“River Journey” abstract lyrical expressionist british paintings jenny meehan
May 2017 Art Journal Post by Jenny Meehan
Kingston Artists’ Open Studios
KAOS OPEN STUDIOS 10th/11th and 17th/18th June 2017
It’s no time at all! So pop this in your diary and make yourself a nice day out. Walk by the river in Kingston, Stroll in the park, walk along the studio trail, pop into a little cafe! Meet KAOS (we are a lovely bunch of creatives) and take a look at what we love investing ourselves into! And if you are someone who does collect art, be it just a few pieces or many, make a good choice and visit the artists direct…You can talk with us and find out more about the work in a way that you wouldn’t be able to do in a different context.
There are over 90 artists showing work! I am showing at KAOS 2, along with 8 other artists:
Sandra Beccarelli, Cressida Borrett, Lizzie Brewer, Caroline Calascione, Ikuko Danby, Bali Edwards, Yuka Maeda, and Anna Tikhomirova! See you there!
http://www.kingstonartistsopenstudios.co.uk/
Snails in the Studio
Still recovering from my knee replacement surgery, but getting around a bit more now. The snails may well be moving more quickly than me!
the snail in the studio jenny meehan abstract painting
This painting-collage includes the munch marks of the snails who share my outdoor studio with me. A market stall steel frame covered in reinforced heavy duty translucent tarpaulin is excellent for the purposes of working in when the weather is not too cold or damp. I share this wonderful space with my snail friends. Who also work slowly but very steadily, munching away at my painted cardboard samples of colours and textures and excreting them into multicoloured snail poo and card combinations. There is none of their waste matter on the collage-painting but some of the card with the munch marks on it. I find the effect quite attractive. Sometimes very good things come from the most unexpected places!
I titled the work “Snail in the Studio” after my fellow workers…As interested as I am, in colour, which must satisfy something in them. They devour and work their way through the painted cardboard samples and they do add something to them! I decided not to fight with them, but just go along with what was happening, so the painting offers them a place in my work! There are a lot of images of knights fighting snails in old manuscripts, I have discovered. As those familiar with 13th and 14th century illuminated manuscripts can attest, images of armed knights fighting snails are common, especially in marginalia.
Different people have many different theories about what the image of a knight fighting a snail might be symbolising. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art says: “The snail was a symbol of sloth and of those who are content with things of the material world at the expense of striving for the spiritual”. I don’t quite get that one, because the snails in my studio are far from slothful. They are manic and move very fast indeed. They are industrious and ravenous beasts! They are certainly concerned with material things though. Great consumers! So if consumption is the point, then they may be symbolic of appetite I think. And the knight to slay the fleshly appetites might be a possible route to go down.
Another idea might be that snails love to eat bark, paper, cardboard, and similar materials. As far as the monks go, (bearing in mind their books would often be stored in damp places, maybe cellars or similar) I am sure they were very much aware of the risk of damage to their manuscripts/books from snails, and it makes a lot of sense for them to maybe depict this battle against potential destruction of their life work. Snails would be a suitable “enemy” for a bookish monk, bearing in mind their main occupation was producing manuscripts. Maybe, including the image of the knight fighting the snail, would be a way of asserting that the word and the message of the text, recorded for continuity to be passed through the ages, would overcome any decay or destructive influences. And also, this would resonate with their own very practical battle of protecting the work from snails eating it!
The “Snails in the Studio” painting includes my little nod, to the snails. The studio tent is certainly a place of contemplation…As well as paint, I pray and meditate in this set apart space. I reflect and review, sometimes read, and drink tea as much as possible. It is my holy place, my mini monastery, the place most available to me when I want to focus in on the inner room of my life. And this is the best place to paint in, because of it being a dedicated space.
