I've never held one of these before, it's similiar yet so different to an exhibition. It's also nice seeing everything you have made over the last few years either for your practice, experimentation or work sitting side by side. It's like a collision of worlds that happen to be very compartmentalised in my mind. 

It's also wild to think that there is over 60 pieces in this collection of mostly acrylic on canvas with a sprinkling of works on paper. 

Each piece is it's own, even those I've created for workshops, no two pieces are the same that's for sure. And finding them walls to hang and be loved on feels like such an honour, they deserve to be seen and not stacked in piles and stored on shelves...as they currently are. 

The affordable collection sale will be hosted at Tinker City 76 Russell Street Toowoomba, Friday 18th October 5:30-7:30PM. All are most definitely welcome, see you there!

Thrive Youth Arts Festival at the Empire Theatre Toowoomba is one of my absolute favourite community events. There is such a beautiful mix of families gathering together together to engage in the arts for and with their children. Set amongst the backdrop that is the heritage Empire Theatre itself, with the sun shining and chatter of the kids the vibes are truly magical. 

This year it felt right bringing the BIRDS along for the ride as they accompanied the festival theme for 2024 beautifully. I truly love to create space for authentic uninhibited sensory exploration that is temporal mark making.  The process really does break down some of our personal barriers and struggles we may have with making art publicly, and privately. 

Watching people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and backgrounds happily pick up a piece of chalk and scratch some colour onto the pieces was awesome, if I am being honest. 
To accompany the BIRDS I also created (with the assistance of the one and only Aaron Stalling) a set of transparent easels. Created or more assembled from a series of repurposed found objects I loved the idea of peering through and double sided collaborative artworks. Using classic poster paint that was washed both thoroughly and not so thoroughly throughout the festival had a lot of our youngest artists heading straight to the surface. Having the easels at their eyeline was really important for me, often art is made and displayed for taller eyes, but throughout the festival I saw many small children run for the colourful panels with parents in chase only to discover what had caught their eye when they were immediately in front of it. 

The concentration of thought was visually noted on their faces as they worked their way around the panel. Depending on the space available they would make their own fresh designs or begin to place with colour mixing and layering adding to already existing painted areas. 

As always being amongst them and also watching everyone create together had my own mind ticking over new and other ways to facilitate community arts projects in the future.

When the team at Empire reached out and asked, 'hey would you be insterested in create a Spring design for our windows?' I was of course going to say yes! I love any opportunity to leave a splash of colour and being spring themed with a prompt, critters, insects was the obvious choice for me. 
The ever present and sometimes overlooked classic spring partner. I instantly thought about the joy that comes from bending down to inspect the colourful blooms only to discover a bee buzzing through the same patch. I've watched countless times someone bent over trying to capture the perfect photo of the quickly moving critter. 

I have such a love of drawing and painting insects, they lend so naturally to to colour blocking, patterns and compartmentising. All the things that make my brain tickle with joy when I am in the thick of the creative process. 

Painting pubically is also one of my favourite ways to connect with community, with many people stopping by to ask questions, cracks a joke or two (you missed a spot is always a classic) and to just stop for a moment and watch. 

I had many questions this time about my mark up process. I experienced a far amount of anxiety this time around, not because of my ability to actually draw or scale the objects but more so working with my body and not against it. With the weather warming up, the scale of the pieces and the need to hold my arm vertical for so long I was really mindful about my ability  to even finish the pieces with my chronic health condititions. Blood pooling and draining is a major consideration in my life so I needed a way to get the designs up quickly and accurately. A projector or doodle grid really wasn't going to work thanks to the surface being glass. And then thank you lightbulb moment, it's glass! I took my digital drawings I created on my tablet and turned them into budget posters, and thanks to the wonder that is an at home printer, tape and bluetac what would have taken twice the time was done in no time. Thanks technology. 

The windows will be on display till the first week of October, so please swing by grab a selfie and enjoy the colour! And why not pop into a show at the theatre!

As spring comes into bloom so does all our local cultural activations, which means I need to limber up my painting arm and start getting ready for the marathon that is the next few months. Creatively and career wise I spend a lot of time trying to keep my mind, body and life in balance as best a possible knowing what the next 8 weeks will look like for me each year. 

Getting ready or keeping creatively fit involves a lot of doing, a lot of play and almost thoughtless mostly response making. It helps ground my ideas and practice moving onward without the stress of outcome. Outcomes happen regardless sometimes they are great, sometimes they won't ever see the light of day and that's ok too. 

