Julie Forrester shares a walking meditation as part of our Thursday Club - online.

The Thursday Club is an art programme for older adults, that usually meets on a weekly basis, in the Crawford Art Gallery. Whether you prefer to look and enjoy, listen or create we invite you to join Thursday Club online.

Develop your existing skills or dip into something completely new.

#crawfordartgalleryhomelife_thursdays

Virtual Extended Thursday Club

Walking Meditation - saluting things

Taking a walk south towards the furthest point of the 2 km curfew. Docklands. On the way saluting everything that came into view, addressing each vision as it arrived, naming it  with an additional acknowledgement using …that …with ….who or ….ing:

Hello chestnut tree who I see everyday
Hello rubbish bin that is blocking my way
Hello ivy reaching through the railings
Hello wall with peeling paint
Hello ash tree with your buds coming out
etc.

You can do this as a meditation on acknowledging ordinary things in the everyday. It doesn’t matter what you say, just say the first thing that comes to mind, allow the words to be mundane (as mine are above), and also to surprise! Keep going as long as you like, you can respond to sound and smell as well.

When you have named many things take out your phone and capture a photo of something - any thing that appeals to you - today I crossed over the railway and noticed the beautiful and ornate repeated pattern of the blue railings, it suggested a dance to me. I said “hello blue railings who are dancing for me”

Then I turned to look back the river and saw a tree, just about to come into bud, forming a delicate screen of veins over some building work on the docks, I thought soon it would be in leaf and will block that view. I said “hello tree, veins of the city” and I thought about how we see trees as lungs and rivers as arteries, and I thought about veins bring the blood back to the heart, this was a soothing thought.

So here I have made a small story. Now I can draw it.
I have my photos and my salutation to guide me in the context.
You can do this too.
You could also do the saluting meditation around the house/garden - even inside - wherever you chose to move, so long as the intention is set.

I have taken baby steps, allowing the drawings to shape themselves, which in turn shape what I am attracted to looking at.
See my photos “Blue railings” and Veins of the City”  below.
You can also find the drawings I have been making on Instagram here:
#crawfordartgalleryhomelife_thursdays

SHARING

You can share your salutations, photos and ongoing artworks here.
You are invited to upload your photos and drawings to Instagram using the same hashtag:
#crawfordartgalleryhomelife_thursdays

You can make comments, suggestions or observations directly to the Crawford education here:

Anne Boddeart
Curator / Programme manager, Learn and Explore:
anneboddaert@crawfordartgallery.ie 
+353 (0)21 490 7857

Emma Klemencic
Education:
emmaklemencic@crawfordartgallery.ie 
+ 353 (0) 21 4907862

Download a handy PDF file here

Here is Elisabeth Magill’s Blue Constrictor, which is in the Crawford Art Gallery Collection

What is going on in this image?
Magill uses photography as well as oil paint in building the layers can you see evidence of this in the image below?
How does the title influence the way you see this image?