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Art Is For Everybody (If They Want It)
By Mollie Wilson
Although humans are by no means the only creatures who create art, we have, uniquely, attributed a transcendent and transformative potential to the artist and their work. Throughout our history, art has been a channel through which artists have disclosed their personal and collective experiences, unveiling tragic, beautiful and profound features of the human condition. Nothing grasps our painfully ephemeral existence like the artist’s journey. To create art, the artist must brave the unknown, in the hope of finding the harmonious and fragile line between calm and chaos. This echoes the way we live. Moving through time, constantly reaching into an unknown future. In this sense, we are all artists. That’s not to say that everyone is a painter or a sculptor or a musician. It’s more like living is synonymous with creating, and art is the essence of existence.
As an adult, it’s easy to forget this. If you haven’t spent much time in art galleries, or with a paintbrush in hand, art can feel inaccessible or removed. For those of us who have occupied these spaces, the glimmering white walls and price tags of the art world can be just as alienating. Even though art making is not limited to these spaces or disciplines, it still represents a very real barrier. Consequently, finding an artistic practice to engage with can feel daunting and overwhelming.
If that’s how you feel, the Making A Mess workshop is the home for you. Born through a series of conversations between three friends, Julia, Krissy and Charlotte, Making A Mess aims to facilitate spaces for people to engage in artistic practices within their community. In Krissy’s words, it’s about “breaking down all the barriers that people put up to artmaking.” The workshop achieves this by providing the space, the materials and the opportunity to create art without pressure. Everyone is welcome. Everyone can be an artist. Charlotte sums it up beautifully; “you don’t have to have a certain background or training to make art- it’s not for certain people only. It’s for everybody, if they want it to be.”
Sitting at the Making A Mess table, you feel like a child again. The nostalgic combination of crayons, textas, chalk and paint, alongside the reassuring smiles of friends, provides a nurturing platform for playful curiosity. As I sat there, recalling the rich and imaginative tapestry of childhood, a Picasso quote came to mind: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once they grow up.”
As children learn to navigate the world, they are constantly trying new things and making mistakes. Being “bad” at something doesn’t hold the same weight as it does to adults. It’s a natural consequence of learning. As Krissy says, “children just have this great resilience in the face of not being fantastic at things.” As you get older and become more specialised, it becomes increasingly difficult (and uncomfortable) to be bad at something. Unlike children, we are hesitant to reach into the unknown when we don’t have to. We order and schedule our lives as much as possible, to stave off the unexpected. And many of us (myself included) will avoid picking up a paintbrush because we don’t want to make ugly art.
Making A Mess pulls the veil off artmaking by encouraging community members to unlearn and deconstruct the rigid, goal-driven expectations we have towards creating. The workshop is designed in a way that shifts the focus away from the aesthetics of what you’re creating, and onto the joy of actually creating. Julia describes fast exercises that stimulate different parts of the brain; “this can disorient people, so they don’t think about whether what they’re making is good or not.” Many of the activities are based on sensory processes that bring people into their bodies and liberate them from the mind’s rational constraints. Charlotte says that “it becomes more about the feeling of using the work rather than creating something specifically.” In other words, it would be very difficult to participate in the activities and make a piece of art that you had already planned in your head.
Despite the workshop’s thoughtful design, some people can still find it difficult to let go and make a mess.“It’s important to unlearn self-critique,” says Julia. “Firstly, it doesn’t matter if you’re good or bad. No one cares. No one really minds how you do.” It’s very clear from the outset that the workshop is about the creative process, and not the end result. Krissy gently reminds everyone that the goal isn’t to make fantastic pieces of work to go in a gallery, it’s about “having fun, being curious about our creative capacities and collaborating with others.” She adds with a smile, “this is as much for us as it is for all of you.”
Collaboration is at the heart of Making A Mess. The friendship of Krissy, Charlotte and Julia was forged through making art together in Charlotte’s old studio. In the process of collective artmaking, they realised, and became gratefully aware of, the unlimited potential of creation through collaboration. Their cumulative life experiences and individual arts backgrounds have shaped the nature and direction of the project.
This wealth of shared knowledge is echoed in the adaptability of the workshop. Relying on found and recycled mediums (usually fabric offcuts or art supplies headed for landfill), Making A Mess adapts the program or theme of each workshop to the materials they have in abundance. They also adapt the workshops to the spaces they use, whether that be their home studio in Brunswick or the walls of Gallery 17.
In only two hours, the magic of Making A Mess transforms each space it inhabits. Childlike curiosity and playfulness are manifested through colour, warmth and collaboration. The barriers are down, and the art belongs to all of us.
Set date for Making A Mess workshop to be announced soon.