{"id":1197,"date":"2016-04-26T09:28:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T01:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2016-04-26T09:28:13","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T01:28:13","slug":"starting-to-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/?p=1197","title":{"rendered":"starting to breathe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WEEK SIXTEEN (april 18-24)<\/p>\n<p>Two things constantly vie for my attention of late &#8211; my growing family and twentyONE+.<br \/>\nMy artwork and my myriad toDO list items merely bob around on the horizon <em>occasionally<\/em> coming close enough for me to touch.<\/p>\n<p>For our tiny twentyONE+ team the weeks have been blurring together and\u00a0racing by.<br \/>\nIn the quickly diminishing weeks between jury selection and exhibition, we chase up and correspond, we make decisions and meet deadlines, and now by the end of WEEK SIXTEEN, 2016, <em>perhaps only fleetingly<\/em>, I feel like <strong>we<\/strong> <strong>can breathe<\/strong>&#8230;.<br \/>\nThere are still a heap of tasks lined up but perhaps, just perhaps, we can start to regain a semblance of normality.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the time taken on this project I have no complaints &#8211; one of the most rewarding aspects of any membership happens when you accept a productive role within the Membership Group.<br \/>\nOver the years I have narrowed down <em>where<\/em> I am happy to help simply by <em>assessing the task on how much it will challenge me<\/em> and, by placing myself out of my comfort zone, <em>how much I can grow<\/em>.<br \/>\nI also <strong>relish<\/strong> the chance to work with and get to know the other like-minded worker ants &#8211; that does nourish me.<\/p>\n<p>Of course there is also the knowledge of doing good &#8211; and I do like doing good.<br \/>\nWAFTA&#8217;s first juried exhibition in yonks &#8211; the aforementioned\/regularly mentioned twentyONE+ &#8211; is a <em>very<\/em> worthwhile challenge.<br \/>\nI feel a whole load of good will come from it.<br \/>\nIt is worth every laden month, week, day and minute.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday\u00a0night I attended a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rsaanz.org.au\/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=44711\">RSA talk<\/a> by Stephano Carboni, head of AGWA, about the AGWA. Honest and insightful. He is one clever fellow.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-3.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-1203\" src=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-3-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"trevor vickers new book\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-3-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-3-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-3-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-3-768x768.jpg 768w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-3-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>Thursday night I attended an opening\/book launch at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artcollectivewa.com.au\/exhibitions\/\">WA Art Collective<\/a> to see Trevor Vickers lauded and to receive my copy of his new book.<br \/>\nYonks ago I paid $100 to be a part of the team to bring this book into being.<br \/>\nI love crowd funding. I love the independence of it.<br \/>\nI happily hand over money to encourage this sort of self sufficiency.<br \/>\nThe return &#8211; in this instance a copy of The BOOK, gives me that glow of &#8216;do good&#8217; satisfaction.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Back to this week<\/em> <\/strong>and it is only on Thursday arvo, that<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em> I start that much needed breathing&#8230;.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I reneged on a trip scheduled for very early Friday morn to meet the &#8216;dunny doctor&#8217; at out little house. It would have been interesting for sure, and as it is a weekender we have it on good advice that our effluent won&#8217;t stink&#8230;.and it didn&#8217;t:)<\/p>\n<p>I would have been fascinated by the carpet of tree roots that wound round and round, nest like, in the deep, dark concrete circle and which had to be shovelled out.<br \/>\nI probably would have had the camera shutter clickety-clicking&#8230;.<br \/>\n<em>Instead<\/em> I stayed in Perth to have some Esther time and to &#8216;get stuff done&#8217;.<br \/>\nA catch up on all sorts of things.<br \/>\nA catch up that I made no lists for initially, just went hither and thither in a glorious mess, until things were slowly made good.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-1204\" src=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-4-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"beside curation\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-4-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-4-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-4-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-4-768x768.jpg 768w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-4-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>I rearranged, cleaned and cleared the bookshelves beside our bed. I have slowly acquired a few little artworks that fit these spaces and they needed curating:).<br \/>\nI vacuumed, mopped, dusted, cooked, and read the paper.<br \/>\nI walked and had a glass of solitary wine each night&#8230;.luxurious.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-1201\" src=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-1-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"one of the many arrangements - about to be scrapped\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-1-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-1-600x800.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>One of the few things <strong>on<\/strong> my list was to complete the yellow feathers board&#8230;done on Saturday&#8230;.finally.<br \/>\nBy late Sunday arvo, after numerous complete back-to-the-start rearrangements I also have order in the grey feathers board. They are now ready to adhere.<br \/>\nIt will be a relief to have this complete in the coming days as I desperately need to make a start on a <em>new line of thinking<\/em> with the OZQUILT Australia Wide 5 entries due in about a month. I am about a month behind on this already&#8230;<br \/>\nNo pressure?<\/p>\n<p>Another time in my week that I can now identify as a breathing space is my time with Esther. On Friday morn we repeated last week&#8217;s adventure; train to Freo, morning tea at The Attic, had a run around at the Esplanade, purchased some wholesome goodies at the Freo Markets and then ambled off home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-1202\" src=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-2-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"portugese custard tarts at The Attic\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-2-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-2-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-2-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-2-768x768.jpg 768w, http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/week-16-2-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>The difference this week was Esther&#8217;s choice of morning tea (Portugese Custard Tarts that we didn&#8217;t need to share) and <em>missing both trains by about thirty seconds<\/em>&#8230;..something that became Esther&#8217;s BIG story of the day.<br \/>\nIt was fine, we were in no hurry.<br \/>\nWe relaxed.<br \/>\nWe both enjoyed the breathing space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WEEK SIXTEEN (april 18-24) Two things constantly vie for my attention of late &#8211; my growing family and twentyONE+. My artwork and my myriad toDO list items merely bob around on the horizon occasionally coming close enough for me to touch. For our tiny twentyONE+ team the weeks have been blurring together and\u00a0racing by. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","spay_email":""},"categories":[4,16,5,23],"tags":[32,29,35],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1207,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions\/1207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}