ART
Moreton Bay Queensland , Australia
Taken on iPhone 13 Pro with Noir filter
Exploring local grass marshes
Last week I explored a local grassland marsh with one of my grandsons, 8 year old Walter, just around the corner from his home that sits by the Caboolture River and Moreton Bay. Walter is the namesake of my fraternal grandfather – Walter James Breen – and was named by his parents with no knowlege of my grandfather who died in 1951. I arrived on the scene in 1950.
The hour or two around rather polluted water ways and beautiul grasses with Walter let me into his world and the unusual grassland marsh area. How high does the tide rise and are the grasses a sea grass that feed off salt water were left unanswered. I found the architectual form mesmerising. Muddy dark spaces and the occassional suspended crab and fish skeletons added to the mystique. Over the next couple of days I responded with a graphite drawing and two lino-cut prints of the time with Walter. Satisfying.
| The concept of wellbeing represents a proactive stance toward emotional heath. The wellbeing literature examines the elements which contribute to a happy, fulfilling life. It encourages us to look at how we can actively foster resilience and contentment in our lives. In Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Wellbeing, Carol Ryff states wellbeing can be described through a number of components. These components are listed below. For each area, consider: “What does this mean day to day?””How much am I ‘doing’ it in my life, today?””How could I increase that tomorrow?” Self-acceptance A positive attitude toward your self; acknowledging and accepting multiple aspects of self; feeling positive about your past life. Being able to say, “When I look at the story of my life, I am pleased with how things have turned out so far”. “When I look at how I handled today, can I say, ‘I did my best with that. I feel OK about how I went'”. Personal growth Feelings of continued development and potential and being open to new experiences; feeling increasingly knowledgeable and effective. Being able to say; “for me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and growth.” “How did I learn and change today? What was I open to?” Purpose in life Having goals and a sense of direction in life; feeling that both present and past experiences are meaningful; holding beliefs that give purpose to life. Being able to say; “some people wander aimlessly through life; I am not one of them.” “What goal did I set myself and achieve today?” Environmental mastery Feeling competent and able to manage a complex environment; choosing or creating personally suitable contexts. Being able to say; “I am good at managing the responsibilities of daily life.” “How did I manage the practicalities of getting through today. What did I do well in there?” Autonomy Being self-determining, independent, and regulating your behaviour internally; resisting social pressures to think and act in certain ways; evaluating yourself by personal standards. Being able to say; “I have confidence in my own opinions, even if they are different from the way most other people think.” “What did I do or say today that expressed my opinion or belief?” Positive relations with others Having warm, satisfying, trusting relationships; being concerned about others’ welfare; being capable of strong empathy, affection, and intimacy; understanding give-and-take of human relationships. Being able to say; “People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with others.” “What gesture did I make today toward another person, that showed my ability to care?” |
One of 25 original drawings for “I want to tell you” for #45 Body & Soul Berlin Artist Magazine 2025 Artist: Peter Breen. Media: Ink, graphite, guache on encylopedia page on paper
Used with permission
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Two impacts – Live theatre and a visual art installation.
The impact of real time “hard copy” art in public galleries/museums and live theatre that are not on screens as memories cannot be overstated. They will be ignored to our peril and need to be overstated. I feel more emboldened and in new spaces since experiencing “So Many Splintered Parts” and “I have loved/I love/I will love”. Artists are essential to life, recovery and the endless rebirth of universal values that will feed the evolution of robust “good” societies.
Photo taken by Peter Breen at Art Gallery of Queensland, August 31, 2025.
So Many Splintered Parts is a 7 act play performed by two young actors at Queensland Theatre’s South Brisbane Montague Road centre. It is a story of and for the evolution of understanding our times. Written by 7 different playwrights around their commission, it flowed with a mininalist set and live music by composer and well known Brisbane musician/performer Tyrone Noonan. [ Seen August 23, 2025]
“What do you see when you look out at the world? What does the world see when it looks back at us? This is the provocation we put to the seven writers we approached to be part of the project. What they delivered in response is a collection written for now, a gathering that tackles themes of identity, survival, digital culture, class and wealth, mental illness, violence and war – the fractures running through contemporary Australia and the world.” [ From the hand out guide].
It is not lost on me that a young world is asking such questions and commissioning such public inquiries. Outside of intelligent and on task academia, art is where such inquiries are best commissioned and made. Academia has – one would hope in this day of user pays tertiary education – a flow on effect but the arts in the broadest sense, unfettered and without limits or censorship and as public events and experiences, are the classrooms, pulpits and mills where the grist is cast in. Screen online desensitised endorphin overloads excite, shock or provoke click bait buyer regret but never the depth required for change. The change needed is long and evolutionary and as Viktor Frankl says so cogently
I have loved, I love, I will love is Pat Hoffie’s latest installation at the Art Gallery of Queensland. Pat is a Brisbane based artist, educator and author and though now retired from Queensland College of Art and Design [QCAD] has just embarked on a new art making project ending with this remarkable work. Undertaking printmaking at the invitation of master print maker and academic Dr Tim Mosely in 2024, Pat – primarily a painter* – found herself leaving aside her first ideas of what to print replaced by the impact of the endless stories via social and other media around Palestine, Ukraine and more.
“I wanted to slow some of these images down. To decelerate them. To termporarily detain them. Though each of them shocked and sickened me, I could all-too-easily-instantly forget them. And yet, it occurred to me, I had never been able to un-see a Goya.” [ From the forward of her 2025 self-published book “I have loved, I love, I will love”]
The exhibition of a selection of massive digitised prints from the prints she made as she referenced Goya and Kollwitz plus the huge installation of ladders, mirrors and detritus created for me a post crucifixion moment. Shadows of figures abusing, killing, dying are not newstories to repost or return to or save. The work made and curated is brilliant, a screaming silence that evokes almost a prostrate response and a return visit. Silence slipped in unannounced in my moments in the space, calling me to return.
This and the theatre say at least that art might not bring immediate change to the world but it asks the questions and opens doors to the silence where mystery dwells for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see beyond screen time.
