I think when you are a “creative” it comes out in many ways….because it simply has to come out. For me it comes out in projects, artwork, writing and poetry.
Tarkine Moon
Projects are where I try and pull a vision together with lots of moving parts and lots of people and energy contributing. This was the way in developing This is Our Story (a reconciliation project to mark the 150 anniversary of South Sea Islander arrivals in Queensland as indentured labour) War Stories and Our Towns( 100 year Anzac project looking at the impacts of wars on our communities) , Fires on Top of Mountains ( a community cultural project for Scenic Rim during Commonwealth Games) and Arts Ablaze ( 2019 State Regional Arts Conference). Lately I find myself in front of a computer working with Tamborine Mountain Arts Collective on some Strategic Planning or developing a festival project for Tamborine Mountain, an Arts Residency foundation and predominantly working on funding applications for If Trees Could Talk with artists Shelley Pisani and Joolie Gibbs.
Tarkine Dreams
Artworks- my favourite thing! Lately I have also been thinking about materials. Been making my own dyes, inks, paints and pigments from found objects. It’s been a bit of an experiment but I love the alchemy of it all. Have to walk the talk and art materials are often full of toxic things to humans and the environment. I have just sent 2 large works down to the Bob Brown Foundation for the Art for takayna art exhibition at the Salamanca Art Centre in Hobart 22 March-.11 April. The packaging is all used bubble wrap and old cardboard boxes- not very glam but useful and better than it going to landfill and can be used again, I am still in love with trees and the stories they hold and have been doing more research on some amazing stories I cant wait to paint.
Writing- well here I am blogging away. I have hundreds of journals with snippets of prose, observations, ponderings, questions and theories illustrated with scribbles of drawings. I also write proposals for projects and funding, interview questions, essays and advocacy letters.
Poems- Since I was a kid I wrote poetry that didn’t rhyme. (oh to have the 14 year old Bronwyns’ diary with a lock on it in my hands again!). So here is one from my exhibition in 2022 Drawn from the Forest and another from 4th of January 2023 in Palm Grove National Park
Under a Tarkine Moon
Under a takayna moon
The artists gather
To bathe in the awe
Of stringybark giants
Drinking in
The mystery
Under a takayna moon
We stretch our arms wide
15 souls reaching to unfurl
You in an embrace
That does not stem
the flow of tears
Under a takayna moon
giants loom above
memory of the felling time whispering through the branches
The missing
A gap in the sky
Under a takayna moon
The song of the night
rich
With cries of survival
Blends with scent laden mist
Seeps into the blood
The cup filled
Under a takayna moon
Stories are shared
The gravity understood
Hearts open
These trees
Our memento Mori
Notes from the Forest
I have found my rock
Sometimes it is sharp
Or mossy
lit by sun
Hidden by shadows
Overlooked on the path
Yet it is always there
Unassuming
One of many
Owned by no one
Found by me
More Poems
If you are interested in more poems you can check them out here!