info, updates and everyday moments
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info, updates and everyday moments
Just wrapped up the Thresh | Hold artist residency in the Pavilion at the Dayboro Showgrounds alongside Mel Brady, Shan Michaels and, Kylie Harries who developed and produced the program. It was my one big project of the year, pulling me out of an extensive lull, giving me space to explore drawing and continue experimenting with camera and image. I know this experience will filter through to my making in more ways than one over the coming months and years.
From the first day of Thresh | Hold, the residency was shaped by the sensory experiences of making on-site. The noisy assertiveness of the building, the light moving across the floors and walls called attention to the interior and exterior surfaces. At the same time, inhabiting the space with the artists turned into shared moments of conversation, concentrated silence and focus.
Taking inspiration from Ellsworth Kelly, I’ve been making postcards. The artist made over 400 postcard collages, sending a few to his friends but in the end keeping most of them himself. Some of the collages were preparation for larger works, but all are infused with a wonderful sense of playfulness. So with the intention of injecting some fun into my making, I’ve been repurposing my own photographs, making postcard collages. Here are some of them.
I’m excited to be preparing for a group artist residency in August, joining Kylie Harries, Mel Brady and Shan Michaels at the Dayboro Showgrounds. I’m playing around with ideas, thinking about what to take with me into the space.
Before Fresh Eyes closes I will be hosting a hands-on workshop at the Redcliffe Art Gallery exploring how intentional design can turn simple, limited materials into compelling collages. Read more…
Fresh Eyes 2025 invited four artists from the region to reflect upon the rapidly changing landscape and communities of Moreton Bay Region. Read more…
Toward HOME exhibition review by Julie Purcell!
Julie writes a juicy newsletter, Modconned. She is an artist and a writer and woman of many talents! One of my favourite paintings of hers is the small, oil painting from the Space Cadets series that was in the Moreton Bay Art Prize in 2024. Read the review on Julie’s website here…
After discovering an old 1928 Ladies Home Journal in the bottom of a box I was thumbing through the pages thinking about how much has changed from then to now and yet how little has changed. Read more…
This year I’m celebrating 2025 World Collage Day with two small offerings—each one an invitation into the reflective, connective space that collage opens up for me. Both are shaped around the idea that looking and making can be quiet acts of reflection, and that these kinds of acts can connect us—with ourselves, each other, and the artwork we encounter. Read more…
At the end of 2024 I applied for the Path Primer with Dr. Kellie O’Dempsey hosted by the Redcliffe Art Gallery. My application was successful and I’ve just completed five intensive days in the program—what a ride! Read more…
In July of this year I participated in a self funded online collage residency offered by the Kolaj Institute in New Orleans.
The residency focussed on the intersection between photography and collage and as I had already started working with photographic images it was a perfect fit for me.
At the end of the residency we were invited to submit work that might be exhibited at the Kolaj Institute Gallery during Photonola 2025 and I was pleased that four of my collages were accepted into the exhibition.
Click on the links for more info:
World Collage Day is an annual, international celebration of collage on the second Saturday of May initiated by the founder of Kolaj Magazine. Aartists and venues around the world hold collage events to bring together people and community in a spirit of cooperation, support and creativity.
In collaboration with The Churn Room in 2024, I hosted a series of collage activities.
John Massy opened with a lively talk about the work in his exhibition, after which Guthrie and I facilitated a two hour collage making session and we finished the day with a life model collage session.
Here are some links with more info:
World Collage Day | Recollect exhibition by John Massy | Guthrie on instagram
When I moved to Dayboro I quickly realised I was not going to be able to travel to Brisbane or even across town at night, along dark country roads, to go to life drawing classes.
So I decided to organise life drawing myself. We started off in my shed studio until we moved to The Churn Room in 2023 and 2024. I am grateful to Bronwyn Hawkins, the Director of The Churn Room, who generously provides support with promotions and photography services and exhibition space for the showcase.
For more information about The Churn Room visit the website at www.thechurnroom.com.au
The Language of Posing is an arts project reflecting on the representation of women in media and society and designed to photograph and create source material for photomontages. This project was made possible through the Moretone Bay City Council’s RADF fund. Read more…
Not long ago I was asked to do a collage workshop by our local council for a group of educators.
The prep resulted in another day playing with infographics. They are such a good tool for succinctly imparting information!
This infographic is just a snippet of what I have come to understand about design and composition. It is a dip of the toe into the subject, even so, I do hope this is a handy reference to print out for the notice board!
It’s been a while since I first decided to write about creating an at home artist residency.
I documented the process and made an infographic which might be useful to anyone out there wishing to do their own at home artist residency. Feel free to connect with me should you have any questions.
at home artist residency
Pushing collages from small to large format, using a three month “at home artist residency”. This project ran from August to October 2022 culminating in an exhibition in November 2022. It became bigger than Ben Hur and I definately bit off more thank I could chew. It was so worthwhile though.
Through all the planning and making and failures I even had some successes. I learned so much and will be using this way of working to provide structure around future projects.
Selection paintings, mixed media and other stuff made pre-2020. Not a project - just the lead up to what I do now…
I went from spinning, crocheting and dabbling in fibre arts to painting and mixed media. Practicing and collecting art supplies led to a frustration with the expense of materials and an increasing dissonance with growing environmental concerns, until I decided to focus on collage. Collage is an art-making process that suits me perfectly. I'm embracing the creative constraints of working exclusively with found papers and being intentional about how I consume materials.
a review by sculptor and installation artist Hans Van Hans who visited us during the residency and at the showing. Read the review here
photos: Ju’s Films & Stills