Dawn Buckley
I am a multi-disciplinary artist examining what it means to be human through sculpture, painting, poetry and song-writing. I’m from the North-West of England with roots in Liverpool and Cumbria.
In my creative work I particularly explore the inner ‘dawnings’ that occur through our human existence as things come to light within us, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Through my brand ‘Dawn On You’ I encourage and support healing, well-being and growth of the Mind, Body and Soul. I have a background in psychology, yoga, elite sports and international business combined with the arts.
I became involved in Kamitan Arts during the third lockdown of the Corona-virus pandemic whilst looking for an online community to support and inspire me in challenging times. I’m so happy I found the Kamitan Arts group!
I relate to an extent to the Grenfell fire as I have an experience of a house fire whilst living in the US where I lost all material possessions at that time. Fortunately, no lives were lost in my case. I was deeply touched by the Poetry4Grenfell poetry book collated by Kamitan Arts and have created artworks since my involvement as a way of processing my perceptions of the horrors of this most dreadfully sad disaster and the heart-breaking loss of life. In the processing, I experienced great healing within myself and recognise that the raw, heartfelt words written by those affected by the disaster hold enormous healing power for others too. This inspires me further to continue creating artworks in the hope that this might help others on their path through life.
The Kamitan community has helped me gain greater confidence in my poetry writing and encouraged me to explore and expand my song writing and singing voice in combination with my artistic journey. In this way, the community has contributed to my own healing process within what I see as a global human evolutionary journey triggered by the pandemic.
It has been a joy and a privilege to ‘virtually’ meet such an amazing group of creatives from many countries and cultures. The Kamitan group will always hold a special place in my heart through the sharing of this particular period in history.
I’ve had a think about my creative output that I feel has either been in response to your wonderful online Kamitan Arts sessions and/or from reading the P4G book. As I’ve done in many a business setting, I thought I’d do a bit of a review and I thought you might like to see it as a way of appreciating the amazing impact of your sessions on me.
All the sessions I’ve attended have had a rich impact on me as a person. I’m very grateful for all the hard work from yourself and all those involved in Kamitan. Many thanks for your time, energy and beautiful spirit 🙏
This was the picture I produced very instinctively at the very first event I attended with Zita guiding on 27th January 2021 – VAP Art
The next day I created this piece in clay:
After molding and casting, it became this:
It later became part of this ’Shattered World’ piece below as I processed the parallels between the shattered lives from the pandemic and the shattered lives of those involved in the Grenfell fire (or any disaster that strikes a human life). My meditating figure on top was influenced by Ma’at for sure:
Here’s the poem I produced on 10th February 2021 at one of the VAP Art sessions with Kamitan Arts where you focused us on the spoken word (Poetically Inspired):
My favourite creation from the Kamitan arts sessions is this one below produced with Poetess Cezanne leading and very much inspired by her beautiful Self Love picture:
From reading the P4G (Poetry 4 Grenfell) book this led me to really engage more deeply in the Grenfell disaster. I produced this sculptural depiction of the tower as a way to process the horrors of the awful Grenfell Fire (52cm tall x 21 x 21 base)
I often look at repeating patterns, here’s a few of the ones I’ve produced from my sculptural work during this time with a fire theme. As I have mentioned before, I have personally experienced the devastation that fire can have though without the appalling loss of life of the Grenfell fire.
As I processed the horrors of the lives lost and worked through emotionally what it might take to recover and find a level of acceptance and healing from such a disaster, I also produced this piece below. It deals with the mind, body and spiritual impact of disaster using the human form. Forgiveness is a major part of it’s theme, an important part of the healing process I believe. It’s quite a complex piece that’s still evolving and taps into my wider thinking about humanity. It’s also quite sizeable at 116cm tall, 32 x 18cm.
As I considered the souls of the lost lives from the Grenfell fire, and also with the Hillsborough disaster on my mind (I have Liverpool roots), I produced these pieces in clay at the end of February:
After moulding and casting in white marble based jesmonite, I produced this version, others may follow:
In mid March I produced the following piece representing the release of trauma energy from the body.
At one of the VAP Jam sessions in early March, I produced this figure representing the setting free of the voice. I have gradually become more comfortable with my own poetic and singing voice over this period and have written a number of poems and songs . . . very much encouraged and inspired by your sessions.
Involvement in the Sacred Sistars events has also been a joy. Putting our voices and body movements to self-belief and self-love in a safe creative space has been very enriching at an important time for me as I go through the menopause in the backdrop of the pandemic and experience a rebirth of sorts.
Reviewing the dates and my output, I notice that I created my first song with a tune of my own on 22nd January, 5 days before I began with the online Poetry circle and with Kamitan at the same point. Over the period since then I have recorded on my phone initial versions of about 14 songs that express my journey to engage more fully with Divine Love. Attending the Kamitan sessions with so many great poets and musicians has been an amazing support for this creative work. I’m not sure what I’ll do with these songs at this point, my journey is still unfolding but I will always relate it to this period that I spent with you and the fellow Kamitan crowd! Again, thank you!