Peter Breen. Brisbane. September 3, 2025.
Artist : Peter Breen
Mixed media on 2 x Encyclopedia Pages
*Pat Hoffie’s artistic practice has extended through exhibitions, collaborative cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural undertakings, publishing, education and advocacy since the 1970s. Trained as a painter, she also works with sculpture, installation, print media, drawing and video. Core to all areas of her practice is an examination of power, value, the importance of ‘place’ and the necessity of cultural diversity. In the 1980s and 90s, Hoffie’s interest in feminism’s critique of power and privilege contributed to a range of exhibitions, projects and publications that attracted national recognition. Her advocacy and support for women artists continues to the present through her writing, curating and commitment to projects in Australia and abroad. Since 1993, the artist has maintained a research focus on the inequities and inconsistencies of global cultural exchange through iterations of her ongoing ‘Fully Exploited Labour’ series. Informed by postcolonial analysis, her work has involved her first-hand participation in experimental practices across the region, where she has initiated and participated in a range of international projects and residencies. She has been described as “a leading figure in establishing cross-cultural dialogue with artists, collectives and colleges in the region”, and has been recognised for her contributions to the arts in Australia (AM) and for her contributions to tertiary scholarship in the visual arts (Professor Emeritus). Her artwork has been included in leading exhibitions, collections, and events in Australia and overseas.
Hoffie’s recent works reflect the deep scars of chaos and trauma that have become part of our everyday socially mediated world. Both personal as well as political, they are funny and tragic, idiosyncratic yet bound to the historical traditions of the ‘epic’.
www.pat-hoffie.com
“I WANT TO TELL YOU”
These 25 works* are my mark making response to I want to tell you, the theme for the second bi-annual Body and Soul Magazine #45 , Berlin for 2025. The invitation to join this project came out of the blue via my Instagram account on_being_isolated and the artist Olesya Dzhurayeva [and publisher Hendrik Liersch] a remarkable lino cut/relief artist and collaborating designer of the magazine. The brief is to create a body of work – 25 original signed A4 pages around the given theme with a 3 cm left side border. Random selected pages from the approximate 20 invited artists will be bound into 25 page books by the publisher of Body and Soul Magazine Berlin and one of these will become each artist’s surprise gift in exchange. Some works and books will be kept to offset the publishers costs. The magazine was founded by the late Schoko Casana Rosso in 2005 while Hendrik Liersch picked up the project as publisher and has continued it into 45 editions. It is an inspiring mark making and international community project that I am excioted to be a part of. I’ve been drawn into this – pun intended – working and re-working and adjusting, following heart and hand since early in 2025.
The weight of I want to tell you is more than it would be in a world that only has the right coffee mix and muffin recipe. This body of work became a poem of introspection and despair added to an attempt to take one of the weights/waits of the world in 2025 – climate change and the 2019 Australian bush fires – and put down marks that respond viscerally at least to that elephant in the room.
As with my 2020 All the bees are [not] dying body of work, I hold that life is a constant and emerges against all odds. Resurrection is always possible. Always. When and how is beyond my very limited clarivouyant or exegetical skills and gifts but I am convinced of the reality of life being the being of all, in all and through all. To delcare and fight for this life to be better and healthier and pristine and beautiful is always right while now it seems to be overwhlemingly hopeless.
While ever a bee or a bacteria or a leaf or blackened tree stump carry life then this is what I want to tell you.
Life always will be.
Peter Breen. June 18, 2025.
*Graphite, ink, charcoal, red pencil, guache, water colour, collage, glue, relief print, monotype, found encyclopedia pages, Daiso Japanese calligraphy paper, anko acid free paper [160gsm]
FOR COLLECTORS.
WORKS FOR SALE.
Prints of # 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, 22, 23, 25 will be available after June 30.
Each work will be printed on A4 [ 21 x 29.7cm] gsm Hahnamule photo rag paper. The 3cm left hand book binding space will be removed and each work will have an approx 2-5 mm border around the whole perimeter. [ Prints by Martin Barry at Brisbane Digital Imaging]
$80 each + Post
If you are interested in any of the other non-printed works, I am happy to work up new original duplicates. Prices on application.
Please contact pbreen22@outlook.com
Thankyou in anticipation.
ALSO
Art.Love.Spirituality.Oneness
| In a world full of uncertainties, it’s easy to become anxious, depressed and experience feelings of hopelessness. But it doesn’t have to be that way. How we explain what happens to ourselves may matter just as much as what actually happens. This simple yet powerful framework sheds light on why some people are able to bounce back from setbacks while others struggle. Two broad explanatory styles include optimistic and pessimistic. These styles are based on how individuals interpret negative events across three dimensions: Permanence – Is the cause temporary or permanent? Optimists see setbacks as temporary (“I didn’t do well on this project, but I can improve.”).Pessimists see them as lasting (“I always mess things up.”). Pervasiveness – Does the event affect all areas of life or just one? Optimists compartmentalise (“I failed at this task, but I’m still good at others.”).Pessimists generalise (“This failure proves I’m completely incompetent.”). Personalisation – Who is responsible? Optimists see external or specific causes (“The timing was bad.”).Pessimists blame themselves (“It’s all my fault.”). Optimism and Resilience The link between an optimistic explanatory style and resilience is profound. Optimists tend to recover faster from failure, manage stress more effectively, and maintain better emotional health. This resilience stems from their belief that adversity is not permanent, not all-encompassing, and not necessarily a personal flaw. Developing an Optimistic Outlook is Possible There is no need to be discouraged if you think you have more of a pessimistic explanatory style. Research shows that explanatory style can be learned. By consciously challenging pessimistic thoughts and reframing how we interpret setbacks, we can foster a more optimistic outlook—building mental strength, motivation and resilience in the process. Here are 3 ways to actively develop a more positive mindset: The “ABCDE” technique helps reframe pessimistic thinking: Adversity – What happened? Belief – What did you believe about it? Consequence – What was the outcome (emotion/behaviour)? Disputation – What evidence contradicts the belief? Energisation – How do you feel after disputing the belief?Reflecting on past experiences of resilience can also help develop a positive outlook. Recall times you overcame challenges. Ask yourself: What helped me cope?What did I learn?How did my thinking influence my response?Taking it a step further, and documenting these can more powerfully remind you of your capacity to bounce back and foster a more positive explanatory lens. Observe positive people around you Your environment matters. Engage with people who support constructive thinking and model optimistic behaviour. Notice how they interpret setbacks and emulate their language and mindset. |
Used with permission
Copyright © 2025 EapAssist, All rights reserved.
