Welcome once again to another Creative Connections art and poetry event and a huge thank you to Clare and your team at Victoria Park Centre for the Arts for your generosity in making this space available.
As always, on behalf of artists and support teams, our heartfelt appreciation goes to the poets from WA Poets Inc for your dedication, reciprocation and advocacy. I am always amazed at the constancy of the generosity and creativity this particular group of artists brings to the wider arts community year after year.
This selective exhibition is yet another ground breaker for Creative Connections and has grown out of the three series of workshops funded by Community Arts Network and Office for Multicultural Interests which ran between 2013 and 2015 culminating in the Devils Birthday stand out, and almost sold out, exhibition held in this space in December 2015. Tonight the work we see is from a select group of artists, most of whom have attended at least one series of workshops over the past three years.
As well, we have an artist and three poets from the Southern Forests region of WA contributing for the first time. This is another exciting step forward and has created a whole new raft of possibilities for the host community and the remote community respectively.
So much has come out of these past years. We saw the ongoing learning and development of art practices, incremental steps and gigantic strides being taken with equal importance. It was incredibly exciting be part of this journey and at the end of the three years we found ourselves happily but nervously accountable to the artists and practices into the future. Having created the opportunity to grow artistically and socially we now had to find a way to keep providing those choices, with or without external funding. Probably without. It was a biggie for a small voluntary organisation.
So how to find a way forward? Sums were done and partner organisation Nulsen Disability Services stepped up with the offer of a work space which meant that at the beginning of 2016, we started up our own workshop on Friday mornings at the Garvey Park Artists Studios in Ascot. Four of the artists working out of that space have their work hanging on the wall this evening.
The partner organisations, Nulsen Disability Services, the Ability Centre and Intelife all run art workshops in their own communities and have done for many years. We hope that by extending that experience, another layer, another choice is offered to the artist. This is after all, only offering what most of us take for granted, access to educational and vocational structures in our community which enable us to learn and make life choices.
To be here this evening, knowing there are and will continue to be changes and new challenges, it is even more exciting to be part of this loose collective of communities which always has the vision and courage to find a way to open doors when a chink appears, look through windows and in the words of artist Greg Barr when he first visited an art workshop, to say ‘I want to do that’ and making sure that it happens.
To the artists, you have done it again. As always, you inspire us with the breakthroughs and the depth and strength of your work hanging in the space this evening. We see styles being further explored and experimental steps taken in new directions. Your hard work and vision has once again paid off and we salute your talents.
I invite you all to take the time to study both the artworks and the poems and their relationship to each other. All artworks are for sale with 80% being returned to the artists. There are also packs of cards for sale to help with our exhibition costs.
The exhibition will be up until 4pm next Thursday so do feel free to come back and enjoy the works in quieter times. Enjoy.
Patti Ferber, Co Coordinator.
Contributing Artists and Poets
- Janine Noonan ‘Raindrops’ Glen Phillips
- Janine Noonan ‘Raindrops and Stripes’ Sunny Blundell-Wignall
- Michael Frith ‘Amazing’ Zan Ross
- Michael Frith ‘Majic’ Tash Adams
- Clinton Carter Untitled Liana Joy Christensen
- Jeremy Gowing ‘Tree Study’ Josephine Clarke
- Steve Pearton ‘Fishing with Brother’ Faye Teale- Clavi
- Bonnie Wilkinson ‘Untitled’ Gary Colombo De Piazzi
- Aimee Dickson ‘Blue Fish’ Claudette Mountjoy, Janis Abbott & Kerry Parkes
- Aimee Dickson ‘My People’ Janis Abbott & Kerry Parkes
- Andrew Murray Untitled 1 Margaret Ferrell
- Andrew Murray Untitled 2 Sally Ann Gaunt
- Andrew Murray Untitled 3 Chris Palazzollo
- Clinton Carter Untitled 1 Mike Greenace
- Clinton Carter Untitled 2 Ann Harrison
- Elinor Doddrell Untitled 1 Peter Jeffery
- Elinor Doddrell Untitled 2 Julienne Juschke
- Grace Panaia Untitled 1 Christopher Kennedy
- Grace Panaia Untitled 2 Veronica Lake
- Janelle MacMahon Untitled Peter Rondell
- Jason Whittington Untitled 1 Shey Marque
- Jason Whittington Untitled 2 Gary Colombo De Piazzi
- Joel Grant Untitled 1 Scott-Patrick Mitchell
- Joel Grant Untitled 2 Jan Napier
- Joel Grant Untitled 3 Val Neubecker
- Lana Davie Untitled Virginia O’Keefe
- Lindy Johnson ‘Matilda Bay’ Ron Okely
- Lindy Johnson ‘You can see the Trees Through the Woods’ Allan Padgett
- Sarah Fogg ‘Blowing in the Wind’ Wendy Beach
- Janine Noonan ‘Raindrops’
Settina
Try to recall your loved ones
when the time comes. They leave you
memories that rise in hearts
and mount up like bright wreaths. And
hearts warm to the memories
you treasure. So be strong when
one’s tears flow, or at least try.
