Perseverance

My new laptop screen wallpaper, inviting me into the forest of Takayna, Tasmania.

Nothing I make could ever be as beautiful as nature. Whenever I try to get too representational with my images, I get caught up in ideas of perfection. Then it all becomes too hard and laboured. My attempts fall short so I tear them up or collage them to disrupt their predominant narrative and I always learn something along the way.

This week I was challenged by a small sketchbook I started while in the Tasmanian forest. Initially I rubbed the accordion fold book through the dirt, then balanced it on a mossy log while I drew some twigs and leaves. I didn’t spend too much time on the drawing as I was getting cold standing in the wind. I packed the book away and didn’t think about it until I got back home and opened it out on my studio bench.

I was immediately disappointed. It was too static. I had been trying to capture the minutiae of plant life in the forest; all the moss, leaves and startling coloured fungi. I had to pause and rethink the situation.

Sometimes I have to really think hard about what I want to create. I’ve learnt that you have to start somewhere. The best part about creating with paper is you can tear things up and reconfigure them with collage.

My handmade kozo papers were perfect for this, as when wet the paper was easy to tear. I started pulling the fibres apart to create the idea of moss, gluing these onto the sketchbook where the green patches were.

Suddenly I was enjoying myself. Little dabs of red/brown ink on kozo paper could be teased apart to create leaves and the surprising red of a tiny toadstool. Each fold of the accordion became its own landscape within the overall forest. It didn’t take long to finish the book after this discovery and I learnt more about the versatility of my materials. All it took was a little perseverance (and faith). 

According to the online dictionary, perseverance is “persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”.

I think this is a mantra for all of my art. I find that I need all of my creativity reserves to draw on when embarking on a project.

I thought about the phrase self-discipline to describe the creative life, but that seemed to harsh and regimental. Much of creativity is messy, emotional and ‘all over the shop’. Perseverance is more about commitment, to yourself and your creativity.

I’ve found little ‘hacks’ over the years to keep myself accountable, giving myself a reason to keep persevering; like creating daily artworks (which lasted for 10 years) or writing a weekly blogpost (it’s been seven years so far) or writing my morning pages (twenty years plus). 

My latest creative ‘hack’ has been to change the screen wallpaper picture on my laptop. Everytime I open my laptop now I find myself in the dappled sunlit forest. It takes make straight back there, to that tingling sensation when all my senses came alive. It gives me a reason to keep working, knowing that the forest will appear as if by magic. Da Da!

Ancient Forest Finds 2025 mixed media artist book