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Our mailing address is:
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This book is unique because the story is.
You can support the publishing and distribution of this book with a donation towards our writing, editing, printing and publishing of the Jugglers story via GoFundMe . The writing process I am now in is, in colloquial terms, a trip down memory lane. But it is more than that. The re-connection to people and events, donations and conversations do, if nothing else, strongly reinforce the idea that long term committment to other people’s development, growth, affirmation, training, with warmth and welcome are fruitful regardless of their social situation or talent.
Keep a look out for the book at the end of 2025
Peter Breen
Co-founder, Jugglers Art Space Inc
Founder, The Stairwell Project
http://www.jugglersartspace.com.au
This book is unique because the story is.
You can support the publishing and distribution of this book with a donation towards our writing, editing, printing and publishing of the Jugglers story via GoFundMe . The writing process I am now in is, in colloquial terms, a trip down memory lane. But it is more than that. The re-connection to people and events, donations and conversations do, if nothing else, strongly reinforce the idea that long term committment to other people’s development, growth, affirmation, training, with warmth and welcome are fruitful regardless of their social situation or talent.
Keep a look out for the book at the end of 2025
Peter Breen
Co-founder, Jugglers Art Space Inc
Founder, The Stairwell Project
http://www.jugglersartspace.com.au
| Getting enough sleep is an important part of your overall well-being. Lack of sleep can make it hard to function. Many people experience feelings of drowsiness and fatigue during the day. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) makes it hard to stay awake and focused. It can interfere with your ability to work and get through your day. It can be dangerous if you need to drive or operate machinery. Some conditions, such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy, can cause EDS. Medications or other health conditions may also be an underlying reason for fatigue. Sleep hygiene is an important part of improving EDS. Sleep hygiene refers to all the routines and habits that may help you improve your sleep. From how you start your day to the steps you take as it gets closer to bedtime can make a difference in the quality of your sleep. Here are a few steps you can take to achieve the one small step setting a consistent sleep schedule: Wind down before bed Our bodies like routine. It’s smart to try to go to bed around the same time every night. Most people need 7 – 9 hours of sleep. You can figure out your ideal bedtime based on when you need to get up. You’ve probably noticed that if you have a busy day or evening, it can be harder to settle down and fall asleep. It’s smart to take some time before bed to signal to your brain and body that it’s time to wind down. Consider setting a timer for an hour before you want to go to bed as a reminder to start this routine. Do your best to keep this same schedule even if it’s the weekend or you’re on vacation. Have a wind-down plan Once you set that timer and get into the routine of winding down before bed, use that hour wisely. Do things around your space to signal that it’s time to settle down. Consider dimming lights, putting away any devices and turning off the TV. Bright light and blue light from devices may interfere with sleep. This hour is a good time to switch to calmer activities. Try: reading, journaling, knitting, stretching or doing yoga. Prepare your bedroom Along with prepping your body for sleep, there are ways to get your bed and sleeping area ready for you, too. If you’ve ever been to a fancy hotel, you may have had turn-down service. If so, you might know the bliss of sliding into that perfectly prepped space. Your version may not be exactly the same, but it can still set the tone for a good night’s sleep. Turning down your bed can include: removing any clutter on the bed and tidying the area around your bed, smoothing bed sheets and covers, making sure pillows are in the right position, turning off any bright lights, closing blinds and turning on a bedside lamp or night light, cooling the temperature of the room by adjusting the air conditioning, opening a window or turning on a fan. Reduce noise A noisy space can make it hard to settle down. You may not be able to control all noise sources but think of the things you can change. Once you put down your electronic devices for the night, switch them to silent or “do not disturb.” This way, you won’t receive an alert every time a notification comes in. If you live in a busy neighbourhood, the extra noise may interfere with your sleep. Consider using a white-noise machine or earplugs. If you like listening to music or a podcast, turn down the volume in the evening. This can be a nice alternative to watching TV if you want to change your nighttime routine. Have a consistent wakeup time Just as your bedtime routine matters, trying to wake at the same time every day also matters. This means setting the same alarm even on weekends and holidays. As you get more consistent with your sleep routine, the hope is that you will get more quality sleep. You may start to find that you naturally wake around the same time daily. This is a good sign that you are getting enough sleep. Once you are up, don’t forget to make your bed, so it’s ready for turn-down later. Mindfulness & relaxation Mindfulness strategies can be helpful in settling your brain for sleep. It’s common for worries or to-do lists to pop into your head when you’re trying to fall asleep. Mindfulness keeps your brain in the present moment. This can calm your body and brain to prepare for sleep. You can try mindfulness before you get into bed or once you are already in bed. If you have trouble falling asleep, you can also get out of bed and try some of these in a quiet, dark space. Continue until you start to feel tired, then return to bed. One way to try mindfulness is by listening to a guided meditation recording. You can also: Try square breathing: Inhale through your nose for a slow count to 4, hold for 4, breathe out through your mouth for 4, and hold for 4. Keep repeating. Visualize a beautiful place: Focus on all the details that you can see, touch, smell, hear and taste in this setting. Do a body scan: Start with your toes and work your way up to bring awareness to any areas of tension and then release it. |
Used with permission
Copyright © 2025 EapAssist, All rights reserved.
Eap Assist Subsribers List
Our mailing address is:
EapAssist
101 Collins Street
Melbourne, Vic 3000
Australia
NOW IS THE TIME
Now is the time for art
for music
for poetry
for angry marks on walls
for silent walks
added to staring under trees
as water drips and lands at our feet.
