Say it in the Sand: A Creative Way to Grieve

My dear friend, Sean Corcoran has launched an International project based in Ireland, to help people and families come to terms with their grief.

'Say it in the Sand' has been born from his involvement with the 'Campaign to Prevent Suicide'. Whilst working as a Sand Artist with families during this project, he found that people felt an enormous sense of release by writing messages or names of loved ones and watching the sea reclaim them from the sand.

This has inspired him to devise 'Say it in the Sand',  launched on World Suicide Prevention Day, inviting you to release your grief, privately, on your favourite beach, or if you wish, sharing your sand messages on his page for others to take comfort. Already, in just 24 hours the response has been overwhelming, with people sharing their moving pictures of messages to loved ones who have passed away, such as Tricia Bradfield, who sadly lost her dad and her daughter within 8 weeks of each other in 2011. 

'A Message to Grandad' made by Tricia Bradfield

I feel very privileged indeed that Sean has used an extract of my music for the film. We have lost 2 members of our family to suicide, 2 beautiful young men. The pain never leaves us as a family. By creating music for Sean's Campaign it feels like a small way of reaching out to others and saying, 'we're here, we know, we see you.'

Thank you Sean for your pioneering, innovative and meaningful work. You can join the facebook group page for more details click here ... SAY IT IN THE SAND

Memorial Cycle: Say it in Sand: Waterford, Ireland

I am so humbled to share with you this beautiful memorial by Sean Corcoran of The Art Hand, who has used my handpan improvisation as the background music for this Campaign to Prevent Suicide. We have had two young men in our family who have committed suicide, so this is a cause very close to our heart. I am posting here a statement from Sean & Mags, to explain the campaign and how you can get involved ... 

Statement from Sean Corcoran

I’m so very proud of Mags O’Riordan for her determination to help others despite the tragedies in her life. Her mother Breda and herself showed great courage in facing up to so many mixed emotions while creating this sand art memorial to Donal and Nen. I’m sure that dealing with the consequences of suicide is never easy. Losing a partner, a brother, a son, a friend, leaves a vacuum that must be very difficult to fill with so many unanswered questions tangled into the anguish and grief.

Mags is the founder of the Donal O Connor Memorial Cycle, now in its 7th year. Joe Lonergan and I were approached by Natalie Garland Cooke to come up with a concept for the launch of this years event. All kinds of ideas went through my head including celebrations of hope and unity through a group sand art event. The more I thought about it though I felt it was more appropriate to allow Mags a more intimate opportunity to express her own tribute. Since she has dedicated so much of her life to helping others I felt it was the least she deserved.

I have facilitated many memorials down through the years, from small private gatherings to larger public events and collaborative artworks. The process of sand art is very therapeutic and participants often feel a real inner peace and a connection to the surroundings. The temporary nature of what is made has its own poignancy. Whatever emotions surface during the process can be dealt with in an uncluttered way. There’s the chance to wipe the slate clean as the tide washes it all away in an uplifting way.

I’m so happy that Mags and her mother were able to confront their own feelings on the day but yet they were also able to celebrate Donal and Nen’s lives in a calm and fun way. I’d like to wish Mags and the crew all the best with the cycle on September 9th and congratulate them sincerely for making such a real difference in so many peoples lives. The memorial cycle page is HERE.

Thanks to Darryl and Lauren who helped out on the day. Thanks to Donal O’Flynn for his assistance on the campaign and thanks to Cheryl Beer for the soundtrack on the video.

  To follow is a statement released by Mags O'Riordan

Suicide steals peace. It takes your peace of mind leaving you filled with relentless questions and an overwhelming burden of guilt. That's why I was very surprised to feel a real sense of calm and peace today working on my sand art tribute to my boys. Thanks to the generosity of Sean and Joe of the Art Hand I had the privilege of creating a tribute in sand to Donal and Nen to launch the 7th Donal O Connor Memorial Cycle which takes place on Sunday 9th Sept on Waterford Greenway.