Glen Phillips
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- Janine Noonan ‘Raindrops and Stripes’
phishing in the river mouth
open sea
re-shapes
the soft palate
of sandbars, its saline edge
surging inland,
like a new phrase;
an inlet, where
floating
insects —
tense interpreters
of separation —
ply their trade in the fluvial channel.
yet, when a particular threshold is reached,
language breaks:
poets scoop their catch
from the chaotic brine,
hoisting it,
amid the jettisoned ideas
of clouds.
but, their selfies are sucked out in the ebbing tide.
Sunny Wignall
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- Michael Frith ‘Amazing’
Nulsen’s Party
Okay, so it started out kinda nice, all sweet pink,
fairybread, cupcakes and fruit punch. Yeah, there
were chips, so much cheese … and fruit. (We all
liked that!) … Then some stupid head put on music —
Fifties stuff, then free-form jazz, rockabilly, The Wiggles …
I mean, WT…!!? Only two of us liked that stuff … you could
see the beige all over them. The rest of us, not so much.
We were the restless horde, all colours spinning and
shooting until FINALLY, this yellow hit the phone hooked
up to speakers and it went, like silent … for about a minute …
then yellow plugged in their phone, and there was a groove
We mellowed, got back to laughing and dancing. Some
party that. Can’t wait until next month.
Zan Ross
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- Michael Frith ‘Majic’
Sliced Time
the closer we come
you pull us apart
your confusion a cycle
of lust and guilt
memories spliced
turned back on themselves
you won’t hurt me again
I still love you
Tash Adams
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- Clinton Carter ‘Untitled’
Bored, blue rain swipes right
across the desert’s dun face.
Expectations, low to begin with,
evaporate overnight.
Inconstant, rain comes and goes,
puddling in hollows,
leaving before dawn.
Lukewarm, rain will not stay,
so fails to see that desiccated
heart break open and bloom
Loose suitors always miss
the miracle.
Liana Joy Christensen
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- Jeremy Gowing ‘Tree Study’
Breathing Space
Leaves eat the sky and blue becomes green.
We can witness the silence of bark,
stillness of windless days
the songs insects sing in the sand
How beautiful it is to breathe,
the bush biting our ears with the scent
of eucalypt, melaleuca.
The paper we write on, draw on,
as radiant as sun.
Josephine Clarke
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- Steve Pearton ‘Fishing with Brother’
Fishing With My Brother
The day had become red,
dust filled the atmosphere
With an airy hue
As we cruised the distant waters
the need to head home evident
In the distance a whale danced
across the sea, splashes rose
Fish where not on the menu tonight
Home was a safe place from the red dust
Faye Teale Clavi
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- Bonnie Wilkinson ‘Untitled’
It is March and it is still fine
for an open top car.
We can drive close to stars
and drift with clouds.
Wear masks and pretend to be dragons|
in this clanking mechanism of motoring.
Pass ecstatic identities and ancient things
to bob like leaves beyond reality.
Share secrets, just you and me,
until the world shifts away
from everyday ordinary
flares into laughter with sneaky eyes.
Sly along roads filled with tricks
and pranks dressed as a handshake
and change into princes and princesses.
Just step into my car.
Gary Colombo De Piazzi
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- Aimee Dickson ‘Blue Fish’
Queen Aimee
A beautiful fish
Created not made
Full of music
Floats across the azure sea
Birthing foot soldiers
To serve their queen
Claudette Mountjoy
I am.
Journey stamped.
Life imprinted with my soul.
Vacuumed.
Tight.
Within my sapphire light, I glow
Janis Abbott
A Tragic Whale’s Tale
Jonah and his family went for a sail,
Jonah and his family were swallowed by a whale
“Swallowed by a whale?