Journalling helps me acheive that, plus there is something utterly delicious about thumbing through an art book, it shifts from functional project to art object in itself.  Collage has been my place of happiness lately, I mean it has been for a while but the act of making, dissambling and remaking really does tickly my brain. Plus the oh so delightful physicality of it all, the feel of the paper surfaces as you layer, weave, cut and tear them......*happy shudders* want to see my real weirdo come out ask me about paper! 

Hats off to Sam from The Field Guide for creating such a fun excuse to play with my food.  If I am toastally being honest I was resolved but not 100% happy with my work, not enough to exclude it obviously but sometimes this is also the process and I am so cool with that.
The breadwinner of this experience was the experience itself. I found it challenging with some similarities in medium qualities to what I feel more experienced with and others so far out of the bag. 
I would 10/10 do it again, and I really hope this fun exhibition will create more opportunities to spread joy, one slice at a time. This was a jampacked exhibition, with a jam-packed opening, and that makes it a toast-worthy idea.

As artists we are often invited to create for a cause, to donate a piece for auction. If I am being honest I am pretty selective about when I agree to this. It's not that I don't want to support, I love that I have that ability when I do. But it has to be acknowledged that it costs artists not only time but actual money in resources.  I say this to be transparent, I am asked to donate on average once a week across a years calendar I am not quiet there yet with that kind of disposable income. (one day hopefully). 
But this one intrigued me I mean glass turntables. The playfulness of the spinning art, the ability to really play with layers, peep holes and texture. And of course the challenge of working on glass, I would be lying if I said it was a walk in the park. 
Each piece was a collection of a moment, images of birds in colours representative of their environment, a deconstruction of reality. Exploring the idea of the fragments of experience that we have in a moment and what we take away. Was it a sound, smell or colour that permiated senses and ultimately what we take with us when we leave. 

Thank you Momentum Mental Health for inviting me to participate the project was fun and I hope that it has helped in some small way to support your much needed supports.

Honestly one of the most exciting moments for an artist is when some says, 'I trust you, just go for it.' 
It was a brief conversation, a remark about a wall being in desperate need for some love and a throw away comment of 'would you like a mural?' 
The next thing I was collecting my basket of ready to go mural supplies, a bit of a snack and my headphones...music is essential. 
I then got to it, I walked around the space with fresh eyes. Music plugged into my ears while students buzzed around doing their own thing. I wanted to get a sense of the space, the shapes, movements, objects and people. There was a beautiful mix of energy, learning, nature and community. A lot going on yet a lot also being acheived. Under the canopy of tall and proud trees with their Autumn leaves hitting the ground I felt myself sink into that creative space. As if all my body had taken a big breath in and my shoulders relaxed. 

Out came the chalk, brushes and paint and up went the marks. The room was surrounded with glass and almost immediately I found students reconfiguring their activities so they could do them within view, they were curious about what was going on. Some of the middle years popped in and asked directly, 'what are you doing?' and when I said painting a mural oh their excited faces was a joy for my eyes. I asked, 'do you want to be a part of the design?' 4 little bodies jumped with excitement and they each made a shape with their individual bodies, some contorted into the oddest oh shapes and we traced around their forms. They picked their base colour and were satisfied to go back to their learning and come back to see the progress. 

The work unfolded really quickly, automatic painting is great for that. The marks are an extension of my hand and also the moment. The colours where choosen to compliment the exisiting space and before I knew it by the end of the day 2 hours later I was as done as I could be. Day two would be ladder day. 

This mural was truly a delight to create, and looking over my shoulder to see small faces squished up against the glass to see it all unfold in real time was an added bonus.  Some of my favourite conversations.

Q - "What will it be?"
A - "When I know you will know, I am just seeing what happens naturally'

Q - "Are you allowed to do that, paint on walls?'
A - 'Yes, I have been given permission to do this, it is great fun. But always ask an adult before you paint on any walls ok."

Thank you Maridahdi Kindergarten and Primary School for the opportunity to create art in your space. I hope it brings joys to your staff and students for a long time.

2024 has kicked off with a bang, with 2 big weeks in the rural town of Goombungee about 45minutes of Toowoomba. I know the town well, I've down community activations and held an exhibtion. It's all a frequent stop of our family drives around the region. The town just has such beauitful personality and energy. The Goombungee Public Hall has been lucky enough to secure funding through Flying Arts Alliance and with local Scott Aldadice dutifully overseeing the logistics it has been a dream for me as an artist. 

Working with communities is so high up on my list, I always sink back into my own childhood living in Outback QLD understanding the duality of lack of arts opportunities and how much of an impact it had on individuals and communities as a whole when they were available. 

Having a community of all ages coming together in a stress-free environment to learn, create and connect is electrifying, seriously there is a real buzz you get from the atmosphere. 

