Portrait of an Artist: Corina Duyn. By Donal Buckley

 Artist Donal Buckley writes a weekly column in the Dungarvan Observer about fellow artists, writers and crafts people living in our area. I had the honour to chat with him last week. 

We talked for a long time about all things creative, and about the challenges and opportunities while ill. He is a pure gentleman.

Donal kindly forwarded the transcript so his words are available to many.

Thank you Donal.

 Portrait of an Artist: Corina Duyn

Corina Duyn is a beautiful lady. From her gentle smiling eyes to the tips of her tapered fingers, honed by years of creativity, she is loveliness personified.  Corina also has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or ME for short. This is a complex and disabling condition that still isn't fully understood nor is research in to this illness sufficiently funded. In spite of all this, Corina Duyn is not defined by her condition. She considers it to be another path whose obstacles she must try to cope with in life. It is where she has encountered new experiences and met new and interesting people. I went to meet her at her home in Lismore, a cottage overlooking the Blackwater Valley. Over a cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant we chatted about the world and art.  

Which artist do you admire and who inspires you the most?

Emma Fisher is a theatre set and costume designer who also has a Doctorate in Puppetry and Disability from Mary Immaculate College in Limerick. She designs and makes puppets as well as creating animation. As a puppeteer she has produced and performed in many theatres being nominated and winning awards in several categories. Emma set up "Beyond the Bark" puppet and installation theatre in 2007. Much of her work is centred around the Limerick area with Limerick Youth Theatre, The Belltable Arts Centre, Saint Mary's Cathedral and Bottom Dog Theatre Company among others.

What are your reading habits?

A book which made a big impact on me and learning to live well with illness is by American author Julia Cameron who collected various tips and hints from artists and writers to help other artists with artistic block, disability or recovery. She put these tips and hints into book form and tried to have it published. She was turned down. She decided to publish the book herself by typing and xeroxing several copies and selling them at the local bookstore. It became so popular that a publisher, who would eventually become Penguin Books gave her a contract and sold millions of copies worldwide. The Book was originally called "Healing the Artist Within" but was re-titled "The Artists Way" in 1992 before it went global. It has helped many people, including myself, with self confidence and harnessing creative talents and skills.

Are there any particular colours you like to work with?

I have a great love and appreciation for nature, which is the inspiration in my life and often features in my creative work. I prefer all the colours that occur in nature. Whether its the blue of the sky, the greens and browns of foliage or the silver of seas and rivers, they are best seen in their natural state. 

Do you like listening to any particular music?

Any kind of gentle meditative music sounds good to me, at this particular time in my life. If I had to pick just one specific piece of music it would be the classical "Stabat Mater" by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. He wrote it in the final days of his life in 1736 and the manuscript in his hand writing is preserved to this day. He wrote the final notes before he died of tuberculosis at a Franciscan monastery in Italy. 

Where is your favourite place?

If you go to the Beara Peninsula in West Cork and carry on past Castletown-Bearhaven towards Lambs Head, you will see a group of buildings high on a cliff. This is called Dzogchen Beara and is a tranquil retreat created byPeter Cornish which follows the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He wrote about it in his book "Dazzled by Daylight". It is set in a beautiful natural environment with stunning views. It also has a Spiritual Care Centre that offers support to those suffering grief, life limiting illness, coping with disability or burnout though it is open to anyone. Its a pretty, positive and peaceful.(and that's just the letter"P"). There is an energy here combined with the magnificent scenery that is conducive to the healing process.

...

     Its difficult to pin Corina Duyn to a particular creative genre. She is an artist, a designer, a writer, a puppet maker, a lecturer in puppetry and disability. Her latest diversification is in to the field of shadow puppets. It is a very accessible art form which gives her the scope to explore and share the experiences of ilness Her education gives no indication of her vocation as she studied Nursing and Social Care.      

