Bluesfest, blogging and perspective taking: how it all helps

 

 Bluesfest acrobats

Seduced perhaps by the immediacy of Instagram, I have been finding it hard to get back to this blog - sort of a blog-lag? (My Instagram name is eclair57, if you want to  find me there...)

Other excuses could include: starting a new job recently, and having spent a bit more time out and about having fun...over two long weekends in a row...however, the real added value for me in being away, is being able to put things in perspective, and this is a really helpful skill, for those of us who tend to be anxious at times. Oliver Burkeman describes it well here. Giving new meaning to the devil is in the detail...

 Bluesfest good friday lantern parade 1

Very uncharacteristically, I went to Bluesfest at Byron Bay for the first time ever, having almost given up on live music about 20 years ago. Apart from Billy Bragg, of course. Why? Too loud, too annoying to stand up for long periods, too unsure what I really liked. I did start to challenge this negative perspective, by going to Woodford early this year, though. And, come to think of it, Reggae for Recovery three years ago, after the 2011 Brisbane floods.

Well, perhaps this new job can also assist me in my leisure pursuits: inspired by my new colleagues, I decided to plunge into Bluesfest on good friday. It happened to be the 25th anniversary, so the line-up was particularly impressive. S was also willing, which helped.

 Bluesfest good friday lantern parade 2

Hard (for me) to capture live music in images, especially on a smartphone, but it was really good fun, and we saw some great acts, including: India Arie, Aaron Neville and Dyson, Cloher and Stringer, three female singer songwriters from Melbourne. Not to mention Rockwiz (a live music t.v. quiz, for the non-Aussie readers), Boz Scaggs and Joss Stone. Phew. 

Then the following night, we saw KC and the Sunshine Band, a real blast from the seventies, at the Tivoli in Brisbane. Wow, that was also really fun. At 63, KC has some health issues, but he is still boogie-ing on down. (His best joke was that he was thinking of changing his name to KFC...oh dear!)

I just spent another long weekend away, this time at Springbrook National Park, in the Gold Cost Hinterland: a beautiful rainforest environment.  We walked and relaxed, and last night, we saw two planets, Saturn and Mars, and Alpha Centuri (nearest star) through the Springbrook Research Observatory telescope, before the clouds set in for the night. Now that's taking perspective!

Looking at very old trees can have the same effect.

  ancient Antarctic beeches at Springbrook National Park 'Best of all Lookouts'

As can this:

 

Perspective-taking: we can either focus on the detail...

 ...or the big picture

Blogging also helps a lot with perspective-taking, as do both art and mindfulness, as they all develop capacity to observe and reflect as well as react. 

Meanwhile I have been making something special for my old work colleagues: this is a sneak preview.

 tree of hearts detail

On the work front, I am slowly adjusting to my new environment. I have booked to go to the International Trauma Conference in Melbourne in August. Trauma, at least, is a given, and a source of continuity. How comforting!

more later.

Keep calm and carry on

Buddha head

 Its been another weird week, with more reminders of the dangers inherent in life on our planet. Meanwhile at home, things have been breaking down (fridge, internet, inbox) and I have been feeling irritable and unsettled at times. So this week's theme is the importance of two things: keeping calm and carrying on. 

I keep thinking about the horrific series of recent (mainly) natural disasters in Japan, the aftermath of which is still unfolding. Its too early to tell what the final analysis will reveal. Its clear that thousands of people have died, most drowned by the tsunami, and the threat of a nuclear disaster has been real enough to scare many more. The Japanese have been praised for their stoicism. The kiwis, too have been praised, by Prince William, no less, in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake. Similar comments were made after the floods in Queensland, bush-fires in Victoria two years ago, etc. etc. It seems that we need to reassure ourselves that we humans can cope with tragedy, and that part of coping well is being stoical and keeping calm. 

Some of you will know that I am a fan of Oliver Burkeman's column in the (British) Guardian. Funnily enough, this week he argues that keeping calm is overrated. He thinks being calm is ultimately boring, and does not lead to happiness. However, as a person with a tendency towards anxiety, I don't really agree, in fact I think its underrated.  Keeping calm is amazing! Also, as an art therapist, I work with a lot of clients (adults and children), who find it difficult to regulate their emotions, due to previous trauma. In their case, learning how to be calm is a quality of life issue - it represents a huge improvement on being on an emotional roller-coaster, much of the time. Whilst we all need a certain amount of stress, to get us through the day, enough is enough! 

Its all relative, in other words. Perhaps this explains the popularity of this poster (mug, t-shirt, etc.):

  

The poster was initially produced by the British Ministry of Information in 1939 during the beginning of World War II. It was intended to be distributed in order to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster. Two-and-a-half million copies were printed, although the poster was distributed only in limited numbers. The designer of the poster is not known. (from Wikipedia).

Keeping going

The second phrase, 'carry on', whilst making me think of silly Ealing comedies with Sid James, Barbara Windsor and Kenneth Williams, is just as important as 'keeping calm'. Often interpreted as being about being British and 'keeping a stiff upper lip', it actually suggests the need to remain active, and to try to retain an element of normality, in the face of disaster. Or in other words, 'doing what matters'.

