Journals11
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The Nellie Windmill Etsy shop is open!
1 min read
I think I put it around about HERE!
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Adolescence, in Hindsight
1 min read
Listening to the music of my adolescence, namely Nirvana, reminds me of when life felt dangerous. Friends steered, reckless, powerless and powerful all at once, out of control. Adults absent, emotionally and physically, peppered our lives with their own insecurities and maladjustments, normalising dysfunction. Drugs and sex offered an impossibly enticing anaesthetic and instead compounded all of the problems they were supposed to alleviate creating a spiral I can only now see, in hindsight. How the fuck did we survive it?
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The Next [Simple] Big Dream
3 min read
Last winter whilst we were house sitting in Wales I updated my bio on the "My Story" page with this: "We're still travelling but we're beginning to dream of home, and nesting, and the life that's waiting for us back in Australia. Instead of longing for quaint mediaeval European towns, my heart goes thump when I think of long dinners with friends, buying a house and making it a home, and regular trips to the library. We've reached the tipping point of our travels and are coming out the other end."
Since then, we've fallen in love with the idea of building our own house and have seriously entertained the possibility of building a cob or straw-bale house. This shift was heavily inspired by fellow long-term traveler friends of ours Tara and Tyler, who've recently returned home and have started down this very path.
Tara recently blogged about the process of deciding where to live in the massive, varied expanse that is the U.S. I loved reading about their dreams, and priorities, and thought processes, so they've inspired me to blog about our own.
Currently, my main dream-dwelling related obsession is cottage gardens. This is thanks to our cycles through little French villages populated by cottages with colourful window shutters and surrounded by masses of flowers. I've had a hard time getting photos of my favourites because of the minor issue of there being people inside and about!
I spent a delightful day researching the revelation that is the cottage garden (heretofore I've never been able to envisage our garden). I discovered the names of the flowers oft used in these types of gardens, promising looking books on the topic, and collected lots of inspirational images.
The more I read about cottage gardens, the more enamoured I became:
"The cottage garden is a distinct style of garden that uses an informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, the cottage garden depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Homely and functional gardens connected to working-class cottages go back several centuries, but their reinvention in stylized versions grew in 1870s England, in reaction to the more structured and rigorously maintained English estate gardens that used formal designs and mass plantings of brilliant greenhouse annuals."
Source: Wikipedia
Our mounting excitement at the thought of nesting, combined with finally getting around to seeing the countries we came over here to see has us oscillating between anticipation about experiencing France and an overwhelming desire to be in our little cottage in the hills already! There are many other facets to this dream of ours but those I will save for another post on another day. Thank you for coming on this tour of my next [simple] big dream!
Since then, we've fallen in love with the idea of building our own house and have seriously entertained the possibility of building a cob or straw-bale house. This shift was heavily inspired by fellow long-term traveler friends of ours Tara and Tyler, who've recently returned home and have started down this very path.
Tara recently blogged about the process of deciding where to live in the massive, varied expanse that is the U.S. I loved reading about their dreams, and priorities, and thought processes, so they've inspired me to blog about our own.
Currently, my main dream-dwelling related obsession is cottage gardens. This is thanks to our cycles through little French villages populated by cottages with colourful window shutters and surrounded by masses of flowers. I've had a hard time getting photos of my favourites because of the minor issue of there being people inside and about!
I spent a delightful day researching the revelation that is the cottage garden (heretofore I've never been able to envisage our garden). I discovered the names of the flowers oft used in these types of gardens, promising looking books on the topic, and collected lots of inspirational images.
The more I read about cottage gardens, the more enamoured I became:
"The cottage garden is a distinct style of garden that uses an informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, the cottage garden depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Homely and functional gardens connected to working-class cottages go back several centuries, but their reinvention in stylized versions grew in 1870s England, in reaction to the more structured and rigorously maintained English estate gardens that used formal designs and mass plantings of brilliant greenhouse annuals."
Source: Wikipedia
Our mounting excitement at the thought of nesting, combined with finally getting around to seeing the countries we came over here to see has us oscillating between anticipation about experiencing France and an overwhelming desire to be in our little cottage in the hills already! There are many other facets to this dream of ours but those I will save for another post on another day. Thank you for coming on this tour of my next [simple] big dream!
