Barebones and Snowlight...

Today was barebones and blossoms, Snowlight and halflight, sunshine and blizzards; March in all her moods... It was blue ink pouring too long past midnight and boys talking books oceans away... I'm stitching maps and drawing down storms, making plans and lists, casting wishes and setting wills, and hoping it will all come true... I'm snow white in the forest with a hound for company, tracing paths and rewriting tales one adventure at a time...

Today I love every blue in the sky, I love snow and the crackle-pop of corn and the fire, I love the flicker-light of candles, films or hope and I will always loathe impatience. Today the woman I want to be gets up early and gets it all done, she's happy in a crowd and success doesn't seem so far away...

I'll...

I'm making myself a map, covered in red stitches and blue ink, books of fluttering pages pinned down, wishes made into plans somewhere between my ribs amongst midnights and witching hours... This is past work, sent as a portfolio in the hope that a dream will turn into maps and plane tickets in my hand. This is some of what I am; fairy tales, words on white, silk stitches and still snow, tales of this land and the land itself, Irish and green, superstitions and the sea, I'm that weather watcher gathering charms and the rains washing in...

And this is a work in progress, written one summer night;

I’ll draw down the rains. I’ll call up a storm.
I’ll bargain at the crossroads,
that time, that place
I’ll shut my mouth; store up the heart-sore ah’s
and those floating butterfly oh’s until you tear
them from me.
I’ll build castles brick
by brick,
a house of cards to come tumbling down.
I’ll stitch in the stars and still the night,
I’ll steal away the hours
and hide them between the coffee and the jams.
I’ll cloak myself in the blue of that sky and the strength of days,
wrapped around me like a blanket,
still nothing to your heat;
quiet and scorching,
like August on the sills.
I’ll tie up my hair, and keep it for only you;
curl by dark,
bewitched curl.
Something to unwind
like honeysuckle in the night,
heady and damp.
And still I’ll charm those apples and I’ll tell the bees
I’ll lay aside that honeyed halo
and I’ll befriend that fickle sea
All this
until you come home to me.

All lists of intent, words and wills and I'll set my will now, because scars create strength... Today is green and turf fires, high smoky skies and we're still in-between. Today I love tulips, I love popcorn and films flickering in the dark, I'll always love tea and cake and laughter and hate inconsiderate words or actions. Today the woman I am is barefoot, she wears red like a charm, and she's not there yet but she can feel that familiar sense of hope...

Follow the Red Line...

Thirteen Tales of Love, Death and the Weather
On exhibition throughout the
University of Ulster, York St
and
at SpaceCRAFT, College st
Belfast
23rd May-4th June

My masters show is currently on exhibition and will be up until June 4th, if you're about the city please call in...

I hope to have images and a website up and running soon,in the meantime Culture N.I have featured my show, so hop over there for a few pictures; Fairy Tale in Belfast
Today is as cold as autumn and as grey as the jumpers I'm wrapping myself in, but freedom is on the breeze and I've so many plans, winding themselves around maps and promising starry nights and honeysuckle days, cake and dreams within reach...
Today I love old friends and laughter, I love golden champagne and sparklers like stars on my tongue or in my hand... I love, as always, peonies decadent and oh so pretty, I love chiffon dresses and that warm south wind. I hate half truths and avoidance but love promises kept and kindness... Today the woman I am knows herself, she trusts the dawn to come and knows someday soon she'll sleep sound...

We're half way there...

1. ♥ K loud, 2. Untitled, 3. wedding dress, 4. Untitled

The Equinox has again come and gone, and summer is on the breeze whispering in from the south promising golden days and starry nights. Things are coming together, and I'll get there somehow; on a wing and a prayer, by maps scribbled in blue ink that read like lists and with a little help... I'm dreaming of blue skies and that blue lough stretching into tomorrows sky, my red shoes and dresses floating on that summer wind, that heat slow and lazy and bowls over-full of strawberries. Yet before all that I need to keep scribbling; thousands of words on white, and stitching in red and gold, early blue mornings and late inky nights, but I'm nearly there...

Today was calm and windswept, golden light and tea gold rain, blue and grey and as always green... Today I love daffodils and creamy lace, creamy coffee and brownies for breakfast. I love laughter and soft jumpers as grey and fluffy as the sky. I love thoughtful actions and loathe thoughtless impatience. Today the woman I am wears red shoes, she has fire in her hair and the moon on her fingers, she is still bargaining with those rosy apples but she knows their tricks and can charm them just the same...

