Thursday Thoughts...

“Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.” 

Donatella Versace

I quite like pondering quotes that I don't really understand!  I have sat with this one for a bit, and still not really come up with any sort of understanding or explanation that holds firm.

I tried to think of it in the context of a fashion designer, and wondered did creativity stem from a conflict like how to make clothes that look ethereal, also fit and stay attached to the body? Is it like how to think about the military and uniforms and yet appear feminine? I'm not really sure. In the first instance, that seems like solving an engineering problem, and I guess that can be creative.

For me I wondered if my creativity was a conflict of ideas? Perhaps it can be in the sense that I want to say something tough, but do it in a way that folk can engage with it. I want to create beautiful and quiet work; that when you look deeply can be really confronting. 

Oftentimes tho I feel my work  and creativity comes about because of a harmony of things; of a kind of symbiosis between materials, technique and message. Occasionally I will set up a sharp contrast - and perhaps that is conflict; but I am not sure my creativity is born of conflicting ideas.

Still, there is a lot to ponder in it and I daresay I will continue to do so...

Time For Change 2015. (Photography by Penny Riddoch). This piece is so calm and gentle looking. The grid is peaceful, the colours are muted, yet it tells the story that at least 1 woman is killed in Australia every week by a partner or former partner. When displayed at Noosa Regional Gallery in 2015, I was told of folk who came to visit and looked at the work, then read the didactic and burst into tears. They weren't expecting it to be such a beautiful memorial.