A year and a half has passed since I moved home to Australia, ending a chapter of transience. I haven’t written in my blog for a while. And for the first time in a long time, I haven't travelled much either. As I have been adapting to this gear change of living, I've also entered a new and entirely fascinating world of working strategically within a bigger artistic picture, first as producer for Playwriting Australia and now as artistic associate at Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. Learning what it is to be a leader in the arts community.

Lately I have felt that I have had little time for myself creatively, and when I say that, what I really mean is that I have simply been slack feeding myself with inspiration. I also know exactly what to do to change this: make time to pick up a book, watch a film, go to a gallery, listen to a lecture or music!!

The following is a handful of thoughts and images and sounds that have recently plugged me back in..

I have been thrashing this Agnes Obel album. I saw her play once in Somerset House and she performed with a quartet of cellists. It was so powerful, you feel it right in your guts. Although she is quite easy listening there is something cinematic and evocative of an epic voyage in this song. I equally love the video clip, the way it captures moments of motion both big and small.

I recently saw the Grayson Perry exhibition My Pretty Little Art Career, at the MCA. In a similar way to why I love Brett Whitely, Grayson's work exists on a grand scale but reveals another world of complexity when you zoom in. I was particularly mesmerised by his maps, for which he uses to articulate emotional terrain.

“And ideas are like sneezes, or yawns... you can catch them from each other.”

- Finegan Kruckemeyer

"What you know is what you remember when you've forgotten what you've been taught."

- Bill Blaikie

I love this video clip for Work Song by Hozier; the grand space, with the scattering of choreographed couples bobbing up through a sea of bodies.

I saw Kate Tempest speak at the Sydney Writers Festival a number of times this week. So much of what she had to say struck a chord with me. In regards to her creative process she says that there is no such thing as writers block, just a fear of writing something bad.

And in reality this is a ridiculous fear because if we knew we could create something perfect the first time why would we bother. It's part of the journey; that every creative endeavour should always feel like the beginning.. Knowing how much further you have to learn to achieve what you want. On completing her first novel, she says she now knows how to begin..

She also spoke of the initial creative idea as an eternally beautiful thing, after which you craft and craft and craft and edit. And as an artists you’ll never be satisfied with your form though the idea will remain beautiful.

I think Kate Tempest encompasses the ultimate juxtaposition of both authentic raw emotion and very well crafted form. "Of course it's contrived it fucking rhymes!" Curiously, so much of praise sung for Kate Tempest references her capacity to speak truthfully and authentically; to which she thinks is perhaps saying more about a lack of truthful expression in the world, as much as it does about her voice.

In this interview though she began to let her performance shield down, and spoke of how terrifying she actually finds it to be raw and vulnerable. For a long time she was self conscious of being seen as an over-emotional woman. Her performance on Q&A was the first time she has spoken in a specifically political arena, (though much of her work is embedded with ideology), and she wonders if perhaps this comes from fear of getting it wrong. Ultimately I think her voice is so strong because as an artist she is so in tune with her empathy.

This has been a week of stirring ideas and of multiple Kate’s, funnily enough!

Kate Mulvany delivered an unashamedly positive speech for the Australian theatre community this week as the 2016 Philip Parsons Lecture. And for me this quote is a beautiful affirmation about why we do it!

"Art can save lives. Not with a scalpel. Or medicine. Or money. But with shared honesty, empathy and imagination.

Yes, we do create wealth. According to the Australia Council, the cultural sector of our working nation contributed $50 billion to Australia’s GDP in 2012–13. We give back a hell of a lot more than we receive. And yet that kind of wealth is not something we shout from the rooftops in this business. Because we know that wealth is not always monetary. What wealth is is an abundance of riches. And we have such riches in the cultural chronicles of our country and its people. We have the oldest storytellers in the world here. At least 50,000 years of stories. There’s as much wealth to be gained in those stories as in any mine, farm, any shipload of sheep. Our greatest wealth comes from our elders. From those lessons passed from one generation to another, shared amongst cultures. That’s wealth. And yes. We do create it, us artists. Because we’re the ones that dare to chronicle those stories, perform them, honour them, on behalf of the vast array of communities that make up this country."

-Kate Mulvany

Moments of taking stock, reflection and feeding the soul are so very necessary.

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