Our New Challenge – Exploring Melbourne’s Creative Heart
Creativity Cluster artists have begun a new challenge – to explore Melbourne’s creative heart through a collective work. Although we have exhibited with each other 10 times since early 2019, we had never tried working collectively before.
After two years of on-again, off-again Covid lockdown, seven of the nine members wanted to set themselves a new challenge for 2022. We decided to work together on a major project as a group.
Normally we seven each work individually in our own mediums: Mardie Whitla, ceramics; Luna Cameron-Parrish, mixed media; Lindsay Hussey, textiles; Nancy D Lane, found object assemblage; Penny Sharples, oil and cold wax, acrylic, and mixed media; Pat Duncan, oils and acrylic; and Deidre Ogilvie, oil, acrylic, watercolour, alcohol ink and mixed media.
However, for this project, we plan to collaborate in pairs or small groups, experiment across mediums, create new ways of working, and incorporate this experimentation into a major collective artwork.
A grant to help us achieve our goal
We decided that what we had in common was our attraction to Melbourne and the opportunities it presented. Therefore, we chose the theme ‘Melbourne: Our Creative Heart’. Our plan is to create both physical and online exhibitions that will offer a tribute to Melbourne’s creative stimulus and insight into our artistic practices.
We applied for a City of Melbourne Arts Grant and were thrilled that we were successful. A huge thank you to the City of Melbourne for continuing to support the arts throughout the Covid pandemic.
Link to our blogs
We blogged as we went – describing our ideas, our processes, what worked and what didn’t. We hope you enjoy learning about our journey, as we worked together in what for us was a new and different collective way .
Planning for Melbourne’s Creative Heart, by Nancy Lane
Mapping Melbourne for Our Creative Heart, by Deidre Ogilvie
Experiments in Oil and Cold Wax and Textiles for Melbourne: Our Creative Heart, by Lindsay Hussey with Penny Sharples
Experimenting with Oils and Found Object Assemblage, by Nancy D Lane with Pat Duncan
Experiments with Paint and Junk, part 1, by Deidre Ogilvie with Nancy D Lane
Experiments with Paint and Junk, part 2, by Nancy D Lane with Deidre Ogilvie
Combining Ceramics and Junk, by Nancy D Lane with Mardie Whitla
Out of My Comfort Zone, by Luna Cameron-Parrish with Lindsay Hussey and Penny Sharples
Botanical Splendiferous, by Mardie Whitla and Deidre Ogilvie
Participating in Planning for Melbourne: Our Creative Heart, by Nancy D Lane
The Concept of the River, by Lindsay Hussey and Pat Duncan
