#and the. I go online and people are tearing it to shreds and having meltdowns

[lavenderek]

this will be a very long post about some kids i knew in high school. it is boring, but it still frustrates me for some reason, so here it is. feel free to ignore. i REALLY hope the readmore works for mobile users. if not - sorry.

A Tale Of Two Christians so there were two SuperChristians - who i will call Daygan and Braygan - in band with me. they both had a lot of friends. i did not.  Braygan was A Cool Christian who i could see running a youth group. she played percussion and had an undyed scene haircut. Daygan was a My Family Thinks Tattoos, Makeup, and Piercings Are Offensive And We Never Cut Our Hair Christian. she played the tuba and wrote poetry.

anyway so they were both cold and rude to me me all four years.

The Genesis: Braygan And The Legend Of The Ill-Fated Chuck Norris Joke It All Started when my parents literally made me go to a band social before the school year started. i was terrified. i was very shy and i was a teenager. i do not remember how, but i managed to enter a conversation with three band kids, one of whom was braygan. we were talking about jokes. i had recently read a Chuck Norris joke. i timidly told this joke for the following reasons: A. they were very popular online in 2006, so i thought it would be a hit. B. i was 15 and didn’t know any better. C. i had read it in a book owned by my friend’s dad, so if dads were into it it must be ok. i did not realize braygan was A Christian, so it took me like a year to understand why she snapped, “that’s not funny.” and glared at me. i was so shocked and humiliated that i remember i could feel the tears spring to my eyes. i went quiet, and the other two kids standing with us went quiet, and i learned never to try to make friends again, and braygan and i never spoke again. it was a beautiful tale of human connection.

Interlude: Braygan Some More braygan would always make a point of ignoring me, which was understandable as i had evidently made such a poor impression that she thought i was unchangeable and could never be forgiven. and it’s not like i was super jazzed to hang out with a person who could be so mean just because i told her a joke she didn’t think was funny. i was always perplexed as to how such a nasty person had so many friends and could only conclude that the nastiness was exclusive to me for some reason. like holy shit dude, it was a chuck norris joke, one that i never told again lmao. maybe chuck norris killed her dad or something.

I Sort Of Gave A Damn About My Reputation: Daygan i mostly did not encounter braygan most of the time, thankfully. daygan was a different case for the following reasons: A. she was friends with a pretty good amount of my friends. B. we had band and pep band together. C. we had english together. D. we always had the same lunch for some reason. daygan seemed to have the same opinion of me as braygan, presumably because they became very close and braygan warned her of my inclinations. i can only assume this because i was never introduced to daygan. i knew of her for the above reasons, but i think i physically talked to her maybe once in four years. like, for real.

The Poms Hated Us: Spirit Contests i said previously we were in pep band. (no, i was not popular in high school.) when we played at football games, our band leader, ben, would make us do “spirit contests,” in which whatever section of the band cheered the loudest was rewarded. typically the reward was each of us got a Sobe when we got back to school afterwards. one night my section won. it was the only time my section won. reasons we never won: A. it was 100% girls. B. me excluded, the section was mostly friends with each other. C. i didn’t try very hard most of the time. D. since graduating i have learned from The Internet that there is a generally negative opinion of people who play the flute. maybe if i had had friends in band i would have known about this. but we were chosen by ben that night. frankly, i do think we had earned it: if there is one thing you must know about flutes and piccolos, it’s that they take a fuckin shredded diaphragm to play. we were good at projecting. daygan respectfully disagreed, by which i mean she was extremely distressed by ben giving us Sobes. she and her entire section had an actual tantrum in the bus on the way back. daygan shouted that the decision was “baloney.” (good christians don’t cuss.) their argument: A. they couldn’t hear us very well, and so we must have been quiet. B. our voices weren’t hoarse. her voice was hoarse, and so she must have yelled harder. C. ben’s little sister was in the flute section, and so he must have been catering to her. reasons those arguments do not carry water: A. sound travels in waves. if one is outside and surrounded by loud noise, the voice of a person standing in front of you and facing away may sound very quiet to you. B. we consulted the kids who were also in choir or drama and they confirmed that there are ways to project without damaging your voice in two hours. involving the diaphragm. C. it was literally one time, and ben and his sister weren’t like, friends at school. they were just siblings and happened to share an extracurricular activity. reasons we gave up defending ourselves and just watched daygan and her friends have a meltdown: A. they would shout over us when we spoke. B. they did not believe us. C. the arguments did come across as excuses coming from us. ben did not recant his decision and daygan literally looked at me with complete hatred in her eyes before turning away. we had this long conversation: me: ok. if you want the Sobe this bad, you can have mine. her: (snort) she and the rest of the brass section continued to very loudly discuss how ridiculous this decision was for like, half an hour. like imagine being this upset about the intricate politics of pep band. my god. it was very disturbing. i had hoped this would damage her reputation, but it didn’t seem to in any longterm way.

