A life of learning and curiosity continues ...

1991 Photograph by Michael Thorne

It was 1986 when I was approached by the Crafts Council of the ACT to teach calligraphy. I had only been learning calligraphy for a few years though I was already through my Showcard and Ticket Writing and Sign-writing Certificate and well into my Diploma of Calligraphy and Bookbinding through the Roehampton Institute UK. I felt I was neither ready to teach nor prepared for it but the lass on the end of the phone said she had seen my work and would I be prepared to "give it a go"? So I did.

Thirty-seven years later and after a lifetime of learning, sharing and guiding others, the time has come for me to farewell the classroom and the zoom room due to a rise in lecture & presentation requests and my ever increasing want to add to my artistic collection and calligraphic repertoire. All my current teaching commitments will be met until the close of 2023. How fortunate to have made so many friends here in Australia and around the world and to have have the opportunity to travel and learn and share extensively in my field. I have been wanted, welcomed and included.

I know I will miss the classroom and all that that preparation, research and experimentation involves. I see the move however, as an exciting step in into a world of curiosity and learning and I am truly keen to know where it will end up. My studio and its contents beckon me. My mind is brimming with ideas, research initiatives, articles to be written and just the pure urge to make more things with my hands.

There will still be travel. There will still be a sharing though my lecture series and there will still be calligraphic works telling the story of my own zeitgeist. It is, after all my purpose here. There are also some very special people who I will enjoy spending some more quality time with. And, here are some of them.

Hamish and Mads, serious and curious about making things.

A beaut way to start the year ...

 

Twenty-twenty-three has come at last. Let's all hope it is better than the past few years have been and the world settles into a more pleasant place than what it has been. This year I am determined to find my creative gene again.

I am fortunate in that my year has started beautifully. Getting back into the classroom with ten dedicated and delightful participants was pure balm for the soul. 

The Sturt Summer School in the Southern Highlands of NSW saw two hundred participants and tutors come together for five days of creativity in multiple disciplines. It is always enjoyable meeting new people both tutors and students. The grounds alone, full of beauty, inspire creativity.

The weather was gloriously cool. I first went to Frensham in 1988 and took a class with Sydney friend and calligrapher Helen Warren. Then a class with the beautiful & talented Elaine Witton. The summer schools were then run by the World Education Fellowship. I have enjoyed teaching at Frensham many times over the years and feel privileged to be invited. Sturt Centre for Contemporary Craft has been running both winter & summer schools since 2009 (I think).

This year I called my workshop "Writing & Illuminating & Lettering" as a homage to Edward Johnston. This is the name of his book ... the calligraphers bible ... first published in 1904. The course was skill based not project driven so we did lots of small experiments and had a great deal of fun doing just that. No pressure, just fun. A few random shots follow:

Tony sketched David while chatting in the rec room.

The calligraphic line ... lettering with a shell

A bit of letter-building

The last evening reward

Building more letters

The calligraphic line - illuminating with a shell

The calligraphic line ... with a shell

Demonstrating under the document camera

Almost candid camera ...

A new start ...

 

And so it transpires we have found a beautiful yet quirky little home to start our new Canberra chapter. The home once owned and built by a very climate conscientious pharmacist is now ours to enjoy and care for. Tanks for water, tanks for grey-water, solar panels, double-glazed windows, trombe walls and clerestory windows all thrown into the mix to help our new solar passive home along. There are two good sized bedrooms and a remarkable room perfect for a calligrapher with an artistic bent. Just ready to walk in and get started.

Built c. 2005 the house is almost hidden from external view. I like that. Nestled at the end of a very quiet cul-de-sac it is a little off the road in Lyons, a central suburb in the ACT giving us the opportunity to travel in all directions to be anywhere we wish to be within minutes. The greatest joy of all and one of my essentials on the "must be" list is that it is very short walk to the Woden shopping & health precinct.  For me the hardest decision was, not was this home suitable for us, but the fact that we found it so early on in our search. The property had been passed in at auction as a high number in the ACT have been lately. All the street names in the suburb, named after former Prime Minister Joseph Lyons aTasmanian, are name after locales in the State of Tasmania and ours is named Maria Place after the famous Tasmanian Maria Island, pronounced Mar-i-ah. How serendipitous.

Canberra is very cold in winter and very hot in summer so being prepared for both is essential. Having lived in Canberra for thirty-three years I know what to expect regarding the weather. Being closer to the family makes for much much happier times for me and I hope for David too.

AGM Farewell Fare-forward

Today I stood down from the presidency of the Kingborough Womens Club. The group is the umbrella organisation that runs and looks after the Club House for women of all ages. Started just under fifty years ago to encourage women new to the Kingston, Tasmania area to meet, find company and share friendships. Each member is a remarkable woman in her own way, open, honest and collegiate.

Each day of the week sees a different activity including craft, mahjong, fit ball & scrabble. Thursday has been our day for the past five years and we have enjoyed many wonderful activities made strong friendships.  We call ourselves LARS the Lettering and Arts Group and we call our meeting house the "Shed".

The AGM saw my formal stand down and farewell by all the group representatives. I cried of course ... quite a bit ... and I could see in each person's face their full understanding where I was coming from. Huge support and flowers were presented. I wish the Club continued joy & success and long may they enjoy the company of like-minded friends.  I will miss them all terribly!

 The happy news is I am moving on, or rather we are moving on. As my website states:

A quick little note: Due to a home relocation from Hobart Tasmania to Canberra Australian Capital Territory, classes and commissions are currently suspended until January 2023

TOUGH few months

 

I wrote this a couple of months ago. Now I am moving on.

_______________________________________________________

It is time for me to seek a path I haven't travelled before. I have become so very disillusioned with my creative work, my teaching and my commissioned works that I am truly unsure as to what my next steps will or should be.

Over the past few years I have been slowly slipping into a mindset where my confidence level in both my work and my personal life has just hovered above zero. These past few months have been the toughest yet and I have slipped way way beneath zero mark. I no longer have anything left in the tank to offer and yet I yearn to continue to "make things" with my hands and my heart.

My health is not in a good place, with two tears in my right shoulder rotator cuff and the accompanying pain is so incredibly great that there has not been one night where my sleep has not been drastically disturbed and I whimper like a dog with the pain. The doctors are trying to work out a pain management procedure but I feel they really "just don't get it!" I get this sort of "there there" attitude and "let's see if this works!". 

Of course one thing is compounding the other, and the other, and so on. 

Creative process:

 

I feel this is pretty apt for me!

The creative process:
1. This is awesome
2. This is tricky
3. This is shit
4. I am shit
5. This might be ok
6. This is awesome

It came to me as author unknown ... (though it could be a Marcus Romer after I did a little research)

I hope you're having a beautiful day!