25/08/2026
Earlier this summer, Embedded Artist Gail Sneddon joined Claire Pencak for a conversation about walking, place, practice, and how we stay connected from where we are.
Although both had chosen routes close to home, they met on Zoom, as the places they wanted to speak from had no reception.
Claire shared images from the Borders: rowan trees thick with moss, woodland landscapes, and places marked by clearing and change. Gail shared images from her own local landscape in the North East, including the aftermath of wildfires on the Dava Moor and the beginnings of new growth.
Their conversation moved through loss and change in the land, a shared love of working with stone, and the ways practice can be shaped by landscape, materials, histories, and people working in other fields - archeologists, historians, growers.
Claire spoke about being on the fringes as a generative place, and how life and practice are part of the same way of living.
They also reflected on gathering: what kinds of arts gatherings feel nourishing, what can be learned from rural gatherings, ceilidhs, potato days, winter gatherings, and the everyday ways.
Part of Gail Sneddon’s research with The Work Room, exploring how members across Scotland gather, connect, and sustain practice across distance.
Link to the full blog post: https://theworkroom.org.uk/news/walking-talking-with-claire-pencak/
📷 Image of Claire with the tree: still by Glenda Rome from the film Expressing the Earth. Other images: Claire Pencak and Gail Sneddon.
Descriptions: 1, A path through a scorched ash tree farm, 2, small tree set between a woodland and cleared woodland, 3, previously burnt landscape with dark soil, growing new plants, 4, the same tree from image 2 - but vastly grown, and covered in moss on its bark and the ground.
