Forest Whispers
When trees whisper their secrets, who listens? As an artist making work about the environment, I feel called to bear witness to the trees and forests threatened by logging, environmental destruction and pollution. Trees may help save our planet from destruction. Helping them survive is a reciprocal action.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Like Alice discovering wonderland, I have dropped down the rabbit hole of research into alternative photographic processes. Shocked at my ignorance relating to silver extraction for the photographic industry, I am discovering ‘kitchen compounds’ and botanical processes that promise to be an alternative method of image production.
Never Say Never
Pest or Passion? I’ve had both reactions to the humble blackberry. But never would I have thought it could lead me down an interesting path of discovery about alternative photographic practices. Yet I now find myself regarding this plant with new eyes.
Once in a Blue Moon
I never wanted to be a teacher as I was considered a ‘disruptive’ student even in primary school. So holding a workshop is really a ‘once in a blue moon’ event for me. Yet I did hold one this week as part of my mini artist residency in Mornington, Victoria. I learnt so much from the participants’ creative experiments that I have discovered new techniques for making cyanotype prints.
This Too Shall Pass
Liberation comes in many forms. Mine came from tearing up years of my Morning Pages journals and immersing them in a vat of water ready to turn into paper. Not only the start of a new project but also a new way to look at the impermanence of life. That when things feel too hard to bear, “this too shall pass”.
Stress or Rest
The heart in stress or at rest? When we feel engulfed in chaos, we are challenged to ‘take heart’. On this Australia/Invasion Day in Australia, I am remembering all the protests of the past decades which have resulted in changing government policies or mainstream attitudes. The pictures of my heart remind me of the beating heart of Planet Earth, connecting us all on our one world.
Make a Date (with yourself)
Taking yourself on an artist date is one of the best activities you can do to nourish and nurture your inner artist. I love travelling on ferries so I’m off to Manly to jump aboard the MFF Manly Fast Ferry and fill my sails with salt air. It’s an excuse to deliver my artist book Post Operative to the Manly Library in person as well as share my love of ferry travel with my granddaughter.
Talking Art (and pyjamas)
What do silk pyjamas have to do with a 17th century royal decree in France and how does creating art in artist residencies expand your art practice? I’m talking art and how the stories you tell can connect your artworks with an appreciative audience.
Addiction
What is it like to be addicted? I’m worried that my brain cells are permanently affected. A short attention span and an insatiable appetitive for more. My phone has me in thrall. It’s in my pocket and its calling out to me, come and watch my Reels. Come and loose yourself in my stories. What to do?
Eating the Road
There’s anticipation and excitement in getting ready to ‘eat the road’ as Australians head off for the summer holidays between Christmas and New Year. I love consulting maps to plot all the road stops where we will break open the thermos and left over Christmas cake, stretch our legs and change drivers for the next leg of the journey.
Year in Review 2024
How to encapsulate a year that started with a bang then abruptly skidded to a stop half way through as I struggled to overcome post surgery pain. Learning to be still, rest and recover was a huge challenge. Through all these months good and not so good, I kept writing and making art to document my journey. An epic year to share in this Year in Review 2024 blogpost.
Out of the Blue
Have you ever felt your ideas have sprung from ‘out of the blue’? Yet the colours, processes and themes which have caught your interest along the way have all pointed you in your current direction. That is what I have discovered about my abiding love for the colour blue and the joy of cyanotype printmaking.
Repetition (just kid yourself)
Creative minds often get bored doing the same thing repetitively. Yet there is comfort in repetition, where tasks are so ingrained they become almost automatic. I’ve discovered that art and exercise are good companions; both can build skills and confidence through incremental, repetitive action taking.
Small is Beautiful
You don’t always have to ‘think big’. There is a move back to sustainable and small, like tiny houses that use less space and resources. So too with art, small is making a comeback with so many end of year exhibitions asking for artworks less than 30cm . It’s a great way to make art affordable and accessible for buyers and especially requiring less time and outlay for artists.
Stories of Hope
Sometimes it may take years for ideas to come to fruition. Artists need to keep hope alive so their work is received by receptive audiences, even if their art is ahead of its time. That’s why it is important to hold fast to stories of hope, to keep persevering, keep creating, keep showing up for yourself until the time is ripe for ideas to take root and flourish.
Have Wheels (will travel)
Finding ways to personally connect your art with the public and activate art conversations can consume a lot of an artist’s time. But making art and culture accessible can be as simple as creating a pop up art event, staging an artisan market or taking your art to the streets. Have art, will travel.
Mapping Chaos
When systems fall into chaos, it’s time to get creative and start imaginative mapping. Creating a visual representation of how you want life to look helps bring that future into reality. Chaos and entropy are natural parts of systems under pressure and from them can emerge new order and stability. Hold that thought!!!
Treading Lightly
Our lives, like footprints visible in the snow, are brief. To practice the art of living is to embrace the skills we have, to master acceptance, to change what can be changed and release unrealistic expectations. As an elder, this is an act of embodying wisdom.
Success (and some failures)
We are taught to reach for perfection, yet that sets us up for failure every time. Printmaking in any form has a strong ‘perfection’ element and to make blurry prints which messy edges is not considered to be technically correct. Yet what if you reframe that idea to turn seeming failures into successes. Perhaps it is a truer reflection of living life in all its messiness.