New Adventures

We are about two thirds of the way through 2022 and so far it has been a good year in regards to getting to practice some new digital drawing skills and fine-tuning my personal style (although I feel like I will be in a continuous process of doing this for the rest of my life).

I've had a huge project put on hold though, which has left me a bit lost at sea in regards to finances and time, and while still going back and forth on final elements of one particular design, the larger part of the project seems to be on halt indefinitely, or perhaps even cancelled - I'm not completely sure yet. This puts a huge drain on my creative energies as I've put a lot of time and effort coming up with unique designs, trying to capture the essence of the messages the people wanted to tell, the stories of the communities they work with, whilst trying to be inclusive of a huge array of different peoples and activities. I was proud of the designs I managed to come up with and felt confident in my portrayal of all the elements they requested. The team was encouraging and excited with the work that was being produced, had some requests for inclusions and changes, but overall the communication was positive...and then - a sudden halt to the project. Board members weren't on the same page with the visual elements as the rest of the team. Miscommunication...or perhaps a complete lack of communication, I'm not sure. I was assured that it was not because of anything on my part. And yet...as an artist, this still takes a bit to accept and work through. I am very flexible and able to adjust style or portrayal of elements, but it seems like there's some internal communications and ideas that needs to be ironed out before any artwork gets created - and so I still wait. In the meantime, I've had to find other avenues of income to make up for the loss of this large projects income, and so from next week, I will fill a part-time position at the Waitakere Arts Centre. This is a great opportunity to be more involved in my local arts community and get to know and help some aspiring artist. The Waitakere Arts center is located on the popular Corban Estates Arts Centre in Henderson Auckland, and I am starting just in time to see the Trusts' 35th Arts Exhibition go up and move into the Arena for the exhibition taking place from 3 - 11 September!

Perhaps by next year I will exhibit a couple of my own pieces as well! In the meantime, I look forward to being part of this supportive and creative community and am excited to see what the journey with them holds for the future! 
Have a look at the amazing work they are up to on their website.

Waitaker arts centre