Creative process – hillscene blog

Our very own Amy Middleton, part of the hillscene editorial team is having an exhibition of her beautiful, intricate artwork called ‘Seekers’ at Burrinja Cafe. Here’s what she had to say about her work and creative process.

1/ How would you describe your creative practice?

You know that scene in a movie where in a sleep deprived frenzy, the lead character covers their bedroom wall in newspaper clippings, maps, and photographs, then uses a giant red marker to thread together the dates, places and faces to identify the bad guy… and essentially resolve all further existential crisis the character might be facing? (If you are shaking your head in confusion please watch The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and everything from here on will make sense!) I totally identify with those movie moments; my creative practise unfolds in a similar way. That mapping process is continually taking place in my mind. Being an artist and working in the arts means I am constantly surrounded by creative people, conversations, collaborations, many to do lists (I have an unhealthy dependency on post it notes). Each time I create a new series of works, it is a consolidation of all the clues I have been carrying around in my head. Once the work is made, I receive an amazing gift of a few moments of clarity… before the creative clutter filters through and I start again!

2/ Please describe the space where you do most of your making?

I have a perfectly lovely studio at home but I rarely use it… it is too quiet and isolated. I thrive on ‘social noise’… just knowing that there are people nearby carrying on with their lives, creating a buzz makes me happy. I end up carrying a lot of my art materials around with me and I make spontaneously. My dining room table gets a lot of attention… it is more of a project table. At the moment it is cluttered with sketch books, spray cans and stencils, hand-made Christmas cards, a half-finished taxidermy parrot (not mine… WIP by hubby!), tattoo designs, books and a lot of post it notes! I am considering working out of a more collaborative studio space next year… as an experiment!

3/ Tell us about your current exhibition, Seekers.

Seekers is a series of illustrations and prints that salute the pursuit of adventure. It is a tribute to unfamiliar explorers, fictional maps and unconventional landmarks. Most of my works occur in series similar to chapters of a book, Seekers includes three series called ‘Fictional Landmarks’, ‘Objects & Emotions’ and ‘Henk & Lola’. I really enjoyed making the ‘Henk & Lola’ works; it features two tiny orienteering bugs whose task it is to map out an ever-evolving world. They have created six maps that represent their observations of social landscape of their most recent explorations. I dare say they will make another appearance in future works! The exhibition will be on display in the Burrinja Café until the 14th of December if you fancy taking a peek. For more info go to, www.burrinja.org.au

4/ Who are your creative hero’s?

Gasp… too many! Off the top of my head, Rachel Whiteread, Sabrina Ward Harrison, Del Kathryn Barton and street art duo behind Herakut… Drooooll!

5/ Where can people find more information on your practise or upcoming exhibition or projects?

Between my website and Facey I pretty much cover it all…

www.amymiddleton.com or facebook

Post by Sue Guzick.

When considering a response to the ‘End of the Line’ Burrinja stage concept and site, I felt a truer gesture would come from within the experience. What does it feel like, and what emerges through the movement to the end of the line? What are ways to mark and describe the discoveries?

For those of us who have spent time traveling by train we recall the ebb, stream, repetition, anticipation, and out-flow into the destination. The Belgrave line has its own characteristics, feelings, and lush explosion of nature and community at the end. Initial studies were created to sense, mark, and reflect.

Guided imaging is one of the methods I used to capture the experience of the Belgrave Line. It gave me a starting point for the creative process.

Visual reflections of my experience of traveling to Belgrave by train

Guided imaging text

The Burrnja Stage will be located in Belgrave at Earthly Pleasures Café. Earthly Pleasures Café has a distinct aspect of place, another out-flow: food, warm people, and a nurtured historic building and garden. Stage placement responds to the site with glimpses from the street, views from the café, and a relationship to a great old tree. The installation further emerges from ideas of line, culmination, heightened awareness, colour contrast, and the form of gum tree barks. Community making, and their personal experience will broaden it.

Tree 1

Tree 2

The empowering thing about arts, place, and being human is that we all have access to the experience. We each have different discoveries and ways of marking them. Significant and unexpected things emerge when we uninhibitedly look at any environment we are in.