from ideas of tending...

At the Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, Judith Kentish spoke to us about her latest exhibition - from ideas of tending... It occurred to Jude that though she does not let her work as a nurse cross over into her art practice both disciplines share the principle of tending to something - be it people, materials or ideas.

Working in series allows a process of working out, when a creative act becomes too easy it indicates to her that it's over and time to explore another way to experiment by asking what happens if? Using ink is a slow process with minimal interference allowing the fluidity and staining of the medium to do its thing. "My action was to start the process, but the work finished itself."

The piece wool mound: a vigil is two piles of wool on the gallery floor with a wooden stool in between. When you lean into the space you can hear the sound of wool being teased, which alerts you to the difference in the wool piles - teased and unteased. Jude says "my work is performative, people just don't see me doing it." Yet in her video work ink drops: the viewing we see her hands carefully moving the ink on paper pieces from one pile to another. This careful tending of the luscious 600gsm paper is accompanied by the crunchy sound that the protective glassine sheets make when moved.

Her woven drops are long tubes that look like they could contain something but are too frail to manage. They throw lonely long shadows on the wall and are an interesting counterpoint to her inkfolds. I was mesmerised by these shroud-like, cloud-like fabrics pinned to the wall behind Jude as she listed the materials used in the seven bodies of work:

• cotton voile
• thread
• ink
• wool
• paper
• pins
• video

The gifted wool had been accumulating in her studio and the act of wrapping it up in the voile to move it out of the way gave Jude the inspiration to make the woolsacs. These sacs play with the slumping of wool, the weight of wool, lyrically described in the catalogue:

gravity, pooled
pillowedinto ink stained,
ponder
an invitation
a pond-shroud of description
embodied hints
cyphers
each fat and full

Judith Kentish: from ideas of tending
On Display: 3 September - 11 November 2016

George Gittoes

George Gittoes,  a lively 66 year old artist, enthralled us with snippets from his life story in GOMA’s cinema on Saturday. Two qualities become clear as you listen to George, The first is that he is fearless and the second is his fierce advocacy of the arts as a force for positive change.

He credits his paternal grandfather who was a pub pugilist for his physical toughness. After teaching George to fight he paid two young thugs to waylay him on the way home. When his mother confronted the Grandfather he was unrepentant simply saying that “George needed to learn how to take a beating.”

George discovered the power of puppets when he was growing up in Rockdale. Post WWII Rockdale was a mix of migrant groups from Europe - he was particularly interested in the Maltese girls across the road. One Saturday afternoon his father came home to find 300 people in the backyard watching George’s puppet show. He decided to pass a bucket around, then sent the proceeds to the Red Cross. As this pattern continued the Red Cross was curious to find out more about this kid who was sending in regular donations. They made a trip to his house to talk to him about how their organisation worked and the way the money was spent. This early inculcation to altruism remained with George.

George is famous for his YELLOW HOUSES. These multi-arts centres are set up to champion social change. The Yellow House in Jalalabad, Afghanistan has amazingly been blessed by the Taliban – though George emphasises that Afghani Taliban are very different to Pakistani Taliban and thinks they should have different names.  Their website describes their credo:

“All the artists of the Yellow House believe the best way to bring peace and positive social change is not with the weapons of war but with a broad range of creative media and strategies.”

It was fascinating to experience how much vigour George has for his mission – he embodies the saying bursting with energy. He is next harnessing that energy to tell the story of marginalised black kids in Brown Sub, Miami. Though he released a documentary in 2006 called Rampage, his friends from Brown Sub have asked him to come back to help find ways to improve the situation.

As impressed as I was with George's adventures there was a part of me that wanted to ask how he could free himself from parental responsibilities to pursue these passions across the globe. To fund his many humanitarian projects George relies on sales of his art, donations and has released a beautifully illustrated new book called Blood Mystic. This chronicle of his life and art is waiting to be purchased at the GOMA shop. Buy Now!

Turtle Swamp

So happy to make it to the August Mudlines gathering on Canaipa, Russell Island. Travel on the ferry passed swiftly with Jo and I discussing strategies for the future of Lines in the Sand - reiterating the necessity of the slow and steady pace. On Canaipa we explored the Binging Trail which has stands of Banksia, Paperbark, Eucalyptus and a large stand of Casuarina. The idea behind the gatherings is to wander in nature and then use the wonders of nature to create.

