Love Letter for a Friday - speaking about my art journey so far and opening the beautiful Art Exhibition at McAuley Catholic School, Tumut.

Thank you so much for inviting me to speak tonight at your beautiful art show.

What a lovely evening!

I wanted to congratulate all the artists exhibiting tonight. You all should be so proud of your works, they all tell and hold a story.

That is one of the special things about being an artist.

We can tell stories through our artmaking without having to say a word.

This is helpful as a life tool when words fail us.

I just wanted to tell you about my own art journey.

I am number one of 10 children and I am number 8.

We were encouraged to be creative and explore our creative spirits.

Our beautiful mother would line our small hallway with brown paper and change it regularly depending on how prolific we were! I do think she got sick of us drawing on the walls!

This simple action created a wonderful ‘fire in my belly’ and led me to choose Visual Arts at school and then to go on and study Art Education at Uni.

I really struggled with the traditional academics at school and would often be in remedial classes for numeracy and literacy. I worked really hard at school in all subjects trying to understand and retain the notions taught. This was a massive feat for me!

I would get lost in this art world. It helped me escape the stressful world of traditional academics. It became my saving grace!

I wanted to talk about this as we are not all meant to be the same. We are gifted with expertise in different areas so that life doesn’t get boring!

I think schools cater better these days for the arts and they are appreciated and celebrated. This exhibition is a wonderful example of this. So thank you for celebrating the students that find comfort and solace in their artmaking practice because you are lifting each and every student and giving them the opportunity to see that they are talented and appreciated for their gifts.

Sometimes it’s not an easy world as most artists are very sensitive people. All our cells are open and ready to respond to our surroundings. It is a strength because we are most often very emotionally intelligent people and compassionate of others and their struggles.

I have been practising as a professional artist for the past 26 years, exhibiting in solo and group shows annually. My art is a visual diary of my life. It has been the one thing that has stayed with me through the ups and downs and has definitely been a savour in the down times. It is somewhere to throw my emotions, to express how I feel without having to articulate it.

I really wanted to talk about using art as a life tool. It actually doesn’t matter how it looks in the end, it really is just about letting go and just getting it all out. I studied art therapy at Uni and it was one of my favourite subjects. Over the last six years I have lost my Father, my younger sister and my Mother just recently. My artmaking practice has been more important to me than ever before.

I go into my studio most mornings not really knowing what I will work on but just know I need to be there to let my emotions free and to just ‘be’ with them.

It is really important to have something in your life that makes your heart sing. I know we are not all artists, so just find your thing and do it often. I do believe that using your hands is a way of releasing emotions, tension, heartache, anxiety and fear.

Whether it’s playing a sport, working in the garden, creating art, just randomly sketching…. All of these actions are release actions.

My daily inspiration comes from my surroundings, music and images in my head.

We live and work on a property on the other side of Jugiong amongst the rolling hills. I love creating landscapes full of Joy, colour and love. I start by sketching up in charcoal and then blocking in with colour. This technique is not for everyone as It is messy but it works for me.

Over time I have come to the realisation that you can just paint over sections or the whole thing if it doesn’t work. It creates texture and then enables me to be not so precious with it.

Often we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make it right. This is ok to a degree, because we do want to get it right but the thing is that everyone's idea of perfection is quite different, so in the end it’s what we are happy with ourselves. 

I studied Art Education for 4 years at COFA, UNSW in Sydney majoring in painting and etching. It was wonderful to be exposed to this art world but pretty big for this country girl too. It was my parents again that encouraged me to follow my passion.

I have taught Art in Schools for the last 26 years and Art and Wellbeing for the last 10 years.

I have also created my own Art and Wellbeing Business called “Filling My Well”,  working from the Shearers quarters on our property and have had 1000’s of children and adults through the green door.

I post on my socials daily as part of my “Filling My Well’ program. Because I have experienced loss and grief I see things in my surroundings and use these to just leave little gems of meaning in our crowded world.These daily posts started in Covid as a way of helping others and I have just continued. 

This is now part of my daily practice as is my art making and morning walks.

I have worked hard to create my Art and Wellbeing business and feel very blest that I get to do what I am so passionate about daily. I do not take this for granted, instead I use it to spread beauty, compassion, understanding and hope each and everyday.

 It isn’t easy sometimes especially when you get knock backs from competitions and galleries but over time I have realised that it takes guts to put yourself out there and the right people/places/events will come. Just like this beautiful invitation to speak tonight.

Thank you so much for listening this evening and I really hope that I have instilled a ‘fire in your bellies' to just keep going and keep doing your best, as no one can knock us for doing our best.