Interlude: Concert Wear I was also in the wind ensemble. there were three levels of band: beginner, symphonic, and wind ensemble. we would have concerts every few months. we had a uniform for formal concert wear. for girls, this was a conservative floor length black gown. i didn’t mind it, but i was the only one who didn’t mind it. i have bad taste i guess. we were asked to wear black shoes with it. colorful footwear was discouraged.

Other Interlude: My Fashion ask anyone who knew me in high school. my sense of fashion wasn’t great. i basically only owned striped knee socks. i thought they made me fun and unique.

Footwear: Return Of Braygan so it was wintertime, a year after The Big Hissy Fit. i had finally made a band friend, just because she was one of those people who was nice to everyone. she and i were both cold all the time, and decided we would wear socks during the concert. you could only see if we lifted the skirt to walk, so it was our quirky secret. she wore normal person socks. i wore red stripey socks. after the concert, we were heading down the hall to the band room so we could put our flutes away and collect our backpacks and coats. the hall was empty except for braygan and daygan. they stopped talking and watched as we passed them. i just ignored them. we are both allowed to use the hallway. my band friend was friends with them also, as most people were, so this happened: daygan: (elevators me) nice socks. Band Friend: (thinking daygan is teasing her in a friendly way) haha thanks! our feet get cold :) me: (i pretended not to hear daygan. at least this way she’s coming across as a person who jokes with her friend rather than a person who is physically unable to be civil.

Where Is My App To Build A Wall Between Me And Daygan none of their friends talked to me either. i wasn’t great socially, but i also assume they shared their opinion of me with their friends, as anyone would. i never did this. it’s not because i’m a saint, it’s because all my friends either were also friends with her or didn’t know her. to know daygan was to love daygan. but this doesn’t change the fact that i never talked badly about her behind her back. i rode the bus with a girl who had the same last name as daygan, which i never really questioned. it wasn’t a super common last name, i just didn’t think about it. one day late in my senior year, everyone was at a school event and this girl ran up to me. her: have you seen daygan? me: nope sorry her: haha aren’t you in band together? me: yeah but we’re not friends. she’s kind of a jerk to me actually her: um... she’s my cousin. me: oh huh cool! she’s still a jerk to me. this was not an exciting event. it’s just a thing that happened. i do not care that you are cousins. she’s mean to me. The Confusion That Would Never Fully Go Away we had graduated and it was the summer before we started college. i was hanging out with some friends. somehow the topic of daygan came up. one of my friends was in AP classes with her all 4 years and they were friendly. the reason i am still annoyed about this to this day is because of what he said to me that summer afternoon in the grass. him: oh yeah i was talking to daygan the other day! she said she always wanted to be friends with you. me, internally: ????????????????????????????? me, externally: ????????????????????????????? i explained to him that she had only ever been cold to me, that she avoided eye contact unless it was time to glare into my eyes and will my head to expand and pop like a marshmallow in a microwave. i explained to him my violently smacked down attempt to befriend braygan when we were 15. i explained to him that daygan’s alleged words were perplexing and did not fit with her actions. him: that... is so. weird. i have never seen them act like that. daygan’s always really nice. me, bummed out: cool FAQ maybe she didn’t like you because you make fun of christians. i didn’t used to make fun of christians. i was raised christian. maybe you were misinterpreting what was happening. always possible, if it weren’t for the fact that i was wide-eyed and bewildered for several years until i just got stoical about it. maybe you should have tried again to befriend her. the lesson of braygan was a hard one. and the sight of me seemed to make her very angry. i figured it would be better for both of us if i just tried to stay out of her way. maybe your friend could have asked daygan for you. maybe. but we had already graduated. and besides, i don’t think he completely believed me. would you even have wanted to be friends with her? probably not. rejection still sucks, though. my moment with braygan is my own theory. it’s just that if it wasn’t that, i have no idea what i could have done to warrant this longterm behavior from someone who, by all accounts, was the mother theresa of wind ensemble. maybe someday she will message me on facebook or something and tell me what was going on, because i cannot tell you how perplexing and hurtful it was at the time. the end.

