ARTSTOP

Where: The Olive Way Drop In Centre, 212 Sydney Road Brunswick VIC 3056

When: Wednesdays

Start time: 10am
Pack up time: 12.15pm

Lead Artist:  George Akl

Support Artist: Eleanor Purseglove

Artstop participants performing as part of Play Me, I'm Yours at the Melbourne Arts Centre, January 2013

The artist is best

The artist is first on my list.

The artist is going to be kissed.

The wonder of the artist will never cease

They will paint you a masterpiece

So you should take part in the art.

Except from ‘The Artist’ by Gavin Jackson; 2011

Welcome to Artstop. We are a group of artists from Brunswick that make art on a Wednesday 10am – 12.30pm at The Olive Way. Many of us come from Stewart Lodge and Brunswick Lodge Supported Residential Services and some of us are visitors to The Olive Way Drop In Centre.

We have been making art at The Olive Way with Arts Access Victoria since January 2011. We have worked with sculpture, stop motion animation, sound installation and film making. This year we are continuing with poetry, painting, drawing and sculpture.

Linda Studena, Tanya Arman and Adam Buckland are local acclaimed artists who lead us through our Wednesdays of art making. They create a professional space for our skills to be recognised and strengthened. To learn more about the SRS Studios staff, click here.

At the moment we are working on our individual portfolios to showcase our art making and think about ways to promote our art in the future. You are welcome to watch us work or join in.

Artstop is an Arts Access Victoria project. Arts Access is funded by Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria and the Department of Human Services. Artstop is founded on strong local connections and community partnerships. Artstop workshops are hosted by The Olive Way, a community drop in centre managed by Brunswick Uniting Church. Artstop is proudly supported by Health and Community Care, Department of Health.

Artstop Projects, Exhibitions & Performances:

• The Fluid Ink Project 2012
• The Belle Arti Exhibition 2013
• Melton Djerriwarrh Festival Ephemeral Public Art Commission 2013
• Richard Phelan, Solo Exhibition at Skin Gallery 2013
• Giovanni Dimase & Stefano Conti, solo exhibitions at Skin Gallery 2013
• Skin Gallery Summer Group Show, opened by The Hon. Heidi Victoria, Minister for Arts & Culture 2013-4
• Play Me, I'm Yours Melbourne Arts Centre 2014
• Sydney Road Street Party, Brunswick Music Festival 2014

RICHARD PHELAN, Requiescat in Pale 2012

Artist’s Statement 2013 by Artstop21 Artist Richard Phelan 

All the artists at Artstop21 are graduates of the school of hard knocks.

Living lives that can often be bereft of personal success on a level other than the mundane. For us Artstop21 brings to life a good measure of what I call “the magic of creation”.

Firstly there is the magic of coming together for a few hours with a shared purpose of being magical with art; in an atmosphere of mutual trust, encouragement and exploration. This atmosphere comes from the heart of the artists as we all agree that what we have in Artstop21 is a weekly routine of transcending experience.

Then there is the magic of the artistic process. I feel that this process engages us on levels that are as relevant to our good health as food or love.

It can be a meditative experience.

A joyful experience.

A key and unlocking experience.

Meditative as it is intuitive and knowing, asking each artist to look for personal dimensions that are hidden.

Joyful as it brings to reality these unseen realities of being.

And these are key and unlocking because they are arts of he mind and can change a person’s day from being negative to positive in the blink of an artist’s eye. Indeed I have seen the accumulative effect of these positive moments bring about permanent and palpable satisfaction in art, in myself and in others.

Next is the magic of the artists of Arts Access. From th every beginning of every client of ARtstop21, I see the facilitators address the curiosity and innate artistry of people – and gently, gradually and with purpose, guide us to bring about something which was not there when we walked in, that is the realization that there is an artist in all of us – proven by the work we do.

The people of Arts Access have no standard of bad art or good art, they reveal the truth that each work is intrinsically great art because it is so many wonderful things to the artist

·      Challenge

·      Engaging in the process

·      Revealing of depths of mind and soul

·      And rewarding in that it is a concrete artifact of the inner world.

Artstop21 is unique in my life. It is a place and time that can be joyful even on the darkest days. It is somewhere safe enough for me to balance my life with this magic called art. And it is a time of the week that is a wonderfully rainbow time.

Richard Phelan 2013