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.
Personal Creations
Hanging out with a group of women who want to be inspired and uplifted is a real joy. This week I got to do just that at Carol’s Place in Murwillumbah.
A Book About Death
Projects can take you places you never dreamed of. The A Book About Death project celebrates its tenth anniversary this September and my artworks have been in both the first (and possibly) the last of this projects exhibitions, as well as many in-between.
Everything old (is new again)
When you haven’t got any new work made, try looking at your old work with new eyes. Recycle, reconfigure, renew.
Why make paper?
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.
One thing leads to another
When one thing leads to another, experimentation can become a springboard to creating new works. Trusting in the process and listening to your materials is an intuitive process I use when making art.
Creative Offerings
Sometimes different ways of seeing can create something new by just engaging in material play. When you get out of your head and into your hands, the materials ‘talk’ to you and find new ways of being.
Learning
You never stop learning. When the learnings seem insurmountable it’s good to be able to get support and encouragement, to do it in a group wherever possible. My first online 4 week course launched and I’m pumped!
Blue Skies
Blue sky dreaming. It is real and it can turn your ideas into reality. I believe everyone ic creative, but sometimes clouds and turbulence can get in the way. My creativity course helps break through the clouds into the blue skies again.
Paper Experiments
Studio days are so precious, especially with collaborations between artists when you live so far from each other. There is a magical energy that happens when we get together to play with materials, lots of talking then ideas explode into action.
Envelope Art
The end of a creative week and the #5day envelopeart challenge which had people across the world using a humble envelope to connect with art and story sharing via social media.
Discovery and experimentation
Experimenting is a process of discovery and that all starts in the studio. Turning up to work in the job of art, often feels like its unproductive and then suddenly your experiments propel you into new forms of art making.
Daily Creative
My daily creative practice is collage. Why do I make these simple collages every day? I believe art helps us make sense of our own lives so that we can navigate the greater world, every day.
Start, somewhere
Day three of of an artistic collaboration between myself and two other artist friends where we explored print making, starting with no preconceived ideas of where the day’s making would take us.
Turning Up
Turning up to your art practice is a commitment to yourself and your art. Even when you don’t feel like it, this routine ensures you are always productive in a small way every day.
Storytelling
How are we defined by the stories we tell about ourselves? How do we want others to perceive us? Stories about ourself are powerful and liberating.
Stitching
Stitching by hand is a meditative process connecting me to my matrilineal heritage. This Mother’s Day I muse on stitching and my mother.
Home sweet
Where is home? Is it a place, bricks & mortar or a notion you carry within you, transportable, a place to hang your hat.
Red Centre
A journey to the ‘other’ rock, Mt Connor, in the heart of Australia’s red centre.
Blueprints
Writing new narratives for change with a series of post colonial blueprints or cyanotypes created during my artist residency in central Australia