It is also a truly beautiful thing to witness people just jumping in and having a go. Creativity can be such an uncomfortable activity for so many. We all seem to carry an amount of self imposed pressure to be perfect, or a hidden shame of failure, or even a memory where someone made you feel like your art isn't good enough.  And then for whatever reason so many of us stop, and we tell ourselves 'I'm not very artistic', or we hold ourselves to someone else 'my sister is the creative one'. 
As an artist I know that's not true, what we really should be saying is 'I'd love to practice more' because like learning to read or understanding math we all know that we didn't just wake up knowing that information, we learnt it through persistance, dedication, help and error.  Also known as the process of learning. 
​
Now I am not saying that everyone wants to be an artist, just like I understand the basics of something that I am about to turn it into my career but I know enough. I also know that if I really wanted to I could learn more and advance my skills. The arts is the same! 
Attending community arts events like this is watching people feel 'not artistic' start to have a go, because it's not as scary and then the joy of accomplishment that they did that. Boy, that really is something beautiful to be a part of. 
I am such an advocate for community arts, I honestly believe every single community should have one free to the public event for me to gather, create and connect. It is an essential step in building stronger communities and connections. 
I still have two more sessions to go at Goombungee and I am honestly lookign forward to them. 
Art for everyone I say.

​ 2023
If you had asked me what this year has been like, I probably would have said slow, easy, a rest period.
But it's funny when you look back on it, so much was actually achieved. The biggest thing in my books was setting out structure and strategies for balance. It would be in implementing these strategies that I would have to say is why I look back on the year and think what a year of low-key rest.
The truth is the studio grew, with more employees and collaborators coming on board.
The studio in itself is a whole other thing. With a growing cohort of regular kids, our adult classes, holiday workshops, private parties, and more.
We attended 4 major festivals, hosted an exhibition, and collaborated with numerous councils and shopping malls. And next year is looking even bigger!
As an artist, I managed to have a solo exhibition, one that I felt was over due. It was beautiful to be able to share a piece of my soul with so many.
A big shout out to Flying Arts Alliance that enabled me to share my business knowledge with hundreds of people this year. I seriously love all things start up and if you'd love to chat about workshops and guest speaker opportunities for next year send me a message.
Public art came in the way of community projects and temporal murals this year. I love painting on things and I think 2024 I'm ready to get back into this a little more.
As a family we travelled over 8000km this year with a mix of for fun and for work. This country is beautiful and I must say I'm a huge fan of the road trip method. Watching the landscape morph and adapt is captivating and truly an essential part of my practice and my cup filling capacity.
Through these adventures, I have witnessed many of Australia's beautiful native species up and close and personal with my family all too patience as I sit and soak up the presence of wildlife in their environment.
I've take so many photos this year I've create a space just for them @stallingphotography on instagram so I don't clog up this page.
Thank you 2023

When the wonderful team at Empire Theatre said, 'hey, would you like to be a part of Thrive this year?' I said yes before even hearing the terms of aggreement. A children's festival celebrating the arts and connection I was already sold before the pitch. A total stop digging you've struck oil situation, and I think they knew they were speaking my love language. 

So it was a to part connection one for Tinker to be able to offer low cost art and craft activities with a STEAM theme for parents and kids to do togther. AND the perfect launch pad for a community arts project. 

With STEAM in mind my brain went instantly to petri dishes, I love the idea of looking at things under a microscope and planning with ideas of micro v macro. There is something unintimidating about working within the confines of the little clear dishes with materials that are designed more for play than drawing. At the beginning the lonely few examples I had made looked pretty sad on our makeshift wall but one by one the piece grew. Sprawling out from an empty space into a larger piece made up of many. 

It was fun to watch families sit and cut and colour, some intricately making one piece and others smashing together bundles. Everyone connects differently with creativity and it is important for me to offer an opportunity for that connection to happen naturally. 

By the end children were proudly dragging their parents back to the wall to point out their miniature masterpiece which would become a fun game of 'have you seen this one'

If I am being honest this activity was a fun one, I'd definitely do it again. The unassuming petri dish was a great dip your toes in for everyone no matter how comfortable they felt in their own creative shoes. 

Thanks for having me Thrive, same time next year!

Work/life balance. This years goal was to build my home studio, and although it hasn't happened yet it is so very exciting because it is the next thing on the to do list. I've marked out the plot, found the company we are going to purchase from and already started a mood board of all the things that are possible. 
A home studio is something I have always dreamed of. We tend to gravitate towards tiny homes, not the super tiny trailer ones (I would though if it were an option) but more then little Queenslanders that's exactly perfect for us and full of character...but lacking in a studio. At home my working space is often a bench, tray table or my lap. AND yes I do 100% have access to the Tinker studio's, that is what I have been using for years so I am not going to pretend my practice doesn't have things available. 
But a dream of mine has always been a tiny building in my yard just for me. There is something magical about that setting and so I've moved it from a one day dream to a priority dream. 
We need to do those things for ourselves, when the timing and availability is right we should be doing that. 
So hopefully soon I will be able to update ya'll on the building progress and give you a tour of the digs. It's public now, it's in writing, it's going to happen!

