HIGHLIGHTS 2020 – 8 MY COUSIN ISEULT

Iseult is my cousin, not first cousin, second cousin maybe? First cousin once removed? I’m never too sure which is which. She’s the youngest daughter of my first cousin. Up to recently I’d only met her at family gatherings. Our family runs to great swathes of aunties, uncles and cousins who gather regularly to eat, drink, catch up, gossip and talk nonsense.

I’d always liked Iseult but we’d never had more than pleasant, superficial chat. During Lockdown she was furloughed from work and turned to her great love, her art. She’s a trained artist and a genius with colour. She started painting on silk to make scarves. I thought they looked good and, when lockdown was eased and visits to houses were deemed O.K., I went to her house to choose some.

We had coffee and got into chat and I discovered that, artistically, we a lot in common. “How so?” You may ask, “She’s a painter, you’re a writer.”

But the process of creation is the same. The same daunting blank page/canvas. The same first draft that we think is horrific. The same hard, hard work to produce something that we’re not too ashamed of.

She showed me her scarves and some of her paintings. Oh yes, I thought, she’s good. We drank more coffee, chatted some more and laughed a lot. Despite the generational gap, we discovered a lot more in common.

I’d been thinking of doing a Dun Laoghaire Arts project. You had to team up with another artist and produce work on the theme of Metamorphosis. Who would I work with? With Covid restrictions, how easy would it be to meet?

By now I’d been in Iseult’s house for a couple of hours and it suddenly struck me. Iseult was an artist. We were on the same page and she lived very near me. Would she be interested in working with me? She jumped at the chance.

We met each a week in her house, when that was permitted. When it wasn’t, and the weather was good, we met on the pier in Bray watching the swans and the tides. And on Zoom when the weather was awful and now that the new Lockdown has cramped everyone’s style.

She’s a joy to be with, a delight to work with, full of ideas and we seem to spark one another The project is coming along and, whether anyone thinks the final result is good, bad or indifferent, we’re having a ball. We are laughing a lot, finding still more in common and lifting one another’s spirits. In these dark times that is no small matter.

Check out her Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/iseultmacker/photos/>

Instagram: htps://www.instagram.com/iseultmccormackcreations/

Website: https://www.iseultmccormack.ie

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