Memories of a Friend Who Died on Christmas Day 2021: Alison Hird-Beecroft - by SC Skillman

If I had written this blog post about my friend, gifted Textile Artist Alison Hird-Beecroft, during her lifetime she would have said, “Thank you Sheila – that’s very kind!” but she would have been slightly embarrassed.

Chalices by Alison Hird-Beecroft exhibited in Oct 2015

But Alison passed away early in the morning of Christmas Day 2021; and so I am writing this blog post about her now, in order to show you some of the ways in which we upheld and encouraged each other over the years, and shared creative ideas. I also include a taste of her amazing creations – and her thoughts, which I believe show true spiritual vision.

Alison Hird-Beecroft, Textile Artist 1951-2021

Alison was my friend from the time we first met as young children, in the earliest years of primary school. Throughout our friendship, from the times when we created a fantasy world together, we have both been to a certain extent a creative muse for each other: Alison was a visual artist, and I a writer.

Once I said to Alison (while we were sitting in a plane flying home from a holiday in Australia): “I have this character in my novel, he is a young clergyman but an unconventional one. He has a troubled past, he suffered a nervous breakdown and disappeared for 18 months. Now he is back, and he is all about coming alongside people on a spiritual journey. What shall I call him?”

All I wanted was a suitable first name.  Alison said, ‘Let me think about it’. So we flew a bit nearer to England, and after a while she came up with ‘Theo’.  I liked it, and so Theo he became. He appears in my novels Mystical Circles and A Passionate Spirit.

Another time, I said to Alison, “I have to think of an article to write for tomorrow. Tell me what you would like me to write about?’

And she said: ‘Write about starting at the end and working through to the beginning.’ That was something she had recently done, in preparing a new artwork.

So I followed up on her idea, and wrote about how to successfully plot your novel in reverse. 

Original acrylic artwork by Alison Hird-Beecroft Feb 2016

Alison and I often visited Kew Gardens which we both loved. We would wander through the gardens discussing life, people, our joys and troubles and dilemmas. In between taking photographs (something she was passionate about), we commiserated, we laughed, and all the while we took in the wonder of the gardens and the hothouses. I would give her ideas for her art, she would give me ideas for my writing: and failing that, simply mutual encouragement.

SC Skillman and Alison Hird-Beecroft

Alison posted on Instagram and Facebook many images of her stitched and woven structures and other creations, and alongside this she included a series of photographs she had taken, of light shining through glass, water, some of her structures, and iridescent cellophane. 

Her light sources were either the sun or a torch, and she would create the most enchanting effects. Her photography was all about using material objects to bring about transformation into something unexpected, magical and transcendental. She would make brief comments like:

Another angel created by sunbeams, shadows and water.

Strange shadows with evening sun through a window, a stained glass plaque and a woven structure which breaks up the light. Do you see the shadow or the light in between?

Eternal Flame: created in the usual way with sun, water, and the shadow of a structure. You never know what you are going to get. It’s about capturing the moment.

This chalice-like object does not exist. It is a photo of a woven structure which has been massively distorted by being viewed through water and magnifying glass and projected onto white paper. Just one of many strange objects that appear.

There is a surprise element to my work. I never quite know how a piece is going to turn out, but I learn from each piece and while I am creating it I am considering the text and think ‘what if?’  It could be the number of sticks I use, whether the centre will be hollow, will I count threads meticulously or allow them to be random? So many permutations…

Weaving rainbows: (with all the uncertainty of the pandemic) the only thing you can do is ‘Keep calm and make rainbows’.

Ships that pass in the night: shadow photography using threaded structure, fading sunlight and a torch. I looked at the photos I had taken with the two light sources, and I suddenly saw what looked like ghostly ships with strange masts and rigging coming out of the mist.

Alison's art was informed by her faith: along with her art, she had a deep love of music. One of our shared experiences as children was singing in the youth choir in a performance of Mahler's 8th Symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the Royal Albert Hall. She especially loved Mahler; his life story resonated with her, and her favourite work was his Resurrection Symphony, especially the finale. If you watch this YouTube video with subtitles, and read the words that the soprano sings at the beginning of the finale, you will have a true sense of her faith.

I think of Alison now as if she had embarked on one of those ghostly ships and sailed away through the mist to a place where she is dancing through the light in between the shadows, and weaving rainbows to her heart’s content.

SC Skillman writes psychological, paranormal and mystery fiction and non-fiction.
 Her next book, Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire,
 will be released bv Amberley Publishing on 15 April 2022.