​We have all experienced the last 2 years in many different ways…
I collaborated with 195 artists to share collaged books about our “Sense of Place”…
Worked in the garden until it was so pristine it would have won many garden awards… but of course it didn’t cos all those things were cancelled…
But just last week, after a 2-year hiatus, the Masterclass returned to the beautiful Bungalook studio that belongs to Rick and Josephine Jakobi.

​In this atmosphere of pure sanctuary, 8 of us gathered to live under canvas.. sorta “glamping’… and to work for 5 days in the fabulous Bungalook Studio.
The Masterclass, run my me, was different to others that I have done… the conversations flowed constantly.
The work stalled for a while, as the students grappled with huge changes to their thought process and then the ‘light’ was turned on, after much encouragement, on about the 4th day.
The changes were profound…. The thought process was huge… the results were stating to be uncovered, but it is the long-term work that these amazing artists will produce is what I am interested in.
Masterclasses are not everyone’s ‘cup-of-tea’, but if you want to extend your art practice you have to let a Master into your realm to support you on your new journey.

I was supported on a new journey during this week, when I invited two artists from the East Gippsland area to have a conversation with us about their art practice and passion.
​
Josephine Jakobi is so passionate about her environment around Lake Tyers, a place that she has lived for most of her life, that you can’t help but be mesmerized by her passion. The skill of finding the hidden workings of creatures, large and small in that environment is profound… the work that Josephine does is testament to the observation skills that have been skillfully honed.
Josephine does not call herself a fibre artist, but when you see her work and hear her stories, it all somehow falls into place. Her drawings are stunningly real, her stitch on massive works of linen is awe-inspiring… to stand in front of these works, brings me to tears… emotional tears from the power that is created within these works.
Her conversation moved me into another direction… I now wonder just who the ‘master’ is!!

​Our other guest was Catherine van Wilgenburg.
I sat next to Catherine at a function that was held late last year in the Bungalook Studio and her knowledge and great sense of place was beguiling.
The invitation was sent to Catherine to join us at the opening of DEVELOP… an exhibition of the Masterclass students works at ICEWORKS, in Lakes Entrance.
When asked how she regarded the standard of the exhibition and presentations, she replied….

1. a refreshing vulnerability of people connecting your life experience with what they make. It comes out of authenticity and your core reality. It is what keeps you fully alive. I have committed to marrying my lived experience with my art. How do you find your spirit of survival? By doing this work that makes you become more alive! Articulating a process that I understand on a cognitive level is how I light the spark.
2. The metaphor of threading and re-threading – landscapes, map-making, cross-disciplinary work, like geography. Being All Over The Place!! Systems theory is the basis, the framework in citing anything. Being All Over The Place (literally and metaphorically) means that we can articulate these systems and understand their interconnectivity. Relational thinking, like that of indigenous cultures, is a more useful framework for this understanding. Themes of threading, layering, landscape, and mending…
3. Understanding the collective, the collaboration. In the nature of an organism, we cannot be individuals, only individualistic within the organism. If we cannot settle the divide between self and other, we can never move forward.
4. Collaboration comes down to intent. There is also governance structure, diversity of stakeholders and creative thinkers who can create a chain of collaboration. Changing our way of thinking is essential. Using resources/knowledge that are already there and invested stakeholders creates a map of collaboration. People are realising that they have to initiate relationships in allyship or solidarity with the indigenous approach. Then tie in art, local action, stakeholders – corral in those who already have knowledge, who are already doing it and understand how each stakeholder works.

This question was also put to Josephine…her response…
The ‘opening’ at Iceworks was a 2-way enterprise, where a community gets to see and understand something that is happening among them, but which also places us within the local art ‘scene’ The environment here at Bungalook also influences the kind of Masterclasses we have and the way we respond to each other and ourselves.

The other question we put to Catherine was…
What did you discover about us / our art? (Here in the studio)
Spontaneity
Silence
An enjoyment of being, a sense of beingness
A focused but highly sensitive environment where you are individually engaged in your own processes yet sensitive enough to pick up on cues from the conversations around you. The best form of collaboration, where you become part of an organism in an individualistic way.

