Bulletin Spring 2018

THE ARTIST
WITHIN
ROS HARMAN, MSWA MEMBER
“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.”
Salvador Dali.
I visited the annual Year 12 art students’ exhibition at the
Perth Art Gallery recently. The displayed works were amazing.
They were meaningful, beautiful and so, so skilful. I was very
impressed.
I’d like to be an artist. Goodness knows I’ve tried over the
years but there comes a point in your life where you have to
face the truth: Monet I am not.
When I was a child I would sit at the kitchen table with water
paints and butcher’s paper painting boxy figures with stick
legs and large eyes. During my teens in the seventies, I turned
to macramé and crochet, starting ambitious pot plant hangers
and crocheted bikinis. One year I convinced my mother to buy
me a large quantity of purple raffia for what was supposed to
be an incredibly beautiful wall hanging. That never-finished
purple tangle ended up buried in the depths of a hall cupboard
until it was finally thrown out when my mother moved house.
University, marriage, multiple sclerosis (MS) and motherhood
got in the way of my artistic career for a couple of decades, but
I did attend a mosaic tiling course with a friend at some point
during that period. I decorated a plant pot with multicoloured
tiles, and gave it to my mother for her birthday. I know her
well enough to know that the enthusiasm and thanks she
expressed were not genuine. Next time I visited her I searched
around for ages until I finally found it at the bottom of her
beautifully manicured garden behind some shrubs. Neither of
us ever mentioned it again.
I picked up a paintbrush again in my 40’s when I attended a
social painting group. I daubed acrylic paints on canvas in an
attempt to recreate scenery from photos, but the results were
not inspiring. I have not hung these pictures on my wall, but
have them hidden behind some boxes in the spare room. I
enjoyed the conversation and morning tea, though.
When I was invited to join an art/craft group at MSWA I
wondered if my time in the spotlight as an artist was finally
coming. The group is called ‘Embrace the Shake’ and is
intended to encourage creative expression in a supported
environment among people with MS who have a tremor, or
other difficulties with their hands. Actually, my hands are
fine but they didn’t seem to mind me joining in anyway. I
have discovered that it takes more than good hands to make
a masterpiece but we have fun and we have cake for
morning tea.
I have a few excellent artists in my extended family.
My elderly mother painted some very pretty watercolour
flowers when she was younger. My brother-in-law, as well
as being an excellent photographer and cameraman, paints
lovely landscapes. A niece and a couple of nephews are
skilled at drawing and are creative visual artists. Obviously
the artistic DNA avoided me when I was born.
I have had one moment of artistic success. Our group had
an outing one day into the bush where we discovered some
paperbark trees. We cautiously stripped a bit of bark off one
that had fallen over. Back at the art room I selected a piece,
added a couple of squiggles with black pen and put it inside
a frame I found, and lo and behold – a landscape! I have my
bark painting on my sideboard in my living room, and just nod
modestly when guests and visitors compliment me.
Art is good for you, apparently. “Art develops the whole
brain. It is proven that art increases attention, strengthens
focus, requires practice, develops hand-eye coordination
and interacting with the world using mediums and tools.”
(Obxartstudio.com) I did some research and there are lots of
quotes by famous artists. Jackson Pollock of Blue Poles fame
stated that “Painting is self-discovery.” Don Miguel Ruez said
“Every human is an artist.” That may be true, but I note that
famous Impressionist Henri Matisse once said “Creativity
takes courage.” I know that is true.
I don’t think I am going to make my mark on the world
through painting. I think I’ll stick to writing. But I will
keep going to our art group. I enjoy the morning tea.
26 | MSWA BULLETIN SPRING 2018