Time Off In Crete With
Linda Talbot

Insights into this beautiful island through words, textiles and colourful collage.

For 2010, I am offering  A CLOTH OF WILD COUNTRY - flexible sessions combining an exploration of Cretan textiles with the art of collage, from one day tutorials to a six day course.

The textiles of Crete flow through time - inventive and intricate - from the rich repeat patterns found in frescoes to embroidered skirt borders laced with Turkish and Italian influence.  See them gain a fresh dimension in:

"A CLOTH OF WILD COUNTRY"

This is the full five to six day course but you may join me for a one day tutorial or any of the other projects on days that suit you.

DAY  1

I will give you an insight into Cretan textile design through specialist books and the book I compiled, A CLOTH OF WILD COUNTRY. Then, to look at the shapes of pots, some of which we may use tomorrow, we visit Kostis Apostolakis in Maleme to watch him creating fine contemporary pots and take a look at the originality and verve of Minoan design, including the dress of the "Blue Ladies", on the vase in his selection of ceramic reproductions.        

DAY  2

In exploring Cretan textiles, I have reproduced variations of their designs on paper, then cut these into pieces suitable for collage. We rearrange these within the bold shape of a pot drawn by you or which I can provide. Charcoal is used as a background and in the spaces left in the composition, you can use pens, experimenting with decorative detail to complete the work.

DAY  3

We go to Hania, visit the Cretan House for a close look at traditional embroidery and weaving, move on to Roka, where wonderful carpets and hangings are made on a 400 year old loom and see contemporary embroidery and rugs at a shop near the Cathedral.  Then we visit the Archaeological Museum to look at the amazing herd of Minoan bulls, each with a different character, to inspire your next project.

DAY  4

You draw, trace, or receive from me the outline of a bull on which we work with collage and devise more details to complement the imagery.

DAY   5

If we are a group of more than six people, we go by minibus to ELAFONISI, a lovely island across a lagoon in the south of Crete. Here we collect pink sand and tiny shells for our final work, SEASHELLS AND DOLPHINS. If we are less than six, we work on the image of a dolphin with pieces of fabric which I have painted with re-interpreted textile design. I can supply pink sand from Elafonisi.

I charge 20 euros per person per day, excluding trips.  If you are interested, please contact me directly on 0030 6946 247837.

"OF MYTHS AND MEN"

. . . is another course you may enjoy - an introduction to creative writing, set in and around the wonderful White Mountains of Western Crete.

We visit villages, towns and untamed country, charged by an atmosphere created by a resilient people whose island is still steeped in myth. It has been the home of Minoans, Venetians and Turks and spawns fantasy, from the imagination of its ancient inhabitants to the belief that Thodoru, an offshore island, now a nature reserve for Kri-Kri (wild goat) was a beast that would have eaten Crete had Poseidon not intervened. Before each trip you will have an insight into Greek literature, especially relating to Crete.

The fishing village of KOLIMBARI, is at the base of the wild RODHOPOU PENINSULA, where there is an altar to the goddess Dictynna, who was said to have been chased by Minos and fell from a cliff into fishermen's nets. In Greek, the word for net is "dictys".

From this myth or the village today, especially the old harbour still worked by fishermen, we will create a poem.

Then explore HANIA, the beautiful Venetian capital of the province, where layers of invasion and civilisation, from the Minoan and Venetian to the Turkish, are exposed.  From these, consider a short story.

Finally, we travel by minibus to the high peaks of the SAMARIA GORGE, abounding with wild life and inspiration. And write a travel feature.

I want to emphasise that you need not finish these projects while on holiday. The idea is to absorb the atmosphere, find ideas and transfer them, however briefly, to paper. If you are carried away and keep writing, so much the better! But it is enough to make a start and discuss possibilities.

YOUR ITINERARY

DAY  1      KOLIMBARI

We meet to discuss, for an hour, Greek writers and writers who have been inspired by Greece. Then we focus on poetry, considering ways of approaching verse and read works by poets, from George Seferis and Yannis Ritsos to George Sarandaris and Kostas Ouranis.

We leave for KOLIMBARI.  Absorb the atmosphere of the village and note visual detail. Use a camera if you wish and commit to memory or notebook, impressions, feelings and ideas.

Decide how you would like to interpret these in verse, perhaps an updated poem prompted by the myth of Dictynna.

Consider time, and if not set in the present, think of expressing ideas in the past or future or playing with combinations of all three.

Do you want to approach your poem atmospherically, mystically or with contemporary precision?

Do you want to invest it with humour or tragedy?

While digesting this, we appropriately go to digest a fish lunch on the harbour (or any other dish you fancy) or go to Afrata, a picturesque village on the peninsula, to Taverna Roxani for excellent, simple food on a shady terrace.

Later, at the hotel, write your poem.

