Vibrant light: Weekly Photo Challenge

Vibrant colours capture the light. Even on a rainy day, Poinciana blossoms shine.

Nature does a good job of using vibrant colours to light up this dark cassowary.

We humans can do that too, working long hours into the night to finish a project.

The Peruvian Arpillera, below, is a women’s traditional handicraft, a wall-hanging which tells a story using everyday fabrics appliqued onto a burlap backing . This one was in a display of thread work at the Linnwood Library, Seattle.

One Peruvian Artist, Eleodora Salvatierra, who has made many Arpillera, said, “Every colourful thread I use transmits the reality of my community and my people.”

In 1974, in Pinochet’s Chile, an ‘Arpillera Movement‘ was begun by the mothers of missing children. They needed help and to let the outside world know what had happened. For 17 years these women created images, sometimes with an additional handwritten message, of what they knew about Human Rights abuses, and the disappearance of their children. Made by the poor, who had no electricity, they had to sew in the early dawn light. Some used the fabric from the clothes left behind. A branch of the Chilean Church, the Vicariate of Solidarity, offered to help and mailed completed works overseas in packets of 4 or 5. Amnesty International then became involved. Some mothers haven’t given up hope. They still wait for news. (For more of this story, click green highlighted words)

[See also the preceding post, reblogged from Cachando Chile with more illustrations of the Arpilleras.]

Does the creative intention of the work help make it more vibrant? Is it the emotional story behind it? Does it depend on who’s on the receiving end?

Not only does Canadian Del Barber sing up a storm, he also tells (and sings) great stories. He blew me away when I saw him on the stage at The Woodford Folk Festival. No fancy shirt, just an entertaining solo performance – definitely an unforgettable, vibrant set.

So we can see and hear what ‘vibrant’ is. What’s it like to ‘be’ vibrant?

This solitary, early morning mushroom seems to glow against the dark ground. It came up overnight, after rain … and it’s still growing. Hmm … glowing and growing?

Click here to see others’ interpretations of the idea “Vibrant“

All text and photos by Meg

Story Twigs the Imagination! by Meg Philp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/vibrant/

Chilean Arpilleras: A chapter of history written on cloth

Thank you. I write a blog about storytelling and stumbled across the Children of Silence and the Arperilla Movement in Chile. Your blog post says so much more than I can. Kind Regards, Meg

Cachando Chile: Reflections on Chilean Culture

Arpilleras—colorfully enchanting patchwork images depicting daily life—you’ve probably seen them in crafts fairs in Chile and even in Peru. Maybe you’ve even bought some. They’re bright and cheerful, perfect little gifts and ideal for children’s rooms—but they didn’t start out that way. These colorful appliques–arpilleras de adorno (decorative arpilleras)–were born of a much darker past.

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Roman Alphabet: Weekly Photo Challenge

This week’s tricky challenge was “Alphabet.” A sentence with every letter of the alphabet in it is called a pangram. There, you may have as many words as you like but, famously, The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog has each letter only once.

If you can find sentences with every letter of the alphabet in them, why not in photos? Perhaps some snaps from Rome might come close?

You have to crane your neck to read all the Latin at the top of Titus’ Arch in Rome. Surely every last letter was chiselled here.

During the remodelling of of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, they moved these tombstones from the floors to a wall in the forecourt. What does it say about the people? How do you tell  “U”s from “V”s? Where did the Roman alphabet we use today come from?

It was so hot that Saturday. If only I’d photographed more to the left, I might have taken an alphabet of beers!

Hmm … only 6 letters short.

And the winner is … this lovely drop … missing only 5 letters – F, J, K, P, & Q!

Here’s to the alphabet! Cheers!

Sources – For more on ancient scripts See http://www.ancientscripts.com/alphabet.html

All text and photos by Meg

Story Twigs the Imagination! by Meg Philp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Alphabet

Inside a Circle: Weekly Photo Challenge

This week’s challenge about circles had me determined to look from a different angle. I ended up on the floor, looking at a light fitting!

There’s an invisible, inspirational net inside a circle.

Look closer.

… and closer…

more circles inside a circle. This reminded me of a story –

An ancient Hindu myth tells of the all-powerful god Indra, the greatest creative force in their mythical world, how he lived in a magnificent place in the heavens. Stretched above him and reaching out into infinity, was hung an exquisite net, skilfully crafted. At each node, a multi-faceted jewel sparkled. Since the net was infinite, the jewels were too. And each jewel reflected all the others. Thus the smallest movement flashed throughout the net, glittering like stars across the heavens,  and on into infinity.

The first time I heard of Indra’s Net was at a workshop on “Science and Stories” at a National Storytelling conference in USA in the 90’s. It’s been at the back of my mind for a long time. My search for stories about sustainability have brought it forward again.

As an storyteller, the story I choose to tell needs to have caused a similar net of connections in my thinking, to be meaningful to me, before I make a commitment to it.  As I tell it, later, orally, the listener can be making their own private connections. One image of a character, one action, can set off a chain of reactions in their imagination.

Now I see why it takes me so long to find a great story to tell. It happens when it makes lots of flashes of connection in my imagination!

The story of Indra’s net reinforces the interconnectedness of all things, in nature, in this world and beyond, even in circles and especially in stories.

All text and photos by Meg.

Reference sources:

The Indra’s Net :What is it? Downloaded 01012016 by M.Philp

RAMSDEN, Ashley. Jewels on Indra’s Net in GERSIE, Alida et al. (ed.) Storytelling for a Greener World: environment, community and story-based learning. Stoud, Glos. Hawthorn Press, 2014.

Story Twigs the Imagination! by Meg Philp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Circle