Something is cooking

Something is cooking. This is true on multiple levels.  Firstly I’m cooked, we are cooking up a plan to get away and our new Thermomix has arrived.  The Margaret River Region Open Studios event concludes this weekend and it has been so unbelievably good.  By far our best year in terms of the variety of work and sales.  It doesn’t come together by magic but rather lots of hard work.  My wife has done the most and has to be congratulated, firstly for the idea to do the collaboration and secondly for getting all us artists to play ball and complete the work.  It can be a slog as some of the artists won’t be told (that’s really just me......)

My job is to talk non stop for seventeen days and not be boring.  And I almost made it.  Unfortunately I was boring when I started to mention my new Thermomix.  I don’t know why, it’s super sleek and techie but people wanted to hear about the photos not the butterfly whisk, the varoma temperature or the impressive dough function.  Goes to show art is very powerful, just like the blades in my new kitchen beast.  

So, as the biggest event of the year comes to a close, my attention turns towards doing nothing for as long as humanly possible.  I have the camper ready to go, we just need to hook it up and get the hell out of town.  I am keen to camp on the edge of a freshwater lake, by the beach or surrounded by towering Karri trees. Anywhere will be good.  The wildflowers are out, the weather is getting better and my camera hasn’t been out of the bag for over a month.

The new 2026 Hospice Calendar has arrived.  Again, without sounding like a salesman, it is our best calendar yet!  As always, all the money goes direct to the Busselton Hospice to help them provide an essential service at the most difficult of times.

So, what have I learnt in all my conversations with people over the past couple of weeks of MRROS?  I have learnt that we are all the same.  We all want the same things.  We want to be free and we want to be happy.  To do that we need to turn off our phones, our tv and radio and connect with our own communities.  Stop listening to corporations, toxic social media and governments whose sole purpose is to keep us divided and fearful.  I have experienced so much joy in the gallery because we have been brought together by art.  

How wonderful it has been!