Suture Shirt

So I started working a project about my stitches and how much I miss them since I've had them removed. I took one of my shirts and used Naomi's wood burner to burn a hole in the back right where my mole was. The burn mark ended up looking really similar to my mole... weird!

I did the burning on top of a rock as not to damage my table top.
I love the resulting burn mark on the rock, especially since its right on top of the scar-like mark.

After I burned the shirt, I cut out the burned area.

Scab window!

Then I stitched my shirt back up with acrylic coated embroidery floss.

Now I have a shirt with stitches in it. That way, if I am missing my stitches, I can put the shirt on and they're back again!

No more stitches!

Today my professor took me to the local medical center to have my stitches removed. While lots of people offered (and everyone seems to have done it before) I opted to pay the 25 euros to have a nurse do it since its such a weird cut and even weirder looking stitches.

Here is how they have progressed over the past two weeks.

On the 13th the Dr. went back and removed more, hence the growing incision.

Once again, the Irish people were delightful. My favorite part of the experience was when the nurse was filling in the student doctor (who got to practice removing sutures with mine) by saying, “she needs these sutures removed now that it’s been a fortnight.” They were also pretty cute when I asked them if my professor could take pictures while they did it, for an art project. They were confused, but totally fine with it. The nurse even offered to give me the stitches afterwards as a joke, and was delighted when I excitedly took them from her.

The nurse pointing something out to the learning doctor.

I was happy to learn that she removed my stitches with a razor blade only AFTER the procedure was finished.

I have a few ideas for work based on the stitches. Hopefully I’ll figure it out a little more and post about it soon.

Time to get to work!

We made sure to wear our reflective vests on those scary roads.
We also made sure to take a mid day ice cream break when we passed through town.

After getting our studios set up, the second day we were able to get started on our work. Rachel, Naomi and I went hiking around the Burren all day. We wanted to take advantage of the landscape (and local delicacies) right away. Naomi began collecting Hazel, Rachel started measuring and catologing rocks, and I started taking self portrait photos of myself in the landscape. We climbed up the side of the mountain behind the college, hiked home to change out of our we clothes, and then hiked back to the fairy fort we saw on the tour the first day (but didn't get a chance to explore then.)

Two weeks ago I was diagnosed with a melanoma (skin cancer) and had it removed in two surgeries only days before leaving for Ireland. Needless to say, this event has had some impact on me and will become a new focus in my art work. I really wanted to take a series of self-portrait photos while I still had my stitches, so today Rachel and Naomi helped me take a whole series of photos. These are just a few.

While I don't think its the direction my final work will go while I'm here in the Burren, I am really happy with the way the series turned out. I definitely want to keep working with my stitches (and scar in the future) and find ways to address issues about the sun, exposure, shade/shadow, fear, and mortality... but there a lot of issues to address in a month!

All in all, it was an awesome and exhausting day of hiking all around the country side! Can't wait for more!

First day in the studio

Today was our first official day of class! We all took the shuttle (the van driven by Robert) to the college bright and early and met Anna (a person of importance, but I don't recall her official position) in the school's cafe for coffee and biscuits before the day began.

The Cafe would soon become our favorite place.

After an introduction by Mary, the president and co-founder of the school, Tim showed us a great little informational movie about the Burren which reinforced a lot of the points he made about the landscape on the tour. He reminded us to take advantage of the unique landscape and look at our art work in ways we have never seen it before.

Then we were off to see (and pick out) our studios! On our way to school, Robert (the van driver/head of maintenance/art shop guy/wood shop guy/and all around does everything guy) asked us if anyone like the color green. At first we thought he was just making an Irish joke, but it turned out that there was a studio that had been painted mostly green that he hadn't had a chance to paint white yet. He thought he would ask us if anyone wanted a green studio before he went through the trouble of painting it.

The green studio

After I saw the green studio I loved it! And immediately volunteered for that one. But I had to either find someone else you liked green to share it with me, or paint one of the walls white for the other person. Luckily, Naomi liked the green studio too, so now we're roommates and studio mates! Noz for life!

View of the studios.
Can you find mine?

After we got settled and Robert went to take the wall paint back to the work shop he asked one more time, "Are you sure you like it all green? You don't want any white walls?"

"Well, can I paint half of a wall white?" I asked.

"Sure, it's your studio, paint it striped if you want!" was Robert's response and left me with the paint and roller. So I decided to paint half of one wall white.

