My story

11/05/19 • 17 min

1 Listener

:: Dialogues with Nature Network has launched and is currently open for new members to join until 16 July. Find out more here.

:: If you feel the flowers and trees are calling, the grasses are whispering your names, come and join us in the Meadow, our Foundation Course here.

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The 1st solo episode is with me, where I tell you my story and how I arrived at the place where I am now. My life and work are closely intertwined. Here, I talk about some of the contributing events in my upbringing, education and working life that had an impact in my current creative practice.

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'Once upon a time there was a girl who was born into a family as the youngest of three sisters in a faraway land, in the middle of a continent where the summers were hot and dry and winters white and cold. This was the land where the nomad Huns settled down travelling from East to West over a thousand years ago. In this small corner of the world folklore and traditions are still alive to this day. She had a grandmother who was old and wise. She taught her all she needed to learn and equipped her with the skills needed to seek her treasure beyond the borders, the seven seas and the peaks of glass mountains. The day came for her to embark on her lifelong adventure. Her blessing and curse was living without age and compromise. She walked on a path less travelled, free, while wearing her heart on her sleeves, doing what she loved most.'

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If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend.
You can find me as @walkinglantern on instagram or on twitter.

Also, if you appreciate the time and effort that goes into making this podcast you can buy me a coffee here.

:: Dialogues with Nature Network has launched and is currently open for new members to join until 16 July. Find out more here.

:: If you feel the flowers and trees are calling, the grasses are whispering your names, come and join us in the Meadow, our Foundation Course here.

____________

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If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend.
You can find me as @walkinglantern on instagram or on twitter.

Also, if you appreciate the time and effort that goes into making this podcast you can buy me a coffee here.

Previous Episode

Introduction

:: Dialogues with Nature Network has launched and is currently open for new members to join until 16 July. Find out more here.

:: If you feel the flowers and trees are calling, the grasses are whispering your names, come and join us in the Meadow, our Foundation Course here.

____________

An introduction to Dialogues with Nature, a new podcast for the curious kind who seek wonder in the often overlooked details of nature, interested in creative practices and appreciate a slow pace. As the title suggests, it is a podcast for conversations between people who work with nature in a creative way.

I’m Hanna Varga, your host. Some of you listening know me for my passion for leaves and of Ashleaf, the small London-based art practice I co-founded that specialises in casting leaves in bronze. I describe myself as a nature artist and craftswoman whose primary focus is on leaves. I find leaves utterly fascinating. Drawing attention to the beauty, their small details and the infinite parallels there are between the life cycle of leaves and us, human beings are the things I practice daily and share with you. Observing and reflecting on the interconnectedness and similarities we share with other life forms, leaves, mostly in my case, always helps me make sense of the world and my place within it. Through making a direct contact with nature in my everydays I wish to nurture something that allows me to relate better, to connect the dots, that both leaves and myself are part of, we are both fragments of a bigger whole.

Here, I’m now embarking on a new and exciting adventure to explore for the first time sharing what I have to offer through a different medium, using spoken word. It was inspired by the many wonderful people I met over the years and the conversations we had that always left me with something to reflect on. I believe sharing with each other that unique angle how we see the world is something incredibly valuable. My intention with this podcast is to shed some light on the diversity of creative endeavours out there. I wish to explore the many different ways we can live and work in dialogue with nature.

In each episode, I’m going to talk to someone who is passionate about what they do or make and their unique approach to nature.

I explain here what I mean by the term ‘creative practitioner’ and look at definitions of the word 'creative'.

My sincere hope is that you will enjoy and look forward to the conversations on this podcast and they will inspire you to go out and begin your own dialogue with nature.

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If you like the sound of this, please subscribe and share this with a friend.
You can find Hanna as @walkinglantern on instagram or on twitter.

Also, if you appreciate the time and effort that goes into making this podcast you can buy me a coffee here.

Next Episode

Catalina Christensen on collecting pigments and painting - working with the memories of landscape

:: Dialogues with Nature Network has launched and is currently open for new members to join until 16 July. Find out more here.

:: If you feel the flowers and trees are calling, the grasses are whispering your names, come and join us in the Meadow, our Foundation Course here.

__________

In this episode I’m talking to Catalina Christensen who is an inspiring painter and pigment collector. Her work centres around a personal connection to landscape through the colours she finds and extracts from nature in the places she visits. Her inspiration comes from her early years, hearing of the great Italian Renaissance painters, of alchemy and the inherent human need to be creative and leave traces. She talks about her journey through many countries, coming from an architectural background and how she arrived at her current art practice in great detail. How and where it all started and what techniques and materials she uses in her work.

‘A painting begins with collecting the rocks for the pigments. The gathering and processing of pigments is an artistic endeavour in itself’

Catalina is also the co-founder of Wilderness Art Collective, a platform for artists whose work responds to the environment, for discussions about beauty and diversity in their creative work.

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Some references from our conversation:

The place with the rock paintings in Colombia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1chica

Landlines exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society

https://www.rgs.org/

Wilderness Art Collective https://www.wildernessart.org/

Cornelissen - a quaint old place in London where you can buy pigments if you don’t want to make your own. https://www.cornelissen.com/

You can follow Catalina on instagram and on twitter

https://www.catalinachristensen.com/

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If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend.
You can find me as @walkinglantern on instagram and on twitter.

Also, if you appreciate the time and effort that goes into making this podcast you can buy me a coffee here.