new series

If you're a member of my facebook fan page, you'd already know that I'm working on a new series of artworks for a solo exhibition next year.
It'll be my first solo in about 4 years ~ I've been keeping myself busy with all the community art work, so it's nice to take a step back and focus on my own stuff for a change. Really, really refreshing!

I've come up with a name for the exhibition ~ Peacocks and Pinstripes.
It's a series based on, um, lots of stuff, and intertwined in each piece is either a reference to peacocks (in memory of my Great great Grandfather Edgar Peacock) or my love for patterns and pinstripes (just cause!).

The artworks that are coming out of me are a lot bolder and more design-based, rather than the usual harmonious mish-mash of pattern, colour and texture I've previously used in my mixed media works. It's a really nice journey and it almost feels like I'm discovering a new side of myself through my work.

Unlike before, I can clearly see how interactions with people and inspiration from nature are feeding into my work. Yesterday I went for a walk along the waterfront and I sat under a tree, looking up (a favourite past-time of mine). I'd been working on a new art piece the night before and wasn't sure where I would 'go' with it, when suddenly, the shape of the leaves in the tree above me provided the perfect inspiration for the next step in the painting! Serendipity!!!
I grabbed a couple off the ground and brought them back home and began incorporating the oval leaf shape into the artwork. LOVING IT!! It's become my fave in the series so far.
It's hard not to share them with anyone, but I want to keep the exhibition content a surprise for a change!

a fork in the road

Being a freelance artist is AMAZING, yet there are also loads of challenges along the way. Consistent money has been a major hurdle for me in my work, even though I've kept myself really busy creating and working with communities on loads of projects. So with the new year fast approaching, I've been doing some thinking about where I'm heading and what I want for my life.
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I've been accepted into university next year to study Art Therapy at MIECAT, which I am super dooper excited about! I have such a strong sense of appreciation and awe for the power of art in healing, so immersing myself in learning and growing in that direction will of course be a major focus. So the challenge now is to decide what the best way to move forward from here ...
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I've actually been thinking about getting a 'real' job so that I have some regular income while I'm studying. Creative freelancing has been wonderful in so many ways, yet it also requires a huge amount of energy to plan, develop, market and essentially run an art-based business. I'm thinking it might be nice change to have a job I can 'leave at the office' so I can give my study 100%, but my innate sense of sharing creativity with others is so strong that I'll need to still have that in my life somewhere. It's also taken me years to build up my freelance connections and networks so letting it go feels scary to me. Perhaps I can do a little bit of both. Decisions decisions!
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I feel that next year is a clean slate. A new beginning. I'm not sure exactly what path I'll take or where I'll end up, but I'm trusting my feelings and my heart to point me in the right direction as I take each step. I'll keep you posted as things unfold.
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Love C xox

my journey into community art

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The lovely Ana from Expressive World asked me in my recent container gardening post how I got into the community art work I do, as it's something she'd love to get into herself.
I figured there might be more people interested to know how it's possible to get into the community arts as well, so I decided to answer her questions here via a trip down my own Memory Lane:

