​Since our last blog, Rosita Boland’s very positive article about Na Cailleacha in the Irish Times (click here to read the full article online) has brought lots of responses from other artists, from media figures and some opportunities for new work. We supported the online protests over Sealing the Archives of the Mother and Baby Homes.  We are diminished by increasing stories of domestic violence including the death of another woman and her two children and the tension we all felt about the American elections, not just the unspeakable prospect of another four years of presidential misogyny, racism, climate-change denial, and an economic model that claims success but emanates from a tax avoider who went bankrupt several times. I​t is exciting now that there is finally a woman elected to high office, and one of African-Indian heritage at that.

​It’s almost two weeks since the month in Mayo with Na Cailleacha ended, and even though I have written five different versions of this blog piece, none of them seemed just right to put onto the website.
But as of today, I decided to stop messing around and just write it in one go.
First of all, my name is Anouk Rudin. Originally from Switzerland, I have lived and worked in Dublin for a good year before the lockdown in March, and this month has been my first visit to Mayo. Besides differences in the conception of what a mountain is (really, everything in Ireland is sort of a small hill or a big hill for me, occasionally I even refer to a small mountain, but that’s about it) I was as stunned as everyone else by the beauty around me. Therefore, it didn’t come  a surprise to me that several art projects were inspired by the landscape around us, starting from the bog and the Atlantic but also the history of the place that was so clearly visible around us. I’m not one of the artists in this project, nor someone with a whole lot of experience in this area. I came into this project as an assistant to Therry and her documentary, and ended up being a bit of an assistant to everyone. I also set up their Instagram account (add link), which, as a result, involved me in pretty much all the things Na Cailleacha has done over the month. Therefore, as the only “outsider”, Catherine invited me to share my perspective in this blog.
I was quite simply just blown away by this group. What struck me most is their endless passion for their work. Without me really noticing it,  they dragged me into their world of colour, sounds, shapes and words, that filled me with new insights into the world around me. They are so completely dedicated to their art that it’s hard not to feel a little intimidated at times.

Even though they are all completely different, this love for their work is what connects them. Beyond that connection, there was something in the way they interacted with each other that surprised me, but also themselves. Endless support seems about the right way to express it, on a professional level, but also on a personal one. These are women artists over seventy (with the exception of Carole who is slightly younger) and being that, they faced burdens and struggles that, when pointed out, raise a lot of questions of the “Why?” and “Why not?”variety. Sharing experiences with each other and relating to them, allowed them to create bonds that were both unique and powerful. For me as a mere twenty-two-year-old woman, listening to them overcome these challenges, or simply just working with them, has been an inspiration and left me with what I like to call “a big blur of knowledge”.
The word “visibility” was a big one that stuck with me throughout this month. I can’t believe that some people dismiss this group because of their age, their gender or their profession. For me, BECAUSE of their age, gender, and profession, and the way they deal with the challenges that come with them, this has been one of the most impactful experiences of my life. There’s something powerful and energetic coming from this collective, that we can all profit from. I encourage everyone to look at Na Cailleacha. They have plenty to say and show, that is worth attention.
As for myself, I will keep working with the group and am already excited about what’s coming next. Also, I will try to update their Instagram account as regularly as possible (@NaCailleacha). I’m taking a little bit of a break from that for the moment as I’m currently trying to edit all the footage that I have since Ballinglen, but there will be new material up there soon. This will include information on what future projects lie ahead and how the group is progressing after their month in Mayo. I can only hope that I can share a little bit of the incredible experience I had there. Until then, stay safe everyone. Anouk.

Week-ends do not normally interrupt the rhythm of our lives here in Ballinglen but this one was different for everyone. The sun blazed down on fields, houses, beaches and ancient monuments and sent us scattering to explore the world beyond our usual long walks. Helen and I took Anouk –  our intern- with us and went to Achill, where for a few idyllic hours we were wrapped in a sandwich of  blue between the Atlantic and the sky, and I dropped in to visit Camille Souter. Camille now carries the mantle of the most esteemed older artist in Ireland and we would love to have her with us for a day or two, but even though we comprise a Covid 19 free bubble, we felt it would be wrong to take her away from her safe environment in Achill to come here. She  was interested in the music sessions between Carole and Helen and also in our conversation topics. She spoke about death as matter-of-factly as always, saying that she was curious about the experience, since she has spent a long time thinking about it.
 
Back in Ballinglen we got ourselves into gear for a visit from Rosita Boland who put us through a very thorough Q & A session about the project and about our visions and motivations and added a memorable quote from Henry James to our group graffiti. She is planning an article for the Irish Times about the project so we are both excited and nervous about that.  Rosita had Mediterranean weather but by the time her photographer arrived next morning with a brief to take outdoor photos of us, we struggled to keep our feet against gales and lashing waves.
 