The snail — the archetypal slow creature, paradoxically endowed with implacable destructive power —might represent the agonising impossibility of accomplishing all that we hope to, because of the limits of time, and the knight could teach us that we must nevertheless battle against the snail despite the inevitability of defeat. I like this idea very much indeed. The reason being I think that in the context of my knee replacement surgery, and the long recovery and rehabilitation process, I am constantly facing the reality of not being able to accomplish all that I hope to, because I cannot rush time… I cannot make it go faster and I cannot speed up the process of recovery. I am subject to time and it is only time that will reap gradual improvement. My giant metaphorical time-snail is felt to be very big at the moment! So it’s a slightly different angle on time… but still orientated around the desire to achieve being confounded by the pace/passage of time!
In heraldry, the snail has a fixed meaning of perseverance and deliberation. Certainly need plenty of that at the moment!
Thinking of snails in relation to reading, “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story by Jenny Meehan” is now in an abridged form. You can get to it by following this link, and the link is also on the side bar of this blog under “Pages”.
https://jennymeehan.wordpress.com/abridged-version-of-the-very-patient-knee-replacement-story-by-jenny-meehan/ It is still pretty long, so skimming may be a good idea!
Here’s a happy image of me walking around. With crutches I can now walk for a whole 40 minutes! That’s more than I could do before the knee replacement!
walking after TKR
Save Our Souls Painting
I’ve created a video with myself reading my work ‘Ophelia Poem’.
Here’s the poem which is partnered with the painting:
Ophelia Poem/Save Our Souls Painting by Jenny Meehan
It was
an unfinished poem
who took
her hands and led her
to the river spring.
Who invited her,
held her,
cried with her.
Who even laid her body out,
as she willed it;
to face her grief.
In her vulnerability
she was
too fragile
to speak, even –
yet, intent
to trust the universe,
her painting pressed
into a tiny pearl,
the love which
first formed her.
So she treasured it.
And there was light.
©Jenny Meehan Poem and Image
The partner artwork is an early painting of mine, painted in 2011, ‘Save our Souls’. I can’t stress enough how helpful it is to reflect back in life… Maybe it’s a sign of my age, but I’ve found it adds a lot of richness to the present time , and surprisingly can encourage a person forwards, as they recognise the trace of divine wisdom in their own unfolding story.
In this case, I can see even in 2011 the glimmers of an evolving passion for feminist concerns and mental health, which continued to grow and develop through different exhibitions and projects I was involved in.
Like much of my visual art, this painting is normally exhibited with its partner poem ‘Ophelia’. The space between what is seen and what is heard/read is an area which continues to fascinate me. It’s always a super rich area for emotions and thoughts and the connections between them!
Save our Souls Painting with its partner creative work Ophelia Poem by Jenny Meehan
Health Care
I have an ongoing interest in healthcare. Earlier on in life I worked for ten years as a dental nurse. It wasn’t planned. Just a matter of leaving my DATEC Diploma in Art and Design course at Richmond Upon Thames College before the end, disillusioned and despondent. Needing to leave home quickly. Needing somewhere to live. Needing money to be able to live. So away with the art and into some nursing. There was a Dental Surgery in Hampton Wick and as it was nearby and familiar (because it was were I had my own dental check ups!) I went along. Didn’t expect to get the job. Didn’t like it very much at first, but in the end, got rather enthusiastic. Trained.
Looking back it was a very suitable job for me. A good move. What is more, it enabled me to go to University later as a mature student in my late twenties, as it was just the right kind of job to have while studying at the same time. No work to take home. And plenty of work available. And enjoyable. I did enjoy dental nursing very much indeed. And the whole role of nursing is such a valuable one. It makes such a difference to a persons experiences when they feel vulnerable, afraid and anxious. It is nice to help people in such situations. To calm and reassure them.
I was very pleased to be part of “The Art of Caring” http://www.artofcaring.org.uk/ in 2016 and went along to several events celebrating International Nurses Day which reminded me what an important profession it is.
For 2017 “The Art of Caring”
The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance
The Art of Caring is split into two clear exhibitions.
The first is at St George’s Hospital (3rd-12th May 2017) where printed postcards of your artwork are displayed on the walls of the hospital to help celebrate International Nurses Day. This is an inclusive exhibition.
The second is at St Pancras Hospital (July-October 2017) and uses a mixture of original artworks and printed postcards. Works will be selected by Arts Project curators Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay.
