The Creative Edition Issue #3, May 2019
Art by Ashley Cotter
Editor’s Voice Aesthetics Aside As an artist, analysis becomes your best and worst enemy. “If only I could draw like that!” “If only I had that idea first!” “Oh, man, my work sucks compared to theirs…” With art being so easily accessible, through Instagram and Google, there is literally no way to escape the “compare yourself” demon. Even my Visual Art classes were especially no exception to this. We were actively told to constantly analyse everything. Suddenly, paintings that were “just…awesome” became a study of colour theory, composition and hidden abstract meaning sandwiched between a myriad of fancy schmancy art terms we use to make our lack of understanding of the piece less noticeable. Newsflash to first-year Emmerson – it was noticeable. Movies that “changed my life” became just tempo, manipulative camera angles, moodinducing colour changes and cool graphics. Songs that reached me on an emotional level (I’m looking at you Old Town Road) are just bars and beats. Even the simplest things, such as *ahem* attractiveness *ahem*, were explained away with three words: ‘The Golden Rule’. Yes, indeed, they have a science to explain why you just can’t pull your eyes away from Jason Mamoa. Side note: Looking in the mirror has become considerably less bearable since. The point I’m trying to make is that when we dissect it down, we only see two things: mould & maker. We see the medium you’ve used and then, we see you, the creator and your style intertwined throughout it. As an audience, we can analyse all we like, but only you can tell that art’s story. Aesthetic pieces are really nice to look at but if they don’t reflect you or have the purpose you intended, all others will see is the mould left behind. We, as people, are the creations of the BEST artist who uses only one mould for every single person he makes – and He breaks it every single time. Though we are all different, the one thing that we see ALWAYS is His unique purpose in every single one of us. So, take one out of God’s book and create. Art isn’t always aesthetic. Creating isn’t always drooled over. True art is your soul laid bare. It is a fabrication of you woven through lyrics, jumpcuts and paint. At the end of the day, the only person who is stopping people from seeing that is you. Create and create fearlessly my friends. Emmerson xx
CONTENT 8-9
Photo Competition + Winner
10
Vessels A poem by Aker Ayom
12-19 Art @ Avondale 22-23 Narrow your horizons By Jefferson Shaw
26-27 I don’t like happy stories By Chris McClelland
P. 2
EDITORIAL
P. 4 - 5
CONTRIBUTORS
P. 6
CONTACT/PAGES TO LIKE
P. 20 - 21
WO/MAN
P. 24 - 25 REAL TALK P. 28 - 29 #AVONDALEXP P. 30 - 31 THE CHEAT SHEET
C O N T R I B U T O R S
Emmerson Grey
Chris McClelland Secondary Education student, untalented art enthusiast and, ineffective procrastination combatant. Ask me about my mild addiction to video essays.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED // OTHER IMAGES SOURCED FROM #AVONDALEXP // GRAPHIC DESIGNER: ANGELA WOOD
Aker Ayom
My name is Aker and I am a first-year chaplaincy student. I like to show people the love of God, expressed through his son, by using poetry. In my spare time, I like to binge watch YouTube videos so I don’t have to think about my crippling student debt.
Jefferson Shaw
Jefferson Shaw is a fourth-year English and Communication student who likes poems and coffee. He has also recently gotten into listening to a lot of podcasts and is resisting the urge create his own to fill the world with yet another pointless podcast.
Thanks & No Thanks
Thanks: Scented Candles Youtube Tutorials Cheap Post-Easter Eggs No Thanks: Mosquito Attacks Expensive Flights Home Instant Coffee
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Emmerson is like most other stereotypical college students: she loves to binge Netflix, hype up her peers, complain about not sleeping enough and downplay her life problems with sarcastic remarks.
GET IN CONTACT Security: Phone: (02) 4980 2333
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Email: scott.hill@avondale.edu.au College Church Phone: (02) 4980 2272 Email: collegechurch@avondale.edu.au Or message the College Church Facebook Page. College Counsellors: Phone: 0403478994 Email: counsellingclinic@avondale.edu.au Our counsellors offer confidential counselling to students experiencing a range of academic, mental health and personal concerns.
PAGES TO LIKE The Voice LAMP ministries (@AvondaleSAM) College Church ASA student association Avondale College One Mission SALT Avondale
e r o l exp E V R SE
w o r g adventistvolunteers.org
Winner
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“Take Care” Photo Competition
Sally Mae Herford ( @sallymaeherford )
Congratulations on winning a $40 Rejuve voucher!
new comp etition As the semester closes, we have one last photo competition for you guys with a whopping
prize of $50!
