Listen to our interview with Michelle Perera on 3MDR (goes for about 20 minutes, starts at 38 min mark) recorded live 7/10/17.

We have fourteen incredible artists in our book and we’d like to share with you a little about the process of how this came to be.

When we set out two years ago to develop this project we thought we would focus on 8-10 artists – such was the talent of the women we were meeting we expanded our aim, and yet there were still many wonderful women that could have been included that we just didn’t have the time or ability to extend our resources to cover.

When we started, we did a lot of research to develop a list of potential artists. We posted extensively on Facebook asking for people to let us know if they were interested in completing and an Expression of Interest form, or to let us know of women artists they thought might be interested. We scoured through several years of Open Studio brochures, worked through the list of women interviewed on local radio arts program, the list of exhibitors at the Waterwheel Gallery – you name it we unearthed it and from that place we encouraged women to step up. We received about 40 Expressions of Interest (and many people we contacted never respond at all) and it became apparent as we sifted through all the incredible stories that there was a theme we couldn’t ignore.

We needed to focus our attention on a much smaller geographic area than we originally thought in order to make it manageable but also because many stories spoke of specific community dynamics that were part of the Warburton and surrounds, and included the Yarra River.

We set about, from a holistic perspective, finding stories that represented a broad range of women – from a range of age groups, across a variety of mediums, and at different stages of their art careers because we felt that created the most ‘inspiring’ read where there would be something for everyone.

We also had as one of our selection points that chosen artists had taken that step out into the world in some way, and that they were mostly sustaining themselves through their art.

There was also an organic thread in the process where we trusted that those that needed to be in the book would come forward – we recognised it was a big thing and people needed to trust us with their hearts. For that reason, we always understood that many artists we may have reached out to who didn’t know us, may have chosen not to reply.

When you read the stories, you will come to know of their remarkable achievements.  Each one has opened up their lives for us to peer into. This is not always comfortable and we are incredibly grateful. We didn’t know every woman in the book, and neither did many of them know each other. Now we all do and we are proud of the way we have supported each other.

From This Place represents universal stories and while we know it is a wonderful representation of the artists involved, it also does much to elevate the profile of artists in the Yarra Valley generally and from this place, every artist is present and can benefit.

It’s been a huge project – more than 400 hours each devoted by both Angela and Lindy, over 60 photoshoots with more than 5,000 images to choose from, plus the hours provided by the artists themselves to interviews and shoots – and we are so very grateful for your support. Have we learnt something? Yes of course, Would we do it differently next time? – possibly but there has also been a divinely feminine hand in the process that we have trusted implicitly to bring the right women together at the right time. This divine guidance, dear readers, was a bigger influence that any of us could reckon. We could have filled an encyclopaedia with artists of the Yarra Ranges, but that would have required more than 2 years, a huge budget and mountains of energy!

There are so many inspiring stories in our community, in our world.  This is the beginning…

XXXX Lindy and Angela

Hello everyone,

What a magical week we have ahead with our book launch and exhibition opening all set for this Friday night, 1 September, between 6pm and 8pm at the Warburton Arts Centre. How exciting.

For those of you who have ordered books and are coming along we look forward to handing you your own special copy! There will be a table set up in the main gallery and all you will need to do is have your name checked off the list – we will have this service going all night. You will also have the chance to buy additional books if you would like – cash and credit cards accepted. (Our special preorder price of $40 will end after the opening and the price will go to $45 per copy thereafter).

For those who have paid for postage to their homes we will be dispatching next weekend. For those who have had a change of plans and now need their book sent we will be able to arrange postage at an additional charge of $10 (for one book, $15 for two). We can check in with you and provide bank details after the weekend.

So thank you for all your patience and support in helping us get to this wonderful moment. We have the books in our lounge room and they look beautiful. We hope you enjoy diving in and reading these incredible stories, and soaking up the beautiful images of these women.

We give thanks. Hope to see as many of you as possible at our launch so we can celebrate together.

Much love Lindy and Angela.

We made it – thanks to 146 gorgeous people who pledged to our campaign we have been blessed with pledges amounting to $10,825. (Target met at 8.30pm on 17 July.)