Sharon talked about how much easier it was for her to be immediately inspired to make Nature Art than it is to contemplate new work in the studio. Watching her you can see it's true, Sharon found a gully full of potential - converting a discarded lawn mower into a shaggy sculpture with the addition of pine leaves, then creating a spiral on the forest floor by lumping the pines leaves and back-filling with gorgeous yellow ochre soil.

The rest of us painted, photographed and worked some sticks into sculptural forms hugging the landscape. I found a quiet place to study the casuarina forest floor strewn with needles, up to ten centimetres deep. The dashing of lines on the page settled into a meditative rhythm as I added layers of colour.

On the way back to the ferry we went to the Island Made exhibition. Trisha Dobson and Maria Cleary have put together this exhibition of exceptional things for ordinary use. Each artist is celebrated with a display of their work, handsomely highlighted with black and white portraits by Jo-Anne Driessens.

Mudlines helps us to articulate the offer of Nature Art Connect into an intimate, site specific discovery of nature art and the Southern Moreton Bay Islands.

Naturally inclined

Walking through the forest on the weekend, I stooped to gather maroon gum leaves admiring their colour variation. Yesterday I waxed the leaves as an experiment to see if that would preserve the colour. They feel smooth and have a slight sheen, but I'll have to wait to see if the colour remains. So now I'm thinking about what to do with the leaves, maybe something sculptural with wire - it will be fun to play around with.

Also gathered on my ramble were hardened blobs of exuded gum which has gorgeous amber hues of red or gold depending on the tree. I was hoping the process to melt down the blobs would be as simple as applying heat, but that was not the case. The gum is water soluble so I need to work out a hardener I can add, then I'll be able to make objects from the blobs.

It occurred to me that both Mindsettle and Nature Art Connect come from my love of nature. Should have been obvious I know!

Patterns

Last week, child number three and I spent time watching Vi Hart videos on the Khan Academy website. The films lure you in with the hypnotic into “so you’re math class and your teacher is droning on about –insert math principle- and you’re bored so you start doodling”. She then fills her notepad with doodles that cunningly illustrate the math principle that the fictitious teacher was unable to engage you in. As a consequence we have been trying to make hexaflexagons, drawing snakes that slither under and over their own bodies and replicating Sierpinski’s Triangles. The fast pace of Vi’s speech, the many coloured sharpies and the casual reference to mathematicians as though they are friends has a hypnotic effect, Vi is an effectively eccentric tutor. Number three isbusily filling her notebook with colours and shapes which are the basic tenets of patterns.

I find that drawing patterns has a meditative effect. I start with a blank piece of paper, then I invent a rules about colour, line or shape and proceed to fill the page using the rule. I then assess the result and puzzle over the next idea. I realise that I use a pattern to make a pattern.

This making of patterns often leads me in to a state of flow, which Csíkszentmihályi describes as “an intrinsically rewarding or optimal state that results from intense engagement with daily activities". Conversely, I often start to make patterns to disengage from the intense engagement of the demands of my progeny. I also find that getting into the flow can solve problems seemingly unrelated to the task at hand. Nice huh?!

The Sierpinski Triangle is a fractal construction: the image is self-similar and therefore similar at any point, by magnification or reduction, regardless of scale.

littoral

Sharon invited me over to her island on Thursday. Instead of making our usual Lines in the Sand on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), she encouraged us to explore Mudlines in the Mangroves of Russell Island. Also known by the Aboriginal name of Canaipa (rhymes with sniper, which is apt as it means land of the pointed spear), it is a fifteen minute sojourn on a cat from the mainland. Six of us have shirked our usual routine to find artful meaning in the littoral.

When we get to the site and wander down to the shoreline I can see across the Canaipa Passage to the western shore of Minjerribah. I have never seen this side of the island, a line of trees descends into small sandstone cliffs that descend into the sea. The mangroves are alive with bird-call - small honey eaters dart through the branches while ibises honk in the sky. We wander round stumbling as we get used to the suck of the mud as we walk. Abandoned boats are being reclaimed by nature, exposing old copper nails greened by the elements.

