A Graceful Death has been the best thing that I have ever done (apart from having my children). It has opened my eyes, it has opened my heart and it has made me look into what I take for granted in my life. I have lost a belief in the Divine, and found it again. A part of me died and because of that, a new path became clear. I have found the way I want to go and the kind of work that I want to do. And so the part of me that died, perhaps, had to go anyway. Something new was born, and that is the work I do with end of life issues both as a painter and artist, and as a Soul Midwife.
This blog has been so important in the journey I have taken with A Graceful Death so far. I have logged onto it all my news and thoughts, and have put up the paintings as I have been doing them, since 2009 when I held my first exhibition in my house. I have used it to express myself and I have used it to inform you all of what I am doing and when.
Very soon, I will be using a new website which will incorporate all the work I do. Linked to this new website will be a new blog where I will post all my news and paintings and events. Some of you may have followed the other blog that I write, where I tell of my life and times as and Artist and Mother in Bognor Regis. I want to combine both blogs and to write only one. In this new blog I will put all my news, my A Graceful Death news, my Soul Midwife news, my other artistic news (for example, I have just finished illustrating a new book on the life of Jesus, due for publication in July next month. Totally different work from the end of life work, and just as wonderful). I will tell you all of the exhibitions as they come up, and the things that I am doing that you may be interested in visiting. I will also tell you of the amazing people that come into my world and go out again, and the amazing people that are stuck with me (eg my children. All grown up but still astonishingly unregulated.) I will tell you about the discussions I have with people who inspire me, like last night talking with my dear friend and writer (and eccentric) Olivia Fane. She told me of her thought crimes and went over what she was going to say at a literary festival next month. She told me of the Ego and the I, and how she began to write her books and plan them after a strange event during the night in her house in Cambridge (something nasty in the woodshed etc). And then I shall tell you about the meetings I will have with my Soul Midwife friends in Brighton tomorrow, and what we shall come up with to make our work better.
Lastly I will write about how my friend will come on Sunday to my studio, to make a Life Board with photos, material, paper, feathers, beads, words, poems and so on. We will create her story on a piece of wood, onto which she will stick the things, images, words and thoughts that best describe who she is today after having been through the loss of the love of her life. I know this is a very good thing, I have done them for myself, and they speak volumes in ways we could not imagine. She, my friend, is recently widowed and is oh so very sad. More sad than anything ever in her world. Eileen, my dear photographer and colleague and friend will come too and photograph the event. If this is helpful and good, which I think it will be, I will offer this as a workshop for A Graceful Death alongside the poetry workshops run by my friend and poet Penny Hewlett.
So much to say, so much to write, so much to do. Life is good, when it isn't being bad.
Bear with me. When my new website is ready (it is being designed and created by Neill Blume who made the film of AGD) I will launch it with a teeny fan fare. I will post on here the address and from the new website, you will be able to see the new blog link. And then you can follow me to the ends of the earth. We shall have fun.
Thank you! See you soon. Antonia.