My little brother Nen should be 40 today, instead he's forever 32 so it was really special to create this piece with my mam. We spent a relaxing and fun day together in great company remembering the boys and gaining new skills - it was poignant and light hearted in equal measure. The day started with a trudge down a boreen to the beautiful and secluded Bridies Beach which is reached by a small climb down stones and rocks- the laughs started there! Sean and Joe sat us down and explained how the sand art is mapped out- their scale is based on paces and their instruments are sticks and rakes - it's quite incredible to watch them work.

We were joined by Darryl, who founded Waterford Marine Search & Rescue, and his lovely girlfriend Lauren for the raking of the art. The work is more physical than you might expect, I have guns of steel after it, but it's also incredibly peaceful, all you can hear is the sea and the lapping of the waves. I felt like I was in a dream, my mind stopped whirring and I was just watching the words take shape - it was a unique experience. When the work was over I went for a paddle in the sea and let the waves come in over my feet, it felt like a release. Like letting go. Sean encouraged me to write a few words in the sand so I started writing things as they came into my head, before I knew it there were tears coming down my face and I just started writing the things I wanted to lose - pain, worry, guilt - and the things I wanted to keep - friends, family, love - I don't know how much I wrote but the waves just kept coming and washing them all away.

When we finished I went up to the Greenway with mam to watch the tide wash away our creation. It was carthartic. I felt like I had the weight on my shoulders washed away. This process has shown me how the tide will always turn, no matter what's happening no matter how good or bad, it'll change, the tide will turn. There is great power in nature, there's such a sense of peace to be had from taking a walk beside the tide and just writing words and watching them wash away. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Joe and Sean for sharing this gift with me. I would urge everyone to go do the same - it's incredibly uplifting. So why not go to your local beach and say it in sand? You'll be delighted you did.

Wherever you are & however you feel today, know that I am sending you loving light to wrap around your heart. All love, dear ones, Cheryl.

10,000 Steps: The Wailing Old Mermaid

Those of you that read last night's post will be as excited as I am, to know that Sean not only loved the improvised piece we recorded for him, he edited his film footage to make a special film of it! I can't quite believe it.

... And here it is folks! My piece of improvised handpan and the voice of the wailing old mermaid, named 10,000 steps, after the Sand Art piece by my dear friend and artist collaborator, Sean Corcoran, when he was a resident Sand Artist at Spittal Festival last week. 

Sean lives on the Copper Coast in Ireland. You can see all his work at The Art Hand where he lives and works with his beautiful Artist wife, Miranda Cocoran and their two lovely children.

10,000 steps back to self

Today, my dear friend Sean Corcoran, posted a beautiful film about his work as a Sand Artist at Spittal Festival. He mentioned, should he put music with it (which I'm not sure he should because his voice is melody enough) but I offered to improvise some handpan for him and record it in our old studio tonight. I'm not sure why I offered, perhaps it was the first of many steps back to self on this healing path.

Truth is, it's a little dusty in our studio since I became deaf. But I figured, if I watched the film and played what I felt, we could record it. Jeff, my long suffering partner of 30 years, kindly offered to sound engineer, which these days means, be my ears.

Well, we've mixed the piece and already pinged it over to Sean. I'm not sure if he'll use it, it came out a bit trippy, especially because I could sense the wail of an aging mermaid, sat watching the 10,000 steps that Sean talks of in his piece and I think she was me, calling me back home ... so I put the vocals onto the track. I've said to Sean to edit it how he sees fit. Whatever happens, what a joy to make music again, to collaborate with such a fine artist and to feel myself tentatively climb back into the saddle.

Off course, it's not the first time Sean and I have worked together in this way ... here's a piece we did a few years back ... 

I AM WATERFORD

I just want to take some time out of my own creative journey to tell you about my dear friend Sean Corcoran over in Waterford, Ireland.

He is currently working on this absolutely amazing project called I AM WATERFORD setting up a group page where people from Waterford, who are living all over the world, can come and celebrate their cultural connections by leaving messages. In a matter of days the page has gone viral with over 8 and Half thousand Waterford people leaving their I AM WATERFORD messages.