It is always an honour to be asked by our Regional Art Gallery, lovingly known as TRAG to pop in and host a workshop. The prompt for this session was 'fragments', based on the current exhibition on display.  I immediately knew why they picked me for this, my whole practice explores fragmentation. For me fragmentation goes hand in hand with the habit of collecting.  In a nutshell the process of building a collection is a desire to build a complete and indepth picture through the gathering of smaller pieces: fragments.

Exploring this methology and with children is an interesting and philosophical one. It often feels backwards at the beginning, somewhat odd.  When we are starting a new work we often feel the pressure to 'know' the outcome.  'What's the plan?' is something that I often hear in a classroom setting. In truth, for some that makes sense that is the natural order, to plan out the whole process in your mind before marks even hit the page. For others knowing the ending before the beginning feels like trying to squeeze orange juice from an apple. Sometimes the story comes together as the journey unfolds. Using this methology we start collecting the pieces either physically or visually, waiting for the pieces to allign in a way that feels organic, it is the process informing the product.

Working with the kids in the workshop I wanted to break the workshop in half, two separate pieces that would come together. This felt the most organic way to trigger the process of fragmentation and collection. Through this there were lots of discussion and questions always moving back and fourth bewteen what has been, what is happening and where they are going. Some students playing with representational pieces and others emotional abstraction. It was such a priviledge to watch students play with these really complex concepts and seeing how through the same initial prompt, available resources and set tasks how quickly each of their individual narratives evolved. 
​
It was a fun experience and the kids really created some interesting marks along the way. It was a day of creative play and honestly they could have sat there for another hour or two in that deep space of creative discovery.

It's been a hectic as well as a well oiled machine these past two weeks. School holidays, Tinker having the usual 3 months of work in 2 weeks, my own practice and life. I knew going into the April school holidays that it was going to be a lot of gripping my phone tightly waiting for me phone to ring with and SOS in one hand while I sculled tea with the other in an effort to calm my nerves. 

The thing is we have a REALLY great team at Tinker. AJ, Emma, Paddy, Kel and Ash just get it. They are adaptable and extremely capable and wickedly talented, they make this part easy. I never actually worry about them.  Instead I find I am on high alert with so many things on that I worry if something goes wrong how can I support them through it if I myself am also busy. And yeah things popped up out of the ordinary but we all just did the move, dance and jig (seemlessly I may add) so it always just felt normal. 

But these last two weeks we collaborated on a 4 day pop-up with Toowoomba Regional Council, 4 days of creative activiations at Kingaroy Shoppingworld, 5 days at Grand Central Shopping Centre, 4 days at Tinker South, 1 day at Tinker City, 2 Days at Zebedees, 1 kids birthday party, 1 night at Toowoomba City Library and that's just the studio...physically.  As I said I knew going into these two weeks that my brain would be full and as we are coming to the last few days I feel a great sense of accomplishment.

But aside from the administrative nightmare the work itself was delicious, glorious, soul enriching. When you are in that shared creative space I cannot describe it better than filling ones cup. You walk away feeling rejuvinated and all round happy.  The numbers reflect the community excitement too with over 2000 people through our collective workshops and activations. People love to experience the arts, we all need it. Whether its for professional purposes or just to stop being so serious and just play art truly is for everyone. 

An added experience was my face....and how much it appeared through the media and socials and for that I am sorry. I guess it was somewhat inevitatble if you are going to be here, there and everywhere your face is bound to show up from time to time.  Or in this case every day on a new platform. it's kinda (very) weird to wake up every day do a check in and then HELLO it's me, but you'll be glad to know it will slow down a bit as I do over the next few weeks. We will all get a break from seeing my face spamming your newsfeed. 

So what's next, I've got a creative workshop coming up as part of the creative arts summit, back to the regular Tinker programming and you'll catch me in Brissy over the next few months with some professional development sessions. But over all my big to do list is to get into my garden. The weather is turning and I want to prep it for Winter and nature isn't going to wait for anyone I need to get in there ASAP.

Recently I was asked to share some personal knowledge with year 12 students at the school of creative arts UniSQ. The brief was teach them something from your practice. Love that. 
With 1.5 hour up my sleeve, acrylic paint, brushes and paper I knew exactly what I wanted to share. 
When we started the session, I offered this. Today we will play with paint, I will show you my personal technique for creating layers or a double exposure technique but ultimately we want to have fun. There is no assessment, no theme, no outcome at the end other than playing with our medium. 