What a tragic tale!”
Yeah – now Jonah and his family live on that whale’s tail.
“Hang on a minute,
That’s not a whale!”
OK, OK, so my story’s a fail.
No need to dis me, or put me in jail.
To bore you to death was not my wish.
Truth is, Jonah caught a fish,
Cooked it, served it on a dish.
Family’s verdict – “Its delish!”
Kerry Parkes
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- Aimee Dickson ‘My People’
Look.
We are one.
Each his own.
Together.
Our wall of graffiti can never be said.
It states.
Discern
Janis Abbott
Aimee is a keeper,
A keeper with a key.
She keeps a world locked in her head,
That few can seldom see.
But sometimes, if we’re lucky,
She leaves the door ajar
And out pops words and colour bursts,
Zigzags, dots and stars.
Little bits of happiness
Bounce brightly from their lair,
Which she gathers all together
And orchestrates, with flair.
Kerry Parkes
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- Andrew Murray Untitled 1
Magenta bewitches –
fantasy of forest.
A mighty horse reigns,
gallops thunder of
bruised clouds,
exiles moon.
Trees screen secrets,
spells infuse in dark corners
while purple runs amok
in whimsy
of magic and mauves.
Margaret Ferrell
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- Andrew Murray Untitled 2
Aladdin
The genie summoned out
of the lamp
swelled until it struck the cavern roof
terrifying Aladdin :
“What do you want?
I am ready to obey you,
slave of all who hold the lamp in their hands”
Aladdin, clothes crammed with
rubies, pearls and yellow sapphires
found himself under the night sky
where the sorcerer had left him.
Sally Gaunt
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- Andrew Murray Untitled 3
The King is not your right hand –
Your only service
Is to be fuel to His furnace –
He’s already set alight your canvas bag
And His sky is turning black
From forgetting you –
Run run from Him animal!
Let your burning hair be a lesson!
Chris Palazzolo
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- Clinton Carter Untitled 1
Whirlwind of Love
The splash of green
falls across her face
and arms as a veil,
head down holding the poise
of a Spanish flamenco dancer
in red, with arms raised,
fingers clicking castanets
and body flashing through
the music’s rhythm
as a whirlwind
of love spinning around
and around you.
Mike Greenacre
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- Clinton Carter Untitled 2
A window –
a glimpse of me….
pure gold
smeared with red and brown.
Experiences in colour –
but still my life glows,
vibrant against constraint
eating away the blue.
Ann Harrison NSC
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- Elinor Doddrell Untitled 1
The Leaves Are Unfolding
I take a favourite book of poetry
and plunge it into water,
and hold it down for endless minutes,
and lift it out still dripping,
and the pages are clogged together,
and I try to lift the pages from each other,
sometimes successful, but often not,
and so the words become a jigsaw of mystery,
with lumps of meaning,
broken lines that in a strange sense
lead to mysterious but delightful understandings.
Elinor does the same with paint
and my eyes unravel interwoven strands
of colour that hold streaks of red fire,
golden sun, leafy green, purple mulberry,
as if autumn leaves have compacted
in a season’s dying blaze
and I shiver in delight
with the coming winter’s
shawl around my shoulders.
Peter Jeffery OAM
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- Elinor Doddrell Untitled 2
Celebrate Today
How to find something
I’ll adore. Something to be thankful for.
Spot a favourite colour; ponder good news.
Smell a sweet rose. Eat corn.
Feel a soft feather, or hear some thing
that makes me want to smile,
like stormy weather
or dry leaves under my shoes.
What gives me a spark?
Like a lark in a bath.
Which tickles my fancy, the pickles or cheese?
Maybe go to the park and try out the swings,
and create a new memory for me.
Now the day is nearly done
It is now quite late.
What’s the one thing today
I can celebrate?
I know… the splatter and patter
of rain on umbrella!
Julienne Juschke
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- Grace Panaia Untitled 1
Clouds
He holds a gun underwater
A bear attacks man in the sky
All these things
are seen
in a picture of clouds.
Of course, it reminds me of
Sidney Nolan –
minus the bush ranger –
but still we have characters
in a picture of clouds.
The more I look at it
the less I understand it
but that does not matter
happy as I am
with pictures in the clouds.