 Hope

This is something else I have been thinking about - see this blog by Jonathan Jones about public art and private grief. The question of public and private art is relevant to art therapists, since most art is made with the assumption that it will be seen, but this is not the case in art therapy, where the art is usually only seen by the therapist and the client. (This image is from the book I made while my father was dying in hospital last year, which I wrote about in my previous post...)

I was interested to hear of a current exhibition in Brisbane's Institute of Modern Art called 'Let the Healing Begin' . The review in the Australian says the exhibition: 'is rooted in art therapy. As the artists explore the therapeutic, they toy with making and undoing the self' - fair enough. But then...'Featuring a video in which Mike Parr chops off his arm and puts a knitted sock in its place...' I'm sorry, but what exactly does this have to do with art therapy? 

Of course, I have not seen the exhibition, so I should withhold judgement. However, alarm bells are ringing. I vividly remember being traumatised as a young child, by seeing a film of a severed limb (on the science show Tomorrow's World, which is like Catalyst), and recently I was involved in debriefing a colleague, who had seen a graphic image which upset her profoundly. Art therapy is about being very careful around imagery, and celebrating the work of a deliberate self-harmer (albeit also an artist) would seem to me to be the absolute opposite of art therapy. Or am I overreacting? - I'd like to know what others think about this...

Meanwhile I am exhibiting some art myself this week - in an exhibition about culture and identity, 'Cultural me, cultural you', at the Mater Hospital, opening today 21st March, as it is Harmony Day. I will include photos in my next post.

(NB I thought the fridge and internet were fixed, but there were more problems with the internet connection, whilst I tried to post this, last night. However, it seems to be working again now. Note to Telstra technician: thanks for the spiritual advice, I know that you are concerned about humanity, and that you believe that god can replace people's bad thoughts which result from stress, with better ones, but next time, please stick to fixing my broken internet).

more later.

Mother Nature or La Nina, a woman is surely to blame!

Premonition

This is part of a collage I did several years ago: it was on the theme of cultural identity, and when I thought about what I associate with being Australian, the extremes of climate quickly came to mind. I guess I have always been fascinated with the sublime...

submerged

I did this earlier today. The pastel drawing/collage is a response to the images on tv: of the raging river, and of a house underwater.

Early this morning (4am Thursday 13th Jan) the Brisbane River peaked at around 4.5 metres, which was about a metre short of the worst predictions, and lower than the previous floods in 1974 and 1893. We had a pretty good idea that we would be safe, as we live in a suburb which is on relatively high ground, and our house is on stilts as it is one of the original 'Queenslanders'.

However, I was still anxious and did not sleep well. Our power had gone off last night at about 6pm, as we were watching the endless news bulletins, which created a sense of isolation, but was strangely peaceful after the information overload I had subjected myself to in the previous 24 hours. Why is that seamless news coverage so addictive? It is boring and repetitive, but I couldn't switch it off. I am sure it helped create my anxiety.

I noticed that a few days ago, the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, had refered to Mother Nature as the cause of the extraordinary rain and floods. Alternatively, a climate specialist blamed another female -  La Nina, (Spanish for 'the girl') - a cyclic weather system which causes higher than average rainfall in Eastern Australia. The specialist did then say quietly, at the end of the interview, that global warming had caused the higher ocean temperatures, which trigger La Nina into action.

If we have to blame a woman Anna - and we don't - lets think about who is responsible. The Bligh government has been very keen to cash in on the mining boom and to sell as much coal to China as possible -well, we were just selling them what they wanted, not our fault they went and burned it, creating more carbon emissions!  I guess it seemed in the past as if China copped the floods not us.

Yesterday, I also started to make this, its a bag for my lap top, with a watery theme:

lap top bag with raindrops

I wrote the other day about containment. Perhaps this was my need to contain, again, and although I am pleased with the bag, I am still feeling all over the place, like the river. The river is uncontained. It is spilling out all over the city, spreading muddy water, all sorts of debris and contaminents wherever it goes.  People are scared, tired, displaced and shell shocked. Even though it hasn't hurt me directly, I still feel very unsettled.

This week was my last week of holiday, and I was looking forward to a peaceful week: easing into work slowly, getting into a good routine, and doing some fun stuff as well. Feels like eveything has been turned upside down. I have not been going out of the house much, and am missing my regular gym classes (not even sure if there are any, or if the gym is even open, but I could find out easily). Now, I am trying to work out What Matters in this unexpected scenario. I have enquired about volunteering, but it seems hard to get an answer at this stage, it is probably too early and things are too disorganised. I have donated some money, so that is something. What  I know about trauma, is that keeping to a routine, and keeping calm, is incredibly important. I am both aware of this fact, and finding it hard to act on it. That is my challenge for the next few days.

And the Angel interview I wrote about the other day? The interviewer didn't turn up. The office was in a flood prone area. That was my first sign that things were falling apart this week. More later.