Last Saturday, I was given a very special opportunity to give an Artist Talk at the opening of our art exhibition held in the Community Gallery, at the Gosford Regional Gallery. The “us” refers to Studio Gossie, an art program for artists with disabilities which meets at the gallery on Thursday mornings. The community gallery is where community art groups exhibit and it gives you a bit of an entre into being an exhibiting artist, and a forum for up and comings to share our work. I have to say, it feels supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to see my work up on the wall especially at a smaller exhibition like ours where each work has space and gravitas.
I called my talk: Message On A Canvas, because my artworks in the exhibition both relate to my disability and acute health issues.
I wanted to share my artist talk and insert a few photos which weren’t part of the original presentation. Being a strongly visual person, they really bring my journey to life.
My artist talk addressed the fact that I’m not really an artist quite yet, along with how my disabilities and acute health issues have both hindered and advanced my art.
So here goes…
When offered the opportunity to do an artist’s talk today, as an extroverted extrovert, I enthusiastically leaped at the chance. Yet, in my typical inimitable fashion, I hadn’t thought it through. Nothing was straight forward, especially the title of “artist”.
While I might be on the road to becoming an artist, I’m currently more of a “jack-of-all trades creative” with a much stronger track record in writing and photography. Moreover, my relationship with art has been rocky, often affected by my disabilities and my ardent passion hasn’t always been reciprocated. Fortunately, I’ve learnt practice helps and you can’t just pick up a pencil and draw like Da Vinci on your first attempt.
My art journey began as a pre-schooler eagerly watching Mr Squiggle on ABC TV. Like magic, he’d transform random squiggles into amazing works of art. Of course, I had a go myself, but couldn’t pull it off. Maybe, I just didn’t have the nose for it, or perhaps my issues went deeper. When it came to colouring-in, I also had trouble. Couldn’t stay between the lines. So, despite my passion, art and I seemed incompatible… like oil and water. We didn’t mix. Yet, finally in year 7, my art teacher took me under her wing and my art flourished. While I could’ve done elective art, I was in an academic stream and left art behind.
I ended up at Sydney University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with honours in history. While I was there, the movie Dead Poet’s Society came out and I’d found my calling. I got involved in several poetry groups and was doing poetry readings. In 1992, I self-published my anthology of poetry: Locked Inside An Inner Labyrinth and left for Europe. While in Paris, I did a solo poetry reading at the famous bookshop – Shakespeare and Company.
However, when I returned to Australia, reality hit and it was time to get a proper job. I went into marketing mostly doing tedious database analysis and being a fish out of water.
However, my world soon received a massive shake up. Turned out my difficulties colouring-in between the lines, were part of a bigger problem, showing up again as I struggled to stay in my lane learning to drive. I’d also had a hard time at school for being clumsy or “unco” and was always the last person to be chosen in PE. Then, in my mid-twenties with my head spinning, I was referred to a neurologist and found out I’d been born with hydrocephalus, or fluid in the brain. This ticking time bomb, suddenly exploded and I rapidly deteriorated. I had brain surgery to insert a shunt. This was a bit like fixing a simple plumbing problem albeit in my head.
My road to recovery was long and traumatic. There I was an up and coming something, and now I was just a huge question mark.
However, a professional photographer friend got me deeper into photography, recharging my creative battery and lighting a real fire. I could also go to parties and say I was into photography, which helped bridge the gap of not being able to work…a real salvation!
Yet, I mostly recovered, and got back into marketing. Geoff entered the picture about six months later and we were married. We have two lovely young adult children and three dogs.
However, the birth of our second child brought about a debilitating auto-immune disease which attacked my muscles and has wreaked major damage on my lungs. I am currently going through pre-transplant screening at St Vincent’s Hospital, but hoping not to need it.
That’s been a long and winding road, but finally we’re arriving at Destination Art, where I am definitely a Johnny-come-lately. Much of my art is abstract expressionist with lashings of brightly coloured paint protruding from the canvas and I’m often covered in paint. I’m also into mixed-media using repurposed materials and a lot of glue.
I mostly work from our kitchen table and have to be careful cooking and painting at the same time making sure the wooden spoon goes in the pot, and the paintbrush on the canvas and also stays out of my cup of tea!
