Welcoming in the New Year

Welcoming in the New Year - 2024

My 2024 priorities remain almost the same as 2023 and my word for 2024 is "grace". Asking myself, how do I respond to life, people, events and me with grace? What does grace look like for me? How do I incorporate grace into my arts practice? What is the sound, colour and taste of grace? I want to record, privately, something involving grace shown to me or given by me each week - something that goes beyond random acts of generosity or the easy gratitude when things go well. I like a description attributed to John Baldoni of grace as being about doing something unearned (for want of a better word) for others, respect for all and all things, as action for change, compassionate concern and the energy that is of us.

For the coming year, #1 priority - create. Every day. E V E R Y single day. #2 priority - turn up. Participate fully. #3 priority - ditch and cleanse. End one way transactions disguised as relationships, recognise when I should know better before I should have known better. #4 priority - extricate myself from everything that won't kill me and be vigilant about old habits. Keep mouth shut. #5 priority - self care and respect.

New Year's was wonderfully quiet and Kalbar went to sleep by about 9pm, or so it seemed. The gardens are coming along nicely, and we took time to reflect on what worked, what didn't, what we want to achieve this year. For me, I'm most looking forward to finishing formal study by May - and clawing back 25 - 30 hours a week to make art, be restful and have time to myself for the first time in ages. Just being in the moment without deadlines will be wonderful for a few months. I need to work on my exhibition pieces for October - and that will be sufficient to fill the next 10 months.

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Making progress Trees #2

It's all in the background - designing substrate

Scaling up an image of the Brisbane River to develop the substrate for a new art quilt. Each square needs to be 6cm x 6cm to make a finished size of 5 cm square. I created a "to scale" model of the finished quilt on drafting paper. I printed an image of the river (attribution below) and then scaled it up to get a fairly accurate flow across the quilt. The substrate rightly tells the background story. It is the foundation on which the main elements or features reside. So it isn't the "hero" of the piece - it needs to be recognised and visible without overwhelming the piece. I can now easily identify which squares hold a section of the river and start to experiment on piecing, applique, fusing, printing, and painting to learn which gives the best outcome for the substrate. (Brisbane River original image: Magpie Shooter; edited version Paulguard at en.wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/indix.php?curid=9724127) My foundation piece might well end u...

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.

Ali George Artist

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