YEN Young Australian Art Award

This year I have submitted an entry into the YEN Young Australian Art Award - because why not? Another thing I am quickly learning as an artist is the amount of time needed to work on grant applications, proposals and prize submissions. If you follow this link, you can see my submission, and why, what's this? People's Choice Award? Please, feel free!

The work is titled breathe and is collage on paper (you may have seen the painted version here).

You've gotta be in it to win it right?

Fingers crossed! Now though - back to work!

xx
L.

Workshop

This week I spent the morning at a Melbourne Girls' School, sharing my own experiences of school, uni and life after study, as well as demonstrating methods in my own art practice. The girls were simply gorgeous to work with, and all had fantastic ideas - I was astounded by how hard they worked in the limited time they had! I thought I'd share some images (courtesy Michael Miller and Robyn Price). Fingers crossed that the girls had as much fun as I did, and weren't too confused my my waffling anecdotes!

A massive thanks to Robyn for facilitating, and organising the worlds most fabulous materials supply! You request a snack, and get a banquet. Never have I seen so much glue and second hand books in one room. As I always find in these experiences, you tend learn as much as you teach - one of my most exciting discoveries was the GLUE PEN! Something I'd never heard of before, so it was a joy to experiment with it with the students.

It was a truly lovely experience to meet the students, who were so generous in allowing me into their space. A super switched-on bunch too! 

xx

L.

a day in the life

Yesterday I was lucky enough to run a workshop with some very awesome year 11s from a Melbourne Girls' School (wrap-up and photos are on the way!) and at the end, one of the students asked me what a regular day was for me. As I was on my way out, I think I blustered something like "ye ghads, it's different every day!" Which is true. However, it is a very valid question, particularly if you are thinking that the path of art and design is one for you.

I thought I'd share some scenarios that can happen in any one day for me, and I know for many other practitioners too. Having said that - some of my colleagues have very different set ups! It is all dependent on your living situation, who you live with, if you have children, if you have another job etc etc etc. In my situation, I live an hour out of Melbourne with my Artist-Husband-of-Joy. When we work in Melbourne, we try and arrange to travel together (it's more economic and means we can spend more time together - yay!).

Pin-board in my studio: ideas, inspiration, reminders, random stuff

The standard Monday to Friday 9-5 week has never applied to me. I'm not sure if I could do it. I work every day, Monday to Sunday. I don't always work all day, sometimes a few hours and other days I will work till 11 at night. Sometimes I will have a random day off. I find these difficult, because I feel that there is something constructive that I could be doing. I tend to mooch on these days, reading books, avoiding housework and taking nanna-naps. I love having days off mid-week, and having empty cafés all to myself.

Being an artist can mean:

• Some days I am a shop girl in  Windsor. I and sell clothes and jewellery.
• Some days I am a waitress in Kyneton. (I have only done this once in my life - on Monday. I may do it again. I haven't definitely decided.)
• Some days I am an editorial assistant in South Yarra. I check, read, number, compare and mark up manuscript pages and occasionally do the coffee run.
• Some days I am a proofreader in South Yarra, Kyneton, Berlin (it depends where I am living). I read documents and check them for grammatical and content errors.
• Some days I am a Yoga teacher trainee in Prahran. This is my current standard Thursday. I go to lectures and learn heaps of cool stuff about how to be a Yoga teacher.
• Some days I am Studio Girl. I could fill a page with what this can involve (maybe tomorrow). This is where I stay at my home studio in Kyneton and work on my art practice, which can be making, thinking, and admining (blogging, invoicing, phone-calling, proposal-writing, grant-writing, book-keeping - you name it). I work in the studio on most days, often before/after I am doing my non-art jobs.
• Some days I am Workshop Girl - I go and meet a group of interesting people and share my practice with them, and (hopefully) help them develop their own ideas and skills, which fills me with much happiness and excitement! 

And some days I procrastinate.

Most of these activities are interwoven with daily coffee with my Husband (mandatory), meetings about exhibitions, cooking a week's worth of dinners, yoga classes, and a little bit of thrashing around, moaning "why oh WHY am I an artist!? I'll STAAAAAARVE!!!" and then going and having an overpriced latte around the corner.

