I’ve been listening to some of Mark Bowden’s music to get me in the mood for all things Mari. You can hear examples at THIS LINK. Listen to track 3 in the ‘play’ box while looking at at the images in yesterday’s post. Play it at full volume. I challenge you not to have your hair stand on end! It’s not the music for The Mares Tale… which has yet to emerge… but it’s nevertheless been very helpful to me to start getting inside the composer’s head.
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Below: the Mari mummers begin to assemble as I build the cast of maquettes for a painting that will be at the heart of the drama.
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Hi Clive, I love this series. I would like to include one of the images in our Christmas Brochure ‘A Christmas in Wales’. I am a Graphic Designer working for an independent hotel in Wales. One of the pages looks at Welsh Christmas traditions and as you can imagine there is very little in terms of artwork for this theme. I would be happy to credit you and include a link to your blog. Thanks for your time Clive.
Daniel, thank you for your kind comments. Please contact me and we’ll discuss this further. (Click HERE.)
Best
Clive
i like the green background, too. what luck
this is the perfect project for you, clive
I must tell you I am really loving the backdrop of your deep green work table as the “field” in which these characters exist. There’s something quite evocative and appropriate about it… can’t describe exactly why. [ I know... ME at a loss for words!
; ) ] AM
Well, truth to tell it’s not as sombre and mysterious as it appears here. I darken the images before posting them, tweaking to get the graffiti-like effect I’m looking for.
I’ll lay odds you’ll be smiling wryly to yourself as I dive ever more deeply into this project. I recall a conversation you and I once had in Corsica. Dinner on the terrace was over, and as darkness fell and cicadas began their evening chorus, you quizzed me about my couple of decades of working in the theatre, and tried to persuade me not to be so adamant that my association with the stage was over for good. ‘Never!’ I recall saying, quite firmly. “Never, never, never. Nothing will ever persuade me to step into a rehearsal-room again. It’s all over.’
So my friend, are you smiling now? I remember even as James Slater persuaded me to say yes, that my first thought was ‘Damn it. Anita is going to have such an expression of ‘I told you so’ when she hears about this!
(-;
Clive, I am smiling… but not an “I told you so!” smile. It’s a smile of appreciation for all that you brought to the realm of theater in your first career. It’s a smile of recognition for your extreme theatrical talents in dancing, acting, puppetry, costume and set design, and directing. It’s a smile for the opportunity you now have to return to the theater world on your own terms, with outstanding colleagues, and an original theme. It’s a smile for a circle that is moving ever toward closure… and for the psychic healing that I hope may come of it. So, yes, I am definitely smiling…
xoxo AM
And there I was being flip, and you’ve answered from the heart. Force of habit when talking about my theatrical past. Sorry.
Thank you my friend for your thoughtfulness about this. I know that you’ve always had a ‘feeling’ about the work of the past that I’d buried both literally… in all the box-files of photographs and programmes… and yes, perhaps psychologically too, because as you know all too well, I rarely like to speak of that earlier part of my life. I know too that you’ve always been very tender toward that buried history. Long ago I’d shovelled in the grave and that was that. But many years on you stood looking down at it and said very quietly but firmly, I think we’d better have a look at the corpse again, just in case! Your belief in the notion that I should at the very least examine the past, did help me get back to being at least able to think about it.
I felt that a circle from the past had closed when I illustrated the play Equus, and perhaps another circle is closing here. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for the completion that infers, but in principle, I’ve clearly arrived at a point where I’m willing to examine the issues and give the merry-go-round another whirl.
(-;