In this episode, Rebecca Burns speaks with Katie GoddenGreen, an artist whose practice explores storytelling, rural memory and seasonal rhythms through clay, woodcut, textiles and material-led making.

Katie’s research asks: How can mythopoetic art practices rooted in rural communities create new forms of cultural memory and belonging within a changing ecological landscape?

The conversation focuses on The Parish of Milk, Katie’s imagined and non-imagined Cornish domain where beasts, plants, feasts, women, stories, fields, farming histories, folklore and seasonal rituals are gathered together through art. Katie describes the Parish of Milk as both a real place and a magical world: a hidden valley, a maternal landscape, a place of milk, making, joy, memory and belonging.

Katie discusses Sew Sew, the weekly sewing group that began around Katie’s kitchen table and has grown into a living community of women making together. Through stitching, linen, pockets, patchwork, rosettes, bunting, bells, frolicsome frocks and seasonal projects, the group has become a place of friendship, confidence, creativity and local connection.

The episode explores Katie’s interest in keeping rural histories alive, from Cornish farming field names, cows’ names, old sayings and agricultural rhythms, to the knowledge of trees, leaves, birds, plants and seasonal change. Katie reflects on the importance of reconnecting people, especially younger generations, with the living nature around them, and the possibility that renewed attention to the more-than-human world might create greater care for the future.

Katie also discusses the magic and myth of making, including her ceramic babushkas, dedushkas, Baba Yaga figures, mythic guardians, dresses, hats, fooling, misrule, masks, performance, and the joy of becoming someone slightly different through costume and ritual.

This is a conversation about rural creativity as a form of belonging: how gathering around fabric, clay, song, story, food, animals, and seasonal change can help communities remember who they are, imagine who they might become, and keep the kettle boiling for the future.

Links:

Website: katiegoddengreen.com

Instagram: @katiegoddengreen

Therapeutic Landscapes: www.therapeutic-landscapes.org