Belonging as a cross-cultural and cross-continental kid
Before (I was the woman I am today)
Before (I was the woman I am today)
I was recently invited to present at the Be:longing farewell event. Be:longing is ‘an online publication exploring personal experiences of migration, cross-cultural interactions, nostalgia and feelings of divided (or shared) cultural belonging.’
The event took place at the Smith’s Alternative Bookshop, Canberra on a November Saturday morning.
Introduction
Bobby Graham is a speaker, author, publisher, and artist. In 2021, she started teaching artists to draw on their iPads. This course inspired the Artists Society of Canberra to launch a Digital Art Category for their exhibition series. At Planepack, Bobby blogged about extreme light travel. She’s illustrated, written, and published four of her own books, capturing travel, people and places. In 2023, Bobby launched Slow Art, a business that focuses on mindful creativity. Bobby guides and inspires people to create art for a purposeful life. These days she talks about ‘visual journaling’: sketching and writing your everyday life.
Artist’s statement
When I was growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, I didn’t mind being different. I didn’t mind eating different food. I felt sorry for the girls at school who ate white bread and marmite. I didn’t mind speaking a different language, reciting one to 10 in Serbian, English, German and French. I didn’t mind my mother making all my dresses by hand. It was only later that I understood she couldn’t afford to buy me clothes. But I struggled with the differentness in handwriting. I couldn’t read the mail my relatives sent us. I couldn’t understand Cyrillic.
In 2022, I produced a series of artworks for an exhibition entitled ‘Transformation’. I elected to go back to my roots. I wanted to show the ‘before’ time – what it was about that time that enriched my childhood. In ‘Before’, I collaged my mother’s portrait, the colours and patterns of a traditional kilim and a handwritten postcard. I drew my Serbian name in Cyrillic, using a children’s alphabet as the template. I threaded these letters on a golden coil, tethering myself to the past, and unfurling my future.
I’m grateful for my cross-continental experience: born in South Africa, raised Serbian, settled in Australia. I’m grateful my parents instilled in me a love for their homeland, their culture, their language, which in turn became my culture and language. I’m grateful for my heritage. Together with this, I’ve added an Australian dimension to my life through my work, my art, my family. I’m inspired by our light, the colours and the wide expanse of Australia. This visual language enhances my different layers of heritage, knitted together in my art.
Bobby Graham presenting at the Be:longing farewell event.
For more articles, artworks and information about the cross-cultural and emigre experience, visit Be:longing.
