Artist Biography and Some Paintings and Ceramics sold

Finishing formal study of the Arts in Belfast, in 1996, Frances Micklem, has followed her subject matter through the music industry and the nerves and dynamics of performance and interaction, in piano, horse riding, latin dance and the many zeniths and nadirs of relationships, in person and as a counselor.

In recent years, Frances has sought to capture the personalities and a sense of the life force in people and animals, as they go about their lives. She is inspired by the emergence of their varying degrees of confidence and the different unconscious emotions that surface in her characters; like shyness, protectiveness, and visionary energies like love, enthusiasm, connection and joy, so rarely seen in art. 

Known for her ability to clear the energy of a home and to co-create situations and outcomes way beyond current means, Frances has been asked to do many commissions. These range from a reunion in Venice to a futuristic catering kitchen, to the building of a home (despite there having been a 10 year delay) and the protection of badgers from an imminent cull and the protection of pound dogs from a contract which would put non-animal lovers in management.   

Studies in recent years took her into Horticulture and the drawing of plants in ink. She has also illustrated children’s stories. Being resourceful and a green-living artist, she has done collections called Eco Art To Heal Your Heart and the Streets Are Paved With Gold as a response to the mental health crises in Ireland’s young (and not so young) and to turn the recession around, respectively. A longstanding love of working with clay, has led to collections of animals, pendulums, figures in boats and ceramic coasters with resonant lettering and words imprinted on them. A major undertaking in late 2017 was to turn 52 of her paintings into a pack of angel cards, with a pearl of wisdom on the reverse of each.

Her latest exhibition opens this Friday 16^th March in The Kitchen Café in Bray. It is a beautiful new venue, with oceans of natural light and just refurbished and therefore providing a brilliant white backdrop. The opening will run from 5-7pm with vegan wine and cake to get viewers in the mood of a great spring and summer ahead and maybe the purchase of a painting, which may be worth a fortune one day.

These are some of the paintings that I’ve sold so far and this, along with art critic Susi Allen's support, I keep going and wouldn't wish to do anything else.

Composing

Courage

Fun

Let's Look After This Place

Natural High

Love - John and Yoko

Peace

They Met In The FIeld

Travel

Paradise

 

Africa

Angel

Fairies

Girl Meditating

Reunion

Tackling Housing, Factory Farming and The Environment 'People Before Profit-style'!

I have attended two really brilliant events in the last fortnight, both organized by the political party, People Before Profit. The first was in Waterford where I heard  a talk on art and politics. Suffice to say, ideas of radical art ‘to represent the struggle of minorities’ caught my attention and socially engaged art. But then the systematic degradation of fine art in colleges and promotion of drawing and design for computer games and other graphics that will lead to jobs in IT and other technical  and marketing industries. His name was Professor John Molyneux if people want to look him up and he’s also just published a very interesting book for the PBP, Environmental Policy - a radical alternative. Which God knows, we need. When I talked to him afterwards, I said I paint because I want to raise empathy towards animals and share some of the joy, energy and colour of their antics. He was very interested and gave me a short history of the commodification of animals in art. At first they were depicted in an honorary role in cave paintings, with an element of sacred and ceremony to the hunt and relationship. Then Rembrandt did two very graphic masterpieces of a slaughtered and hung ox. Then there was that ….(beep) who cut the cow and calf in half and preserved them in formaldehyde. At which point, any sense of the value of a life was long gone. Until my paintings came along anyway!

That was followed by a very interesting debate on racism in Ireland and how best to deal with it. And then a debate on the repeal of the 8^th amendment. And then a talk on how the climate is doing. I put that all as lightly as possible although, there are impasses at every turn.

Yesterday, though, I joined the others at a leafleting session on the housing crisis. The leaflet read that there was a big march on 7^th April in Dublin about it and there was also a petition. It was mentioned, although, it hadn’t occurred to me, that the point of the stall was to encourage people to join a collective movement rather than just fight individual battles as they came to them. I thought, yes! That is so needed because once your own housing is at risk, you are completely powerless to take a stand. 1) Because you’re vulnerable and in crisis and trying to make an emergency survival plan 2) because the people you need to show up as acting unfairly are the same people you still hope will take pity on you and let you stay in your accommodation.  3) There’s strength in numbers and the government might have to listen.

