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Monthly Archives: February 2021

Thanks for Resilience

 

Two months on and a fresh perspective on my world.

Well actually it is three months on. Wow that went fast.

With ups and downs, cans and cant’s, sudden restrictions on again and off again our lives have been in a state of questions.

Do we make plans, buy tickets to a show, arrange dinner with friends, book the restaurant etc. for if we do will it be postponed, cancelled or become a non-event?

Here I am three months since the last blog, festive season come and gone, Walter in treatment for six weeks, come and gone and moved into 2021.

We are living within a freedom of movement that can be restricted at any time.

As always flexibility is the key. Yes, we make the plans, buy the flight tickets to South Australia, organise a night with friends and book a restaurant to celebrate the end of Walter’s radiotherapy treatment.

Somethings we can do, somethings we cannot do. With a sudden five-day lockdown recently, we cancelled five different activities, movie ticket purchase reimbursed, just sneaked in the new studio shelving, new worktable delivery postponed, Church service back to Zoom, Gallery visits cancelled and postponed meet up with friends.

I was due to start an artist-in-residence with Manningham Arts on February 22. Would it happen, would it not happen?  Fortunately, restrictions lifted and life continued.

In the past three months I have managed to attend some exhibition openings, covid safe environments are a bit spasmodic and I do set my own criteria.

I have managed to start an exercise class, just skimming either side of a five-day lockdown.

I have entered Art Shows and actually taken artwork to the framers.

I have rearranged my studio, had new shelving installed and had a new worktable delivered.

I do not know what is normal anymore and continue my mantra of flexibility. Activities and events that pre 2020 were part of everyday life take on a different significance.

Strange experience today to walk around the supermarket and choose products, so different to online ordering and having groceries delivered to my car boot.

I went to Bunnings, physically walked into the store and asked where I could find certain products. I enjoyed the time sifting through the storage bin shelves. Just a little exciting.

As we hover at the edge of March and look at a twelve-month anniversary of the first restrictions and cancellation of my exhibition at Art at St Francis, we can thank our own resilience and personal strength that has carried us thus far.

To view the full image: Select and click on first image – click on the i in a circle RHB of opened page then select View Full Size.

 

 

ARTS MANNINGHAM FEBRUARY 2021

Exciting to be featured in the latest Arts Manningham eNews.

Art e-facts

We asked our Arts Manningham Fellowship recipient Denise Keele-Bedford to let us in on some of her “art e-facts”…

What is your most memorable art experience?

With just on 30 years of art practice and many exciting art experiences along the way, like my first solo show and international artist-in residencies, the one significant and influential experience was my time at Arthur Boyd’s, Bundanon.

The residency was the first time that I had a studio to myself, where I only had to consider one entity, myself.

It was an opportunity that taught me how to operate in future residency situations.

Sixteen years later I still follow the principles of discipline and process that I learnt at Bundanon.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time? 

The future, we know is an unknown.

However, to follow an arts practice pathway, five years is not too far ahead.

Within the next five years I intend to finalise shipment of my artwork from China to Melbourne, complete and exhibit current unfinished artworks. By 2025 I will have had at least two solo exhibitions and undertaken at least two Artist-in Residence programs.

I am interested in mentorship and believe by 2025 I will have enough experience to mentor younger emerging artists.

I will also continue with public and community projects, where relevant and continue my studio art practice.

Why do the arts matter?

Arts matter, because life matters.

Since time immemorial humans have wanted to express themselves and record the ebb and flow of life in a visual form.

Art is a language for communication. Like learning a foreign language art gives an opportunity to study and engage with ‘the other’.

Due to diversity in the arts, there is always an art form that one can connect with at all levels of interest.

Between February 22 – March 23, I will be Artist-in-Residence at Manningham Arts.