I left a message saying that although strictly speaking I am not Waterford, I kind of wished I was because  they were making it seem so wonderful.

I have said it before and I will say it again, Sean Corcoran is nothing short of a creative genius and however brilliant we think he is, he always goes on to show us that he is even more brilliant than we thought. But I know his visions are made possible behind the scenes by the support of his wonderful family, so here's a massive shout out to Miranda and the children too.

If you would like to take a look at the page click HERE

PS: I am not sure who took the photographs but whoever you are, you did a tremendous job.

Om Kali Sand Art at Quiet Space Studio

I am so happy to present to you my very first installation at Quiet Space Studio, LLandysul. A Collaboration between myself and my dear friend, Sean Corcoran from The Art Hand in Bunmahon, Nr Waterford, Ireland, on the beautiful Copper Coast.

When I was a Resident Sound Healer in an Artist's Retreat in Lower Normandy, I recorded my work on an old hand held, sharing it with facebook friends online. 

Sean heard my track Om Kali and asked me if he could respond to the work in Sand Art as a collaboration. 

When I got back to Wales, I went to my Sound Recording Studio and recorded a full version for him, with Jeff Beer, who very kindly joined the collaboration by engineering the piece.

In response to the Meditative Music I had composed, Sean took to The Copper Coast & created the most incredible piece of Sand Art in response.

And today I launched the work at my Quiet Space Studio for Carnival Day in LLandysul.

I quietly played the Meditation Tracks from my album Apples in the Rain and The Mantra Experiments in the back ground. It is the first time I have listened to my own work since my hearing loss. Having my hearing aids meant that I could actually hear it without is distorting. It was very moving. I also put oceanic oils in my cold air diffuser to take folk to the beach through aroma.

I exhibited with the work, my growing collection of Talking Sticks made from driftwood. I have been making these in response to a new poetry book I am working on entitled 'The Beauty of Decay' which I think sits well with the transient nature of Sand Art.

I am so touched that all  the aspects of our collaboration had such a tremendous response from the public. Certainly smell seemed to have an equally as strong impact as the visual, 3D and Sound art. 

Sean is sending me the film so that I can show it with the work in Quiet Space Gallery. If you would like to call in and see the piece, please let me know you're coming.

Meanwhile ... here is the Youtube version.

               

OM KALI FILM LAUNCH ON NEW YEAR'S DAY 2016

A Personal Invite to join us in a 5 minute meditation wherever you are in the world

 @ 12pm on New Year's Day 

2016 UK time
OM KALI

We would like to invite you to sit with us, wherever you may be, to launch our exciting & innovative 5 minute meditation via film & mantra

... and then kindly share it online with all your friends on facebook, twitter and any other social media site you can think of, to help us raise awareness and funds for Sound Memories; to continue to develop an innovative new way of working within the arts, empowering those living with dementia.

You can donate to Sound Memories here:

Full Details of the Sound Memories Project 
are available here ... 

http://soundmemoriesproject.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/gofundme-sound-memories.html

When Sand Artist, Sean Corcoran, heard how I am raising funds for my collaborative arts research with older people living with dementia, supporting them through Sound therapy to develop a digital story bank of their life memories, he immediately opened his heart and offered to create a collaborative piece of work across the Irish Sea.

Sean, Co-Director of The Art Hand in Bunmahon, was drawn to my new and ever popular fundraising album 'apples in the rain' and he could not get the track OM Kali from his mind.

Please visit Bandcamp to download & purchase 'apples in the rain'
 to raise funds for Sound Memories :-
https://cherylbeer.bandcamp.com/album/apples-in-the-rain

It is the tradition within Sanskrit Mantra, particularly with Tibetan Monks, that the listener does not know the definition of the mantra, does not apply pre-ordained meaning and that he/she embody the mantra to sense it from within.