I got talking properly to about 12 people over the hour. They all came from the side steps of the Town Hall, so would not have seen the posters yet and so none of them knew I was going to talk to them about the housing crisis. And Yet, 10 of the 12 had LOST their houses or were in the process of losing them. Four separate families had paid their humungus mortgages for upwards of a decade before being evicted when their mortgages soared 200 to 400 a month. Others were in rented accommodation and had only heard at the last minute that they were to leave, as their landlord had not been able to keep up the payments.

I had 2 seconds to say say something so I just said, “we’re looking for names for a petition, asking the government to stop allowing the huge hikes in rents and all the repossessions of homes.” 

It turned out that that was enough. It was close to everyone’s heart. I had the dogs with me so anyone who wasn’t interested in housing, stopped to talk to them. And anyone who wasn’t interested in animals, stopped to hear the musicians who had set up shop next to us. Can I just say, they were fantastic. We’re talking dance beat/rap under and over the Tracey Chapman Fast Car melody. Another guy, singing and playing guitar, sometimes harmonizing between them. The sun really shone on us in every way. They are not yet a band so I can’t tell you who they were. In fact they couldn’t tell me so that’s very serious for their careers but still, maybe when they’re ready they will!!

So, I reckon, join People Before Profit. It just seems to be great, thoughtful and intelligent people doing whatever needs to be done and having a good time at the same time.

In addition, they are behind the motion (?? I think this is the right term!) to end factory farming in Ireland and are putting it to the government. I have never heard about harmlessness being so central a vision. Let’s express ourselves through art, let’s make social housing available, let’s not confine every other living thing to exploit it and let’s be brave and make the changes we need to make to save the environment. It’s not gone yet but there are plenty of people in drinking water trouble even this week, here in Ireland. So, let’s not make it a ‘Don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone and I found out a little too late’ Chicago song moment!

And I also suspect that the PBP won’t be vouching for Ireland to ditch its neutrality and join the blood thirst arms race. I haven’t asked yet but I’m pretty sure they’ve got some better outcomes in mind for Ireland.

Don’t worry if you have a different political leaning though, I’m just saying let’s have these conversations about what matters and help our communities out to stop the homelessness situation.

Interestingly, I left the leafleting and raced straight to the newsagent in Paulstown to buy the times. I was quite convinced that they would print the great article I wrote about empathy and art and mention my exhibition in Bray, opening on Friday. I searched every page and there was no sign! However there was this front page headline which made me super glad, I’d spent lunchtime raising the situation: 8000 homes repossessed since crash. The banks get to keep all the previously paid money, get the asset of the house back and sell it again….AND to add insult to injury …the original mortgage payers still must repay their debt. It is not enough that they are now homeless, nothing to show for the thousands they’ve already paid, they’ve given the house back and they must now find rent as well.

Wow, I think that should be hard to justify. Has anyone asked the banks how they justify it? Maybe I missed something, maybe it’s all fair in love and war. But this does not sound like love or war…except maybe a war of attrition against the people of Ireland. It is time to take the power  back, surely…as Rage Against The Machine so rightly suggest!

 

Where reality and Wellbeing Meet - If you're lucky!

I have published a set of angel cards. Each one is a unique painting of mine with ideas for people who already are conscious of a lot of healing principles and can make use of them in reflection.

As I look through them, I realize that the cards might need an accompanying booklet like angel cards do with a little more information!

This is what I came up with for The Blue People, who some might recognize as being on the cover of my book as well.

This card talks about 6D, as opposed to 3D

 

What is there in the 6^th Dimension that is not found in 3D and how can it impact on our daily lives? The sixth dimension is made of pure light. This is not like the light at the end of the tunnel; something to look forward to. It can be visualized as an underlying grid of powerful energy. Some people may have already heard of a hologram; an optimum version of you and everything else that we can see that underpins the solid and imperfect creations of our tangible world. It stands to reason that if you reflect on this aspect of yourself, you will come to identify with it more than your current self-image, circumstances and any external judgments you meet.

