I somehow foolishly hoped writing for a blog would help me to fulfil the cliché of ‘living in the moment’. Instead, whenever I’m tempted to post something it’s always about my thoughts for the future. I learnt from my travels through Thailand that I’ve got the typical western ‘monkey mind’. Thai Buddhism seeks to halt the constant swing of thoughts from past to future, instead to rest simply on the present. I guess this is all achieved through meditation and what not, but I can never seem to find the time for it. Perhaps that’s another typical western trait- a perceived scarcity of time.

Line made by walking- Richard Long

My levels of motivation have never been great. Although I hate the idea of being controlled and would rather believe I can achieve things independently, I seem to accomplish things more effectively under the eyes of a coach, a boss or a teacher. This goes for sport, school work, jobs, everything, really. How can I expect to somehow be my own boss if history tells me it doesn’t work out that way?

Until I sign up for a yoga class, I’ll never do it in my own time...

The worst thing about dreaming up the future is that I set expectations so high they inevitably crumble when the time rolls round. I need to source pleasure from the simple everyday moments, just like the french do. Because things are never as ideal as I want them to be. I need to savour the unexpected and the overlooked. 

figuration now.

My inhabitable body, Del Kathryn Barton

So, once again, I've decided to start blogging again. I'm not sure If I should keep this site or start something fresh? But I need something right now to type up, (as opposed to write down?) my thoughts. I'm not fussed about followers or comments, I'm just hoping that by unscrambling these thoughts and aspirations in my head, everything might become a little more clear. Maybe.


I'm stressed at the moment. I'm worried because, as stupid as it sounds, I'm nineteen and I have no idea what I want to do with my life. There's several things that I know my life needs to revolve around, I'm just not sure yet how to combine them- creativity, sustainability and travel.


Creativity- art, design, literature, music...


Sustainability- environment, developing countries, volunteer work, greening our everyday lives...


Travel- Europe, Asia, working, new cultures, inspiration, challenges...

all ways, Del Kathryn Barton

I'm beginning to think that instead of narrowing these passions of mine through study, I can share them, transform them, nurture them, and use them here on this blog. I want to stop worrying about the future. I want to appreciate these days of my youth, as cliched as it sounds, and at least try to live in the moment. And by doing so, perhaps this is contradictory, I'll stumble upon a more definitive path to my future.


Right now, I'm frustrated by the idea of university. I can't choose what to study because I feel like I'm narrowing my options. If I choose bachelor of arts I don't feel like I'm fostering my passion for sustainability and that my career prospects will be low. If I choose to Environments I feel I've ignored my love for all things creative and arts based. I'm currently half way through my first semester of an arts degree and I'm not happy. I love my art history subject, I'm not a fan of my communications subject, and I love love love my environments subject. I can't choose, I don't want to have to... 


And so because of this uncertainty, I feel like I'm wasting my time at uni. Perhaps I should just pack up, leave and travel until I know what to do. I don't even know if I could go travelling right now. I've just found the most amazing boy and I'm not ready to leave...


At the moment, the plan is to switch to environments next year, at least for a year. At the moment, I'm finding the idea of architecture really interesting, so perhaps I'll follow that path...

I came into myself | and faraway I am there too, Del Kathryn Barton

Light Garden

It's been a slow process of eighteen years but I have now developed a love for all things quilted. My nan's a quilter and so I've been surrounded by quilts my whole life. Light Garden further enhances my appreciation for what have constituted my idea of the home and of family.

My beloved Frankie introduced me to Light Garden- an installation of two suspended patchwork disks comprised of organic, recycled and naturally dyed cotton. They're described as portraits of life which is exactly how I'd refer to the many quilts throughout my house. Beneath an old fraying quilt I think of the life before the quilt, what inspired the quilt, the life during the quilt's creation, and the life of the quilt and the many lives it has impacted. Quilts are a collage of fabrics and colours but also lives and memories and moments. My nan has agreed to help me create a quilt of my own next year and I resolve to make it purely from recycled fabrics, adding more history to its fibres.

I'm a sucker for the combination of new and old in this art installation- the use of traditional quilting style and techniques with contemporary sustainable materials in a modern context presented in an unorthodox fashion through the use of suspended disks.