Without knowing who Kali is or what she represents, Sean designed his whole beach art work whilst listening to me in mediation with the Sanskrit mantra, designing his response, an octo-sea creature, as frightening as the sailor drowning octopus who  can sink whole fleets, and yet, here she is is, so vulnerable washed upon the beach, stranded in her full beauty. Hearing her plea to heal, the sea rescues her, pulling her slowly back under the waters with salt tinged fingers, where all that is left is a memory of her in the sand.

Om Kali was written as a Sanskrit Mantra under an ancient apple tree in France, where I was resident Sound Healer for the month of September. 

The mantra calls for the empowerment and power of Kali to heal fractured hearts, enabling them to continue to travel though Universal time with respect, love and dignity as they navigate the ageing sands of time.

OM KALI film launch is a time lapse of Sean's artistic response to the Mantra on the stunning Copper Coast in Bunmahon & will be posted on this blog as well as Facebook 1st January @ 12pm.

To those of you who share with us in this New Year meditation and help to raise awareness and funds for Sound Memories, I will send reiki light and love to honour you. 

Namaste

Cheryl Beer

cherylbeermusic.weebly.com

cherylbeermusic@gmail.com

https://thearthand.wordpress.com/

Sound & Sand

Just wrapping up in the studio and it gives me immense pleasure to be pinging my 'hot of the press brand new first ever' meditation CD to the genius that is my dear friend & fellow artist  and activist/pioneer, Sean Corcoran, Co-Director of The Art Hand in Bunmahon, Ireland along with his gifted artist wife Miranda (and off course not forgetting their beautiful family)

Sean is the most exquisite sand artist.

And he has has asked for my recordings from France to listen to as he focusses on his next installation on The Copper Coast this Wednesday 25th November 2015.

He has sent me his design work which I won't share here cos it wouldn't really be fair, but it is a beautiful piece which he will be making in reponse to my sound recordings.

I absolutely love that recordings made by me in France, mixed at home in Wales, will be inspiring an artist in Ireland to create a beautiful piece of transient sand art that will be washed away ultimately by the same sea that washes upon the shores that inspire me day to day, here in West Wales.

 My heart and soul will be with Sean this week as he time lapse films the sand art installation. 

How wonderful will that be. He'll then edit a wee film for the sand art and my sound healing from France.

Namaste, Sean

Mother of Pearl

Mother of Pearl Cafe is run by Mona, a beautiful creative soul who welcomed us with open arms and love in her heart.

I had asked that all of us in the team came together, even Dom before he whizzed off to (try to) catch an early ferry home for work) for a final sharing at 4.00pm.

As the festival goers started their journey home, some of them stayed with us for another 2 hours of poems, dancing and song.

For me, I was very privileged to be able to sing the song I had written with Ger & Ciaran the night before on their comfy sofa, right there in the cafe. 

Ciaran had been adamant he wouldn't perform, but I gave Ron the eye and he worked his magic. 

Afterwards, Ciaran said that the time had just felt right. 

It was very generous of Ciaran to let us have his spot in Mother of Pearl where he regularly plays on a Sunday afternoon, and a very fine guitarist he is, too.


Mark, our actor, danced, Mab, our poet, sang, Laura, our dancer, read her first ever poetry ... interspersed with Ron's poignant lyrics, Paul's captivating melodies and Anne's layered stories. Sam & Laura danced to Mab's poems, and all the while, we supped Mona's coffee and ate her scrumptious cakes.

At 6pm we meandered down to the front to meet Sean and his team, where Sam and I danced tango with the public.

I don't remember having ever gone to bed with such a big smile on my face and with so much love in my heart.

Thank you Sean, Mary, Kieth, Trisha, The Team, Tramore Tourism, the 'Adopt an Artist' homes, the hotels, the pubs & B&B's, the cafes who hosted us. The lovely folk of Tramore who embraced us. Thanks to my Artist team for being inspirational.

See you soon my friends.

And we're off!

Well, tonight is the night that my team of 

12 Wales Artists 

all different genres, representing an 

inter-generational spread of our vibrant, 

gifted and much loved Arts Community 

gather together to head off across the Irish Sea.