The way you can access this dimension is through meditation or just asking, while involved in other tasks like washing up or playing a piece of music. Alternatively, I love to do it while swimming. I make each length an acknowledgment of another dimension.

As the insights start coming thick and fast and uninterrupted, you will realize this dimension holds your true nature and that your original nature is still intact and unchanged thankfully, by all that has happened to you. Your body, mind and feelings can all be healed via regular return to reflection on this dimension. Do not worry that you may lose touch with reality if you explore new perspectives. It is not a choice between living in one way or another. The dimensions are just layers to experience, all happening simultaneously.

Having lived with awareness of a multi dimensional  reality for years, I have discovered that life is only 20% physical and the other 80% invisible to the naked eye, not available to touch empirically and impossible to access by basic, polarized thought (inc. true/false, right/wrong, black/ white!) Opening your mind and waking up to who you really may be and are supposed to become, will be the most enjoyable adventure you’ll ever go on and best of all? You can do it on the quiet. No one will know where you’ve gone or even that you ventured off. You will, though, return to the present moment and company, sun-kissed and radiant with that light. I say give it a go and don't knock it 'til you've tried it!

Looking For a Way Out ?

There must be hundreds of people out there who, like me, have been thinking ‘What happened to me? I used to have a wicked sense of humour, be relaxed, loving even.’

 I used to see the good in people and I learnt, for certain, that understanding and empathy brought out the good in others, healed even. There was a time I would confidently ask, what is this physical pain a person is going through and I would get an answer, trust it and clear it. I understood the nature of reality as all connected and infinitely resolvable.

But, crashing in, with all that awareness came 'calls to action' and distraction in the form of money worries, bad treatment at council level, disastrous decisions at government level, ignorance and exploitation at industry level. Along with that came the need to DO SOMETHING in 3D to help those that are suffering.

This, I think, is the way that we have become pools of consciousness, muddied by clarified upsets. We have fallen for the idea, afresh, that something tangible has to happen, changes on the outside.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I haven’t had much success trying to persuade people to be kinder, less racist, speciesist, sexist, reactive or more harmless, gentle or humble. It might be that people don’t want to see traces of these things in themselves; seeing them as prejudices and weaknesses, respectively. Alternatively, it might be that I’m better at writing about the WHY and the HOW than the WHAT.

So, Why Be Kind?

1)  Because it is a key part of our original human nature. Remember it, it has been too long forgotten.

2)  Because everyone you meet is just a reflection of a part of you - that might have to be dealt with firmly but still with compassion, if you want to keep yourself an integrated whole.

3)   Because being kind and thoughtful of others dispels anxiety about your own life.

That is how I first discovered this way forward, through empathy and mindfulness. Lying awake in bed, stressing about the range of story lines running in my life at the time. I was, as they say, ‘beside myself with worry’ and therefore not present in any useful way to help myself.

Something told me to get stuck into a larger picture. I thought of each member of my family and what life might be like for them. I wished them well or for a miracle, whichever I felt they needed. Then I thought of homeless people, then animals in farms and labs, then people who were sick and scared, etc. After a while, I drifted off, more aware of my safety and wellbeing and therefore with a new perspective.

I realized that I was doing more than ‘thinking’ of others. There was a quality of applying myself, wishing the best with all my heart, fully acknowledging their difficulties and recognizing the equal value of their life to mine. It is not that we are all equally porns in some political game, we are all equally gifted. Just think, if each, only apparently  individual, person stopped their massive energy quota from spiraling around, in an ever-decreasing circle and so also stopped the inevitable implosion of thoughts that reinforce a sense of powerlessness and INSTEAD, sent their energy out on a daily basis, looking for miracles for people, animals and environments in trouble? What a power that wave of magic, resolution, good will and collective knowledge would carry.

But

How To Encourage Kind Thoughts and Intentions?

Most people like to think that their thoughts are fine, it’s everyone else’s that are incomprehensible! On closer inspection, some might be able to concede that some negativity has got in, in the shape of fear and judgment, if not fully engaging in name calling and wishing people dead, specifically!! 

I was caught in an oscillation between personally painful stories and anger at the pain inflicted on others. I suspect a lot of people would agree that only a few minutes every day are consciously spent in peaceful well wishing. Now to get our other 23 and a half hours up to standard.

