in and under her wing into her exciting island world. We have been relaxing, eating well, frequenting the beach, attending island parties and generally living "the good island life." Our first impressions of Aotearoa (New Zealand) are wonderful!
We are off tomorrow for some adventuring in Coramandel, a peninsula across the bay from Aukland, which is well known in the area for it's natural beauty. We will be exploring a hot water beach, hiking walking and hitching around the peninsula. We will be back here on the island for the holidays, where we have a house sitting job until the middle of January. We have had our feelers out for temporary under the table work opportunities as well. Some little jobs are surfacing, so hopefully we can make a few kiwi dollars before we head to the south island in late January and February for more exploring. We hear such amazing descriptions of the South Island - we can't wait!
It is strange being in the Southern Hemisphere for the holidays. The capitalist rush seems much less here and the seasonal spirit is one of general vacationing and partying, as the summer holidays coincide with the Christmas holiday.
Although traditional Christmas trees are for sale, my favorite is the pahutakawa, a native evergreen, which puts on an incredible display of red flowers at this time of year; a festive plant.
We would love to hear what you are doing these days. Early holiday wishes to you from both Chris and I from down-under!
Warmly,
Claire
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