It's not enough for me to work "In the Arts" Let me explain...

There seems to be this pervasive attitude that creative practitioners should be satisfied with “working in the arts” because you get holidays/sick leave/stability, you get to be part of the team that makes creative things happen but mostly because “there’s simply not enough places for everyone to make a living as a creative practitioner”. After 10 years of working in an arts adjacent job (in my case, music education*) I can say with 100% certainty that it has been a poor substitute for a career as a full time creative practitioner.

*It’s important to note that my employment within music education does not come with holidays/sick leave/stability.

You may be wondering how arts work differs from working as an artist*. The simple explanation is all artists are arts workers, but not all arts workers are artists. Arts workers may have been trained in the arts, or feel very passionate about creating opportunities/allowing artists to work to their fullest potential, but at the end of the day, the art would still find a way to exist without them. There’s also a huge difference in pay/stability expectations. Arts workers often handle the “unfun jobs” which have to be paid fairly otherwise no one would do them.

*I’m using the word artist here to describe any discipline that produces creative output i.e music, dance, acting, film, visual arts etc.

Don’t get me wrong, arts workers are incredibly important. A good arts team will give the creative practitioner/s they’re looking after time and space to concentrate on art making (my personal experience of being management and artist for the emerald ruby left me only doing paperwork, and 0 time to actually create!). Orchestra’s, Theatre’s, Production Companies, Galleries, Festivals etc could not exist without the teams of people working behind the scenes to make them run smoothly and remain profitable. These arts adjacent jobs keep the show on the road, however at the end of the day, it’s not art making.

I grew up as a creative practitioner in an arts sector that see’s arts work (and as an extension arts education) as a viable career compromise. I believed in this compromise for a while, probably because it was the only viable way to keep myself fed and housed. I committed to the double life of educator/practitioner, two vastly different careers with incompatible schedules. Not going to lie, it’s taken a toll on my health, and I’ve reached a point where I can no longer work and maintain my creative practice.

That crossroads right there leads me to the point of this post. If arts work was enough for me deciding between my arts work and my work as an artist wouldn’t be so difficult.
I’d also like to add that if you’re a creative practitioner who’s found arts work fulfilling, I am so very happy for you! My life would be a lot easier if I found arts work as fulfilling as my own artistic practice.

About the look: This skirt is officially the first piece I’ve ever pattern matched. I couldn’t resist it, the landscape pattern is so rich and illustrative, to do anything else would have been a right shame. I love the way this shirt matches the autumn leaves in the skirt, and of course, with the colour blocking, I had to use my tried and true “colour sandwich” styling method ;). The belt I’m sporting here is a number I thrifted many moons ago.

If you didn’t already know, I’ve recently released an EP! You can watch me play one of the pieces live in the bush down below! If you really like it, you can purchase the Sheet Music, buy the tracks on Bandcamp or even listen to it on Spotify! Central Coast peeps can come see the EP live at the Rhythm Hut with Ren Stone on the 17th of April. TICKETS HERE

In The Zen Garden - Thoughts on repairing things.

I've been having a lot of thoughts recently about our throwaway culture, and about how accessible repairing things is to the average first world human. This has kind of been spurred on by a few repairs I've made to some items that I own which most people wouldn't have bothered with. 

Obviously to anyone who looks even a teeny tiny bit into it, our consumerist throwaway culture is pretty bad for the environment and human rights. Part of the problem is cheap products that are 1) not made with quality materials, 2) not designed to last and 3) not designed to be repaired (this is particularly evident with technology) The other part of the problem is most people aren't taught the skills they need to be able to repair these products, and when they break, they don't care enough to learn them (because lets be honest, if the zip breaks on your backpack, it's easier to replace the backpack then sew in a new zip) 

There have been a few tech repairs I've made this year, namely replacing the headphone output in my Ipod Classic. The ipod had a problem where sound would only come out of one earphone. It was a known issue on the device, and made significant financial sense to replace the headphone jack than buy a new ipod. (The spare part was about $30, and a "New ipod" runs about $180 if you're lucky) 

Nick took this photo :D

I'm glad I opted to replace the jack - I saved money, I didn't create e waste, and I learned a valuable skill, but, it was a really tricky repair. It was fiddly and complicated, and in the process I managed to break the lock button. There were several moments I thought I broke the device, not to mention it took me half an hour to crack open the shell. 

I understand why companies are increasingly making it difficult to repair things (means more $$$ for them) But ethically, every single member of society owes it to the our earth and long term survival to do as much as we can to repair and reuse rather than repurchase and throw away. 

Anyway,  that's the end of my ramble about repairing things and consumerist throwaway culture. CHANGE OF TOPIC: I shot all these photos with Nick in the Japanese Garden at the East Gosford Art Gallery. 

Shirt: Thrifted, Skirt: Home Made, Belt: Alannah Hill, Tights: don't remember, Shoes: Gift

If you live on the Central Coast (or if you find yourself here for an extended period) and you haven't visited the gardens and gallery, you're missing out. It's such a lovely spot. There are koi, (that you can feed!) there are ducks, there are well manicured trees and more recently, there are sculptures that had been sculped by a modern Japanese sculptor. 

It really is a little slice of heaven. I have so many fond memories of visiting the garden as a youngster. I took a number of art classes there. It's really great that the garden is so well looked after. Hopefully it will outlast me. :) 

Finally, here's a christmas carol my friend Laura and I recorded. She's been doing a daily carol advent on her facebook page because christmas is fun! 

My friend Laura has been doing a daily advent calendar of Christmas carols over on her facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/lchegmusic/?...) . As I'm predominately a music channel, I've been wanting to record a couple of tunes to spread the Christmas cheer. Here's our version of Let it Snow. PART 1 HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZAxd2Q_3jo&feature=youtu.be SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/user-959316635...

Music struggles - Bars Rest Edition

I think something professional musicians don't do enough is talk about the things that we struggle with. And I'm not talking about those tricky passages in ridiculous music, I'm talking about the stuff we REALLY should know by now.   

Theres a basic music skill that i still really struggle with, and has brought me some mild personal shame. (It should be noted that I cover this struggle pretty well) 

I struggle to count bars rest. Small ones are fine, but once we get past 5 or 6 theres a pretty good chance i will have miscounted. And if I haven't miscounted, I'm probably convinced that I have. 

I have some very vivid memories of sitting in youth orchestra as a young flautist, completely lost within yet another 56 bars of rest. Most of the time I would have memorised the cue, so I would try and guess where about's in the music we were and anxiously listen out for the cue (whilst simultaneously praying I hadn't missed it already)

After my first year I started to develop a "backup counting" technique that I still occasionally take advantage of to this day. I would take note of the music on my "neighbours" music stand. For a piccoloist, that usually means you can see flute 1 and 2 and Violin. I would seek out the rehearsal mark and place it on their music. 

Cardigan: Princess Highway Dress: Thrifted Tights: Ebay Shoes: Hand me down from mum 

Whilst this technique works reasonably well, it does have it's flaws. Sometimes each person would be playing from a different edition of the score, which leads to irregularities in the layout, thus making "cheating" difficult. It also isn't 100% effective at solving the problem of missed cues. 

Now, I'm considerably better at counting bars rest now than in my early flute years, but I still find myself getting lost more often than I think I should be. 

Any advice about counting bars rest is welcome in the comments. I already double check my counting on my fingers. THANKS :)