whooa, Hello.... it's been a while!

Hey belinism peeps! 

This blog post has been a number of years in the making. It’s hard to put the ‘missing years’ into words. To say that I didn’t feel myself and have had to in many ways rebuild myself more than a few times in recent history is an understatement. With naught left to do but pick myself up, dust myself off and keep going, I am ready to try to catch you all up.

However, before I begin my tale of lows and highs, I want to thank you for being here and reading this post. When I started belinism, it was purely in the spirit of happiness and contentment. Obviously, I had no idea that my aspirational goal of happiness and contentment was about to be tested, big time. I wanted happiness and contentment and I wanted to give it to the world. I felt as a creative and a maker I could achieve my goals by making people smile in the morning while they inhale their first cuppa. It was really that simple and it meant so much to me. I could never be more grateful for the support belinism has received over the years, from fans, customers and the beautiful peeps at the Maleny Peace of Green Gallery, my artist comrades. So again, thank you for just being here, you light my world.

Sadly, as some of you may have noticed, my last post on Instagram kind of left things hanging a bit. This wasn’t deliberate, I was just a desperate person trying to make sense of how to move forward. I felt brokenhearted pushing belinism. I didn’t feel like I had it in me to keep moving my little crafty business forward and it was crushing me. I always intended to pick things back up where I left it however, that is not the way it has played out.

After the medical dramas of 2018/2019 I felt exhausted, I was over hospitals, treatment, fatigue and the general headspace of constantly being in that environment. It just didn’t seem to end. My doctor proposed I’d have to travel some kind of nail-biting roller coaster during my initial treatment, so I was expecting that, but I didn’t realize I may never be able to leave the amusement park, and as you can imagine I was very over the rides…

Due to the highly physical nature of running a ceramics studio, I decided to take a break from everything and return to uni. Firstly, to study business marketing at UniSC and then creative arts at UniSQ. I returned to uni mainly to get my thoughts in order and to heal physically. I didn’t expect to love studying as much as I did and felt incredibly grateful to have the time and space to push one of my other creative loves forward. So I picked my paintbrushes back up and painted like my mental health depended on it.

Slowly I made my way through Uni, graduating last year (2023) with a Bachelor of Creative Arts Hons (first class). I was also incredibly fortunate to receive a university medal by achieving a grade point average of 7. This was very unexpected and is a testament to the power of positive distraction. To say I was blown away was another understatement. I was just happy to have paint under my fingernails again!

Whilst doing my honours study, I became very interested in the emergence of generative AI technology. I felt a shift in how the world was turning, not just in the creative industries but in many different aspects of our lives. I began to feel like this was something I needed to understand better. For this reason, I have decided to return to uni to round out these studies with a Ph.D., while pushing forth with a new career in visual art.

So, with that said, a lot has been happening. I am currently at a place in my life where I am offering myself grace and allowing myself to grow in this new artistic direction. This isn’t the end for belinism, I still feel the same way I did back in the early days and still want to make people smile with my creations.

One of the challenges of getting belinism functional again is that last year we had to make the hard decision to move from our beloved Maleny address. Ticks annoyingly got the better of me and Jon found employment 3 hrs from Maleny, on another mountain top - Toowoomba. Jon and I fell in love in Toowoomba 32 years ago and he proposed to me at Picnic Point, it’s brought back a lot of lovely memories for us, so it’s not too bad. We were still very sad to say goodbye to our Peace of Green Family and Maleny-ian friends and miss them all terribly.

My belinism ceramic studio is still in boxes until we get our kiln wired in our new place and as such I cannot promise mugs or stock anytime soon, but you never know what the future looks like. I also invite you to keep an eye on my belinism Instagram as I upload some of the ‘belinism’ type sculptural work I made at uni during the coronavirus.

In the meantime… you are welcome to join me on my new creative journey. I have set up a new website and Instagram account for my new work, currently displaying mainly oil paintings. Therefore, if you think contemporary surrealism sounds appealing, interested in my exploration of new technologies in the creative industries, or watching me grapple with my general existential crisis over the new wave of artificial technology whilst discussing the end of capitalism, pop on over! I’m probably going to be as bad as blogging in the new site as I was in this one, however, I will post regularly to my insta account :)

While I am on the subject of new work… I am excited to have an exhibition running throughout April, (details in flyer below, Toowomba Council website or on my website). I am mainly showing oil paintings in this exhibition however, I have been playing around with 3D modeling and 3D printing and I am crossing my fingers and toes that there will be 3D printed work on display too. I 100% want to see my ceramics, oil painting and 3D modeling/printing get together to make babies. I’m working on it and you guys will be the first to find out so bear with me for a little bit longer. I’ll be back here stronger than ever :D

I really don’t know why it has been so emotionally hard to reconnect with my belinsim audience however, I feel relieved to have finally writen something down in way of an explanation. Life doesn’t always turn out the way you want or expect it too and sometimes the only thing you can do is roll with the punches and roundhouse kick your way back up!

Thank you for reading :)

with love and happiness

Belin