DAY  2     AT THE HOTEL

We meet to read yesterday's poems with comments and discussion. Don't worry if your poem is yet to fully emerge. We'll talk about how it might develop.

I read you two of my own poems inspired by Greece.

We discuss the writing of a short story after our trip tomorrow to Hania.

Plan to tell it in about 1,000 or less words. Again, I don't necessarily expect you to finish this tomorrow.  Have a punchy first paragraph to gain reader' interest.  Write short sentences and use simple words.  Let your characters freely interact. 

We read excerpts from Lawrence Durrell, Mary Renault, Alkyoni Papadaki and fairy tales from the book Wooden Mary.

DAY  3    HANIA

Enjoy this town with its layers of Minoan, Venetian and Turkish occupation. We will see examples of Venetian remains, faded and Nazi bomb-damaged elegance, minarets, the former Mosque and wooden fronted houses, where Turks hid their women.

We have lunch at To Hani, a traditional Cretan restaurant.

Later at the hotel, plot and start to write your short story.

DAY  4     AT THE HOTEL

We meet to read and discuss the short stories you have started or completed.

We discuss writing a short travel feature, as tomorrow, we shall visit the top of the Samaria Gorge where walkers descend. A feature needs almost as much imagination as fiction, but in this case, authentic observation and the inclusion of facts are as vital as the vividness of the impression. Aim again to keep to about 1,000 words.

DAY   5     TOP OF THE SAMARIA GORGE

We travel by minibus to the taverna at the top of the Samaria Gorge in the White Mountains. Use your camera, not only for reference but to illustrate your feature. Note details of light, landscape, plants and fragrance.

We absorb the unique atmosphere above the plain of Omalos, where the mountains might be listening to our thoughts. Note the eerie sound made by the wind in the trees and see if you can spot rare birds against the distant rocks.

Later, at the hotel, start your travel feature.

DAY   6      AT THE HOTEL

We meet to read and discuss progress on the travel features. I read you one of mine.

This course can be arranged to your preferred dates. Please telephone me on 0030 6946 247837.

A LITTLE ABOUT ME!

I grew up in Suffolk, England and started writing short stories at an early age for pocket money. I loved drawing too but had a friend who was better, so between us - I wrote, she drew - we issued The Monthly Marvel, a pinned together magazine whose contents now escape me!

On leaving school, while waiting for a job as a newspaper reporter, I worked in a bookbinders' in Lady Lane, Ipswich. Inappropriately named, it was opposite a slaughter house, the gutters ran with blood and the foul air was laced with the protests of terrified pigs. An alleged receptionist, I spent most of my time shopping for the boss and writing short stories.

My first newspaper job was on the Colchester Express, where I was for six months a hopeless reporter but quite good as Uncle Tim - for children - and Lindsey Nolan, writing the women's page! On Friday nights I turned into Bacchus, producing pub features. I stayed for four years, slowly honing my dubious reporting skills and was relieved and excited some time later to land the job of book, art and theatre reviewer on the Hampstead and Highgate Express in London.

Meanwhile I wrote poetry and fantasy fiction for adults and children. "Fantasy Book of Food" was published by an enterprising Egyptian who ran a chess and vegetarian café in Chalk Farm. He published chess books and seeing I had a book for kids about food, agreed to see how this would go down.  My illustrator was on holiday, so I did the black and white pictures with a professional friend designing the cover. On the night of the launch the book was still in proof form. We danced on it regardless. And two weeks later it appeared; a mix of stories, verse and recipes that were tried and tested, although the roof only just stretched over the gingerbread house. Anyway, not a crumb was left at the party.

The other strange little book I published was "Five Rides by a River" about the Suffolk countryside seen from a bicycle. Weary of wheat fields where footpaths had vanished, I retrieved my school bike from the shed, had dad check it over and wobbled off into the byways of Suffolk. Ironically, as I was still working on the Ham and High, I did much of my research at weekends in Walthamstow library, east London where I lived!

I was also embroidering and making my own clothes, bags and scarves and when I came to Gerani, Crete in 2000, landed a major commission for the deputy manager of the Creta Paradise hotel; a wallhanging with pockets embroidered with Egyptian and Minoan images.

Now my work with fabric includes invented characters - from Squingles to Bobblies, about which I write stories for kids.

I began to explore mixed media on paper, producing series, combining paint, pen and collage - also often accompanied by short stories - from "Dreams and Strange Encounters", a satirical look at "Birds in the Nest" or "Women at Home", "Garden Girls" and "Arcadia Revisited" to "Beautiful Beasts" and monoprints evoking "Tree Spirits".

I had an exhibition at the Mitropolis Gallery, Hania in 2008, followed by a show at the Mistral when I moved to Maleme and opened "Sea Songs" Studio where all are welcome to browse. Now I'm pursuing a project combining designs on Minoan and ancient Greek textiles with collage.