a rat's guide to survival 1

A perfect storm of circumstances conspired to shape me into a ‘survivor’. First, but not necessarily in this order, I am an artist. As my peers will tell you, you need to be tough to ‘be’ an artist – for a number of reasons - among which the lack of money figures predominantly. But also because you have to be a bit belligerant and cultivate a thick skin – everyone is an art critic, whether they know anything about it or not (usually not).

Second – I was raised by my Dutch grandmother who lived out the second world war in occupied Holland – very close to the German border. She grew up in a middle class family and learnt about frugality the hard way. She was a young woman with 2 small children when the war broke out - that 5 years shaped the remainder of her life. She passed the lesson onto her children. Most of them didn’t take it on board but I took it to heart – probably because it resonated with my own nature.

Third and maybe most critically, I was born in the Chinese Year of the Rat. Rats are born survivors and I am no different. I am always aware of my surroundings, I sit facing the door and have worked out all the exit routes before most people know there is anything going down. If there is a whiff of trouble, follow the rat – they don’t get their reputation for being the first to leave a sinking ship for nothing. At exhibition openings I am the first to head for the grub and get stuck in before I go and look at the art. You have to get your priorities right if you want to be a survivor.

Although I am definitely not wealthy by Western living standards I can afford to buy new clothes. But I much prefer Op Shops – there is something very satisfying about tracking down that unique little treasure at a bargain price. Where’s the challenge in heading for a rack of boringly similar items? I don’t want to wear what everyone else is wearing anyway. I am also in the habit of salvaging other people’s lost items. The thongs I am currently wearing were found at the beach. I haven’t bought a beach towel for – well – ever! I don’t steal things, I give it a couple of days to see if anyone claims the item before I take it home and add it to my stash.

This is a very Rat thing – which you will know if you have ever found a rat’s nest under your house or in a cupboard. Rats will collect things that seem absolutely useless to anyone else – but that’s where the resourceful bit comes in – you never know when something will come in handy – and it has on many occasions. When I lived with my mother as a small child she used to regularly clear out my stash when I was at school. I would come home and wail that someone had ‘froan out all my good stuff’ and head to the bin to retrieve it. As a mature person I have trained myself to curb this natural tendency, but I will often still pick up bits of blue plastic on the beach out of habit.

I am resilient and resourceful and, at times, I can be ruthless – these are good Rat words because they also begin with R. I am calculating but not because I want to take advantage of anyone. My code for life is that, where possible, any transaction should be mutually beneficial to both parties.  I love working out ways to make that happen – it’s the best kind of problem solving – doing the sums, negotiating – it is creative and maybe that’s why I like it so much.

Finding creative solutions is in a Rat's blood, it is essential for making art and for survival as well.

image: This great image is called Rat Survivor, by DizOider (Petar Jokic) on Deviant Art

rediscovering discovery

After I finished my PhD into the Void I came to the conclusion that images were not an end in themselves - which meant that in and of themselves they have no intrinsic value. I expected to be a bit lost and I was, but I am an artist - did this mean my romance with images was over? It left me in a different, but similar material 'void' - it seemed inconceivable I would ever engage with images in the same way again.

For very practical reasons I enrolled in a Diploma in Graphic Design (online), which meant starting all over again from the beginning in a different but related field. What I found though, is that I am enjoying the same basic exercises I did in the early 80s when I went to Claremont TAFE to study art at tertiary level for the first time. I have rediscovered the simple pleasure of playing with shape and line and colour. 

Now one would assume images in design don't have much meaning because they are created for a specific, mostly commercial purpose. But even in design my 'brand' of image and way of percieving the world persists. This is evident from comparisons with other students' work - I am doing collage at the moment and the textures and images I am selecting are very 'me'. For the past year or so I have been obsessing with 'fire' and 'ice' and although I have been gathering these images, I put this investigation on hold until I finished the thesis. Now it is clear that I have moved naturally into a new phase - from the black/blue rock and water to red, yellow, black and white - the full significance of which I am yet to discover. These colours and certain motifs are showing up in my design work.