Helen offered a spontaneous session on monoprinting, most of the artists were familiar with this already, but they came on board with Carole and myself. We covered ourselves in black printing ink, but we made prints. Now we are converts to the medium and are promised a chance to try the printing press next. On Tuesday afternoon Barbara and Patricia spoke very powerfully about art and loss and how art has helped them to cope with different losses in their lives, Patricia described art-making as a process of reaching beyond the horizon. It was really appropriate to talk about loss in North Mayo, a place that so resonates with lazy beds and residues of emigration. Barbara offered an opportunity to think about personal and universal experience through her film Requiem and Patricia showed the collaborative film she made with Therry, ‘Once Upon a Time…’ which in its perfect brevity, re-opened fleeting memories for everyone.
 
There is a natural rhythm to residencies and collaborations like this. We have been alternately skittish with excitement, moved to serious thought, and entertained by the comedians among us but today, busy though it was, was the day when tiredness caught up with us. We had planned to talk about energy, losing it and sustaining it, but we decided to wait for another day.

​We have passed the half way mark of our time here in Ballinglen now, and it’s timely to invite some of the other Cailleachs to talk about their experiences too. Today I asked Carole and Helen to write about their experience of the collective of playing/drawing together for the past two weeks. Carole kicked off;
 
“As the youngster in the group I feel privileged to be among such extraordinary women. Remaining passionate and committed to making art, they show us all that, although age may bring its challenges, it also brings depth of practice and hard-won experience. And perhaps a sense of needing to ‘get it all out’ while we can.
I’m also the odd one out in being the only musician on board. I’ve been developing my own work, as we all have, but also finding ways to collaborate. Helen and I have met up most mornings to see what happens when charcoal meets a saxophone. Often we’ve been joined by others in the group as the sax notes have floated over from the shed studios to the main arts centre building – a summoning to prayer? Well maybe, as many have commented on the brain -clearing- freedom- from- expectation experienced as the charcoal responds to the sounds. Helen could describe this better than me! “
 
Carole described how her  note-playing  leaves her in a state of complete openness. Helen’s response clearly indicates how she, too, is cleansed by the concentrated focus on the musical notes;-
 
In response to Carole’s lovely description of  the process that we have developed, I will
simply describe the experience of working to a live series of notes with nothing so easy as a melody. Carole sometimes effortlessly streams notes together so that my hand bearing charcoal lightly follows the stream up and down the page. Then she will stop and with great effort push her saxophone to make the most extraordinary sounds. I find myself  at these moments matching this effort and tortuously press the charcoal stick to the page rhythmically.
Then she  stops and the world starts again.
This small exercise works on any number of different levels but it is the best yet for total absorption.
 
Carole wrapped up the experience with these closing remarks;
“We gave a public demonstration this week, inviting people to take paper and charcoal and join in. It was great to see the happy faces of people feeling a growing sense of freedom on the paper.
Our after dinner conversations continue with Catherine suggesting themes ranging from friendship to death. We have built a trust and openness amongst us that is very precious.”
 

​It’s Tuesday again in Ballinglen. This means that we are now half way through our time here and we are already beginning to feel sad at the thought of leaving. This feeling can only grow. As might be expected all the Cailleachs have settled into work patterns of their own but with plenty of interaction, spontaneous and supportive critiques and collective discussion over dinner in the evening. Today is the first of our ‘afternoon tea sessions’ in which pairs of us will talk about our practice since we arrived. Today Helen and Carole – presented an improvisation session- a conversation between Carole’s saxophone and Helen’s charcoal interpretations of it. Una provided afternoon tea and homemade scones and we had a small but very committed audience two of whom took up Helen’s invitation to join in and draw too. Given Covid social distancing requirements it was exactly what we had hoped for.
We have been exploring the coastline. I’m personally very drawn to Killala for its  dignified but unrestored, old buildings, historic, harbour and street plan, and we are all walking the beaches and the bogs and enjoying Down Patrick head. The sea is playing games with us, turning its back on us, having a sulk, withdrawing its sparkle only to burst into radiance when we are back in the studio. On Monday, the sun shone and we all took to the great outdoors, I had the privilege of being taken on a working trip with Gerda and Maria to talk about landscape in their work.
Energies and moods are changing as we work; in moments of desperation, Patricia says she is working to keep ahead of the cracks, but if so she does it with a lightness of touch that gives buoyance to everyone. Therry, aided by Anouk, is forging ahead with the documentary and Carole and Helen’s regular saxophone and drawing sessions have sucked in Maria, Gerda, Therry, Patricia, even me. Only Barbara who works with sound already, is able to resist that plaintive call through the building.
We have been talking about Paula Gunn Allen’s writing about changing phases of a woman’s life, from daughterhood to grandmotherhood, from close family immersion to older roles as advocates for the future for our children’s children. Conversation ranged over the ways Louise Bourgeois and Germane Greer approached those roles. Asked if we valued one phase over another as artists and how they affected our creative lives, Therry felt that her work changes as she gets older as she has already dealt with a lot of the things that concerned her previously. Carole felt that she was less auto-biographical in her work now. Several of the group reiterated that they felt considerably happier, more free and more focused now than at anytime in their careers to date, although all of us noted changes in physical capacity.  When asked around the table why we still felt the need to work so urgently,  some people said because they had a lot of work gestating that they badly wanted to make but Barbara who is the oldest of us, delighted us all by saying that she makes work to ‘surprise herself’ and to have the excitement of doing something new.
We have touched in our conversations on the general lack of visibility of older people but we are also aware of a cult of a handful of older people. Is it patronising to reward older artists – just for being old – rather than for being good? We will talk of prodigies and veterans again.
 

