Australia
From the WIP series Colonial Views. Paint, earth & ink on handmade kozo paper
There are so many reasons to feel despondent, especially if you are staying in a place which has a violent history. Yet after two days of drawing murky black ink shapes, I knew I had to find a way through to the other side of despair. Enter Dr Bob Brown and his rallying call to action and keeping hope alive.
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Video still at Mooball Creek estuary, Pottsville with a drawing on paper.
The old self doubt can creep into your thoughts when you are about to do something a bit scary, a bit out there, or wild and ambitious. It can completely derail all your plans and decisions. I call it “the wobbles”. It’s good to be prepared so you can know what to do when they strike.
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Eucalypt (detail) Charcoal, pencil, rust marks and rain on handmade paper
Can art become art activism? Is the pen or brush or song mightier than the implements of destruction? How can we build activism into our art? Sometimes it is the subjects we focus on that show their value through a currency of care.
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Rain drops and reflections at Pottsville Environmental Park, NSW
Rain puddles, upside down trees and floating bits of bark. These have started a mapping process for me of the Boorum Wetland, adjacent to where I live. Making maps is an exciting direction for my next art project. It’s time to reclaim the beauty of swamps and wetlands.
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Swamp Sclerophyll Forest in Pottsville Waters, New South Wales.
After seven months away from home, I realise that I have taken where I live somewhat for granted. Yet is is one of the few remaining habitats for the endangered Buruwagan (bush curlew) whose distinctive night call is becoming my own call to action.
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Vincent Namatjira in front of his Archibald prize winning painting Stand Strong for Who You Are, 2020.
What is the purpose of art? Is is it to be pretty or to challenge our notions of who we are at the deepest level? Today is the start of NAIDOC week and we are called to have a “deep challenging national story” around how our Indigenous art and artists can lead the way we see ourselves as Australians.
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Cristo Rei (Christ the Redeemer) statue on the hill overlooking Dili harbour, Timor Leste
What this week has shown us is - Never take democracy for granted. In this momentous week I remember the 11th of November, the Whitlam dismissal, NAIDOC week and the struggle for independence when the Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia. Democracy hard won.
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A failed collage - but when I turned it sideways it didn’t seem too bad - it’s still not my best but I keep turning up and trying to do my best even when I might fail.
International Women’s Day is a good day to reflect on fear, both as an artist and a woman. What if I fail is such an overriding fear it infiltrates all spheres of life. How do we address this, what do we do to care for ourselves and others?
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Mas (Cushions) from Mer (Murray Islands) on exhibition at the NGV Australia gallery
Make art with repurposed materials. This art exhibition at the NGV Australia reinforces community values and shared methods of creating. It is a reminder that art can be made from anything and can be used to retell stories to keep them alive for a new generation .
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A younger version of me with Wurundjeri elder, Auntie Joy Murphy Wandin in Healesville. Newspaper clipping from p8. The Mansfield Courier Wednesday June 30, 1999.
This Australia Day I reflect on how art and artists can change people’s thinking. That small ideas, small gestures of hope contribute to the greater collective consciousness. Like The Vigil, which as artistic director of the Sydney Festival, Wesley Enoch says is an event “to reflect on the state of our nation in a way that’s not divisive or argumentative.”
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