May featured artist: Mary Kennedy

Symbols of a (nearly) lost tribe.

For Mary Kennedy her work as Regional Indigenous Cultural Development Officer is less about leading and more about working with her art group.

“With the group I sort of go “so what about doing this,’ or, ‘so we’re working towards this’ and then they do their own thing (with their artworks) whereas if I’m working outside our group, in a school or something, then they need a bit more direction…then I lead.”

For Warren, the introduction of the RICDO program led initially by Peter Browne, meant a step forward in connecting both the Indigenous and non-indigenous members of the community through a common cause. For Mary and the men and women in her art group, it meant a creative outlet and also a step towards furthering the education about the Ngemba Wailwan tribe.

“Before Peter came we knew there were Aborigines from around this area but we didn’t know their stories. I knew some and knew where the (carved) trees and burial grounds were because I remembered my Grandfather showing me as a little girl but it wasn’t until Peter approached me after he saw me holding an art workshop after being up north and said ‘can you get some interested people to get together to do art’….that we were shown all the pictures (of carved trees) and the stories behind the tribe’s history.”

For the Ngemba Wailwan people the road to recovery has been a challenging one. Nearly wiped to extinction in the 1800’s their people have lived in between Gilgandra and Brewarrina but have centered in Warren where Mary, her art group and their families now reside.

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March featured artist: Annie Murray

 

Annie Murray’s works echo life on the land and the wide range of inspiration and stories that lie within the wide open plains of western NSW.

Working both independently and as part of a collective art group called the ‘Walgett Painters’, Annie says life on the land and the people who live on it are a constant source of inspiration for her.

Aiming to celebrate and recognise the vast landscape and the people who live in and around the district, Annie says she tries to divide her time between her own individual art practice, mentoring the art group the Walgett Painters and her role on the family farm 70 kilometres outside of Walgett.

“For me art is all or nothing…I’ve always been keen on art but when the art group was established was when I started painting seriously.”

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November featured artist: Jude Fleming

The first thing that strikes you when you meet Jude Fleming is she seems to emit a sense of innate grace. She is polite and unassuming, and holds an air of artistic elegance with a touch of earthiness that seems to rub off on anyone living in the country for an extended period of time.

Based in Warren, Jude says her love of art goes back to when she was a child and was ‘always scribbling something down or making something’.

“I’ve always drawn and painted, fiddled and made things, but was not religiously focused to the extent that I am now.”

Not one to be pigeon-holed, Jude branches out into a variety of different mediums including oils and acrylic painting, weaving with natural fibres and working with ink on paper.

Both a teacher and an artist, Jude says she is never short of inspiration and that the Western Plains provide a palate of colour for her to draw ideas from.

“I think that…the vision (the landscape) itself captures my imagination…There’s a kind of magnetic beauty that I’ll never find in (traditionally) ‘pretty’ landscapes. (They don’t have) that magnetic appeal that the vast acreages of big country, the enormous sky does.“

Working in an abstract style, Jude says her practice is not about reproducing the vision in front of her but rather how she sees it.

“I don’t want to be representational; a photograph can do that for me. I like to have that distortion, however minor, that recessional emotion that doesn’t come from romantic repetition.”

With an array of artwork dotted across the regional landscape and many upcoming exhibitions Jude says the community of Warren is exceedingly encouraging of her and other artists within the region.

“Whether it’s buying an artwork or bringing a platter of food to an art opening everyone is very supportive.”

Jude teaches art classes in Warren and recently taught basket weaving at the 2011 Moorambilla Festival. She also featured artworks in the 2011 Outback Archies of Landscape, Legends and Lifelines as well as the Warren 150 year anniversary celebratory art exhibition.

For examples of Jude’s work see gallery below

Jude can be contacted through Outback Arts on 0268 222 484

Profile photo courtesy of Kim Goldsmith.

October featured artist: Karrin Thurston

Fingers sticky with mud, sand and a paintbrush beside her Karrin Thurston is ready for her exhibition. Held until October 7th the exhibition is her first solo exhibition and also part of the Lightning Ridge ARTtober festivities.

A culmination of hard work and dedication Karrin says she is very excited by the exhibition.

“This is my first solo exhibition and I believe finally I am maturing and recognising who I am and where I want to go. ‘Sand, Mud and Colour’ (the name of the exhibition) sums it up. I use sand as an art medium. It is an aboriginal art form that has been passed onto me to teach and I use it as a form of self-expression”

“I am passionate about this land I live on. I have lived at the sea, having grown up at Kiama, but I belong out here in the bush. I now live in a mining camp on the western side of the Lightning Ridge peak.
“As an artist I have been on a journey of discovery for the past few years experimenting with different art styles and mediums – finally I have rediscovered mud. Now I work with it.”

“My art reflects the captured light in the opals and the bush- especially the brilliance of sunsets and the mud and energy of the earth. Colour (in the artworks) is influenced by the intricacies of the opals, the fire of the sun and the colours of the bush.”

Working as Regional Indigenous Cultural Development Officer (RICDO) for Outback Arts in Lightning Ridge Karrin says her aim is to lead and inspire local community artists to explore and develop their talents but says the difficulty lies in the ability to promote those artists and those in her immediate community.

“I think the greatest challenge we face as artists in rural and remote areas is the tyranny of distance. To enter competitions, to become known, costs a fortune! Freight companies do not want the responsibility of art works – their insurance costs are horrendous. We lack exposure for our art to potential buyers and also lack exposure for ourselves to experience other art forms and cultures but the advent of the internet has been a great boost for rural and remote artists.”

