Honouring water, honouring grief

Honouring water, honouring grief

My journey with the element of water during my first ceramic residency in Latvia was punctuated by the sudden passing of my father. The feelings of overwhelm, loss, intense heart ache and pain have came, like water, in waves and in floods. Little did I know when starting this journey that this truly traumatic loss would occur, alongside the creative exploration of all that water brings. 

Working with water has been humbling, challenging, enlivening and heart breaking. I shortened my stay and awaited my work over the last week to be fired, cooled and placed in various land art installations in the waterways of Bauska and Svitene. 

When starting this journey, I wanted to honour the creative flow of something deep within that wanted to emerge, I wanted to honour the rivers of the land that I was visiting in Latvia. I sat and walked and observed the different water ways, and wanted to respond to this vital life force in a new way. I wanted to follow the shape of the river, the curves of her banks and inscribe words of blessings with my hands into each ceramic piece that could be carried along by the river, and with it my intentions to learn more how to ‘go with the flow’, to be present to the currents of emotion as they come and go, to sink into the feminine aspects of deep feeling, to be vulnerable, to be soft and adaptable, to let whatever comes come, and whatever goes go.

During this residency I sank deep into the grief of the sudden passing of my father, and so too I offered my tears to the river, realizing that this too was another layer of working with water, allowing to give life to this yearning I have held for so long, to give water and life to my creativity that I have held back from for so long in a new way, by shaping earth into forms that I can use to honour and communicate my love of the natural world around me. This was done alongside the feminine forces of three women, @bonesceramics @laimaceramics @larekaat who helped me on this journey this last month, and the helping hands and hearts one meets along each river bend.

I waded into the rivers and beautiful banks and gave my offerings of shaped clay, each tiny wave was a prayer offering to water where I offered my tears to the river, and to my father.