Words, Wishes and Wills...

Black as a raven, dark as a hearse,
black as jealousy and deep dark earth.
White as snow and pure as love,
pale as bone and snowy dove.
Red as blood, raw as grief
red as birth and pure silk sheath.
Black beady eye and feathers white
red evening sky and wings taking flight

Today has been snow, rain and hail and the sky is falling down... it's on my boots, in my hair and trailing across that wooden floor. I'm casting spells to turn boys into birds and I've woven charms to change then back again. But is that where the freedom is? On the wing. Brothers and boys should be free, yet sisters and lovers always wait behind.
I've tied myself up in knots and there is no one now to undo them, but what magic is that, more a magicians trick, a few right words and I'll be free... I'm baking cakes, tall, dark and Irish and I wonder if there's some pumpkin charm in that, some midnight chime, or a call... Those boys with paint on their fingers and this land in their eyes, wolves or lambs in leather jackets, and I'm always pale, dark and red.

Today I love words on white, my words sounded out in another's voice. I love evening light and nightly rain, deep and black like ink, I love those primroses and the newness of spring, I love the whiteness of snow and hate even white lies. Today the woman I want to be is Sunday mornings and sunlight on the sills, she has walked those lanes so far from here but she is home, and she's never been so sure...

(The image and narrative are for The Juniper Tree, one of my red tales, and the recipe for that cake can be found over at Darjeeling Dreams)

Red tales and the mean reds...

Tales of Love, Death and the Weather
Installation and Work-in-Progress by Siobhan Rodgers
14th-19th March 2011 at PS²

The show will consist of old work and work-in-progress, my red tales, embroidery and my superstition cabinet. The aim is to test how people view or read the work, create work in the context of the narratives, present that distinctive fairy tale aesthetic and expand the collection of superstitions. I'll be there all week sewing and gathering reactions. Any visits, feedback or superstitions would be very welcome, if you're about the city call in...

Today was blue skies and grey stormy sleet, warming spring and ice cold, it's that place in between, March; month of ides and lies, something untrue, I can barely wait for the stable ground of April, my birthday, new beginnings, cake and blossoms on the trees, green and sunny heat... I still have threads in my pockets and that black cat is still wandering around, as black and red as hell or my hair, and that thin edge of panic has yet to subside...
Today I love piles of blankets and piles of books, all in my own hand. I love those long rolling conversations, I love maps and nights when every star is in the sky, I love possibilities and loathe decisions left unmade... Today the woman I want to be is content in a crowd, she never has the urge to run, she lives what she loves and she trusts the days to change...

Tea, Tales, Tides and Tidings...

All images from flickr

Oh it’s been too long since I last wrote here… I’ve been writing so many other things, days of writing, books of pages, I always have blue ink and bruises on my hands; little dents that mark where the pen sits. I’m not long back from Donegal; I spent my hours writing by daylight with steaming cups of tea and nights beside that peat fire, which smells so much like home, trying to conjure those tales in words and rhythm. It rained every night I was there, that deep, aching rain I feel in my toes. That fickle ocean was there of course, a constant wash of tides that have touched a thousand other shores and that tiding of magpies are still roosting beside the house; so many the old rhyme doesn’t count high enough, if they bring good luck or ill only time will tell…

Spring is finally stirring and I find my mind not on those dark tales of transformation, snow, apples, blood and ice, but on The Weather Watcher, I tucked her story away for a stormy sunny day…but she’ll have to wait a few months more, brew a little longer, as I’m rapidly running out of time on this Masters course. The tales, all thirteen are drawing together, all deep darks, reds and whites; those wild geese are dressed in the green of this land, Briar Rose is leaving princes bloody and heart sick in her wake, Gretel is alone but no longer wandering, she’s tending that oven… Red is in bed with the Wolf, Snow White has turned temptress just like her mother, those bones are wrapped up in silk, the spell cast, Beauty and the Beast are nightly making their neighbours jealous, Bluebeard is still keeping count, the bread is baked, those charms pinned in, and don’t you know the little man’s name? And me; I’ve put on my red shoes, I have needles and threads in my pockets and a pen in my hand, I’m tracing those maps deep into the woods but I know the way, I’m stronger than the Snow White they all take me for and I’ve plenty more tales to tell.