I am fortunate to live with someone who is in the same position as me - crazy hours, weird pay and a billion different 'other' jobs (Kent is completing his PhD, tutoring 1st years at Monash Uni, teaching an adult education class in Castlemaine, a communications advisor for a vintage furniture business in Kyneton, an arts writer, curator and working on his own art practice - phew!) so we get to share the woes and wonders of our chosen lives. However, many of my friends and colleagues have partners or family who hold steady 9-5 jobs and can support them in other ways too. Some of my friends have to factor children in the mix, and are therefore more structured. All of them have had shit-kicker jobs at some point.

It's a pretty good life. If you love doing it - you won't be able to help yourself, it will just come.

xxx
L.

turning collages into paintings

As a result of three uninterrupted days in the studio, I have been able to get a significant amount of work done. True, day one involved a lot of frustration, crying, lying in bed reading (in defiance) and then some moping. Day two was much more productive, results are yet to be unveiled. Today I have been playing with collage and painting and mixing it up a bit.

I thought I'd share my latest developments - a watercolour based on a collage I was working on yesterday. A flower has inadvertently turned into a pom pom and my interpretation of colour-matching leaves much to the imagination. However, in a world where I am often in control, and my anal-retention is in full swing, this is a rather delightful turn of events. Perhaps it's ok, if not better that this is not an exact replica of the images I selected, cut and composed.

I have enjoyed the blobby pastel-ness of it all.

xxx

Chicks With Knives!!!

As you can probably tell by my lack of posting, it has taken me an entire week to get over my birthday. Consider yourself lucky – generally I tend to stretch the Lucy Birthday Funfest to about a month. But I have lots to do before March begins (which is very soooon!), so I thought I better get to it.

I am extremely excited to invite you all to an upcoming group show that I'm in - it is SO exciting because it has cool clever ladies in it, is being curated by the wonder-whizz curator/writer/artist extraordinaire Kent Wilson, and it is my hometown, Kyneton. What's NOT to love? AND it's launching over the long weekend, there will be drinks, live music playing - so really, there are no excuses!

The show includes the likes of Ann Brennan, Anna Davern, Beci Orpin, Brooke Wolsley, Sheridan Jones, Tai Snaith and Vexta. OH MY GOD! ARE YOU EXCITED NOW?! You should be. Clearly I am. (Look, they all have their own websites - that surely counts for something doesn't it? I strongly recommend checking each and everyone out if you haven't already.)

Can't wait to see you all there. Swoon!

xxx

p.s. Show opens Saturday March 9 from 4 – 7 pm at Stockroom Gallery - 98 Piper St Kyneton. See you there!

calm chaos - on being treated like an adult

Tomorrow is my birthday (um, YAY), which has caused me to consider Where I Am In Life? On the one hand, I am still really excited about my birthday, which makes me think I am pretty young still. But I am also married, and pay my own bills, which feels a bit adult.

In the next month, I will be running some workshops with a prominent Melbourne college on the triumphs and woes of making collage for a living. It has occurred to me that I will considered a grown up by these young minds. It is really alarming. I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to put on paper how I create, and I found these two images that sum up the constant 'calm vs chaos' that I constantly oscillate between.

Hopefully they won't be too scarred by my approach! Until then, I plan to squeal a lot tomorrow over the various birthday coffees I plan on having, as well as embracing my family's outrageous 'Birthday Month' tradition. There are already balloons in my house, the squealing has begun. Watch out kids. I get over excited by a lot of stuff.

Young at heart I suppose!

gemolicious

Seriously. How many more words can I fit the word gem into?

(I think the answer is hundreds. Watch out.)

Gem-o-rama!

I can't stop!

Gemathon

 Progress of a gem.

Hooray!

xx

L.

and the card that followed

Seeing as I ran out of time to make the card before Genevieve and Sonny's wedding day, I thought what better thing to celebrate than the truck they departed as a married couple in!

Love that bunting.

x
L.

When bad things turn into good things.

Lately, I have been searching for a job. With several shows booked in (you'll see!) and a couple of workshops in the mix, on top of going back to study this year, stability is on my mind. I'm not going to lie, it has been getting me down a little.

