All tagged handmade paper
How do you imagine the world you want? Pour it with paper art! Creating worlds both big and small during the Dear World event gave people an experience of visualising our planet and an opportunity to tell politicians to protect our planet amidst this climate crisis.
How do we create change in the world? I believe it can start with an idea, and imagining, a dream of how we want life to be. Enacting climate change can seem like an overwhelming concept with so many things out of balance. Yet the image of our ‘blue marble’ planet of swirling greens, blues and white reminds us how precious our dear world is and how we must advocate for its protection.
Art has a way of revealing larger truths. I’ve been using a technique of conceal and reveal on some new artworks which has led me to think about how this reflects the state of world matters; political, environmental and humanitarian. I’ve become an excavator, discovering what stands out amongst the busy-ness of visual stimulation.
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.
Whenever I make new art, I ‘talk’ to my materials with my hands; moving papers around, ripping some up, stitching some together, folding and glueing. It's what I've been doing as I get ready for my exhibition, Paper at The Centre, Beaudesert, QLD in January.
When you’re feeling dissatisfied with the unresolved pieces lying around, look at the work with new eyes. ‘What if’ is always a good place to start as it gets the creative juices flowing.
As we spend more time alone, it starts to build a pattern of going deeper within. I can feel my thoughts drifting, emptying as I spend more time with my innermost being. For the past seven weeks I have been making circles of paper, from reds and orange through blues and greens and now emptying into white, the still centre as I’m learning to trust and let go of control.
How do we imagine the future? I have been making a new world of my own imagination, filled with rich blues and greens. I believe that we are holding the world together while a new one is in creation. We bear witness and hold hope while the world is created anew.
How do you interpret your life through art? I use collage as a way to bring the often chaotic parts of my life together to create stories of where I stand and what I stand for.
Making paper is a very labour intensive process. So why make paper? Handmade paper can be used to embed concepts into your project, especially when it comes to environmental projects.