I am a firm believer that in order to develop we need to be able to play, explore, challenge concepts, let go and not always be outcome focused. Sometimes we need to sit down and create and not make a design. Just let the art happen. 
This idea can be really challenging, for most people. It often depends on how much you have stretched your art muscles. Nothing can be scarier than a blank piece of paper. 

But after about 10mins there was a visible and audiable difference in the space. The shoulders relaxed, the sounds moved from nervous groans to delightful and sometimes surprising hmmms. 
Students stopped the rush through, waiting for the next instruction and started having conceptual conversations amongst themselves. Offering ideas of brush movements, colour theory and compositions. 

I then moved through the space with them, painting alongside them and offering conversations and individual creative input throughout the space. 
The students asked some fascinating questions about my practice as an artist, as well as their potential within the industry. Most wanted to know what actually is the creative industry and what careers options were actually available. The shift is slowly happening, there is still the constant humm in the background of 'well I need a job that pays and if I am an artist I will be broke'.  But the conversation is happening, the arts is moving towards a space of career options not career doom. 

Everyone say it with me - you can have a career as an artist! 

Once the pages filled with colour we then switched it up a gear, and this is where the technical side came into place. I demonstrated how I created the layers and suggested other ways to interpret the technique. Students then adapted the technique to their own work and off they went on their own journey. 

It was a great day. 

Earlier this year the team at Darling Downs Health asked me to create a series of works for their annual staff awards. 
Honestly I love the idea of giving out artworks instead of tropheys. There is something intimate about sharing art with others, and I felt deeply honoured to even be considered. 
The brief was simple, create a series of works that embody the pillars of the organisation, in your own voice. It is a beautiful thing when someone offers you the space as an artist to simply create authentically in your own voice in response to a concept. It's wildly exciting and soul enriching. 

I truly hope those who were awarded these pieces find love and joy from them.

Artist Statement

This body of work explores the principles of compassion, courage, dignity, innovation, integrity, vision & volunteer through the lens of our region. Connecting with the landscapes of the Darling Downs; Meewah, inner CBD, the tall gums of Highfields, our Sunflower fields and institutions.


Alex captured reference images of each space that she believed embodied the principles of compassion, courage, dignity, innovation, integrity, vision & volunteer.


Colour palettes were pulled from these reference images and each painting was developed using her signature painting style of automatic mark making. Through the use of colour, pattern, painting and screenprinting each artwork tells its own story.

An exhibition, for me at least, is a confusing time. There is a sense of great calm, possibilities and excitement. Mixed thoroughly with regret, dread, fear and nausiatingly crushing imposter syndrome. Ill feel like it's kind of good to know that no matter how many times you've have done one, or how much further you go up the ladder with you career the thought's of...but is it shit...still comes and goes as naturally as the day and night. 
Now that I have primed you with some pretty worrying feelings I think it is always important to establish that these feelings do not come from a space of hate or ill meaning esteem crushers. But more a light hearted and honest look at the process for some (dare I say most) in our want to learn, discover and improve.  These moments of self doubt are no longer crippling, they do not stop me from moving forward. And I kind of enjoy the fact that I know in my heart that I will always be a student of myself. 
But there is something about a solo exhibition, for me, that really gets me into all kinds of knots. I love it, I love the making, the play, the resolution, and the deadline of it all. It grounds my constant need for discovery to stop reflect and mark a chapter in the book that is my practice. There is something titilating about piecing together an exhibition that tells its own unique tale of events. A gathering of pieces that individually are their own but together form a whole story. 
The pieces for this show are 100% on the eclectic side, a word I often cringe at it's over use. But there really isn't a lot of other words to describe it. A series of works all made with the same mediums, methodology and reference materials but yet form a series of unique moments, colour palettes and interpretations. 
So the count down is on for the show, and my biggest thing now is I wonder who will make it to the opening, followed by I wonder what questions they will ask me? 
At this point in the process I have one more piece I would like to complete before the exhibition opens and that is a secondary interactive piece. I already have some planned, but this is one that I have been mulling over for a while and now it's just a matter of sourcing the materials and making it happen. 
I love an exhibition to evoke a sense of participating of community, the allow opportunities to people to play with the idea of the works and the space that is a gallery actively and not just passively. It's are core part to my interest as an artist and it only feels essential to be included within my practice as part of the show. 

Creating with a community is so important to me. It feels natural, second nature, obvious.  Providing opportunities for people to collaborate, make marks and move as a single organism mirrors what life is like as  community. Some flow together with ease, others chaotic and distruptors, some with hesitation and others entirely observational. 