​So… being at Bungalook for 6 days, it has really started the ‘new era’ for Fibre Arts Australia…. A ‘kick start’ if you will…..
After being isolated for 2 years…. to be able to the experience in person and have that “face-to-face” connection: it does not compare with “online learning” or of the in-person contact to the tribe!
This is what the Masterclass at Bungalook brought back!!!
 
The new Fibre Arts team is very excited to get back to Ballarat Grammar in April to start re-connecting with our Tribe and with ourselves… to be part of the excitement that grows from being together… all amazing artists in their own right!
It has been a dream for more than 2 years to get together again and heck, we will do it!
Glenys Mann
Masterclass Tutor
CEO of the best Fibre Arts Tribe!
Images courtesy of : JILL MIGLIETTE, JOSEPHINE JAKOBI, GLENYS MANN

“She sat at the back and they said she was shy.
She led from the front and they hated her pride.
They asked her advice and then questioned her guidance.
They branded her loud, then were shocked by her silence.
When she shared no ambition they said it was sad.
So she told them her dreams and they said she was mad.
They told her they'd listen, then covered their ears,
 And gave her a hug while they laughed at her fears,
 And she listened to all of it thinking she should,
Be the girl they told her to be best as she could.
But one day she asked what was best for herself,
Instead of trying to please everyone else, 
So she walked into the bush and stood with the trees,
She heard the wind whisper and dance with the leaves.
She spoke to the willow, the gums and the pine,
And she told them what she'd been told time after time.
She told them she felt she was never enough,
 She was either too little or far far too much,
Too loud or too quiet, too fierce or too weak,
Too wise or too foolish, too bold or too meek,

“For far too long we have been seduced into walking a path that did not lead us to ourselves.
For far too long we have said yes when we wanted to say no.
And for far too long we have said no when we desperately wanted to say yes. . . .

Just when I thought that 2021 was going to be my year of retirement… well that turned itself on its head, didn’t it… instead I refocused on bringing Fibre Arts Australia back to life with new website, new commentary on all thing’s fibre/textile related and to bring on board a young vibrant team to help move what we do, into a new stratosphere!

Although we had to cancel the July and September events it did not stop you from wanting more to sink your needle into, more of what was going on and with the blogs and the Studio Spaces making a huge hit… in fact more than 50,000 hits… it just goes to prove that you wanted more of what is going on out there!

Something worth saying repeatedly is this: we are more than grateful you stayed with us throughout it all.

Our face-to-face workshops will continue to be our focus. Learning from the best in the world is the best way to bring more excitement into your work!
Hands on and asking questions to the tutor in a workshop is a much-preferred way of learning.

Trying to earn a living as an events coordinator/artist has been harder than ever for many of us over the last 2 years, but in saying that, these years have ‘cemented’ the bond between our Fibre Arts Tribe, just proving that being connected keeps us all on the same artistic path.

It makes the Fibre Arts Team happy to know our hard work translates into a year of bringing amazing tutors to the events in 2022 and extending our knowledge to encourage you to be who you are as an artist.
 
We wish you a happy, fruitful, and fulfilling New Year!
May 2022 be full of amazing things for you and those around you!

May it be the best year yet!
​Happy New Year!!
Glenys,
Belinda, Ginnie, Zoe, Tessa, Kay, and Serena

"What I witnessed and learned on my journeys, 

​and how I digested that invaluable 

transformed me as a person and artist."
Unknown author.

The light made an opening in the darkness.”
 
- Joy Harjo, Once the World was Perfect

"I have learnt how to be in the present."
"How?" asked the boy
"I find a quiet spot and shut my eyes and breathe."
​

"That's good, and then?"
"Then I focus."
"What do you focus on?"

"Cake" said the mole.
======================================

extract from: The Boy, the Mole the Fox and the Horse
​                        Charlie Mackesy  Instagram link.

Each friend represents a world in us,
​a world not born until they arrive, 

​and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anais Nin

​I am not old.. she said
I am rare.
 
I am the standing ovation
At the end of the play.
 
I am the retrospective
Of my life as art

I am the hours
Connected like dots
Into good sense
 
I am the fullness
Of existing.
 
You think I am waiting to die..

​But I am waiting to be found

I am a treasure.
I am a map.

​And these wrinkles are
Imprints of my journey
 
Ask me anything.
 
~ Samantha Reynolds

So, if you are
too tired to speak,
sit next to me,
because I, too,
am fluent in silence.
 
- R. Arnold