I had a piece published last month in Garland Magazine’s 25th issue Craft Currencies – Value is in our own hands. Editor Dr Kevin Murray saw the work and asked me to write about the series Juukan Tears Offcuts that I made last year, through the lens of high/low, rich/poor, gallery/gift shop craft. It is an interesting series to talk about the links/divide between strata of craft, especially because the main work, Juukan Tears, was in the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial while the Offcuts were in the gift shop right across from it. To give a broader perspective I was able to reach out to fellow artist and purchaser of one of the Offcuts works Tanya Lee to talk about the impact and ramifications of having both sets of works in the same space.
You can read the article here. I also encourage you to read the piece by Bridget Kennedy about her practice too, it’s great to have a bunch of stories about her makings and happenings collected in the one place. She’s the issues designated Thinker Maker, and it’s a title she has well earned. Did you know she was also recently elected as a Councillor of Lane Cove in NSW? Community connection is her practice and her life.
While on the subject of Garland Magazine, you can also follow their socials to see the guest posts that I will be contributing over a couple of months, starting this week. Thematically linked to the current issue, the posts have the expected jewellery skew but will hopefully include a couple of sharp-ish turns from the usual line.
So far I’ve chatted with the amazing Jillian Moore, a colleague whose ideas I love, and work I own, from Iowa in the USA. Jillian has recently set up a Patreon to support her studio practice, to claw back some income from all the content that she, like most artists, produce for free that is distributed by the less-than-generous social media algorithms. Like so many makers she needed a bump to get back in her studio after a rough pandemic-induced financial year, and has found a way to give more, and get more, on her own terms.
