The cathynunn.com weblog is a combination of documenting my creative thought process/es and probably some exhibition comment. If you need to respond, send an email alternatively, you can
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The world feels less stable and safe.
Its not just what has happened, an attack. But what may happen from here.
Everything else seems small, insignificant.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:29:13 PM

studio is organised - now to organise my life.
Learn to work thgrough ideas - push thoughts past their first moment.
Wine, ideas, action, movement, decisions.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 10:07:03 PM

Finally moved into my studio. Can't believe how much 'raw material' I have to work with.
The space is large and promising. Now I can allow my house to be a house. Novel idea really.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 10:52:46 PM

Now that I look at it, the artists statement below is pretty crap - do I not have anything to do with the work I make? Certainly the never be content bit is pretty accurate - actually, it's only the first 2 lines that are crap.
I have so much work to avoid - my aim is to have my newly designed site up before I move into my new studio - like that is going to happen.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:00:27 PM

a recently replaced artist statement

.quietly ignore myself.

.create without controlling, let the work make itself.

.keep moving, keep searching, keep learning.

.use every possible moment.

.never be content.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 10:54:14 PM

I live in a city that is cold and ignorant. Empty spaces exist that have been condemned - not because they are dirty and dangerous - but because no-one can make money out of them. But this fact does not surprise or concern me.
The trusting, idealistic and foolish person that I am believed that a space could be bought back to life - a pre-death wake if you like - for the time until it made way for yet another block of apartments. (Will we perhaps find ourselves all living in apartment blocks in the near future - with nowhere to go and nothing to do as the only thing that makes any money is the building of apartment blocks?)
My occasionally terminally cynical mind could not imagine the cost of the rent of this condemned space for a creative space for 6 months. I craved to jolt the system, to show art that did not need a 2 year lead time. To show that this city can be spontaneous and alive.
Alas.
'We don't need the money - that will be 6,000 dollars a month' - Australian dollars yes, but I am not English.
Will I give up the fight? Did I ever really start the fight? Is Sydney really this greedy (but is that really the word? even capitalist and economic rationalist don't apply - did they pull down their pants whilst on the phone and shake their bottoms about, thinking 'I have a useless building and you can't share it ha ha haha ha'??)
We will have to wait and see.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 9:34:49 PM

book of the week for me is The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker - yes I know I should have read it many years ago, but I didn't. Maybe now I have a bit of an understanding why those girls in my radio interview last year had such attitude. I don't accept their attitude, but understand perhaps where they may have been coming from.
due to an eventful - or terrible weekend, I have a new work on the go - have to learn some new embroidery techniques.
How big is small is opening at First Draft on Wednesday - another scary group show.
Nothing remarkable to comment on except that my new site will probably be designed in the next couple of months. I have to force myself to be the graphic designer that I am not.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 10:23:17 PM

an artist statement that never quite made it to publishing stage, but nonetheless is descriptive of my current work
the materials in themselves are beautiful. a bin full of o-rings, rolls of reflective tape or t-shirt labels. not wanting to interfere with their natural beauty, I place them side by side and allow them to work together to make something new. this is an act of stepping back in a world full of control. objects that were discarded, now in their element, adding life and beauty to the world that threw them away.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:21:55 PM

I will now record my previous artist statements here as they are updated

.do well without trying.

.never be fearful.

.learn everyday.

.be true to myself.

.do what I must do.

.don't waste a moment.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:20:19 PM

POST MULLET is great. Thank you to the curators of the show.
It has made me realise that my ultimate goal, and I must have one to move forward, is to work on my art. This is the one thing that has not changed in the last 12 years, where everything else has had mad passionate moments, then faded.
Sunday is a good day for me. There are less distractions, apart from the obligatry coffee or two, but these only serve to move me forward, get me talking.
Read a 'biography' of Norman Lindsay ('...' meaning that it was badly arranged and written, but I feel ultra informed).
Working on a piece for a benefit exhibition called 'How big is small?'. My piece looks at Australian identity, the lack of Republic and the image we present (or some of us present) to the world.
My next step is to put forward proposals to Artist Run galleries, or become involved in any other way, to build a solid body of work.
Things are moving on.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:17:34 PM

New group exhibition opening on Tuesday night, Post Mullet, New Australian Style. My work that will be shown are 2 of my silver pieces and 2 of my label pieces.
Finished the waves then read virginia woolf and vanessa bell, a very close conspiracy by Jane Dunn.
I really have to do some reading for my studies instead of manically reading everything else at every spare moment.
Some of the inspiration has gone, don't feel like I am soaring at the moment as I often do on my days off, but the momentum is still there.
This unknown exhibition scares me - a small part in someone elses show. But I am happy to get some pieces out there on display.
My site will be updated soon with pics and details of the new show - another diversion.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 6:15:56 PM

still reading Virginia Woolf - can't ever read just one book from a good author - must read all books from that author.
reading the waves which is incredibly dense - but lyrical, flowing, moving, beautiful and insightful.
watched life is beautiful. it was beautiful. I am filling in gaps of my life's cultural education.
reading, watching, thinking, learning, doing.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 8:39:43 PM

it has taken me 11 years to get to a point where I can make the simplest works I have ever made.
they have marks of construction, and this is their design.
the materials talk for themselves, they don't have to jump through hoops to show off.
they show off by hanging on a wall, side by side, their structure doing all the talking.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 9:05:47 PM

more works happening, have to organise another exhibition. trying to study, finding that I am hitting blocks. spent the day making. haven't done that for a while. knotting, sewing. that's all. that's enough.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 11:57:41 PM

