Sunday January 2, 2011

Hi there!

I started writing this, my last newsletter for 2010, on the last day of 2010…arguably the most challenging year our family has faced (and we wouldn’t be alone in this, it’s been a big year for everyone I know!). I hope you will forgive me for a rather more personal newsletter than my usual…
 

Looking Both Ways

The end of a year has a strange quality to it – almost like a pause in life’s journey, when one looks back and reflects on things, and gathers strength for what lies ahead. I find it a bittersweet time, full of delicious possibilities, tinged with a hint of concern at what mysterious challenges one is going to face...

Movement & Stillness

2010 was definitely the year of interesting adventures in the Parker family. Many of you know that Greg was diagnosed with renal cancer in June of this year, just weeks before my big exhibition at Kingfisher Gallery: ‘Movement and Stillness’. What we had assumed was a groin injury was actually tumours that had metastasized to his pelvis. My (freakishly strong) husband, who had never even let me lift a thing in our 24 years of marriage, was suddenly confined to a wheelchair and totally dependent on me for nearly everything.

I cried my way through completing the last few paintings for that show, quite literally at times, and yet somehow, we pulled it off…and that set the tone for the rest of the year, where we sailed along on the wave of love that friends and family engulfed us with.

Year of Love

Greg is doing well, having survived six months of chemotherapy and two bouts of surgery, moved house (we now live in Kensington) and progressed from wheelchair to crutches. In all this time, we have been the recipients of so much love, it has completely redefined the concept of what adversity even is.

Of course I wouldn’t wish cancer on anyone, but it has made Greg into a 'spiritual warrior' and been a conduit for friendship, kindness and grace previously unimagined, and for this, Greg and I have been truly grateful.

So I deem 2010 for us the Year of Love!

A Tender Herb

We are both fairly creative people – and I think that our creative outlets were the other source of strength and joy for us. Greg is a musician, and put together a big show, despite his illness, which was received with a standing ovation, on November 12. You can watch a clip from it here, Greg was conducting and you might notice me singing in the front row :)

The song you will see the New Era Choir perform is one of his own compositions, a beautiful prayer from the Baha’i Writings, which coincidentally was the inspiration behind my last exhibition... and the source of the phrase 'movement and stillness'. The words of this prayer are particularly poignant, given what we have gone through, so I'd like to share them with you:

“If it be Thy pleasure,

make me to grow as a tender herb

in the meadows of Thy grace,

that the gentle winds of Thy will may stir me up

and bend me into conformity with Thy pleasure in such wise

that my movement and my stillness

may be wholly directed by Thee.”

Try It

I would urge you to make 2011 the year that you try your hand at something creative that your heart yearns to explore.

I speak from my own experience, in which I have found that nurturing creativity helps us maintain our equilibrium in the face of life’s storms – and can bring unexpected joy into our lives.

If that creative urge leads you to come along to one of my workshops (read what they’re about here), it would be my absolute delight to meet you, (or see you again) to share that journey, and to guide you to uncover the wonderful gems within that are just waiting to express themselves in paint!

The list of what’s coming up is below, and you can enrol here, or give a loved one a personalised gift voucher of creativity that they will always be grateful for.

WORKSHOPS in JAN and FEB 2011

**all Maylands workshops come with a complimentary $10 lunch voucher for the Old Bakery on 8th Gallery & Café**

Monday Jan 10   Painting for Beginners in Maylands
Tuesday Jan 11 Painting for Beginners in Maylands
Sunday Jan 23   Painting for Beginners in South Perth/Vic Park
Sunday Jan 30   Painting for Beginners in Subiaco
Monday Jan 31   Focus on Colour in Maylands
Tuesday Feb 1   Painting for Beginners in Maylands
Monday Feb 7     Painting for Beginners in Maylands
Tuesday Feb 8   Taking it Further in Maylands
                              (a follow up for those who have already
                              done ‘Painting for Beginners)

You can read more about these workshops by visiting my website, or book your spot by sending me an email . (Even if you can't come along, do drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you!)

I wish you a year of creativity, kindness and love,
 

PS The images in this newsletter are part of my most recent collection, in order of appearance:
    Inner Space      (76cm X122cm. $1850)
    Gathering          (76cm X 102cm, $1750)
    Nebulous Self  (10cm X 30cm, $175)
and are available for purchase (less 20% for workshop participants past and future)