Artist books sit outside conventional artwork definitions. They can be 3D or 2D artworks, they can have a traditional book structure or look like a strange sculpture made from a variety of materials including melting ice. One thing they have in common is that they are acts of resistance.
How do you birth the future you want to see? For me it started with painting goats. Not any old goats, but my British Alpine goats we had in Victoria. They were my ticket to change my world from where I was then to where I am now. Becoming an architect of your world starts with a vision and builds from there.
What to do when you are feeling overwhelmed? When your art (and life) are feeling stalled by the chaos of the world and you can’t find your way into creating joyfully. It’s times like this that I reach into my store of visual memories, like the image of bunting strung between the houses in a Mexican village. Colour and movement can provide the spark to keep hope alive.
Beginning a new project can feel daunting. Where to start? For me it’s what I call creative chaos time, where ideas tumble around until I can find a single thread to follow. It’s a time of experimentation, trying out materials and methods until the project begins to fall into some kind of cohesive state.
When you are part of a movement for social change it feels like you are in a large family tribe, all working towards a common goal. Art can be a powerful way to open people’s hearts and expand their thinking. Tribes grow as entities while growing their members. Art + activism = change.
I often get stuck when I’m trying to title my artworks. Sometimes you have to wait for the title to present itself, with often surprising results. Marking Time is a mini artist book which needed to take its own time to reveal its title and what it really is about.
How do we respond to accelerated change?. Everywhere we look the world is in a state of flux. This can bring on great anxiety or it can be seen as a time for new possibilities to emerge. As artists we can search for the seeds of renewal within the chaos all around. What we think is fixed and immobile is often only one state of being. Even the stones on mountains and the trees themselves move.
Creating art can be a tumultuous activity. Often things don’t turn out the way you hoped, or you can get stuck on an idea that doesn’t work. What to do to whether those rough creative seas? Collage is my go-to activity when ‘in-between’ projects.
Perseverance is not necessarily a quality you would think you need when it comes to being creative. Yet finding little creative ‘hacks’ can help keep your enthusiasm buoyant and your art alive through all the messy ups and downs of the creative process.
What does it take to change public opinion? To change a government policy and advocate for protection rather than destruction. Drawing a visual representation of the hearts, hands and bodies of passionate advocates for change helps keep my hope alive. I take heart from the 1970s protest movements to stop the whaling industry. Whale watching rather than killing, forest bathing rather than old growth forest clear-felling. Change is possible.
I’ve become a passionate advocate for protecting the old growth native forests. Joining the 140 other artists at the Art 4 Takayna forest residency in Tasmania has inspired me to advocate for the trees and all the plant and animal species that live in the forests. These are our wilderness heritage places. I want to know that when I am no longer here on earth, the trees will breathe for me.
Forests dwell deep in our imagination. They are the places of childhood tree-houses and stories of enchantment. Yet also a bit scary and wild. To foray into the forest you need to be prepared. Its immensity can be overwhelming, perhaps even life changing. I’m not sure what to expect when I venture into the deepest rainforest of Takayna in Tasmania with the Bob Brown Foundation.
When you’re not sure what path to take, that middle of the night insomnia can yield some ‘eureka’ moments. Such as revealing the solution to what art to create during my Art 4 Takayna residency in Tasmania over Easter.
When you know that it is time to take action, to ‘walk the talk’ and go out on a limb. Literally! The exciting news is I’m off to takayna/Tarkine in the wild north west of Tasmania to make art about the threatened ancient rainforests in the wilderness. Am I nervous? Hell yeah!
When a visit to a famous Australian art museum inspires childish art play, you know that it was worth the effort to visit. Bundanon was gifted to the Australian people by artist Arthur Boyd and his wife Yvonne in 1993. When I finally got to visit it, I experienced how the Australian landscape continues to inspire artists to capture the spirit of the bush, even in fuzzy felt.
What happens in the polar regions affects us worldwide. I was reminded of this when stitching the words in my scroll artist book, from ice crack to melt and flood. Having narrowly avoided flooding from the recent cyclone event, this scroll book is a narrative of our climate crisis and its impact.
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.
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.
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.
