Hi, our names are Angela Rivas, photographer, and Lindy Schneider, writer, and our mission is to create a beautiful art book and exhibition titled FROM THIS PLACE featuring inspiring women artists from the Upper Yarra Valley, Melbourne, Australia. This project reveals the unique stories and images of fourteen incredible women that will inspire the artist in everyone.

We started this project more than two years ago in a moment of shared inspiration. We’ve had incredible support so far and now we need your help to see our vision bought to life in the most beautiful way it can be.

OUR MISSION

We wanted to elevate our fellow women artists, to raise their profile in a world where it is often hard to cut through. One of the most telling statistics we found was that only 5% of artists hanging in permanent galleries worldwide were women. We took this fact and decided to do something about it, and where better to start than in our own beautiful region - on the banks of the Yarra River, in the mountains and forests we all call home? 

THE BOOK

 (Approx. 128 pages hardcover, 25 x 20 cm landscape, in full colour.)

This is a book of stories told in words and images – stories of courage, hope, love and togetherness. Stories of finally saying yes, of heartfelt longings set free to shape new lives, regardless of age, or stage, or medium. This is a book that allows you to unearth your own wisdom.

FROM THIS PLACE is a book you will keep forever – the kind of book you keep close to dip into whenever you’re in need of a little inspiration. The voice of each artists is like a song of their own becoming. For every artist, there will be approx. an 8-page spread with a 1500 word story and a photographic series.

Is this book only for women? – Art is for everyone. Art unites. This book is inspiring for everyone.

Pledgers can pickup their book at the launch.

This is a sample spread of what the content in our book will look like.  We will still be refining these layouts for a few weeks yet but we want you to see how visually gorgoeus they are right now. This is just two spreads from Belinda Roger's entire story. (It's also low res for this purpose).

THE EXHIBITION – THE ESSENCE PORTRAITS

We will be launching on Friday 1 September 2017.  All are welcome from 6pm at the Warburton Arts Centre.  The 5-week exhibition will feature 14 gorgeous portraits from the ‘essence’ shoot. They are images you will fall into, and feel from the inside. They are creative, visionary and capture the uniqueness of each woman. They reveal a beauty that is essential, unequivocal, a gift to the world. Our exhibition will then move to the Yarra Valley Regional Museum in Lilydale for all of December and January (2018).

This project has changed us. It’s made us truer versions of ourselves, and connected us more deeply to our own art practice – it will do the same for you such is the wisdom of these fourteen featured women artists. You cannot help but be moved, changed, inspired.

Dive in, breathe in the beauty.

Everyone is an artist. Everyone can do this.

THE ARTISTS

So we developed a list of 14 artists at various stages in their careers. There are painters and poets, potters and scenographers, sculptors and authors and artists that have so many layers it’s difficult to hold them in any one definition. They gave us the honour of entering their lives, to photograph and interview them in their practice. They also showed us their essence by curating (with Angela)  their own unique photo shoot to show something of their inner world.  Each one shared something we could learn from. And we loved them all. Women's art is important. These women are important, their work matters and they deserve the world's attention.

The women artists are:

• 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
• Jeminah Alli Reidy

Read more about them on our website fromthisplace.net).

WHO WE ARE

Angela Rivas is a Commercial freelance and Portrait photographer with AIPP standing. She has worked for lifestyle magazines and photographic studios and has a BA in Visual Arts.  She did specialist teaching and runs workshops empowering people with their cameras. At the moment, she has a special interest in supporting women to shine, and loves life.

www.lunasolphotography.com

Lindy Schneider is a freelance writer. Her most recent book is ‘Visionary Man, Visionary Medicine - The story of Professor Avni Sali and Integrative Medicine’. She has a postgraduate qualification in writing, and is a qualified arts therapist.  Her writing is devoted to ‘elevating the feminine’ and encouraging women to live wildly. She has a love for rescuing horses and human flourishing. www.lindyschneider.com.au

Connect

Join our community on Facebook,   Instagram or go to our website.

SUPPORT US - PLEASE PLEDGE

Please pledge now to our campaign and help us bring this beautiful work into the world.

This project really cannot happen without your support! We are part of an incredible community, but we also want to see this awesome work go out into the world.

- Pre-order your copy of the From This Place book
- Pledge on a larger reward to support this project
- SHARE this project with your friends via Facebook, Instagram, anyway you can!

Thank you from us. Thank you from the artists of this project. Thank you for choosing beauty in a time when art and community cannot exist without one another.

And thank you for seeing the value in our project in helping women to shine.

Every pledge takes us one step closer and we are full of gratitude.

Many thanks to Ryan Tews  for our incredible campaign video/music by The Anecdote

Our total budget for this project is $26,000 we can cover some of these costs with some preliminary grant funding* and pre- order book sales. This project is not-for-profit.

The $10,000 will be used to pay for printing a hard cover 128 page full cover art book called FROM THIS PLACE – Inspiring Women Artists of the Upper Yarra Valley.

We will print 1000 copies of the book.

(*We also have costs such as graphic art, editing, administration and publishing set up, websites, promotional investments and mounting the exhibition. Neither Lindy not Angela have received any payment for their work, which is estimated to amount to more than 400 hours each by project completion.)

To be honest we’ve listened to our hearts every step of the way and revelled in the flow we’ve created. Of course, there are challenges in coordinating so many people, of weather changing our photo shoot plans, chasing mists, and avoiding leeches and strange creatures in the bush.

It has also been a challenge for some women to be comfortable with the camera and show the world who they are. Loving the image created means acknowledging their own beauty in a world where women face challenges every day about what ‘beauty’ is and its unspoken expectations. This project broke down those barriers and creates its own reflection of beauty – one that embraces all women.

But our biggest challenge has been realising what we were creating was bigger than we first imagined and that we needed to take the step to make this a ‘proper’ book and not just a magazine-style publication.