The first five categories relate to restrictions on access to care, the final category (dilution) relates to reductions in the quality of care.” credit: written on 31 March 2016 Ruth Robertson
NHS financial pressures knee replacement jenny meehan © Jenny Meehan
So you see above my contribution to the theme “Sustainability”.
On the theme of knee replacement surgery, the recovery and rehabilitation from my surgery which was on the 8th March is certainly a marathon. But I’m doing my exercises! Getting there slowly. My experience of being cared for in hospital was amazing! It couldn’t have been better! So impressed! I wrote a lot about it in “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story by Jenny Meehan” which is on a separate page of this blog. Look to the right hand side under pages and you can follow the link to it there if knee replacement surgery and patients experience of it is of interest to you! As well as the full version, which had colour coded text to help selective reading, “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story by Jenny Meehan” is now in an abridged form. You can get to it by following this link, and the link is also on the side bar of this blog under “Pages”.
https://jennymeehan.wordpress.com/abridged-version-of-the-very-patient-knee-replacement-story-by-jenny-meehan/ It is still pretty long, so skimming may be a good idea!
Here is the introduction to the full version, as a sample of the reading experience. Writing it was a therapeutic device!
Full Version of “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story by Jenny Meehan”
Warning! This is VERY long. For the abridged version of “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story by Jenny Meehan ” follow this link: https://jennymeehan.wordpress.com/abridged-version-of-the-very-patient-knee-replacement-story-by-jenny-meehan/
No Problem/Moving On sign of the times series jenny meehan
Do you like this print? Buy it, easily and safely, through Redbubble.com:
Introduction to “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story” by Jenny Meehan
Before I start, or should I say finish, bearing in mind that this post at the beginning, is the post at the end of the story, even though it is not the end of the story, because it is also the beginning…
You are clear on that, yes? !!!
Never mind! It depends which way round you choose to read this!
You will need patience to read this story. But I am needing so much patience myself, and it’s a good thing to cultivate. So it might be useful for you to bear with me. “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story” will be added to, probably in a couple of months time, as I am still writing it periodically. So, here is the full version of “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story” as it stands on 4th April 2017. If you want a much shorter read on a patients experience of knee replacement surgery and recovery, then I have posted some extracts from my story as part of a post I made for April 2017. And there is the abridged version!
Warning! This present version is VERY long! (Around the length of a PhD!) It has some text in a different colour, so that if you are not interested in exercises or mental meandering, you can be aided in your reading by knowing which areas to skip over with ease. Information I’ve found in the expanse of the internet will often be in sea green. Text related to physiotherapy and exercises will be in orange, and mental meanderings will be in blue. You can then jump right over those in your reading if you wish. Even if you do that, it’s still a good two hour read! But I couldn’t bear to cut the text out, and didn’t think it right to, even if not of interest to the majority, because if you are considering a knee replacement, I can tell you now, you will need to make yourself interested in exercises and mental meandering, because it is likely you will be doing a fair amount of both! And you will need patience.
If you do prefer a shorter version then follow the link to the abridged version: https://jennymeehan.wordpress.com/abridged-version-of-the-very-patient-knee-replacement-story-by-jenny-meehan/
I have called this “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story” as it features a chapter of my life which, while it is still ongoing, (my knee replacement surgery was recently carried out on the 8th March 2017), was one of those experiences where time takes on a new dimension, and patience, as a virtue, does come into its own. The story as it stands at present, covers the time period from January 2017 to a couple of weeks after my knee replacement surgery, but it alludes back in time, (rather a lot!) as I recall the past, and try and make some kind of sense from it.
I think I have realised that what often happens in life, is we are very patient, but not out of choice, rather out of desperation, and a hope that something will change. In some situations, patience is not a virtue. Sometimes we wait, hoping, wondering, worrying, and being passive, but could be taking some action ourselves. We can wait too long for a change to happen and in the process of doing so, cause ourselves and others, a lot of distress. We sometimes have some control over what happens, even if only a small amount, and we need to take it. It might be the smallest of actions. A change of mind, or of direction. A few questions asked. An attempt at trying some new venture, or seeking any small thing which might help, clarify, or educate. We might need to question something, and challenge it, rather than accept it. We might need to raise our expectations both of ourselves and of how others treat us. We may need to find faith in the process, where we currently harbour only doubt. Just sitting there and waiting, while sometimes the right thing to do, isn’t always the right thing.
