An artist's practice

susiebubbleimages3w I’ve added a whole heap of inspiration to my plate in recent months, including fashion and fashion blogs. I’m also a new convert to the term grok which hadn’t crossed my screen until recently.

For anyone else who hasn’t seen the term grok used, it means to understand something intuitively, or to establish empathy and rapport with something or someone.

So, I grok Susie Bubble—I really get her. I can go to her Style Bubble fashion blog and find inspiration every day. Sometimes I think our thoughts and images are meshing in the ether. When you grok something or someone, I assume it’s close to aesthetic ‘knowing’—kind of inexplicable and personal. But why do I grok Susie Bubble?

1. She posts an eclectic mix of new and vintage, of simple and ornate, of wildly colourful and subtly neutral, of stupidly unnecessary and completely functional.
2. On the one hand she loves detailed patterns; on the other, she loves colour-blocking.
3. Her favourite artists are all expressionists, colourists, symbolists.
4. She admits to having multiple creative projects and resolving few.
5. She loves sushi.
6. (even though I hate them) She loves period dramas. Good to have a point of difference!
7. She uses metaphorical language and lots of exclamation marks!
8. Immersed as she is in her style world, she sees and articulates broader social and political commentary.

‘There’s been a little complication with my complication’—a line from my favourite movie Brazil—describes how things are at the moment. I haven’t been here (at artistpractice) for a while. Our renovations meant that my studio was under siege for months. I have only just managed to get it back in order to work in there.

While I was unable to paint I knitted up a storm—blankets, beanies, scarves, cowls—and my knits went crazy for stripes, chevrons and plaid.

I thought more about my ‘Finger in too many pies’ problem and realised that it isn’t going away so I started a new blog at toomanypies.com (starting a new blog to solve the issue of always looking for ‘new’ makes sense doesn’t it?). Yes, to me it makes sense to move all my other pies [the knitting, stuff about daily life, philosophical ponderings, the politics, and the gripes about education] to another place so that this blog just concentrates on artmaking practice—mine and others’.

Toomanypies_banner2 — Love you to visit my new blog!

Speaking of artmaking practice, I was inspired by my clever nephew to think about doing some writing about the practice of other artists. My nephew has just recently done his HSC and we did some work together ahead of his visual arts exam. I haven’t taught this particular syllabus but the level of language and conceptual understanding of artmaking practice required of students was fascinating to me. I thought it would be interesting to do some blog posts here that look at the material and conceptual practice of artists.

So back to my statement ‘there’s been a little complication with my complication’. My own artmaking hasn’t diminished, I have just stepped sideways and have been exploring image-making and materials in a different way for a little while. I can now embrace the craziness of the runaway lateral thoughts.

I can deal simultaneously with multiple needy ideas. I’ve always thought that there has to be a connection between all these interests and explorations and ideas. There may well be some beauty in this intricate weave.