'Clare gets shit done'

- bringing things to life

I overheard this last Friday at an event in Whitstable and it actually made me smile. Recognition of what I do, in any form has come quite late to me; it has either not happened or I have not heard it. Maybe I hadn’t heard it because I was shy, embarrassed or too modest. But now in my mid fifties and feeling more visible and open to the world- I am able to accept that quote and yes, it made me feel seen and I liked it.

Poster on the door at Bruce Williams Art Gallery in Whitstable. The ‘Fallen Women’ event on Friday was a great success with tickets selling out quickly.

Annie Taylor- aka Whitstable Tail- and I had ventured down to Eastbourne earlier this year to see a show that sounded intriguing. It was so good that on the way home we chatted about bringing it to Whitstable- surely there will be people in our town that would appreciate knowing more about the subject, seeing the museum artefacts and love to hear Liz Overs music and song too? We were right and so last Friday with thanks to Bruce Williams in providing a venue- his town centre gallery, and Deborah and Liz both being game- we had a great evening of storytelling and song. Annie described the buzz of excitement from the audience as feeling like a group of 7 year olds waiting for a magician at a party. It was palpable- no-one really, except us knew what was coming and the evening didn’t disappoint.

People were mesmerised by the storytelling and knowledge of ‘Keeper’ of the museum- the wonderful Deborah Sim. Annie did really well as ‘artefact holder’ too. Here you can see some examples of Bruce’s artwork on the gallery walls.

The next morning Annie and I had breakfast with Deborah and Liz at ‘The Tudor Tearooms’- a great place in town that Peter Cushing, the actor used to frequent on a daily basis. They loved Whitstable and want to return, so hopefully we can organise another event next year. I then left Whitstable to get to Canterbury where the ‘3 Cultures’ event- an Arts Council funded project brought to life by Charlotte Baynes, was having its opening performance, attended by many and happening at The Beaney. I have a piece of artwork in the exhibition space that was a collaborative project with Alma Caira and Mary Stockton-Smith. It celebrates the Dwellbeing walk that I led the Ukrainian and British dancers on last June in Harbledown, Canterbury. It’s a circular route that starts and ends at the Black Prince Well- which is mentioned in the book ‘Enchantment’ by Katherine May and she was kind enough to gift all the participants of the walk a copy. I say mentioned but actually there is a whole chapter on Water and Pilgrimage in which I introduce Katherine to the well.

A view of our collaborative artwork- a series of frames depicting a sequence of places visited on the walk and the artefacts gathered and displayed as ‘relics’ on this pilgrimage route.

To explain- in the display cabinet, the first frame here, illustrated by Mary- is of the Black Prince Well, Alma has created a mouth blown glass bauble to represent the place and we have filled a found vintage bottle (from Olantigh walled garden) to hold some water from the well, which we collected last year on the walk. The second frame I painted and is reminiscent of the knapped flint wall of St. Nicholas church, a place that always seems surrounded by mole hills. At this spot we collected some mole earth from the top of a newly made mound and also picked up a piece of vintage ceramic that the mole had pushed up as it felt like a gift! Alma created another mouth blown glass bauble but this time gently rolled it in the special mole-earth to create this incredibly unique and fragile artefact. The next frame represents Golden Hill which faces the setting sun, it has wonderful views across the valley- a quintessential Kentish scene- an apple orchard, oast house, a section of the Pilgrims Way and a couple of church towers. Mary illustrated this one and when we met up the day after my dog was put to sleep, she pointed out what she had added to the back- a little Luna, with her red collar, looking as she did- like a lamb- forever standing in the setting sun at Golden Hill. That made me cry- with delight, compassion and acknowledgement that Luna would never be forgotten. Thank you Mary.

Alma created a beautiful fused glass sun panel for the frame that represents Golden Hill. If you visit the exhibition, look for a little painting on the back, of my dog Luna, there she is still enjoying the fresh air and summer flowers.

On from ‘Golden Hill’ is ‘The Pilgrims Way’- painted by me and depicting 2 of the dancers- Viktoriya and Debbie in the shady tree ‘tunnel’. This has another fused glass panel by Alma Caira- the detail of which can really only be appreciated up close. Lastly we have an illustration by Mary of the apple orchard and chalybeate stream, with dried grasses displayed in the opening, these were also picked on the walk last year. The other items in the cabinet record one of the Dwellbeing creative exercises that we all did on the day- seasonal ‘colour harvesting’ and recording the colours in our nature journals.

After the opening event, we had Tapas with the ‘3 Cultures’ group and then rushed home to complete a big ‘tidy up’ of our home and garden so that we could welcome in 20 visitors the next morning! The visitors were participants of a Permaculture Design Course run by Jo Barker and Helen Smith and our place was one of the visits to see a case study. It was ‘Build week’ in their curriculum and so we had prepared a mini presentation and grand (!) tour of our modest suburban bungalow, garden and straw bale studio.

View of the back room in our home- looking a bit tidier than usual (yes, really!) We showed the students ways we have firmly embedded the principles of Permaculture into our life and how they could too.

There are some really interesting ways that we have been able to dwell in our home for the last 30 years. It helps that I trained as a Spatial designer back in the late 90’s and have a more recent MA in Design. Our place has adapted with us as we went from first time buyers, to having a family, growing up/old together and we love to share that journey with others who are interested. The tour included a presentation of house and garden plans evolving over time, photos of changes, self-build and DIY solutions. We showed them the straw-bale studio/bike shelter builds with green roofs, Chestnut coppice posts and recycled, reused materials. I wished I had had more time to chat to the lovely like-minded visitors as I would love to know more about their projects, passions and thoughts on life. It is quite rare to find a large group of people with similar interests and so when I do I love to know more!

The green roof on the second of the case study visits- to The Pines Calyx this time at St. Margaret’s Bay, Kent. This is a stunning rammed chalk structure in wild gardens. We had lunch with the group at the local tea rooms- I am starting to see a pattern here- offer food and we will offer something in return! Not a bad ethos really- sharing food with like-minded others is really quite wholesome and fun.

So, really ‘Clare gets shit done’ is true- I do. I see possibilities and opportunities everywhere. I do stuff because I want to. This is because I know there will be future ‘gains’ for all. In a world that at the moment seems so divisive- I feel it is even more important to come together and all ‘get shit done’. Collaboration is one great way to achieve this, so my next event will be a team building one for the first public Dwellbeing Restival- booked for the end of June. Watch this space - I will put out more information soon. Thank you to all the new email list/subscribers too- please do unsubscribe if this Substack publication really isn’t your thing- no problem.

If you want to know who I overheard last Friday- it was Sally! If you want to hear more of her then do listen to the podcast we did together earlier this year. It’s got quite a bit of swearing in it, so don’t listen if you get offended. In our defence we are both part of- (oh and Annie is too- here is the podcast I did with her last year) Whitstable Profanity Embroidery Group (PEG) and so we are used to not being over cautious! and… I just read a brilliant Substack post by Jameela Jamil, loved it and thought why am I worried about writing ‘shit’ it really is nothing compared to the honest humour of her posts! Oh yes, and I have just remembered I did do a podcast of my home too- one of my firsts, if not the first. Here my home is untidy, (keeping it real!) and you can hear me talking to my slightly barking mad dog Luna.

Poster from the ‘3 Cultures Exhibition’- our work is on display until Sunday the 6th of July 2025. Try to visit if you can- it has a great selection of work including film, photography, textile art, printmaking and paintings.