Find renewal and reinvention as a creative soul with Jim Longbottom

14 May, 2024

All my life I have sought creative outlets. They have included writing, photography, lead lighting, pottery, wood turning, and oil painting.

I am 75, and I live, work, and volunteer with the Benedictine Community here at New Norcia, Perth Western Australia. I spend my time in various capacities including tour guiding and as an archival photographer digitising various record collections.

I came later in life to photography as a creative outlet. My primary passions in photography are wide-field astrophotography, and day and night landscape photography. I brought a level of photography skill to New Norcia when I commenced volunteering five years ago. Over the years I have captured precious works from the archives. The varied challenges and problem-solving to achieve this task have elevated my skill level above anything I could have imagined. That work has in turn inspired me and captured my imagination.

In recent months, the unique architecture and buildings of New Norcia have inspired me to try my hand at pen and wash sketching. I am currently caught in the old familiar trap of “perfection paralysis”, but at least I’m trying something different, something new, and that helps me see again with different eyes.

I’m also inspired by sacred words, and I believe that the Divine is always creating new spaces for us to occupy. The Psalmist speaks to that as a ‘new song’, literally a song of renewal. One such ‘new space’ for me was to become an Oblate of the Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity New Norcia and order my life as far as is practicable to the Rule of St Benedict. The monks embrace the concept of ‘conversion of life’, and this became my next logical conversion point. 

Being a resident at New Norcia as an artist, even if only for a short period of time, has all the potential to bring one to a ‘new place’, new space’, to embrace new methods, take new risks, in short – find a sort of renewal and reinvention as a creative soul.

The country and the ‘lived history’ in and around New Norcia inspire me, and provide endless opportunities, particularly when they have been so often portrayed by so many others before me. How can I bring new life to this image? What can I employ to assist others to see this beauty as I see it? 

“Let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice.” ― St. Benedict. 

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Visit or Stay at New Norcia

New Norcia has several types of accommodation for individuals and groups, or we encourage a day visit to the Gallery and New Norcia shop. 

Visit the website for more details: www.newnorcia.com.au/accommodation/stay