Not quite Sydney Harbour - ferries in the harbour at Istanbul, Türkiye, 2011.

Make a Date (with yourself)

January 19, 2025 in Creativity

Taking yourself on an artist date is one of the best activities you can do to nourish and nurture your inner artist. I love travelling on ferries so I’m off to Manly to jump aboard the MFF Manly Fast Ferry and fill my sails with salt air. It’s an excuse to deliver my artist book Post Operative to the Manly Library in person as well as share my love of ferry travel with my granddaughter.

The Cat’s Pyjamas (detail) 2025 - 40x40cm. mixed medium collaged papers on board

Talking Art (and pyjamas)

January 12, 2025

What do silk pyjamas have to do with a 17th century royal decree in France and how does creating art in artist residencies expand your art practice? I’m talking art and how the stories you tell can connect your artworks with an appreciative audience.

The black hole as time on the phone expands and shrinks. (Photo created in 2012)

Addiction

January 05, 2025 in Photography, Storytelling

What is it like to be addicted? I’m worried that my brain cells are permanently affected. A short attention span and an insatiable appetitive for more. My phone has me in thrall. It’s in my pocket and its calling out to me, come and watch my Reels. Come and loose yourself in my stories. What to do?

Eating the Road

December 29, 2024 in Artist Residencies, Maps

There’s anticipation and excitement in getting ready to ‘eat the road’ as Australians head off for the summer holidays between Christmas and New Year. I love consulting maps to plot all the road stops where we will break open the thermos and left over Christmas cake, stretch our legs and change drivers for the next leg of the journey.

Cyanotype blue was the signature colour for 2024

Year in Review 2024

December 22, 2024 in Year in Review

How to encapsulate a year that started with a bang then abruptly skidded to a stop half way through as I struggled to overcome post surgery pain. Learning to be still, rest and recover was a huge challenge. Through all these months good and not so good, I kept writing and making art to document my journey. An epic year to share in this Year in Review 2024 blogpost.

One of my first cyanotypes on handmade kangaroo grass paper made in Central Australia in 2019.

Out of the Blue

December 15, 2024 in Photography, Artist Residencies

Have you ever felt your ideas have sprung from ‘out of the blue’? Yet the colours, processes and themes which have caught your interest along the way have all pointed you in your current direction. That is what I have discovered about my abiding love for the colour blue and the joy of cyanotype printmaking.

Daily collages made during a trip to New York in 2013. *Pennsylvania Love* and *Imagine MoMA*, October 2013.

Repetition (just kid yourself)

December 08, 2024 in Art, Creativity

Creative minds often get bored doing the same thing repetitively. Yet there is comfort in repetition, where tasks are so ingrained they become almost automatic. I’ve discovered that art and exercise are good companions; both can build skills and confidence through incremental, repetitive action taking.

New series of 10 x 10 cm collages; some will be included in the upcoming *Enchantment* exhibition at Et Al Gallery, Sandgate Brisbane.

Small is Beautiful

December 01, 2024 in Photography, Creativity

You don’t always have to ‘think big’. There is a move back to sustainable and small, like tiny houses that use less space and resources. So too with art, small is making a comeback with so many end of year exhibitions asking for artworks less than 30cm . It’s a great way to make art affordable and accessible for buyers and especially requiring less time and outlay for artists.

Parent & Child stencil cut out which I used to make a cyanotype print (below).

Stories of Hope

November 24, 2024

Sometimes it may take years for ideas to come to fruition. Artists need to keep hope alive so their work is received by receptive audiences, even if their art is ahead of its time. That’s why it is important to hold fast to stories of hope, to keep persevering, keep creating, keep showing up for yourself until the time is ripe for ideas to take root and flourish.

Riding to our local mobile library Bookmobile

Have Wheels (will travel)

November 17, 2024 in Resilience, Art

Finding ways to personally connect your art with the public and activate art conversations can consume a lot of an artist’s time. But making art and culture accessible can be as simple as creating a pop up art event, staging an artisan market or taking your art to the streets. Have art, will travel.