I am exhibiting art at Eastland Shopping Centre as part of the Ringwood Art Society. The show runs from 24th - 30th March (near Watch Works). Below are some of the works, obviously they look better in person.

Well another T.V. interview under my belt, I am beginning to enjoy this small taste of media spotlight. Check out the interview on: http://www.festivalfishbowl.com/

So begins the journey of adding discarded bits of paper and plastic to my art. My aim is to focus mostly on items that don't get recycled by local councils and usually end up in landfill. After about 2 weeks of collecting things like plastic wrapping from bread, fruit and chocolate from my own consumption I realised just how much normally ends up in my bin and this was just from one person. I do other things to reduce my waste like recycling, growing my own veggies, giving scraps to my chickens and dogs and composting but I still managed to collect a lot of waste on top of that. It made me realise just how big a problem waste is and it's effect on our natural environment.

How much is being chucked out in my suburb, in the city of Melbourne, Victoria or even Australia as a whole? What is being done about it and what can the average person do?
 
I know that there are people out there doing great things like creating websites to help people make their own waste reduction like Pedal People:
http://www.pedalpeople.com/index.php?page=43
or providing educational resources to help teach our children like Global Education: http://www.globaleducation.edu.au/teaching-activity/waste-matters-mp.html
or councils like Moreland City challenging their residents to go Zero Waste for a Week:
http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/environment-and-waste/reduce-your-waste/zero-waste-challenge.html

But for most of us we are not doing enough if we want to preserve our natural environment and way of life. This is a joint problem between consumers and organisations but I do believe we can make a difference as individuals. So rather than tell people what they should do I decided to work on what I could do and combine it with something I was really passionate about, art. So Waste Beautification was conceived, I may need to work on that title.

For a long time now I have wanted to make my art environmentally friendly but I just didn't know what direction to take. I have done basic things like reduce my engery and water comsumption but that wasn't enough. What I really wanted to get involved with was somehow tackling the problem of waste. I dabbled with the idea of joinging or remoulding various plastics to create something beautiful but it all looked like shit so I gave up and went back to my painting. Recently I came up with the idea of embedding this plastic into my work. So I dabbled again and this time there was some success. I have now locked in an exhibition in Adelaide in March 2013 that involves this process in some way. So now I am commited to continue this journey of waste rebeautification.

Sold this painting at the Art4All art show at Fairfield Primary School today. There is still all of today and tomorrow to check out great art work, craft and enjoy the family fun events.

I sold one painting at the the Ringwood Art Society Judged competion in July as well as getting a 2nd place and sold another painting at the Camart Show that finished last weekend. YEAH!

Check out this You Tube link done by groovey T.V. show "Chicks World" on Ch 31. They are interviewing me about an up and coming art fundraiser for Plans "Because I am a Girl" global campaign designed to fight gender inequality and promote girls’ rights in order to lift millions of girls out of poverty.

http://youtu.be/k1M2CT_95Ug

or you can check out the facebook page below

https://www.facebook.com/GirlsHelpingGirls

The whole point of this blog is to give you an account of the things that have happened to me whilst taking the 12 week course detailed in the book "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. However it is important not to give away too many of the tasks and activities for obvious reasons.  If you are interested, why not buy the book, it isn't expensive and even if you choose not to do the tasks you will still gain some valuable information to help increase your creative output. I do recommend doing the tasks though as it has brought about some postive changes to my life already.

Week 1 had me doing many regular rituals to in order to open up my creativity, much of this was writing based with some physical activities. I found the continued writing a bit of a chore especially as it got me up earlier in the morning than I would have liked. Since it was the beginning of winter when I first started the book the mornings were dark, cold and wet and bed was such a tempting thing to go back to. However it was my desire to be a more fulfilled creative person that kept me going in that first week.

The Friday before I had even bought the book my painting tutor and I had made a bet for me to contact a Melbourne gallery in order for them to see my art with the possibility of representing me. So Day 1 I contacted the gallery who suggested I send them an email with my C.V. and images of my work. By Day 5 they had not only gotten back to me (uncommon in the art world if you are an emerging artist) but they had said they liked my work and would like to see it in person. So I am now madly painting some new work to show them. I am beginning to get excited.

While on an art excursion with a good friend I am asked by said friend if I had ever read "The Artists Way" by Julia Cameron to which I replied "No but I would love to". We had just come out of a great exhibition on William Kentridge at ACMI and were heading towards the Atrium in Fed. Square when we noticed a second hand book sale. "Perhaps we might find the book here" we both say and I proceed to ask the lady behind the make shift stall if she has the book but before she can answer my friend has already found it. We are both very excited but the price puts me off a bit, my bank balance is low and even though it is not expensive it is not cheap either. So sensing my reservations my friend suggests I open the book to a random page and see if it "speaks to me" which is does. $15 dollars later I am the proud owner of a book that has already put in motion some positive changes to my creative life.

Now even though I am a practising artist I am not full time and my wish has always been to create art works for living without any reliance on another income. This has not been the easiest journey and at times I have wondered if I could ever be a full time artist. However once I began reading "The Artists Way" small but postive changes have taken place and given me real hope that this dream will one day, very soon, be a reality.