I settle away from the group under the spreading boughs of a mangrove, it's soothing looking up into the branches. I settle to sketch the scene, tucked into the curving trunk. When returning to base-camp I find Sharon experimenting with the idea of scale. Using the grassy marshland as a canvas, she is arranging fallen branches which to my eye looks to be a dragon rising from the ground.

Island time ends I'm dropped back to the jetty to catch my boat back to my usual regime. This seven hour adventure has given me the fabulous illusion of a much longer break. The winter sunshine, the listening to juicy art-talk, the travelling across the bay and the sanctuary of the natural environment have nourished my being. Days later, idly scratching at my midge bites I'm remind that I'm itching to get back out into nature - littoral or literal.

littoral |ˈlɪt(ə)r(ə)l|
adjective
relating to or situated on the shore of the sea or a lake: the littoral states of the Indian Ocean.
• Ecology relating to or denoting the zone of the seashore between high- and low-water marks, or the zone near a lake shore with rooted vegetation: limpets and other littoral molluscs.
noun
a region lying along a shore: irrigated regions of the Mediterranean littoral.
• Ecology the littoral zone.

Purple

"You and I know we're gonna die some day." And so it came to pass that at the age of 57, Prince is dead. "Ain't gonna let the elevator break me down" and yet that's where he was found struggling for breath at the end of his life. Listening to his music is to be privy to some fantastic erotic literature set to sizzling guitar or soft silky romantic commitments to love. I became intoxicated by this smouldering-eyed dandy when at high school. I loved those early film clips featuring Wendy and Lisa with everyone in the band dancing in high heels (no wonder his hips needed replacing). They all looked fabulous, the sound was thrilling to dance to, the lyrics often outrageous and he clearly encouraged talent regardless of gender.

Prince was dedicated to living his life as an artist on his own terms. INSPIRATIONAL! So, no I'm not mourning his death - but I am more determined to appreciate life while I still have it live.

"Before this night is through you will see my point of view - Baby I'm a star!"

Possibilities

Jennifer Corriero started TakingItGlobal when she was 19 years old - its genesis was in answer to the question "What would I do if anything were possible?" Long pause - because depending on your stage of life and the responsibilities that you have attached to you, what's more likely to come to mind is the probability of getting something off the ground or the practicality of needing money to survive or having enough time to commit. So it is really interesting to hear her talk about cultivating a possibility mindset, then directing this mindset at challenges that come up.

How can I bring what I care deeply about to what I do? How do I insulate myself from the societal pressure to prove a concept is valuable, only if it is profitable? My belief is that there is a definite push against the profit at all costs mentality and more appetite for agendas with a social purpose. Strange to find myself emerging as an idealist in my late forties, it's usually the domain of youth. Maybe that's the impetus - the youth from my womb - who are negotiating this world of fear, doom and gloom. I crave leaders who inspire them (and me) with messages of hope and plans for the common good. These musings and my life experience lead me to Kurt Vonnegut's wisdom about the arts - which naturally appeals as I attempt to make my way artfully through life.

The War of Art

Since Christmas I've being reading my way through the mega-bundle I bought from Black Irish Books. In the War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks about the challenges of being an artist, of sitting down to do the work. "Resistance feeds on fear. We experience Resistance as fear. But fear of what? FEAR THAT WE WILL SUCCEED. That we become the person we sense in our hearts we truly are." Knowing that this is the lived experience of an author, who has successfully published many books, is heartening. To know that even when we taste success it still feels risky to pursue a creative life. I feel this resistance rising up inside me constantly, my best defence is my routine. By having a strict regimen (and letting housework slide), I can apply myself to doing the work. Each week begins with targets for each project I am working on and I get a little tingle each time one of the listed items is accomplished.

It can be difficult being your own motivator, beavering away on your own, but it's encouraging to remember Pressfield's advice "Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it".

Intentions

I know it's February already, but for me that's when I can properly focus on my own intentions after the long summer school holiday break. The kids are back at school, daily routines are re-established and my time becomes my own again.

So in 2016, I'd like to continue to make art, exhibit and explore fabric printing. The art I have been making lately tend to be a combination of ink, pen and watercolour on paper. Patterns continue to emerge, like the image on the left, which is a simplified version of lily pads on the Enoggera reservoir.

I am also devoting time to two other art related projects, Lines in the Sand on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) and Mindsettle.