Ballinglen, Na Cailleacha.

Day 1. Sept.1.
How wonderful to be here! The cottages nestle into their space and ground us and our insane (for some of us) ambitions in a familiar but age-old landscape. It is so fitting now, that we have become Na Cailleacha, so much more appropriate in this wild and, right now, wet and very windy Atlantic space, instead of our first name – The Sibyls, which would have suited our original destination, Cyprus. So here we are – not surrounded by the blue Mediterranean but drenched and buffeted by Irish winds, happily transformed from Sibyls to Witches. We are still eight people, but since we began back in January, one of our original number was forced to drop out and we have dropped our minimum age requirement of seventy in favour of youth in the form of a mid-sixties Jazz musician. Introductions first,  we are;- Helen Comerford, (Kilkenny), Barbara Freeman (Belfast), Patricia Hurl, (Roscrea), Maria Levinge (Wexford), Carole Nelson, (England via Carlow), Gerda Teljeur, Holland via Wexford), Therry Rudin (Switzerland via Roscrea) and myself, Catherine Marshall (Kilkenny/Dublin).

 Ballinglen in the village of Ballycastle is perched on the North Mayo coastline, close to Downpatrick head. You feel as if you can go back  in time to the formation of the earth, seeing the rocks as they emerged out of the ocean, and we are, eight artists thinking about age, but also about the future,  all embarking on new processes, individually and collectively. Naturally it’s both exciting and nerve-wracking but the welcome at Ballinglen where Una Ford and her team had dinner waiting for us soon sorted some of that out. Over dinner, Therry spoke very movingly about the importance of our conversations together. We talked about our visibility as we get older, Patricia mentioned how frustrating it is to have to prove to funders that you still exist, and to spend so much time on grant applications. I reminded everyone to think about proposed  panel discussions, what form they might take and what topics we might address.

Day 2, Wednesday 2nd.

We are already set up in studios, or writing/composing nooks, getting to know each other,  dipping in and out of each-others’ heads, realising that we don’t need protective perimeters around ourselves because I have never encountered such a level of mutual respect for everyone else’s process. Maybe it’s because we are older that we feel so easy with each other, that competition becomes trivial and irrelevant. Whatever the reason the atmosphere is all about what we can do rather than the opposite, and Una and the Foundation are totally on board with us. Carole and I, visited the Foundation's Museum, met Phil and Lorna who work there and who shared their excitement about the place and the area before getting caught in a North Mayo downpour.

Helen is very interested in talking about ‘what we can do, as opposed to typical expectations of loss of skill and inventiveness in older people. We spoke of ageing and dying, about Janet Mullarney who made a feature of living right up to her last breath, and others who seem to bring it on ahead of time. Helen felt that in her grandmother’s time most women were written off in their fifties. Against a background of these conversations Helen and Carole  are in contact with Rosita Boland, as I am with Aoife O’Toole at the Mayo Arts Office.

In addition to our own work we are thinking of a collective project for Mayo. Therry is anxious that we should keep our choices open until we know each other better. Could we agree a title now and plan the details later? We talked about being a woman artist/musician/curator in Ireland, about obstacles still facing women and Helen’s point about what we can do. Barbara outlined the project she is planning, a film about skin – women’s skin and the skin of the landscape; North Mayo is the ideal location for this. Therry suggested a collage, but we would have to see how the music and the curatorial roles might contribute to that. Helen offered a drawing session and good quality paper for us all to experiment with. The conversation turned to feminism. Helen spoke strongly about how motherhood compromised women’s careers. Gerda noted that men are better now at sharing the caring role, but all agreed that there is a very long way to go to achieve equality of opportunity. The great thing is our general consensus that being older is liberating.

Carole said that she found sticking to her own vision no matter what began to pay off as she got older. Her blunt advice to younger artists would be,  ‘don’t die, keep doing it’. I suggested that this might be a good title for our group project. Therry said she always likes to be challenged to work outside her comfort zone but refuses to rush into things. Helen feels that she is just the opposite and can’t wait to get started to which Therry’s response was, ‘I know that is why it’s so wonderful that we are working together…”

Day 2  ended on a high note with a feeling that things are moving very positively, we are all talking more freely and everyone is keen to support each one in the interest of the collective project.