It felt really good to be able to get right to work on something.
Even if it was just painting the wall.

I left a little green stripe on the outside edge so I wouldn't miss my studio.

 The back area and sinks had windows with beautiful views to the meadows all around the school. There are so many animals at the school that they deserve a blog post all their own! (Look for that one later)

Can you spot the cow out the window?

 After a productive first day Naomi and I decided to walk back to the village instead of taking the van. After all, it's only a little over a mile and half and it was another beautiful day.

Walking down the driveway of the school.
Yes, that's the school back there, castle tower and all!

 Robert, Tim, and Martha all told us about how dangerous the road was. So we were prepared and knew what side of the road to walk on, and to cross over if we were coming up to a blind curve, and to make ourselves seen to drivers and so on and so on... but man! We were not prepared for actually walking it! The road is only about as wide a one way street at home, but cars drove down it both ways! There is no shoulder at all, none! There are literally stone walls covered in thorny scrub right next to the road. And the speed limit is 100 kph! Ok... so that's only 60 mph, but still! 60 mph on that tiny ass road!?

My wide angle lens makes this little road (and its non-existent shoulders) look much larger than it really is.

In the end, we made it home without incident, but it was quite an experience. Luckily drivers expect people on the road in this area because there are lots of hiking trails through the Burren and slowed down and pulled over for us, but it was still quite a nerve-wracking walk.

Tomorrows goal is to explore the "back way" to get to the college, which involves a wooded trail... I think I can handle that!

Tour of the Burren

For our first full day in Ballyvaughan, Tim (the dean of the Burren College of Art) took us on an amazing tour around the Burren. We got up early so we would have time to enjoy ourselves before the scheduled day began. We took a walk out to the pier across from our house and said good morning to the donkey's that live there.

Our neighbors the donkeys

We also enjoyed the amazing morning views from the end of the pier.

The view across the bay to Muckinish Hill

We also saw this great sign on the way to pier.

And this awesome sign is right outside our cottage!

After our morning excursion we were picked up by Tim and Brian (the driver) and Martha (the Moore professor that came with us) and headed out on our trek. Our first stop was the ruins of an ancient ring fort. We learned all about the landscape, rocks, people... Tim know a lot of stuff!

The viewing deck from ring fort was pretty sweet.

Our next stop was Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, one of the oldest man made structures on earth! 

One theory for its purpose is that it was a ritual burial place from a time when the area was ruled by a Matriarchy. In order to ensure fertile fields, each season the queen would choose a new king... therefor a king only lasted a year and then ended up here.

Our next stop was the city of Kilfenora. What makes it a city you ask? It has a cathedral... apparently that's the only criteria! 

The cathedral was built in 1056. The glass roof was added a few years ago to protect the stone work inside, including the collection of high crosses collected from all over the region.

Cute Hostel next to the pub where we got lunch.

I had a delicious ham and cheese sandwich for lunch at this Kilfenora pub!

Next on our journey was a quick stop at the Holy Well of St. Bridget. It was this little structure built over a stream and it was stuffed with mementos left behind by visitors.

So much stuff, packed into such a little space!

The original tradition was to tear off a piece of your clothing and leave it behind, now lots of people leave ribbons.

After the Holy Well we were on our way to the Cliffs of Moher! It was the most beautiful day to see them, no clouds, no mist, no fog... you could see for miles!

This is what fairy tales are made of.

Natasa, Martha and I stopped for more pics on the way over to the castle.

A cute Asian lady asked me to take her picture in front of the castle.
Then offered to take mine for me.
She was very excited by my wide angle lens!

I loved all the people taking pictures here. This family was adorable.

The Cliffs of Moher had some really great signs.

But I think my most favorite part of the Cliffs of Moher were all of the musicians!!! There were two harpists along the cliff tops and an accordion player along the pathway to the cliffs. It created the most amazing atmosphere to an already unreal place. I have a few videos that I'll have to edit and post.

I loved this guy!

The last stop on our tour was along the coast road on our way back to Ballyvaughan. Tim stopped to show us the great pavement like rock structure. It was pretty cool. And we were all thankful to stop. Those narrow Irish roads in a hot van make for some woozy car trips.

Natasa among the rocks.

I still love all the rocks. I don't think I'll ever get used to them.

It was a crazy long day, but it was an awesome trip!