Blog Post 14: Making it up as we go along……… Celebrating the accidental

Good Saturday morning

All of the below is written against the backdrop of the terrible assassinations of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris - and in its shadow acknowledges the ongoing power and danger of art in the free expression of speech. My thoughts are with their families.

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To be honest I feel like a gourmand this morning. Its been a feast of a week, and I make no apologies for eating heartily. But I am not talking about 'actual' food, although there has been some of that and very nice it was.  I am talking rather about spending much time this week in feeding the imagination and soul in long ideas exchanges with fascinating and original others. The challenge with this for me of course is ensuring the quiet space to at least attempt to synthesise these, capture these flitting creatures with a butterfly net, not least to get the logic bit of my mind engaged in the 'hows' of materialising the ideas, albeit not on my own thank goodness.

That's the moment too when I get that feeling of being full up to the point where the only option is to lie on the floor (or in my case the chaise longue, strategically positioned in the Boathouse Cafe). This time its not Quality Street and mulled wine, but an excess of shared imaginings.

The thing about the shared act of impromptu and accidental meetings and conversations is that its usually exhilarating, challenging and intense. If I had to give this last week a themed title in retrospect I would call it - 'The Case of Quality in the Arts'. My reference still more secretly epicurean than conceptual. Albeit I have been exercised this week by an invitation from the painter Miro Tomarkin to make some sort of thumb print about how we define quality in the arts in a group he has set up for Creative Barking and Dagenham to open up this time-old discussion. I have to admit to feeling pretty much like running in the opposite direction when asked to articulate my thoughts  - not because I don't care of course, I do. Just because like capturing the butterflies, its equally hard to 'word' and even in the 'wording' I know I miss. But its Miro - so its quality in action - who am I to abscond?

The weekend began the Case of Quality with the unexpected and delightful arrival on Sunday of my dear friends Peter and Dorinda Hulton (Dorinda was my teacher at Exeter University where I studied Drama).

Peter and Dorinda Hulton

I just love synchroncity - they had come into my mind with a certain guilty feeling on Saturday evening - I hadn't been in touch over Christmas. So I dropped Dorinda an email, to which she promptly returned the message to say she had been trying to reach me on the phone. I emailed back to say I hadn't got the voicemail, due to the rather embarrassing and possibly predictable fact that I had lost my phone in Hersham in Surrey whilst in pursuit of an e-bayed Yamaha guitar for the cafe. However in spite of this painful truth about my lose-everything-syndrome I was indeed free to meet them, and excited to share with them the physical and imaginative environment of the BH. They are the most generous of people, and fully enter into the experience of things, excited by what their old students are up to - full of thoughtful, quizzical observations and curious questions. As ever, stretching the thinking.  Peter always with a twinkle in his eyes and a searching question …. or two.

Over impromptu salad, dips and pitta bread we got to talking about quality. I won't go into the detail (an essay in itself) - suffice it to say that we agreed that the sometimes 'bureaucratic' language of definition can erode the very vitality that courses through a piece of art. Its not that we shouldn't be talking about quality, its that the language with which we talk about it could benefit from metaphors and symbols so fundamental to the work itself. One of the words I like to use, and which Peter picked up was 'portal' which means to me a transportative entry point into 'other' worlds of emotion, image, sensation, thinking. 

Its not my word of course, its a universal concept common to mythology, shamanism,religion, psychedelic drugs and indeed now ubiquitous in IT (no coincidence there then?).  But isn't that what we do when we enter into the experience of any stirring piece of art whether as makers, participators, audiences?  Just because we can't find words to describe our experiences sometimes does not deny those experiences nor their visceral and alchemical impact in our lives.

Ellias Tomarkin

So from that unexpected and delightful lunch to the arrival of the Tomarkin family, Daniela, Raef and Ellias, with Iqra, our anonymous commissioner and Naz the feisty UEL teacher I met in the charity shop. Candles, tea and cake are becoming the norm on a cold Sunday afternoon. The only agenda for this gathering was for Miro's son Ellias to meet Iqra to see if it would work for him to mentor her in her composition for Barking and Dagenham's 50th anniversary this year. 

Ellias is a school boy from Dagenham who after he finished Year 11 at Robert Clack school got a music scholarship to Eton (a place he accepted not without some reservations to begin with).  He's a talented solo flautist - and has the choice now of going to any of the best conservatoires, this week hearing that he has also got a place at Oxford. Our hope is that Iqra's world of music will open up for her in the same way should she choose it to do so. And on top of that one of our motley crew plans to buy her an instrument. 

Iqra

So to the pragmatics of this week. To my delight Miro has agreed to become our Fine Art Curator at the BH and will exhibit in the studios in March. He will also curate exhibitions of other artists' work, and has started to bring some to visit already. Most excitingly he has decided to install an easel in the studios and will start to paint in and around the building from next week. So having a coffee and a cake and watching a fine fine artist at work will be a special part of the Boathouse experience. He might even make you a cuppa if you are lucky. 

Miro Tomarkin

Inspiration for an allotment boat

We are planning to plant up the 'allotment boat' on the terrace with vegetables and herbs and Kathy Mason from Plantastic is helping us with that - bringing colour and scent to theBoathouse outside area.  And there's more. A meeting with Steve Drury yesterday has given us permission to put into motion some exciting and very different ideas and pieces here - some exciting secrets - so watch this space. I could go on - there was much this week that contributed to the next development stages of the Boathouse. On a personal note I feel very supported and nurtured by so many friends and colleagues in getting this project off the ground. And to top the week I had coffee yesterday afternoon at Planet Organic with my dear friend and Iyengar yoga teacher Sarah Scott who I haven't seen for two years. 

This week my lovely osteopath Alison Brown gave me  a copy of a book called The 'Honesty Pot' http://juneburrough.co.uk/the-honesty-pot/ the inspiring story of her friend June Burroughs and the setting up of the Pieran Centre in Bristol. Its a fabulous example of setting up a new venue and although not specifically for the arts  - the values and ambitions have real resonances for me for the Boathouse. Worth having a look I think if you have an interest or desire to become involved in the BH development.

Thanks to Daniela for her lovely photo of the Boathouse cafe taken this week.

The current exhibition in the Boathouse is the work of Judy Baker.

If you are local (and even if you are not!)

A little plug -  I am looking for volunteers to join me in many aspects of the running of the Boathouse, from cafe management to curation.  So if you fancy it - email me on boathouseicq@gmail.com and we can have a chat. Our Board of management recruitment will be underway next week also! So lots of opportunity to get involved. 

Much more to share on the growth of this little 'babbie' - so probably going to dedicate an hour or so now once a week on a Saturday to write a blog post of the Boathouse voyage. To those who are dreaming and implementing it with me- thank you. You know who you are! 

Have a good one.