This month my blog will not have many words, but images to take you on life's journey. The end of one year leads into a new year, also a re-shuffling of the generational pack of cards. As new generations are born and old generations die we all take a slightly different place, but there is not really an ending, just new beginnings, each day is the start of the next day in our lives, with new opportunities and challenges, sometimes regrets as well at lost opportunities, and renewed intent to make the most of each day. So I have been thinking about the way endings join on to beginnings. We are filled with nostalgia on New Year's Eve, but how recent is that ? New Year's Day used to be the 25th March in the Julian calendar and was changed to 1st January with the Gregorian calendar. The legal year began on 25th March until 1752 in this country, by which time we were out of step with the rest of Christendom (Europe), and had to adjust by losing eleven days. But that is another story. The simplest of Celtic artworks are designs that have no beginning and no end. There is something very calming, you can trace your finger around the knot, your eye continually moves around it, it somehow slows you down. Celtic knot symbols represent eternal life, the relationship between man, god and nature, the interconnectedness of life here on earth and the life to come. Christianity adopted the three pointed Celtic knot to represent the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and this is the symbol I look at most Sundays in the window at the front of the church. Celtic designs crop up all over the place, and we are going to look for them. Of course Celtic designs can also be very complex. The craft of carving them in stone required great skill. This is a sketch by the artist Fred Lawson of the Saxon cross at St Oswald's Parish Church, Hauxwell. There are many other examples of such ancient art scattered around some of the churches in this part of the world. St Michael and All Angels church at Spennithorne has this ancient cross, I love the carving at the top. These ancient stones remind us that there was a place of worship and preaching in these villages well before the present churches existed. Evidently there were different styles which could identify a school of carving, and the one at Spennithorne has more in common with crosses in the Midlands than the earlier example at Hauxwell. I went to visit Stonegrave because of the association with Alice Thornton nee Wandesford, a 17th century lady of great spirit and determination. From the outside you would not think there would be really ancient stones inside but - This is inside Stonegrave Minster or the church of Holy Trinity, near Helmsley. Very ornate. The church was part of a seventh century group of missionary churches which included Lastingham and Kirkdale. Evidently this cross is tenth century and exceptional because of the interlaced ornamentation surrounding panels which tell stories from the Bible. These two images are from St Gregory's at Kirkdale, between Helmsley and Kirkby Moorside. If you have never been then you really must , it is a special little sacred place. The pictures of Stonegrave and Kirkdale are care of Woruldhord hosted by the University of Oxford (creative commons). However, look at the picture on the right - it reminds me that I make my very own Celtic designs which have no beginning and no end ..... There you are - a not very flattering picture of me. But what you need to know is that this was made from yarn called "Rico design creative melange chunky" and took 6 balls of 50 grams, the pattern has a central panel of cable knitting. I put my knitted creations on my Ravelry pages. www.ravelry.com/projects/gimmerlamb More cable knitting. Some years ago I visited Dublin, fantastic place, I would love to go back again. I was most impressed with The Book of Kells on display at Trinity College. This is a beautifully illustrated book of the Gospels kept in a monastery at Kells, County Meath. The page above has symbols of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The intertwining patterns with no beginning and no end surround each panel. Whilst in Dublin I also visited the National Museum of Ireland and was quite blown away with the display of ancient gold objects, so richly and skillfully decorated with fine ornamentation. Hoards of gold objects have been found in bogs, dating back to the Middle Bronze Age, torcs, rings, collars. Early medieval Ireland continued the rich tradition of gold decorations, and brooches, belt buckles, cups and chalices were decorated with Christian symbols and Celtic knotwork. Above is the Tara brooch found at Bettystown, County Meath, early 8th century, and evidently the back of the brooch is just as ornate as the front, such skilled metalworkers. I concluded that finding all this gold in bogs must have been the origin of the Leprechaun guarding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow ! A few years ago the British Library in London was gracious enough to allow the Lindisfarne Gospels to return back to the north where they belong, and for a short time they were on display at Durham. They are not as richly illustrated as the Book of Kells, but the illuminations or decorations are exquisite. This was made at the beginning of the 8th century, and when the importance was the story in the text, you do marvel at the time and trouble to make such complicated designs. This design is called the "Cross-carpet page" and introduced the Gospel of St John. But now we are leaping ahead many centuries to this painting called "Tristan and Isolde" by the artist John Duncan [1866 -1945] and is on the ArtUk website, and the original in the care of Edinburgh City Council. Look at the Celtic designs. John Duncan was one of many artists who belonged to the Celtic Revival Movement, just a little after the Pre-Raphaelites and a bit before the Arts and Crafts Movement. Duncan illustrated books with "Celtic Ornament" which he researched from Pictish symbols and the Book of Kells. His paintings showed ancient myths and legends as stories and are "concerned with ideas rather than the realism .... producing exquisite recreations of ancient Celtic legends" DNB Tristan and Isolde was a love-triangle involving magic potions and a Cornish king and Irish Princess. The story was also used by Richard Wagner. Above is the Manor House at Mount Grace Priory, a Carthusian monastery well worth visit, but do also visit the old Manor House which was once lived in by the Bell family, industrialists in Middlesbrough. They were patrons of the Arts and Crafts Movement and some rooms have William Morris wallpaper (central picture) and William Morris upholstery on chairs (right hand picture). These all over patterns also have no beginning and no end and are some how very pleasing. William Morris [1834 - 1896] was a designer, writer, poet and many other things as well, promoting the work of many other artists and writers. He began the Kelmscott Press which published beautiful books with intricate designs. I do not have any Kelsmcott books but I do have ONE book published by J.M. Dent in the Everyman Press series. I can see the echo of Celtic design in the intertwining leaves. I have a book of prayers called "Sounds of the Eternal" which is illustrated throughout with pieces of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts which are in the British Library. They are very similar to the illuminated Gospels with their intricate designs with an endless theme. Commentary links them to Arabic designs and illuminations in the Koran of Syria and Persia. And here is another design, this is called Panca Nari Geta or the Five Women Knot, and is at the Horniman Museum , on ArtUk website. It is originally from Sri Lanka and depicts five women intertwined and supporting each other. Perhaps this is a good place to end one year, and start the next, recognizing that we women (and men too) have interconnected lives, and we do each support one another, one generation holding up the next. All these designs have made me think that the current trend of mindfulness and colouring-in-books have a place in modern life. So I hope that you take the time to trace your eye or your fingers along the patterns that link one year to the next. A Happy New Year and thank you for sharing this blog. Do share your thoughts (and patterns) with me.
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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