My Journey
To: A lover of art and nature
My art journey really began as a very small child. My mother would always find me in a corner drawing, reading or writing short poems or stories. My life was a brilliant array of coloured pencils strewn across the kitchen table and piles of books beside my bed. I plagiarised 'The Little Mermaid’ and made myself a crepe paper mermaid tail to star in my own little play written (plagiarised) based upon the fairytale. The happiest of memories.
My parents were keen to encourage me academically and although the arts were my one true love I was not encouraged to pursue a career due to the fact that I was an academic child. Like many of us who are eager to please our parents, I followed my parents’ wishes. This wasn’t a disaster as I established a wonderful career which involved helping others to communicate as a speech/ language pathologist, continually drawing pictures in my patient’s workbooks to make the treatment more fun and engaging.
The inner creative voice kept whispering in my ear, however, Working with my patients by day I studied drama at night. I would do acting roles when I was able to fit the work into my schedule and I wrote books in my spare time. The acting roles were fun. I was privileged to work on ‘A country practice, 'Home and Away’ and even got to work in an Aussie film starring the fabulous Brenda Blethyn known to most of us as ‘Vera’.
When the first of my books was published there were many radio interviews and speaking opportunities. Wonderful women came to my workshops and life was rewarding and exciting.
All along there was this need to create in some shape or form. It was innate. A part of me.
When dark times struck my family many years later it was then that I turned back to my love of fine art. When anxiety took over and life became so challenging it was art that helped me regain control over my overflowing grief and keep going. The simple act of drawing meant that for that period of time I was able to function only in the moment and stop reliving the drama over and over that was in my head. Tears flowed for many years but something inside me and the encouragement of three wonderful mentors and other more established artists kept me going.
There are so many fallacies about artists. They are self absorbed, crazy, lazy, weird etc. etc.
My experience has shown me that none of these descriptions are true. Creatives can be driven, caring, innovative, dynamic, hard working, supportive individuals. This at least has been the majority of my experience so far.
If you feel that call to communicate part of yourself through art and you want to stay calm and centred even though the world around you may be challenging, then listen to that voice inside you. You have the right to connect with yourself and others and communicate your voice as a creative.
It took me almost 60 years to figure out that I was an artist. Be true to yourself and don’t take as long as I have to figure it out. Even if you want to use art purely for your personal fun or to achieve a sense of calm that’s so needed nowadays, that is wonderful. If you want to pursue this to become a professional then go for it 100 percent. Take the first step and see where it takes you.
Sincerely,
Alison Mulvaney