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Link Love:
- I am lusting after the Bohemian jewellery created with the unconventional combination of precious metals and natural fibres by Brooklyn based Australian Jeweller, Scosha
- Remember my painting of children flying a penny farthing attached to an improbable amount of helium balloons? Turns out, that's a real thing and it's called "cluster ballooning"!
- Loving these Ceramic sculptures by Ukranian artist, Roman Khalilov
- I'm utterly enchanted with the playfully charming tunes of our friend's band's astonishingly good EP, The Valleymakers.
- Must own one of these outrageously cool handmade brooms one day!
- I'm very pleased to have discovered the elegantly refined and pleasantly strange artwork of Leanne Ellis.
Happy exploring folks!
- I am lusting after the Bohemian jewellery created with the unconventional combination of precious metals and natural fibres by Brooklyn based Australian Jeweller, Scosha
- Remember my painting of children flying a penny farthing attached to an improbable amount of helium balloons? Turns out, that's a real thing and it's called "cluster ballooning"!
- Loving these Ceramic sculptures by Ukranian artist, Roman Khalilov
- I'm utterly enchanted with the playfully charming tunes of our friend's band's astonishingly good EP, The Valleymakers.
- Must own one of these outrageously cool handmade brooms one day!
- I'm very pleased to have discovered the elegantly refined and pleasantly strange artwork of Leanne Ellis.
Happy exploring folks!
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On Art and Comparison
3 min read
The exquisite beauty of Lauren Gray's art makes me ache. A while back, I wrote about how It would hurt to look at beautiful things I didn't create in the days before I had found my way back to art making. I'm pretty sure if I had've lain eyes on the artwork of Lauren Gray during this time I would have torn asunder. I want to touch them, and smell them and hang them somewhere I will see every single day. I have a dear little list of artists whose original work I look forward to collecting when I have a house again and Lauren Gray shot to the top of that list as soon as I set eyes on her figurative work.
Lauren Gray's artwork falls into the bitter-sweet category of artwork by others that makes me despair of ever creating something myself that I love as much. I once read of an artist who couldn't visit certain artists' blogs, whilst she was learning to paint. I understand this with every fibre of my being but I cringe away from trying to hide or fade this particular ache -- I think there's something in there to be examined.
The more I think about it, the more I believe there is an important lesson in this for me. I originally turned my back on art because of comparison. At some point, I decided I wasn't good enough.
It's an impossible comparison. I'm reminded of a Martha Graham quote, which explains why more eloquently than I ever could:
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
I'm also aware of the disservice such a comparison does to the other artist. I know from her blog, Lauren's dedication to mastering her craft has been unwavering. She deserves to be exceptional. I imagine it would be galling to have those who haven't put in the hours compare their work to your own.
Well, just like my paintings, this blog post turned out to be about something other than I what I first had in mind! Some people say they have to talk to think, I have to write. If you're still here, thank you for joining me on my thought process! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic as I'm always thrilled to find how differently other people think to myself!
Lauren Gray's artwork falls into the bitter-sweet category of artwork by others that makes me despair of ever creating something myself that I love as much. I once read of an artist who couldn't visit certain artists' blogs, whilst she was learning to paint. I understand this with every fibre of my being but I cringe away from trying to hide or fade this particular ache -- I think there's something in there to be examined.
The more I think about it, the more I believe there is an important lesson in this for me. I originally turned my back on art because of comparison. At some point, I decided I wasn't good enough.
It's an impossible comparison. I'm reminded of a Martha Graham quote, which explains why more eloquently than I ever could:
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
I'm also aware of the disservice such a comparison does to the other artist. I know from her blog, Lauren's dedication to mastering her craft has been unwavering. She deserves to be exceptional. I imagine it would be galling to have those who haven't put in the hours compare their work to your own.
Well, just like my paintings, this blog post turned out to be about something other than I what I first had in mind! Some people say they have to talk to think, I have to write. If you're still here, thank you for joining me on my thought process! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic as I'm always thrilled to find how differently other people think to myself!
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