Week 33/2022: Arty adventures

Week of 15 August 2022

Arty adventures

Tuesdays are my half days at work. When I have a medical appointment at 12.00, which doesn’t happen very often because I normally get in at 2.20, my work day gets cut back to about two and a half hours. This Tuesday was one of those days and I ended up having a wonderful day.

After my appointment I met up with Lil Sis to sign some papers and mentioned I was going to Moonah to see a photography exhibition. She said she’d like to come too and could give me a lift. Yay! No bus trip required.

We went to Artosaurus, a gallery that provides exhibition and workshop spaces for artists of all abilities and focuses on building a safe and supportive art community.

“Make Art. Be Happy” is their motto.

We were there to see photographer Pete Mellows’ exhibition “Tasmanian Light”,  which included moments from Pete’s hiking explorations around Tasmania. He says the works were “inspired by the light endemic to Tasmania”.

It was lovely to see these photos in person at full size and in a wonderful gallery setting. Especially the image of the Organ Pipes of kunanyi , which Pete describes as “a direct representation of how kunanyi stands above nipaluna (Hobart) for time beyond measure, just as the stars have stood above kunanyi”. I love this image.

As we were leaving, we walked past the Moonah Arts Centre and decided to go in to see the “Knit Your Bits” exhibition.

This is a Women’s Health Tasmania project, “which began with a series of workshops that invited women to express their bodies through textile craft. Workshop participants have knitted, sewed, felted, embroidered and woven different body parts, using art and humour to explore ideas around their own health or women’s health generally”.

I love this description of how it began:

 . . . the day we learned that the Wall of Vulvas at MONA was created by a male artist. “Good heavens!” we said, and “If a woman had made it, would she have have made it like that?”  To which we said, “NO! She would have knitted it!” “YEAH! She would have KNITTED HER BITS!”

The exhibit description goes on to say that this was the start of a conversation about how we could use art and craft to create “positive understandings of the diversity of women’s bodies”, which is important because “too often we see the unrealistic and shaming stereotypes that re projected onto women, making them feel their own bodies are alien and wrong”.

It was a great exhibit with a wonderful message.

I felt drawn to two bits in particular. The first bit was by Helen Strickland, who knitted the structure of the pelvic bones. Helen says she had struggled with understanding instructions she was getting in her yoga class involving sitting bones, pubic bone, sacrum etc and that, despite an assurance from her teacher that her awareness can see these parts of the body, Helen was pretty sure her awareness of the interrelationship of the bones was “pretty foggy”.

Mine too, and I’ve been learning about this in my efforts to improve my posture and my body use more generally. So when I saw Helen’s piece, it helped me see, first of all how the bones come together, and how big that space really is. The term “pelvic bowl” is not an exaggeration.

The other bit I really related to was Cecily Rosol’s larynx, which she says is a part of her body that is particularly important to her. Her statement tells of how her voice was initially smothered but as she has made her way though life, she has worked at stepping into herself, trusting herself, valuing her perspective and believing she has a right to speak.

Cecily, who was a candidate in the 2022 federal election, says, “Sometimes I still wobble and doubt what I have to offer, but along the way I have found my voice and it is getting stronger. I am committed to using it for good in the world.”

It was a terrific exhibition and after we’d looked at the other exhibitions, Lil Sis left me to catch the bus back to town.

I stopped off for a very late lunch and a casual walk through to Sandy Bay looking for things to photograph.

I had a lovely day and thought that this would be a wonderful way to structure my days every day, not just this one. Perhaps without the medical appointments. A couple of hours work, catching up with someone, looking at art, having coffee, then going for a solo photo exploration walk until I made my way home. Then, writing up my experiences, sorting through the photos and having someone else to cook dinner.

I wonder how my work would feel about three-hour work days?

22 for 2022 update

This was a week of casual progress. Not much to say about it. Lil Sis has agreed to help me rebuild my kombucha (thing 5) so I hope that can happen in the next couple of weeks.

I listened to all of the bonus material for the romance writing course (thing 20) so that thing really is finished now, and I have to say, I love the idea of making Pinterest boards to collect inspirations for stories.

22 for 2022 summary

• Things completed to date: 8 (8, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19, 20, 22)
• Things completed this week: –
• Things I worked on this week: 2: (12, 21)
• Things in progress: 4 (1, 5, 12, 21)
• Things not started: 2 (14, 17)
• Things that are parked until the end of September: 6 (2, 3, 4, 6, 15, 16)
• Things I’m not going to do: 2 (7, 9)

What do I want to do next week?

The same as I wanted to do this week. Several things I haven’t made much progress on, including writing my post about the book 4000 Weeks and working on my new photo project. Both of which I am procrastinating on because they are overwhelming at the moment.

Weekly summary

What was the best thing about this week?

My day out on Tuesday.

What did I learn this week?

I learned lots of things this week, but one has really stuck in my head, and that’s what my physio told about the tightness in my neck and shoulder. She said “tightness equals weakness” and so the exercises I’m doing (correction, movements) are to help me build up strength where I currently don’t have any.

What did I notice this week?

I liked all the pink here.

What I’m reading this week

• The Alexander Technique: A Skill for life by Pedro de Alcantata
• The Dance of Intimacy by Harriet Lerner

Habit tracker

• Days I went for a walk in the morning (Goal = 5): 6
• No phone at breakfast (Goal = 4): 3
• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 4): 4
• Days I did controlled breathing (Goal = 7): 7
• No phone at lunch time (Goal = 6): 4
• Days I did my post-work pack up routine (Goal = 4): 3
• Finish work by 5.30 (Goal = 4): 4
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 2
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 5): 5
• Days I shut my computer down before 9.30 (Goal = 6): 7
• Weekly review at work: No (I didn’t work on Friday)
• Weekly review at home: Yes