Artists

Hamish Dunlop interviews prize-winning children’s book illustrator, mother, activist and proud Bundjalung woman, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis about the power of storytelling and how we can inspire our children to build a better world.

Artist Joel Mitchell tells the story behind his public sculpture in Blackheath, Reveal: A Celebration of Blue Mountains Orchids. He talks about his inspiration, the beauty of intergenerational collaboration and how the artwork, in-situ, invites us to experience the wonder of the natural world.

Artists with an Indigenous heritage are telling their stories and finding a voice through a certificate course in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts at Blue Mountains TAFE.

During COVID lockdowns, Merryl Watkins posted a new bird photo on social media every day. The Blaxland resident wanted to remind people there was still beauty in the world and joy to be found if you stop, look and listen.

Lower Blue Mountains artist Corinne Loxton has used daily walks in the bush, journaling and painting to help her overcome culture shock and a personal crisis, and to connect more deeply with herself and the rest of the natural world.

Learning to give our worries and anxieties less dominance by being fully present in our bodies through dance is a valuable art to master. Dancer Beckie Wilson is sharing her dance practice at both Bursill Lane Studio and with young people in the Street University in Katoomba.

This week, Tracie McMahon takes a walk with author John Low, a former Blue Mountains City Council Librarian, and now Portland resident, around the Millpond at The Foundations, Portland.

At Provocations, the Seven Valleys Festival of Big Ideas, local high school students, Ollyvar Baker, Samara Kirkland and Jasmin Cole, performed poetry that communicated the future they want to see.

Hamish Dunlop attended the launch of ‘Somewhere to Live’, a song written and performed by The Blue Gums, Voices for Social Change. The song and accompanying video aim to raise awareness about the impacts of homelessness and housing insecurity in the Blue Mountains and across the Greater Sydney region.

Six Blue Mountains artists take strikingly different approaches to expressing ecological emotions associated with fire, flood and pandemic.