At the start of October, we once again challenged you in our #creativechallenge. We asked you to push yourself to think outside the box and get creative with the theme of Journey.
We have been really inspired by the work submitted, it certainly made the judges decision very difficult, and are thankful for everyone who put in the time and effort to enter our challenge.
With work ranging from Poetry to Music, Paintings and more, we hope you enjoy this showcase of talent in and around Morley!
Girl On Chaise Lounge – Dayoung Yun
My daughter loves our chaise lounge and when I saw her lying there, it reminded me of the classic oil paintings of women in chaise lounges; Manet’s ‘Olympia’. And this gave me an inspiration to create this lino print. Her child-like body caressed by an oversized chaise lounge, providing mother-like warmth. She’s at complete peace, even daydreaming, perhaps of growing up. What will her life journey be like? I added the bedside table on the corner which symbolises the exciting yet unknown future ahead of her. Her eyes curiously gazed at this bedside table draws viewers curiosity as well.
the day my father died,
I saw an apple bounce from our tree,
the light wind on a stifling July day,
taking it when it was ready to go.
the fan in his room had hummed
even when he lay cold,
the breeze rousing the white sheet corner, as if edging him some breath
but his face was already fixed.
my youngest saw his last breath,
the moment so soft and quiet, she wasn’t sure,
then seconds waiting for the next rise and fall,
which didn’t come.
Journeys End – Luciana Teuma
This moment going into winter living with Covid has a sadness which reminded me how I felt when my father died 16 months ago on the hottest day of the year.
Journey to St Kilda – Nicola Atchley
During lockdown, I have thought about solitude and isolation. I made this concertina book to document my journey to St Kilda, a remote archipelago of islands and sea stacks.
I naturally thought about the similarity between Covid and the Smallpox outbreak on Hirta, the only inhabited island of St Kilda. In 1727 there was a smallpox outbreak resulting in the death of 80-90% of the population. A resident of St Kilda visited Harris, there he contracted smallpox and died, his clothes were returned home and within weeks the population were decimated.
Isolation is difficult to sustain even on remote islands.
To see more from Nicole, head to her website
the subterranean din
from camden to euston
rumble rumble
thoughts tumble
scritchy scratchy
across the tracks
hiss do ants fart?
click clatter
through the dark
wear a mask!
a drunk barks
a door rattles
another slams
spare some change
utter open hands
a singing sound
becomes a howl a roar
the entry to hell
are those bones crunching
under the wheels?
grind grate
the metals screech
a pretty young couple
think a sun kissed beach
do cormorants fly south?
a vicar mulls
as a harmony of clink clink
backs sparking rails
the subterranean din from camden to euston – Steve Nally
I regularly travel on the Northern line after late shifts and the racket between Camden Town and Euston is notable. And it gets you thinking…
Journey, A Personal Metaphor – Andrew Williamson
The term Journey has become a cliché and metaphor for many things and I find myself addressing the subject at a time of the least mobility in my life. My self-taught musical life of nearly fifty years has recently taken a significant leap forward under tuition from Morley. I believe motivation (in this case, homework assignments for the Jazz Composition class) drives one forward and I submit three of my best ever compositions as milestones on my musical journey. The tunes are ‘Orpheus On The Underground,’ ‘There’ and No Swing But Mood Swings.’
To hear more from Andrew, head over to Youtube
Abstract 28/Creative Journey (Acrylic on Paper) – Caroline Morgan
This painting was originally larger but I cut it down as I felt that the composition and colours would be much more effective in a smaller, cropped and concentrated format. For me, the journey taken in the creation of this piece-from its conception to its current, and perhaps final, form-via what could be viewed as its partial destruction, involved all the elements of risk, chance and the role played by instinct and the subliminal that I particularly enjoy exploring in my art. (87)
To see more from Caroline, head to her Instagram
A week ago
I started
Diminishing.
Though the pencil marks crawl to more distant peaks up the wall
With all that comes to comment and discuss
I sometimes look on that fire of 14 with disgust
In the mirror
It’s crackle muttered
‘You are
some pious figure’
Maid of Orleans
It climbed my skin and bones like they were limbs of some burning bush, not some child.
The brightness was laid too much
Too much for me
With old boys whispers, alcohol, gasoline
My eyes had to be thumbed shut.
