2023 Themes and priorities

#1 priority - create. Every day. E V E R Y single day.

#2 priority - turn up. Participate fully in the things I have already chosen. Be creative in the promise of something new and untried, with artists I admire and respect.

#3 priority - ditch. End one way transactions disguised as relationships. Excesses, duplicates, recognising when I should know better.

#4 priority - removal from the things that are no longer healthy investments of my love, care and time. Vigilance in the ongoing decluttering process.

#5 priority - self care and respect.

The new year dawned full of promise yet January 1 is only the day after the night of December 31. Not much has changed overnight and yet it has. New year, fresh start as the old year's door quietly shuts. Time to reflect on how to spend these upcoming 52 weeks.

It must be doing what's important with the people who really matter. Perhaps there is truth in Picasso's view that art is chaos taking shape, and removing that which is unnecessary. I'll be reducing the chaos and embracing the new shape in 2023.

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Making progress Trees #2

The mess before the beauty

The excavator's words have stuck in my head, rent free. ' I have to make one hell of a mess before it can become beautiful. There is no beautiful end without the mess '. Or words to that effect. The retaining walls at the back of the house have to be finished before anything else can happen in the yard - and in between downpours, a few expletives and more rain, it has beena testing time for all involved in the construction. I thought about his words - and the effort of making a quilt from scratch. The planning, drawing, testing, dyeing, playing, creating, starting again, creating and the final 'ah ha'. There is so much 'mess' before a quilt is resolved becomes a thing of meaning and beautiful in its own way. Blessed are the excavators.

Mapping it out - initial thoughts

I find the process that resolves itself as a textile work challenging. In the beginning I am clueless. This is as much a strength as a source of mild anxiety. I have learnt persistence and turning up are as important as creative thinking. I'm mindful my first response is not going to be the best so I'm starting with a mind-dump. My focus is the Neville Bonner Pedestrian bridge connecting Queens Wharf to South Bank. Thoughts are scratched deep into journal pages. I'll find more connections over coming months. Right now I'm challenged and torn. What started as perfunctory research about Meanjin's (Brisbane's) newest bridge has developed into a sense of disappointment and WTFWTWPT (WTF-were-the-white-people-thinking)? I'm unpacking those thoughts in my journal - the architects and their inspiration, the consortium , what the bridge connects, where it leads, Yuggera and Turrbul people's connections to this part of the river, Mr Neville Bonner's own ...

Ali George Artist

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