learning - how to do what I want to do
reading - The Plague and The Outsider by Albert Camus, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
making - only what want to make
posted by Cathy Nunn at 9:27:53 PM

web mania happened in a small way...couldn't really call it mania at all...will have a new studio page soon - in lieu of a real gallery page as I have alot of mostly, or half finished work.
Read To The Lighthouse, am enjoying Virginia Woolfs' writing, if she had to put her writing through a spell checker, she would get... Fragmented, (consider revising)...I like her fagmented way of putting things - pity it was probably a sign of her fragmented mind. I never get told to consider revising by the spell checker. mmmm. I'd do a frequent defrag in that situation. No stones in the pockets for me.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 9:16:28 PM

night before Lace prize entry is due...why do I always leave those 'little' details to the last minute...when will I learn they are never as little as I imagined...why is this also the only area in my life that I do this?
I have some photos of my new work now, so the weekend will be full of web mania for me...
posted by Cathy Nunn at 9:25:21 PM

need to make, need to create, need to complete.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 6:03:18 PM

mmm finally back. Have been doing lots and lots of art stuff - just not online. Desperately need new pictures of my most recent work as I am ready to update my gallery - just need something to go on the main page. Have been painting (love the smell of oils), reading (early to mid 20thC women artists), sewing my lace dress (sometimes I really hate sewing - and why do I have to make things so difficult for myself?), constructing pinboards, starting a quilt for another competition, applying for jobs, learning macrame, had a BBQ out in our backyard....and that was all on Saturday and Sunday.
What a way to live.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:06:12 PM

Have finally started painting again. Have not painted in oil, my prefered medium for about 8 years. I went to art school, got put into the textile class because everyone wanted to be a painter. I'm starting to have a funny feeling that I may have been duped.
I love the flexibility and multiple meanings of using 'textiles' (although I feel I am stretching that term lately), but there really is something about painting that has always drawn me (although perhaps not strong enough to pick up a brush in 8 years?).
Maybe I can be both, maybe I can be whatever I want, whenever I want.
Good Idea 99.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 9:13:02 PM

There are projects I can achieve, real contributions I can make. Have to be brave and take a risk, not something I am traditionally used to doing. Very safe, a bit boring. Is it possible to change?
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:03:03 PM

Time to get serious. Time to be real. Be excited by possibilities, probabilities, things that I can make happen if I sidestep fear. The world has not only changed, but is changing, day by day - no, even faster. Some things that are happening now, might not see the full effect for 20 years, but it's vital that people relax and enjoy the mammoth shifts that are occuring around them.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 10:17:05 PM

What a wonderful day it is to be more obsessed with my artwork than the promotion of my artwork.
~ Took photos of my recent pieces in my stairwell (it looks like a derelict factory - oh so chic) ~ bought a frame, finally, for my Vivian Haley print ~ bought a basket from a lovely aboriginal man from Cairns - I can learn the coconut palm weaving, but I have to go to Cairns - OK ~ made a lampshade out of my latest reverse garbage purchase - sink strainers.
Found more pictures of past works to put on my site - see, I couldn't really go a day without a hit of bytes.
In the middle of making my lace piece - constantly reminding myself to be true to the material and not diverge. Lace is now my biggest passion. Everything I think to make is some form of it - including the lampshade.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 4:54:49 PM

I have lots of questions.
Do people who don't make art, but appreciate it, love it?
Do I expect too much of these people who do not have art as an overriding, overpowering influence in their everyday lives?
Can art be purely business, or do you need to be able to passionately discuss it if it is part of your life? Can you ignore that aspect?
I want to be able to talk about it and argue my points. I don't even know I feel strongly on an issue sometimes if I don't discuss it and find out that I do actually have an opinion on a given topic.
I am speaking specifically and generally.
My mind is ticking over.

posted by Cathy Nunn at 6:05:25 PM

yes, these raves are process notes. You should read my journal.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 5:22:57 PM

I have a fear that my site is an eternal project into which I will be sucked in and destroyed - all in the quest of bettering my life. What will actually better my life at the moment is making the artworks that will at some point be able to go onto my site.
if you're creative today, Cathy, then you are allowed to post that on your site on the weekend.
So my allotted time is nearly over and I cannot say one actual thing (apart from new buttons, banners, pages and pictures) has been created in the real world. I'll just have to be content with adding more content to cyberspace.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 5:12:57 PM

getting my site right is my absolute obsession, never mind that I actually need to make artworks to go onto the site. Plenty of ideas, just lack of solid time to fulfil those ideas.
Time is a very boring diary topic.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 5:36:33 PM

3 days turns into 5.
Try to capture another series of moments, worthwhile moments that will make the coming week bearable.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:06:21 PM

worked all day, ideas have changed - or progressed. New website pictures to be organised and uploaded, firm idea for lace competition - well that was all, but it seemed like more. Excited again, not frustrated. Now to 3 days of downtime by working for actual money.
posted by Cathy Nunn at 7:37:55 PM

slowly, maybe surely, something is returning.
Iook at everything I have collected,
tools have been repaired,
refreshed ideals in place.
now to produce.

posted by Cathy Nunn at 6:37:55 PM

empty, lifeless, waiting for something?...no
posted by Cathy Nunn at 5:31:05 PM

Is (buying essential office supplies, cooking dinner, doing the washing up, walking the dog and sorting out receipts) an acceptable substitute for creativity?
posted by Cathy Nunn at 5:39:55 AM

learning as I go,
basically uninspired
posted by Cathy Nunn at 8:18:38 PM