After leaving high school my parents encouraged me to study for a 'real' job with secure employment prospects, so I forfeited my art college dreams and went on to study and work in child care and preschool teaching. For years I felt pissed about this but now I see that all life experience transforms into tools we can use in the present.
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During these preschool teaching years I managed to find innovative ways to deliver the preschool curriculum through the arts and I gained a great understanding of meeting a child's developmental need in a creative, empowering, expressive way.
Although I found this hugely rewarding; due to the nature of the work I was still required to deal with other duties outside of creativity, ranging from overstretching myself between large ratios of kids in the classroom, to cleaning up childhood toileting mishaps! I innately felt that connecting with kids in this way was not ideal for me as I wanted to specialise in art and not be subject to the restrictions of teaching in a formal setting.
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So after travelling and living in Europe, I moved back to Australia and studied art for a year.
Although I LOVED studying art, I left believing that the only way to 'make it' as an artist was to sit at home, paint and have exhibitions! I knew there had to be more and I organically started to stumble across other options.
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I began to undertake loads of volunteer work around artists and creative festivals, where I started to make a few connections with people in the art world. I began to get a little bit of paid work here and there assisting other artists and making props for festivals. I also began having exhibitions and selling my work that way, yet I was still supporting myself financially with preschool teaching.
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My major break into community art came after volunteering to paint a large scale mural @ Auchenflower train station with a friend in Brisbane, and during this time I was able to convince the railways to hire me to develop a full-time community art initiative for all the stations! After a couple of years coordinating and facilitating community art projects (and often feeling out of my depth at times), I left the railways with enough connections to have a stab at freelancing in community art.
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In January this year I fulfilled a life-long dream to volunteer in Thailand, where I connected with Cultural Canvas Thailand to introduce an art therapy program to a small organisation caring for mistreated boys with cerebral palsy. I'd been working as an arts-based support worker for the Cerebral Palsy League at home here in Queensland for around 6 months before my Thailand trip, so it was perfect serendipity that I could then use the skills I learnt to help overseas. The amount of satisfaction I felt and continue to feel as a result of that time has helped me to not just believe, but KNOW that art has the capacity to connect and heal in ways far, far beyond anything I've known. Following my creative dreams became real, rewarding and do-able!
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Since then my confidence and connections have grown. I've been able to build a good-sized portfolio of work and experience and I have connections with private and public sources who incorporate art as a tool for communication and activism, meaning that I'm often hired to facilitate creative workshops around a particular topic. These days I'm increasingly building my own art projects around my personal interests (environmental conservation) and linking with existing organisations who I feel might like to auspice my work.

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I've found there is funding out there through many existing groups/organisations who have a need that is unmet and most are amazingly open to the way creativity can meet those needs and educate people through artistic experiences.

I still undertake volunteer work and up-skill myself with people who are currently doing what I want to do ~ and even that experience creates new connections! I explore my ideas/passions in my personal studio work as well and I regularly undertake workshops, training and research topics that support my creative practice and environmental education interests.

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Next year I've enrolled in an art therapy course so I'm looking forward to seeing where that leads and feeling creative fulfillment and the birth of new dreams in the process.

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In summary,over the years I've had to push through feelings of inadequacy and believe in following my heart instead of my fears. I've made mistakes, I've had many successes and I think its a matter of not using 'limited experience' as your excuse to stop you from following your creative dreams.

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So my advice would be to volunteer, gain the experience and try your out ideas while you're volunteering. Study if you need to. Get a mentor. Help out creativley at festivals. Update your creative resume as you gain skills and experience. These will help you build a portfolio which makes it easier to get paid work.

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Make art yourself regularly so you trust your own process. And rather than reinventing the wheel, CONNECT WITH EXISTING organisations, groups or government sectors who are already involved in the area you want to work in, as they often have funding to deliver projects to meet their needs ~ and yours!

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Consider devoting a portion of your time pursuing the activity of gaining skills and connections instead of writing it off as 'just a dream'. You need to act to get where you want to go. Connect with kindies, schools or community groups to get practice. Sought out people already doing what you want to do and connect with them. Ask questions. Listen.

There's over 6 billion people in the world and chances are, there's millions of people willing to help you get where you want to go! Then pay it forward by sharing your skills, facilitating those workshop, creating change in the world and fulfilling your dreams!

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Above all, COMMIT TO YOUR DREAMS and DON'T GIVE UP!! It is hard yakka, a lot of it is often unpaid in the beginning ~ yet so, so rewarding on a soul level. Be patient. It's taken me 6 driven years since my first bout of art-study to get to where I am now and there's a lifetime of work to go.

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Lastly, don't be afraid to carve your own path. If things don't 'fit', learn from the good parts and create a new way to undertake those activities. Listen to your feelings and they will guide you.

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All the best in your creative career! I'm more than happy to be one of the 6 billion who helps you on your way.