All you have to do is Re-CREATE one of your friend’s iconic Instagram pictures and tag us (@thevoiceavondale) for a chance to win! So, strike that pose, put on your game face and get that money, honey. Competition ends: July 20th, 2019.
@thevoiceavondale
@jb_tea
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Vessels
A POEM BY AKER AYOM
Have you heard the latest news on television? Have you heard them try to prove that our religions caused division? How our colours became our pigments and how our pigments became our prisons? Now we are serving 25 to life guilty of some other man’s decisions. Stereotypes, Racism and dare I say, Prejudice. They forgot that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the language he spoke wasn’t even English. They frown upon refugees as if their ancestors didn’t live it. I understand it is 2019, but we are aching in the same condition. I’m tired, but this isn’t a mentality you escape. It isn’t a deficiency of the body but rather an uncertainty that lies awake. Uncomfortable fears that wish to be embraced they kiss you on the cheek and ask about your day. A bilingual tongue that is speaking a language that you can’t articulate, so we lock our doors to be safe, we lock our hearts to be safe, we send the world our thoughts and prayers. We do our thoughts and prayers to reflect our faith - I’m tired, but my soul is rested. Faith is like a flowing river that fear drowns in if it’s tempted. Faith is uncertainty at peace, and you water the garden and plant the seeds. An open heart that pushes boundaries is what I like to call active wisdom because it is not what I have, but what I do that is my kingdom, and you can spend hours in God’s Home and never benefit those in need. Haven’t you seen amongst history how actions embody their beliefs? Change is not the strength of your body. Remember Miss Parks moved a country between her teeth and Dr King created realities with a dream. They weren’t fuelled by fear but the glimmer of hope that’s in-between. It takes one voice to confront the fears that have closed us shut because when you stand up, the spines of others stiffen. I would rather be a victim of faithful optimism than a prisoner of giving up. I would rather embrace faith with open arms than embrace hatred with a mind shut. I would rather kiss the cheeks of uncertainty and ask it to introduce itself cos’ our reassurance is in God. Our faith is in the openness and not the 5’o’clock news, so what is faith without action? What is conviction without passion? What is the point of perfect vision if it turns a blind eye and becomes passive? What if you think to yourself that someone else will stand up only to realise that they haven’t? And if love is a Universal language tell me, what language do you laugh in? What kind of patience do you practice? Our tongues are lessons that teach children about our actions, so don’t let the hopelessness hinder your emotions. Faith swims in calm seas when tsunamis swim in darker oceans. And if this life is made of pain, then we fight pain with arms. ‘Open’ because roots are soiled in love and love manifests truth. So, let’s talk about the strength that comes inevitably when your foundations are built in the house of your community. Let’s talk about mercy and open-heartedness. Let’s talk about the obstacles that our ancestors had to live with. The blessings that came running with no feet - blessings that came running after every moment of defeat with that little voice that said complete with the world left as incomplete. Let’s talk about the voice that asks you to soften when the rest of the world shakes its voice asking you to harden. And love isn’t always Kumbaya as we stare into the stars as they glisten. I pray that the Angels always surround us, but that doesn’t mean the devil doesn’t come to listen, or that the devil doesn’t listen because hardship will always be around the corner. But remember love, oh love, is always at a closer distance. May we become unified and dignified and may we become vessels of God’s light stray into the heart.
@ theultimatefreespirit
submissions from Avondale’s creative + talented artists
Art @ Avondale Chloe Moore @pounamu.takoha
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“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.” – Henry Ward Beecher
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Olivia Jack @livvjackk I am a creative-minded person in all aspects. I’ve found weaving is an escape for me in my mundane day-to-day. It’s a chance for me to just sit there and create something beautiful and be able to call the shots on what it looks like and what I make. It gives me a space to relax and force myself to have some downtime and process my thoughts or just let my body unwind.
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Linda Endorsson @lindolina Creativity, curiosity and courage - these are my core values. I’d be mad without them. They challenge me to become who I want to be, and they embrace me for who I am. Painting is all of the above. It is deeply personal and creative. I own very few pairs of pants without paint stains on them. The fascination lies in capturing the image that is ever-fleeting in my head. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes I start painting not knowing what is in my head, curious to see the result as I smear ochre, indigo and magenta across the canvas. A painting is only done when you say it’s done. Sometimes it takes courage to dip that paintbrush once again in emerald green to start over.
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Francheska Sandoval @kaheina My mom swears I was born with paper and pencil in my little fist. Since then, it has expanded from paper and pencil to include a myriad of art mediums. Creating art enables me to clear my head, lift my spirits and draws me closer to God. After all, isn’t He the ultimate artist?
