Walk to the Kenidjack castle from Brison's Veor on New Year's Day

"The best of Cornwall must remain unknown for those who are unable to walk or cannot be induced to make the effort." p.14, Unknown Cornwall, Vulliamy

On New Years day, Sarah, Michael and I took the high road to the Kenidjack castle from our cottage Brisons Veor.

It was a wet and muddy day and I felt a bit of a chill when we were finished.  I had tea at the Cape Cornwall Club to warm up.  The castle felt more like a church than a castle and seemed like most of it had been restored.

"Kenidjack Cliff Castle is one of several Iron Age promontory forts that have been found in exposed coastal locations on the Penwith peninsula. The neck of the headland would have been protected by a triple row of ramparts that dropped steeply from the spine, stopping just short of the edge of a near-vertical cliff. The ramparts are very well-preserved on the northern side, where it is possible to discern the remains of a triple-ditch defence line. Although the outer and central ramparts are covered in vegetation, protruding stones indicate that they were constructed using granite rocks rather than being simple earth embankments." Cornwall Guide.

"Carn Kenidjack or Carn Idzhek, is a place of terrirs.  It is known as the Hooting Carn. A mass of piled and shattered granite, capping the moorland about a mile and a half north-east of St. Just, with a fantastic stony dishevelment- a clumsy, crazy and sinister outline." 

p. 113, Unknown Cornwall

 

Night at the Lost Gardens of Heligan

"All my early memories are of forms and shapes, and textures.  Moving through and over the West Riding landscape with my father in his car, the hills were sculptures; the roads defined the form.  Above all, there was the sensation of moving physically over the contours of fullnesses and concavities, through the hollows and over peaks - feeling, touching, seeing through mind and hand and eye.  This sensation has never left me.  I, the sculptor,  am the landscape.  I am form and I am the hollow, the thrust and the contour."

More photos taken by Sarah Riviere.

 

Brisons Veor- Sankofa Symbol

"The Sankofa represents the importance of learning from the past." 

- The National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Sankofa symbol is an important symbol to African-Americans.  It comes from the twi language and means to go back and fetch it.  Sankofa is often associated with the proverb, “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi," which translates as: "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten."  It seems to me it also relates to the Cornish idea of reclaiming the Cornish language and identity.

I have worked with the Sankofa symbol before.  But after I started drawing the swallows I started thinking about it again.  Here are some sketches of mine playing with the Sankofa symbol 

I cleaned it up and used some tracing paper to make it symmetrical.

Then I carved in into a linoleum block.  This first one is relating to the bird form.

This 2nd one I want to take the traditional symbol and make it interlock showing the connecting between the past and the present.  My friend Sarah says this makes it look more Celtic.  It wasn't the intention but that's ok

I’m trying to use the local colors but in the prints they feel a bit 70s. 

This design feels a bit Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish to me.

I love how this piece turned out.  

The Mermaid of Zennor

"The road that leads from St. Ives to St. Just is one of the worse and most beautiful in the Duchy.  It passes between the moors of the "high countries" and the coast, through the sternly romantic villages and Zennor and Morvah . . ." 

p. 79, Unknown Cornwall

I got to see the Mermaid of Zennor bench end.  My cousin Beth was pretty insistent that I see her.  I collect mermaids.  My name is Nya, like the naiads. 

The mermaid of Zennor was a bit hidden in the church and kind of hard to make out.  She's clearer on the photo than in person.

This pattern is on the other side of the bench end.

This kind of cute cushion and pillow are on her bench.

A christmas tree in the same room has paper mermaids.

This small plaque tells her legend.

I also loved mermaids and I have this collection called Sea girls wreathed named for TS Elliot.

". . . I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown."

I think the best part about the church are these amazing cushions.

The ceiling was quite interesting too.

Outside the church were some amazing crosses.

Nearby the church I saw a mermaid on a farm type building.