It was the walk up to the lighthouse on Awabakal land, bookended by the harbour and the ocean that escorted me up the hill towards the weeklong lighthouse residency. Late summer had arrived. The wind, passing dolphins, the late afternoon sun and dragonflies all in abundance, offering inspiration, elements to spark the imagination and allow creative flow to unfold. The residency success is due to the collective of artists that all share this special place, which at times felt like an island of like-minded people. The rhythm of the harbour ebbed and flowed, with its bulk carriers piloted through the breakers. Daily, in front of a different window, my portal to the edges of land and sea, I would lay out my pre-primed black paper and recalled the shapes and silhouettes of my early morning swims at Merewether baths. My first day began with slow stitching of some torn abandoned fabric, with the words ‘repair me’. Day by day this black background transformed, reminding me of the night sky waiting for the light to edge in as indeed it did. My felt sense of this place steeped in ancient and maritime history reminded me of the indigenous inhabitants of this land and the privilege it was for me to lay my marks on paper and fabric and transform a small selection into a short moving diary: ‘The silent wind within’.

To view Anita’s moving diary, return to this page: https://lighthousearts.org.au/residency-experiences/.