Today was blue and thin spring light, as cold as winter but not as true. Today I love books; words and gateways… I love tea and truth and those white sheets. I love tulips in a shock of red. I love kindness and patience and as always I loathe cowardice and words unsaid. Today the woman I want to be laughs like the early morning, she is beauty and grace and she sleeps sound. She never has to guess or doubt and kindness doesn’t make her stall… someday.

Golden Years

1. Untitled, 2. Just Peachy, 3. flowersinmarais, 4. Cappucino

In walked luck, and you looked in time
Never look back, walk tall, act fine.
-David Bowie

I’m spending my days weaving still and writing again, covering pages in ink; they flutter around me like those falling leaves. I’m reworking the old tales, today it’s Beauty and the Beast... It’s domestic, words scribbled in haste and love. It’s golden and content. It’s one of the few tales about real love; it’s acceptance and compromise, it’s hard work sometimes but anything worth your heart should be... A few thousand long stemmed roses later and they’re still waking the neighbours, he’s still writing her notes in the morning, and she hates their bed without him; all heat and quiet strength. She’s put the pain down, made her peace, he’s atoned for his sins, each kiss bringing him closer to absolution...

Today is golden and tastes like peaches. Summer has taken another breath, champagne and fiery leaves. My hours are filled with tea, but I’m making changes and my signs won’t settle... Today I love candlelight and starlight, I love whispered promises, kept. I love flowers for no good reason, I love blank pages, fresh notebooks and blue ink. I love long rolling conversations about everything and nothing at all and as always I hate half truths...
Today the woman I want to be laughs more and her hair tumbles like those wild roses. She knows the way home, she loves without doubt and has many more tales to tell...

Holy Wine

Just before our love got lost you said I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, constantly in the darkness Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar
-Joni Mitchell A Case of You

Oh I look up from this stack of books, from these charms and tales and the days have turned to months and Summer has given way to Autumn. My world, so long stagnant, suddenly changed over night; a sea change of such force I'm still reeling. A wish I never dared to make granted. An unconditional act of kindness... And so I'm lighting candles and watching for stars, my days taste of coffee and pears and smell like hope. My horizons are wide once more, there is salt and sand on the breeze, my feet itch and those maps in my veins are whispering again... I'm making plans; I'll flit with the swallows and no longer hold my breath...

Today Love, Death and the Weather are my daily bread but I will no longer sip that bitter holy wine... The house has stilled, those bats have found another home and fire fills the grate. That rain drums on the roof and arches the light into colour, the rolling thunder stirring the butterflies within me. My fingers still ache from roses, my sleep is not yet dreamless and I am not yet home, but just give me time.
Today I love laughter and the blood that ties. I love those gritty pears, notes scrawled in ink and love and anyone who brings me tea. I love truth and kindness and as always I loathe uncertainty... Today the woman I am knows her strength, she has weathered those storms, she can't see her own future but she'll weave it as she goes... She'll slip on grace with her shoes and dance until dawn. Those she loves will know how to find her, you'll know which trails to follow...

In Search of Lost Time...

Your kingdom for a kiss* and a rose for your soul...

Where does the time go? Summer has blown in with the swallows; a tangle of marbled skies, winding roads, salt on the air and those honeysuckle stars. I’m working on my masters’ project now; making those tales tangible, thirteen of them... My days are filled with it, love, death and the weather never far from my mind. I’m dancing circles, barefoot and dreaming, weaving some magic, charms fit for kings... the rooms fill up with that summer scent, all grass and heat and rain; it drums on the roof and makes my mind wander and my feet itch. I’ve stacked books high, my fortress, and I leave a trail of tea cups wherever I go; a map to find me by...

Today my fingers are numb with pins, rope and ink and still I cannot sleep. The house shifts in its sleep, restless and waiting, for what I don’t know... The bats still fall into the fireplace, the birds tap at the windows and there are frogs where it is damp. I long for blank notebooks and the stillness of dawn, but all I have are scribbles and the taste of coffee on my tongue.
Today I love laughter and how it fills a house, I love that summer rain; its rhythm and its scent. I love the green of this land and that green silk against my skin, I love the blue of the sky and sometimes those blue stars, but no one follows me there... I love fresh sheets and now loathe shoes... Today the woman I want to be is worthy, she sleeps sound and dreamless and she can walk through words as safely as she can walk through those bees. She has no crown, no halo but she is home, she has planted peonies and trusts the sun to rise...

