#odyssey

September 15th, 2022
catnik 9:39pm
"Thank you. To the Redfin, all, thank you for your hospitality and haven these past few days. I came here as a stranger, aggrieved, in anger and heartbreak. I came here prepared to meet enemies. Instead, I found a treasure - the Emerald upon the Sea, and it is a place filled with beauty. I see you, and I honor you - my family is shaped by yours. I see my brother in the smile of Luis, and in the joy and wonder that shine in Niamh's eyes. I see his mother, my stepmother, in so many places - in graceful athletes, in the music sung while preparing breakfast, in the spices of goat-water that made me feel at home despite never realizing that Janice had become part of my family, and not just my father's wife. I see how my sister is loved by many here, by a hundred aunts and cousins and a grandmother that is as fierce as a nocker and as strong as the tides. I see myself, in those who make and craft and love beauty and yearn for... oh, for many things. In yearning, we are driven to dream, and in that we realize our purpose and potential. That here, where I thought so different from all I know, I would find friends." Her gaze seeks out Seamus and Dayana, Niamh and Luis, Aoife, Saoirse, and the others, the many - who helped her feed the baby, who showed a kind face, who gave the stranger welcome.

"Your people are a miracle. You hold on to what would be lost and protect it. You are creatures of duality - of fae and mortal, of man and seal, of land and sea. To take away one aspect would diminish the whole. That is why I crafted from earth and water, and finished with fire and air. And so is my sister's birthright - complex and marvelous, of two worlds, and so loved by both."

"I... I call this piece The Treasure, because that is what she is. I'm no lordling, no poet, no performer. My hands are how I give voice to what is in my heart, and I hope my work speaks to yours. Thank you, again."
catnik 9:40pm
The nocker whisks away the cloth to reveal her sculpture - the rays of the setting sun hit the glaze and bring it to shimmering life! It is a large piece, easily a meter tall, and the first impression is of movement - the sweep of the tide, the graceful bend of a mother embracing her child, the joyous breach of a playful seal from the curling waves, the wind from the sea, the sanctuary boughs of an oak.

From some angles, the colors are of the forest, of moss-gray bark and emerald leaf, of rich umber soil and rusty red clay. Move but a little, and it shifts - Thistle has captured the iridescent dancing shades of surf and water, from deepest indigo to whisper-white foam. In both, one could swear they were living scapes - that the eye catches the silver glimmer of fish in the depths, of bright-winged birds hiding in the branches.

From the loving embrace of wood and wave, figures emerge - part of the whole, yet distinct. A seal peeks from the waves to look upon the main figures - that of a Mother, holding her Child in her arms. She and her child are sacred, a bond older and more primal than the tides. From the depths of the waves, a soft magical glow is sourced - casting a golden kiss of iight to illuminate the pair, even as the sky is painted in darkening rainbows.

It is not perfect - no. Close inspection may well reveal a quaver of color, a speck of dull glaze. What it is, though, is true. There's no mistaking the heart and genuine love poured into the piece - as if a small part of the Nocker's soul is captured in ceramic and glaze, giving it a warmth and liveliness within which cannot be entirely articulated in words. No static thing here - it lives, a testament to love.