2013 Ride Plans

At this point it’s looking as though my ride will start in early to mid May and the plan is to continue as planned for five months. The aspect that has changed is that I will likely make this a circular journey starting near Pincher Creek heading north along the eastern slopes, foothills and grasslands of the Rockies and at some point circling around either east into the plains or west deeper into the mountains to end up where I started in SW Alberta. The thought of making a beeline to the Yukon Territory is very appealing but I think that I won’t have enough money to either transport me and my horses back or to board them for the winter up there. All good. It’s all about the time and experience, the meeting of amazing people and the immersion within beautiful lands.

Best thoughts and wishes!
Cath

fundraising campaign update

At the same time that my fundraising campaign continues,  I can also very much feel myself shifting towards the coming spring and the continuation of my ride. As always, thoughts of my motivations for these rides melds together with the practical thoughts of how to get the ride off the ground, possible routes, how to make it worth with whatever amount I manage to raise. Part of this is putting money together of course and this is what the indiegogo thing is about. Thanks so much once again for those that have made contributions!

When I first conjured up the idea of my long ride some years ago, I had the deep feeling that there was something that I needed to learn that I could pass on to others. It was the driving element that has never left me. If you know me, then you likely also know that I think that our industrial place in the world must change and change quickly. My rides are a physical manifestation of that change for me. in terms of what to share with others: Is it knowing how to pack horses and be comfortable as a traveller? That could be. Is it the deep strength that comes with following a path out of the norm, whatever that path could be? That could be, but it could also be the challenge of overcoming the feelings of lesser-ness, obscurity that goes along with such ways.

I have found that what may seem on the surface like an individualistic adventure is actually a way to try to make wider and deeper connections with nature and, in that, with our human communities. I think that the biggest impact of my time in SE Asia showed me how important these connections are and can be. It showed me how bereft and shallow such connections tend to be in the industrialised west and it also showed me that it is not lost here; that there are still possibilities for community to grow or perhaps better said, to re-emerge.
I see this desire expressed by people here all the time both while on my rides and off. This is so encouraging and makes it all worth while.

Cheers!
Cath

banff ave shamisen

Recent related activities related to this project is the beginning of the shamisen street performances. Thanks to Katelyn Clark for taking some video today. I’ll post up a short bit from today.

I know that playing shamisen on the streets of banff may seem, on the surface, to be a far way away from riding horses across the prairies. But it’s not. Not really. It’s all about nomadic living, non industrial explorations etc etc. In this case trying to honour the Goze of ancient Japan. And besides, I think that I might just get the horse travel performance thing off the ground with this instrument. I have a feeling about this. I’m going to continue with this street playing through the winter with a thought to putting together a short finished video piece near the end of march.

I also had a wonderful and moving mention in Patrick Edwards blog. To glue the calfskin to my new shamisen, I used a glue called Old Brown Glue, a hide based glue, that Patrick developed.
I thought that I’d email him to let him know what I was using his glue for (and it worked great) and he asked o few more questions and then posted about my work and play on his blog. You can read it here –http://www.wpatrickedwards.blogspot.ca/2013/01/...

Please pass this around on facebook and email to people you think might be interested in supporting my project.
Thanks a Million!
Cath

The Sun and The Wind Begging Bowl - Going North
Well first of all, Happy New Year!

And now, here we go! Time to get my fundraising efforts off the ground for the next phase of my solo long ride on horseback through western Canada. Year 3 it is! This year's ride will take us (us being me and my two companion horses) far and long and no doubt deep. Starting from SW Alberta we shall follow the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains through the grasslands, foothills and mountains of Alberta and BC north towards the Yukon Territory. We will travel for 5 months.

These journeys would not be possible with the ongoing generosity of many people. I deeply thank those who have contributed in the past and those that do so here as well. If you would like to help but are unable to financially, it would be a great help to simply pass this on to friends by email, facebook or whatever might suit you.
If you would like to make a donation, please go to the 'support' page on this web site.
I hope this finds you all well and happy! Cath xox

Welcome to An Stiúideo Fiáin representing the multi-disciplinary work of  Catherine Thompson. ie. me Welcome! If you have found yourself here thinking you were heading to fiain.ca it is because I have transferred my site, fiain.ca, from a regular hosting service to this one based on Blogger. I'm doing this for two reasons. One: so that I can have easier, simpler access to the site whilst travelling (often away from my computer) for updates. and Two: for purely financial reasons. As each year goes by, it seems that I am pulling more and more away from what you might call 'the grid'; living on less and less 'cash'. This 'Home' page is where I'll post new and upcoming stuff as it comes about. The name an stiúideo fiáin is Irish (gaelic) for 'the wild~uncultivated~feral studio' a quest for untamed discipline in all things ... music, visual/material, arts all things living, living as true as possible attempting the seemingly impossible task of casting away the bonds of a modern industrial life to find answers within the natural world trying to balance the ancient with the new to see if listening to the deep sounds can forge a new path to find the touchstone to a new world. A major part of all my work at the moment is connected to The Sun and The Wind. The most recent incarnation of this journey is quite literally, a journey - travelling on horseback, living on the land, learning from my equine companions and the people that I meet along the way that have opened up their hearts to us. The spring of 2013 will find us moving once again. Please go to The Sun and The Wind in the links above for more information. The Sun and The Wind project is the search and struggle to find the state where all life spoke as one, when all were as one. To search for a deep and sure connection with the natural world; of mythic imagining and re-vision-ing. To resist the destruction of the wild. "In the very earliest time, when both people and animals lived on earth, a person could become an animal if he wanted to and an animal could become a human being. Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals and there was no difference. All spoke the same language. That was the time when words were like magic. The human mind had mysterious powers. A word spoken by chance might have strange consequences. It would suddenly come alive and what people wanted to happen could happen all you had to do was say it. Nobody could explain this. That’s the way it was." This quote from Nalungiaq, an Inuit woman interviewed by Knud Rasmussen early in the 1900’s (source: The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram) illustrates perfectly the feelings and motivations of my work in general and The Sun and The Wind in particular.