Farewell 2011

Darling readers, thank you for bearing with me this year, watching my progress, commenting, urging me on.

This year, I can honestly say, was the best of my life so far. I had a bad spell between 2008 and 2010, where I felt each year was worse than the last. Wonderful things happened to me in those years, of course, but somehow on New Year’s Eve I found myself angry at the world and most angry at myself. This year however, I would struggle to remember more than a handful of bad experiences; mistakes, awkward situations, misunderstandings - nothing serious or with gravity. Instead I look back on 2011 as one filled with new experiences, adventure, art, and the infinite kindness of strangers. Most of all, the unbelievable kindness shown to me by strangers.

Being the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese Zodiac, and being a rabbit myself, I feel almost as if the stars themselves helped me along this year. The Year of the Rabbit was predicted to be one of new beginnings; where you paved the path for a calmer future. This certainly seemed the case for me. I found myself in incomprehensible situations, where it seemed as if the stars themselves had aligned to make certain things possible. I left Australia in April and headed to Hungary, to visit the land of my parents. I got to go to England and Italy too, which for me was a great treat. I saw snow for the first time in my life. I danced and I laughed and I drank the wild air and basked in the wonder of it all.

My art has definitely changed – I find it hard to put my finger on the specifics, but scale is definitely one of them. My previous works were tiny little glimpses, intimate moments caged and trapped, visible only through a keyhole. The new pieces, though still melancholy in nature, are larger; the figures loose in a white space open to interpretation, un-caged, free, wild.

 

2011 was very good to me. I eagerly look forward to 2012; I can only imagine it being even better!

Happy New Year everyone!!