Chris Kennedy
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- Grace Panaia Untitled 2
Tempest
Storm brewing:
a grey wolf skulking,
smudging the horizon,
sniffing and snouting,
over water under sand,
clouds roiling, boiling,
wind building, howling,
blowing us into frenzy,
blowing us inside out.
Veronica Lake
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- Janelle MacMahon Untitled
Then Came A Child
Soil and rain did gently wed
and brought life to this flower bed.
Nature’s portrait growing wild
created by a loving child —
who sowed those seeds in random style
that made her watching mother smile.
Then Autumn slowly wandered past
as Spring’s creations came at last,
so now before you in the sun
where a young girl’s venture had begun,
a myriad of colours lay
each one a smile to greet the day.
Peter Rondel
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- Jason Whittington Untitled 1
this moonless night sky
keeps dark about a rooster
loose in the kale patch
Shey Marque
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- Jason Whittington Untitled 2
BFG
(with apologies to Roald Dahl)
With pockets of dream
and the face of a smile,
the BFG nightly comes
to chasealop gloom away.
Flilliflops his trumpet
through the window,
into bed and sleep,
to shift scarymongous
to merrifullous.
Finds brightly
in squiggly thought
and switches
ebony night
to waking dawn.
Gary Colombo De Piazzi
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- Joel Grant Untitled 1
blueprint of Joel’s painting
brush perception , triptych
technique to past present a
future / begin middling an
end of security theatre , us
snug in borders / control
what occurs by bristling
life aloud / wave wand &
pat down / down , down ,
down the frame //
// nesting
unloosens to lessen a quill
quivering quibble of quail
/ or other such things fowl
/ hatching eggs on / living
/ a hatch / a hatchet / a hat
stand / the painting hooks
off bowler / swaps stetson
for sextant / go , explorer
/ this is how picture views /
/ sitting here , askew / asks
you what do you see in you
/ ¿ ? /
there’s no answer , just door
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
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- Joel Grant Untitled 2
Cruising through clouds and
looking groundwards, we see flocks
of Carnabys sweep
across wheat fields. A willy
willy circles where once trees were.
Jan Napier
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- Joel Grant Untitled 3
Spawning
embryonic circles
stream upwards
through ocean waters
carried by currents
tugged by tides
massing together
creating new life.
Val Neubecker
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- Lana Davie Untitled
Filling the Vase
We have picked the dahlias from grandpa’s garden,
their colours so vivid, their petals so velvety.
I like the way they curve ever so slightly
like half opened claws of softness or hollow balls
that can’t be bounced but bend with gentle weight.
You lay them on the kitchen bench on butcher’s paper
while I fetched the vase of milky white
their final home within our house.
You reached for the jug and filled it up: too much.
My hands could not hold, the water spilled
and lay in rippling pools drenching the petals
heavier than rain. You did not scold
and we started again with wet flowers.
Virginia O’Keeffe
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- Lindy Johnson ‘Matilda Bay’
A Point Of View
Doreen Hi I’ve just arrived home
Thanks for the eggs
I came in through the park
above the river
Saw the end of the boat race
from above, every thing seemed so still
“As silent as a painted ship
upon a painted ocean”
Ancient Mariner
Not like that time
I pulled up at your home paddock
Harry was working with the big stump rake
He was covered in dust
I was soon the same
should have known better
Don’t get to close to the action
if you don’t want to be covered by clods
Much love, Ron Okely
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- Lindy Johnson ‘You can see the Trees Through the Woods’
I saunter, passion-full, toward a pulsing hum
then pause for breath, waiting for time
to fall upon my minds-eye, sampling
through touch, smell, sound & vision,
these tendril sectors of my multihued,
many-layered, sparkling forest life.
The sky shimmers, skimming cirrus streaks.
Trees vibrate as tinted leaves quiver
earthward. It is a form of staying hopeful.
Allan Padgett
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- Sarah Fogg ‘Blowing in the Wind’
The Man at the Piano
The man in tuxedo and top hat at a piano, playing black and white keys,
filling the concert hall with a colourful spectrum of sound.
He loves the piano with a passion. He has loved it with long fingers.
He has allowed its music to leave him through flat tips that dance
upon the keyboard throughout the evening.
They listen like hypnotised cobras gently swaying in their padded seats,
entranced and dreaming while awake, yet eyes gently closed.
The tune comes to an end. The man in tuxedo and top hat stands,
takes a bow, and exits the stage.
But those musical tones remain, hung in the room’s still air.
Wendy Beach
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