So I've been away for the past week, I should probably talk about that since I gave no indication of what was going on anyway.
Part of the curriculum for my sculpture class is a camp way out in the Adelaide Hills on the large property owned by an artist who lives out that way. She's got a couple of houses there, so the whole class (ten of us) and two of our lecturers lived in one of them together from Sunday to Friday. Because we've been focusing on site specific sculpture, every morning we'd get up at 6, be outside by 7 and given briefs to create particular sculptures in certain places - one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Sometimes we were on teams, sometimes we were on our own. There was never anything like "make a dog out of trees" or something purely illustrative, everything was conceptual and we were allowed to use any materials we found on site - as long as they were natural. No wire, string or anything like that. As a result, I got used to making bindings out of types of grasses, discovered the rough age that a reed should be when it's at its bendiest to make ropes, found that some types of dead willows look like they were drawn by Tim Burton, and also the knowledge that you are never safe, anywhere, in nature.
It might sound a little wanky, but doing things like this, you forget to take nature for granted. You realise every patch of earth is different, even when they look similar when you're just walking by. Some places have plants you can't find anywhere else on the acres. Some might have really nice rocks. Some have got really nice soft dirt. Again, wanky, but you get more respect for indigenous connection to the land when you start to see it in this way, that it isn't just bushland, it's a whole ecosystem in one square metre.
I wasn't entirely looking forward to the trip - generally I get along with everyone from the class, but there were a few people I didn't know too well, and I thought by the end we'd be sick and tired of everything and wanting to kill each other. We also had to cook our own crappy food, so I thought morale would be low because everyone was sick on mi goreng. Plus, six am starts ain't something I like during my holidays. But wow, I had such a great time. I've already forgotten about the drowzy beginnings, the breathless walks in cold mornings and bringing bags filled with rocks uphill for hours. I'm more remembering a lot of laughter, a lot of satisfaction even when the work would look crappy, and some of the most beautiful, pristine moments of my life. Sitting outside with a coffee with a couple of mates, only listening to the windchimes and cockatoos. Half running, half climbing up steep rocky hills, forgetting that your body wants to give up on you because you're having so much fun. Electronics at a minimum. Five of us unsuccessfully making a shiphull out on a sheep's paddock, but joking the whole way through so it didn't matter. Making little cities out of pebbles and dead reeds in the middle of a creek. Riding on the back of a crowded ute and coming across a hill covered in kangaroos. Feeling invincible whenever wearing gumboots. Everyone pitching in to buy a bottle of Jamieson's for the birthday girl. People knocking back beers in the morning (no, I wasn't one of them!). Earning your beer at the day's end. Sharing a carton of coopers pale with a mate and requiring an additional sixpack before the week was over - and we were drinking less than half the people there. Stomping around ravines, creeks, dams and long grasses on hot spring days and still not seeing a snake. Sitting around by the fire each night watching slides of the works we made during the day, half pretentious art-student critique, half drunk-banter. Getting pissed off at Andy Goldsworthy for being so bloody talented. And not being able to immediately go back to the city, to just want to spend more time out there, out with nature, with friends, only with what you need. I didn't really want to come back, even though I was only half an hour out of Adelaide.
It was just what I needed, really. I'd been stuck in a rut and now I see life in a different way. I've been getting up earlier, going outside more, spending less time texting and internetting. I've been rethinking my desire to move to a big city, remembering what I loved so much about growing up in the country. Sorry this has turned into a total wank post but it was really great and I feel great and everything's great.
I'm heading out into the Strathbogie Ranges next week for a camp as well, with no technology or phone reception or anything like that. I'm really looking forward to it, some good friends of mine are going too and I think we'll have a rad time. Even if we have to get up all through the night to do sampling 
