23 Comments
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Lorna Dallas-Conte's avatar

May your heartfelt tears for Auntie Ann be a further source of water for your collection. How fitting. Sending love across the miles. We life-rafters miss you too, but are inspired by your travels and new adventures.

Samantha Clark's avatar

Thank you Lorna! I'm looking forward to seeing you all again once I am home.

judith Pace ketcheson's avatar

Thank you so much for sharing your experience in being so far from home and expressing the loss of someone close to you. And for the shot of your amazing piece of art in progress--stunningly beautiful. You are an inspiration for so many of us. I am in my nineties and can say that the interest in creating has sustained me through many rough times. There is just too much beauty in the world to discover--it constantly revives the spirits doesn't it?

.

Samantha Clark's avatar

Absolutely, Judith, and I am heartened to know this won't change as the decades pass. Wishing you a creative engagement with every new day.

Abigail Thomas's avatar

love love love this.

Liza Green's avatar

So poignant. It’s never easy to absorb news of loss and especially hard when you’re unable to actively be there for someone you care for. But - your work is clearly sustaining you, that and the company of likeminded people. Enjoy the moment!

Samantha Clark's avatar

I am Liza! especially now the deadelines have been met, the exhibition is up and running and I've managed a long lie-in this morning!

Alison Miller's avatar

Bringing Orkney waves to the land of Hokusai! How cool is that. Sending love to you from Orkney for the sadnesses too. X

Samantha Clark's avatar

Sending love right back to you and Liam, Alison and hope we can catch up soon!

J. Paul Moore's avatar

My best to you for success with your art project, and a virtual hug for the loss of your friend.

Samantha Clark's avatar

Thank you Paul, I appreciate your warmth and support.

Camilla Sanderson's avatar

Samantha, this moved me so much. The way you hold homesickness, creative devotion, and grief for your friend’s mum in the same current—letting all these feelings coexist and flow together—feels like its own confluence, echoing the theme of your artwork🥰

I also love how you name the studio as a portable home, and how your water samples keep stitching Orkney, Aomori, and memory together. May Auntie Ann’s laughter travel with you in every raindrop and every mark you make🌧️💙

Samantha Clark's avatar

Thank you so much Camilla, and may your own creativity, whatever form it takes, offer you a space of comfort, solace and refuge.

A M Sandle's avatar

I thought, when my mother died, that our lives had represented a portion of braided river: hers (with a fancy of mine) became the twin stream of ours, then flowed on into mine alone (with the memory of hers). Your beautiful work-in-progress is at once a braided river, spilled milk (no need to cry!) and a universe of synapses.

Samantha Clark's avatar

Oh, this is so beautiful, thank you. 🙏

Michael Houser's avatar

Nature in a rain drop. Nature in your art. Nature in the cycle of life and death. Nature in our sadness and grieving. Nature in creating something new. How you live life to the fullest and you inspire others to be immersed in life.

Thank you Sam. I look forward to seeing back in the life boat next year. :)

Samantha Clark's avatar

Yes, the passing of our old ones is part of the cycle of things, and there is deep comofrt in that.

Kate Wells's avatar

'Confluence' is the perfect work for you to be making, giving voice to the flow of connections over time and space. Influences like your first teacher are a deep stream of forces, and emotions offering encouragement, possibilities and support. May the residency go well.

Samantha Clark's avatar

Yes, Kate, indeed so. As a teacher of probably thousands of kids, who all called her Auntie Ann for the rest of their lives, one woman's legacy ripples far out beyond what she and her family could ever know.

A.M.'s avatar

Many blessings to you as you finish your work and grieve. It is all noble and good. God Bless thee. ❤️‍🩹🌊

Samantha Clark's avatar

Thank you so much for this Anne. I do indeed feel blessed to be here.

RG she/her's avatar

So beautiful Samantha xxx

Angie Athanassiades's avatar

I'm so sorry for your loss, Sam. But how beautiful that you are gathering literal and metaphorical raindrops as you create a river, such a poignant symbol of transformation and the passage from one realm to another. Sending you much love, x