Many thanks to Louise Kenward for interviewing me for a piece published today on the BMJ Medical Humanities Blog in which we talk about the new extended version of Breastless (published at Life Writing Projects) and about creativity when facing surgery. Louise Kenward is a visual artist based in East Sussex. She was awarded an MA with… Continue reading Interview for BMJ Medical Humanities Blog
It's past mid-September. Summer is a mirage behind us. Back there – over my shoulder – are silvery skies, long walks by the sea and light evenings with family and friends. Autumn brings harvests, and fresh starts. Earlier this year I wrote two reflective essays about breast cancer in my family and about becoming breastless,… Continue reading ‘Life Writing Projects’, harvests and dreams
Ever since I first came across Eric Gill's work for The Golden Cockerel Press when I was a student of fine bookbinding, I have admired his art whilst feeling an intuitive ambivalence about his portrayal of the female body. So when Fiona MacCarthy’s biography of Gill was published in 1989, revealing (from Gill’s meticulous diaries)… Continue reading ‘Eric Gill: The Body’ at Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft, until 3 September
I haven’t posted here for quite a while – I’ve been working intensely for the past few months on all kinds of furtherings – work and domestic. More of those in due course, as and when things reach next stages. And now we’re about to take a holiday! In the run up to doing that… Continue reading from somewhere to somewhere else
http://www.kent.ac.uk/english/research/conferences/artistsbooks.html This talk/article has also been posted on the BMJ Medical Humanities blog. I had been so looking forward to this wonderful symposium devised, designed and immaculately planned by Stella Bolaki, and to seeing the exhibition of Martha Hall's and other book artists' work – which is still on until 14 August (Prescriptions Beaney House of… Continue reading Illustrated talk for University of Kent symposium on Artists’ Books and the Medical Humanities on 21st April 2016
‘The Ethics of Display: exhibiting vulnerable bodies' At the Centre for the History of Medicine, the University of Warwick, 21 March 2016 When I signed up for this symposium I was still thinking about the tricky questions thrown up by Lucy Lyons’ ‘Drawing Parallels’ workshop at UCL last year. The experience of that day spent trying… Continue reading Bodies on show
What a privilege to be invited to take part in StAnza 2016, the 19th annual poetry festival in St Andrews. Heartfelt thanks to Eleanor Livingstone and to all the members of the team who every year organise and programme this outstanding festival. StAnza extends such a warm welcome to everyone who attends – it really… Continue reading StAnza 2016 – a festive table
Yesterday, Michaela Ridgway and I took delivery of CELL, the not-quite-pamphlet which gives embodiment to my poem in twelve sections with art by Michaela. The object has been designed by Katy Mawhood – it’s a printed and folded sheet with only some of the folds cut, so that it can be handled and read in… Continue reading The publication of CELL
I am most grateful to Philip Scibilia – who heads up the Medical Humanities programme – and to Elizabeth Fehsenfeld for their invitation to speak last week and for their enthusiastic welcome and generous hospitality. Thank you to Tara Jenner for the warm introduction. I was delighted to meet Sean Nevin who is Director of… Continue reading An evening at Drew University’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies on the 21st of September 2015
I spent Saturday drawing. The idea of drawing holds cosy memories of the art room at school where I loved going but felt guilty because I should have been studying. So why was I outside my comfort zone on Saturday? Partly because I hadn’t put pencil to paper in decades (other than to write) but… Continue reading Beyond comfort
Clare Best 