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C xox

container gardening workshop

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The eco-container workshop today @ Northey Street City Farm went really beautifully. The kids loved guessing what the various containers were in a 'previous life' and understanding that they could now make something useful out of their used milk bottles, cans, juice containers and ice cream buckets when they get home.
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The kids designed and create stickers made from salvaged signwriters vinyl to add to their pot, as well as weaving salvaged twine through the plastic to make beautiful and original pot designs.
We then filled the lovely new pots with potting mix and the kids chose from a few different floral or food-based seeds to plant in the soil.
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Thanks to Brisbane-based blogland artist friend Angie and her beautiful two girls (bottom photo) for coming along to the workshop!

collage play

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I'm doing The Artist's Way at the moment and this weeks task is to create a collage using images I resonate with, to depict my past, present, future and dreams.
This is what I came up with after flicking through magazines and ripping out pages.
I've called it 'Chrihini Goddess' and I felt great creating it! It holds within it my travel dreams, my craft, an increasingly wonderful relationship with hubby, my connection with nature, my love for pattern, colour, waterfalls, my aspirations for a beautiful new home, and myself as a vessel of freedom. Crikey it was liberating! What a breath of fresh air!
C xx

FREE upcoming eco-art workshop

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Hellooo!

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If you live in BRISBANE and you're FREE next SUNDAY 13th DECEMBER, then come along to a FREE RECYCLED PLANTER POT WORKSHOP I'm running @ the NORTHEY STREET CITY FARM! 9:30 - 10:30 AM at the STAGE AREA.

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Kids and adults are invited to learn how to make a beautiful, hand-made planter pot using recycled containers such as bottles and cans. All the cool materials you need will be available for you to decorate your pot with, as well as potting mix and sunflower seeds so you can also fill your new pot with a lovely plant to take home!

It's FREE, it'll be FUN, and you can do your shopping at the Sunday Organic Markets at Northey Street City Farm while you're at it!

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No need to book, just turn up on the day.

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For more information, check out the Northey Street City Farm website ~ they have loads of cool stuff all year round, including permaculture workshops, volunteer opportunities, a nursery, farm tours and heaps of awesome workshops like 'Planting for Pizzas' which is on on Wednesday 9th & 16th December @ 11am.

Northey Street totally rocks so if you haven't checked it out already, it's one of Brisbane's treasures! Hope to see you there!!

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C xx

wrap up ~ make art every day

Dreamy Denise Eco-brooch. (C) Chrissy Foreman C 2009
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So the Art Every Day Month is over, and I admit I didn't make art every day ... however it's nice to look back over the last month and see that a whole lot of new works and ideas were born, developed and nurtured over the last month.

I think it's amazing how much a concept or new obsession, such as working with recycled materials in my case, can grow and morph as time goes on. I love that about being an artist ~ seeing my work transform along with me as a person and mirroring my dreams, goals and interests.

Sometimes I find my rate of creative transformation alarming and I can barely keep up with myself ... something new every day. Other times I'll feel like I'm hardly moving at all in my work. Sometimes I push myself to exhaustion and other times I take a break from it totally.

Being a full time artist isn't always a wonderful thing ~ many people might think it would be 'great to play with paint all day', but in my experience it's all peaches and cream!
It takes courage, strength, commitment, flexibility and a delicate balance of sanity and insanity.
It's wonderful and scary. It's hard work and it's plaful. It's connective and lonely. I'm driven to share, yet I feel so vulnerable about my work.

And it's all okay.
I can't not do it. It makes me who I am and I'm glad I've been born this way.

I think, like everything else, it's a juggling act, and sometimes we have to know when to introduce new balls and when to drop some from the mix.

It keeps me honest with myself and I love the fact that I've allowed myself to walk the path of nurturing my creative career.

To all the new people I've met through art every Day Month, and of course to all my old fave blog friends, Thank You for making this journey with me and sharing your comments and work with me. And Thank You for listening and watching! What is art without someone to share it with?

Love C x