Waiting is not the same as patience. Sometimes you can be patient, but choose not to wait.
I have been patient, but I did not want to wait, because I felt the timing for having knee replacement surgery on my very arthritic (I prefer the term “screwed up”) right knee was ripe. Now the knee replacement surgery is done, and the story and journey continue, and indeed, I know in my heart of hearts, it was right to have this surgery now. I’m a “young” knee replacement recipient, at just 52, so in the decision for a knee replacement at this point is also embedded the prospect of revision surgery in the future. It will take a long time to reap the benefits fully, but I am already reaping them now, just a few weeks post-operatively, and all the distress of the last two years can fade into the background. This hasn’t happened quite yet, as you will see from my narrative, but it is happening, and it is happening in the light of me having a life which I can now walk through, with some chance of regularly being able to walk for an hour, and probably even more. If this expectation seems a little low, and it probably is, it is because my expectations with respect to my quality of life shrunk before my eyes, and this alarming experience was made all the more alarming by the thoughts which were sown in my mind that it was reasonable simply to accept what was happening and live with it. I did not accept these ideas in the end, though I toyed with them for a while, and felt a certain amount of pressure to accept them.
I hope my writing about my experience, and sharing some of the thought processes I went through, will help someone else in some way. Every person’s situation is different and everyone’s knees are different. The knee is the largest load bearing joint of the body, and this, for me, is as well as being a simple fact, is also profoundly resonant psychologically. Because my story is one not just of the problems with this load bearing joint, but the psychological load bearing which my knee has brought me into. The struggle involved in making a decision to have elective knee replacement surgery, and the need for determination and faith at a time when I was already pretty discouraged and distressed. (Anxious and depressed, at times, in the end!) And it is a story of patience. When feeling the pressure.
Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is “timing”
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”
― Fulton J. Sheen
Patience is born from our inability to control much in our lives, and while we by our very natures, like to be in control, the reality is that while we exert control in some areas, we find ourselves in this vast pool of life, subject to all kinds of forces, influences, situations, people, and experiences which we do not have any control over at all. Or very little. Sometimes we did have control of an area of our life, at least in part, but did not see it, either because we were unwilling or unable to. Sometimes we were simply subjects, and didn’t have the power or ability to change things. We are broken, and lack insight at times to recognise what is going on. We misunderstand others and we misunderstand ourselves. I think often the hardest person to understand in our life is ourselves, and we are also often the hardest person to get along with!
In this quest for understanding and getting along with ourselves, we encounter our broken parts…our injured internal limbs, which stop us from moving as freely as we would like to move. This “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story” which orbits around my personal experience with osteoarthritis of my right knee and the decision for getting my knee surgically treated, is a personal narrative, first and foremost, which might be of interest to other obese 52 year olds who are considering elective surgery. Or others, of other ages, who are not obese, but who are considering knee replacement surgery! It might be interesting for anyone working with patients having knee replacement surgery, or “TKR”s, as they are often termed. (Total Knee Replacements). It’s not the usual type of patient account/diary/story of TKR, as I let myself dwell in waters deep; a little theological here and there, a bit philosophical, a little bit practical, with some research and some emotional angst as well. It’s long. You’ve been warned! It has many extra miles in it, and like my life at the moment, cannot be rushed through! Recovery is a slow process. But gives me a lot of time to write!
