Being from Ballarat I’m lucky to be a part of a great community of artistic people. They are really welcoming, supportive, creative and beautiful. Anyway, one of the gals from the arts scene recommended me to do a thingy over here on her blog.
As I’m regularly looking for inspiration to put words in between the pictures on here, I thought this would be a great opportunity to use a word prompt, even though the pictures are completely unrelated. The photos are from a recent visit to Perth’s Rooftop Cinema.
Which things/people make you feel at home?
My partner Stu, my family, my best friends. A comfy place to sit with an Earl Grey tea and a good book. I struggle with feeling at home when I am travelling. It takes me a while to get my bearings and I spend a lot of time panicking that I am out of my shell.
What do you love about making art?
There’s a rise a fall with it. Sometimes I feel like I’ve made something terrible, but then moments later I feel like I’ve achieved so much. It’s like a constant battle with my internal self ridicule, sometimes I’m winning, sometimes I’m fighting to have the will to keep going. I find the hardest part is hanging onto something when I give in and try to destroy it because it’s worthless rubbish. If I get past that point I can come back later, look at it with new eyes and be more critical. It’s then that I can work to make it better, or accept it for being good. That constant fight is hard, but each time I create something I’m proud of it proves I can survive my own insecurity.
What was your favourite meal in the last week and why?
Pork ramen at Pleased to Meet You in Perth on Roe St. Everything about it was perfect.
Do you have a favourite book and memory of first reading it?
I don’t think I do have a favourite book. I’m passionate about Harry Potter and before that I was consumed by Lord of the Rings. I loved The Book Thief as well as A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. I can still remember my Grandmother getting The Hobbit for me from her bookcase. She started reading it to me until I was hooked because she knew it would be a bit dense for an eight year old. Once I was hooked she handed it over to me and went into the kitchen to cook. I raved about it so much when I got to the end that she handed over Lord of the Rings.
What is the funniest/weirdest thing a stranger has ever said to you?
The first thing that comes to mind…A guy cornered me in a pub and said. “You have such beautiful teeth.” Then when I stared at him blankly he said, “They’re so pretty and straight.”
I didn’t stick around long enough to find out if he was a dentist.
Have you ever tried to learn another language? What did you love/hate about it?
I recently started learning the basics of French. It’s hard but it helped me understand the structures of English better. When I moved I got out of the habit of practicing. Looking forward to getting back into it, probably when I take up letter writing again after Christmas. I listen to a lot of French music and I always get very excited when I suddenly understand a song lyric.
What scares the shit out of you?
Open ocean. I think I watched too many sinking ship movies as a kid. I’m also terrified of childbirth. One of my sisters and my nephew passed away in childbirth because of an Amniotic Fluid Embolism (AFE). Even though AFEs are the top cause of maternal death in Australia (among other countries) we know very little about them because of the lack of consistent mandatory reporting of maternal death, as well as a lack of research. It could be preventable, we don’t know. We don’t know what causes an AFE. The statistics of how common it is are based on data that isn’t comprehensive, so we can’t really know for sure how common it is. At this stage, it’s roulette. I know what my family went through, I know how horrible it is to lose someone you love. I’m not just scared about having a baby, I’m scared about my other sister having one. It’s not something that’s stopping me from having children; I’ll just face that fear when the day arrives. Open ocean however, will avoid.
Can you share a recent artist discovery (music, writing, visual art…)?
I just participated in NaNoWriMo. I didn’t get the full 50,000 words, but I did discover that when I got an idea and I just started writing while the idea was fresh, I got so much more mileage out of it. As my mind created I typed and before I knew it I was at 5,000 words in one sitting. It might seem like a small thing, but I’m someone who thinks a lot about writing and edits a lot. I realised I needed to treat writing more like I treat sketching: you set up the picture first and once you get the framework in and it looks the way you want it to, that’s when you start shading and polishing and bringing the piece to life.
Do you have a blog post you have written you are particularly proud of?
I wrote one about losing my sister a while back. I still get teary when I read it. I usually bring it out around Christmas time to share with other people. It’s a simple piece about grief, you can find it here.
What is your most treasured thing you’ve found unexpectedly?
After losing my sister and nephew, I got very serious about my martial arts training. When training for your black belt, you bond with the people you train with. I became really close with one particular woman, Sharon, and she was an amazing support when my sister passed away. I don’t remember lots of things from that time; plenty of it is just black. After we graded together I found out Sharon was sick. She fought it at first, and she started getting better. I got injured and stopped training so didn’t get to see her. I completely dropped out of training and lost touch with most of the people at the centre. Facebook was a new thing at the time so not many people had it, so there wasn’t a way to keep up with what people were doing. A while after I left training, I went back for some sports therapy and in a session asked how everyone was doing. I asked about Sharon, and found out she had been much sicker than she had originally known and she had passed away a few months previously. I was devastated. I hadn’t been able to share that grief with others at the time. I hadn’t been able to show my support to her family at the funeral. Many years later I was cleaning out an old room and I found a bunch of sympathy cards from when my sister passed away. I didn’t remember getting it, my memories of that time are so blank, but there was a card in there from Sharon. I held that little surprise in my hands for quite a while. I still have it packed up safely. She signed it off with ‘what survives us all is love.’
Cardigan: Review
Dress: Modcloth
Belt: Review
Shoes: Modcloth
I’m now tasked with nominating someone else and providing 10 quesions, so I nominate Yoko Whyte and Steph McG. I’m not sure how this whole thing works, so I’m nominating Ballarat ladies. Your questions are below…
It’s nearly the end of the year. What are your favourite achievements of 2014 so far?
What’s something you don’t do that you wish you did?
How do you feel about Christmas and other such festivities, like Easter and Halloween?
What thing does everyone say to you that you’re really tired of (example, I get called Liana Banana. Never rhymed with any else, just bananas).
What is your favourite creative thing to do and why?
What activity has taught you the most about yourself and what did it teach you?
If you had one superpower, what would it be and why would you want that over any others?
What is your favourite or your most popular blog post?
What do you like about Ballarat?
What’s one truth you know now that you would like to impart on your younger self if you could?
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