[norqfromork]

Orkney is steeped in talent from musicians to jewellery makers, authors and artists. I’ve known Claire for several years now, and have seen her artwork grow and develop.  I own some of it and love her style.  She now has a growing business and her amazing work can be seen for sale in many places around Orkney. Here is an interview with Claire showing some of her amazing work and the story behind its beginnings.

A Kirkwall scene made with torn paper

  Hi Claire, I’ve been a huge fan of your artwork and talent ever since I met you.  How did it all begin?

Thanks Sarah, I’ve always loved art since school but I guess it properly began with Flutterbug Creations 7 years ago.

I designed a book for my son who was then 3 years old – we had been at a review meeting at the school (he had been diagnosed at 9 months old with a severe myoclonic epileptic syndrome) one of the things mentioned at the meeting was how difficult he was to engage in the nursery especially at story time so the educational psychologist suggested someone make him a book with his favourite things and at the time he loved Velcro and was obsessed with lawnmowers (sometimes he would watch the neighbours mow their lawn for hours at a time) so I took the challenge as was desperate to help him, although to be honest I think I was the last person they meant to do it because we were getting up sometimes 30+ times per night every night since he’d been born!

So with my son and 18 month old daughter in tow ‘Larry the Lawnmower’ was made – It was hand painted, had about 5 pages of thick paper stuck together and pull apart Velcro pages – he loved it!! We received help from different agencies in Orkney and they commented they couldn’t believe he was actually sitting looking at a book!

I then made a few others thinking he might look at them and also they might appeal to other children with or without difficulties and took it to a craft group, one of the people there’s husband did work for Business Gateway and she suggested I show them I now have 4 self – published books (which 6 more on file) that are in the top 4 disability websites in the UK, last year when I remarried I decided to start a fresh and closed Flutterbug Creations (although I do still have and sell the books) I reinvented myself with some new products and designs and a new name – Claire Kirkpatrick Art and have never looked back.

    Claire with her son Kyle

I’ve seen all kinds of work, I love your paper shredding portraits and it’s a real labour of love. I’ve also seen your wire pictures and place name work which are really popular.  Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?

Honestly – anything and everything and sometimes I’m not even sure, the ideas and inspiration are just there!

A robin made of tiny paper shredding.  Look at the detail on the chest.

  I do think ideas evolve as the paper collage pictures came originally from me making wedding cards, I loved the way when you tear paper you have the soft edge and used it as ‘lines’ in my paper ‘drawings’ having done wedding cards for a year for very little money I set it to the side for a few years but returned to it 4 years ago and made my card range of farm animals and pets (I even had a go at a few portraits) and then made the Stromness and Kirkwall scenes which led me on to the wire as I’d fancied working with it for a while, the first one I did was of a tree in a heart which got me wondering if I could do a couple stood at a beach with a sunset so I drew a couple of images and made it using the paper collage as the background, I shared it on facebook and it was a big hit, this is how most ideas of mine are decided whether they work or not is by the response from my facebook friends – my real bosses haha!

