Category: arts and health

Thirty Two Words for Field and Sand Talk – Irish and Indigenous wisdom

May 12, 2023

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by

Pen

in arts and health, Australia behind, Blasket islands, Books, capitalism, Common Good, Democracy, Indigenous wisdom, Inequality – Australia, Living creatively, Manchan Magan, mental illness, Nature writing – Irish, rural Ireland, Sand Talk, sustainable living, value of the arts

Connecting with a better world Apart from reading some fantastic books, I’ve been having fun with my new Kick-Start creative writing workshops. They’ve been zipping along with the poetic contributions of talented students, filling the BRAG room on Tuesday nights with laughter and creative verve. BRAG stands for Braidwood Regional Arts Group and you can…
Wide windows and a wet, wet spring – Creativity flowering in Braidwood

Nov 16, 2022

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by

Pen

in art, arts and health, Australian novels, creative cross-fertilisation, creative synergy, creativity, gardening, Inequality, media negativity, optimism, Simplifying, sustainable living

Why garden? Why write? … ‘Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.’ American writer Edith Wharton said that and I think of it often since moving to the country. These days, still in La Nina, our well overflowing and the creek rushing and rising as rain continues to fall, drinking the day can…
Gently altering the world – the arts

Mar 30, 2020

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by

Pen

in art, arts and health, Common Good, creativity, humour, humour as medicine, rural Ireland, Stand-up comedy – Australian, stress management, value of the arts, writers’ health

Returning from a writing residency in Cill Rialaig, in Ireland’s County Kerry – https://cillrialaigartscentre.com/residencies/ – it was weird to be back yet not be able to hop on my bike and see friends, go to tango lessons, films, cafés and libraries or walk around the lake. I watched that ingenious ABC program You Can’t Ask…
Powerful and uplifting – Magic Happens: The Story of Painting with Parkinsons by Nancy Tingey

Feb 5, 2019

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by

Pen

in arts and health, Australian memoir, Parkinson’s, Winston Churchill, Yoga health benefits

Artist and curator Nancy Tingey was the first person I interviewed for my history of the Churchill Trust, Inspiring Australians (2015) and it was a wonderful story to begin my research with. Nancy founded the group, Painting with Parkinsons in Canberra in 1994. Her husband Bob had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s a few years before…
Swimming, dancing, writing – or What I Did on My Summer Holiday

Mar 27, 2018

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by

Pen

in Argentine tango, arts and health, creativity, social capital, writers’ health

Swimming Swimming every morning in the clear turquoise water, surrounded by trees – oaks, chestnuts, London planes and gums, with swallows and parrots flying about and ten ducklings following their parents across the grass – plus coffee on the deck afterwards with a group of convivial co-swimmers: is it any wonder it’s been a long…

Category: arts and health

Thirty Two Words for Field and Sand Talk – Irish and Indigenous wisdom

Wide windows and a wet, wet spring – Creativity flowering in Braidwood

Gently altering the world – the arts

Powerful and uplifting – Magic Happens: The Story of Painting with Parkinsons by Nancy Tingey

Swimming, dancing, writing – or What I Did on My Summer Holiday