Art and Approval
Approval. I’ve heard people say “Oh, I don’t want approval from anyone” but it’s quite incredible how ubiquitous approval-seeking actually is.
This stuff has always been a kind of wrestling-match within me. I’ve wanted approval – and almost simultaneously I’ve possessed within me a kind of anti-approval, shunning those who I’ve suspected wanted a certain something for their approval that I was not willing to pay. Sometimes approval seems like blackmail. There’s a “what’s the catch?” question implicit sometimes that, when not well hidden, stops me in my tracks. “Welcome to my parlor”, said the Spider to the Fly. Read more
JUICE
How do we dig into the deep well? You know when you feel kinda flat and nothin’ comes. It’s when we have no inspiration and ev’rythin’ seems dry and barren. I’ve written of this before, but this time I want to go for a long walk with you. A walk to lush, green fields where there’s trees and flowers and fresh air. To a place where no one has ever stood. It’s a place ringed with snow-capped mountains, and a crystal clear bubbling brook, and birds and deer and rabbits and horses.
It’s not cold and it’s not hot. The sky is a brilliant blue. Right now there are no things we have to do. We might be 8 years old, or 80.
You know when it’s simply empty inside and we don’t know what to feel? I was in that a small while ago. I started looking for some music to listen to. Then I found it. Read more
Job Records
Back in the 1980’s, at Box Hill Tafe and the National Theatre Drama School in Melbourne, Victoria, I began Acting. I remember one of our teachers mentioning that it’s a good idea to keep a journal. I followed this advice, albeit intermittantly, up to the present day. The themes for my journal entries were fairly constant. I would write about my experience of the work, my strengths and weaknesses, and my hopes at the time of writing. This seemed like a good idea, not because I might like to go and re-read these entries in the future, Read more
Boldness
In Western Australia, at Perth’s Curtin University, in the past two weeks, I had the rare honour and opportunity to meet and work with students in two seemingly different fields of endeavour. The first were students of Physiotherapy and the second were Film and Television students. I was asked to use my skills as an Actor to help them in the way they work in situations that arise in their day-to-day worklife.
When it comes to creativity, there’s much to be said for taking the bull by the horns. And yet there is the constant caution of becoming arrogant, of being inconsiderate of others, or being heavy-handed and insensitive to the subtle moments in whatever you’re creating. Read more
