What makes my day a little better

The Bonsai I bought my boyfriend for Christmas and a small Star Wars badge that I stuck on the wrapping. Buddha’s Belly Fig..

Absolut Vodka bottle Carnival edition (empty)

Corner shot of our room that I’m insanely proud of as it’s the first time I’ve been independent and been able to make a house a home!

My Mum gave me this canvas print last Christmas – Uma looking like a babe as always and forever following us with her eyes. Ft. Dom’s new comic poster and part of our set up…

The wall that faces our bed. I’ve hung records on the walls and used one of my brother’s oldest art finals. I feel happiest here.

My tea collection that is slowly expanding. Most of the time, I regret the purchase afterwards because of the weird flavours I choose, but I continue to make tea despite only finishing a quarter of it. Tea is love.

My little elephant that hangs out with us all in the back room. My boyfriend Dom took this from someone’s porch as part of a pair (ssssssh) for me when we were out wandering one night and it was really lovely as I’ve always loved elephants.

A Joy Division poster that my step father Shambala bought for me last Christmas when I was more angsty. But it’s beautiful nonetheless!

My new Pumas I bought the other day to add to the collection. Have wanted these for a long time and they are literal foam cushions under your feet.

Our slow growing board game collection that’s already worth well over $300??? So much bonding and red wine happens over these bad boys.

The beeswax candle and succulent I got for Christmas from my step sister and Mum. Decor is also love. 

Putting past times to use

Looking to start selling my work and begin taking commissions! I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time but haven’t been able to keep consistent with the production of art work. It’s difficult to find the time to actually WANT to create aside from all my actual responsibilities that don’t involve choice. For a long time, making art seemed like more of an effort than it was an enjoyable thing, so I never actually sat down and dedicated myself to producing something worthy of hanging on a wall or being purchased by another.

Since I’ve always just exhibited my work in ways through social media and previous schooling, I never put the extra effort in to make anything worthy of selling or obtaining profit from. And that might seem greedy, or entirely missing the point of art, but I’ve always hated working for someone (mostly because I’m a Westernised privileged child and you could ask most people in my generation and they’d say the same). I’ve always wanted to produce something of my own in a creative sense and obtain profit to sustain majority of my life – whether that be a magazine, novel, paintings, drawings, graphic design etc.

Obviously, so many people want to and try to do the same thing and very often go the opposite way to which they expected. But I don’t really see anyone else my age in my (relatively extensive) social network trying to do what I am, and I have to start somewhere!

If you’re reading this, and there’s some streak of artsy fartsyness in you, check out my Flickr and Instagram (@ellebasifisher) – if anything sparks an interest, or you just want to make a comment on what I’ve got to give, feel free!

Surely love is a wonderful thing..

A few weeks ago, I took the day off to go to Melbourne with Dom. Despite how much work needs to be done in ACMI’s Screenworld, Federation Square is always somewhere to go to occupy the time. Who doesn’t want to learn the history of television and gaming? Even the oldies get super worked up about technological breakthroughs that happened a long time ago – a ‘long time ago’ now being a few years…months even.

Anyway, just so happened that one of my favourite artists, Kathryn Del Barton, had a mini exhibition showing her animated recreation of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ right next to Screenworld. Dom and I watched a five or so minute short and it was simultaneously beautiful and sad. It inspired me to base one of my essays for my Myths and Symbols class on the concepts and deeper meaning within the 1888 classic. Oscar Wilde is such a perfect writer, his voice is gentle and dreamy but rings true to human emotion – it was awesome to see it still being appropriated so strongly.

Some stills from the animation….

Birds have been everywhere in my life and have meant all different things to me and to those closest to me, so I decided to illustrate the little nightingale and I hope to expand the work…

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”

‘I accept chaos’

The importance of creativity is more than I know of it now, and the need to imprint aspects of ourselves on the world around us is paramount for finding peace – or some version of it.

I know that some of my darkest times have arisen from losing sense of a creative self, and realising an ability but being unaware of how to channel it without forcing something artificial.

This morning my Facebook newsfeed showed me a photo of Ninja and Yolandi Visser from Die Antwoord all painted up and baking in the sun in South Africa. They posted a photo and it’s caption said something like:

‘for me what makes anything good like a movie or a song is if its personal becaus then it’s pure. Its your emotions & your experiences poured in2 it. an even though we all see da same tings we experience them diffrent. So if you can write about your own personal experiences an turn dem into songs or art then they will be unique no matter what.’

It’s such a simple concept but rings true, and I keep seeing time and time again people with lively imaginations that just aren’t pouring anything into everything – and I’m one of them.

What’s beautiful about finding your creative self is that everything you put out is pure, and when it’s done truthfully, it is something that comes from a self that is entirely unaffiliated by addiction, or trauma, or stress and rather acts as a passage for these things to travel through and find resolve.

The thing is, people attack the new digital age, and link danger and fear with the insanely quick transference of information and news. And yes, everything has its downsides but it’s creating gate ways for different cultures, music, fashion, art and food scenes and their influences to merge together and inspire. And better yet, it’s so simple to get your own stuff out there for people to consume, comment on and even share. Interpretation is up to the viewer. But the creator does the world a favour by adding to, supporting or changing universal conversations, value systems and the way in which we perceive the world around us.

I happened to find the time to sit down and bring together various materials and my ridiculous collection of magazines to produce some ‘art’. Feels good to apply ability to a tangible thing, and I’ve been feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders lately so it was good to do something that actually had no purpose but gave me satisfaction and a moment of focus and solitude. Creativity has a way of building a shelter for you away from all the world’s mess, and I’m feeling the need to accept its protection more as I grow older and more aware.

Hope you enjoy what I’ve done as much as I enjoyed making it.