Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th June 2017
11 adults, 8 children camped at The Mothership
The group immersed themselves in the land and created a mythology through creative workshops led by Hester and Anna.
Alexa de Ferranti, Katie Gatehouse, Mary Caddick, Claudia Dharamshi, Kate Genevieve, Katy Marshall, Janet Osborne, Martin Wooster, Shona Mcnaughton, Hester Schofield, Anna Best.
Write-up by Katie Gatehouse –
Evening 1: On the Friday evening we enjoyed an informal and very friendly meal sitting outside whilst chatting and introducing ourselves. After the meal we had a chance to introduce ourselves and our journey into creativity. We took turns to speak and the rest of the group listened. Those of us who were not “artists” were welcomed equally into the group and their was no feeling of hierarchy, being a non artist I felt completely accepted and valued and listened to. There was a simplicity and ease of communication that evening and challenging and interesting conversations began to emerge.
Day 2: The morning began with a breakfast and chatting, cementing the group further. The planned activities were suggested to the group and we could choose how to make it a unique group activity there was no right or wrong way to do things.
The activity of becoming immersed in the country side began and we were guided into the process of writing, we felt and spent time alone to be inspired by the environment we had chosen to be immersed in. We then came together as a group and in a trusting group where we were able to express ourselves through writing.
After lunch the afternoon was spent immersing ourselves in a bog in the local environment, we went in bare feet and wet suits and many of us described feeling childllike and excited by our experiences. Somehow we were able to become so immersed in our experience and think of imaginary worlds, we laughed together and began to weave together stories using our imagination and gathered objects and experiences of the afternoon as we walked back through the wood.
We arrived back and put the morning and afternoon sessions together and began to write a group story with a map of our environment, we a immersed ourselves in our imaged character and the writing began……. We built and weaved and drew a wonderful imaginary world from our experiences in Powerstock and collectively wrote the beginnings of a story. Our final work felt really valuable as we all felt a sense of excitement of the new creation
The weekend gave me a sense of great wellbeing of acceptance into a group, of forming new friends, discussing new ideas and building on mutual understandings, of using my intellect as well as developing writing skills and creating something new and exciting with a group of people all working in the same understanding. I came away feeling empowered and inspired and hugely thank full for being invited to take part in this fantastic weekend.