What is your (missing) art?

“Real wealth is discretionary time” - I hear it consistently from Alan Weiss and for the starving artists I regularly encounter a little more fiscal base would be transformative, though for most I know ‘working hard’ in commercial endevour, running their own businesses and generally chasing growth, more time would be a godsend. What would they do with it? Potentially work more. What would you do?

After I hit send on this I’ll be heading to another funeral, that of my best friends father. In a completely spontaneous accident (ladder fall) he is no longer with us, and as I move further through the wheel in my early 40s, I am holding more children with one hand and letting go with the other. I first encountered the image below at Cross Ways in Melbourne, ‘the cycle of life and death’ from the Bhagavad Gita;

They have a large version of it on the wall, or at least they did 15 years ago.

What is your art?

I’ve often said my work is my art, though I don’t think it’s true. Usually it’s a ruse to make it okay in my mind for having poor boundaries and rather than sitting down to do 3 or 4 hours of good work, I’ll let my digital browsing and entertainment wash through the day, and find myself at a terminal for 9 or 10 or more hours..

And undoubtedly we have challenges. Global, national, regional, local, social, family and personal issues to deal with. And we always have, and always will. So with this one precious life, that is ticking past, I ask, what is your art?

Do you dance? Sing? Whittle? Do you imagine and play with your kids, pets or spouse? Do you contribute to a community group or do improv theatre? Is it your exercise or sport? If you don’t, what do you imagine it could be, and what would it take to allocate some of your wealth towards it (wealth = time).

Currently I’m recreating a maze that I discovered in Black Rock City in August 2022;

When I heard “it was the most complex, challenging maze we could build, in the smallest amount of space” from the designer, and I’d spent at least 30 minutes unsuccessfully and frustratingly trying to figure it out, I knew it was my kind of art :D

So began the Australian recreation.. how does your ambition usually go? When I went to pickup the wood my answer to ‘put it on the roof rack’ was met with ‘it’s over 300 kgs, it will crush your roof’ :D

It will have it’s first outing on Saturday at a big day-night event called?Melburn Galactica (Celebrating 8 years of Melburners Inc) ?- 36 DJs, 25(ish) performances and 14 interactive art installations, all based on?the 10 Principles of Burning Man . Kids are welcome up until 7 pm and it’s a family friendly that will delight your young ones if you bring them for the first half :)

You can?read about it on Facebook ?and?check out tickets here .

A bit more of the process is below, and I look forward to seeing you Saturday if you’re a Melbournite and want to experience a bit of Burner culture.

Remember.. time is all we have, if yours was truly limited, what would you do differently?

37 red, green and yellow coloured doors cut and sewn for hanging (by Nicole Stewart )

Practicing my secure attachment

64 cross braces ready to assemble

Proof of concept! It stands.. now to assemble it at 8 am on Saturday and attach another 35

Thanks for reading. Chat with you again next Thursday.