Women's Days/Oughterard FamilyResourceCenter // County Galway

"Who could leave such a chair [bed] by such a window even to go and join the view?"  ~unknown

Thank you, Carmel Geoghegan, for one of the most pleasant places in the world and to the Oughterard FRC etc. for hosting me there!

Railway Lodge and Cottage 

Oughterared, Co. Galway, Ireland

This lovely restful place was also haunted.  Or at least inhabited by fairies.

I woke up there the first morning [after working with children at the FRC the day before] contemplating what/why/how I would work with the women who had signed up for a full day's workshop. The little bag of books, tricks and treasures I had brought were spread around me when I heard,

"Why would you want to complicate this?  Why wouldn't you use what works?  Ask the questions again, 'What is the color and texture of your map?' "

                                Who am I to argue? 

These are the women [and children x2] who showed up thinking they were going to paint. Some were hobby watercolorists, some were working artists, some were just interested in the day's activities.  What they did was write about color and texture i.e. 'I am green' or 'I am sand'.  They worked in three groups to combine words into a story/poem, and illustrated those words with a collective map of images and symbols and presented to each other.  

                                           

It was a lovely engaging process [witness the visual connecting elements] that brought unexpected results and insights into how we see  ourselves, see others, AND see others seeing us! 

 

This particular drawing comes from a sweet very shy 12-year old girl who said very little out loud. She surprised her mother and herself with her graphic insight.

The next day, we met again with returnees and one new artist/poet to begin a project to be facilitated/continued by Cliona, the development person at Clann.  Her original vision was that it would be multi-generational, but, after this first session, it seemed that 'story' would be the focus. 

Cliona shares a 'picture' story.

The Irish are famous for stories and personal rememberance flavored with history and tempered with a little magic!  Each person was issued a sketchbook for writing and drawing.  We used pass-around drawing to get us started and the flow of the story came easily soon after.  I have my own sketchbook from that day...ready to take it back to hear the stories and feel the energy collected over time...thanks, all!


 



Storytellers at Brigit's Garden, Oughterard