As the artist I find my role in a commuity setting is to present an opportunity and let the people take over it. There is no set outcomes, every space has its own voice, its own history, its on identity. I can take the same set of tools and resources to each space and new conversations, imagery and outcomes will be determined based on the people and place. 

This year I was honoured to be asked to attend the Jacaranda Festival in Goombungee Queensland as the lead artist. The limitations were chalk, outdoor, drop in attendance and weather. 
My whole body sang with the perfect ingredients for a project I had been working out mentally for many years now. BIRDS. I have always loved the tangibility of objects, they transform the marks and intention behind them. Moving from surface design or the need to 'draw' on a board or flat substrate incomparison to the idea of play and freedom with an object. Collectively we move into the idea of adornment, colour, line and fluid movements as we move away from the sometimes rigid and intimidating ideas surrounding 'drawing' and often coupled with representation. 
Objects break down barriers and encourage more participation from community, and once initial marks are made people will flow through an entire space with more confidence to create across all surfaces. 

The festival witnessed exactly those sentiments. People across ages and demographics came and participated. With many coming back to see the visual transformation of the space across the day and to add additional marks to their original. Playing a game of blind collaboration with a stranger.  The conversations led in all directions. Asking about me as an artist, what that looks like for me as a person, a career, a passion, a form of expression. They asked about The Arts as a whole, the adjoinging gallery space and other ways the can connect with those spaces outside of a festival setting. They remarked on the joy moving through the space they felt and witnessed from others and how it is a different side of their community that they had not really stopped and taken the time to notice before. 
The Arts has a way to visually and physically bring a sense of community together. A way to bring the feelings of an environment to the forefront where people can see the intangible thread that binds a community together in a phsical form. 

Growing up in my own community it was those events that marked my memories. Each year we would have an all school musical performance where the whole town would get together and celebrate The Arts. It was one of my favourite memories of growing up. An evening where we would sit on picnic blankets watch, play and celebrate. It is those events that I feel obligated as an artist to provide for future generations of communities. Those memories that have sat with me my entire life, that have shaped me as a person and a sense of place. 

Community art projects are not only essential but vital. And I am fortunate to be able to share those moments with others. 

So much of my practice is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. 
Art for me is a selfish indulgence, it's a way for me to disconnect from the noise and reconnect with myself. 
I find I am often running too fast for my legs but when I make the time for my art I am deeply engrossed, almost annoyingly so. 
And although I am covered in paint every other day with work, true, authentic connection to my practice is spred amongst long periods of nothingness. 
I think that's the thing, the assumption is that there should be a constant work ethic to ones pratice. I find so much of my creative process is resolution of ideas mentally. Even though my body might not be physically creating, playing and finishing my mind is never not thinking about my practice. 
And then when given the opportunity, or more so the whole body urge, it's an unstoppable force, to create I am prolific. Disgustingly so, it pours out of me one after the other. I work till I am exhausted and even then sometimes I don't stop.  It's like breathing it has to be done, it's an extension of myself. 
And then as quickly as it came, it goes. Sometimes with a whole resolved body of work and others with fragments of a story yet to be finished. 
I am somewhere in the middle right now. Art, pause, art, pause. But not enough to build a full body of work, or enough of the puzzle for me to understand the intention. 
That lightbulk moment comes once the full body of work is resolved, and although I made the pieces I don't not know when that will happen or what it will look like. 
So right now we play.

When I said yes to this show I was excited, fresh, ready to create. Over the coming weeks I saw myself hit hard with a delayed fatigue reaction of the constant flight & fight response of 2020. 

It hit me hard with a flare up, then a flu, then a mental health sprial. I would put me in days of all I would do is paint, find my space and you couldn't pull me away from it. When I paint I it unlocks a lot of supressed thoughts and often shakes loose personal epiphanies like a good counselling session. I then find myself needing to talk  it out. The process can be exhausting emotionally, and after all that this last year had thrown at us all this process was hard. 

My biggest moment of realisation is the fact that I over did it, (obvious to some I know) but for me keeping busy gave me comfort at the time. I was fortunate that we live in a space were the pandemic left most of us untouched health wise but there were other side effects to it all. 
I am a planner, I used to have 12 months planned out and I knew where I needed to be, what my family expectations were, what I needed to do for my business. Often finding myself in a project manager role where others would look to me for answers the uncertainity of the year really fell hard on my shoulders. I can't put that on others, that falls to my own afflication of perfectionism. 
Moving from a place of certainity and control to once of play it by ear one month at a time has taught me skills and left me often exhausted from constantly needing to adapt within days. 

