bookmaking

One day we will do this together...young hands learning to run fingers over texture, beauty. Gathering, folding, cutting, stitching...an art that is ancient yet indespensible. To create a series of surfaces that contain thoughts, dreams, history, future. To collate all of this hope in one bound volume, a legacy.
Book making has been around for as long as people have had a need to record. To carry some of that history into the hands of those that will hold the future....
For now, I am making books for them...running fingers over texture, cutting, collating, stitching. So that they might make their mark upon its cover, its pages.

collections

'I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.' Joan Miro

As I wander quietly through my home this morning I am noticing collections...small multiples that catch my eye.
The fridge overflowing with these sweet red orbes fresh from our garden, who knew such delight in their delicious goodness!

These bursts of creativity remaining on the bench, tenderly strung + slipped into my hand as I walked in the door late Sunday afternoon, a window into the hive of creativity buzzing these walls in my absence.

These sweet treats, won't be admired for long, a celebration of returning mama!
What collections represent your days? What colour their celebration?

inspiration

It is such a gift to share time with inspirational and creative women who encourage one another in their relationships, parenting, personal growth + intellect and of course the odd creative experiment undertaken as an outlet in our crazy-full lives!
I enjoyed one such day on Saturday just gone and emerged richer, perhaps wiser and more fulfilled in my creative persuits....lighter from laughter, heavier from good food shared!
Do you have women who inspire you in your life? Perhaps through a common creative interest, perhaps those who encourage you to be the best you can be...why not make the time for just 'hanging out' and enjoying one another...something just for you!
I have been asked if I will be running art classes for Mums!! I am considering running a 'Mum's night out' involving creative projects, music, good food, tea/coffe/wine!! If this is something that might interest you, please email me [melissa@guyatt.net], I would love to keep you posted!

faces

With a little bit of inspiration from here...

Artist Cate Anevski and some sensational face embroidery!

...And some portrait play with my girls (they did this one of their mama using scrap fabric and I stitched for them)...I am off to make some sample scrap fabric portraits of 'heros + villians' for a birthday party this weekend. Will post when complete!

texture

These textures are inspiring me very much as the days get a little shorter and cooler. My girls can't get enough of fingerknitting, making anyone who show's interrest (a mama-inspired) necklace or two! This beautiful black one has just been completed by my 7yr old!
Last year it was knitting, this year it is crochet! Resisting 'digs' from family and friends who think I am 'just getting old!' I am contentedly carting my growing scarf-roll to every event!
I just can't resist the feel and beauty of natural wool between my fingers and the slow, comforting work with my hands.
These sweet garlands hang elegantly from a willow branch in my home - inspiration for the recent Easter Art Workshops. Their beautiful balance of colour and texture please me.

power

the floodgates opened
and in their wake, a roaring torrent ripped through small meandering creekbeds
carving a river of distruction 100 times their width
stealing hundred-year-old gums and limitless tree debris and casting them off downstream never to be seen again
the rockbed that remained astounded me
its width
that all these rocks were there, just under the surface, uncovered when the water carried the silt bottom away
this is the evidence of the power of nature
and I wonder again just how this fury affected those in its path
there is no happy ending
just the reality of living in the world
sometimes in harmony, sometimes not
with the raw, powerful beauty all around us

We visited the Lockyer valley this weekend and saw first hand what was left in the wake of Qld worst floods. Our children struggled to grasp the enormity, prefering to celebrate natures playground and all that our wonderful bushland has to offer.
Nature is Art in an ever changing forum.
I was struck by its power this weekend.

creativity

'Creativity is the first tongue of children.
And when we, on into adulthood speak it, even haltingly, we return home to happiness.'
Ann Voscamp

It was one of those slow, quiet, recovering weekends in my home...for the most part. Perhaps following my lead, perhaps I theirs, my children and I often wander into creative lands on days like these....its a slow meandering process that might start in a 'polly pocket treehouse cum magic faraway tree' and travel through lego kingdoms to roll play with gathered nuts, grasses or seeds as pretend food. Our creative meanderings often end in the 'making' of something...today we raided the fabric scrapbin and made collages, exploring portraits + landscapes for my soon to be 9 year old's art birthday party making! Once this tumbling into creative process starts, I find it is easy to loose hours as we dream big dreams, try new things, make mistakes, pick up new materials and start all over again.
The biggest gift I can give my children is encouragement, the boost to try instead of saying 'I can't' and when all doesn't go as they had planned, they need only to look over to Mama's work and see that mine doesn't always go as I had planned either! We make mistakes and laugh together!

'There are no two identical persons on the planet. Anything created that expresses the essence of a person is wholly and entirely origional. And whenever I look at a creative work, I am looking at the IMPOSSIBLE CREATED. Because before those hands created it, it was impossible to have ever been created before!' Ann Voscamp

So can I encourage you, on days when you have time, or days when you make time, come alongside your children, create together and come home to happiness!
And when we might be quick to put away those pencils, glue, scissors, scraps, lego...leave them out a little longer....'for tomorrow, and all the artists and all the makers and inventors and dreamers and co-creators who will rise under the sun.' A.V.