Travel is a “virus of restlessness” writes American author John Steinbeck. This year I have started making artist books again as a way to relive my travels when we can’t travel anymore. Reading Steinbeck reminds me that the urge to be somewhere else can be found by reading a book - or making one.
Backyard beekeeping and bee hives featured as a recurring motif in my early art works. Taking possession of new bee hives is a circuitous route back to exploring what home means in the light of the year 2020.
What brings you happiness? For me it is the beach and my garden. It is also creativity. I’ve teamed up with 3 other women to bring the gift of happiness, wellbeing and inspiration to your inbox starting December 1st. It’s free to join.
Perseverance in art is essential. There is also an art to perseverance. I think about Shakespeare and the history of the Globe theatre today as I collage a postcard, which becomes a portal into a time of plague, chaos and playwriting.
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.
Navigating through life is a journey of discovery. Where will you go next? A book made from a map is a placemaking activity. It shows you where you are now, where you’ve been or where you want to go next. A pocket map book has even more options, you can add paper ephemera to mark your journey, tickets are a great addition.
Not perfect, but finished. It’s what I tell my course students and what I have to remember to do myself. Make mistakes, there are no mistakes. What we have instead are perfect imperfections, the messy human side of us revealed.
Going big and red or working small and achievable? These are questions many women are faced with when they want to create. Creating in small and achievable ways builds your creativity muscles and keeps you moving forward until your goals to go big are realised.
As the world outside my window goes round in circles of chaos, I have been creating circles of connection, a theme which I have taken into my larger works including making a huge world of paper last week in the Imagine Peace Activation.
Creating a new peaceful world through a community Imagine Peace event becomes a small activation which can contribute to empowering ordinary people to take action. It lifts us up, gives us hope and helps dispel the miasma of overwhelm and hopelessness we can sometimes feel in the face of world catastrophe.
Big ideas that start with a “what if?” What if we could build a lighthouse that streams the impulse of peace into the world for all to see. What would this look like? Yoko Ono and John Lennon imagined this into reality. They inspired me to bring the spirit of this Imagine Peace to Murwillumbah on Friday 9th October at 6pn ADST in conjunction with my exhibition Fire & Ice about Iceland. This event coincides with the annual lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower on Videy Island, near Reykjavik to commemorate John Lennon’s birthday.
The publicity is out, the gallery is empty and the exhibition is ready to hang - a wonderful opportunity to show off all your hard work for others to view, appreciate and maybe (hopefully) buy for their own houses. Here’s some of the things to pack…
When you make art with a strong message – about issues of injustice or climate change or social breakdown, how do combine the message with aesthetic beauty, without diluting the content? Art can bring revolution and resolution…
What lies beyond the frame of a photograph or painting? Visual artists are also storytellers, they reveal and conceal, hinting at the back story, the why of their creations. As artists it is our job to dig deep within ourselves to find out our why, as this leads us also on the path to self discovery.
Rejections equals redirection. If you have a Plan Bs this softens the blow. Plan Bs lead you into unchartered waters but they are worth the risk and challenge you to grow.
How a collection of rocks became a 5 year arts project and a painter found her way to write her family’s immigrant story by exploring the rock, Granite. Sometimes stories and artworks need a long time to ferment before they are ready to emerge into the world.
Even the humble apple can inspire a series of artworks that can then be formatted and exhibited. A bite into a red apple takes you back to your childhood, and suddenly the prints become folded artist books with stories that are ready for exhibition.
When opportunity comes, will you be ready? I never thought that I was good enough to apply for a major international exhibition. I thought I would fail, but then I thought - what if I am successful? Success takes courage and planning.
The idea that we all can participate in the giving and receiving of stories via cultural rituals, community theatre, festivals and other events, is integral to many cultures. Art is a form of citizenship, to be celebrated and valued through the telling of stories.
As artists and creatives, it is very easy to get dis-couraged.. We need courage to tackle the big (and small) issues which face us daily and the heart to keep going despite the obstacles we encounter.