Now is the time for action
and contemplation
for listening
and hugging children slightly longer
and living in today while today shines.
Now is the time to seek out a story by
an Iranian poet
music by an Ahmenian mystic
prayers by an Irish nun.
Now is the time for planting pumpkins
making bread
spending less
and giving more
enjoying with new eyes
our places, spaces, people.
Now is the time for open doors
welcoming strangers
wondering more
blaming less
being tender
refusing isolation
beginning solitude.
Now as always is this call
this call of grace to climb again the hills of pain
for joy not conquering
for love not winning
for peace not war.
Now is
the time.
1 of 25 drawings for “I want to tell you” for #45 Soul and Body Berlin Artist Magazine. Charcoal, guache, graphite, gesso, ageing encyclopedia papes, glue on 160 gsm paper.
“I WANT TO TELL YOU”
These 25 works* are my mark making response to I want to tell you, the theme for the second bi-annual Body and Soul Magazine #45 , Berlin for 2025. The invitation to join this project came out of the blue via my Instagram account on_being_isolated and the artist Olesya Dzhurayeva [and publisher Hendrik Liersch] a remarkable lino cut/relief artist and collaborating designer of the magazine. The brief is to create a body of work – 25 original signed A4 pages around the given theme with a 3 cm left side border. Random selected pages from the approximate 20 invited artists will be bound into 25 page books by the publisher of Body and Soul Magazine Berlin and one of these will become each artist’s surprise gift in exchange. Some works and books will be kept to offset the publishers costs. The magazine was founded by the late Schoko Casana Rosso in 2005 while Hendrik Liersch picked up the project as publisher and has continued it into 45 editions. It is an inspiring mark making and international community project that I am excioted to be a part of. I’ve been drawn into this – pun intended – working and re-working and adjusting, following heart and hand since early in 2025.
The weight of I want to tell you is more than it would be in a world that only has the right coffee mix and muffin recipe. This body of work became a poem of introspection and despair added to an attempt to take one of the weights/waits of the world in 2025 – climate change and the 2019 Australian bush fires – and put down marks that respond viscerally at least to that elephant in the room.
As with my 2020 All the bees are [not] dying body of work, I hold that life is a constant and emerges against all odds. Resurrection is always possible. Always. When and how is beyond my very limited clarivouyant or exegetical skills and gifts but I am convinced of the reality of life being the being of all, in all and through all. To delcare and fight for this life to be better and healthier and pristine and beautiful is always right while now it seems to be overwhlemingly hopeless.
While ever a bee or a bacteria or a leaf or blackened tree stump carry life then this is what I want to tell you.
Life always will be.
Peter Breen. June 18, 2025.
*Graphite, ink, charcoal, red pencil, guache, water colour, collage, glue, relief print, monotype, found encyclopedia pages, Daiso Japanese calligraphy paper, anko acid free paper [160gsm]
FOR COLLECTORS.
WORKS FOR SALE.
Prints of # 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, 22, 23, 25 will be available after June 30.
Each work will be printed on A4 [ 21 x 29.7cm] gsm Hahnamule photo rag paper. The 3cm left hand book binding space will be removed and each work will have an approx 2-5 mm border around the whole perimeter. [ Prints by Martin Barry at Brisbane Digital Imaging]
$80 each + Post
If you are interested in any of the other non-printed works, I am happy to work up new original duplicates. Prices on application.
Please contact pbreen22@outlook.com
Thankyou in anticipation.
The Prophetic Imagination
The evangelical church has a bucket load of stories attached to its brand. And the use of that word is intentional as apart from its hard right faction of heaven and hell mantra preacher/believers the evangelicals were ambushed by capitalist consumption in the 1950’s under the For Sale slogan : Church Growth. Partly fueled by a handsome white male American preacher and post ww2 world wide colonialism the whole of the “boomer” period ( 1945-1964) was caught up in the excitement of the “growth growth growth” infection fetish. And it continues to burn out and leave out scores of church pastoral leaders whose personas and true selves cannot face the daily Ronald McDonald dress up franchise.
One of the many writers who expounded a road less travelled died last week in the USA at 92 was Walter Breuggemann. I discovered his book “The Prophetic Imagination” about 1992. It was one of those good aha books that has stayed in the disturbing/ comforting parts of my brain. It’s a book about the call to diagnose and call out empire.
An empire can grow from the tiniest of seeds. And be an insidious comforting infection.
Brueggemann looks at prophets in the Old Testament ( and the Jesus figure) as people whose primary calling was to expose empire. Empire is always limiting and exclusive, fuelled by ego and encased grandeurs. Its iterations are multiple. Discernment is a tricky intuitive skill to develop. Making marks on the subway walls is a risky rush.
The role of medical imaging is to expose and join the treatment team on disease and trauma, recovery and growth. It’s not a decorative addition to medicine. It says – look at this and fix it!
The arts at times has some pretty thin decoration only elements particularly under the influence of the growth pandemic but it is from the centre of a person’s prophetic imagination and gift/skill base that the insideous dangers of empire are created, published and experienced. Productivity is not the bastion of such expressions of the imagination.
Radiographers and graffiti artists, improv musicians and comedians.
“ The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls” and experienced in the spaces between.
SPIRITUALITY
Mabo Day/Reconciliation Week, June 3
G20 Mural Project Brisbane
Artist: Guido van Helten
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Jugglers Art Space Inc, Visible Ink, Queensland Rail.
Each year on June 3 since the The High Court of Australia ruled in favour of Eddi Koiki Mabo’s victory in overturning the spurious British law terra nullius, people remember the new day that was brought about by Eddie’s campaign. In the light of this ruling, native title was established in Australia and is known as The Native Title Act, 1993. A national holiday is yet to be legislated in his memory.
Spirituality is not locked up only in the rigorous disciplines of a Thomas Merton in a Gethsemane Monastery, Kentucky, hermitage or in a group retreat at Woodford Folk Festival. First nations’ people in Australia have always listened to country for where the voice’s life is. They have done this for thousands of years circled about and founded on their own mythologies and customs.
