Collage is a very simple process, where you can ‘rip and stick’ images that you are attracted to. I like to remain in the unknown as long as possible, so i do not prepare a theme, or deliberately choose an image, especially whe i am seeking answers. I open a magazine, with great jazz playing, scented candle, hot cup of exquisite tea…and i’m off…here is a collage made by Michaela Ash. Give it a go, see what you can come up with. don’t judge it, just look at it. allow the information come to you. pin it up in a place you see often, so that you can enjoy the gentle messages your unknown is trying to tell you…
This is a wonderful time for reflection: what has happened this year i ask myself? I may think I remember, and yet I always seem to find that if I write about it, do a collage, write some more, many more things emerge, including themes that seem to help me find deeper meaning in the year of activity.
Collaging is one of the most healing of activities, something that I indulge in regularly expecially in times of transition. Try it, just sit, music playing, magazines all around, and begin to rip and stick. Some of you will use scissors, some of you won’t, preferring to rip into the magazine, and then paste…i stick images down immediately and allow the collage to emerge, however others prefer to have a little more control…you will find the way that impacts you…allow the collage to talk to you, rather than you to the collage.
This week we are celebrating Douglas Leonard’s life. He passed last week, and his funeral celebrations will be on Thursday at 1pm (see facebook for details on Douglas Leonard’s memorial page). Doug was to direct my solo show "Eve" one of the MetroArts Independent productions for 2012. Doug was a dense and deliberate writer and has possibly critiqued most art productions here in Brisbane for RealTime. He had the uncanny ability to write about challenging and sometimes incoherent work in an affirming way. He often saw things that others did not, and made the reader think broadly with different lenses. And it was often what he did not say that resonated between the lines. He was the first director i worked with here in Brisbane. We both arrived in Brisbane within six months of each other (1989 and 1990). He came to Brisbane to direct the show "Songs of the Hut", a devised piece incorporating the works of Bruce Chatwin and Eve Langley. Here is a quote from Bruce Chatwin from his Songlines, and it could so easily have been written by Doug: ‘I have a vision of the Songlines stretching across the continents and ages; that wherever men have trodden they have left a trail of song; and that these trails must reach back, in time and space, to an isolated pocket in the African savannah, where the First Man shouted the opening stanza to the World Song, "I am!"’ Doug ‘trod’ the Australian bush and he was dedicated to deep research of Australia’s artists and guests, constantly challenging his cast to read seminal texts such as ‘Songlines’. He also discovered the writings of Eve Langley (it was possibly Anna Mac, his partner of decades, who guided him towards Eve and "The Pea Pickers"). In 1994 Doug, Anna and I created the beginnings of a new show, Ionalympus, based on Eve Langley’s writings. Eve was a prolific and descriptive writer born early 1900’s. She partied hard and worked hard, a bit like Doug himself. We all fell in love with Eve, and 17 years later we decided to return to the work and create a piece of work about art and artists, creativity and despair. This new show, now called "Eve" will launch itself in May at Metro Arts Independents. Doug will, no doubt be directing it "long distance". He definitely is capable of it…for he too has left "a trail of song"…
Nest4change’s workshop finished with an hour and half of small performances throughout the garden and house. Here are some of the images:
Zoe chose to perform in a huge cardboard box and told a mythical story
Bernie telling a story
You can see Lou Lou our Acting Trainer standing behind her. Lou Lou works with the actors helping them develop their impulse work.
Ildiko performs in the dolls house, a collage of text from her own writings and Ibsen's Dolls House
Shilpi performs for us and sings for us in Bangal...she transports us to another place
Alice performs a ritual at nest4change
Kate begins her performance in a cardboard box before she then enters the kitchen and prepares food
James and Margi recording in the downstairs studio, trying to create a 2 minute DVD! Its fun! We sang, talked, whispered, sighed…fun
At nest4change meetings, which we have each week, James takes fabulous photos of all of us, usually eating food! We host each other, and celebrate our birthdays, our achievements, our small changes that make a difference. Here are some of Jame’s photos:
james making lanterns by banging nails in tins
James teaches us the art of giving
