Stones, trees and falling water; a winning combination. An interlude in Springbrook National Park had me pondering on the sensory experience of immersion in nature. It took an effort to get there, a road less travelled moment that rewarded me with peace. A balm for the soul.
I’ve been considering my love/hate relationship with social media. Is this constant connection to my phone and its tendrils of addiction, a seduction? Am I in danger of becoming lost in space? This new artwork has become a presentient, a reminder to be vigilant with myself. To love the idea of a ‘hive’ connection yet be wary of the consequences.
Fifty years ago Albania’s paranoid dictator, Enver Hoxha had hundreds of thousands of bunkers built throughout his country. Two of these have been transformed into Bunk’Art museums where art gives voice to the unspeakable so that healing can happen. I think of the term ‘bunker down’ when I imagine creating space and time to dream the future forward as a catalyst for change.
I never knew that eight years of creating blogposts would be a long term project with an approaching end date. My compulsion to archive my blogposts into hardback books signals my project is nearing completion to make way for new directions in my artmaking. The project has come full circle, what began as online documentation is ending the same way.
What the eye sees might be a little different from what a high resolution scanner picks up. Experimenting with photograms on lumen prints means the images are ‘fixed’ through the lens of the digital scanner. While analogue photographic processes are used to create the print, the final image captures what the eye cannot discern. Perhaps it is what the sea sees.
Looking back to where I was three years ago has shown my how much travel I crammed into 2022. Its like reliving my childhood slide nights as I compile a year of blogposts into my Year of Sundays 2022 blogpost book. I get to relive all those memories and keep them to reread at my leisure, analogue book style.
Introducing light into my landscapes has helped sustain me when the world appears to be mired in darkness and destruction. Working with tree images is grounding; their roots deep in the ground, leaves dancing in the light. They inspire me to bring a lightness of being into my creative offerings..
The creative process can be addictive and like any addiction has its highs and lows. Yet turning up for yourself in small ways eventually gives you ‘something to write home about’ even if it is only that you made something for yourself to enjoy.
How do you connect with your creative self? Sometimes it can feel like you’re always chasing elusive butterflies, trying to make works that you love and that resonate. Spending time regularly with your materials means ideas are more likely to suggest themselves. But it might take stubborn doggedness to keep going.
Success is when your next project springboards off the work you’re currently making. After resolving the niggling doubts that your work would never quite ‘make the grade’, you can pause to look back on what you have achieved. Then it’s time to ‘move the goalposts’ and make new work that propels you forward again.
