2023 A new year of creative possibilities

Starting this new year filled with immense gratitude for the amount of creative possibilities, new concepts, new perspectives, and relationships that are emerging in my world. There is a new sense of lightness to my being and an energy building from within that I’m excited about. Suddenly I’m attracting the right people and the right opportunities that align with my life.

To give some context, the last few years have been pretty crap. Sure there is always someone worse off than you - but I feel like I’m just coming out of a stagnant and dark period. Each year for the past 5 years has brought a new level of grief and uncertainty to my existence. I’ve been tested on all levels. Losing both parents in a short space of time to sudden death through illness, then an unprecedented fire catastrophe in the country affecting our region, then the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by an unprecedented flood event in our town! With all this turmoil, instability and sadness - and the earth feeling very shaky underneath my feet, I’ve discovered that my true happiness lies in connection and sharing with others. Coming out of this period of grief I’m starting to awaken to my joy and potential.

I recently started an artist residency with the CAD Factory, led by Vic and Sarah McEwan who are so inspiring and forward thinking in their approach to art practice. They are leading a process of retreat and exploration of socially engaged art practice for myself and 3 other artists from different disciplines. Over the next year we will come together four times to connect on our practice and support one another as well as build a resource on this new model of working for others

For me, it’s an opportunity to really consolidate a lot of what I’ve been thinking about in terms of my own intellectual and spiritual approach and how to work well with others. I’ve started to get that the many projects I’ve been part of have been based on relationships and building trust. This has all taken time and has developed over years of following my instinct with nurturing connections around me to build on community resilience.

Yes, that word.

Resilience.

The word is tempered by the recent devastating floods we’ve been through in this region. People are tired of having to be resilient and look after themselves. My community has undergone immense trauma through this last devastating climate change disaster and as comedian Mandy Nolan [who I saw last night] so eloquently put it:

“Why do they always ask us to be resilient? They don’t ask rich people to be resilient.”

So back to the point of writing this blog - ’Ive been trying to find out how I can be of use and how to best utilise my skills for the good of humanity and the earth. The injustices that prevail are just mind-boggling in this day and age. We can build technology to start life on other planets, yet on our own we still have a woman a week being murdered at home. We have children being sexually abused and neglected at an alarming rate. Our jails are filled with First Nations people who are there as the ongoing product of colonisation. We have people with disability unable to travel for work or shopping due to the lack of infrastructure in train stations. We are logging old growth forests and polluting our oceans and sending carbon emissions into the atmosphere under our watch.

It can be overwhelming when you spend too long deep in the internet land of filling your mind with negativity and destruction of the planet. But one relationship at a time, one action, one project at a time there is a chance of making a small change.

For me, personally, it’s to come back to storytelling as an artform. By creating connection through sharing stories - I’m able to better understand myself, see myself in others and then feel my place in the world.

I realise that we are not so different - that we are all after some fundamental things.

Security, shelter, water, food, harmony, creativity and love.

Let’s hope the whole planet get’s a chance to regenerate.