This year I tried to not buy any new clothes and instead only buy second hand clothes. I failed miserably, largely due to the fact I travelled to Thailand where I was bombarded with cheap clothes. Also the opp shop can only stock you so many basic quality shirts and singlets. Next year I hope to follow a similar but less rigid path where I will try to only buy clothing that is either second hand, organic, fair trade, or ethically made within Australia by an Australian company. I'll be earning my own money so hopefully it is achievable. I want to be more creative with my clothing choices also, utilising the sewing machine as much as possible, transforming my outfits into a patchwork of colours and histories.

I want to improve my sewing skills with the help of my nan and resort back to the old motto of 'mend and make do'. This woman is particularly inspiring for her resourcefulness and creativity. I've even more reason to start getting creative with the sewing machine now that I've picked up a new job without a uniform!

New Beginnings

School has finished and I'm home from a month spent in Thailand. This is the beginning, no?

I want to continue blogging, using this space to write about and support ethical and sustainable art. I want to establish myself a career in the arts and so maybe I can use this blog to help me pursue that.

Thailand was an amazing experience. The whole time I kept my eye out for art galleries and little studios but was sadly disappointed to find there were few. Much to my dislike, we stayed in the more touristy areas where artists painted purely for a western audience, creating reproductions of famous art works, the typical frangipani and abstract boxy things. When I visited Phuket town, however, I finally found what I was looking for- Wua Art Gallery and Studio. Mr Zen's paintings were so different to any others that I'd seen in Thailand, kind of like what you'd put on a wall in a hip Melbourne cafe. So cheap too! It gave me hope and reminded me, after a month of no art, that this, art, is what I love and need to immerse myself in. Unfortunately, after too many vodka buckets and hill tribe jewel

lery purchases over the weeks, I couldn't even afford one of his prints, and that's saying something.

That same day, I stumbled across another gallery/cafe which threw my heart into a flutter once more. The Love Art Studio could have held me captive for hours if it weren't for the bus timetable I had to abide by. Kitipong Ngowsiri was exhibiting there- his paintings are a gorgeous mess of colour and texture and ranging subject matter, riddled with humour. A tarp was cutely hung upon the wall with painted/grafittied words which something like:

'Absolutely number one the art

Exhibition is original art 100% [shit]

You can buy artwork in $1/ piece here by

choosing to put [throw] your money [heart] either

to left or right box. And I will ask your [my] god to

bless [be] you.'

And so I left a 20baht donation in the box for the artist in return for a post card with one of his paintings on it, the other box was for a charity aimed at helping the homeless dog situation going on in Phuket. I left feeling more fulfilled then after a dose banana pancakes.

Right now, I'm trying to plan what I want out of next year- resolutions, I guess. One such resolution is inspired by Ngowsiri's words- to use my money as if it is my heart.

Art should not be purchased blindly. In a world that is under pressure from materialism, we need to purchase more with our hearts- ensuring that what we buy is not harming the planet or people but serving a positive purpose.

bag over my head

sonya peters, charcoal on paper bags.

Blessed be the day that I finally see an Egon Schiele creation. His paintings/sketches are raw, intimate, sensual, erotic and crude, sometimes confrontingly cruel, sadistic and narcissistic. Above all Schiele challenges our understanding of beauty and the human form. I was intrigued to learn how Schiele used Rodin's technique of 'continuous drawing'. He would sketch while never taking his eyes off his subject, contributing to what becomes visceral spontaneity on framed paper. I tried such a technique at home and was rather content with the results, it helped me separate my often destructive strive for aesthetic perfection from emotive expression.

Nu Assis 1910

"To restrict the artist is a crime. It is to murder germinating life."

"Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal."

"At present, I am mainly observing the physical motion of mountains, water, trees and flowers. One is everywhere reminded of similar movements in the human body, of similar impulses of joy and suffering in plants."

Yvette Molina

I love that Molina can disregard the traditional square canvas for rounded shapes of aluminium of which its sheen adds to the serenity of her depictions of the wilderness. The circles she often uses to frame her paintings, I think, are more than relevant to her subject matter. Circles seem to express a close affinity to the natural world; the infinite cycles of life, death and decay, the interconnectedness of all living things.