(Title by Marcel Proust)
*Paraphrase of Lover, you should have come over –Jeff Buckley

Of Lilac Nights and Days

1. Not available, 2. in the shade, 3. Berry Luminous, 4. Autumn - Morning #5
Take them then, my curls, and stay a while 'til morning; leave me with blue skies and your boots by the door...

I woke this morning in those moments before dawn; the world still, pale and a thousand shades of blue, that blackbird the only sound. It made me itch for blank notebooks and fresh sheets, steaming tea in the early light and the scent of lilacs and salt on the breeze... Today the sky is white not blue and the wind blows in from the south, whispering in foreign tongues and making promises it will never keep.
I'm into the last few weeks for college, as usual I'm surrounded by papers, piled high or pinned to walls, I need to find some order to it, stitch it all together somehow. I always work this way, I leave the narratives strung across my studio walls, catching the light and the breeze until the last possible moment, it's the fear that if I put them in order and hand them over that no one else will see what I see...

Today I have the urge to just run. The house smells like summer and the lost boys are waiting for me to finish the story but there hasn't been a star in the sky for three days... Today I love blueberry cake for breakfast and those swallows flying home. I love slow food and slow travel, slow days and slower nights. I love, love and all its kindness and loathe bitter words, hurtful and cruel. Today the woman I want to be has long dark hair, she is kindness and bravery and she shares beauty like other women share candy. She can finish that story, she can close her eyes and know his heart and she doesn't ever doubt...

Falling ash and Scheming stars

Love, tell me what metal are you made of?
Well you must be from some scheming star.
- Everly, Scheming Star.

For a week it has been as blue as summer, that honeyed sun sprinkling freckles across my skin, the wind blowing soft and slow from the east; promises, promises... That ash is falling unseen until there is a diamond shine on everything and the gulls fly inland calling out in the otherwise still air, trouble following not far behind. And yet despite the disruption I can't help but marvel, the world is vast once more; the distances between not mere finger-lenghts or hours, but days and adventures, that ocean is dark and cold and deep and love less easily proven...

For college I'm still scribbling and gathering; I always have blue ink on my fingers and on pages and blue thread tangled up in knots. I've been questioning and determining irrational characteristics, personifying the tales and superstitions and finding the core of how they, or perhaps how I, tick... I need pebbles, pure white and smooth and bones, chalky and bound, red silk and playing cards, blue china the colour of truth and waves and brambles once they've greened. They sit on shelves and lie scattered across my desk, and some midnight, when that clock with no swing decides to chime, I'm certain they'll transform into beauty and narrative...

Today I still have sand in my shoes and that thread in my pocket, I love eyes the colour of the ocean and anyone who brings me cake. I love sparklers; burning like stars in my hand and tea after midnight. I love laughter and truth and men with paint on their fingers, and as always I hate decisions left unmade. Today the woman I want to be, laughs more and gets up early, she plays music through the house; soft and low. She loves easily and compliments never make her stall... Someday.

Light and Some Falling Rain...

Spring is finally here, green and true. That lazy heat is slowly waking; it’s on the night breeze promising those long hot honeysuckle nights when every star is in the sky, it’s in the ground under my bare feet, whispering of daydream days and those daisies in my hair. I’m gathering stacks of books to me, I’m dreaming of maps and winding roads and home, someone else in the driving seat, and dancing ‘til dawn. But before all that I have so much to do for college; I’m still gathering objects and images and nightly I’m waging war to shake the poets and the beat*... shaping words and rhythm into something resembling those tales trailing through my mind. I cannot place Snow Whites voice, I fear she is what Anne Sexton called a “dumb bunny”, so I write the queens instead, I have more of her fire in my veins, or perhaps it is that she is now queen; all that snowy innocence melted away...

