So what next?

As of this month I have new studio, (and it feels like another beginning) and some new ideas bubbling up.
It's exciting, and I'm enjoying getting my teeth into a whole new concept.

Firstly, I'm living in a garret now (well, working - but I'm here A LOT) - really, it is ! My room is at the top of the stairs, in the attic space on top of an old Cuba St building which I share with two art galleries, another painter, and two designers. But my garret is all mine!! I look east onto roofs and west onto more roofs and a peek of the street. It's sunny and warm...and I love it !

After the show people said I'd feel flat, maybe even a bit down. I guess I did, but moving here helped sort that pretty quickly.

So what's next ?
I'm picking up on some of the ideas from folks who responded to the work in our show.
The drawings, the movement, the relationships between people...

And I'm planning a body of work that may be drawings, based on the idea of communication. Specifically, about modes of communication that're not dependent on spoken language. So the language of hands, of touch, gesture, texture, (maybe braille), body language (the language of space and intimacy) and of dance (especially polynesian dance where the hands are an important part of telling the story).

I want to make some large drawings that describe the dance of communication and movement through the qualities of line and tone.

So far I have a huge mind map, a collection of amazing poems, some great quotes...

Here's a few of them, and a couple of drawings from the series I've made this week. One focusses on the idea of caressing, and the other is titled 'snap!' ... I'm loving this new beginning !!!!


"We don't just think with our brains. We think with our bodies." ..." our bodies are a result of our ongoing experience and involvement with the world, which is always specific"...

"Communication is an embodied act. Researchers believe it has been so from the beginning. In fact gesture is believed to be the original form of human communication. Before writing and even speaking, our ancestors gestured" - Jürgen Streek

And a beautiful poem of Cole Swensen's titled:

The Hand That Caresses
after Alphonso Lingis

Glean sheet
that's soft and flees
gliding just above the surface
constructs a second skin of close attention.
The hand cannot tire in the face
of another, a hand hovers or floats
detached from the wrist, my hand fits your face precisely What recognises the suffering of the other is a movement in one's hand. He points to the plane, which is landing, which is the same.

(Her line phrasing is spacious and pretty, but it doesn't work on Blogger,sorry)

If you click on the photos they'll enlarge.