I know that gratefulness is often talked about but I currently think that if you practice it (by which I mean, list things you could be grateful for every day, even if you don’t feel particularly grateful at the time) it can become the filter through which you actually SEE life. That is because you have to LOOK for things to be glad of. This is the very opposite of, say, a health and safety inspector, who has trained themselves to look for all the potential hazards and accidents waiting to happen. With gratitude, you train yourself to look for and eventually quickly see, the blessings in a situation and the real gifts of your surroundings.

The process has a progression to it which is: Gratitude, increased appreciation, change of focus from lack and resistance to  occasional, then predominant, gladness, felt in your body. The cascade of gladness becomes more easily triggered and drenches every cell in the body. Thoughts become less entrenched and imagination flows beyond what is to what could be. A vision is formed.

Today’s Example

Top 10 things I’m grateful for:

1)  A loaf of homemade bread not successful enough to sell at the café so unexpectedly available for my own breakfast.

2)  An avocado has simultaneously ripened to perfection  and I find oil, apple cider vinegar and mustard for my favourite vinaigrette and some leaves of home grown lettuce.

3)  I have a community of friends and one top favourite came at once to help me get a rug on Magic for the cold snap to come.

4)  There was time for tea, to taste-test the raw banoffi pie, to light the stove, to put the world to rights, to help get the 40kg of coal out of the car at last and for her to remind  and encourage me to write and share ideas. She thinks more and more people are starting to see things like I do.

5)  I find the stove is still on this morning and it kicks off again with a few sticks.

6)  The dogs don’t chase the cyclists.

7)  It is warm enough to sit for an hour on the doorstep with my dressing gown hood as a sun visor.

8)  I am warm, healthy and getting back on form, spiritually ahd physically. I can do the splits. I have always seen them as the physical representation of mental freedom and flexibility: ie The belief that I may be wrong and I may be right, about things as I go along, but either way, I’m going to trust myself to participate in the dance of life and to trust others as well.

9)  I’m so glad of the Plaza at Paulstown with their soya cappuccinos and free wifi. It’s far enough away from Harmony Hall not to trash the frequencies I’m chanelling here but seriously handy, being in the nearest village!

10)               Best of all, I feel I’m back and that my frame of mind and heart are positive and sustainable. I’m off to thank nature in person and any other dimensions of life I come into contact with. Which might be quite a few!

All the best, Fx

New Blood

As an artist, I have taken the unorthodox step of reworking some paintings and adding more enjoyable men! All characters are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental apart from perhaps Edward from Twilight, who is admittedly living, dead and fictitious all at the same time. You can say that perhaps he's not suitable; too young and not very veggie...but if you watch the films more closely, you will notice that being 17, 117, a vampire and even dead just don't get in the way for him. He's still a principled sort of a guy with a certain gravitas - which I think I've catptured visually with the beard.   

Unexpected Meeting

Camel Preservation

Free To A Good Home!

Did I say I love gardening? I don't think that's strictly true. That I lose track of time? No, this much scutch grass out of this bed took me exactly 3 hours.

Some jobs in the garden are quick and straightforward, like...no, can't think of any off the top of my head.

Some have unexpected rewards like the finding of 3 previously undiscovered potatoes.

Some facilitate another mission, like preparing a space for rose I had bought myself for Valentine's Day...because I'm worth it (as L'Oreal says).

But only worth €2.50! as I found this beautiful red rose in the Chinese pound shop on High Street. I felt a bit sorry for them in there with the other tat. When I opened the box I found that the stems were waxed and elastic banded together and there was mould nearly to the top. The only sign of life was a little sprout.

After my labours, I came out to find that Becky had broken off, systematically, all the new branches of fuschia and I thought:

Do I really love animals? Well, not really. I'm going to try and rehome the lot I think, see if anyone else has time for a bit more training. Does that mean that I think, after all, that they deserve to die young so someone can eat them? No.

I feel so happy at the thought of the house smelling good and clean and tidy, the rolling lawn and wonderful edible garden coming to fruition. So this is a shout out to anyone who would like to adopt any of my animals
2 pigs
3 cats
2 dogs
1 pony
If you can offer any of them a home, THANK YOU! I would love to hear from you. I will happily sponsor them with some food and help to get them settled!

