creating – OUTSIDER

Everything you’ve ever dreamed of is on the other side of fear

February 19, 2021

EVERYTHING YOU DREAM OF IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF FEAR – George Addair. A regret-filled life is nothing to be proud of. Maybe this poem says that in a dark way. Maybe it should be more inspirational & cheery but honestly, there’s nothing cheery about unfulfilled potential. If other people cannot see your vision it doesn’t mean you’re wrong, it’s that they’re not you. Be brave. Whatever it is, just start taking small steps towards it every day. On…

creating poetry vanlife

Slow poetry creation

February 15, 2021

Making these poetry pamphlets over the years has been an education in slowing down. I’ve felt equally enamoured and frustrated with the entire process so that there’s been times I’ve really just wanted to quit. Why do I make these? They’re time consuming and awkward and even harder to make now we live in a tiny space as I can’t just have all my book-making kit out on a table indefinitely. And yet… there’s something I keep returning to, a…

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The Remembering

February 9, 2021

This last week has been emotional. No matter how much work we do on ourselves there’s always the part where we then move back into the world of other people, and it’s daunting. Vanlife for me has been a huge opportunity to hit the reset button: on how I work, how I live, and how I connect with people. It begins with healing the Self, and as that process deepens it allows us to being the work with those closest…

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snow reels

January 30, 2021

I’ve been really enjoying the Reels function on Instagram recently. Here’s a couple of short clips made of snow-fun-times, soundtracked by Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow as I have that on loop every winter until spring. You can find more on my Instagram Reels. View this post on Instagram A post shared by OUTSIDER [Sophie McKeand] (@sophiemckeand_outsider) View this post on Instagram A post shared by OUTSIDER [Sophie McKeand] (@sophiemckeand_outsider) View this post on Instagram A post shared by…

creating family

The poetry of our ancestry

January 22, 2021

One day I wake and my child is a grown woman with two children of her own. Just standing in the yard chatting is the simplest and yet most splendid thing in these strange times. Family is a work-in-progress, we grow a bright future from the fertile soil of our friendship. So grateful that this woman is part of my female lineage, with her tenacity, intelligence and kindness.I knitted this poncho for her a few years ago when she said…

creating vanlife

His and Hers

January 19, 2021

Yes I went there and knitted us matching jumpers. I’m not even sorry.…

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What’s luck got to do with it?

January 12, 2021

Is it luck I’m here? The privilege of being born with a white face in a country where my passport allows easy access to almost anywhere in the world. I don’t feel it’s luck that I now live a (mostly) stress-free slow-life: that took determination, vision, and a deep desire to follow though regardless of some of the anger and gossip it generated. Is it luck that, because we’ve given up a rooted home we’re able to park with family…

creating poetry

20/20 vision

January 9, 2021

A poem for the coming decade. text reads: 20/20 Vision When the Earth is heating rapidly And the air is thick with accusations When oceans fill with plastic & empty of fish When people are stacked at borders like refuse As trash is shipped freely around the world When The Machine has become so huge it extracts joy From the very marrow of you bones Remember: That this planet survived ice age & fire That the mountains are gods That…

creating poetry

A life of intention

January 5, 2021

I felt quiet disempowered at times last year as an artist, waiting for others to validate my work. This is because I stepped into ego – I became attached to wanting certain things to be a certain way instead of focussing on creating the work and having faith it would find the right way out into the world. The solstice actioned the final shift away from this way of creating – this is my life of intention, I take responsibility…

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An intentional year

December 31, 2020

I’ve been thinking long and hard about the intention for this coming year, I’ve chased it under skeletal winter hedgerows, across undulating hills that gently magnify all the hidden shadows of the mind, and in the needly-ice-cold of winter swims. This morning, during a glorious hour of silence with @workingsilence I found this triad: syncretism, symbiosis, symbolism. Ah! This makes perfect sense! I will hold these words in my heart all year, seek out their embodiment with every step. Only…

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