Creating Through Crisis

Aboriginal hand marks on a cave wall

I’m writing to you to let you know that you are not alone. Thousands of years ago someone made this hand print on a cave wall near Bilpin, Australia. It proclaims: Look! I was here. This simple human act of creating a hand mark connects me with this unknown painter over thousands of years.

I take comfort from this hand. It reminds me of human connection. Of touch made through a hand print. Now more than ever when we are advised to keep our distance, we need to know that human touch is possible, even if only virtually.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what to write in today’s blog post. Knowing that people are anxious, that they are suffering in these uncertain times. That we cannot have ordinary human interaction. That there is panic in the air and through the airwaves. So I wanted to devise a way to acknowledge this and help.

A friend rang me yesterday to check in on me. She herself was feeling anxious and wanted to share this feeling with me, to see if I was in the same boat. For my own mental health I made the hard decision to take up my artist residency in the mountains because I knew that being in a quiet place where I could create would better serve me and my family. For I know that when I get anxious, it becomes contagious.

So I am writing to you from the mountains and inviting you to create through this crisis. To connect by sharing your handprint with your friends or family, to let them know that you care, that you are connected - virtually.

At the beginning of the year I did a series of short videos, designed to inspire people to be creative. The first one I did was about doodling, drawing around your hands to create a handprint. Little did I know how prescient this was, to think that a handprint can connect us when we can’t touch each other because of self or imposed social isolation.

At the artist residency there are walls that can be drawn upon. This morning I drew around the figures of the artists here and we each drew our handprints. It shows our connection to each other. I’ve posted the doodling video of the hands in my YouTube channel for some inspiration.

I want us all to get through these challenging times by keeping connections alive. Share your hands - they are a powerful symbol of humanity! We are all in this together and we are all connected. Take a pen for a walk around your hands. Take a photograph of it. Share it with your friends and family to let them know you care.

Artists strike a pose to connect at the BigCi artist residency in Bilpin, NSW