Tag Archives: studio

A sketch

I am currently working towards an installation in August at Rubicon Gallery.

I have a vision for a wall of clay nests
I hung up the few that I had in my Studio last week

 

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I think its going to work!
Now to make the next 50 – 70 …

Lantern Season is over…for this year

Since returning from the  Bird Lab Residency is Sweden I have been deep in lantern land.

First the Lismore Lantern Parade
This year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of this fabulous event.

and then

INTO THE LIGHT – Cycles of Change.
This was the 4th year for INTO THE LIGHT, which started in response to the 2009 Black Saturday fires. Each year we have reflected on the process of healing and with a group of local artists,designed an event in response to where the community is at now.

It is a very special event. I feel privileged to be part of it
This years video is still in process but here are the last 2 years.

Between Land and Sky
The Unfolding Story

And now that lantern season is over
I have time to return to my studio.

This started with a shift from studio 2.14 which has been my home for the last 2 years to works in progressStudio 2.26 across the hall. (At River Studios in West Melbourne which is run my City of Melbourne’s Creative Spaces program)

A chance to dust of the dust and re look at everything that i have gathered or done or thought about doing. I now have a wooden floor, 2 white walls and a square space rather than a rectangle.

So i sat in it today
and stared at all the projects
started, played with , begun, thought about
and waiting
waiting
waiting
for me to start, return to , finish, begin , complete, start,
remember

So many threads and ideasIMG_1871
how do they inter link?
Do they inter link?

 

Is it all one creative journey ?

Or separate threads heading in opposite  directions?

Questions

always questions.

So I picked up some clay (my newest thread)
and blocked out the questions
and let my fingers play

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the meditation of doing

Today my head is full of
how to

why to

what to

who to do it with

why

how

what

why

and this continues
as the energy waxes and wanes

and

confidence grows and dissipates
with every success and failure

and

i finally sit
pick up the needle and rope
and start

sewing tight stitches
tighter than usual
neat precise stitches
that turn a rope found
into a nest bound

and to each stitch is attached  one of these thoughts and questions

and i find
some of the whys disappear as i remember why
and
some of the hows get answered

and  others possibly pruned
although i’m yet to draw the knife across them

but mostly the angst settles
the teeth stop grinding
the mind stops whirling

and sometimes

my mind
simply goes blank
as my hands do the work
and it all becomes peaceful
and i remember why
and some of the hows get answered…………………..

Image

reconnecting

How quickly a couple of months can go by

a crazy time filled with work, lanterns, children, paper and cello-tape

A time when personal projects/ my practice has been put on hold and the studio gathers dust and i lose track of what it was that i was doing and why i was doing it.

But….. my work is creative, and i am earning a living from it and quite possibly this too is “My Practice”

and
as October turns from empty
a space i was relishing as a time to return to ‘My Practice’

into overwhelming
as i try once again to pack all of the wonderful offers into my diary
and once again i surrender the idea of studio time….

I  do take the time to be thankful for the full diary,
and to reflect on what it means to work as an artist
and the compromises that entails…….
but i wonder (with a longing) how and when i return to that other project
The one that requires me to say no to income

and how i maintain the energy and focus to “do everything”……..
and if i really mean it when i say “never again” to doing events……

So
what have i been doing??………….

A Cecil st Fundraiser….. downstairs

A Paper Planet …. in Sydney

A community lantern parade
(12 schools + community groups etc….) in Whittlesea

A sticky maze……. in Newman
(that’s in the North of  Western Australia…a mining town in the out back…. ok i know this needs its own update…..actually they all do but ……)

which  brings that 10 weeks to a beautiful close

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May showing

In January,

when i was looking at my year ahead,
i made a commitment to show some work in May.

Life, and work
as it tends to do
took me in a slightly different direction,

On the day i booked a gallery, i was also offered a tour to the USA with Polyglot Theatre,

needless to say
i took the job
and i leave on Wednesday.

I did install the work into the studio one friday night and had a play with a couple of friends and…..

and made a short video

and here it is

my May showing…….

into the forest

open studio

yesterday was open studio at River studios,
while not overly successful in terms of people coming through
It was a great excuse for me to get back into the studio (its been a while)
sweep away the dust and
rearrange a few things
in preparation for the next wave of creative urge.

This next creative urge is now postponed for 3 weeks due to a Polyglot tour to the US……
i can’t complain when one creative opportunity takes me away from another,
instead i count my blessings and honor my opportunities…..yippeeee an adventure……