Rose Wintergreen

Look, mum, I'm in the news! :)

This is pretty big for me! My first news coverage for my art (rather than my music).

It's not 100% accurate; it says "The 35-year-old said she started making “art-mess” – a term she coined herself – to help deal with the social anxiety she experienced during her return to work." I wasn't actually anxious about returning to work at all. I was excited!

What really happened is that I found it depressing realising when I rejoined the world after a year exiled in my bedroom in pain, that 99% of people on public transport to and from work were glued to their phones and completely disengaged with each other.

I made a conscious decision to try not to look at my phone in public spaces unless it was an emergency, in an attempt to not contribute to the social disengagement (and to gently reacclimatise myself to social contact again after spending so much time alone). I replaced the phone fidgeting habit with playing with Posca paint pens in a small notebook that I take everywhere with me, and when people started looking at me curiously and asking me what I was doing, I invited them to join me.

Read the full story here: 

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2018/03/23/social-prescribing-drug-free-treatment/

Photos of me by Shallinda Coreen​.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to be the first to know when I release new art or music

* indicates required

Email Address *

Postcode/Zip code - I'll try to play your town!

Email Format

html

text

New painting - Is There a Storm Coming?

It seems to be a time of massive upheaval for many of us. But have you ever noticed how magical and fresh things feel after a storm? The bigger the storm, the more transformational the change seems to be. Well, this is what I'm trying to focus on... 

What's helped you get through your week?

"Is There a Storm Coming?", Original collaborative painting on paper by Rose Wintergreen with contributions by Shallinda Coreen, Andrew Minard and Brett Cartwright, 40 x 29.7cm. Email to purchase.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to be the first to know when I release new art or music

* indicates required

Email Address *

Postcode/Zip code - I'll try to play your town!

Email Format

html

text

New Work: Fuller Series

I recently had a nasty shock. I saw a photo of my friend on Facebook, talking about himself in the third person, saying that he had died. After reading it 4 more times, I realised that it wasn’t written by him.

This friend had only just hit his mid thirties. He was fit and witty and we had spent a lot of good times making music together (like this):

He left to cycle to work one day but never arrived. He was an experienced cyclist. He was wearing a helmet. He did everything right. It didn't matter. He's gone.

We had a memorial for him and it was done just right. He would have liked it. It was in the backyard of some of his closest friends. There was a spit roast and beer on tap. We had an open mic and everyone took it in turns to share their stories of how they'd met him, their most ridiculous and fun memories. We laughed together through our tears. It was a good thing we did this.

Yet, once I got home, I was left feeling so angry and impotent. I didn't know what to do with myself. I got my art stuff out, not because I thought I could make anything good, but because I had to move my body, I had to do something, anything. I didn't know what to do with myself. I was feeling heavy and hopeless.

I made 3 pieces that night. I made layers and layers and layers until I couldn't look at them anymore. Since then, I've gone back to them several times, and picked out details and added more light. Because that was what he brought us, and what I'll remember. He was always entertained by things that appeared a bit messy or organic on the surface but contained logic in their structure.

You are sorely missed, Al. We won't forget you.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to be the first to know when I release new art or music

* indicates required

Email Address *

Postcode/Zip code - I'll try to play your town!

Email Format

html

text

Most people don’t know this about me…

I always wanted to be an artist and musician, but grew up believing that I would be destined to be miserable and poverty-stricken unless I chose a more “sensible” profession. At 23, I found myself to have accidentally become a financially comfortable yet spiritually starved statistician, living a safe life that I hated in Canberra, the political capital of Australia.

I realised I was a musician when I went to an adult music camp, where we spent 6 days making music together and performing for each other. It was the spiritual home I had always yearned for. I wept tears of grief for the years I had wasted on “sensible” choices at the expense of my spirit and my heart and the connections I could have been having with other people.

Over the next 10 years, I became a professional recording and performing artist, touring nationally multiple times, releasing 2 independent records (no record label or manager), and winning Artist of the Year at the Australian Independent Music Awards.

I started drawing most days in 2015 when I became bedbound for 9 months from chronic severe pain from endometriosis and was too unwell to play instruments. It was a forced retreat from the music world. I finally had my surgery in 2016 and recovered well physically but after a series of traumatic events I became extremely socially isolated due to PTSD. I found that the only thing I could manage every day, even on the worst days, was making art.

I started calling myself an artist in 2017 when I realised other people were already calling me an artist, that I had people interested in buying my work, and that being an artist was something I had always wanted!

I make art and music because I’ve realised that when I don’t, I become seriously unhappy and unwell. It’s how I connect with people and make sense of the world.

Now I’m making collaborative art with strangers to prove that the world is a safe space, community is strong, and most people can be trusted. The artworks are joyous explosions of colour, drawing myself and everyone involved a brighter world. 

(Photo by Shallinda Coreen, of me making a collaborative drawing with a stranger today.)

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to be the first to know when I release new art or music

* indicates required

Email Address *

Postcode/Zip code - I'll try to play your town!

Email Format

html

text

New work: Vintage Goldblum Matrix

Available for sale: $85 AUD including shipping Australia-wide.

Artists: Rose Wintergreen, Andrew Minard, Anonymous and Ken Arthur.

Size: A3, 297mm x 420mm

Media: POSCA paint pens, watercolour, and metallic ballpoint pen on paper.

Date: 15 August 2017

Contact [email protected] for purchase. #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to get free music

* indicates required

Email Address *

Postcode/Zip code - I'll try to play your town!

3-person collaborative drawing

I had the distinct pleasure of creating a collaborative drawing with Brett Cartwright and Shallinda Coreen recently.

Unfortunately, I did not have any large notebooks with me, so we made do with laying two A5 art books side by side, so it became one very wide and skinny composition. Lots of fun!

Title: Untitled 

Artists: Brett Cartwright, Shallinda Coreen and Rose Wintergreen 

Size: 592mm x 840mm 

Media: POSCA paint pens, Derwent water colour pencils and black ballpoint pen on paper. 

My day in haikus: .

A 3-person collaborative art work. 

Title: "Ruckus" 

Artists: Lynne Wintergreen, Geoffrey Hale and Rose Wintergreen 

Size: 21cm x 29.7cm 

Media: Posca paint pens, black uniball pen and watercolour on paper. 

Flying planes fly arcs above They come in the night, come in the night Drawing us out of our deepest dreams

My apologies for the long silence. Life things have been happening, the way that they do. I've been feeling frustrated that I've not had as much time to work on songwriting as I would like so far this year. 

Hello. Sad news - unfortunately I can't play the show scheduled for this Sunday with pear and the awkward orchestra in Melbourne. The good news - the gorgeous Hannah Acfield will be joining her instead. Check out details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/768320856556506/ Here's a consolation present from me to you:

Sunday 8 February, 2015

Longplay

Supporting Pear & The Awkward Orchestra 

318 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North, VIC

6.30pm, $10 entry, tickets at the door

RSVP on Facebook