I had been wondering how I could integrate my new 'world focused' interest in graphic design with the ongoing process of individuation, so it was a relief to see that the unconscious was still guiding me. The colours of my collage are mainly red and yellow and I now believe I may be negotiating the alchemical phases of 'Rubedo' and 'Citrinitas'.

It seems that with awareness, or maybe even without it, the alchemy of images continues to evolve consciousness. Reassuringly the work goes on despite my numerous lapses and involvement in 'ordinary' reality and the everyday.

'balloon girl'

This is 'Balloon Girl' - all vectorised - sporting a new patterned dress, a bunch of balloons and her very own cloud.

image: DrGrafix image. Illustrator vector from an original idea.

a lighter side of life

So this is what I am reduced to. Actually it was a really fun exercise and I learnt a fair bit about Illustrator. 

This is what I get to do for part 1 of my Illustrator assignment - make a vector from a drawing of my choice. Which means turning it into something like the panda. Yes, all quite trivial subjects - as one person said - 'not really you'. In my defence, not many people appreciate that although I am known for delving into the dark psycho-philosophical depths I am also whimsical and very eccentric. No doubt it won't last, but it is really enjoyable - even a relief - to be surfing and creating in the sun at the moment.

from PhD to grade 1

I survived the first week and a half of my on-line graphic design course - survived being the key word here, because it was very fraught. Although I was excited to get going I stalled early on - getting used to on-line learning systems, negotiating the course structure - not to mention having to go right back to square one and start a drawing unit at beginner level. I had to suffer the indignity of redoing one exercise because my 'blind contour' drawings were too accurate, which meant I must have been peeking! Add to that the trauma of losing our internet connection towards the end of the week which meant I was unable to log on at will and watch videos at home. I have been going to the local TAFE every day this week so I can keep working. Through some clever 'hotspotting' via my partner's phone, I uploaded the first submission with 1 minute 46 seconds to spare last Sunday (which just happened to be my birthday). Phew! Our connection was only re-established yesterday after 6 days - how did we ever live without the internet?

I am very relieved I opted for part time (2 units) which is supposed to amount to 10 hours a week study, however the 4-6 hours a week for video tutorials in one unit alone only covers watching them. It's not enough time to take substantive notes and apply the knowledge. Although we don't need to submit anything for 4 weeks I can't see the point in passively watching videos - the information goes in and straight out - so I am taking notes and doing the exercises along with the cyber-tutor. I feel I may be at a slight disadvantage because younger minds will retain information more readily and I will probably have to work harder in the beginning. I am hoping my knowledge of design elements and principles will give me a huge advantage later on when I have learnt the software and can begin to enjoy creating some nice work.

The design software is one thing, but I have been drawing for 40 years. I could have got recognition for prior learning, but that is almost as much work as doing the entire unit. I also think it is good to get back to the core of things, and being humbled is very good for one's ego. The mission last week was simply to get through the material. My performance was adequate but I am reminding myself that although I have a PhD, and possibly the most to 'lose' here, this is not a competition and there is always much to be gained no matter where you sit on the academic ladder. Design is a new area for me so I am happy to be guided by what I think are very good tutors at the design school. I have placed myself in their capable hands.

The drawing above is the final in a series of exercises for the first week - a simple line drawing of a still-life.

a guilty pleasure

I have just signed up for a 2 year (4 years part-time) on-line Diploma of Graphic Design. It will add another $20000 to my HECS debt but what the HEC? Am I waking in fright at the thought of another round of study? Not yet - I'm still in the honeymoon phase and I haven't started the work yet.

