From time to time we hope to feature news from across the World.
Siobhan Foster is an Irish creative living in New Zealand and although not a Quilter (which I am sure we can work on with her) she does work in textiles
This is her story about the Fish out of Water Trail that happens in Rotorua each year.
I’ve always had an active, imaginative mind and dreamed of travelling the world to faraway exotic lands. Preferably where it rained less than my homeland, Ireland, or the ‘soggy green sponge’ as I tend to call it.
Since my mind is quite active I get bored easily so my jobs have been varied – shop assistant, assembling computers, working in call centres, being an au-pair and even a massage therapist on cruise liners, to name just a few.
I consider myself a student of life and hope to never stop learning or trying new things.
These habits of mine have brought me to where I currently live, right in the middle of the north island of New Zealand, in a city called Rotorua. I feel truly at home here. It is like Ireland with better weather and a few more earthquakes.
Playing with words is a favourite pastime of mine and I write poems, short stories and a few Limericks. Telling jokes is another thing I love to do as I like to make people laugh and lift their spirits. I have been known, on occasion, to tell an appropriate joke when it suited the person in question, and the mood needed to be lifted a bit, like at a funeral. (Ok, perhaps not my finest hour but it worked).
‘I have published my autobiography called, ‘So You Think You Know Me’ and a collection of jokes to insult everyone, called ‘The Leprechauns Made Me Write This’. Both are available on Amazon and I would love to bring out my joke book in audio form with me as the narrator one day perhaps.. I have another book in the pipeline too but I can’t say too much about that at the moment.
At school I learned knitting and woodwork and helped Dad in the workshop with carpentery jobs, painting, varnishing, chopping wood etc, tomboy stuff if you know what I mean. I like to sew and make things but since I am ‘not great’ at following patterns I tend to get a picture in my head of what I would like the finished project to look like and I work backwards from there. The end result usually morphs into something different to what I had first imagined, but better. It is all about getting your mind out of the way and just letting the creative side take over.
That brings me to ‘Fish Out Of Water’ trail where each year 13 blank fibreglass fish are decorated by local artists.
They can use whatever medium they like, as long as it is waterproof and can be removed easily afterwards so the fish can be reused next year. Once these fish are finished they are put at 13 prominent places around the town and each will have a map of how to find the others. It is great to see how different all the fish turn out even though everyone gets the same instructions.
I was so pleased to be chosen to take part and am very happy with my finished fish. Rotorua is the city I live in and it is quite an arty place. The ‘Fish Out Of Water’ project is about getting the community together and showing off our artists. Rotorua has 14 lakes so it is about demonstrating those too.
I admired the naked fibreglass fish for two days knowing it would tell me how it wanted to be ‘dressed.’
And sure enough it did. Bright colours attract me and I wanted to demonstrate different textures in this one piece, as I am quite tactile. Bright colours are the unspoken poetry in our world.
Creativity starts with an idea. I started gluing the coins to the tail and let that guide me on how my fish would progress. I cut round pieces of cloth the same size as the coins, and glued random lengths of fabric in random colours.
The mouth is felt, the stripes are made from fabric, and the coins layered on each other to offer something more.
The fish likes colour and texture, like me as a poet, author and artist. I have the rags, just waiting for the riches…
As Henry David Thoreau once said, ‘The world is but a canvas to our imagination.’
‘Art enables us to find ourselves, and to loose ourselves at the same time.’ according to Thomas Merton.
So that means… get lost and find yourselves…. doesn’t it?
Everyone is creative so it is up to YOU to find what ticks the box for you, and have lots of fun along the way.
There’s more about the Fish out of Water Trail at their Facebook Group @fishoutofwaterrotorua and there is a Map to follow. You can also see some of the other Fish Sculptures that have been designed for 2018. If you are visiting New Zealand make sure you send in your pictures.
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