Bringing this show together, finding that deep space of subconscious creating, where I need to be for these works, has left me with a new space of self awareness and exhaustion. I am not ready to tackle the questions the process raised, I have no answers. But I need to continue to make. 2021 maybe a year of journalling...maybe I am not sure. 

ORBS will be on display at the Brisbane Library (George Square) from Jan 4th. 

Orbs is an ongoing series exploring the role of automation within our lives. Dealing with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome a form of dysautonomia Alex is using amoebic Orb like structures through a process of automatic painting which is layered with repetitive linework work patterns and designs as a form of discovery about automation and how much experiences, preferences and bodily movements impact our day to day.
Thank you to Narrated Productions for capturing the journey

This artwork has been supported by @blackbird and finch #ArtsQld
#SWQRegionalArts @ArtsQueensland @swqregionalarts

That's the official blurb but let's discuss a bit of the logistics. Hot damn that was both exciting and exhausting. My body rebelled against the process almost immediately. It was cold and wet, I started the day earlier then normal and 1 hours in holding my arm at an extended upright angle already present problems. I could feel the slow trickle of blood flowing from my upper body towards gravity. It's not a nice feeling but an all too familiar one. The exhaustion is part of the process though, the more the POTS symptoms takes hold the easier I find that I slip into a space of automation with my work. It's hard to think, make informed decisions and so on. I often change positions, snack and hydrate to combat the symptoms in the day to day. But when creating it's about the process of losing that control and seeing what happens. The shapes and patterns feel familiar because they are. Picked out from the obscurity of passing memories and moments, the way that I hold the brush, they way my wrist moves. 

It is a fine line of giving into the failure of my body for my art while dancing the line of safety because I am out in public and not in the safety of my bed or couch. We had to take breaks, or other moments push through because we knew when we stopped that was it for the day. I ate more food than normal to keep me going.  It is what it is. 
I went home and slept for the rest of the day well into the night and then went back again. 

It's interesting for me to think about how it all comes together. But it is together and all though, yes, it was hard by golly it was fun and hot damn I would do it again in a heart beat! 

I touched on it previously but now, now I can share even more of the thoughts and musings that have transformed into happenings from within my brainspace. 

ORBS a series which explores the role of automation, involuntary and the every day was born out of isolation. I won't lie to you, it's just not in me to lie, but the birth of my second child, personal health issues and the general lifeness of life impacted my arts practice. I was creative for sure, but I wasn't creating true and meaningful work for my practice. I dabbled, tried a little bit of this and little bit of that but nothing felt like it was meant to be. Something to be pushed and explored. It felt heavy handed and forced.  I very much felt a fraud, how can I call myself an artist if I am not creating?

So I stopped, started and restarted in what felt like an endless cycle of unrestful experimentation.
 
Until of course a global pandemic decided to pop into our lives and force a dramatic stop to the daily movements. The jarring nature of the whole event shook something loose. Art became a safe space again. My body wasn't exhausted from the daily movements, my postural orthosatic tachycardia syndrome for the first time in a long time didn't feel all consuming.  Because it wasn't, it made me truly realise how much we can take automation for granted. Standing up and our body adjusts to the changes of position and gravity. Eating food and simply enjoying it and not trying to guess the right amount of food to balance my nutrition needs verses the ever changing arbitrary line that is too much food for my body to regulate which would ultimately send all my blood to asisst with digestion and leave my other organs starved for the red stuff. 
The roll of memory cataloguing and how, unbeknownst to us our brain categorises each moment into those we will remember and those that are filed away. 

With my fascination of automation I began to create while doing something else. Watching a movie or having a conversation. As best as I could I would let the colour and pattern flow. I noticed my mood impacted the colour choices, or my daily activities and surroundings informed my pattern making. There is always going to be an element of control for me, it is so ingrained in my nature that even in a deep space of 'whatevers' I never truly let go. And in that I feel represents an element of myself also. 

But the good news. I am excited to announce my success as a Flying Arts Alliance Inc Recovery Boost  recipient. With this funding support I am able to dedicate the time that I need to actually research, connect, experiement and create meaningful works within my artistic practice. 
Through this series I will be working towards an exhibition and digital artist talk/connection that which you will be invited to attend. 

I will be sharing the journey, experiements and that inbetween with you through blogs, soical media and any other way that I can. 

​The Regional Arts Fund (RAF) is an Australian Government program designed to benefit regional and remote arts practitioners, arts workers, audiences and communities. The fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia and is administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance.

