/Visual Arts and wider Arts forms exploration – attending Arts events, research and reflection before and after, visual and conceptual analysis  

/Writing Caroline’s Autobiography or Memoir – Caroline has asked that Jess and Amie both work together on this project with her and as it’s quite an involved project which requires a lengthy period, we agreed that this makes sense. Jess and Amie will cover different aspects of this project with Caroline, so Caroline is simultaneously learning about how to write an autobiography and how to publish one, while also writing it over time.   

Jess – 

Literary Aspects of the writing - including narrative structures. what and an autobiography, or memoir is and using visual imagery to tell stories

Research - attending writer’s talks and potentially meeting Jess’s friend who has written an autobiography about her experiences of starting a family while also living with Cerebral Palsy  

Amie – 

Working as Caroline’s scribe – Amie will focus on the writing of the autobiography with Caroline. Exploring accessible writing and recording options including Speech to Text, and investigating other apps which may be effective 

 Publishing – learning about how authors publish books. Seeking advice from Amie’s friend who has just published a book     

Growing up in a big family, with three siblings who have disabilities 

Travelling around in a big family, as a child

Your different experiences of education in various states and countries you lived in, and the educational barriers you faced as a student with a disability

Learning to talk as a child  

To make prep easier Caroline also:

-Asked the butcher to cut the chicken in a small dice.

-Bought preminced garlic in the jar

Caroline and Jess walked along the boardwalk to a cafe and enjoyed lunch overlooking the bay before the show.

It was a powerful performance and Caroline thought the old theatre was beautiful. She would like to research the history of the theatre and others like it and Jess suggested starting with the documentary The lost city of Melbourne.

·       Maya Angelou’s ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ is classified as a memoir as it focuses on her from the age of three to sixteen, when she was living in the Deep South of America, during the Depression-wracked 1930s.

·       Michelle Obama’s autobiography, ‘Becoming’ is considered so because she chronicles the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address.

·       Elton John’s book, ‘Me’, is also classified as an autobiography as it is about the authors life from childhood until now, detailing important events of his life along the way.

·       I asked you whether you would like to write about your whole life, from childhood or birth, until now, or whether you would like to focus on parts of your life. You said you didn’t want to write about your whole life

·       There is an opportunity to publish a 1000-word essay about any topic you like, related to your life. I thought this could be a good opportunity and incentive to start writing. Beginning with only 1000 words is more achievable also and may help you form some of the main ideas in your memoir. I chatted to you about this and showed you some of the other writing entries on the website. They also included audio recordings of the short stories which made them easier to access

·       You enjoyed listening to the stories, and said you were happy to take part in the project, so I asked you to choose three prompts to respond to

·       Another prompt you chose was, ‘Tell us about something you survived.’ You spoke about surviving your disability and how you managed to talk and go to school, surviving quite well. This led into you talking about the importance of walking to you, the progression of your walking over the years and how you feel demoralised when being pushed in a wheelchair   

·       The final prompt you chose was, ‘What advice you would say to your 25-year-old self?’ You said, “Make the most of it and enjoy your life. You are always going to have a disability so just make the most of it. Just accept it and enjoy your life.”     

Thank you, Caroline, for your openness and bravery answering these questions, it made for some very powerful writing!

Caroline was deeply inspired as this was her first introduction to the artists history of injury and disability and how this shaped her work and life.

We will continue to explore Frida's biography.

Doing something at the Theatre

Working at a gallery

Chatting to elderly people - Nursing homes

We looked at Substack as a platform for sharing writing and brainstormed ideas about the many exciting ways work can be shared using this platform, including short form video.

https://substack.com/about