I’m no longer an employee, my studio is beckoning, my little cooperative gallery will be not so little soon – we’re moving … and then there’s uni too!!!!

Big changes are afoot.  The end of June has seen me no longer an employee, after three month’s back in the hot seat of conservation and land management. In the background it will recede, with a full focus on my art practice now in my sights. But this time there is no leave, there is no backup, I am throwing myself in without a safety strap.  Like so many other creatives, and farmers and small businesses I’m in for the ride.

I have been looking at some figures in this sector and did you know that despite being one of the most highly educated groups in the workforce the average visual artist (spends 42 hours a week at work being an artist and possibly a labourer and a bar worker and an elephant trainer too …) and earns an average of about $35,000 a year from all their work sources … and here’s some other snippets of arty facts where this came from … http://artfacts.australiacouncil.gov.au/visual-arts/. And on the big picture the cultural sector contributes $50 billion to Australia’s GDP, with the Australian governments spending $7 billion. http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/overview-fact-sheet-1-54f678c22e763.pdf

So I’ll be putting in at Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery (with our move in July to a larger premises in Bathurst Chase (opposite Coles) … watch this space), I’ll be back in my studio full time and also like the rest of this educated mob, I’ll be heading too, with my little red bag … back to Uni … to lap up some learning … I’ve just accepted an offer of post graduate studies at the Australian National University, School of Art and I am mightily excited!