       Corina was born between Amsterdam and the coast of the Netherlands(she won't tell me when). From an early age she showed a flair for creativity by making her own rag doll at the age of ten. She arrived in our midst in 1990 when she made her home in Lismore. Before, during and after her diagnosis with M.E., Corina was and is a leading light in our arts community. She has featured  on tv and radio with such notables as Padraig Naughton, Sister Stan and Sean O'Rourke. She also featured on the Nationwide programme which can be seen on YouTube along with a video on the launching of her book "Into the Light" among others. Other books in her repertoire are "Hatched", "Cirrus Chronicles" and "Flying on Little Wings". In 1996 Corina was commissioned by Waterford Crystal to create a miniature representation of their factory floor. She has given talks on puppetry and disability to students in the UK and Irelnd, as well as Brazil and Chile via Skype. Corina Duyn hasn't succumbed to her disability but increased her capabilities.

         Should you wish to view any of Corina's video's, buy her books or find links to other aspects of her creative life, you can go to www.corinaduyn.com/site/ where you will find all the information you need and contact options. Because she is saddened and frustrated by the lack of care for M.E., Corina is one of seven women advocates for M.E. sufferers in Ireland . The M.E.A.I. is a national advocacy group that lobbies for better facilities and conditions for the many people with this illness in the country. 

        I could so easily fill many more pages on the extraordinary life of this exceptional woman, but for now I will rest my case for the beautiful lady with the beautiful mind. 

I will leave you with her favourite quote, from American Singer/Songwriter Kris Delmhorst, "I don't want to rip the skies wide open, I just want my song to be heard". Corina Duyn, I hear you, and I thank you. 



© Donal Buckley, published in the Dungarvan Observer, 17 January 2020, page 46
 (although newspaper comes out on Wednesday's, this week 15th January.)

The Artist Way was my greatest tool in learning to live with ME/CFS

I write myself into wellbeing

Nancy Mairs

About four months before I became ill, a friend I told me about this book called The Artist Way by Julia Cameron (1997). I was working as an artist at the time, so didn't really needed to the book to rekindle my creative being. Or to find self-confidence in harnessing my creative talents, or artistic recovery.
But I was intrigued.

The book consists of a twelve week program. There is a introduction each week with thought provoking ideas and brilliant quotes. There are exercises to do at the end of the week. And you have to write Morning Pages (3 pages of longhand in an A4 journal, first thing in the morning), and have Artist Dates with just your good self.

I loved it!
And it helped me immensely with figuring out where I was at in terms of my then relationship. Something I had not expected from an artist book. I can't quite remember if I finished the twelve week course before I became ill. That time is a bit of a blur.

What I DO remember is that when I became able to write again, a year or so into the illness, I picked up this book again.
I was not able to write these long pages every day, but wrote on days when I could, as long as I could. I could not do a lot of the suggestions in the book, but I adapted the course to my ability.
It took me a year or more to do this three month course.
But what harm.
Nobody, but me, was checking in on my progress.

One of the saved diary pages
with 'things' that bring me joy

This book became a Hugely Important Tool to help me figure out not just where I was heading creatively within my new existence - but also where I was heading in this life with illness.

I learned

• How I could make the most of my days
• Who was important in my life
• Who was draining
• Remembered what my interests were as a child: colouring- sitting on a swing..., and how I could do them now?
• What brings joy in my life: watching the birds-  strawberries on my plant- cup of tea in bed - phonecall from a friend - messing with paint- fresh air ... 
• What my strengths were
• What my weaknesses were
• How good I had it. I learn to be grateful for the little things, like a hot water bottle, a roof over my head, support, lovely pottery to have my food on while bed bound ...
• I explored who I was becoming
• I learned to trust who I was becoming- illness and all
• I learned how I loved the act of writing
• I became a writer
• I wrote pages when so ill that all I could do was lie down in bed and write, and write, about what was going on in my body. The writing always ended up about the good things- the birds on the feeder- a friend who might have told me a funny story...
• I filled piles of notebooks. Mountain piles of notebooks (which I burned (most of it) when I moved house in 2008, in the hope that I left ME in my old house and could start life afresh... didn't quite work, but was an interesting excises all the same)
• Some of the writings ended up in a Very Distilled way in my book Hatched
• I became a published author
• I explored my life in a creative way
• I found ways to share my experiences with others through exhibitions, to sharing my story.
• I FOUND ME

The Artist Way by Julia Cameron

This book I think was the most important tool in my healing.
A most unusual source perhaps.
But I will for ever be Grateful to have been handed this book by my friend.

