Pocket Space

The importance of creating the right space at the right time.

Welcome to my wee corner of Substack. I am a seasonal artist living on the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland. I am the custodian of approximately two acres of land that includes a woodland, a meadow and my wee garden. I offer a seasonal book arts project for paid subscribers if you are interested and you can read more about that HERE. Grab a cuppa and lets delve into our relationship with the shifting seasons…..

Continuing my reflections on pockets as a way of organising my life as I move into the next decade I am pondering my use of space. I have favourite spaces in my home that I frequent often, usually with a cup of tea in hand. There is my tiny tiny sewing room upstairs, my tiny studio downstairs and my rocking chair by the fire. The journeys I make from the kettle to these spaces never fails to weave a magical glow within me so that when I arrive at my destination I feel instantly in my happy space. I am very fortunate.

For years I also had an outside space in the form of a wee garden studio. I have come to realise that I took the magic of that space for granted. I failed to understand its uniqueness. It was a space away from family life and the noises that go with that. I had the birds for company and we chatted away quite nicely. A few years ago my sister began her own candle business and she lives behind me in a small cottage. She had no space so I gave her my wee studio so she could make her dream come true. It was the right thing to do as it was located nearer her cottage than my house. We have land that we both own.

In reflecting on pockets of space I have decided that that is what is missing - a space where I can be alone with my thoughts and see where those thoughts take me. So, in the new year we are building a new garden studio and this time locating it just beyond my polytunnel so that the journey from my growing space to my creative space is a tiny step. I am using my favourite saying to guide this decision ‘if not now, when.’ I have already talked about how precious time is when you reach 60 and beyond and so I am going to wrap up my pockets of time and deliver them to my new creative space as spring begins to arrive.

I have been a community artist for decades and I still run a couple of island based projects but, largely, these days are behind me. I also used to book village halls and run workshops but those days are dwindling. That is because these tasks are too big and don’t fit neatly in one of my carefully crafted pockets. What will fit is opening the doors of my studio occasionally to welcome one or two folk to a gentle creative workshop with me and that is very much part of the plan. By scaling back I feel I am moving forward in space and time in a way that feels completely right. I also hope to document how I get on with these changes here on Substack. My piece on small ambitions seemed to resonate with some folk and we have now connected and that is the joy of substack as it has the capacity to connect you with folk that see the world in a similar way. I also find that with my Patreon group. We are nearly all either retired, semi retired or about to retire and this shared journey over the past two years has been life affirming.

I want to end with an interesting finding when I was running a creative festival on the island a few years ago. In the planning we were mindful that there should be plenty of activities for the children to do. One of these included a table with lots of lovely resources to make peg dolls. Yes, the children flocked to the table and made beautiful wee dolls. However, they were not the only ones. Folk of all ages sat down to make their own peg doll and it quickly became the hightlight of the festival with folk waiting for a chair to become available. I spoke to lots of these folks over the four days of the festival asking them why this activity appealed to them so much. The answer was always the same ‘it is a lovely small activity’. I rest my case.

Until next time

Fiona xx