Homage after Hiatus

Well, it has been a mad start to 2011.

I am finding it hard to comprehend where the first two months of the year disappeared to. It's almost like they somehow bypassed me, but I know I was there for them, during which time I turned 37 - (sometimes I feel I could say the same thing about the last 20 years)... but I have been present for them all.

I'm not as fearful of forty as I was a couple of years ago, though I would like to unpack my suitcase of dreams and ambitions that were packed away somewhere in my late twenties and have been sitting in storage for most of my thirties. If anything, with 40 being within smelling range, it has made me determined to pursue and achieve as many of those things as I can between now and the beginning a new (age) decade.

To commence, or perhaps continue, on this journey, I need to first find the road that leads to my studio. It's path has been somewhat obscured of late but I am slowly tidying things up in order to be able to see it more clearly.

My car wouldn't start today. At first I was a little irate about it, but that feeling dispersed rather quickly as I remembered what I had said to an eye-rolling, heavy sighing, nasty-muttering elderly lady yesterday as she was losing her patience with a checkout queue in Target... "at least we are not in Japan."

Of course, I love Japan, it is my second home, but my comment was a subtle yet direct reference to the recent earthquake and tsunami that has devastated far too large an area and population of a most beautiful country. I didn't feel any explanation was necessary, nor did anyone else around me say anything - but I know they all heard... and I can only hope that for a brief moment, the people in the queue, along with myself, stopped to consider perhaps how fortunate we really are and of course, how insignificant a slow service line really is!

I used the same thought principle in relation to my idle vehicle. Sure, I had a lot I wanted to get done today, but in hindsight, if I had done all these things, I may not have found myself back in my studio today enjoying the feeling of pens and brushes in my hand and paint on my feet!


It felt great. I felt happy. And before too long, I'd totally forgotten about my car and how I was going to fix it.

I have been asked to participate in a group exhibition titled, Homage to Frida (Kahlo) in June this year at 19 Karen on the Gold Coast. As she is one of my major influences I didn't hesitate to agree. I spent today browsing images of her and her works, scanning through her diary pages and reading a number of her better known quotes. It felt nice to be involved again!

And nice to, once again, be making marks.