Local Northern Rivers artist Zom Osborne has been teaching art journaling for some years, and she’s found that it’s an ideal way for students to open up to their individual creativity.  Her next workshop is on November 9, so if you’ve been wondering how to unleash your inner artist this could be just the thing…

“There is no such thing as a person who is not creative. It is one of the innate qualities of being human. The common idea that some people are born creative and others aren’t is ridiculous,” says Osborne firmly, talking of how she came to create the idea of art journaling classes.

Osborne,  who has shown in Sydney, Brisbane and throughout the Northern Rivers has also been teaching art journaling classes for the last five years, an art form she defines as “the love child of mixed media art and journaling.” It involves paints, collage, doodling and writing, and is one of her best tools to help people open to their creativity.

“The world needs all forms of creativity, new ideas and new ways of seeing and doing,” says Zom. “We need everyone’s creativity in whatever form and field it arises.” Osborne has also observed that creativity has benefits for the individual. “Being creative builds self-trust,” she says. “It also brings joy, healing, excitement and play and contributes to a sense of purpose. It lessens cravings for material things as our natural desire to create brings fulfillment. And learning how to access your inspiration strengthens intuition.”

Artist Zom Osborne: Teaching creativity

Osborne is leading a workshop called Secrets to Creativity where she will share what she has learned over 22 years of being an artist. The workshop will show how creativity works, how to call in more inspiration, what slows creativity and what stops it completely.  “I call it Secrets of Creativity because much of what I reveal is counter to how we have been taught to do things in our daily lives,” explains Osborne. “My creativity expanded exponentially once I discovered these ‘rules’. The namecame  from students telling me that my classes have changed their life, although of course it isn’t really my classes that have done this, but them opening to their own creativity.”

Art journaling helped Osborne develop from a techncally skillful artist into a creative one. “My own perfectionism was stifling my creativity,” she says,  “but I didn’t realise it at the time. Art journaling was the tool that helped to free my inspiration and make me a better artist, and once my creativity began to really open it brought me many unexpected joys and blessings. I was able to bring a synopsis of what I had learned into six secrets of creativity. That is what I teach in the workshop. We learn and experience these ‘laws’ which are quite different from how we approach other things in our lives. They can be rather counter-intuitive.  I wanted to create the workshop that I wish I could have taken 20 years ago. It would have made a big difference to my life!”

‘Creativity will Change your Life’ is happening through the Byron Regional Community College over two consecutive Sundays, November and November 16 in Mullumbimby. Studentds can register through the College: enrol.byroncollege

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Zom Osborne, Beetledance, pen on paper, 59cm x 64cm

Nadine Abensur, of the beautiful Art Piece Gallery in Mullumbimby has gathered together a new exhibition, Playing on the Edge, with three Northern Rivers artists whose drawings are both intriguing and mysterious, writes Candida Baker. Abensur has also put together a superb menu for anyone wanting to attend her upcoming Spring Supper to celebrate the opening of the exhibition this week.

Sometimes in life you meet someone – and you know, absolutely, that they are heading in the right direction, that everything is pointing towards a destiny that they are imagining and creating for themselves.

Artist Oksana Waterfall is one of those people. I had the privilege of meeting her at Lismore TAFE some years ago when she was studying visual art, and it was obvious from her fierce determination and talent that she was heading for a lifetime career in the arts. Since then Waterfall has been widely exhibited, and has won numerous awards for her quirky and original drawings. In her current work Waterfall delves deep into the objects of childhood memories.

When I think of Mandy Nolan’s art, it’s her vivid paintings that spring to mind, but in this exhibition, Playing on the Edge, the Byron shire based comedian shows us not only her more whimsical side, but her politer side, with endearing illustrations that could easily grace a children’s book. In her drawings Nolan allows herself the rare luxury of allowing her hand to roam freely in a kind of “unconscious doodling or fiddling” when she feels she has something a little more whimsical or softer to say. Or unusually for the normally raucous Nolan, because there are (believe it or not) occasions when she doesn’t want to say anything at all.

Zom Osborne lives in the rainforest, and her connection to and love of nature is obvious in all her work.  Osborne’s work has that great artistic skill of being both appealing and unsettling at the same time. While she is intrigued by the connections we make with each other and the objects we acquire during our lives, Osborne is touched by the energies she senses in the unseen and the immaterial.

Art Piece Gallery, Mullumbimby

Playing on the Edge: Oksana Waterfall, Zom Osborne and Mandy Nolan

Thursday 9^th October

Open to the public 6.00 pm – 7.00pm

Then

Sit down dinner with the artists from 7.30 pm

$68.00 per head

Bookings essential

6684 3446

 Spring Supper Menu

 The fresh flavours of spring brought to you from Nadine Abensur’s kitchen and garden

Antipasti on the table to start

Asparagus Tart with roasted cherry tomatoes

Market fish with roasted fennel and black olive salsa

Rosemary roasted potatoes

Chargrilled vegetables with an orange and pistachio salsa

Rocket and Pecan Salad with Goat’s cheese and rosebud infused dressing

A berry meringue

and a chocolate surprise

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