Media Release from the Desk:
According to Novocastrian Singer/Songwriter and Recording Artist Maureen O’Brien “rumours of my creative demise are Premature…Precipitated…Presumptuous! In fact, my creativity was simply…Resting” she grins with a familiar twinkle in her eye!
O’Brien, like many of our local – and national – creatives, hit a covid wall, in the ’20 – ’22 period. “It was a BLACK rather than blue period” she claims, “with gigs disappearing, venues closing, audiences dwindling, and income streams drying up. It felt like a long – very long – hibernation period.”
But as she is fond of repeating: “nothing lasts forever” and her music is now the inspiration for a new exhibition opening in January at the Timeless Textiles Gallery in Hunter Street. Titled “Sounds, Sights and Textures: connecting the Hunter Wetlands to music and fibres- group exhibition”, the participating Artists – invited by Anne Kempton – from local, national and international fibre artists, were required to create their pieces based on the music that Maureen composed – a soundscape for the exhibition based on the SOUNDS of the Hunter Wetlands. And unlike other exhibitions where the medium may be Oils, Watercolors or pen/pencil/ink, this exhibition will display textile works.
Maureen describes the process: “I immersed myself in the wetlands environment and wanted to create music that depicted the vast diversity of wildlife contained in that setting, the symbiosis that exists, and the playful characteristics displayed. You can’t help but be transported into a lighter frame of mind and a more joyful sense of being when you spend time in nature. It unleashed such a wealth of creativity that has resulted in a whole album of material for this project. It’s even inspired the beginnings of another unrelated album to follow in 2024”
The exhibition is scheduled to open at the gallery in January. A smaller exhibition will move to the Hunter Wetlands in April. The album will be released following its launch at The Wetlands on December 10th.
Maureen O'Brien 