With many upcoming events in Lightning Ridge this month, Karrin’s exhibition is just one of the highlights that will appear throughout the town. Her art group, the Yuluwirri Rainbow Painters, will appear at the Ridge Art Space from 8th-13th October.
Utilising the advent of web-based promotional mediums the ARTtober festival outline can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ARTtober

September featured artist: Michelle Leonard

When passion meets music

When you first meeting Michelle Leonard one of the first thing that strikes you is her passion. The way she talks about music, her job and, in particular, the music festival Moorambilla.

Aiming to bring quality musical and artistic opportunities to kids in the bush, Michelle says Moorambilla Voices Regional Children’s Choir was created to allow children in regional remote New South Wales the opportunity to work with professional musicians and quality music in and around their home base.

With workshops being set up in each school in the area Michelle works with all school children in a hands-on workshops to teach them the basics of musical composition but also to gently discover hidden talent.

“How Moorambilla is unique is that we don’t ask the schools who they think would be an appropriate candidate. We actually go and do an open slather workshop for every child who is enrolled on the day at that school.”

Michelle says the way the workshops are structured are so that any child who participates has the opportunity to show their musical talent, whether it is straight at the start or at the end.

“Some children, and even young adults, don’t peak in that workshop until right until the very end. It’s like the penny drops. And that’s the way the workshops are structured, to wait until that moment when they finally understand.

“Sometimes they go ‘why do you want me?’ and I’ll go ‘because you have a brilliant brain’ and they’ll look at me, these kids or the staff, and say ‘are you sure you want that candidate? and I’ll reply ‘absolutely’. Because I’m building an instrument, I’m putting all the bits of the Lego together so each person who is there has a particular skill that I need for that ensemble and that’s part of my profession.”

Not one to avoid hard work, Michelle says her perseverance has paid off as the profile of Moorambilla, Moorambilla Voices and MaxedOut has grown in communities in the Far West and the opportunities it provides for children living and working in these areas.

“When I started it (Moorambilla Voices)…I’d had the opportunity to work at the national children’s choir Gondwana Voices, but I noticed that there was not a strong representation of indigenous or remote, regional kids and that to me seemed like a huge oversight. I wanted to change that. (What happens) in most regional remote areas, is that you may have the capacity but you may not have the financial wherewithal ‘Voices’ breaks through that.

Building ‘Voices’ on the basis of excellence through equality, Michelle says the need for equity regardless of the child’s financial situation was the key driving point to help build the scholarship fund (which, through donations, allows children from regional areas the opportunity to take part in the camps and workshops). However, Michelle says that centres within the Moorambilla ‘area’ must identify that their donations help children access these facilities

“Up until very recently, there’s been not a lot of support for that, or not a lot of recognition that it is essential for the success of the program and to what it brings in a really unique way artistically because you are creating, as much as you can, a level playing field. You are putting people, and their life experiences, side-by-side which under normal circumstances would not happen and you are showing them, their communities, their family members that there is untapped excellence in people who would be the least likely candidates and it’s benefitting them in so many ways.”

Now in its sixth year in Coonamble Michelle says the festival has reach a level of maturation that the camps, and the festival itself, is now opening itself up to various levels of artistic expression.

“What I’m hoping to see, and this is where we’re really cutting edge-for choral stuff anyway, is a deeper collaboration across all the art forms. What we’re looking at is more intensive engagement with visual arts or crafts people and beyond who will teach that craft and then work with our composers and our ensembles to create music about them…..what you’re creating is this wonderful situation where you are giving influences to artists outside of their own art form where it becomes this melting pot where people want to come in and do it.”

For more information on Moorambilla, or to become involved in Moorambilla yourself, visit www.moorambilla.com for more details.

 

August featured artist: Alison Dent

From old comes something new

Creating new works from old materials is what Gulargambone artist Alison Dent excels at. Her favourite material, steel, has thrust her into the spotlight with her works appearing in both local shows and further afield.
Creating works both small and large, Alison says her current project, creating 30 life-size galloping horses (and a windmill) for the side of a shed, is one of her most challenging yet.
Alison says the projects inspiration stemmed from a designer both she and Sue had seen who created wallpaper and fabrics with galloping horses and developed their ideas from that.
Alison says her most well known project was her involvement with the corrugated iron gulars that can be found surrounding the village of Gulargambone.
“They (the gular’s) were designed by Sam Newstead but there were about 40 volunteers and we workshopped them one weekend and we got the forty original ones up on the road but then the ones we on-sell are 30% smaller than that….the smaller ones are always a favourite.”
Her favourite medium being steel, Alison says the greatest positive with working with steel is that ‘you can always fix it’.
“It’s so rewarding in that with steel is that you can ‘ruin’ it (the work) and still reuse it all. You can always fix it, whereas if you are working with wood if you break something you’ve probably go to throw it away and start another piece. With steel you can keep on re-using it. It’s amazing,” she said.
Recently Alison joined the Outback Arts community as a board member and says her interest in outback art, as the concept, has driven her to join the board to help promote regional talent in her area.
“Art is growing in importance but hasn’t been realised properly and it plays a part in nearly everybody’s life, in every businesses life. Everywhere you look, people don’t realise how much is art and how much it is part of what we do and where it goes to.  Every walk they take, every logo they have, so much is from art.
“And it’s just pleasurable. It’s something that it doesn’t matter how old you get or what you do there’s always a spot to do it. There are always people to communicate with and it’s great.”
Alison lives with her husband John on a property near Gulargambone.