I am having an identity crisis of sorts - who I thought I was, who I am now, who I might be. Me and images - the complex relationship goes on. At the end of my PhD I had come to the conclusion that images were not an 'end in themselves' as I thought they were. I still respect the images that emerge from my unconscious but they have lost some of their hold on me. They used to possess me completely but now......maybe I am just tired and it's too soon to say. But my relationship with them has certainly changed because I have changed irrevocably.

That in itself is a good thing, except I am wandering in a new land without the co-ordinates that served me in the past. It's good to question identity, in the end it is not who we really are anyway. Except life goes on and I can't walk naked through the landscape as my 'avatar' does here. I need to find my place, and find some clothes so other people know who I am and what I am about, and they want to know.

A conversation I had yesterday rattled me a bit. This person had just finished reading my thesis and gave me some very positive feedback, asking questions like: 'well, what's next? Are you going to try and publish, deliver papers at conferences?' This person thought I had written well, and liked my journal entries the best of all. My plan had been to keep writing, try and get a paper published, but somewhere in the gruelling struggle to the finish line that idea got sidelined and all but thrown out of the box. 

I have fallen into another kind of void, but this one is brightly coloured and seductive, shimmering with the formal aspects of image-making - colour, shape and design. I admit there is a guilty pleasure in playing around with software and its chicanery. The guilt comes from an unnecessary but well entrenched attachment to traditional forms of art and a lifelong habit of making images out of suffering rather than joy. But there was this dream, right at the end of my study, where I am surfing in crystal light-filled waters, diving under to find a white shrine with nothing inside it. That should have told me something, but what?

The doll in the image above is me of course, walking through a strange new world. It occurred to me yesterday, when this person asked if I was still recording my numinous dream images, that I had forgotten about them. But when I think about it - maybe I am still recording them in different ways - like this image above.

After 8 years of study, with a grinding agenda unsympathetically driving me on, I feel I still need a framework. And maybe that's why I signed up for the graphic design course. This will be different, in that the focus will be on certain types of images and certain ways of conveying a message, but it doesn't mean I have abandoned who I am. My unique sensibility will prevail as it does for everyone, so maybe there is no need to fear losing my identity at all. We are always in a state of flux. As the retirement age moves further into the distance, the other practical reality is that my new skills just may allow me to work into old age if other streams of income dry up.

All I can think of to sort this out is to go back to the core of what I do - keep drawing, and keep writing. And that is what I am doing here.

image: Frantom, original digital image compiled from a traditional drawing and a manipulated, collaged landscape.

inertia

For months I have been having epic surfing dreams in which I am unafraid, in harmony with the sea. Sometimes I am even jubilant and triumphant, hurtling down the face of a large wave. I have been meditating for 25 minutes, every day for 7 weeks now, and it seems to help me remember my dreams more clearly.

But in my waking life I am in a 'no-woman's' land. It is to be expected I guess. I am officially a 'Doctor', my thesis is being bound and the digital version is online at Curtin and on my website - there is nothing more to do. I have loaned out a couple of hard copies to interested readers but there has been no flurry of activity and I didn't expect one. In my work-life things are unstable as usual - I have picked up an extra copyright class and may teach PhotoShop in term 4 - things continue to limp along. 

But there is a split, a disjuncture. Once my art and my spiritual life were aligned. Now that I want to study graphic design, I wonder if I can reconcile it with future spiritual study. Or even if I need to. In meditation recently a voice said to me: you are that which you seek. I know this is true. So I am wondering what is next. Is anything at all next? After encountering the Void - is there anything else? Or am I just marking time? Is there still a role for images in the spiritual journey of my life? Apart from their more commercial application that is. Is that going to be enough? Or should I instead devote all of my attentions to psychic evolution? If I do that, how do I make a living? Or is just living my life mindfully enough, no matter what sort of images I produce?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions right now. It is probably not a good time to be making any decisions. I am not comfortable with this state of inertia - but I know how this goes. I will just have to wait for knowing to come.

image: my © - digital drawing of a wound added to a digitally enhanced photo.