Reflect, Propose and Plan
Locating My Practice – Stage Three
Working through the Reflect, Propose and Plan resource has allowed me to move from instinctive reflection toward a more structured articulation of my creative practice. The activities that have been most meaningful to me are mapping influences, defining aims and outcomes, identifying recurring themes, considering audience, and developing a realistic schedule. These exercises have helped me recognise that my work is not simply autobiographical writing, but a practice-led exploration of identity structured through myth, migration and craft.
My discipline sits at the intersection of creative writing, autobiographical narrative and mythopoetic interpretation. I use the Odyssey not as literary reference but as a cognitive framework through which to understand my lived experience of displacement, work, masculinity and endurance. The myth provides structure; lived experience provides material. Together they form a dialogue between ancient narrative and contemporary life.
Alongside this mythic strand runs a parallel project: The Bird Who Came From Afar. This is an explicitly autobiographical body of work in which the bird functions as my alter ego. The bird represents migration, observation, survival and perspective. It is both vulnerable and resilient. It moves across borders yet carries its origin within itself. Through this alter ego, I am able to speak about my life with both intimacy and distance — witnessing myself as both participant and narrator.
A moment that clarified this project occurred recently. As I was arriving in Hawick to begin my new chapter in Scotland, I saw a solitary bird — similar to one I had previously photographed in the Isle of Man — landing beside the road near a park. It happened at the precise moment of entry into a new place. I experienced it not as superstition but as symbolic alignment. The bird that had accompanied my earlier journey appeared again, grounded in a different landscape. This image reinforced the idea that migration is not rootlessness but continuity through movement. The bird does not abandon itself; it relocates.
The activities within the toolkit have helped me recognise recurring themes across my work: migration, authority and paternal influence, craft as knowledge, endurance, belonging, and the tension between movement and stillness. I frequently return to the dual metaphor of Odysseus and Penelope — exploration and weaving — as representations of my own divided yet unified identity. Professionally, I work within the craft of knitting; creatively, I “weave” narrative meaning. This is not accidental symbolism but structural thinking. Craft becomes epistemology — knowledge gained through making.
Reflecting on my current position, I find myself in a period of relative stability after years of geographical and professional transition. This stability creates space for analysis. Rather than writing reactively, I can now examine the pattern of movement itself. The Odyssey becomes less a story of escape and more a study of identity formation through displacement. My practice is therefore concerned not only with travel, but with transformation — how environments reshape the self, and how narrative reshapes experience.
In proposing the direction of my Stage Three work, I intend to develop two interconnected strands. The first strand will map episodes from my lived experience onto mythic episodes from the Odyssey, exploring how ancient narrative structures can illuminate contemporary migration. The second strand will continue to develop The Bird Who Came From Afar as a hybrid autobiographical project combining reflective writing and visual documentation. The bird as alter ego allows me to sustain both vulnerability and analytical distance.
In planning ahead, I will initially focus on clarifying my research question: how can mythic narrative frameworks help articulate contemporary experiences of migration and identity? I will develop written pieces that explore key transitional locations — China, the Isle of Man, Scotland — as mythic landscapes. Alongside this, I will begin integrating visual material where appropriate. Midway through the unit, I aim to draft a critical review situating my work within debates around myth, narrative identity, practice-led research and craft theory. In the final stages, I will refine the integration between creative and critical components, ensuring coherence across the body of work.
The Reflect, Propose and Plan activities have therefore shifted my understanding of my practice. What began as personal reflection is now framed as structured inquiry. Myth is not decorative; it is methodological. The bird is not metaphor alone; it is a constructed narrative voice. Through these frameworks, I am not simply recounting events: I am locating my practice within contemporary discussions of identity, migration and making.
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