Mixed Media Video, Artwork, Stories, A World in a Suitcase
“I am an artist, illustrator, storyteller and published writer as well as a Creative Director of A World in a Suitcase. The power of images and stories places us in a historical context and helps us make sense of the world, in finding out who we are, what has shaped us, and who we can become. With all my creative projects I am interested in the stories we tell ourselves and how sharing stories with others can bring fresh insights," Myrna Shoa
We are bound together by stories, our own personal story we tell ourselves as well as our national stories
of the larger world we live in, that we share with others".
of the larger world we live in, that we share with others".
World Turned Upside Down is an animation I made in January 2018. The World did turn upside down in 2020 with the global pandemic.
Creativity can rise from the ashes of difficult, chaotic times
"Over Lockdown 2020- 2021 I conceived and created 2 video animations. The Man in The Red Suit and You Can't Come In. I also made Our World in Lockdown with Timuchin Dindjer. I recorded Inma Meruelo reading her delightful book she wrote and illustrated for children, Once Upon a Time in Covid -19 Time". Myrna Shoa
Innovation comes about through necessity
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9 people from diverse communities share their responses to lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic 2020.. Produced and directed by: Timuchin Dindjer and Myrna Shoa (C)
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"The Man in The Red Suit - Life is like a jigsaw puzzle is an experimental video animation created during Lockdown, 2020 (C)
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"You Can't Come In is a video animation."You need a password to enter". is an experimental video animation created during Lockdown, 2021 (C)
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A World In A Suitcase
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A World in a Suitcase is an innovative mixed media ongoing visual storytelling project, conceived and developed by Myrna Shoa and Timuchin Dindjer that inspires people from diverse communities to take a fresh look at their 'Worlds' through sharing stories, art, photography, paper collage & film.
A World in a Suitcase works with a diverse range of Grassroots community groups ensuring that there is a tangible, meaningful outcome, that the participants can feel ownership and part of. The aim of the project is to foster closer relations, understanding, empathy and tolerance between communities. |
"I am more than ever in a story gathering time," Myrna Shoa
Strange Ways Stories tales that are true yet unbelievable.
I have written and illustrated true family stories, Strange Ways Stories published by Gatehouse Books.
The Sofa, The Marriage, The Box of Chocolates and Rosie & the Iron Bar. I co - wrote with author Hazel Riley and also illustrated the beginner readers 'From The Heart' series, retelling the Greek myths in a modern urban setting.
The Sofa, The Marriage, The Box of Chocolates and Rosie & the Iron Bar. I co - wrote with author Hazel Riley and also illustrated the beginner readers 'From The Heart' series, retelling the Greek myths in a modern urban setting.
Can we ever convey a time that is other than the one we live in? We barely register the changes from year to year, as like a wave rippling on to a shore the currents change imperceptibly. Our yardstick of what we think of as good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable change. Trying to express it, however, allows us to see where we are today and where we have come from, without judgment but simply to pay attention to how our thinking and worldview has changed without us noticing it.
A Childhood Remembered
"In the last year of my sister Sandra's life we passionately gathered together our stories from our childhood for this website - Sandra and Myrna
We disagreed sometimes about what happened realising that we saw the world through our own eyes. This enlivened the recollections, made them richer. Without this wonderful story gathering I would not have been able to write, illustrate and have published Strange Ways stories about our shared upbringing.These stories are mainly for our families to read, to answer questions about their backgrounds, history and connection to the other cultures they have come from. Out of the blue, at the end of 2021 I had 2 emails from people from my past that had 'found' me after approximately 65 years, a relative and a school mate of Sandra and me, "The Past, Present and Future are entwined in these bizarre events. People who have known me when a child at primary school have in 2021 found me, through my website, got in contact with me and filled in gaps in my stories, and memories," Myrna Shoa
We disagreed sometimes about what happened realising that we saw the world through our own eyes. This enlivened the recollections, made them richer. Without this wonderful story gathering I would not have been able to write, illustrate and have published Strange Ways stories about our shared upbringing.These stories are mainly for our families to read, to answer questions about their backgrounds, history and connection to the other cultures they have come from. Out of the blue, at the end of 2021 I had 2 emails from people from my past that had 'found' me after approximately 65 years, a relative and a school mate of Sandra and me, "The Past, Present and Future are entwined in these bizarre events. People who have known me when a child at primary school have in 2021 found me, through my website, got in contact with me and filled in gaps in my stories, and memories," Myrna Shoa
PAST PRESENT & FUTURE - Through these new encounters I am able to reach back onto the past and add information, my truths to those times which in turn will affect the future for all of us who knew those stories from so long ago.
History is fluid, the way we look at events is dependent on what information is gathered from different points of view, the context of the times. Memories of past events and stories will inevitably become fixed if no new input has been added to those recollections.
History is fluid, the way we look at events is dependent on what information is gathered from different points of view, the context of the times. Memories of past events and stories will inevitably become fixed if no new input has been added to those recollections.
Sandra and Myrna
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With Sandra's passing I am the last of the Horowitchs. No one else is alive. As children the only relatives we had were our parents, Uncle Morris and Aunty Rosie. The relatives on our mother Ina's side, the Hendrys we thought were all dead as there had been no contact with them since we were children until 2021. Sandra and I met Aunty Betty in London, our mother's sister several times in London and Uncle James our mother's brother and family a few times, in Scotland.
Sandra lives on in these stories, These stories may resonate with yours," Myrna Shoa 2020 "Since Sandra's death I have been trying to find out any more information about our backgrounds. In May 2021, I discovered the actual newspaper articles about our grandfather Myer, Rosie and Morris, recently digitised, uploaded and available free from the British Newspaper Archive. Sandra would have been amazed and delighted to see all this. I hope she is looking down and smiling. SEE STRANGE WAYS STORIES our version of these stories told to us over our upbringing."
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The Fool
The Fool women's fashion 1970s
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Myrna Shoa created The Fool website as an historical record and resource showing how she, Ruti and other creative women gave birth to a successful enterprise. The Fool a designer women’s hippie fashion company started in 1973 with a little bit of magic. The Fool caught the zeitgeist, the spirit of the time.
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Myrna Shoa and Ruti -Then & Now
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The Fool designed manufactured and sold colourful, flowing, lacy hippie style women’s clothes around The Portobello Road area at a time of great change. From Aden, Manchester, Eritrea, Cheetham Hill, Scotland, Clydebank, Dvinsk, Russia, Ruti, Myrna and Aury set up The Fool.
This hotchpotch combination made the magic happen brought the spark alive and created a successful entrepreneurial business. |
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