Art making is the new activism
I've been long used to working with words to tell stories that cast fresh light on old concerns. These days, I'm working (and playing) with images to find and tell my stories. I do this not only for my own sake, but also to move other people's hearts and minds in ways that might help them to see the world with renewed understanding. I love the learning that arises from drawing and creating images in media as diverse as water colour, oil and gel crayons, soft pastels, clay ... in fact, any media that is malleable, including river water, sand and grasses (but that's a story for another time).
Talking Back to Diane Arbus, "Untitled" (1971)
marks is the area where I am putting my scratchings, scribblings, shadings, daubings and splatters. During 2015-2016, my main media were charcoal, graphite, white chalk and ink (black and sepia). I was surprised by how much I enjoyed working with these media as I've always seen myself as a "colour and paint" sort of a girl. Nowadays, I am intent on investigating the materiality and impacts of a diverse range of media, including water colour paints, oil and gel pastels, soft pastels, clay, and found objects. I'm also trying to develop my own 'visual language': I'm mightily influenced by the iconography of Japanese calligraphy and Indigenous Australians.
Falling, twisting, turning
Visual arts images of people with disability and disabling conditions can be potent for the stories they reveal about their times, society, cultural attitudes, and of course, themselves. However, finding images of disability - historically and contemporaneously - in the visual arts is difficult. What is the role of museums, galleries and other public spaces here? And why does this question matter?