The list of people to thank is 

ABSOLUTELY HUGE

So here is a short summary ...

We would like to thank the Superman that is Sean Corcoran,  Artistic Director & the whole of his magnificent team for working so hard. 

We really appreciate you.

We would like to thank 

Tramore Tourism 

(in particular Mary Daniels)

www.tramore.ie

Bus Eirrean and Eurolines

For making our travel possible 

(Trisha Lyons the treasurer of the Festival for sorting the tickets in Waterford)

We also would like to thank all the wonderful Irish people in Tramore who have given accommodation/rooms in their homes for our stay.

I would like to personally thank the Wales Artist Team, most of whom have become very dear friends over the years,  for very generously giving their time & creativity to come and join the Craic.

Thank you in advance to the many thousands of people who we will meet over the weekend. (31,000 people came to the first Promenade Festival last year!!!)

Oh, and I think I'll thank myself because against all the odds, I somehow seem to be able to continue to create magnificent collaborative opportunities to share with fellow Artists. 

It gives me great joy in my heart to hold spaces where we all have the opportunity 

to 'be' who we are.

My Nan always said to me,

'Where there's a will

There's a way.'

It is sound advice that has stood me in good stead.

All we need now is for the coach to turn up and we'll be on our way :) 

The Art Hand

Imagine ... the most beautifully warm and welcoming Irish couple.
 

 

 

Imagine .... that they are both incredible artists oozing with creativity.

 

 

 

They both have lovely, open, warm smiles and you feel as if you must have known them in another life, because you click with them straight away.

 

Imagine ... they live on the Copper Coast in Bunmahon, in a house that could sit comfortably featured on Grand Designs, overlooking the rugged coastline.

 

They have interlaced into it, their every creative fibre and yet it remains very much a loved home, with their beautiful children taking centre stage indoors and out, playing with their friends on the slide in the wet with bright wellies and coats.




 

Imagine ... an art studio, where every week all the local children travel to come and paint and draw and make things with this beautiful creative couple...
 

But they also do all sorts of amazing things like ...

Work with cancer patients ...

Like make huge community films ... 

Well, I didn't have to imagine all of this, because I was very lucky enough to go to The Art Hand when I was recently staying in Ireland for the Gealach Gorm Song writing Festival.



 

Angela Mulcahy introduced me to Sean Corcoran when I was last in Ireland, October 2012, funded by Coracle as a networking trip for Celtic Womenfest, a women's music festival at The National Botanic Garden of Wales, which I set up and am freelance Creative Director.

Sean and Angela had co-produced on a film about Edith Collier, a painter who had travelled to Bunmahon in the early 1900's with a party of 10 women painters. They stayed in fallen down old cottages and painted the local scenes, people ... whatever inspired them.

When Edith went home, her father burnt her work and she didn't paint again... except she did!!

 

When she died they found all her beautiful paintings in a back room in her house and now a trust is set up to exhibit her work and 2 films have been made to remember her, one in her home country of New Zealand and one in Ireland.

I took 2 volunteers with me to Ireland in October, Suzanne and Danielle and I wrote for us, a short piece called A Child's Christmas in Wales.

 

 

Angela invited us to perform it at the opening of the film about Edith Collier in The Copper Coast restored church, and Sean was there organising the evening with her, doing the film projection.

It really was the most beautiful evening and I knew then and there, I would be going back.

 

 

I didn't really get much of a chance to chat with Sean and his wife Miranda as they were so busy, but when they invited me to spend the afternoon with them prior to the festival, I jumped at the chance, as I had be-friended them on facebook and had been watching all the wonderful things they were doing at The Art Hand.

During the festival, Sean and Angela made a film of the performances.

 

 

As a surprise for Sean and Angela, I decided that I would perform a poem I had written when I got home from my initial trip, about Edith Collier, but equally as importantly to me, to celebrate the lost lives of the 9 other women that were with her:

noone knows anything about them, not even their names!