Today I love green; the pale green of spring and that deep slow green of summer, the green of this land and the green of a rambling mans eyes. I love the scent of sunlight and the soft patter of rain. I love those stories told of starlight, teacups on the counters and cake with candlelight. I love those little truths no one else knows but I hate words that sound like lies. Today the woman I am isn’t china and porcelain, she isn’t a lock to be picked or a secret to tell; but she is chaos theory and between the lines, she’s fire and patience and a pair of red shoes, she’s those white sheets and a map full of stars...

*Kings of Leon; Use Somebody.

The Weather Watcher... (part II)

That wet sky is in the teacups and the light hangs like lace, she has woven in the rains; breathing green upon the world, her bare feet are stained with it and there are droplets like diamonds in her hair...

The rains have set in, and I can’t say I’m sorry; it makes the light arch into colour and drums on the roof, a rhythm that calls up so many memories, nights with books and candlelight, gold-grey noon’s under blankets and when the rain washes you clean you’ll know*. Old images here, I’m itching to have my camera back in my hands so I’m watching the light and the green, waiting for the world to bloom and the days to lengthen; golden mornings and lingering nights... The Weather Watcher is forming in my mind into a side narrative; it’s a tale full of everyday folklore, she has long raven hair and her nimble fingers draw the storms down, her pockets are full of threads, hand-wound around spools and her garden is full of flowers and bees, she’s falling for a man who is as calm as a lull, he stills her world and smells like sweet rain; we’ll see how her story turns out...

Today has been full, as usual, with pages and tea, with inky pens and those riverside blues, night came slowly; the daylight stretching out like a yawn and the stars turning blue. Today I love lyrics that stay with me and the scent of oranges, I love rain on the windows and that evening gloam, I love laughter and long-known friends and as always I hate uncertainty. Today the woman I want to be is grace, she knows her heart not just her head and she dances in bare feet, slow tangos on the kitchen tiles...

*Quote: Fleetwood Mac; Dreams.

Of Tales and Tea

Oh March; month of lions and lambs, of ides and days dressed in green, month of spring fever and frost on the glass, days with daffodil rain, lemon light thick enough to be cut like cake and rose sunsets pouring like tea. Mad as a hare and twice as late. Month to keep those jumpers on over dresses and to keep hearts safe and close, else they slip through your fingers and fall through the too thin ice...

Today was stormy and grey, flat calm and sunshine, nothing has bloomed and we’ve removed all the clocks... It’s days like this that I wish my hair was honey gold, my skin was porcelain pale and seeped daylight and my lips were peaches. But my hair is as black as coal and the night is in my veins, my skin is snowlight and starlight and my lips are stained by cherries; their pips piled high for curses. I’m the type of girl who carries books bound in leather and falls for wolves and hunters and poets, the type of girl who slips through the cracks in the universe or wanders off the edge of maps. I’m the girl in the red dress, the girl bargaining with apples and covered in soot. I’m the girl who knows too much about knots, who sits behind a wall of thorns and knows for certain the only man who could make his way through, will find himself there by getting so badly lost...

Asterisms

While she slept the stars stood still, the wolves were silent and those birds didn’t fly and yet the roses grew tall; a wall ready to tumble at his feet and all the nights were days, fragrant and dust grey...

I'm attempting to forge ahead with remaking/rewriting the tales for college; making them tangible, sounding them out in rhythm and setting them in ink. Making connections, tracing those red maps, late nights spent wearing out pens and days forming needle wounds and thread burns on my hands. Briars, bones, red silk and red thread, pebbles; pale and smooth, storms in tea cups and foxglove fingers, snow on the ground and paths through the woods, and so much more... Thirteen Tales of Love, Death and the Weather.

Today has been full of papers and books and my arms full of flowers, the sky is full of birds and stars and those perfect red apples tell me letters I'm not sure I want to hear. Today I love words on white and well worn notebooks, I love windswept skies and the grey of my scarf; lace and fluttering, I love the green of this land and boys with green in their eyes and as always I hate hurtful anger. Today the woman I am dreams of keys and honeybees and rainy days, she is so very restless waiting for those swallows to fly home and that pearl still sits in the hollow of her throat...

(first image is by Sara Morris)

Casting...

1.portrait4, 2. Herbier, 3. lilies2, 4. the heart of baking
She was brought up on a diet of spells and tea, fairy tales and candle light, flowers in her hair and dancing barefoot 'til dawn; after that there isn't many ways a girl can go...

