The theme for The Peace Project‘s 4th Annual Call for Artists is “Peace, Love & Understanding.”
This international juried art competition and exhibition connects peace-minded individuals everywhere in the pursuit of a better world that art can help create.
I wish to invite all the amazing artists and bloggers on WordPress to submit your vision of “Peace, Love & Understanding” to this art competition that I’ve been involved with since its inception in 2010.
AWARDS
Best of Show $1,000 Cash
Peace Maker Awards (2) $ 300 Cash
Color Awards (5) Art Set (valued at $200) compliments of Prismacolor
Inspiration Awards (7) 2013 Commemorative Peace Project Book
All awardees will also receive a copy of The Best of Elvis Costello, which includes his track (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Deadline for submissions is 2pm, USA Pacific Time, August 16th, 2013.
Last night a Youth Arts Exhibition opened at Mission Beach community Arts Centre.
These are just a few photographic highlights.
Hayley, Sonya and SheridanYoung Singers – Buskers doing a gigBenSome of the crowd
A wonderful night was had by the over 50 people who attended.
As well as supporting young local artists, the evening gave families of the artists a chance to mingle and meet others from throughout the Cassowary Coast. Visitors from from as far as Townsville came to support the artists and the night, and artists and their families came from Feluga, Mission Beach, Murray Upper and Tully.
The biggest eye capturing piece was a street art sign saying Mission Beach Arts Rocks. This, along with some individual pieces displayed beside it, were made possible through money provided by the Cassowary Coastal council for a street arts workshop. This had a tropical twist to it, through featuring butterflies around the letters.
It did present a challenge to hang, but thankfully this was resolved, and at the conclusion of the exhibition will grace the outside of the gallery to add colour and youthful vitality.
Hayley Gillespie’s workshop resulted in a Discovering Me wall, full of vibrant pieces of portraits, butterflies, ying and yang and a colourful still life. Hayley came to the opening and selected pieces for encouragement awards. She commented on how much she enjoyed working with the young artists from the area.
Another school holidays workshop with Sally Moroney led to the inclusion of a wire sculpture of a giraffe made by Matilda, a six year old artist, who recently moved from Victoria to the area with her family. Sally holds regular workshops for budding artists of the area and encourages them with their work. She held a preliminary meeting to encourage their participation in the project. They then put the word out to their friends as well.
A few students from Tully High school put in work, with Sonya, Caitlin and Sheridan all receiving encouragement awards. Sonya, Judge’s Choice, Caitlin, composition, and wall display, Sheridan. Each high school artist featured a dragon in her art and all are good friends.
Sonya had striking social commentary in some of her pieces, and a note about how she had obtained bones from animals to construct one. Caitlin created delightful bird paintings on feathers amongst her three contributions. Sheridan’s mixed media wall had several digital art pieces, as well as a collage and some canvas work.
Sonja
Other award winners where Shinji for his use of colour, and Georgia for her open and moving artists’ statements. Vouchers for further art supplies were a welcome reward to the emerging artists.
Matilda and her creation
There are many other noteworthy art pieces including an almost murder mystery trio of pieces. You’ll need to go have a look at the exhibition to see what they were. It is open until the 23rd of July.
Young musicians came and shared their instrumental and singing talents whilst attendees feasted on cheese, crackers and a sausage sizzle. Sally made a discovery a young group of buskers who she invited along to participate in the night.
Ben, an up and coming guitarist, gave his guitar a brilliant and sustained workout; playing, blues, popular and classical to set a beautiful tone for the afternoon/evening.
Sonya gave a heartfelt thank you to Sally for all she does for local artists when arising to accept her award. Many parents also thanked her for providing this opportunity for young people from the area. Hayley Gillespie was thanked for inspiring them as well, and some of the children and youth requested photographs with her.
May you have a happy 2013, and set some awesome goals and fulfil them. One of my goals for this year is to make poetry posters like the above, and others are to produce inspiring short films, publish at least one book and finish some promised print on demand books, as well as earn a living that will help my family.
Wishing you all the best for 2013! Keep dreaming and always remember to value the little things in life. Lots of little things add up to something significant.
I enjoy the process of abstracting in my photographs. This involves removing some elements to simplify what I am seeing, like an abstract artist. The element I am removing in the above image is the sharp focus.
Below is a gallery of recent abstractions of sunset. I’d like to try more of these and explore an idea of a person, light, a drop of water – but by deliberately reducing the focus.
What does making the shape and colour of it less sharp do for the viewer?
I wonder what these abstractions say. Do they say we see more clearly the less we focus on the sharp outlines and the deeper we look? Do they invite the gaze to look more closely at the essential nature of things?
Do the show a process of a loss of eyesight?
What do they say to you? This gallery shows the process of ‘abstraction,’ with the aid of my manual focus.
Art and deadlines must mix when exhibiting, and yet arts practice doesn’t always want to conform to a deadline. It takes time to sort out creative thoughts, and most artists need ‘daydream time.’ In this time we appear externally to be doing ‘nothing.’ We pace, weed the garden, in my case watch the Ulysses butterflies and cockatoos fly past in the late afternoon. No one can rush me, not even me. Internally in daydream mode artists are shaping, creating, moving, transforming and generally trying to surf the waves of creativity into a cohesive piece to share with others.
Everyone works differently to a certain degree and I started out with the impulse to photograph a journey- either back to normality or as faraway from cyclone Yasi as possible, I don’t think I knew at the beginning. However now as I reflect on my processes I was attracted to joy, light, nature, happy people, glimmers of hope and the rebuilding of lives and our towns. Sequences of events, like regreening, and Prince William stepping out of a helicopter to meet a crowd evolved around me and I captured them as best I could with my camera. I was open to events around me that seemed to plot a journey through creativity, gardening, people and much more.
Above is a picture of my planning table, taken this morning. I am making my final selection of photographs and words ready to print it and mount it all. I have not been able to rush this process but left my table sitting last night like a slow cooker meal. Today the clarity is on its way and I then need to head off to the printers in the next couple of days to bring it to the boil.
Blogs can be approached in the same way as I describe above, for they need not always be fast, quick draw and contemporary. They can have that dreamy, reflective – approach that show the passing of time has mellowed their words.
On the flip side of the coin is the need to meet deadlines, to forever dream and never put pen to paper, or photograph to print and frame is to be one who only speaks of creation without ever completing. Day dreaming for me however needs absolute calm, and quiet – and space. It’s like a caterpillar needing a cocoon to become what it is destined to.
Caterpillars – by June Perkins
Interestingly, yesterday when I was in the midst of playing with thoughts on my planning table, a kind soul came to let me know there were caterpillars outside that I might like to photograph. The sign of someone who knows the heart of me well and yet I haven’t known her long at all. Although I can’t contain my love of photography and it bubbles out to both old and new friends, so she had observed me on clean up day at the school when having a break from weeding chasing butterflies, well trying to be still and chase them with my camera eye and had logged it in her memory bank. She also knew I had a good camera. I hadn’t been out to explore the day so much as I was stuck at that planning table – I had forgotten to give myself true daydream space. The little ‘daydream’walk to video and photograph the caterpillars gave me some peace and calm and it was soon after this that I was able to pull my thoughts on the upcoming Smile Within Exhibition into a cohesive shape. It’s all about learning to trust the creative cocoon, but also trusting how to build it.
June Paisa Perkins 