My experience of increased pain and disability due to osteoarthritis in my right knee was something which came upon me rather more suddenly than I could ever have imagined, and it changed my life dramatically from the beginning of 2015 onward. With my knee replacement surgery in March 2017, the journey is not over, but it is significantly altered, as is my life, which is already much better. I am not sure how unusual such a rapid deterioration of a knee joint is, and I do not have the means to judge my own experience in a comparative way, with others, but I imagine that my previous injury to the knee in 2010, no doubt contributed to the state of the knee being quite as dire as it was. Well, whatever the whys and wherefores, this is my knee replacement story as it stands (rather nice and straight!) at the moment. I have kept my narrative centred on myself, and not included all the wonderful, lovely people who have helped me through this time. I prefer to keep confidentiality unless specific permission has been given by people I write about, but one of the fantastically valuable aspects of my experience has been the way I have realised how much God can bless, work, and use people, working in hearts, minds, words and understanding, to knit together, in a healing way, the wounds we all carry and experience in our lives. It’s been a wonderful last few months.
I trust you’ll get something worthwhile from it, if you are patient enough to read it, that is! Though I have packed it into some form of organisation, also strays this way and that, meandering, in the style of my usual blog “Jenny Meehan, Contemporary Artist’s Journal – The Artist’s Meandering Discourse”. Written from my perspectives as a Christian, aspects of my faith are shared as they are an integral part of my life, and my understanding of my experience is that it has very much been a matter of me learning to trust God, to wait patiently, and to expect good things. But trusting God, waiting patiently, and expecting good things, are not passive, and do not preclude taking actions or making decisions. Indeed, the power and ability and strength to take action, comes from “Waiting on God”. The timing, the principles, the way. As I quoted earlier, but will again, because it is of the essence of what I have learnt through this experience:
“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is “timing”
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”
― Fulton J. Sheen
As a believer in a marvellously mysterious Creator, yet one also intimately involved in our lives, (if we wish this to be so), I can see how I muddle through things, often rather blindly, and in my stumbling around, often make things quite hard for myself. However, through all this, God manages to work, and writing this story also means I can look back and be reminded afresh of this time. Whatever happens with my knee replacement in the future…that great unknown… nothing can take away the rich and rewarding aspects of this experience. Though it certainly has not been easy, this experience is one through which I have made progress, and also gained more faith through.
Sometimes when writing, people dedicate their writing to others, and I dedicate this piece of writing to the wonderful people who have been part of this experience; the friends, family, and NHS staff, my surgeon, and all those who made it possible for me to get where I am at the moment. Anyone who has helped me in any way. You know who you are! And I also dedicate it to my knee, which though it found the pressure too much to bear without some reformation, still continues to bear my weight, even while traumatised and healing.
It’s early days. But I’ve come forward miles already.
Here goes…Be patient!
Most recent entry is first. “The Very Patient Knee Replacement Story by Jenny Meehan” can be read either way, from the present backwards, or in chronological order.
Well that’s the introduction! If you are brave enough to read it, you may find you enter your own experience of being a knight fighting a snail, because it does go on!!!! I am hoping it might be of use to those who do have a knee replacement operation. It’s very helpful to read of other peoples experiences.
Meditation Garden
Very pleased to see what is happening in the garden at the moment!
sign of the times series jenny meehan
And I have spent quite a bit of time pottering around in the garden, which is very enjoyable! Plus doing what I am able to do for the:
Forthcoming Kingston Artists’ Open Studios for 2017
“No Fear” painting by jenny meehan abstract lyrical expressionist british paintings jenny meehan
“No Fear” is one of the paintings I plan to bring along and show as part of this years Kingston Artists’ Open Studios.
Interesting among other things for the combination of some of my more graphic strands of working, for example, the “Signs of the Times” series (of which “Meditation Garden” is one) but this time happening in paint, with, quite literally, a more lyrical edge to it. Plus the joys of action painting!
To simplify one’s painting from time to time is a helpful habit. It tends to get over involved if you are not careful. That is OK to a point but it can be a slippery slope to lost perspective.
Emily Carr Quote:
Emily Carr. Carr said “Art is art, nature is nature, you cannot improve upon it… Pictures should be inspired by nature, but made in the soul of the artist; it is the soul of the individual that counts.”
west dean gardens jenny meehan flora foliage
Above “Dear Life” photograph by Jenny Meehan © Jenny Meehan
About Jenny Meehan
inspired by contemplative practices including prayer and mindfulness,
Jenny Meehan - Art Journal 