On the ferry going over to Ireland for the festival, I ran through the poem called 9 Coloured Ribbons and thought... 'wonder what this would sound like sung with ukulele?' ... And started to have a little hum and strum.

 

A little girl sat with her mum, clapped afterwards and asked me to play it again... so I figured I might be able to get away with performing it at the festival as a song, if they were nice people, so I would leave it to the end of the set, and judge the reaction. Off course, everyone was gorgeous! We were old friends by the time I got to my last song!

So, I took a deep breath, & I performed 9 Coloured Ribbons ... it was very beautiful cos everyone joined in with the singing at the end.

'We remember 9 coloured ribbons' I asked them to harmonize if they could and ... WOW!!

 

 

When I got home, Sean posted a link to me on facebook of an amazing piece of art he is testing at the moment on the beach ... Sand Art with rakes and sticks... huge funky designs that then get washed away by the sea ... it's like the artwork is at one with the changing face of nature .. A sort of huge environmental etch-a sketch! Here's a brilliant time lapse he made that is on youtube ...

 

 

 

He then wrote to me to say that he and Angela were going to make a film about 9 coloured ribbons to remember the women painters!!

 

I couldn't believe it! He asked my permission to use the film recording from the festival of the song and to send him the lyrics/poem.

 

He is going to put up an Art installation of 9 coloured ribbons on bamboo sticks and film that too.

 

Then he is going to ask the trust in New Zealand if he can also use Edith's paintings in the film.

 

How utterly amazing is that!!What a journey for my poem-song!

 

Sean said it is the first song written about the Copper Coast and quite possibly the first poem written about Edith ...

 

Aside: Let me tell you, I am like, so smiling right now, I can hardly move my fingers quick enough to type and tell ya about it!!

I know I had to fund myself for this performance at the Song Writing Festival, and my mum was a tad worried about the cost to me, cos truth is, I can ill afford it, but without the initial funding from Coracle to go over and make contacts, this journey for my work would never have happened.

I have tried to explain to my mum that there are some things that are way beyond money and that this is not a 'job' for me, it's a way of life ...

 

 

this very special experience, adventure, journey... call it what you will, will stay with me for the whole of my lifetime ...

 

it is why I do what I do with my life and feels like contributing to a legacy ...

 

... that I am planting tiny seeds that might actually grow into something that contributes to our history as artists, by preserving that which has been, within that which is now, for those who come after us ...

 

... it sits so well in my heart and with my personal philosophy in life.

Michael Kennedy Presenter at Oystermouth Radio

 

 

Recently, the lovely Michael Kennedy was interviewing me on Oystermouth Radio and he asked me if my music was legacy enough for me ... and I couldn't put into words for him what I meant by 'leaving something meaningful behind'

 

... I suppose because I have been so very ill in the past, every day feels like a gift. I used to think that the pay back to the universe for that, was to compromise my creativity and give it to others ... being a conduit for others to create and denying myself the time to be creative  just for myself, it seemed sort of .. selfish, I suppose.

 

 

But actually, I have learnt that through allowing yourself the time to express your own creativity and valuing that time as much as the time you give to others, it will lead to outcomes that have as much, if not more impact in terms of 'giving back'.

 

Mother Earth wants to have a reciprocal relationship with me! She didn't expect anything back from me when she gave me my life for longer ... she just wants to ebb and flow with me and for me to ebb and flow with her.

 

 

In actual fact, it is not Mother Nature who will stand at the end of my time with a tick box sheet measuring what I have or have not given back, it's ME!! It's me who is measuring that, while she undoubtedly is smiling at me whispering, 'You you just learn to simply BE!' And by doing just that, by listening to my higher self if you like, and going to Gealach Gorm because it felt like the right thing to do, and by just simply being myself... singing my poems and strumming my uke ... wonderful things have happened.

I hope when Sean films the '9 coloured ribbons'  arts installation that I can be there, and I am certain that if I am meant to, then I will. Meanwhile, I shall let the universe do her thing!