Is it part of the New World Order plan that if you want to eat un-poisoned with pesticide food you have to suffer and wile away days of hard labour on the off chance you manage to produce one or two items yourself?! Why not just make it policy, no more chemicals on any of the food/ingredients in our shops, please. And while we're at it, make it policy, no more killing animals for food and using their remains or fluids as byproducts. It's just barbaric and unhealthy and I can't be bothered to try and avoid the toxicity and cruelty that seems to be the main fare on offer, currently.

I'm thinking that the powers that be want to keep those of us who have awakened really busy, weeding and running around after rescue animals...but I've spotted it now and want a change on a larger level, where the food industry facilitates health, fairness and wellbeing for people places and animals!

My Body Is My Temple...you don't hear this much any more!

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I am pleased today to be promoting a new diet for everyone who has a few pounds to lose or health that is under par.

No.1 Eat Less

 Sounds obvious but if you had to compete for food in the family, you might still be eating more than you want out of sheer bloody mindedness!

No.2 Eat more raw 

51% or more of one's daily food should be raw as it keeps the nutrients.

No.3 Drink more water 

But always filtered, not from the tap.

No.4 Savour Your Food

This involves a) tasting it then loving it or leaving it, depending! If it's good for you but doesn't taste immediately appetizing, hold your nose. Or b) summon up gratitude for each ingredient. 

Think how hard it must be to harvest nuts, let alone shell them. With argon oil, the nuts are shelled by hand by women, in Morocco. But even more famiiar things, every onion, grain and carrot has taken the efforts of people and the good will of nature. Focusing on them for a moment, really makes you appreciate your food more. 

I don’t think there is any big brand that is going to benefit from this strategy as you’re going to have to make most of the raw food yourself BUT that way you’ll find out for yourself that only a small bit is enough as they’re delicious but super rich, which kind of covers effort 1) which was to not eat so much.

Lemon, Buckwheat and Chocolate Wagon Wheels

Sweet but packed with everything a body needs! 

 

Pretty much straight way you’ll think dammit, does that mean I should cut out dairy, eggs, sugar and gluten? And then you’ll realize,… wow! ….I’ve already done it; none of those things are found in those raw recipes I'm making anyway!

And if you're a sucker for bread and rely on it for pack lunches and every other time you leave the house, make the really easy yeast-free one. Its easy, rises, is vegan obviously, has extra key things like rye and molasses in to support your kidneys, is delicious and freezes well if you make 3 loaves at a time, which is the only way!

I know some people may be pessimistic about the cost of good (read organic, not-sprayed) food and ingredients but another part of the diet is to detox from those negative thoughts. 

47 pendulums of a bead variety I must have made on Valentia one time, for Arts Week, but I love my ceramic ones too and often resort to swinging a nearby phone charger if I can't put my hand on anything else to use. Just swing it clockwise and say to yourself, something like 'thank you for the money and motivation to make all these positive changes in my life'. Let it swing until it rests naturally.

Also remember, less is good. So get 400g of organic nuts rather than 800g of sprayed and just use them more sparingly.

N.B. If there is nothing mentioned on the label that means the produce is covered in pesticide and produced at the expense of some poor country and people in the supply chain.

Instead I, for one, am focusing on my emotional and physical health. This is where I find myself  saying ambient things, before eating, like ‘My body is my temple’ and ‘Thank you for all the remarkable people and their activities who manage to grow this stuff.’

Let this diet also get you out in the garden or planting tomato seeds in your window, opening up another avenue again to health and happiness

Misunderstandings in the Way?

I wonder if most people hear 'My body is 'A' Temple or 'YOUR' temple': Implying somewhere where someone else is being expected to worship!! No, no, no! Your body is your own temple. Even if you are not spiritual; adorn it, keep it elastic, spend time there, clean the windows and only  allow in the most dedicated friends.  Others will surely nick the trinkets or even your soul, if you don’t preserve the sanctity of the space!

In third dimensional terms, this involves looking after yourself. You only have one life in the sense that this day, this moment and this body are some of the main things you have to play with right now!