The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust

(I’ve always loved this quote)

I head into town for a publishing seminar called Forest for the Trees. It’s a collaboration between NSW Writers’ Centre and Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Forest for the Trees
Sally Swain
art journal page-in-progress

This is kind of

an artist date. My senses are ready to be awakened.

On the way to the seminar, I notice stuff.

Larger, much larger than life, luminously beautiful children’s faces on the hoardings, depicting sculptures to be restored.

Luminous 1
they are restoring the stone sculptures at Sydney Hospital

Luminous 2
they are restoring the stone sculptures at Sydney Hospital

Luminous 3
they are restoring the stone sculptures at Sydney Hospital

Who even knew those sculptures were there? 

In the lunch break I notice stuff.

a Jon Lewis photo exhibition at the State Library

Jon Lewis photo caption

Beauty in difference

After the seminar I notice stuff.

Matthew Flinders’ cat
around the side of the State Library
How come I never noticed this before?

the memory of Trim

My main take home message from Forest for the Trees is that

print publishing is alive and well.

This is jolly excellent news. Between you and me and the rickety green wooden gatepost, I wish to birth at least one more book and I am seriously, pathologically attached to print form.

Oh. And beauty. I am attached to beauty.

Forest for the Trees
Sally Swain
art journal page-in-progress

Watch this space.