Starfishing by Suellen Saidee Cook

How the stars came to be in the sky….Inspired by First Nations stories of the dreamtime and from the piece I created during lockdown, Hanging Out the Stars.

 I was reading a book about creativity, specifically creative block, which I’ve experienced when I return with a hard drive overflowing with new photographs from our camping travels throughout Australia.  It takes me quite some time to unravel and get back into my imagination, to get it firing again. It is times like this I bury myself in my art library and search for some spark.

 Sometimes I worry that my ideas aren’t very strong, that I don’t have much to say and my self critic has far too much to say (it likes the sound of its own voice), I ask myself if I’ve lost it?  I ask myself should I just give up? Have I run out of good ideas? Was I just an imposter? Or should I become a starfish, regenerate myself and keep growing, and stay on the path that I know brings me much happiness.

 The book I was reading talked about daydreaming, a machine that you feed your ideas into that can bring those ideas to life.  The author called it her daydream machine….but I found it a bit hard to see how this would work to get you through a creative block until I read that what’s actually happening is that you are making and taking time to think deeply about an idea, holding them lightly and loosely while you brainstorm it to consider all directions and possibilities that your imagination can come up with.  Grasp notions that resonate and release ones that don’t. Once an idea feels known to you return to your journal and write/draw it out, no matter how rough, how unfinished it might be.  Creative block then cannot touch it. 

 Somewhat serendipitously, I had read the passage that talked about becoming a starfish, regenerating yourself and continuing to creatively grow and make art that brings you joy. The idea of a starfish growing a new arm resonated with me, I had been fascinated by starfish all my life and even more so when I learnt about their anatomy and weird physiology during my scientific studies.  

 I took the advice of the daydream machine and spent quite a few days brainstorming starfish, stepping off into the unknown not knowing where this was leading or what might come of these fledgling ideas.  I took some sage advice of a good friend and told myself that in the unknown everything turns out great. At the same time I thought about all the photographs I’ve either seen or taken that bring me awe and true joy…water, always water, the sea, being by the sea, what’s under the surface, what it would be like to live right next to the sea, the blues, the greens, the purples, the sky at night, the moonlight, reflected in the water, the moon, the stars….and then the penny dropped.  

Starfishing came to life

Starfishing is 194 layers and contains 29 photographs.  The photoshop file is 36 GB. It is one of the very few where I knew what the title was before I made the artwork.

No CGI, AI or digitally produced elements are used.The artwork is entirely constructed from photographs I have captured myself.