All in Art
How do you connect with your creative self? Sometimes it can feel like you’re always chasing elusive butterflies, trying to make works that you love and that resonate. Spending time regularly with your materials means ideas are more likely to suggest themselves. But it might take stubborn doggedness to keep going.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rejection is not the end of the world, although it may feel like it at the time. Applying for art opportunities is part of the process of being an artist, whether it is for exhibitions, collaborations, residencies, grants or any other project you dream up. Not all applications are successful, which makes the ones you do get accepted for even sweeter.
Where do we put our feet and how do we walk? What are the marks we leave? The transience of life as expressed in pilgrims' footsteps was inspiration to entice me into the studio to reactivate my love of printmaking.
When you finally face what’s holding you back, it’s liberating. My paint brushes and paints are back on my studio bench, there’s a canvas on my easel and I’m painting. Fifty years of not feeling that I could paint has meant I didn’t even try. But I’ve had years of practising as an artist to get to this point. Now I’m excitement to see what’s next.
Whether you are making art or appreciating it in its myriad of forms; immersion in art can be exactly the therapy you need on a grey and dismal day or when life itself feels a little overwhelming. Artists supporting each other gives truth to the saying, when one rises, we all rise together.