The popular wire pictures

  Word pictures have been around for a while so I can’t take credit for those but I had a go at doing a ‘home’ one and then it occurred to me to do the islands of Orkney and again I showed it off on facebook, this time I was completely blown off my feet as the response was huge, I now have 40+ designs and am constantly researching and designing more, and have most recently combined the words with scenes which is I think is like the paper collage only now I use words instead of paper. They take days to do and hundreds of words which I type, position, resize and colour myself ‘not’ what is misconceived to be automatically done by software, I hope to expand this range very soon.

Just one of a huge range

  People, life experiences, scenery, colours, etc all sorts of things inspire me – the need to not fail and the desire to be good at what I do is heavily ingrained in me also being a good role model for my children and sometimes I think if people still see me going despite having a few hard times then maybe I can inspire and motivate them too.

Do you have a favourite piece or style you like create?

I love designing new products but from what I already make I really enjoy doing it all, however I do find it difficult going from one type of medium to the other. For example if Ii’m painting and have to stop to do a wire picture the transition is hard because your mindset is on the one thing, but once I start the new product I soon get into it.

With a husband and three children, how do you find the time to create? 

It can be very challenging at times and I have learned (quickly) to not do things that require a lot of concentration when the children are around! Also the housework suffers – I said to my husband shortly after our daughter was born that I could clean and look after the kids or I could work and look after the kids but I couldn’t do all 3, I also rely heavily on my husband and friends for support, have regular meltdowns and make lots of comments about being superwoman in disguise, plus have been known to put out pleas of advice from fellow working mums – lists was a top suggestion and get a cleaner – the lists I’m currently working from 4, and the cleaner started a few weeks ago (life changing!!)

Re the cleaner, I’m jealous! Where do you see your business going in the future?

I hope I’m as lucky to be doing what I’m doing currently, perhaps focusing more on the designing with folk helping me manufacture and distribute – I already have 2 casual workers that help me, but hope to have another 2 in the next year or 2 and despite the financial pressure I aim to keep it as local as I can.

What’s your favourite piece of artwork you’ve made?

I think it would have to be my paper collage ducks or Hereford calf, that was the first time I saw the paper collage-like paint brush strokes, the ducks is one original of a small few that I kept for me, I also still have my St Magnus Cathedral Wire Picture not because it’s a favourite but somehow I can’t part with it! I found it to be incredibly hard work and was completely drained towards the end!! I’ll part with it one day I’m sure.

Ducks

A first and favourite

Claire can’t part with her cathedral wire picture

  Where can people buy your work in Orkney?

I have a website currently being built which has a link to my online Etsy Shop, my facebook page also has the link to my shop too and I  have my word art in The Longship, Kirkwall, Leviathan International, Sutherland’s Chemist and WS Sinclair, Stromness also it will be in the Ayre Mills Filling Station and the 3 Northlink boats in a few weeks.

For paintings I will have them in the Tearoom in Stromness also in a few weeks time.

Do you do mail order for those outside of Orkney?

Yes, I’ve sent work all over the world – 2 favourites are Los Angeles and New York – I was keen to hand deliver those!!

(pity you couldn’t!)

I do most of my sales from Etsy … http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/clairekirkpatrickart

Would you like to share your social media links?

Thank you Sarah I’d love to…

http://www.clairekirkpatrick.co.uk

www.facebook.com/clairekirkpatrickart

That’s great, thanks so much for sharing your story with us and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Claire’s latest stunning piece

    Local Artist Claire Kirkpatrick #blog #Orkney #wordpress Orkney is steeped in talent from musicians to jewellery makers, authors and artists. I've known Claire for several years now, and have seen her artwork grow and develop.