A bit of momentum
Hello everyone,
I want to share a nice small win that is happening almost organically: more people are reaching out to ask me for mentoring and 1-on-1 sessions/arts mentoring.
I have never directly advertised this, though I might change that next year, but slowly slowly, once or twice a month, someone will email and say ‘hey I don’t need to come to a workshop, but could we have a call for me to ask questions about x or y?’ or ‘I have an exhibition coming up can we have 2-3 calls to plan for it?’.
I’ve been on the other end of this - in fact in 2017 I was part of a mentorship program with Contact Sheet gallery in Sydney and found the experience super helpful. In 2019 I had two one-on-ones with folks in Europe to talk about The Killing Sink before it became a book, and since then I’ve had a few more sessions where I’ve paid people for a structure sit down to get advice. Mostly these meetings have been insanely helpful.
At the same time, arts work with school-aged kids is slowly ramping up too. Last year I taught ONE workshop to school-aged children. This year I’ve taught three, and might teach some more before the end of the year. I think this has some good potential to grow - and I luckily have a few friends in schools who can help me understand what a good price, offering and material is. These workshops are more fun than substitute teaching (and pay a bit better) and I’d like to do more with kids.
I have this idea, one that I should pitch somewhere, to bring kids into a gallery/workshop space, have them tear up my old gallery prints sitting in storage, make new paper and then turn that into a blank canvas for collage and illustration. I don’t feel bad about ‘destroying’ things - after all some of these prints have sat in my garage for 5 years! Slowly getting dustier and less easier to flatten. It’d be fun to gift them to some chaotic children to make paper and have fun with. There’s life in remaking stuff, new life, new creativity - that’s more exciting to me then holding onto something ‘precious’ but unused, fragile and lifeless.
One of the nice things about doing a bit more is seeing these avenues come to me, slowly open and then potentially become part of the income plan. That’s super encouraging - because I can’t plan for EVERYTHING, but knowing that there are organic and surprising opportunities that can be built one is really lovely.
A few things!
This weekend there’s a book launch in Melbourne I’m hosting - 47 Easey Street, Collingwood, 2-4PM come to hear Tace and an Indigenous curator talk about the project, the book and open an exhibition.
I’m also running a zine making workshop at Hillvale in September, grab a ticket here. It’ll be fun and fast.