PRINTS - FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

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Kephé

Graunig

Raumi

Ma-Lekma

Dûhtan

Berridraun printVwalu1

Vwalu

Vwala

FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

What is the story of our forgotten people? It is a story of return. It is a story of hearthstones and home; of amber from oceans and copper from earth; of men who soar with buzzards and women who weave heron feathers into their hair. It is also the story of ourselves; in a landscape where time spirals rather than runs ahead of us in rigid lines, we look to our forgotten people to remember something about our own lives. Remembering our people, those who are connected to us by blood or clan or land or any other bond that serves to entwine hearts and souls, is part of rooting ourselves in our landscape and shaping the road along which we choose to travel. We learn from our ancestors in order to understand the ancestors we might become.

This cycle of paintings was completed in 1997, two years after coming to live within the very lap of Dartmoor’s neolithic past. It represents the story of the ancestral women of this landscape - four women of blood and bone, and four spirit forms that stand or journey beside them. But it is also a story of women’s lives – eight stages of womanhood, from young girl through motherhood and menopause into the crone years.The original paintings are 6 ft/180 cms high x 3 ft/90 cms, acryllic on board plus woven textiles, leather, bone. The prints are on A4 (31x21 cms) heavy art card. The album SONGS OF THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE accompanies the ancestral cycle and the album OLD SILVERHEAD contains the songs that refer to the eight aspects of womanhood.

KEHPÉ / Heron Track Runner
We are come to this place from the wildwood shades, we are come from the hidden valleys, we have heard you call through the mist and the rain, we have felt your breath on the breeze…

GRAUNIG / The Greening
We have walked many days to the rhythm of your heart, like an echo of drum on stone, these voices are woven with the threads of your song, these people are returning home…

RAUMI / First Hearth
We will build our dwelling from the bones of the earth, we are wed to the body of the earth, we will draw our water from the rise of the stream, we are wed to the flow of the stream…

MA-LEKMA / Bright Edges
We will kindle our fire from the heart of the wood, we will open our feathers on the wind, we receive our living from the soil and the chase, we are wed to the soul of the land…

DÛHTAN / Loom Singer
Now the clans are gathered, the first prayer sung, the first hearth set on the ground, our promise made, our union spun, to the spirit of this place we are bound…

BERRIDRAUN / Stone Teller
The buzzard is risen, the deer is at bay, the wolf is returned to her lair, we embrace you close on the cold of the earth, we touch you soft in the air…

VWALU / Grave Hag
We will dance many days to the rhythm of your heart, like an echo of drum on stone, our voices are woven with the threads of your song, to the spirit of this land we are bound….

VWALA / Long Flight
We have always been walking through this land, we have always worn its vision like a skin but on the inside, move to the very edge, where the old world ends and something else begins, something else begins…

Complete set of eight Forgotten People prints

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