Their stories have not been given room and space in the dominant white colonial culture in Australia since the invasion in 1788 but there is a growing evolution of interest and story telling around the nation that is giving these stories and rights room. Devastatingly, racial blindness and deeper racism persists and has gained some ground as the failed 2023 Voice Referendum attests to. A recent decision by the CEO of NRL Melbourne team Storm to not to allow Welcome to Country at an Anzac day game in Melbourne – later reversed after massive public outcry – and the attrocious outspoken neo-nazi attack on an aboriginal elder during the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance Dawn service on ANZAC Day is indicative of a push back post The Voice failure by the white male majority who will not leave their narrow violent racist world views and embrace a better way of being in community in a world that is hungry for justice, grace and kindness. Major health concerns, incarceration and lack of mental fitness persist at an alarming rate in aboriginal communtiies and these have been added to by the failure of The Voice. But theirs is a long and determined walk to see rights and reconciliation alive, maturing and celebrated deeply and widely. Ours – I speak as a white Australian male – is at times only turning on click bait time frames and convenience. I am not, however, either nihilistic or overly optimistic of a better Australia in regards to this in my lifetime.
This poem is my tribute to the paths being forged by aboriginal people particularly in the light of the the decision that Eddie Koiki Mabo campaigned so successfuly for.
Land Rights
He walks
A loud quietness
beginning
another 60,000 floating lifetimes
around the sun
or moon
anchored in country
voices mix
a call with guileless intent
no retribution
just
as
a
thin light on the hill flickers
into thousands of a thousand
sparks aloft
against the winds of resistance
blasted to extinguish.
“We can wait”
echoes down the centuries.
Voices hidden.
Art marks scratched to a possible new obscurity
But we will mark again.
He played it forward with love and determined granite persaverance.
Listening hearts can read the voices
unlocked to heal again, again, again.
He walks a story
as ancient as a new old mountain birthed on country
while welcome warms with cautious glances.
Peter Breen
Love is strong as death
I was in Casino on Monday night, a 3 hour drive south of Brisbane. It is a large beef cattle producing area of New South Wales and along with Rockhampton in North Queensland, is one of the largest in the country.
I drove Harley [ my son ] down as his car was needed for the family and the stand-in car would not make it. We have done this kind of thing a fair bit over the past 23 years of his comedy career for a host of reasons and it was great to be on the road together again.
BEEF WEEK is an annual event in Casino and is a highlight of this small country town’s annual calendar. This specific dinner event during the week is a new initiative around Mental Fitness and Suicide in the farming industry. Farming in Australia has one of the highest rates of suicide in Australia* and it was encouraging to see how well this organisation is attempting to to address it. There were about 100 farmers seated to eat the best steaks in the country while two speakers – Harley and Ben from Sydney mental fitness organisation Gotcha4life – told stories around mental fitness [ health ] and how to better access help from family, friends and local organisations while having a laugh to help the steaks go down. The gender imbalance was about 90% white male while the predicatable Beef Queens contestants was indicative of normal farming make up in Australia.
This venture is indicative of love with unashamedly social responsibility in its sites. One of the highlights of the night – apart from my son’s comedy performance which I had heard scores of times before and still laugh at – was the call by Ben to take our phones and send a text message to someone we hadn’t sent a text to for a long time with the following line : “Love you. Miss you. xoxo” It was a moment in time that will remain fixed in my mind as I witnessed beef cattle farmers awkwardly sitting in that space and sending or maybe not sending the message. I sent the message to two people. A liberating moment for me. WIth immediate responses!
It was not a sentimental moment. The hard hitting talk and then Harley’s own self revealing mental health transparency was about a pratical mental fitness regime . It was about solidarity, companionship and mateship with bite. It was about the community’s responsibility to all its moving parts. People! Humanity!
C.S.Lewis of Narnia fame wrote about the 4 loves in his book of the same name. I have often reflected on this work in the challenges of living in relationships, in a world full of injustice and in my own struggles around feeling loved and making sure I am other centred. And wondering how to know what love is. My friend Dave Andrews wrote “Not Religion But Love” a reflection and suggested way of thinking and living as he navigated his own and his wife Ange’s lives in their work in India and in the Waiter’s Union in in Brisbane with a life of being with those left behind. We are exposed to public declarations of religious interest by political leaders who espouse far less focus on the collapse of social justice than they do in their attempt to win crowd support for their policies and decisions: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and now Anthony Albanese. One of those who has a different presence on the public stage is the Irish President Michael D. Higgins who has repeatedly made very clear what his view is on the genocide in Gaza. It is not like any of other three. Compassion, action, declaration, end the war immediately,
Lewis writes about the four Greek words for love: Eros, Storge, Philia and Agape suggesting that at any one time there will be a need to take on board agape love if we are to find our best humanity. This is the love that is totally self-giving while not focussed on the self’s reward for loving the other. Eros [ Romantic/Sexual love] Storge [family love] and Philia [friendship/common interest love] all come to an end of themselves amidst the demands of a world where agape seems to have been sidelined but not and never lost.
To be a lover of the other for the other’s sake needs a book of suggestions and stories for us to find our way. But such initiatives at Gotcha 4 Life is one group that is a love light on the hill for those who may be slipping into despair.
NOTES:
*In November 2021, the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) presented findings from their Australian-first farmer suicide desktop study at the Australian Rural a
nd Remote Mental Health Symposium.
The study found that between 2009 and 2018, there were 370 farmer suicides reported, which equates to one farmer taking their own life every 10 days in Australia.
This study explored farmer suicides using data from the National Coronial Information System, Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and data from Australian institute of Health and Welfare’s National Mortality Database.
Between 2009 and 2018, the average suicide rate for farmers (18.3 per 100,000) was almost 60 per cent higher than non-farmers (11.5 per 100,000). The suicide rate for farmers has trended upwards in this time, increasing to 22.2 per 100,000 in 2018, which is 94 per cent higher than non-farmers.
Farmers with certain demographic characteristics had higher suicide rates, including males, those who have separated from their spouse, and young and middle-aged farmers.
REF: Life in Mind, Australia. 2022.
ART.Love.Spirituality.Oneness
what art does – an unfinished theory
BRIAN ENO AND BETTE A. Faber, 2025.
“Brian Eno is a British artist, musician and activist. He has made music and visual art for five decades as a composer, producer, collaborator and individual artist. He is a founding member of EarthPercent, a trustee of Client Earth, and co-founder of HardArt.
Bette A.*is a Dutch artist, novelist and art school teacher. Her previous books include Rus Like Everyone Else and What’s Mine. She is co-founder of the Heroines!Movement. “
*Bette Adriaanse
I have just had this book delivered and I was surprised. I thought it was, being a Brian Eno book [ I don’t know Bette A. ] bound to be a big tome. It is tiny. Hard back pink and white and tiny. It’s easy to pick up and read. It’s not a compendium of Oxfordesque art definitiions and endless philosophical pontificiations.
Is it like Eno’s music?
It’s growing on me.
It celebrates all art and that art is everywhere.
“making art seems to be a universal human activity. All over the world, people can be found creating and wearing elaborate costumes pretending to be something else : a dangerous animal, a king, someone from the spirit world.
All over the world people decorate themselves and their surroundings with patterns, shapes and colours, and construct references to places, people and events that aren’t now and here. We don’t know of any human group that doesn’t do art in some form or another, and usually in many different forms.
We could say that art is one of the key attributes of being human, like language. It’s easy to understand why langauge is so universal, but we don’t seem to have a very clear picture of why art should also be.” p2, 3.
Recommended.
LOVE
Looking after yourself after an unexpected loss
| Life has a way of throwing unexpected challenges our way, sometimes hitting us in places we least expect. Emotional setbacks—whether personal or professional—can shake our sense of stability, drain our energy and leave us questioning how to move forward. They come in many forms: a career disappointment, the loss of a loved one or a personal health struggle. Here are five strategies to help navigate emotional setbacks and rebuild strength when life feels overwhelming: 1. Acknowledge the Loss, but Don’t Get Stuck in It It’s natural to grieve when something we’ve invested in—whether a dream, a relationship, or years of hard work—falls apart. Ignoring emotions doesn’t make them disappear; it often prolongs the struggle. Give yourself permission to feel the loss, frustration, or sadness. Journal, talk to a friend, or simply sit with your emotions. Just don’t let them define your next steps. Recognizing what has happened is the first step in finding a way forward. 2. Shift Your Focus to What You Can Control After an emotional setback, it’s easy to fixate on what’s been lost. But focusing on what remains—and what is within your control—helps shift the narrative. In my case, I can’t bring back the trees, but I can decide how to restore my land over time. In the workplace, if you’ve faced a setback like a missed promotion or an unsuccessful project, look at the areas where you still have influence. Where can you take action? What next steps can you pursue? 3. Pace Yourself—Recovery Takes Time Resilience isn’t about pushing through at full speed; it’s about sustaining yourself for the long haul. Emotional setbacks take energy, and if you don’t give yourself time to recover, burnout is inevitable. Whether it’s a personal or professional challenge, recognize that healing happens in stages. Take breaks, get outside, lean on support systems, and allow space for rest. You don’t have to rebuild everything overnight. 4. Reframe the Challenge as an Opportunity for Growth Setbacks, as painful as they are, often hold unexpected lessons. Ask yourself: What can I learn from this? How can I use this experience to grow? When a project at work fails, it can highlight areas for development. When life throws a personal hardship your way, it can reinforce what truly matters. Even in loss, there’s the potential for renewal. 5. Find Strength in Small Wins Moving forward after an emotional setback doesn’t happen in giant leaps—it happens in small steps. Celebrate small wins, whether that’s making progress on a new goal, handling a tough situation with more grace, or simply getting through a difficult day. Each small step builds confidence and resilience. Sometimes, just taking the next right step is enough. |
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ART
What is art?
I’ve started asking that again now.
And my art work stuckness
Has a lot to do with that internal question.
But there is an art theme in Australia.
One of the Jugglers Art Space highlights
was being offered the big old
Shed on the river in 2012.
It was a remarkable gift for Studios.
The Government agency wanted us to have it
for a Peppercorn Lease – for 3 years.
“And we would like you to paint the door.”
“The big, big, doors.”
I asked international artist and Jugglers’ friend
Guido van Helten if he would design
And paint it.
He did – two massive welcoming hands on the old
ship building building.
The bureaucrat response:
“Take that down. It’s too frightening for the children.”
Two hands!
The kids were there once a year!
On secluded industrial land!
They had us paint instead:
THE SHED
An article today in from Hart Youth* and posted on Face Book is symptomotic.
And the high profile Creative Australia’s
Recent reversal of the Venice Bienalle Selection.
Khaled Sabsabi, the Lebanese-Australian artist dumped as Australia’s representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale, has spoken publicly for the first time since Creative Australia withdrew his highly prized commission.
Khaled Sabsabi
What is art?
What is art in Australia
Careful…
Careful…
Careful…
Peter Breen, May 7, 2025.
McArthur Avenue, Hamilton, Brisbane with Juggers “The Shed”
WHERE HOPE SITS
by Matilda Emmerich
“With the weight of a world upon his wings, an Angel took a breath and sat back.
If it weren’t for the bloody ruins, he might even look relaxed.
Death sat upon one shoulder, Power upon the other.
Any kindness Death showed, Power would smother.
With one last look across a broken world, he lay down like a wounded deer,
while Death held his hand, Power whispered in his ear
“At least we’ll have Mars.”
And though he was dying, the angel did laugh.
And laugh
and laugh.
Until Death cut through the violence, then replaced the loud silence, and took its turn to whisper
“When you don’t make the trip to Mars and you don’t drive one of those flashy cars; when your prayers aren’t answered —not by Jesus or Buddha; not even the Pope—there’s something you will always have,”
and that thing is called hope.“
Sixteen-year-old HART Youth Ambassador, Matilda Emmerich was initially told her painting could not be included in the Open Art Category of the Hawkesbury Show because it was too heavy to hang. When she questioned the decision—given the painting’s not-unusual weight and the absence of a weight limit in the Show’s Rules and Regulations—she was then informed the content was inappropriate.
The oil painting, created specifically for the Show, features a young, wounded angel surrounded by the torn flags of countries currently in conflict. Titled ‘Where Hope Sits’ a poem is included within the frame emphasising the piece as a message of hope in a time of global uncertainty.
The painting was ultimately rejected on the grounds of being a security concern, with organisers stating that it could potentially upset viewers to the point of provoking a violent response toward the artwork or others nearby.
While respecting the organisers’ commitment to public safety and their right to curate entries, it raises an important question:
Where should a work like this—created by a teenager in regional NSW as a heartfelt expression for her community—be seen and shared?
For next year’s competition, Matilda was encouraged to
try painting a landscape. [!!!]
Another symptom and symbol of the non-importance of art for the whole community is the Liberals focus and the underfunding by the ALP. The Greens are the best and most passionate about art.
ONENESS
In the opening chapter of John Berger’s important book of the BBC film series “Ways of Seeing” [ Pelican, 1972] he introduces us to the observed effect photographic reproduction has on how we see great works of art.
“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain the world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and we know is never settled. The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.“
How we see the world and construct world views that affect how we relate to the physical world and the people in it and political decisions in our small and bigger world are first given to us by our parents and then expanded in education and community but increasingly how we see is now influenced by the speed of what we are experiencing via all kinds of media. How we see the world we live in for our few short years will always affect our experience of and engagement or non-engagement in community. Oneness is a poetic almost romanitc notional description of unity but it strikes a chord with me. Is my keen interest in and pursuit of humanity’s oneness/harmony/unity in family and community out dated? Can we survive in our own heads and in a digital media fed head space apart from and separate from “real” community, especially if we are just plain sick of living in community along with the busyness of what feels like an endless spinning wheel of fortune seeking?
It is quite obvious that excluvisist tribalism is on the acendancy, not unity, oneness or community. There are positive examples of hard work in all kinds of places where oneness is being fostered and built but the tribal gods are flexing.
I have long held the view that the United Nations, since its inception in 1948, is one of the best expressions of a range of the best of really good community building – or rebuilding – echoing some religious teachings about cooperative peace making and restorative justice as these words : “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.” Peace making is not peace-keeping which does not build oneness but only separation from conflict – a necessary essential in domestic violence and escalating war scenarios. To work with others in respectful listening and active collaboration to “build a better world” rather than just being a “self-made success story” is according to this scripture tantamount to what being “children of God” is – not holding to some kind of belief system. It is higher affirmation than a bulging bank account. The push back from globalisation by the new American President is in stark contrast to the late Pope Francis’s work with the poor and his determination to build at least the Catholic church’s greater inclusion of a broader racial representation and oneness.
It is not easy to foster unity, collaboration or oneness. My experience and observation is that individualism is the easiest and seems the most rewarding – for me or the individual – but from there the slope can be steep and disastrous in terms of building oneness if modes of communication are immature. The frightening impact of social media on narcissism and stunted relationship development is the current pandemic.
Oneness is not the neglect of one’s self or the death of the imagination and the intellect. It is the engaging of the fullest and best of the self to bring about the never ending vision of a maturing oneness with those we live, work and love with. It is in fact the greatest challenge to set aside a self-serving agenda and bring constant contributions to a wider conversation in order to come to some new understanding and agreement that will feel as if we belong to each other. Sometimes this is in the flow of congeniality or it can be in the hardest of envirnoments when our values and world views are suddenly under the spotlight and at times found wanting. Change is at the core of maturing evolutionary development within society, in relationships, marriages, friendships, clubs, political parties and religions. To resist change is to stagnate and be fooled into tribal blindness. The whole world is an evolving ecosystem, including social groupings.
The impact of social media on building oneness has validity. But as with Berger’s assessement that photographic reproduction of original art work works against what happens when we view the original art work even though it is a way of seeing, opting out of real engagement with partner, friend or other social groups to be immersed in a small unaccountable self serving world and a digital media world will not help build healthy evolving microcosms of oneness. We are, as humans, meant to be in maturing healthier communities where new ways of inclusion for a healthier oneness is the norm.
God knows the world currently needs more “children of god” who are determined peacemaker pilgrims.
Peter Breen, April 23, 2025
The gathering at an open farm tour day, Echol Valley Farm, Goomburra, SE Queensland.
SPIRITUALITY
I find it difficult to describe or explain spirituality.
It feels a bit like this work by Peter Kozak [ Winner of the Jugglers Art Space Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing in 2012]. The words don’t satisfy and a description is impossible. The puzzled look and my own confusion continue to draw me back into reclusion, meditation, drawing and silence.
I recently watched a U-Tube clip of an interview with psychoanalyst Carl Jung towards the end of his life where the interviewer asked him if he believed in God. Jung came from a religious background where his father was a village pastor in Switzerland but in answering this question he paused and responded with: “…do I believe in God now? Difficult to answer. I don’t need to believe…I know…I know.” I resonate with the sentiment and would hand the interviewer a copy of Kozak’s drawing while never being as erudite or sure as Jung.
Spirituality and art have a long history. I would suggest that they are inseparable and always have been. I am not a fan of categorising the creative impulses that labels artists as “creatives” so that it immediately becomes local lingo and art colleges now award a Bachelor of Creative Industries – as if art was an industry. Of course that is the case in capitalism’s consumerist value base, living off a productivity commission’s research recommendations.
But creativity is descriptive of the core of what it means to be human, as is spirituality. Art has been and continues to be a way of attempting to find a way of making sense of the self and experience, of the world and it’s endless complexities. It is no wonder poetry is near the best form of finding some kind of meaning in the necessary dive into the dark spaces between, while somewhat inexplicalby linked to spirituality.
#untitled Ink, charcoal on paper. Artist: Peter Breen
As with art and consumerism, spiritualithy has been ambushed by religion and the church so that as with Jung, one has to move out from belief to the floating fog of knowing/unknowing.
Richard Rohr
“In his 2016 book The Divine Dance, [Fransican Priest Richard] Rohr suggests that the top-down hierarchy of Western Christianity since Emperor Constantine has held ecumenical traditions back for centuries and that the future of people of faith will have to involve a bottom-up approach.Rohr maintains what he would call prophetic positions, on the “edge of the inside” of a church that he sees as failing to transform people, and thus increasingly irrelevant. Rohr explains:
To live on the edge of the inside is different than being an insider, a “company man” or a dues paying member. Yes, you have learned the rules and you understand and honor the system as far as it goes, but you do not need to protect it, defend it or promote it. It has served its initial and helpful function. You have learned the rules well enough to know how to “break the rules” without really breaking them at all. “Not to abolish the law but to complete it” as Jesus rightly puts it (Matthew 5:17). A doorkeeper must love both the inside and the outside of his or her group, and know how to move between these two loves.” Richard Rohr, Wikipedia.
As you know I took time out of the inside of “my group” in 2002 and have been an outisder outsider ever since, exploring spirituality and creativity as an arts administrator, a late beginner artist and a very irreverent reverend . I now find panentheism a very helpful overarching description to use to make some sense of what I was and what I am now becoming as a mystic lover and wanderer around unknown metaphysical geographies.
“In his 2019 book The Universal Christ, Rohr says he is a panentheist. He goes on to state that panentheism is the true position of Jesus and Paul:
But Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold exclamation, “There is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything” (Colossians 3:11). If I were to write that today, people would call me a pantheist (the universe is God), whereas I am really a panentheist (God lies within all things, but also transcends them), exactly like both Jesus and Paul.” Richard Rohr, Wikipedia.
White Silence – Queensland Univiersity of Technology, Southbank, 2015.
I am currently reading “The Creative Act: A Way of Living” by Rick Rubin. Canongate, 2023. It’s the kind of book that makes sense of spirituality and art in a way that a systematic theologian could never do. I’m sure Jung would “get this.”
“Awareness
In most of our daily activities we choose the agenda and develop a strategy to achieve the goal at hand. We create the program. Awareness moves differently. The program is happening around us. The world is the doer and we are the witness. We have little or no control over the content. The gift of awareness allows us to notice what’s going on around and inside ourselves in the present moment. And to do so without attachment or involvement. We may observe bodily sensations, passing thoughts and feelings, sounds or visual cues, smells and tastes. Through detached noticing, awareness allows an observed flower to reveal more of itself without our intervention. This is true of all things. Awareness is not a state you force. There is little effort involved, though persistence is the key. It’s something you actively allow to happen. It’s a presence with, and acceptance of, what is happening is the eternal now.
As soon as you label an aspect of Source, you’re no longer noticing, you’re studying. This holds true of any thought that takes you out of presence with the object of your awareness, whether analysis or simply becoming aware that you’re aware. Analysis is a secondary function. The awareness happens first as a pure connection with the object of our attention. If something strikes me as interesting or beautiful, first I live that experience. Only afterward might I attempt to understand it. “
Artist and film maker the late David Lynch suggested that if we get an idea for a drawing or a film or a photo or a poem that we must write it down as we will soon forget it. This is being strongly linked to awareness.
How can we cultivate awareness and reduce analysis?
Peter Breen, April 16, 2025.
LOVE
“But I’m not like that, this conduct is not part of my character, nor of my ethics.Minds that seek revenge destroy states, while those that seek reconciliation build nations. Walking out the door to my freedom, I knew that if I didn’t leave all the anger, hatred and resentment behind me, I would still be a prisoner.” Nelson Mandella.
We are currently immersed in a world that suddenly feels like a full blown tantrum, because it is. Comparing Nelson Mandela with the current president of the United States seems as stark a difference as any moment in history. There have been countless research projects, books written, films made and millions murdered over the years around similar political leaders – Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, Augusto Pinochet and Benjamin Netanyahu and a host more. It’s no surprise that the gender gap here is largely in favour of the male species. There will be more to come on Donald Trump if we all survive. The cautionary tale here is how critical parental training and education is in developing universal mature ethics and responsible public morality for the common good. These matters raise the possibility of selfless love and compassion being foundational in a maturing and adult society where generosity, kindness and listening with presence are experienced and respected more than male individualistic bravado and apparent heroism.
The character of a leader is what makes a leader a positive change agent while love finds its expression in the public domain with how the leader sees and acts towards issues of social justice for the marginalised. It will always be the litmus test. I am wearing a T-Shirt that celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Wayside Chapel in Sydney, founded by the former Methodist minister the late Ted Noffs and on the back of the shirt are the words: 60 Years Creating Community With No Us and Them.
My sibblings and I were raised in a fundamentalist Christian home but we were also raised in a home where the Wayside Chapel values were espoused and lived. Love was always seen as welcome, as affirmation and as addressing social injustice. It was not a perfect mix but it was strong and all of us have continued to attempt to live out those values in our lives professionally, in society and with our own families.
Capitalism is not the friend of social justice. It might mask it with the crumbs from the table and tax deductable donations to charities but in general the capitalism we are now immersed in is in over drive racing at a mad stampede pace to prop up the increasing class divide, loveless communities and super consumerism as a mark of reward for skewed work values.
How should we then live and be is a question more and more of us are asking if only as a momentary response to the collapse of the share market and our superannuation funds. Love in daily life I am finding is a value habit to be revisited through meditation and action. Children love as part of being alive. So do some adults. But love as a choice, as a value that is in our hearts and souls is to be cultivated and it is possible to love too much. This apparent contradiction is merely an invitation to take time out not abandoning love to be replaced with narcissitic self-indulgence and entitled consumerism.
What is a difficult choice you have had to make in your work place in respect of social justice towards a work colleague?
Recommended site:
Peter Breen, April 9, 2025.
Photo Credit: Ring of Kerry, Eire, Public Domain.
Peteskibreen's Blog 