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WO / Olivia Murray 1. What do you want to get out of this year? A good quality time! 2. Do you consider yourself a creative person? I try to do the best I can with the tools I have. 3. What little thing would you change about yourself if you could? I’d give myself a face with some actual symmetry. 4. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve ever done? Cambo 2019, baby! 5. What’s the best gift you’ve ever received and why? The gift of life from my parents, cause they’re cool. 6. In what way are you a little bit crazy? I think it’s safe to say that I am more than a little bit crazy. 7. What random little thing makes you smile? The fact that cats in Texas say “meowdy”. 8. If you could tame any animal as a pet, what would you pick? A sugar glider, and I would keep it in my shirt pocket to be my small friend ‘J’. 9. What is something you have made that you are most proud of? I made a pretty good stir fry a couple weeks ago. 10. What was the last thing you learned that really changed the way you look at the world? WARNING! CONTROVERSIAL! I have discovered that Vaseline provides more superior hydration than Lucas’ Papaw and that really rocked my world.
/ MAN Stephen Cha 1. What do you want to get out of this year? To grow in all aspects of life. 2. Do you consider yourself a creative person? Eh, so-so. 3. What little thing would you change about yourself if you could? Abs. 4. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve ever done? Hmmmm, probs the Cambodia trip I went on last year. Shout-out to the Cambo Crew. 5. What’s the best gift you’ve ever received and why? Money cuz why not. 6. In what way are you a little bit crazy? When I get stressed out and need to give my brain a rest from writing essays, I do enjoy watching math videos. 7. What random little thing makes you smile? Doggos. 8. If you could tame any animal as a pet, what would you pick? A dragon!! 9. What is something you have made that you are most proud of? My Revelation essay that I got a distinction for. 10. What was the last thing you learned that really changed the way you look at the world? People will use you when they need to then forget about you. Know who your friends are #nosnakes.
Narrow your horizons THE VOICE 22
By Jefferson Shaw When I was just a teenager, I dreamed of becoming a writer, but I couldn’t think of how someone could pull a story out of thin air. Fantasy and Sci-fi books amazed me by dreaming up these worlds with languages and laws, while I couldn’t even imagine up a name for a character. It took me a long time to realise I needed to stop broadening my horizons, and instead, narrow them down. For many of us, it’s not hard to imagine what it’s like completing an assignment at the last minute. Back-to-back late nights, painful all-nighters and a Macca’s run in there somewhere. When you think about the mental condition that a person like that experiences, you have to ask, how can late night, caffeine-induced, deliriously stressful moments provide good assignments? The answer is very simple. They don’t. If you want a well-done assignment, spend time on it. That’s not to say that pressure is without benefits. In fact, applying constraints to time or even available resources to projects can produce better results. Better for the person creating the project, and for the project itself. While we humans claim to love choices, often more options can lead to dissatisfaction with our choices. The Vsauce video “Freedom of Choice” displays a series of tests where subjects are asked to choose between different jelly beans. Between two flavours, the subjects were satisfied with their choice. However, when other subjects were given additional flavour options, they were usually dissatisfied with their initial decision and wished they had chosen a different jelly bean. This reasonably simple exercise demonstrates how we function with fewer choices. Having a lot of autonomy with a decision sounds desirable; however, when supplied with limited tools, a more refined idea will present itself as we have to determine what is possible to accomplish with the limited resources at hand. That can make deciding easier on ourselves, but it still might be difficult to see how it can make a better product since you’re holding back on its full capabilities. For example, if you set a tight deadline for yourself, there might be a significant amount of time you could have been spending on it after the self-imposed deadline. Or if you confined yourself to two or three different colours in a painting, you would need to figure out how to get the message of the artwork without the use of a typical palette. Using this approach - limiting yourself - means you can do less, but you’re thinking about it more. This allows for innovation in ways that might have seemed unnecessary before. A practical example of this is budgeting, which you may have already experienced as a student. If you live on your own and are earning wages, you’ve probably had to budget and work out how much you can spend on a day-to-day basis. Being forced to think about what you are earning and spending likely means you spend less, but really, you’re doing something better for yourself in the long run. This is because you are thinking about different food costs and how you want to spend your budget efficiently. Similarly, time needs to be budgeted for a project. Last year, I was set a deadline of about five weeks for my Creative Writing unit. If you are setting multiple deadlines for the individual parts of the project you’re working on, having a deadline to work towards makes a huge difference to the final product. In those weeks, I had to create a short story with a fleshed-out world in 3,000 words - another challenging limitation. By the end, I had a fantasy story with a foreshadowed ending with a twist, which I don’t think I would have believed I was capable of in the beginning of the semester. It took those limits to get there. Use limitations to your advantage. Don’t think that something limiting your potential as a negative. Use it as a force for change.
