I’m often asked where my creative ideas come from. I usually answer, the world is our greatest teacher. It’s constantly tapping us on the shoulder, whispering reminders to look up, look around, and actually see what’s happening in our lives. Learning doesn’t only happen in textbooks, webinars, or thirty-second clips served to us by an algorithm. It happens in the quiet, ordinary moments we rush past, the stranger who smiles at us in the supermarket aisle, the way the sky shifts colours on our morning walk, or even a sentence on the back of a bus that unexpectedly stirs something inside us. Life is always handing us tiny invitations to wake up and pay attention.

People often assume creativity arrives in dramatic flashes of inspiration, but for me, it’s the opposite. I notice the small things. I pay attention to stuff most people hurry past. The way a child drags their feet when they’re tired, the way a neighbour’s dog pauses as if it understands something I don’t, the way a single sunbeam lands on my desk in the afternoon, these little moments become sparks. They remind me that creativity isn’t about chasing something grand; it’s about being present enough to catch the quiet details life offers freely.

And the best lessons aren’t the ones we memorise; they’re the ones we live. They come from making meaning out of what’s unfolding right in front of us. Each day asks us to move through the world with a little more confidence, a little more steadiness, and a willingness to notice what we usually overlook. When we slow down enough to connect the dots, the simple with the complex, the joyful with the uncomfortable, we begin to understand how to navigate this extraordinary, messy, beautiful life we’re all living. Creativity, it turns out, isn’t something we find. It’s something we’re already surrounded by.

You are warmly invited to the opening of the Stillness art exhibition. A collection of creative mixed media art and poetry, which emerged from a profoundly challenging chapter in my life. In the midst of turmoil, I turned to my enduring sanctuaries: writing and painting. These practices helped navigate a personal labyrinth of discomfort, transformation and learning. Supported by a circle of fellow artists, I embarked on a journey that culminated in these Stillness works.  

The essence of stillness lies in its ability to invite presence, evoke introspection, and suspend a moment in time. Where movement demands energy and attention, stillness holds a quiet power. It creates space to pause, breathe, and connect on a deeper emotional level. Through minimalism, subdued colour palettes, gentle lines, and an open mind, these works seek to evoke silence, solitude, and transcendence. 

Stillness in art is not the absence of life, but rather a distilled concentration of it. An invitation to hear what is unspoken, to feel what cannot be rushed, and to experience the sacred within the quiet.

Please join me at 5:30pm on Saturday 12 July at Studio Brunswick, 1/374 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley.  

Author: Vicki Bennett

Publisher: Boolarong Press
Price:$32.99

The Letters

A gripping tale of adventure, passion, and generational healing which takes readers on a spellbinding journey through time that begs the question: If you could go back in time, what would you change?

The Letters blends commercial fiction with speculative historical fiction against the backdrop of war and resilience. This compelling story explores the intricate connections between three generations, the secrets of the past, and the enduring bond between Australia and France.

When rebellious Ruby is bequeathed her late grandfather’s personal letters, she is pulled from peacetime 1973 Australia, to 1917 World War I France. Without identification or any way home, she sets out to right a wrong that has broken her family for generations. Ruby meets a resistance fighter, Henri, and finds a love that transcends the boundaries of time, drawing Ruby from the security of her century to the dangers of his. And as they navigate a dangerous terrain, Ruby is torn between the love of this mysterious hero, and the life she left behind.

$32.99

www.vickibennett.com.au

I love this analogy about the choices we have for engaging with others on planet earth … Imagine you are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee?

“Because someone bumped into me!”

Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea. Whatever is inside

the cup is what will spill out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you, which will happen, whatever is inside you will come out. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.

So, we have to ask ourselves … “what’s in my cup?”

When life gets tough, what spills over? Joy, gratitude, peace and humility?

Anger, bitterness, victim mentality, and quitting-tendencies? Life provides the cup, you choose how to fill it.

Let’s work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, resilience, positivity, kindness, gentleness and love for others.

My most treasured life tool is gratitude but it needs to be explored and used every day. Here are some ways to bring gratitude into our daily practice: 

• Slow everything down by walking in gratitude; appreciate your surroundings.
• Soften towards your family, friends and colleagues. 

• Thank others for the smallest kindness. 

• Forgive yourself, be gentle on yourself. 

• Give people the benefit of the doubt; don’t take things personally. 

• Actively notice new things to feel grateful about. 

• Show compassion to self and others. 


Credit to: Austin Tang for the analogy