By Tanya Steele
The Mind Drawing Children’s Stories exhibition by artist Jenni Ivins has made its final stop at the Memo in Healesville, open until 16 April.
The interactive exhibition has a literary theme and encourages the public to find objects and stories hidden in Ms Ivins’s work.
“Mind drawings are all fine line drawings done with a point one drafting pin, and there are things hidden in the pictures. I use my art to help people to see differently,” Ms Ivins said.
The Mind Drawing Children’s Stories exhibition has developed and toured around many different parts of Victoria.
It began in 2016 when Jo Canham of Blarney Books and Art in Port Fairy invited Ms Ivins to develop a mind drawing exhibit with a literary theme.
Mind drawing is Ms Ivins’ self described concept and she encourages people to see different things in her artwork.
“A mind drawing moment happens where one person thinks one thing about something and the other person totally misunderstands,” she said.
“I think some of the best ideas come out of this, because it can show people if you don’t actually see the same thing, how do we know we’re talking about the same thing?”
When examining her work, people may notice her signature four-leaf clover, always hidden in plain sight.
“I think I’ve been pretty lucky in life and really like the idea of luck,” Ms Ivins said.
Ms Ivins encouraged people to contribute to her process, utilising communities in different shires to contribute photographs which were then developed into board games.
Covid and lockdowns spurred the artist to further develop her work online with Facebook groups including Mandala Mondays and Yarra Ranges Connecting Communities project which was also published in collaboration with Star News Group.
Pictures submitted by the public represented favourite places, plants, animals and activities enjoyed in the Yarra Ranges.
The game board was based on a map of the shire and cards direct players from town to town.
The Connecting Communities board game will be on display at this exhibit for patrons to play and Ms Ivins encouraged people who contributed to come and have a look.
She is pleased to be exhibiting at the Memo, and really appreciates how supportive the community shire has been towards her as an artist.
“I really feel that the Yarra Ranges Shire understands what artists do in a community.
“They understand that artists are actually providing a valuable service and for that to be sustainable and for people to have access to the arts, we need to have enough money to pay the bills.”
In the future, the artist aims to alter her process to make it more accessible for people of different abilities.
She aims to further distil the mind drawing concept so that people with low vision can still experience her work.
“I like doing community things, everything I do, I try to involve the community as much as possible to make art accessible because when I grew up, I thought it was something which only certain people could go and see,” Ms Ivins said.
Ms Ivins believes there is no right or correct way to see and experience art.
Her personal motto is “Seek the exceptional, camouflaged by the commonplace”.
The exhibit is running until 16 April at the Memo, Healesville and is free to enter.