,I've been dancing around the concept of new work for years now. The last time I created a resolved body of work was 2015. I have spent the last 5 years living creatively; creating products in the maker space, facilitating projects that lift up our regional artists and helping others discover the value of creative industries through workshops. But me as an artist...definitely struggling with an internal imposter syndrome dialogue. 
How was it that I was able to talk others through their 'writers block' but here I was hiding in the shadows thinking maybe I am not actually an artist. I mean how could I be an artist if I am not making work for my practice. 
As much as I hated playing out the stereotype of tortured artist in my mind, and no matter how many of my peers told me it's normal just stop putting pressure on yourself, I couldn't. 

So it turns out what I needed was a global crisis. I needed the whole world to stop so that I could stop. It turns out that I had far too many balls in the air. Hindsight, am I right. 

I started with watercolour, making shapes and structures followed by my obsession with pattern making. My orbs as I call them capture those inifite memories in our lives that we just cannot remember. Everyone has it, try now recall everything that happened yesterday in vivid rich moments that they were. Can you? You obviously did things but could you recall the whole day minute to minute? How is it that we go through so much of our lives and yet remember so little? Who chooses which moments to compartmentalise and which ones to keep forever? 

My autonomic system no longer works properly and so it has really made me reflect on things that previously I have not spared a thought for.  So many vital moments, memories functions all just happening automatically and we know they are happening in complex details and moments but yet we have little to no control over the process. Each orb feels like I am drawing a moment from by subconscious and capturing it in a physical space. 

Orbs is an ongoing series.

With over 1000 people through the space, almost a year worth of planning, 500 repurposed jars, over 1000m of washi tape and one really weird shopping experience with a UV torch I am reminded of the importance to debrief and write this all down for the legacy of these projects. At the end of the day the documentation is just important as the happening itself, and it is often overlooked. Why? Because usually all the movers and shakers are pretty tired by the end of it. It's usually a small team of people making big things happen. 
If there is one thing I truly appreciate and have learnt from our fierce LIT Leader Ben Tupas it is the importance of legacy documentation. 

So what was LIT for me, the artist.  Sometimes I struggle to take off the project manager hat and jump into the position of the artist. 

I really wanted to create an accessible space that still challenged participants. A space that encouraged engagement, interaction and immersion. The artwork wasn't just the sculpture but the way that strangers came together to be part of it. Some observed, others jumped in headfirst, some even came back for a second night because now they knew what it was about. 
Adults & kids came together, at night to the CBD to just enjoy a night of lights, art, performace, music and everything that came with it. 

My brief was this ; imagine Toowoomba 100 years from now. Because I don't need to unhash my reasoning again here is my artist statement which does that for you.

The concept of time fascinates me. No matter how you dissect it there is always another layer of interest. When presented with the question ‘What will Toowoomba look like in 100 years?’ I instantly drew on my own knowledge, history, desires and dreams.

It led me to think about what people thought of themselves 100 years ago into the past - and the individual role we all play to connect the dots when creating our futures.


The parallels of time - someone’s own history -  is their present projecting their future: now my present. The conundrum fascinated and taunted me! It also allowed me to stop and think about how right now in this moment we as a community often reminisce of years gone by, the greater human connection through physical gatherings, play and events.

When compared to the current digital era, we are instantly connected to the world in the palm of our hand. Yet, technology has left us feeling disconnected.


This installation is layered between the existing physical connection, community, through play, through art, through events juxtaposed with digital connection and play. 
Bringing together our reminiscent dreams of physical and digital connection.

It is impossible to acknowledge the impact of COVID19 which happened immediately on the back of this event. A definite bittersweet moment of it all. The no gatherings over 500 people mandate was in effect the Monday immediately after the LIT opening weekend. 
It was almost surreal, as if for me the event shielded what was happening around me. I was running on a high from buzz community gathering offers, then wacked with an immediate shock and confusion of what comes now. 
Just like any other time when it came to listing the essential industries to salvage the creative one was first on the chopping block. Although a huge blow to the industry the quick dismissal was a familiar feeling.  It was later brought to my attention by many of my other friends that the defining on what is an essential business really played on their independant value. Again something I had not considered as it has become such a common space. Even though this was in no way common, and the overall impact is still yet to be felt. 

Two months later and my cup is no longer filled from my LIT experience and I find myself yearning for community spaces once more. Live music, things to do, things to see, things to experience. It could be a year post restriction lifting for larger events to recover from this. As I said at the beginning the planning took almost a year, and no one I know that works in that space really knows what/when or how to plan, or even if it is resources and time well spent at this point. 

There has been a big shift to online experiences, and although they have the potential to reach a far wider audience and they definitely fill that void we are all currently experience. I know for myself they are definitely an added extra something more to do, but not a replacement.  

I have no closing thoughts, my head goes round and round when I think about the possibilities of the future, and for the most part I think that is because there is no end date to this whole thing. 

your artist
​Alex