Wow…

Speechless…

Excited!

Thank you.

We’re so pleased to share with you this short interview with local Yarra Ranges Life TV

We have just 7 days left on our campaign so please pledge today if you want to pre order a From This Place book. XX

I spent a beautiful few hours this morning in this incredible house built by the most amazing woman, Sioux Dollman, doing some promotion for the book From This Place- Inspiring Women Artists of the Upper Yarra Valley, a book by the gorgeous Angela Rivas and Lindy Schneider. As we spoke I realised why I love being a part of this project so much. It’s all about celebrating women, creativity and community, three of my favourite things.
And I feel these are all qualities our world is so hungry for, all vital ingredients in the co-creation of a new paradigm for our people on this earth. When I see the passion, determination, ferocious will and profound creativity that Sioux Dollman has conjured to create this exquisite living-sculpture of a home, I feel that when woman is in her full creative power, she can move mountains. And together, celebrating the vital essence of our capacity to create beauty and truth, we can build a world worth passing on to our children. It is here at this revelatory threshold of our creativity and our capacities to nourish and sustain ourselves and one another, that the necessary visions will birth themselves to initiate the miracle of our salvation from the current crisis of our kind.
So while it’s true that this book is centred on our small regional location, I feel it is deeply relevant to a much wider field, as we collectively learn how to celebrate, cultivate and enshrine a culture which can be a fertile container for the arts and our creative capacities to become more than what we currently know ourselves to be.
In the process of watching this book unfold, I think many of us involved now feel ourselves to be more than we were before the witness and celebration it has offered to our role as creative practitioners. May that magic spread.
If you’d like to take a deeper look into the lives and creative practices of 13 inspiring women artists, there’s a week left on the pozible campaign to pre-order a book.
https://pozible.com/proje…/from-this-place-book-exhibition-1

By Kath Gannaway

Only five per cent of artists hanging in permanent galleries worldwide are women.
That’s a statistic that was too challenging to ignore, and which in fact, was inspirational for Warburton writer Lindy Schneider and photographer Angela Rivas.
On 1 June, Lindy and Angela launched a Pozible crowd funding campaign to create a book in words and pictures of 14 unique women artists.
‘From This Place – Inspiring Women Artists of The Upper Yarra Valley’ is a project started more than two years ago in what Lindy describes as a moment of shared inspiration.
“Both of us had an idea; we were curious as to why we lived among so many talented women artists and we wanted to find out why,” she explained.
“We wanted to elevate our fellow artists, to raise their profiles in a world where it is often hard to cut through.”
That was where the five per cent statistic came to light – one of the most telling moments of their research.
They took the fact and decided to do something about it, starting in their own beautiful part of the world.
Their 14 women include painters and poets, potters and scenographers, sculptors and authors. Artists that have so many layers, that Lindy and Angela say it’s difficult to hold them to any one definition.
“These women are important, and their work matters,” Lindy said.
The names of many of the featured artists will be familiar to Yarra Valley residents – Belinda Rogers, Sioux Dollman, Marlee Nebauer, Jena Bedson, Maya Ward, Adrienne Kneebone, Kate Baker, Shlomit Moria, Indigo Perry, Gillian Farrow, Lucy Pierce, Jo Rothwell, Jenny Davis and Jeminah Alli Reidy.
The project which will launch in September is twofold comprising the hardcover From This Place Book of around 128 pages in full colour, and the From This Place Exhibition – The Essence Portraits, featuring 14 large-scale portraits from the ‘essence’ shoot.
The exhibition will run for five weeks at the Upper Yarra Arts Centre in Warburton and at the Yarra Valley Regional Museum in Lilydale in December and January.
The women are pre-selling copies of the book, and seeking support via the Pozible campaign to create a book that matches the quality of the photographs and the stories.
Lindy said with generous support from Yarra Ranges Council and the Warburton and Yarra Junction Community Bank Branches the project had grown beyond their wildest dreams and that they were now reaching out to the wider community.
Visit http://www.fromthisplace.net for more information on the authors and artists, and https://pozible.com/project/from-this-place-book-exhibition-1 to support the project.

Source: Upper Yarra Mail  26 June 2017