Woman of the Week Before – Tamar Griggs

Presenting:

Tamar Griggs

Here’s a little bit about her:

Born a child of the ocean and forest, free to run barefoot in nature, before TV was invented! Imagination and old-fashioned play with neighbourhood kids formed my childhood. My loving mother read us fairytales and poetry; my Father took us on crazy family adventures in the San Juan Islands, the Pacific Ocean and Mt. Raineer. Raised to be educated, married, a mother and a strong contributor to my community, I deviated somewhat from the unspoken dreams of my parents. I dropped out of college and joined Martha Graham’s and Merce Cunningham’s Dance Studios in NYC. A pivotal point in my life was performing in a “grass roots” dance concert in Central Park in 1971 where Twyla Tharp gave me a 60 second solo which was super complex but exciting. This is when I heard the “Songs of the Humpback Whales” and I was so moved by their haunting sounds, and so sad when I learned that the great whales were being hunted to near extinction that I developed “Whale Workshops for Children” and created an inter-disciplinary program combining science and the language-arts. The resulted in “Save the Whale” a book by children. The Smithsonian Institute and the National Audubon Society made the original paintings and poems by children into an exhibit that toured the USA and Canada for 2 years.

With a passion for education, I completed my Bachelor of Ed. at Simon Fraser University, majoring in Biology and English. Then I had a baby and became a single parent!

For the past 15 years I have been running Bold Bluff Retreat on Salt Spring Island – completely by the seat of my pants. I am an “artist”, not a “business” woman. This is a 100-acre piece of Paradise accessible only by boat that my parents bought in 1965 and I was blessed to inherit. The treasure has been meeting wonderful people, many of whom come back year after year, and serving tea in my Grandmother’s china under the walnut tree.

And here’s how she answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What inspires your creativity?

Curiosity and wonder at the awesome fact of life inspires my creativity. This is rooted in a deep and abiding love of nature, which was instilled in me since childhood. Each of us is at the center of our unique universe, perceiving life through our own lenses, yet we are part of Mother earth, the sun, moon and stars. If we can remember from whence we came, and how we all belong here, we would treat earth and all the creatures and plants with respect. I am simply one tiny heartbeat in the immense life experiment and the vast universe!

I am a little like Thoreau, but I have carried his experiment of Walden Pond further, by staying “put” for nearly 2 decades in my island home. I feel as if I am walking in a living painting every second of my life. If my eyes are open and I “see” what is happening around me in Nature, I am continually surprised by what I learn. There is a difference between “seeing” and “looking”. “Seeing” involves understanding the links and connections between the dynamics of life. “Seeing” involves having an inquiring mind and being open to possibilities. Every second of my life is a treasured gift, and I have a passion to understand my place in it. The gratitude I feel inspires my creativity.

How have you reinvented yourself thru your creativity?

My entire life is one gigantic “creative act”! I follow my passions, instincts, joys and loves. This must be creative, because my life is a journey of the soul, which explores both internal and external landscapes. All the cells of my body re-create who I am continually without my even knowing it! A dark, mysterious re-invention goes on inside me moment by moment. I thank my cells for the work they do, in harmony, decade after decade, giving me health and vitality. Is not this a creative act?

Spontaneity, humour and joy play a role in the creative process that helps me to grow into a compassionate Elder in my community – and I still have exhibits to create and stories to write!

Based on response to your creativity, how do you involve others?
Basically, I wear my camera around my neck, as I am addicted to photography. Taking pictures of my fellow islanders for over a decade means that I am amassing a record of us aging and of children growing up. My photos have been used in memorial services, celebrations and conservation efforts. All my friends appreciate the photos and I am known as the “Fridge Art Lady”. I also hoard the photos for a year and give them at Christmas to my friends. These pictures sometimes are the only records of the year they have! Eventually I want to do a photo exhibit of islanders through my eyes. It is a challenge to be a community member, interested in people’s lives, and to be a photographer at the same time. You can’t be focusing a camera and having an intelligent conversation at the same time. Often, I let the artistic moment slip by simply to “be present”.

My spontaneity, vision and creativity helped to motivate a grassroots effort to save 5,000 acres of our island from the chainsaw and development, in 2000 – 2002. Over 100 people participated and we managed to raise $21 million dollars within 2 years to buy half the land. We now have the largest undeveloped bay in the Southern Gulf Islands. This was one gigantic creative, fun, challenging and scary project. Some people got hurt and put in jail. But we did it, and even Dolly’s Public Dreams staged a colorful protest with us in Vancouver through bumblebee and butterfly stilt walkers.

Then of course, teaching always involves others. Those Whale Workshops I did during the 70′s inspired many children to relate to whales, and to care about their future.

What is the wildest journey your creativity has taken you on?

If I regard my entire life as a creative act, then I must say that joining a bunch of dope-smoking hippies in the late 60′s on the lovely Spanish Island of Ibitha where their 60-foot Danish Gaff-rigged Ketch was anchored, and sailing blithely to Gibraltar and the Canary Islands with them, must be the craziest thing I have ever done. We got shipwrecked on the coast of Spain when Franco was in power. The Guardia Civil paced the stone wall along the sandy beach 24 hours a day with their machine guns over their shoulders, watching us try for 5 weeks to negotiate with the Spaniards to get the boat off the beach. During the wreck, the 500-pound rudder came off and the boat immediately filled with ocean – above the toilet and stove. We had a 4-year-old girl on board and her 8-months pregnant Mother – plus a black lab and a canary!

It was pure folly of me to stay with them, but I did, and it took us half a year to make it, leaking, and pumping non-stop to the Canary Islands.

My most memorable moment in the act of being creative was the recognition and success I had when my book was published in 1975 and the SITES exhibit created. I had followed my passions on an unchartered sea, and received public recognition for my efforts. I was one tiny voice, fortified by many children, on the forefront of the “Save the Whale” movement that swept across America and Canada in the 70′s.

Becoming a Mother surely must be one of the most important and memorable moments in one’s life. That one creative act, above all others, had the power to re-invent me irrevocably. I have treasured the journey of being a parent and nurturing a most amazing child into becoming a young woman.

What’s next for you?
Well, this is fun to contemplate.

I am learning how to make computer photo books. I get tremendous joy in creating stories from my photos and giving them to friends and family.

I plan to create a photo exhibit celebrating the 10th year after our “Texada” fight, in which we were successful in saving the 2,600 acres from logging and development. This will be a group project, and it is a historical grassroots effort worthy of recording for the Salt Spring Island archives. It even may be beneficial for other small communities facing similar fights. We first need to record the stories of the older people who took part in the fight.

As I mentioned before I want to create a photo exhibit of Islanders, then I have books to write – of living here as a single parent and raising my daughter with boat access only – a story that includes the bird life in my cove. The first book will be “Cove Watch – a Year of Innocence”, followed by the sequel 30 years later “Cove Watch – a Year of Reflection”.

Thank you Tamar! Your love of nature and neighbours is inspiring!