@bekmodernel
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In the spirit of Mad May, do you feel that tertiary education is worth the mental, physical & emotional stress?
Do you feel that without the pressure to get a degree in order to get a job, you would still have decided to go to college?
Renee: Easy answer? Nope, nope, nope, and nope! College has so much going on - events to organise, meetings to attend, fundraisers to support, spontaneous adventures and the multiple music practices for the multitalented people on campus. Too many of these on top of your own studies will add stress to your life. So, say ‘no’ once in a while so you can say ‘yes’ to yourself. Say ‘yes’ to a good night’s sleep and ‘no’ to staying up til 2am in the morning doing an assignment because you’ve said ‘yes’ to helping everyone else. This is something I’m learning to do.
Renee: Yes, I’ve always planned to go to college after high school - even though I had no idea what I wanted to study. I’m one of those people who like community, study and structure
Noah: No way, absolutely not...I’m kidding! I think that if you know why you’re here, it makes these difficult times that little bit easier to endure. Yes, it sucks and there are days you lose focus on why you’re here and question a lot of what you’re doing, but that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? Personally, for me, as stressful as this time is, I know that the help I’ll be able to provide with my career will be far greater than these stressful days. That’s what keeps me going. Oh, and Charlotte’s Coffees, they help too.
smooshed together. If I could, I’d be a student forever. But alas, student fees don’t pay my bills or the essentials my (sister’s) Netflix account. So, I like college. With or without the pressure. When I found a course I liked, I became grateful for the entire college experience – the ‘fun times’ and the ‘not-so-fun-times’.
Ashley: I hope so because I really miss fitting into my favourite pair of jeans… And sleeping.
Real
T h is week’s pa n e l : Re
Noah: Of course! Funnily enough, I started college straight after school and didn’t feel compelled to be here. So, I deferred and ended up working full-time. I had an awesome year and towards the end, I started thinking about where my life was heading and eventually asked God what He wanted
me to do. I felt God calling me back to college but had no clue what to do. I had established a lot throughout the year in terms of my identity and found that I hold more value in helping people than anything else. So, whatever I was going to study was going to be something that would lead into a career I could use to help people. So, yes! I felt God called me back to study and I love my course. As difficult as it is, I know it’s going to be worth it to help people and
Talk
e n e e , N oa h a n d As hley
shine a bit of God’s light within my work. Ashley: Probably not! I don’t regret what I’ve learned in school, but I think society can place a lot of value on traditional education and forget that people learn in different ways. I’m definitely not at my best whenever I’m in school (my attention span is zero and the only things I’m self-motivated by are snacks and adventures). But I love working with my hands, and I learn best by doing rather than sitting in a classroom and rattling off essays. I’m still grateful for the opportunity to be here, even if it’s not the most engaging learning process for me personally!
I don’t like happy stories THE VOICE 26
By Chris McClelland
Well, that’s a big fat lie. Of course I like happy stories. And I don’t dislike unhappy stories either. I definitely stopped watching Riverdale in the middle of season two when the plot seemed to just be a trail of bad things over and over and over again. It had just become a drain to watch, like crawling in a muddy tunnel and having the light at the end recede the more you clawed for it. Or, for non-English students, a bad time. And yet I feel like there’s a good handful of people who get what I mean when I say I don’t like happy stories. Realistically, everyone relates a little bit. Try and write a story where everything is only positive. Go on, try. Even if you actually manage to think of something of a half decent length, your reader will forget it half way through turning the page. Conflict is what engages and makes a story a story, rather than a diary entry from the world’s most boring person. I like a story where the hero wins, but it feels false in a way when there is no loss whatsoever on the way there. Same goes for sub-tropical marshlands of emotional onslaught you’re paying to wade through and the mosquitoes are pop culture references, like Riverdale. I’m far more likely to remember the stories I cried over, and all that kind of story does is breed apathy. I had a good sob when I first gave ‘Ocean Avenue’ by Yellowcard a real good listen. Why? Not really sure, it’s just a big old rock to the face and I have a strong sense of empathy I suppose. Something about it is just so raw that I was left totally defenceless. And it’s not the only one, look at half of my favourite songs and they’re almost all 1. A narrative in song form, and 2. Sad to the power of n, where n is the number of verses. Half of them I have next to no experiential connection with, but they strike me like a tonne of bricks being dropped by someone with a serious grudge against heartstrings. That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the aesthetics of other songs, I like pop