Looking through the gaps in squishy fingers of infancy
I cannot see who/what stoked me
Too obtuse
Too scorched
Too gluttonous
I was small,
The fertile time for that substance to overgrow unto its fall
Now I am climaxing to my summit I’m little now and that is comfort
Growing Pain – Paloma Jauncey Mckim
This work describes coming if age and the important but painful process of coming out of your teens and growing up emotionally
To hear more from Paloma, head to her Instagram
Useful directions, so you tell me,
depend upon the starting point.
I must begin again.
Each turning that we take
depends on so much else:
how choices race towards us
while we’re all mis-reading maps;
how precious things
get left behind.
How soon the soft young
green of summer withers;
or how the rain mists up the view.
How, when you drive out
from the centre of a starry sky,
you hold your breath against
the cold of winter coming.
And how the cat’s-eye of a
crescent moon, carved radish-thin,
will sometimes serve to light you
when you lose your way.
Go back and start again.
Take nothing with you
but the burden of your loving.
Carry it with care and, this time,
do not put it down.
Journey – Sue Lewis
When the lockdown first lifted, I made a long journey to see an old friend of mine. I had never been to her house and asked for directions. She told me: ‘Useful directions depend on a starting point.’ As a poet, I could not resist turning this into a poem…
To hear more from Nicole, head to her website
Fiery Amazon – Sarah Wilson
This brooch is a response to the unrelenting fires destroying rainforests in the Amazon, Not only is it about the devastating journey of the flames sweeping through the trees, but I hope the wearer could reflect on the journey we all have to make in our mindset to change what we consume in regard to the climate crisis.
To see more from Sarah, head to her Instagram
Re-watching wedding video
Where we were bridesmaids in pink,
Where we were pageboys in suits
Which made us all stop and think
About how much we’ve grown,
About how far we’ve come
From makeup-free faces
To the adults we’ve become
That we’re not quite ready for,
That we’re not sure who that is
Compared to innocent smiles
Turned pink from a wet kiss
To both bride and groom’s cheeks
As we take another photo,
As we watch it all unfurl,
We wonder where did they go?
The Wedding Video – Sophie Hutchison
This poem is a kind of bittersweet reflection on growing up after me and my cousins re-watched my uncle’s wedding video where we were bridesmaids and page boys.
Summer is running away from me,
I steeplechase it over
Impossibly glorious fields of mophead flowers
Impiously gaudy.
I have laid amidst their noisy splendour with crickets, bees and birds.
And now
And now, I may try and gather them to me, press my nose close in,
kneel down low, to catch sight of butterflies wings resting open to the ebbing warmth.
But I know
But I know this is summer’s end, it will run out on me.
Maybe gradually, maybe quicker if the rains come in heavy, to flatten.
Summer’s journeys end – Luciana Teuma
I have SAD and every year around October the end of summer starts a depressive moment, writing poetry helps me to not be overcome by it.
Journey of everyone – Joanna Harris
This necklace design is about everybody on their own journey. It takes place in a life that I know and am familiar with – a life before lockdown and restrictions and one that, hopefully, we’ll return to. In this piece, everybody is moving forward, focused on their own destination; their own purpose, their own goal.
To see more from Joanna, head over to Instagram or shop her Etsy store
Mist, Red Screes – Margo Walker
The painting is inspired by a walk up Red Screes in the Lake District. For me, walking is a journey both physical and meditative. As I walk, I become acutely aware of my own breathing and senses. I am aware of the beauty and enormity of the mountain, the power of nature and how tiny we are in comparison. Inspired by Richard Long, I added a soundscape to my work-
Stock Ghyll Falls
Water thunders
Roundhill Farm
Chickens cluck
Snarker Pike
Wind whipping
Raven Crag
Ravens croak
RED SCREES
Boots squelch
Water trickles
Voices calling
Which way to the top?
To see more from Margo, head to her Instagram
So I will not be here ,
To see the softly shifting light which creeps,
inching to the longer day.
The change in earthy smells of awakenings.
As the earth turns onto a change.
Perhaps the never changing will be the hardest part
In this journey- to realise a fixation.
But you will be here.
Your mind will grow to fill a horizon and yours will hold others.
Where will I be?
But held in the horizon of your mind and spread within your flowering.
Part of your essence, where you go, I come too.
So I will smell the earthy underground waxing and be in your awakening.
With my journey’s baton in your palm.
The Baton
I wrote this remembering how my mother struggled when she was dying knowing that she was leaving behind my baby sister who was only 12 at the time.