For college I've been looking at stitching and knot-work; the folklore of drawing down the rains and tying the wind in with knots, Lovers, Crowns and Reefs amongst others. The processes have become the aesthetic of the work, I'm surrounded by spools the colours of the sky, blues and grey, the threads tumble down the walls. And yet I have the feeling that I'm a little too superstitious for it, I'm afraid I'll somehow stir up a storm...
I've been so distracted recently; I've burnt cakes, and tipped too much sugar into the mix, made pots of tea only to find I've left the tea in the jar, I don't know whats wrong but I need to snap out of it!

Today the air smells like spring and peat smoke, and the ground is finally stirring. Today I love rambling tales, I love daffodils and snowy soft jumpers and the smell of popcorn. I love thoughtful actions and as always I hate unfairness... Today the woman I want to be can tell those tales, her rooms are filled with golden flowers and golden light, she is at home in a crowd and is so very sure...

The Doldrums...

Tea, cold on the counters
Blackbirds and honey bees
Time slowed to a whisper,
flat calm and grey
Raw as morning and pebble smooth.
His sails lie idle,
listless wishes and wasted time
And those moving hands rattle her bones

My days have slowed, almost to a standstill, each one grey and brittle like that place between sleep and awake; the cold of morning and half forgotten dreams. March is here, that treacherous month, a month best waited out with cups of tea and a stack of books, and that's what I've been doing; poetry and anthropology, novels and theory, all piled high.

Today it is as cold as winter and as clear as spring, the sky is a scattering of stars and my tea leaves read like a book... Today I love tea and toast with jam at midnight, I love the feathers that weave themselves into my hair as I sleep; sound and deep. Today I love that sea green scarf and the smell of leather and paper, I love lyrics and lines both old and new and I hate words left unsaid. Today the woman I want to be is somebodys' daylight, she wanders between the rooms in bare feet and jumpers, her walls are lined with books and she knows every star in the sky...

Black Magic Woman...

Raven hair and ruby lips...
-The Eagles

This morning I woke early to find a dusting of snow covering my world; still and beautiful, a blank day waiting to be filled. I've filled it, as always, with tea, with stitches in red; silk on velvet, drifts of paper and books; piled high and fluttering, and wish bones; delicate, white and chalky. I'm slowly reforming the old stories and isn't that how all the best tales begin; a needle and thread, red on snow, bones wrapped in silk and a wish... A spell cast without intent, woven with thread, weather and blood; and so it is that beauty is conjured, raven black, blood red and as white as that snow, and no good ever comes of it; the boys turn into birds and disappear over those woods, the girls choke on apples and are set in glass, those red paths are tricky to follow and anything made with blood and bone always comes with a price...

Today I love cups, heat held in both hands, and toast with raspberry jam. I love the snow but I love that sense of spring. I love daylight; cold and golden, and filtered through vines and glass, I love cake and keys and as always I can't stand thoughtless impatience. Today the woman I am wears red silk shoes, she makes hot chocolate as dark as night and can trace those red maps, she's fought for who she is, she now loves that song and she'll never be cadged...

A Life of Rain and Roses...

Save me for a rainy day

There exists, in the universe, a certain law that ensures whenever life smells like roses the wind picks up and the rains set in... The signs are there of course; the scent of something burnt and bitter amongst that heady perfume, bats in the bedrooms; unbidden and circling, the tapping at the windows that is something more than just weather, ignore them at your own peril. Once that wind blows in from the North change is in the air; it may be something best forgotten come back to haunt you, nightmares and starless nights, it may be some darkness carried in on someone’s breath and allowed to roost, merely biding its time. It's the past standing in the street as if it never left, its precious things becoming something lost, it's the wrong choice at the crossroads, the wrong words and the wrong time... When that North wind blows tie blue thread into your hem, stitch it to that lover’s shirt, stand still and wait for the calm.

Today I wish for sleep behind a forest of thorns, safe and long, if someone is brave enough they can wake me up, just give me some time... Today I love soft knits and silk on my skin, a beautiful defence from the cold. I love that my hair is as black as a curse or spilt ink and the gold and cream of my grandmothers cameo ring; all heritage and myth. Today I love the comfort of tea with family and as always I loathe selfishness in any form. Today the woman I want to be knows the way, she dances in the rain and doesn't tend those thorns...