Sun speak.

A collaborative lyrical piece

There has long existed an informal system of exchange between artists, a reciprocity born of mutual admiration. Recently I have been putting my hands artfully to joint bodies of work in a space of togetherness with fellow artist friends—something inspired by an old world currency, one that has been time and time again noted between artists such as Pablo Picasso who traded work with Henri Matisse; Paul Gauguin with Vincent van Gogh. Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, devoted friends, gave each other small paintings for birthdays and Christmas and just because’s.

Over the past year (and while entering a new season of motherhood and life) I have seen my deep love for creative togetherness return and rise into new rhythms of spaciousness. I’m talking about the artful exchange that happens heart to heart, mind to mind, in the practice and creative process of Co-creation and Collaboration. (Read my recent piece part two: Creative Process to build some context around my love for the art of it—

Collaboration as a process requires an open handedness, a no holding back—it asks that you might give something of yourself whilst simultaneously engaging with the offering of another—it’s an artful and generous exchange.

Collaboration is largesse, it leaves small mindedness at the door and embraces all the possibilities found in togetherness…

… and with the glorious poetics of this, I introduce you to this recent body of work, a collaborative piece by creative trio Tara Samuelson, Donna Stain and myself, where the art of our hands were the exchange—bringing forth a playful coming together (just because) with an aim to explore poetry in motion using visual story-telling through flower play, improvisation and film photography.

This is a four piece series, an outworking of four visual poems, ones that must be seen, to be fully understood, where the verbal and visual draw strength from each other to produce greater meaning.

This was a beautiful coming together of minds, hands and ideas where limits were not within the peripheral and play, the precursor. Lean into this joining of hands, where language is turned into art.

"In the end all collaborations are love stories". - Twyla Tharp

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Sun Speak

faire face au soleil / (face the sun)

I turn my entire being towards the sun,

I want to know what you are saying—

In the big,

the small,

and everything in between…

… and with my hopeful hopes,

l’ll leave a trail of sun speak

and paper notes…

And when the mountains ahead are big,

and I feel human and small,

I’ll know I am never alone…

for you are there

through

it

all.

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This body of work was an exploration with fellow friends and artists; Photographer Tara Samuelson aka @understoryphoto  who’s work sings as an heirloom and forever keepsake, and @donnastain a renowned architect of flowers and all things botanical who is basically a dancing improvisation on legs.

A big thank you to Alemais, an Australian contemporary brand with an artisanal focus who generously and unhesitatingly joined hands with us in this co-creation, lending us an eclectic mix of unique natural textiles, hand crafted embroideries and exaggerated shapes that were inspired by historical references and redefined for a contemporary wardrobe that became a centre piece for this playful exploration…

And Nomasei who also joined hands for this poetic exploration, a brand that just so happens to be built entirely upon the concept of collaboration. Nomasei being hands: “Noma” from the Italian “Mano”—the hand, with a slang twist to cover the tracks – “Sei” – six in Italian, because each creation is the fruit of the collaboration between several hands and several skills, brought together around an idea that becomes creation. Reconnecting with the best artisanal tradition, each of their pieces have their own story: a story made up of time, quality and design, where each stage of creation bears the imprint of the hand that made it.

Sun speak team:

Creative direction and photography on film by: @understoryphoto 

Creative direction and flower architecture: @donnastain 

Fleurs: @_thelovegarden 

Wearable art: Alemais + Nomasei

Poetry and movement: Tess Guinery

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Two recent artist exchanges…

Read more here

and read more here

And soon to come, a very exciting co-creation outworked with Ilsa wynne-hoelscher kidd and Donna Stain for Howl Magazine

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Did you read my two latest pieces?

Part one: My creative process.

Part two: My creative process

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Coming soon…

A series of lyrical pieces that adjoin to this collaborative outworking that you have just read.

A new piece titled— Why I am not writing a book right now.

The flower column — I’m working behind the scenes on what can be likened to an old world newspaper directory. This will new edition / monthly to bi-monthly feature within ‘Catching Shower Flowers’, a column dedicated to makers, creativity, things I’ve seen, creative ventures, photo shoots, things I’m working on outside of the dynamics of writing etc. I’m fortunate to do life amongst a large array of creatives doing cool things and it’s here I’ll share the outworking stories of their projects etc — it really should be called “my friends are cool and they make cool stuff” — I want ‘The Flower Column’ to be a celebration of this. I’ll also be sharing podcasts, other Substack writers, artists, singers and film-makers.

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Thank you again for being here! You choosing to sow into this practice is a generous acknowledgment that you value what you read here. It means the world to me in this new and unfolding writing discipline. It is because of you that it exists.

Love (and flowers)

xo