Heavenly Beverley : Dreams

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Dreams

This morning, I had a pre-arranged visit, by a guest named Pete, at the East End Gallery. He was in Beverley for the first time, visiting his sister and her husband. He had stopped by the Gallery previously, when I had just happened to be there collecting money to pay the electricity bill. I wished I could have been engaged in a more exciting activity, but such is the lives of a struggling artist and curator.

Anyway, Pete and I have just spent a very pleasant hour together in the Gallery. The weather is ferocious, bitterly cold with a cutting wind and scuttling grey clouds. We were both wrapped up like Michelin men, but after we began chatting, all thoughts of frostbite dissipated.

We shared stories, discussed our passion for art, dropped a few names and warmed up with cups of tea. Whilst I was talking about our vision and plans for the East End Gallery, I had a renewed surge of enthusiasm and excitement about what we are trying to achieve here as artist and curator.

Pete reminded me of the gargantuan effort we had made, the glorious result we had achieved and our sustained optimism and energy we kept pouring into the building, our artists and the artworks.

He particularly loved "Child's Play", Michael's see-through metallic screen with found children's toys as the features. He described "Child's Play" as a piece of history, frozen in time, a unique and eternal reminder of the past. In an instant, I could visualise more of Michael's screens, with different found objects as the focus, but with the same clean lines and shapes of the original design. Not bad for a girl with very limited spacial awareness...

Then we discussed funding and our continuing quest for finances. Michael's dream of collaborative sculptures, produced by a group of like-minded people to create a sculpture park along the Avon River.
Workshops to assist rural men with mental health issues to have a tangible outlet for their emotional healing, whilst working with their hands.

And our ongoing commitment to photograph as many of the old mining centres in the Goldfields, before they disappear, to capture the majesty of these locations and all the ghosts of a bygone era.

I dream of publishing "Love Amongst the Goldfields" our story of perseverance, adventure, comedy, tragedy and our growing attachment to ourselves and mine to the outback. Then, a "coffee table" book of the Gallery's rise from degradation and disaster to the beautiful building she is today.

So, I am putting it out there to the universe. Pete has given me the name of a benevolent foundation to contact with the possibility of funding for Michael's artistic endeavours.

We are still waiting for the new owners of the House that Rocks to make themselves known to us, so we can move on-site behind the Gallery and create our next home.

We will continue to promote the East End Gallery to our astounded, excited guests-to-be. A Southern Showcase is in full swing until the end of June.

We will be hosting the judging of a young ambassador of the Central Wheatbelt region on 25 June. And we continue our Artists' Group every Thursday for our enthusiastic bunch of like-minded artists.

This is our ambitious quest. We are living and breathing the East End Gallery. Come and share the Gallery with us and see for yourselves. Seize the day.

The metamorphosis of "Child's Play"...