During January I attended a workshop at the inspiring NAS campus in Darlinghurst, guided by abstract artist Tonnee Messiah. She set an exercise daily taking me back to basics to consider in my practice. The best learning I took away from the week was to consider what exactly it was that attracted me to the landscape - light, dark, colour, shapes, atmosphere - and then draw a simplified image, followed by a deconstructed image and then use this to encompass what I saw in the landscape, or how I felt, rather than producing a representation of the scene. It was an inspiring week, although at times confronting.
I also discovered that the wearing masks created a barrier. Usually in these situations, everyone found their tribe, or person to chat to, by the end of first day. Instead, whilst we were pleasant to each other, communication and sharing wasn't coming naturally. Removal of the mouth seemed to remove connection. It wasn't until the third day, when we removed our masks to present to the group, that there was an engagement. The group relaxed into each other with a sense of trust and shared inspiration of ideas and concepts. With masks back on, we used eye-contact in our sharing of ideas - no longer strangers behind the barrier.
Check out Tonnee's for on instagram:
tonneemessiah
I also discovered that the wearing masks created a barrier. Usually in these situations, everyone found their tribe, or person to chat to, by the end of first day. Instead, whilst we were pleasant to each other, communication and sharing wasn't coming naturally. Removal of the mouth seemed to remove connection. It wasn't until the third day, when we removed our masks to present to the group, that there was an engagement. The group relaxed into each other with a sense of trust and shared inspiration of ideas and concepts. With masks back on, we used eye-contact in our sharing of ideas - no longer strangers behind the barrier.
Check out Tonnee's for on instagram:
tonneemessiah
RSS Feed