music with a rip-roaring beat from time to time, but I wouldn’t say it sticks with me as anything but an earworm. That goes for every other kind of text as well. Favourite book: Cloudstreet. Favourite play: Endgame (the Samuel Beckett piece, not Avengers - though I like that one for very similar reasons). Movies are really the only exception, but only because I have too many favourite movies. Just a quick word from our academic sponsors before I go on. This article was brought to you by the reading I had to do for class that inspired this piece in the first place. Thanks Narelle. I struggled to believe this when I first read it, but this nutter actually tried supplementing psychotherapy for Adjustment Disorder with literature, and it worked! They found a year ten kid whose parents were having a rough separation and had him read the Odyssey as part of his counselling, and he responded positively to it. It helped him rationalise his situation into a more chewable form by seeing the connections in his and the character’s experiences . It’s like the Roman poet Horace was taken out of context in saying: Change only the name, and the story is about you. Perhaps it’s time I embraced my destiny and take the first step in becoming the pretentious philosopher our generation deserves (but not the one it needs right now). If I may put forth my first revelation: perhaps the function of art is to give us the vocabulary with which to comprehend our own suffering. You know what I mean if you’ve read or heard a line that just speaks to you in a way you can’t explain. Perhaps that just goes to show how entangled our experiences are, that we can hear something that might resonate with our own lives in the most obscure manner and feel with them. It’s “un-lonelying” in the most unique way, that for a single moment we can share hearts with another and recognise how common our burdens are. If the rain helps us grow, then maybe the odd cloud isn’t so bad. 1.
Duffy, J. (2010). A Heroic Journey: Re-Conceptualizing Adjustment Disorder Through the Lens of the Hero’s Quest. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 29(4), 1-16.
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The Voice now has Instagram! @thevoiceavondale Tag us in your photos for your chance to win some amazing gifts and features on our page.
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The Cheat Sheet
It’s time for some things acceptable if you leave t stress, but those things what total liberty would people’s creative fruits t you a bump along on yo
APPS Jamboard: I found this entirely by accident, but I must say this little thing has a lot of potential. It is a piece of software meant to go along with a (failed) piece of hardware, but it’s compatible with virtually every mobile device and has a web app. In function, it’s a collaborative whiteboard for mind-mapping and brainstorming. Might not be the best thing in the world, but it might just be what you need if you can’t snag a study room. {7/10} Really Bad Chess: Here’s an app that makes no sense. It’s chess but you get a random set of pieces in random positions. Is it balanced? No. Is it smart? No. It’s a little bit of fun to prove sometimes silly things work out well if you’re willing to think outside the box. {7.5/10} Sleep: This isn’t an app but I’ve tried it once. It’s pretty good. {10/10}
TED TALK Embrace the shake | Phil Hansen This is the story of coming to terms with your circumstances and not letting them stand as a barrier to your goals. Hansen is an artist who suffered nerve damage in his hands while at art school and found himself surrendering his passion to what he believed to be an incurable handicap. And yet, when he reframed his circumstances, he managed to still live up to them. “I realized I could still make art. I just had to find a different approach to making the art that I wanted… after having gone from a single approach to art, I ended up having an approach to creativity that completely changed my artistic horizons.”
Playlists Songs to Sing in the Car: This one is shockingly popular at 7,990,082 followers on Spotify, and I can see why. It’s really just a grab-bag of dozens of popular tunes from seemingly every conceivable artist of the past decade or so. I’d recommend keeping this one in your back pocket if you’re expecting a long trip home at the end of semester. Women of AU & NZ: Plenty of my personal favourites on this one, I’m not ashamed to admit. Sure, some of these songs might be an acquired taste if you don’t already like the kind of music they create, but diversity never hurt anyone, and it’s always good to be familiar with the local industry. You just might find something you never thought you’d like. Guilty Pleasures: I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the title, but that might just be a personal problem. These are songs that I, for one, grew up with (I swear I don’t go out of my way to find music only I would listen to). So, if you happened to be brought into existence in the past twenty-ish years, this might be a good nostalgic trip for you.
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s! I know you’re probably busy right now, so it’s totally these for the break. Now is a time for focus and for also breed a little creativity as well, even if it’s less than d. So, in order to keep on theme, I’ve prepared a list of to give you some inspiration and the odd tool to give our creative journey, either now or once you are free.
Rising up. Speaking out.
@ orrani_