ARTS trail at KAPITI WOMENS CENTRE

Kapiti rocks. Every year they have a weekend where artists open up their studios so you can visit and check out their work. There are also hubs in schools and community centres where several artists get together and exhibit. Early this month we had a hub of artists exhibiting at the Kapiti Womens centre where I volunteer. Knowing that I am "artsy" I was asked to coordinate the exhibition as well as participating as one of 7 artists. It was fabulous to practice a bit of curating and event planning :-)

We had super feedback from our visitors: great, lovely, awesome, fantastic, beautiful artwork, fab, cool, ʻTino ataahua enei taongaʼ, welcoming, lovely atmosphere, ʻlots of interesting artʼ, vibrant, excellent, ka rawe, ʻfantastic set-upʼ, wonderful, ʻthe new building was made to display artʼ, ʻgreat showʼ, very impressed, great art, great space, lovely people, great displays, doing a great job, ka pai, gorgeous, lovely venue, nice feel, ʻvibrant energy and talented artists - Mauri Oraʼ, ʻan inspirational place and a warm welcomeʼ

Its true - the centre looked stunning and the volunteers were so warm and welcoming that it was a great weekend enjoyed by visitors, artists and Kapiti Women Centre volunteers alike. We even raised a wee bit of money for this valued community resource caring for women in Kapiti.

Artists were Gill Allen, Jane Fogden, Jean Kahui, Marguerite Osborne, Tracey Morgan, Liz Symes and me - Abby Wendy...

Here are a few pics from the weekend 2-3 November 2013

Beautiful Kapiti!

Wow a busy couple of years. After completing honours Art History I moved to Kapiti and have been very busy settling in to the community and making my home and studio cosy. Environment is very important to productive creativity! That is part of why I moved. Wellington (and especially Thorndon where I lived in the city) became so crowded and dirty and... words fail me and when I think of it I feel that electric hum vibrating in my bones and a page full of dull dark colours slashing across in a confusion of jagged scribbles. NOISY and stressed-out. It permeates the air and creeps into your spinal cord. Thats how it feels for me... disrupting the flow of inspiration. 

I miss being close to my friends and family but it is only an hour or less to drive back and visit. Meanwhile I feel like I have moved to an oasis of calm. The air is clean, time moves a little slower, and people are happier here which makes them friendlier, more helpful and community orientated. It is more affordable to live here as well, although I suspect that is slowly changing. For a little less rent I have a house with a little garden just across from a beautiful beach. It is bliss to wake early and walk out barefoot on sand while the sun is rising. It is filling up my little artist's cup of joy and inspiration until it overflows into beautiful paintings.

Here are some pics from my morning walks...