I met artist Tiffany Robinson (West Sussex) at a conference, where we discovered we shared a walking art practice. Wanting to find a way to support each other and walk together although distance meant we couldn’t meet up regularly, we devised the idea of the Full Moon Walks. Two more artists joined us, Melanie Rose (Winchester), and Flora McLachlan (Wales).
Every Full Moon since July 2018 we have been walking together in our separate locations, usually for one and a half hours. Carving out the space of time to walk separately/together gives the walks a particular quality, like having an invisible companion. I see walking as a connective practice. Walking is the link, between our art practices and a way of stitching together our experiences across distances.
I find there is a companionship and community in walking with these artists and the reassuring Full Moon, with its evocative names, is a Call to Walk each month. Many things may change, weather, landscape experience, but the moon remains constant. We often set an intention before the walk or hold the moon name in mind. It has been interesting to reflect upon my own practice through our conversations. Sharing practice has illuminated each particular process and approach. Paths converge and branch off, overlap and layer.
Zoom link, and Whats App technology means we can meet afterwards in the virtual space to share our drawings, photographs, insights or experiences from each walk; exploring commonalities and differences in our meandering conversations.
The sketches I make are very tonal, focused on the play between light and dark. Often I have used light and dark paper side by side and the marks have travelled over the two pages. I realise what I record on the walks is often a question of approach. I hold my intention in mind and keeping an open mind, use a relaxed awareness to allow an unconscious response to being there. For example on December’s Cold Moon I had ‘pivot points’ in mind. On my walk I came across the old barn which was loosing its roof. The slates delicately balanced. I drew the state of inbetweeness. That walk feels like it also has a pivot point as it is a walk to the end of the lane and back, with a pause where I turn and return.
Using the set intention and moon name gave me a structure to work within.
My challenge now is to move the work out of the sketchbook into another form, whilst still holding to spontaneity and the truth of the sketched moments. I think this will come through a similar use of resistant materials, wax and ink, and an exploration of the emergent themes of water, polarities, duality and light and dark. These themes are as much about the inner journey as the outer journey.
Every Full Moon Walking With Artists -
Karen Howse (Cornwall) myself
Melanie Rose (Winchester)
Tiffany Robinson (West Sussex)
Flora McLachlan / Cottingham (Wales)
Started July 2018
27th July 2018 -5:30am Lunar eclipse, Buck Moon
Route: Underlane, Launceston, Cornwall.
Intention: Carving out space
27th August 2018 - missed as on cycle holiday in Brittany. Sturgeon Moon. Route: none
25th September 2018 - 5.30pm Harvest Moon. Route: ? Intention: Going with the grain, swimming with the current, line of least resistance.
24th October 2018 - 5.45pm Hunters Moon. Route: St Clether Holy Well with Christine. Intention: ?
23rd November 2018 - 4.30pm Beaver Moon. Route: Gallows Hill. Intention: Forgetting and remembering in drawing and in life.
22nd December 2018 - 4pm Cold Moon. Route: Gallows Hill, Holy Well, field, Launceston, Cornwall Intention: Pivot points
21st January 2019 - 2pm Super Blood Wolf Moon. Route: Winton Memorial Garden, Oaken Grove Park, Maidenhead, Berkshire. Intention: Reflect
19th February 2019 - 6pm Snow moon. Route: with Ros, down Gallows Hill and back. Intention: Find the Blue, community of trees.
21st March 2019 - Worm Moon after vernal equinox symbolising end of winter, beginning of spring. Route: Along Underlane and over the gate into the first field, river on my right, Launceston, Cornwall. Intention: Finding Light
19th April 2019 - 7am Pink Moon. Good Friday. Route: Gallows Hill. Intention: looking for moon, drawing absence.
18th May 2019 - 7.30am Flower Moon. Route:Wander, unplanned route. Intention: allowing things to unfold, listen, even the questions come from the place. Making Strange the Familiar. Lost in the local.
17th June 2019 - Rose or Strawberry moon. Route: Underlane, over the gate into the sheep field and by the boggy river. Intention: reflection. Holding the Light.