1000 Clay Cows

This is an exciting new project linking clay dug from the farm, cows, storytelling and sculpture. It is being carried out in partnership with organicARTS and West Town Farm.

We are looking to create a field of 1000 clay cows for Devon Open Studios in September. Any similarity to Gormley's Field for the British Isles is purely intentional!!  Along with ceramic artist Lucy Rockliffe I am working on a mix of cow related storytelling from different cultures along with observation of real cows at the farm, digging up of clay from the meadow and creation of clay cow sculptures to take part in the Field of Cows.

This is connected to some earlier storytelling done last year. A clay session with Year Ones from Newtown Primary can be seen here.

These images come from a session with St David's Primary. I love the engagement between field, cows and calves, observant children and clay. This is true fieldwork!

Full Pot!

Take one very large stew pot, a collection of vegetable stories and an enthusiastic Priory Primary School, mix them all up and finish up with soup for 170, a retelling of stories and four rather beautiful banners.
This was an interesting brief from DAISI to link the SEAL theme of "Good to be me" with healthy cooking and storytelling over two days of workshops. I had a thoroughly good time. We explored how a school is made up of individuals who all have their own special qualities in the same way that a soup is made up of vegetables all with their own stories and properties.
I was impressed with the way Year 1 and 2 chopped, grated, scrubbed and peeled enough veg for the whole school, the Year 6 rap version of the story of Antoine Parmentier, the speaking and singing carrots of Year 6, the retelling of the "Old Woman and the Pumpkin" by Year 3 and 4 and foundation class' enacting of the "Tortoise the Hare and the Squash Field. So much sharing, creativity and teamwork. Fantastic. I hope to post the lyrics of the two songs soon.
I am intrigued by the way that food and stories can be linked, cooking and telling, sustaining body and mind. I feel I need to get researching and collecting snippets of story and fact to add into the recipe. It can be tricky finding the right stories to enhance and draw out a theme without being too contrived. There is a real lot of learning to do!