We decided to rip out the bathroom and put in some new elements. We will be a little uncomfortable for a while, while we do this so that whoever it is that calls our place home next will find it very comfortable and warm and welcome. Probably doesn't financially make sense.
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Another great program I am loving 'When I get a minute' Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales (iview). I am using their suggestions as my reading recommendation resource - except I can't keep up the pace. Anyway another book suggestion is 'Do No Harm' by Henry Marsh (2014). I am finding it comforting in relation to mistakes I have made such as those displayed in my social fabric piece I posted a couple of days ago. Mistakes?? I don't blame myself entirely but do regret my own ignorance, inability or whatever other limitations prevented me from helping these people further. Relocating my house also has its benefits by finding things again. I found and read my Year 2 Story book (1983) my Mum handed back to me about a year ago. I was making mistakes back then, I'll keep making mistakes but hopefully make less or respond to them better. Keep learning, like Henry suggests, often the hard way. I did a lot of cooking with my mother growing up and whenever there was a mistake, she often came up with a solution. I remember feeling very privileged to be behind those post boxes and wondering about what was in each letter.
Going through some of the artwork I have done, throwing out whatever does not have to come to Canberra with us. At TAFE in 2013 I did this artwork on canvas and called it Social Fabric. I guess the injustices that plague us keep coming back over and over. I can't think of a better way to describe the process of that last sentence? Anyway this was from some time I spent in Redfern and seeing some of the people that I felt completely and utterly helpless to help above the standard formal processes. I started at one end of the canvas from left to right and it was for me like writing a sorry note to these people. It honestly still upsets me to see it even though it helped me to let some of it go. This happens in our country and circumstances that are certainly not contained to one suburb. Don't read the next paragraph if you are a bit squeamish.
Schizophrenic man plagued with creatures in his mind he couldn't get away from and using a knife, cutting into his own hands, man so off his face he smashed the windscreens of about ten cars along one street with his own head, who I sat with in hospital afterwards helpless, a woman who was glassed on the face but her only concern was getting back to her kids at home, man hung himself on the back of his bedroom door with an electrical cord alone, girl with her legs trapped under the dashboard after an accident, transgender with mental illness just needing someone to sit and talk with her, David who hit people over the head in the park randomly??, mother crying in the gutter after her son had beaten up his girlfriend, mentally ill woman unconscious in her apartment hypoglycemic, children running barefoot in an area with loads of needles, overdosing heroin addict, young girl like 12 year old with chroming marks around her mouth and off her face, children watching T.V. like nothing was happening while Mum had blood oozing from her face where Dad had beaten her up, a man dead for days in a busy apartment block and nobody had noticed until there were flies on the window. These were some of the people. It is ugly and not subtle, but it is these images I will probably keep weaving into my artwork as I go along? A lot of people don't understand subtle anyway when it is not something they have seen in the real world before or chose not to see it and I can understand why people turn away - screw up their nose and say why don't you paint nice pictures. Hmmm, why don't I? I am loving this show and it is the one that we watch as a family. A friend who studied psychology told me that it is good to have a T.V. show that you make so regular that regardless of what is going on in every bodies life in the family, you at least all turn up daily to the same place at the same time to enjoy it together. This might become ours. There were some stories about some of the invisible people tonight. So good for our children to see this. One of our daughters has a good friend at school from Bangladesh. Her parents are here on a working visa. There is a constant stress and uncertainty for their near distant future, not knowing if they can stay in Australia or not. Having a desire to at least have their daughter be able to finish her schooling in Australia is a priority as she has not had any in Bangladesh. Her Dad said to me when talking about the costs involved in renewing visa's 'it would be easier to come by boat'. The thought of my daughter or her friend, as her parents would have to envisage, having to be in a situation like that makes me shudder. This girl is one of the gentlest and beautifully kind people you could ever meet. Her parents are intelligent, resourceful and Dad is contributing to the education system in Brisbane and even this contribution is not recognised because he works 20 hours a week. It is not full time so it is not counted at all.
My family and I are about to move to Canberra. A new adventure. Mixed emotions. I think we live relatively simple...until it is time to move. I think that this will be good for me in the respect of shedding all the excessive things. I used to say I would be happy if all my possessions were burnt to the ground and I could live my days in a caravan by the ocean. Our children are not quite at the point of being happy with that, but they will realise soon enough less is more. Well Canberra is definitely not near the ocean, but I keep thinking back to a sentence from the book 'The Red Tent' that went something like, 'I found my happiness in the dry hills'. Not that I am not happy here because I am. I have my family and less is more. I wonder what I will see next. So I won't be producing any more images for a while. Sigh.
'When I get a minute' (iview) suggestion: 'Australia's Second Chance' written by George Megalogenis. Outlining Australia's colourful history. Halfway through reading it. It is very good.
Sport is as much a religion as any other form of group get-together. You have every walk of life joining in the ritualistic worship...with the every-now-and-then attendees, the everything in moderation lot and then extremists that give the group a bad wrap to any outsiders looking in deciding if they would like to join in. Spiritual realms, physical realms, philosophical realms, realms of beauty worship, educational...etc etc, can be applied to any gathering. 'Don't yuck my yum' - taken from the T.V. series 'Happy-ish'
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