Hello. I am Jemma White and here is my first blog post. I love to write, I love to type. I want to record these things and in this way bring writing and journaling into my arts practice. I’m exploring my story, and here is where I will share some of it. The parts that are asking to be shared.
I’m returning to my visual art studies in 2025, after being on a hiatus also known as ‘maternity leave’, since July 2022. My son is now 2 years and 4 months old, and my daughter is roughly 7 years and 6 months old (she was 2 when I started my studies). I wasn’t planning to make this time for myself, but a few things happened in close timing and, well, I’m desperate to get back to making and having time for my passions, because my mental health is suffering without them.
When I stopped study in 2022 to have my son, Wylee, I said to myself and my husband “I don’t want to go back to art school until I’ve studied Permaculture.” I’ve been following Permaculture from the sidelines since about 2014 and just haven’t prioritized my Permaculture learning journey, as art school came first (and a few kids and a husband). So lucky for me when I got an email last December saying a practical subject I needed to complete was being offered only one more time in Trimester 1 2025, I had just enrolled to study a PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) in February 2025. So I’ll be studying visual art along side Permaculture, like a dream come true.
For so long now I’ve wanted to intertwine my Visual Arts practice within a Permaculture framework. And I’m hoping that for my design project for my PDC I can create a mapping of what that framework might look and feel like. Permaculture is the antidote to my Eco-Anxieties and feels like the right way forward for my creative journey.
In my time off from study, I have grown a lot. I’ve learnt a lot about myself and my family, and the human experience. When I was studying previously, I was struggling through with quite intense Anxiety and also Depression which I’d had for a long time. I’ve been working with a Psychologist for over 3 years now, and am realizing the importance of chasing my dreams in my pursuit of mental wellbeing. I’m realizing the importance of creating and expressing myself creatively as an act of self-awareness and mindfulness. I want to utilize this platform as a creative expression, for self-reflection and debrief. I’m realizing that recording my creative practices is just as an important element as the making itself, and in away is the work and a work in itself. Documentation means I can gather and collect my work practices and take a step back to see them collectively, how they fit together and to see patterns and meaning within works, over time and space.
For me, making work is making self. Making work is exploring my self in my memories, my current state and my hopes and dreams. Making artwork is making my story. All of these things are pieces of me.
Jemma
5th February 2025
