\nBarriers exist that manage to thwart me on a daily basis.
\nHow can I slot a sustainable art agenda into my very busy\/full family life?
\nHow can I make this art agenda co-exist with ‘keeping up’ with what this lovely urban life and my weekend country life offers?
\nHow can I continue to connect regularly with like-minded folk of all different ilks?
\nAll the while doing the right thing by my (ageing) body and my (increasingly curious) mind.<\/p>\n
I often feel that I am on fire with desires but am being continually dosed with the cold shower of reality.<\/p>\n
Now back a step…my aim in furthering my art practice is not to become ‘famous’ or wealthy.
\nMy priority is not to exhibit, win awards or even have public acknowledgement – though all would be gratifying – a reward for hard work. This desire, I have slowly discovered, it is simply about nurturing my sense of self.
\nThe question that now attaches itself to mortality, to ageing, is this…
\nWhen I leave what do I want to have achieved?
\nWhat do I want to be remembered for?
\nWhat pieces of life’s jigsaw do I want to leave behind?<\/p>\n
At the moment my life is just fine in every regard – except my ability to concentrate on and to further my art practice. Unfortunately this current failure seems, at the moment, almost insurmountable.<\/p>\n
I have done plenty of things to be proud of creatively – not the least being able to travel the world teaching others that they can nuture their voice with patchwork\/quilting. So why this rant now?<\/p>\n This week I moved…inched slowly forward, with Knit 1 Purl 1 and the associated learning that is going alongside it. I thought it would be the week’s priority but no, it turned out that having it and it’s problems\/questions simmering as I went out and about this week was simply a catalyst in seeking clarification of my way forward generally.<\/p>\n I am back to the question. What do I want to be when I grow up?<\/em><\/p>\n So the out and about included; There was a visit to the Zoo<\/strong> on ‘Flick Day’. This is the first time we have set out on this outing together and it was a perfect. The quick photos that I took were of the tortoises and the penguins. As we lingered, for ages with the penguins, watching them dive and swim past us, I had a flash back to works in my final year porfolio – a ceramic, welded metal and textile turtle and also shrine-like presentations of real\/dead (washed-up) penguins suspended over broken eggshells. Even my drawing portfolio back then was 90% ceramic! The QTSGWA set off, in two groups, to visit the studio\/home of Elisa Markes-Young.<\/a><\/strong> If you have read this blog before you will know that I have no difficulty in lauding her! In the afternoon seven of us listened intently to the very generous Elisa talk about anything and everything that we could possibly want to know. Conversations flowed. As a member of Friends of AGWA<\/a> I attended a session at the printmaking faculty at Curtin Uni.<\/strong> Another of my favourite artists\u00a0Susanna Castledean<\/a> was leading the tour, and the rooms were occupied with students at work. Printmaking has never been my ‘making’ thing BUT I tend to purchase artwork\/prints and I love making magic by printing digitally. So in this environment the personal niggle, something I have regularly questioned myself about, is the need\/desire\/relevance of returning to formal study.
\nAlong with this is the knowledge that I have met, and often lived with, diverse families around the world whilst on that journey.
\nI should<\/em> be happy to stop there but Stargazey was\/is only a part of who I am. High art? no! Instead a celebration of knowledge, empowerment, creativity and community within the realm of ‘domestic’ making.
\nMy work with groups…the SalvageSelvedge project<\/a> and more recently twentyONE+<\/a> were totally invigorating and I could chase more projects like these BUT, unfortunately that is not the growth that my heart and soul seeks.<\/p>\n
\nA visit to Sculptures by the Sea<\/strong> on a weather-wracked morning with three grandies and their mums. Exhilarating weather-wise, wonderful seeing Esther explore the art BUT the niggle in the back of my mind. Why am I not making sculpture? I was a textiles major who switched to sculpture in final year.
\nI increasingly hanker for a return to 3D and have recent jottings of ceramic\/textile structures to carry on from where I left off about thirty-six years ago.
\n<\/em>The other project I tossed up with starting, ahead of Knit 1 Purl 1, was a sculptural textile.
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\nTwo hours flew by. I was left replete….but I was still unsettled.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/elisa-markes-young-studio-visit-4.jpg\")
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\nI hesitate for many reasons but always come back to my desire and love of independent learning…
\nStill, seeing the ‘tribe’ of printmakers in action in that environment……hmmm.<\/p>\n
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