Brook Book

My 2024 project is a tribute to Kedron Brook which has been my enduring connection to nature since moving to the Grange in 1992.

BrookBook will be a collection of writing, nature art, sketches, photography and community collaboration.

For more than 30 years I have been wondering up and down along the banks of Kedron Brook and the surrounding suburbs.

In that time I have seen the Grange Forest Park flourish, watched in awe when the Brook flooded and felt unsettled when the waterline diminished during drought.

So many poignant memories of adventures with my daughters - picnics, exploring the forest and waterways, catching gudgeons, and spying on nature.

Hours and hours of walking alone and with friends as a young uncertain woman wrestling with the societal expectations of the roles of mother and wife to now as a more confident older woman.

Kedron Brook has been a refuge, a teacher and a place of solace. It was a constant source of inspiration in my six years of attending the Brisbane Institute of Art . This inspiration led to the ideation of Mindsettle which was launched when I turned 50.

2024 may be the last year that I live in close proximity to the Brook so this Brook Book will be a reflection on the way it has enabled my connection to creative flow, calm, and my mental and physical fitness.

You can follow this work/play in progress on Instagram @BrookB00K

Thank You,

Lisa

The Joy of Artful Engagement

On Saturday afternoon at Side Gallery, Donna McDonald and I held the inaugural Artful Engagement Workshop. We were testing the waters to see if there is an appetite for engaging in art for individual wellbeing.

Our intention was to share some artful practices to help stay grounded, centred, calm & healthy. Our first group of participants were warm and supportive.

“Loved the opportunity to take time for myself, learn new skills that I will use and be in the company of fabulous people. Very gentle intro to art, loved the take home aspects.” Louise

“Donna & Lisa are gift givers and take you to a creative and enriching space. Very interesting process and I made some art!” Johanna

“Great Workshop! Perfect way to start the wind down of 2020… Reflective, at the same time learning some new concepts linking to language. Loved learning ‘mark making’ concepts - many thanks.” Matt

It was easy to work alongside Donna as we both have a focus on nurturing our individual and collective wellbeing, collaborating to create supportive art activities, that are rooted in neuroscience, to navigate our personal stories.

If you are interested in attending a future workshop, please let us know.

Creative Collaborations

This book was a lucky find for me from the local library. For the last few years I've been thinking of myself as a creative collaborator so this title leapt from the shelves. It's full of interviews with a variety of art collectives from different parts of the world. Their responses about the prevailing models within the art world were thought-provoking.

"When other structures, such as patrons and museums, are not making stuff happen for artists, then they group together to make things happen for themselves. In many ways that is the definition of collaboration: making stuff happen together. It is about action rather than process." Jane Pollard

"The ideas of authorship and originality were born in a very specific moment, in 1400, with the invention of print... There's not such a thing as 'the author' in that everything we do is influenced by things we have seen, heard or read, or by people we've met. Sometimes you forget it, so you think these ideas come from you, but they don't." Eva & France Mattes

Some of these collaborations operate anonymously which has always been an attractive option to me - a way to freely write about society without being judges or labelled personally.

"Anonymity is liberating, the possibility of doing and saying things without them being permanently attached to your actual persona is something we should protect." Eva & Franco Mattes

There were dismissive comments regarding the genius artist concept.

"We can't believe that the heroic lone genius idea is still alive. It's a simplistic and boring idea that nonetheless endures... we don't want to believe in the heroic lone genius because it produces an ugly world made of ugly selves... Capitalism is fuelled by driving individuals against one another." ayr

Some of the groups featured used the Internet to produce interactive work.

"I do have a sense that despite all the cynical structures on the Internet, it could still be this idealistic, tentatively egalitarian space, and we should work towards that." Luke Turner

I was inspired to read about people who were the antithesis of the prevailing "me" culture that currently prevails in our society.