How do you choose your own adventure? Combine art and travel and that’s the grand adventure to me. Which is what I’m planning for 2023. This is the big reveal. I’m off to Devon, England to undertake my Masters at Dartington Arts School.
Intuition, Research and Inspiration
You can make art with any materials and any tools, but like writing a story, you need the right ingredients to start. When people ask me about artist residencies and what to create, my answer is the stories will find you. You first need to listen …
Say YES!
I’ve lost count of the number of synchronicities that have happened in my life. When you say yes to opportunities and chance meetings with people, sometimes the best experiences present themselves.
The past, present
I have been creating new ‘place mats’ about time and place. They talk to me about preservation. Of objects, of homes, of lives. The idea of ‘sandbagging‘ the past is a topical subject. Floods now sweep across northern Victoria and western NSW and sandbags replace fire hoses as we swing in this pendulum of climate crisis.
Painting by numbers
What if you could make art that incorporated a formulaic method of response to an idea or materials where the images appeared “as if by magic” and all you have to do is join up the dots. Wall art or ‘art to make you scratch your head’?
Audacity
Some of the things we do as artists are audacious. If we want to make an impact with our art, we need to dream big and that often means we need to invest forward. Believing in your project and the timely opportunities that come with it only happen when you begin it.
Think like an artist
Intuition comes in many forms. It means being finely attuned to the creative tools and materials you use as well as rejoicing in life’s little miracles. Following your instinct helps you think as an artist.
Happy Talking, Talk
It can be pretty scary thinking about how to talk about your art. The best way to create a talk with ease, is to know the 4 things about your art: your Who, What, How and Why. These are the essential ingredients for a 2 minute “elevator” pitch or a longer talk about your art on the wall.
Planting seeds, harvesting legacies
You can move away from a town, but it can still draw you back to it. Returning to the small town of Mansfield to honour the life of a friend, was also a process of honouring and integrating the many parts of my own life.
Validation
Picture yourself at your own art exhibition. Someone you admire is introducing you and your art works to an audience. It’s like having a magic mirror reflecting back at you. You feel validated as an artist, whether someone buys your work or not.
Finding Your Way Home
Home is a bag, a backpack, a book, a man, a family, a dog or two. It’s many things to many people, but as I have journeyed over the years, my needs are becoming simpler. Home is a a crackling fire, or the sound of waves at the beach. Shelter, birds singing and family.
Value is a Mirror
How do you price your artwork, especially when you are starting out? Valuing yourself for where you are on your journey means embracing all your perceived ‘failures’ and keeping on going. I know now that the more I exhibit, the more I value what I do and why I do it.
Pause for Effect
I have many artworks which are in a state of pause. Projects that lie dormant in my “waiting” drawers, unresolved, needing some special spark to activate them. Waiting for me to ask the right questions to reveal a deeper narrative.
Collage Your Life
Creating collages, every day for more than years has given me a creative practice, a visual diary and ways to work through some of my ideas on a small scale. Now some of these collages are featured in a new book Collage Your Life by USA artist /author Melanie Mowinski.
Success Your Way
I am attracted to text as art. Graffiti, asemic writing, Cyrillic script, Asian calligraphy and Pitmans shorthand. A hidden language that whispers of poetry and love. Success in art takes time and a whole lot of practice. It is the only thing that stands between you and your success.
Art + Place
I have been lucky to research and create art about a specific place on artist residencies. But it wasn’t always like that. In many cases it has taken years before my art about place could be be expressed as a placemaking ‘retrospective’.
When to Stop
Quite often my best art works are created really quickly. Things “just click” and the work literally makes itself. Other pieces I will labour over but these are not as successful as they have lost that initial “spark”. Knowing when to stop is key.
The Rhythm Method
What happens when you get out of your daily rhythm? You have to get back into flow. There are seven positive small actions I took to get back into the rhythm of creating again in my studio after five months away.
All is not Lost
We are our own worst critics. We have so many ideas around failure that it is easy to get discouraged. Yet all is not lost. When you adopt a “never give up” attitude your lost days can turn into blessings.
Netflix in Bed
Holed up in a friend’s spare bedroom while recovering from Covid, I invited the world to come to me. Outside the sun is shining on an English summer and the back-garden where I take my meals to get some fresh air, yet I am drawn inside back to my bed and the world of stories as the hours and days slip by.