Artfull

Ann and I often have fun, add to our fun, while traveling with an “Is it art?” analysis/commentary upon the sights, sounds and discoveries we stumble upon.  (e.g., see prior Mailbox post with a few new deliveries).

Warrnambool, much like Chico, much like anywhere I’d venture, is an art adventure just waiting to happen. There is public and private art of all types and varieties, large and small, from landscaping, the cut of the grass, plants, shrubs, trees, sculpture, statuary, lawn ornaments, gardens up to architectural delights old and new, iron work, windows, roof lines, all framed by the interplay of the ocean with the special light, clouds, and sky of southern Australia. All of that and more, complemented by the full range of cinema, theatre, music, dance, galleries, and gatherings of community and communing.

The human, animal, and inanimate form a palate that each day uses to give us art. Art is like pornography, you know it when you see it.  All you have to do is open your mind wide and enjoy the view.

Today however became a purposeful art exploration, on a personal scale: we bought our first piece of Australian art.

It started with reading a bit in our local throw away paper, “Artist on a solo mission.” The exhibition at ArtLink was a fund-raiser to provide educational resources for children in rural Ghana. I decided to check it out, and as it turns out, “ArtLink is a Western District Employment Access initiative and the program provides people with a disability with a place to paint and the opportunity to display and sell their art.”

ArtLink, and its companion StudioLink for performance arts, “encourages people to identify as artists, cultural commentators and ‘change agents’: involved and valued members of their community, working in collaboration and developing creative capacity for life enhancement.”

The personal experience becomes Public Art at its finest.

I was the only customer while there, but four or five artists were working, along with a staff artist and the gallery director. I got artist introductions and a tour of both the public and back room areas, and I shared experiences of Far Northern Regional Center Art and micro enterprise development. Then Ann called after getting home from her work, and she soon joined us.

What a joy to see the art in creation, talk with the gallery director about the artists, talk with the artists, and work/play our way through the Exhibition, and those back rooms. A piece not on display eventually chose us. Its artist, Martin, was one of the artists in residence that day. We got to watch and discuss with him the development and direction of a new piece he was working on.

Here’s our new friend and housemate, “Boat Rack Against The Seaside.”