Old stuff - The Cave

It's not a cave... though it has an abstract relationship with one.

All my adult life I have been sending manuscripts and artwork to publishers in the hope of becoming the next new thing in children's (for "children" read "anyone who feels young inside") literature. This activity has always been accompanied by the slightly unnerving feeling that I am doing this by throwing my work into a dark cave, without much in the way of an understanding of the topography of the place i
nto which it goes: the size, the shape, the dangers, the rules of the place. 

The internet is a bit like that in my mind too - like a huge limestone cave, incompletely lit. 

I'm lucky (and I sincerely thank my parents for this) to have a slightly more than moderately unusual Christian name. I'm sure there are many people in the world who can't just buy a domain name involving their own name, straight off. I just did that. At least, I did it a couple of years ago, then forgot to pay the subscription, it lapsed, and I got it back. Where the incompletely lit, dark limestone cave feeling comes in is the point where I have to do the next thing: make a website. 

That's why I'm here. I seem to be making a blog... I've found the entrance to the cave. I know there's something in there. It remains to be seen whether I drop my torch and fall down a crevasse, or find a glittering stalactite.

An only slightly relevant digression... years ago I had a job drawing pictures and diagrams for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service for Kosciuszko National Park. Some of them were about Yarrangobilly Caves; beautiful limestone caves in the northern Snowy Mountains of NSW. In the course I my research I spent a decent amount of time visiting and drawing limestone formations and drawing diagrams explaining their formation. For one brochure I had to draw two diagrams One of them I adapted from reference material provided by the writer. The other I made up from reading the text of the brochure. Which was challenged? The one that was well referenced. I love that. The power of the imagination.

The pictures illustrate my points. The first one, which is in fact a view of the pizza oven built by my husband, shows something of the dangers of caves. It's hollow and dark. You can't know it without experiencing it. There are dangers. 

The second illustration is a painting done for a facebook group encouraging daily creativity: https://www.facebook.com/TheCreativeAccount/?fref=ts I think its point is self-evident but I'll tell you anyway. 1) Chasing a job in creativity is to a certain extent a pipe dream. 2) ... but it's going to be pretty anyway. 3) Gold paint is always a good idea.

One of my artworks: "Chasing Creativity". Ink, acrylic, watercolour, gold paint. 

The third picture is an earlier version of the second - showing how much some things have to change before one can be happy with them. I liked this line drawing, but I wanted to take it further.

An early version of Chasing Creativity. In some respects it changed
a lot; in others not at all in the finished version.