Studio Threads // Djeran
Bimonthly event update
Djeran is associated with cooler days, gentle winds, and the blooming of red flowering gums, but a week before its arrival, the heat has been reluctant to move on. Last week's heatwave feels like an unsettling climate alarm reverberating through the dry vegetation and into my bones.
I’m finding steadiness, though, in the studio, and I’d love to share some upcoming events and gentle threads from my practice.
Celestial Mapping at
Brave New Works Festival
A brave new body of works by the SICK AF Collective's multidisciplinary artists - Amanda Alderson, Christina Baltais, Nadeen Brown, Claire B. Bushby, Brad Coleman, Lucinda Crimson, Catherine Higham and Annamaria Weldon.
Celestial Mapping
When: Thursday, 3 April to Sunday, 4 May, 10 am - 4 pm
Where: The Denmark Community Resource Centre, 2 Strickland Street, Denmark
Cost: Free
More info: SICK AF Collective
Brave New Works Festival | Aurora Australis | Denmark Arts
Festival days: Thursday 3rd April to Sunday 6th April
More info: https://www.denmarkarts.com.au/brave-new-works
Meet Me In The Garden at
Rockingham Arts Centre
The exhibition brings together artists Claire B. Bushby, W. Sze Tsang, and Mark Wahlsten in a collaborative project exploring the relationships between suburban gardens, local ecologies, and the people who care for them. Through sound, sculpture, video, and drawing, Meet Me In The Garden honours gardens as spaces of beauty, care, and resilience.
Meet Me In The Garden – Opening and Artist Conversation
When: Saturday, 12 April, 4:00 – 6:00pm
Where: Rockingham Arts Centre, 11 Kent Street, Rockingham WA 6168
Please RSVP by 9 April to Registrations
This special event will include a conversation between the exhibiting artists and guest facilitator Soula Vouyoucalos-Veyradier, who currently leads the North Metropolitan TAFE Creative Galleries and Programs. Together, we’ll explore how art might shift attitudes and behaviours toward the environment, and reflect on the meanings of nature and culture, the role of plants in our lives, and the vital lessons gardens offer as spaces of cultivation, care, and change.
Light refreshments will be provided.
MMITG Public Programs
Between Leaves and Light: Listen, Draw, Breathe
Visual artist Claire B. Bushby will introduce this meditative event, inviting participants to slow down, listen deeply, and connect with the local ecology while listening to a soundscape performed by composer W. Sze Tsang. This accompanying soundscape combines field recordings with a map of the gallery, rendered into a digital autonomous instrument.
As you listen, you are invited to translate what you feel into visual form — drawing lines, shapes, or textures that are inspired by the soundscape. This event is about freeing your creativity. Participants are free to move around and find a comfortable place during the event. No drawing experience is necessary and basic pens, pencils and paper will be provided, but feel free to bring your own materials if you prefer.
When: Wednesday, 16 April, 10.30 am - 12 pm
Where: Rockingham Arts Centre, 11 Kent Street, Rockingham
Cost: $15 per person
Registrations close: Friday, 11 April, 4 pm
To register, please contact the Rockingham Arts Centre on 9527 0734 between 8am-4pm, Wednesday to Sunday.
Conversations in the Garden
You are warmly invited to join visual artists Claire B. Bushby and Mark Wahlsten for a relaxed cuppa and a chat about your garden and gardening experiences. This friendly, informal conversation will help shape the development of the Meet Me In The Garden (MMITG) project in Rockingham.
MMITG began as part of Spaced WA’s Know Thy Neighbour #3 program in 2021, which invited artists and community members to explore meaningful ways to shape our cities together. The project has captured conversations about care, connection, and creativity in our local environments through audio interviews, photographs, and reflective journals. Now, MMITG continues as an ongoing project, sparking hopeful and creative dialogue about how we can live together with care in an environment of climate change — starting in our gardens. No ongoing commitment is required. Your story will be audio-recorded as part of the project, adding your unique voice to this growing conversation. This conversation will take approximately half an hour. Bookings are essential as places are limited.
When: Wednesday 16 April 2025 and Wednesday 23 April 2025
Interview times: 1.30pm-2pm, 2.15pm-2.45pm, 3pm-3.30pm
Where: Rockingham Arts Centre, 11 Kent Street, Rockingham
Cost: Free
Registration close: 4pm, Friday 28 March 2025
To register, please contact the Rockingham Arts Centre on 9527 0734 between 8am-4pm, Wednesday to Sunday.
Melville Open Studios
Melville Open Studios is a community-based event where Creatives, living and working within the City of Melville, open up their studios and creative hubs to the public.
When: Saturday, 3 May - Sunday, 4 May,
Where you’ll find me: SoCo Studios, 6/496 Marmion Street, Booragoon
More information about Melville Open Studios, https://www.melvilleopenstudios.com
Meet Me In The Garden at
Perth Institute of Contemporay Arts (PICA)
Meet Me In The Garden goes to PICA for a Quick Response Artist-in-Residence.
When: Monday, 19 May - Sunday, 15 June
Where: Studio 2, PICA, Perth Cultural Centre, 51 James Street, Perth
Artist talk details to come.
This Season’s Vibe
As Djeran begins, I’ve been leaning into things that offer insight, grounding, or a quiet kind of joy. Here are a few things I’ve been enjoying lately:
📖 Reading: The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler – a prophetic novel set in the near future (2024–2027) and written in 1993. In a 2000 interview with Essence, Butler was asked if she truly believed in the future she had depicted. She replied, “I didn’t make up the problems. All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.”
🎧 Listening: Death by Birding - an Australian birding podcast recorded on Jinibara Country (QLD). Funny and informative, host César Puechmarin speaks with a wide range of guests—from experts to novices—including photographers, filmmakers, historians, and even tattoo artists.
🧶 Making / Noticing: I’ve been working on the Meet Me In The Garden project—crocheting, felting, promoting (and so much more). It’s been exhausting at times, especally while undergoing cancer treatment but I’m really looking forward to finally sharing the interviews I recorded back in 2022.
🥣 Nourishing: II’ve begun exercising at the pool three times a week. I live with a lot of pain from both cancer and its treatment, so—on my oncologist’s recommendation—I’ve started walking in the water and sitting in the spa to help ease the pain. It’s made me reflect on how we relate to our bodies in chronic pain. I often dissociate to escape discomfort, but in the pool, I’m pulled into the present—into full awareness. Floating lets me be released from gravity, and I begin noticing the feeling surrounded by water. Read Maria Popova’s article, Swimming as the Poetry of the Body, in The Marginalian for more reflections on swimming.
As I recover from the assault of RSV Pneumonia on my already fragile system with 3 chronic diseases, reading your words dear Claire made me realise how much I value gentle (is non pushy-shouty) musings. Connection is rare when isolated by lack of energy etc I pick up ideas -"swimming"- from your sharings. I am happy to be here. Thank you ! Annamaria