Monday 4 October 2010

Damh the Bard & Cerri Lee

At the weekend Kitchen Witch attended a Witches Fair in Glastonbury. At the fair we had the wonderful opportunity to meet Damh the Bard and Cerri Lee. Beautiful, lovely people! So today I thought I would write a bit about them.

Damh the Bard, information from his website:

Damh is a modern-day Bard whose spirituality, and love of folk tradition, is expressed through his music, storytelling and poetry. Drawing on the Bardic traditions his performances are both entertaining and educational, weaving a tapestry of myth, peace, and anthems that speak directly to the heart, but never without a good splash of humour. Damh is a musical storyteller who works within the world of myth that cannot be proved; where the Faerie really do dance on Midsummer's Eve, where the trees talk, and the Hollow Hills take you into the realms of Annwn. Where the Goddess rides her horse, guiding you to magic, and the Horned God of old calls us from the shadows of the Greenwood. So relax, and let the music take you there.

During the 1990s he was trained as a Bard, poet and storyteller in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

His inspiration comes from the ancient myths and legends of the British Isles and Ireland; from King Arthur to Taliesin; from the Welsh Mabinogion to old British folk customs.

Damh has always believed that his job is to entertain his audience and take them on a journey through the old stories and myths of this land. His audiences leave his concerts having been fully engaged by Damh, and with a deeper understanding of this land’s ancient heritage.

Cerri Lee, information from her website:

Cerri, “the artist” has taken a long time to begin to emerge into the light. My journey has been the same as many who yearn to express themselves but have trouble finding a language, or a medium, that fully conveys what they want to say.

In my case I didn't know what I wanted to talk about, so the images that I produced were commissions for people using their photos, or things that I came across in magazines or books.

For this reason I had regarded myself more a crafts person rather than an artist, and spent many happy years taking my work to crafts/psychic fairs and the like to sell.

After what seems like a life time of working closely with various artists who all, in their own way, had opened my eyes to different art techniques and varied media such as pencils, oil paint,watercolour, pyrography (pokerwork) and pen and ink, none of the media really jumped off the page enough to excite or satisfy me completely, until I found a class in clay modelling and this is when a number of epiphanies happened.

The first being that finally I understood is what I had been missing, 3D! Very shortly followed by a second, which was the inspiration for all that I wanted to say had been with me all along, and that was my spiritual path - Druidry.

Now if you were expecting a whole run of sculptures to be the first thing to happen, you would be mistaken, they came later. No, the first thing to happen was designs for T-shirts!

All the while the sculpture experience was growing and evolving, a kiln was bought second hand and over time a style started to emerge. At first small items, figures not very detailed and then as confidence grew so did the detail and the variety.

The beauty and magic of working with clay is that it takes all of the elements to create something, firstly of course you need the inspiration, then earth, water is inherent, air to dry and then the transformational fire of the kiln. Clay is a hard task master and many items that have taken days of work have been blasted into tiny pieces in the kiln if you have not been sure to eradicate air bubbles or made sure the clay was properly dry before it goes in! But when it works, when you crack open the kiln and everything is still intact, the relief and pleasure is hard to beat!

I am trying very hard to make a living out of my art work these days and I divide my time between my grown up family, selling my wares, sculpting and other forms of artwork, facilitating various camps/workshops and groups, as well as being roady, driver and general assistant to my partner Damh the Bard.


The picture above which is the cover of one of Damh's CD's was drawn by Cerri, I am proud to say I now own not only a signed copy of the CD but also a signed, limited edition copy of the print by Cerri too!

In a sea of people and exhibitors at the fair, it was a beautiful experience to meet such lovely, warm, open and friendly people.

Damh the Bard's website:
http://www.paganmusic.co.uk/

Cerri Lee's website:
http://www.cerrilee.com/

To purchase CD's & Cerri's art:

Tansy
x

2 comments:

  1. They are certainly lovely people, and I am not in the least bit jealous you were on the next stall to them all day :)

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  2. How wonderful that you were able to meet them and thank you for sharing this post. Have a wonderful week.

    Seshat Moon Willow

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