Cured of the study bug

Did I say I wanted to do more study? Not to worry, I've been cured of that.

I went along to a lecture with Josh last week for a subject I'm really interested in. It's called the Christian Imagination. It's about the theology behind art, and using art to explore theology. It includes a visit to a monastry, a local sculptors studio, singing lessons, dancing, poetry and more.

And yet half of the assessment is a response to the readings. A lot of readings. And that part really scares me. Because the readings are heavy. The type you have to read and then re-read. Some are olden day style too, they just don't read smoothly to me. And poetry. Perhaps I'm not a real artist if I don't understand poetry, but to me it's like strange modern art. I find it so cryptic. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to poetry, I just don't speak that language.

Josh read me a quote from one of his text books which had way too many big words in one sentence. It made me angry. I feel like it is pompus and elitist the way "educated" people use exclusive language that the average 'Jo' can't understand.

I took a 4 year teaching course and it took me until near the end to work out that the 'pedagogy' they'd been talking about all along just meant 'teaching'. Why on earth can't they just say that then?

I think people at universities make up words.

So, all of this to say that I no long desire to study. BUT I do desire (and plan to continue) to learn and read and be taught by inspiring people.

Beautiful Brisbane

After all of the devestation of the floods it is so beautiful to see photos online this morning of voluteers in their gum boots and to read of communities getting together to bake. Beautiful Brisbane. That mud can't hide your shine. I'm so proud to call you my hometown.

Song Dong's mum

The other day we visited the Vancouver Art Gallery and I was really struck by this installation. I have hoarding tendencies, which I had to defy when we cleared our lives of lots of things to move to the other side of the world. I'd like to try and live a lot more minimalistically from now on but I think it's going to take a bit of work. This exhibit scared me - to think that I have the tendencies to collect this much. And yet it was beautiful. Generations past (like my grandparents) have stuck by the motto "waste not, want not". They've been through difficult times and learnt to be ingenious, thrifty and unbelievably resourceful. Another extreme is the "throw-away" attitude prevalent today. There has to be a mid-point somewhere. This really made me think.

Quote from Vancouver Art Gallery website. All photo's sourced here.

"Song Dong’s monumental installation Waste Not is a collaboration between the artist and his mother, Zhao Xiangyuan. The installation comprises the frame of his mother’s house along with all of the everyday objects she meticulously collected over the course of her lifetime: a collection of over ten thousand worn and broken objects, each one with unlimited potential value. Together, the assembled materials—clothes, books, kitchen utensils, toiletries, school supplies, shopping bags, rice bowls, dolls—were used, recycled, and saved. Meticulously arranged in careful groupings throughout the exhibition space, the objects form a miniature cityscape that viewers can navigate around and through.

Waste Not—or wu jin qi gong in Chinese—describes the philosophy of life for a generation of people in China, of which Song Dong’s mother was a part, who grew up during the Cultural Revolution with the experience of displacement, poverty and the constant shortage of goods. The installation stands as a record of his mother’s life, as well as a tribute to his father’s death."

Along a similar theme I came across this fascinating book at the library of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design at Granville Island: OBSESSIVE CONSUMPTION.

Author/artist Kate Bingaman Burt documents her daily consumption over 3 years in this illustrated book. Everyday sundry items such as parking tickets, packs of gum, shoes, electricity bills and burritos sketched alongside their price. It really is astounding laid out like that to see how much we consume. How much our identity comes from what we consume. And yet in a beautiful way each of those items "tells a story" Kate describes. Here are a few recent examples from her flickr.


I love how simple and clear her images are. Do you have any thoughts on saving, hoarding, throwing-away or consuming?