At the start of 2024, I fell back into art searching for my tribe after lockdown and my kids leaving school. Our daughter was working next door to Bloomfield Fine Art Gallery in Terrigal and I started going to their openings and getting to know a few artists. I also started going to jazz at the Ocean Beach Hotel. The music really lit my fire and helped inspire my first major artwork. The big spark came with hearing about the Mental Health Artworks Exhibition.
My artwork evolved through a series of light bulb moments where I suddenly saw the same old packaging from my medication in a new light. A silver bag became a dress. The Rennie’s packet became windows and I jazzed them up with glass paint to form a colourful nightscape, and also put music in some of the windows. My empty bottle of prednisone became a person. Then, the people became a band and were healing through playing music. I ended up calling it After Dark the Music Starts. I also submitted this artwork into Willoughby Council’s disability art competition where it received a Highly Commended and $100 voucher. I was so encouraged, and went on to join Studio Gossie, where my horizons blew wide open!
Wanting to build on this, I developed the Odd Socks’ Night Out, which is in this exhibition. The back story was inspired by Radiohead’s haunting lament: Creep…
“But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here…”
and
“I don’t care if it hurts
I want to have control.
I want a perfect body.
I want a perfect soul…”
In this work, the outcast odd socks have come together at their own exuberant festival celebrating: “we all belong here”. However, they are not so accepting of outsiders and have their own list of restrictions…no smelly or holey socks, no pairs, no shoes. I felt this was a pretty true reflection of how a lot of community groups operate.
There are two types of odd sock in this work. There are the high flyers up the top, which are made out of polymer clay and egg cartons. The odd sock characters down below are made from repurposed household items, especially packaging from my medication, my husband’s odd socks, fabric, wool. I chanced across a bunch of Barbie dolls at the op shop and they provided arms, legs and hair for the creatures. There’s also “Joe” whose wheelchair was made out of two kitchen plugs, and there’s a reference to dyslexia in the title. While some of these creatures still embrace being socks, others are in self-denial and are all dressed up. On the side of the canvas it says: “With enough camouflage, you can be anyone except yourself”. Being yourself is perhaps one of life’s greatest challenges.
Moving onto my other work: Beyond Silenced, this features a stark white plaster mask of my face which is both rooted in the soil and growing flowers from its head. Significantly, my mouth has been plastered over and I have been silenced. Our daughter helped make the mask out of plaster bandages a year ago, and I decided to do something with it for our exhibition. While at Studio Gossie, I made an array of Spring flowers out of air-dried clay and decided to have them growing out the top of the head. Then I thought of the flowers having roots and being nurtured through the soil. So, there is an ecosystem at work. The side of the canvas reads: “I am more than my broken body parts”.
My husband Geoff has been a wonderful support during this artistic awakening attending openings and providing nuts and bolts advice for putting my artworks together. Geoff is also my carer and breadwinner for our family. While my disability has freed me up to pursue my creativity, he’s made considerable sacrifice, but is also grateful for how much art is helping me.
Lastly, having shared my bad luck, I wanted to share our incredible good luck. A few months ago, Geoff was sent over to Paris for a work conference. I went too and we toured Ireland, France and Germany. Naturally attracted to the galleries, we found out people with disabilities and their carers get in free in France and also by-pass the queues. That was like winning lotto! However, while queuing to see Mona Lisa, things went next level when the guard plucked me out of the crowd and escorted me to the very front of Mona Lisa. Turns out they have a special lane right under Mona Lisa’s nose for people with disabilities so people in wheelchairs can get a good view. How wonderful is that, although it should be automatic. So often people with disabilities finish last or miss out, but here in front of the most visited artwork in the world, we are given special VIP treatment… Wow!
That’s a lesson for us all. What can we personally do to make life that little bit easier or inspirational for people living with disabilities? Moreover, as a person living with disability, I also need to be loving and accepting of myself.
This is what Studio Gossie is all about. Here I am giving an artist talk and my fledgling artistic beginnings are starting to flourish. We as a collective are forging friendships and breaking through all kinds of ice. So I’d like to thank the Gallery, Anna, Lesley and my fellow artists for our wonder-filled art tribe. We are changing lives.
Rowena Curtin
PS: Had to include a few pics of painting with our son as a toddler. What fun and exuberant creativity and expressionist!
Beyond the Flow 