Thank you Julia for writing it. Thank you Elaine for handing it to me. Thank you to all who joined me on this creative journey since those early years.


Further reading and links

• The Artist Way
• Fantasy Folk Artist Dolls I was creating at the time
• Hatched -a creative journey through ME (few copies remaining -contact me or available as digital download HATCHED re-hatched

The power of the written word

'Part of our identity and our abilities may be hidden away like treasures  at the bottom of the sea until we are forced to find them.'

Tobi Zausner - When Walls Become Doorways as quoted in  Into the Light

This morning I woke up thinking about writing. How writing has come into my life because of illness. 

Friends have been telling me that I always wrote descriptive and funny letters - you know the kind that arrived in the post. Anyway, writing in my changed life, is like having found that hidden treasure, as quoted by Tobi Zausner in her book when Walls become Doorways. It was part of my identity, but it was hidden.

Writing started by following The Artist Way by Julia Cameron, back in 1997. However, in the early months of illness (1998) I was unable to write. When regaining that ability a year later, I wrote, and wrote, and wrote whenever I could. (Again using Julia Cameron as my guide).

And even when it seems impossible to write, I still wrote.

There were days when I was in so much pain and was stuck to the bed, unable to even sit up. But I would have my notepad and fountain pen (the only pen I can write with, because of its easy flow and no pressure needed to write), beside me and I let my pen move over the page and see what words would lead me ...  I write, whatever needed to come out of my head and hand. I couldn't even see what as I writing, but that did not seem to matter.

I have quite a nice handwriting, but in times of absolute distress, like the day when I was put on steroids, and thought I was about to loose my mind (and life) my writing turned to a mismatch of scrambled words, varying in size and voracity. But ultimately I found peace. The fear eased somewhat. I could make some sense of what was happening to me.

writing about the fear brought on

while on steroids

my writing showing the distress 

Writing became very important to me in terms of writing myself into wellbeing, but it also became a tool to have fun with. I realized that I love words (see links below), I loved looking up words in the dictionary. All of the titles in my book Hatched came from researching 'bird' and 'egg' related words in the dictionary. Bliss! Fun and the power of words made it into all my books.

Writing, I realized the other day when I paged through an old scrapbook, came from childhood. Again, the hidden treasure found again.

Writing, I now know features in my family too. My great grand father wrote letters for other people. My father and mother both wrote their thoughts down too.

My dad (1917-1977) wrote this tiny diary during the months before the Netherlands went to war in 1939, and some experiences during the war. It is a treasure to have his words in my hand.
I am translating the diary with the help of my brothers Hans and Joop.
Some of the thoughts shared are funny, others are heart wrenching.

a page from my dad's 1939-42 dairy

My mother (1921- 2007) started to write a series of reflections of her life while in her seventies and eighties. A life of poverty during youth, but with amazing resourcefulness and strength of mind by her, her parents and siblings. There are some very funny accounts too. It is an interesting insight into her life. 

page from my mother's diary with a story about
Sinterklaas of 1933.

My brothers wrote detailed diaries during their travels in the eighties, to many places that would not be safe to visit in modern times. Kees has been compiling his words and images of the journey to and in Africa, and I am looking forward to see and read this later in the year!

So, writing might be in all of us.

The book with the written memories by my mum and dad will be published in June 2017. Pre-order by contacting Corina expected cost is €15

I hope that this post might inspire you to pick up your pen, or maybe you share witn me and otehr readers your story about writing?

With every best wish.

Corina

If you share my post or blog on social media 

with a few of your own words on why you shared it - 

please email me a link and your postal address 

and I will post some bookmarks from Into the Light

as a Thank You for sharing!

links:

• posts about dissecting words: here and here
• Hatched- now available for download
• Books quotes in this blog, see details here
• Into the Light