However, I do need to remind myself that good things are always just around the corner (right?). The other day, Marcel did a really bad fart. Like seriously, it was awful. Just awful. Had to leave the room. How can such a tiny, cute animal be so disgusting? Anyway, it prompted me to create this work. Perhaps it was an attempt to give some kind of floral delight to my stinky cat, to view the world through rose-coloured glasses.

I was quite pleased with this cheery outcome, particularly as it was a result of such an unpleasant experience.

Every cloud has a (stinky) silver lining.

xx

L.

gemstones and practice

Happy Thursday everyone! I thought I'd share some work that I have been agonising over. I am painting a series of gemstones for an upcoming secret(ish) project, and actually, it is REALLY HARD! This is gemstone attempt 11 and 12 - the first two that actually resemble a faceted stone (I think). If I look too hard at them, they start to resemble the soggy mess that stones 1–10 were and I can't see any form any more. 

If I squint, they actually look ok, so I think we're getting somewhere. I felt it was important to post these, because as someone who has painted in the past, I was getting really frustrated that I couldn't just 'whip up' these images. I think there is a common misconception that artists find traditional image-making (such as drawing, printmaking and photography) easy. I know I often think it myself: "pfft - I can draw, as if this photo isn't going to be excellent!" (Turns out I can't take a picture to save my life - it's rather disappointing.) 

This is gemstone number 6. Imagine what the first five looked like. Ugh. What I continually have to remind my self is to practise. We say 'art practice' do we not? I appreciate that some people may find a painting task like this simple, however it is not something that comes naturally to me. But I live by the fact that if you want to get better at something, you need to do it again and again. And then some more! 

Seeing as I was never without a pencil in my hand for the first 20 years of my life, I think drawing had to come out somewhere. However, I can honestly say that I never thought of this 'keep practising' concept until I was trying to draw milly-molly-mandy about ... five years ago. After the first disastrous attempt, I declared that it was 'too hard, I'm crap!' until my (wonderful) Husband Kent very gently suggested that I kept trying until I was happy with it. Those drawings ended up in my first ever public exhibition.

So cheesy I know, but sometimes it's good to remind yourself that effort does play a part in the things we do. I am very privileged in that I have a supportive network of friends and family who encourage me to keep trying this art business. How cross my mum would be if I had thrown out Gemstone number one and then whined about it being too hard to bother with. That thing you might be struggling with at the moment may be getting you down, but perhaps just set it aside for now. Take a breath, and give it another attempt tomorrow*. 

xx

L.

*I am already so sick of gemstones, I can't be effed even looking at another one today. Hopefully tomorrow they will be shiny and new.

inversions

Some of you may know, this year I am undertaking an Advanced Diploma of Yoga Teaching. Exciting, no? It has already led my work in a very specific direction. This work (completed only today) has made me realise how much of my collage-based work references force, gravity, movement, stillness and many other aspects of a yoga practice. It's uncanny.

I would like to stress that I am not quitting art to join a commune and grow my armpit hair. This year is already shaping up into a very exciting and challenging collection of exhibitions, workshops and extra fun projects.

Here's hoping that I can continue living this fine balance that has been the last 8 years of making pictures and occasionally standing on my head.

x
L.

Headhunting

Like many people I've spoken to of late, I feel that this year is the year for change. Me, I am turning away from headless beings for the moment, and focusing on heads. Without wishing to give too much away at this stage, here is a sneaky peak of a project I am currently working on. It will be shown in a group show at Linden in the middle of this year, with a collection of some of the spunkiest artists I can think of to work with.

Watch this space!

xx
L.

the wrap-up

 

 

It has been a mad year in the land of Lucy James - I moved towns (again), started (several) new jobs, had two solo shows, three collaborations and a sprinkling of group activity. I learned new skills, forgot some old ones, relearned those, enrolled in new courses and figured out how to make fudge (I have the burns to prove it).

To all of you who have bought, exhibited, shown interest and discussed my work, your support has been invaluable. Thank you so much to all the artists, gallerists, curators and patrons I have had the pleasure of working with this year. This life would not be possible without you!

I wish you all a happy, relaxing and safe holiday season, and look forward to seeing you all in 2013 – some exciting plans are in the works, so watch this space!

x

Lucy

 

p.s. To those of you who are on my mailing list - please check your spam! I often get lost in there. If you would like to go on my mailing list, please contact me and I'll pop you on!