In 1967 two seven year old girls, me and my friend Dianne met at the local convent school where we lived in Zambia. There began a friendship between our two families; our parents became surrogate aunt and uncle to each others' children; Dianne's mum worked as my Dad's book keeper; we made our first Holy Communions together, our Confirmation, we played in each others homes, had sleep overs, went on to boarding school together, first discos, first boys, etc, etc.
Then in 1976, my family left Zambia and returned to Ireland, Dianne's family moved to Botswana and then South Africa. Gradually over the years the two families lost touch.
Fast forward to 2010 and the power of the internet - Facebook to be precise. Dianne's older sister Beth contacted me and the intervening 34 years rolled back. It turns out Beth and I are both artists and Beth was particularly interested in the printmaking I am doing. Some months ago she convinced me that if I ran an extended collagraph workshop she was sure she could get a group together from Johannesburg to travel here to Northumberland for it.
So that is what we are doing. As neither of us has done this before it is taking some organising. Working out the course content was the easy part. Lining up all the other ducks in the row - dates with accommodation, flights and flight costs for a group of 10 is proving to be the most challenging part. However, I am confident we will get there ... and ... having done it once it will be easier to do again if (when) it all comes together.
The next post will be the details of the course as they stand. Whilst the course has been primarily arranged for participants coming from South Africa it does not preclude anyone else who may wish to join us.
Just contact me if you are interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment