Yolk Gallery - Healing in Collaboration & Community

This past six months have been the ride of healing I’ve needed; shifting stagnated ideas, patterns and habits of relating to self and others.

My dear ex partner Teivao Tamariki & Tatau artist, invited me to come into his creative studio space and gallery in Woy Woy that he was wanting to set up.

It’s was a long time vision of ours when we were together on our creative journey in relationship. Traversing work transition, covid shut downs, moving into my families home and than separating we went our ways to heal.

His leading us back to healing in community has been so unbelievably powerful in bringing together our families and others that have joined us in the hatching of Yolk Gallery with full permission to create the space into ours.

We are in the space now since 11/1/2024 was our soft launch to get the space blessed by our community and share the beginnings of the story.

Joined by my sweet long time market friend and sis Nicole Berlach water colour painter see her work here: https://www.nicoleberlach.com/

She has her water colour A3 prints, card and originals hanging and available.

Beautiful woman, mama, wife, artist and in house model.

We also have in the space my daughter and 4th darling Angelle with her major works that due to covid at Brisbane Water High School was unable to exhibit.

So to have her work shared in our community is healing and supportive of her creative journey as Yo and coming local artists and more original works will be available soon for sale.

When I accepted and I finally surrendered to the the offer to heal the pains of the past perceived failures and fully step into forgiveness. As I had a dream years before and of course déjà vu around the location I knew one day I would be in there.

Beginnings were slow and settling with me wanting to run in and make everything safe and familiar; however life has reminded me to stay in flow like my beloved ocean moana .

Now trusting and knowing we guided and loved and all that stuff that comes up at night in my subconscious whispers to control and sabotage is old residue of who I thought I was.

Previously it was the RSPCA opshop in Woy Woy back lane way. When my children were little and we had first moved here from Waiheke Island Aotearoa New Zealand; we would come to this space and enjoy the old ladies and the toys clothes etc reminding of the loved spaces we enjoyed by op-shopping at home.

Now we been in the space and settled for few month. Most days Teivao is in the space for Tatau marking stories in skin.

You can see my pieces which are all in there hanging and ready to find there new people to adventure and love with.

Also my home grown herbal apothecary range is also ready to assist your journey.

Workshops are starting in April for Basic Sewing and Repair Bar details to come!

Yolk Gallery

Shop 5/9 The Boulevard Woy Woy

We growing stay tuned to how we connect our creative community in healing and sharing. Follow us Instagram for more to come!

Inside Jo.B Birth Keeper Pivot & The Birth Project

Let me share some of my story with my life journey as a mother and creatively how and why Inside Jo.B is pivoting to include more of me and my passion for home birth work.

I love this photo with my oldest daughter, Christmas Eve the day after my 4th home birth of another sweet baby girl just over 18 years ago.

Those were the crazy, playful days 4 littlies, Samuel, Grace, Faith and Angelle, 6 years and under.

Yet I knew back than when they were older, I would work with birthing women, the passion quietly grew.

Little did I know we had 2 more daughters to come through me.

Making it even more crucial to learn how to look after our bodies and spirit as women, so to birth freely at home is the best option.

Now as a Radical birth keeper I’m holding space in my home studio, monthly Birth Story Medicine Circles as a community offering.

To be finally ready to include my Birth support offerings is such a blessings one that has taken nearly 2 decades of healing, study, growth, creative exploration.

Over the coming month the packages be available, inclusive of birth story debriefs, with coaching and unpacking any trauma experiences.

1 on 1 coaching with the option to transform any grief and anger with a eco dyed ritual for somatic healing to process the energy in a creative way.

More will be revealed to the other ways I’ll walk along side supporting and sharing with women.

As they grow stronger approaching child birth, we’ll unpack understanding the spontaneous physiological birth and the hormonal blue print and so much more on how to have your dream home birth.

While researching birth stories and their importance I came across the work of artist Amanda Greavette and her paintings The Birth Project and wanted to work with promoting her offerings to women as well feature them on the website.
The Birth Project is a series of paintings depicting women, birth and motherhood. Large paintings represent the real and symbolic nature of birth as a holistic experience. Birth is a powerful and profound event that changes and shapes identity. This physical, emotional and spiritual awakening is the perfect landscape to explore universal experiences like pain, euphoria, transformation and the welcoming of new life. The artist aims to create work that is provocative, beautiful and heavy with emotion and symbol. While Amanda paints birth because she loves it, she wants the paintings and their images to creatively and effectively tell women’s stories as they’re experienced every day. The Birth Project as a body of work can be a medium to inspire confidence and possibility in women who are approaching pregnancy and motherhood, as well as portray experiences in a real and tangible way. As part of a social dialogue and movement that creates change for childbearing women, raises public awareness of issues surrounding birth and promotes a positive and empowering image of childbirth and motherhood, the paintings fill a visual void in birth culture.

The Birth Project has been exhibited at galleries and conference around North America. It is a continually changing exhibition as the series is added to and pieces are acquired.

Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis for those who’d like to share and participate with their photos and stories.

Amanda does accept commission, especially those that fit with the current focus of her work, and she can be emailed at amanda@amandagreavette.com

Amanda Greavette lives and works in Ontario, Canada. She studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design (2004) and has exhibited in many solo and group shows. Amanda was a La Leche League leader for many years and a founding member of one of the few midwifery advocacy consumer groups in Ontario. Her work is based on years of personal lived experience with the subjects she represents, and the shared experience of peers. Amanda has 5 children and is raising them in a partial straw-bale off-grid rural home in Muskoka, one of the most beautiful places in Ontario.

Eco Natural Dye and Indigo Shibori Workshops -Hudson St Hum Newcastle

Was feeling a little anxious to back teaching and sharing workshops this New Year 2021 started with Newcastle yesterday.
Yet once I arrived at Hudson Street Hum met by Suzie one of the owners at this fabulous creative hub for locals in Hamilton.
She and her friend Aleeta who first approached me about their space have been so supportive and inclusive as to how to best share and serve the community with my passion for dyeing and sustainability. Now 3 years on teaching in their space I feel like it’s another creative home.
Follow our Instagram and Facebook pages to see when the next workshops and sharing dates are available.

Vanessa enjoying our local flowers and other resources.

Karen and Michelle immersed in process and play.

LAND + BODY

Pop up Shop Installation Workshop Space

This time last week I was packing up what was my first Pop Up Shop exhibition shared in collaboration with I am Jika and Nastia Gladushchenko.

We had a week long Pop Up Shop exhibition at Blank Space Gallery Crown St Surry Hills in out side city central Sydney. Starting the New Year 2018 in a state of grateful collaboration not competition and lifting each others by sharing their art and process with those dropping into the Blank Space gallery space on Crown Street.

Nastia is a multi media artist working with wild grasses and flowers and metals in hand forms, she's also an incredible mural painter.

Here are free form metal sculpted hands hanging from the ceiling. Intertwined with wild flowers and grasses in the window of Blank Space Gallery

The pop up was a fusion of my one of a kind eco dyed, screen printed and painted garments, I am Jika sculpture and recycled silver jewellery and Nastia’s mixed media pieces.

I am Jika sculpture made from foraged materials from drift wood and river stones to recycled metals.

Each recycled silver piece is hand forged by Jes and her partner Sam in their Southern highlands home studio.

We also used the space as a active creative area and taught three workshops that week two eco natural dyeing and one wild grass and flower weaving.

The workshops were good insight into how the fabrics are decorated on the clothes in the pop up shop. I’ll be teaching more workshops this late summer dates on events page over coming months.

Having the pop up shop with creative space in and around the work to discuss the process of all our work was inspiring for the new year and motivating.

Helping me envision what that might be like on a more permanent bases and how that ripples through the whole community. Healing through actively connecting through makers and finding out how they can I connect with that creative part of themselves.

Thanks for all those who came and supported us in body and spirit. All the love kind words it all helps much love and blessings for sharing caring and popping in to LAND + BODy.

Stay tuned for next location and dates for LAND + BODY. If you're keen to collaborate with any of the collective or over suggestions for workshops and gallery locations please get in contact.

🖤 Jo. B

📷 photo credit goes to Nastia Gladushchenko.