Save the Date for Camelot 2020!

Camelot 2017 - Recognise anyone?

We"re giving you plenty of warning so there's no excuse for not making it to Performers Night this year!

Join us at the famous 

CAMELOT LOUNGE Nightclub in Marrickville 

for a fabulous night of entertainment on 

Wednesday 29th July. 

(Yes, this year it's on a Wednesday)

Put it in your diary!

Prepare a performance for us or just come and cheer for all your favourite creative doctors. 

Let's plan to make this our best year yet!

(And don't forget to let us know if you are coming to Writers Night on Thursday 2nd April by emailing Jan at janorman@mccauleysoftware.com.) 

Do you need some writing inspiration?

With Writers Night coming up all our Creative Doctor writers are coming out of the woodwork!

First cab off the rank is Hilton Koppe who many of you will remember gave Creative Doctors a terrific talk at a previous Writers Night and a full day creative writing workshop a few years ago.

Hilton can't make it to our annual networking meeting on Thursday 2nd April (you can see the details in my previous post) but he tells me he is going to be giving another full day workshop at the Byron Writers Festival on Saturday 4th April.

Why not follow up on Writers Night by moseying up to Byron for the weekend!
Here's a link to more information about Hilton's workshop Hilton at Byron

Meanwhile don't forget to let us know if you'd like to come to Writers Night so we have enough chairs and enough food. Get in early if you want to read your work - spots at the microphone go quickly and its first in best dressed!

That RSVP address for CD Writers Night again is
janorman@mccauleysoftware.com

Writers Night 2020

The first Creative Doctors networking event of 2020 is coming up soon.
With all that's been going on in the world around us its been a little hard to focus lately, so do try to come and join us at our annual doctor writers get-together to be reconnected and re-inspired.

Creative Doctors Writers Night 

Thursday 2nd April 6.45pm 

at Moore Park Golf Club in Sydney.

You can simply listen and meet fellow medicos with a flair for writing, or bring some work of your own to read and share.

In the wake of all our recent natural disasters it would be great to have a theme survival and recovery, but there are really no hard and fast rules about what your reading should be about so please join us for some fun and inspiration. 

Contact us via this blog or at janorman@mccauleysoftware.com if you'd like to attend.

Our venue and catering will be provided as usual by our sponsor Judith Babich of Active Locums who has generously supported Creative Doctors' networking events for well over a decade.

2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize Winner - can any of us do as well?

Did you read the shortlisted poems for the 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize? Did you have a favourite?

If you didn't read it and you'd like to do so before I tell you who won (the prizewinner was announced on 16th January) click on this link to the shortlist 

Have you made your decision?
OK so here's the link to  the prizewinner - a wonderful, moving poem that I'm sure you will appreciate. A worthy winner!

If that has whet your appetite for good poetry you might also like to know that the Australian Book Review website also publishes links to past prizewinners. Here's a link to that past winners page. Maybe all those great poems will inspires you to write some poetry of your own that you can share with us on Writers Night.

Creative Doctors Writers Night 2020 is coming up on Thursday March 5th at Moore Park Golf Club with the generous help of Judith Babich from Active Locums. We are all very interested to hear the products of everyone's writing year. We welcome short fiction, non-fiction, excerpts from your last novel, excerpts from plays, lyrics, poetry - anything that, as a wordsmith, you are proud of and would like to share. 

If you are a creative doctor/writer who is interested in presenting your work to like-minded medicos please get in touch.

You can contact us for more information via the link on this blog or at janorman@mccauleysoftware.com

2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize

The shortlist is out for the 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize.

The late Peter Porter AO

The prize has been awarded since 2005 and was renamed in 2011 to honour the great Brisbane-born poet after his death in 2010.
The 2020 prize winner will be announced on 16th January. In the meantime you might like to select your favorite poem from the shortlist published on the Australian Book Review website

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding which poem I think should win.

Unfortunately I don't understand Lachlan Brown's "Precision Signs" at first reading - I will go back to it later to see what I can make of it.
I love Claire Coleman's "That Wadjela Tongue" about her lost language and the colonisers who
"dragged my language off the land, scraped
 my tongue they could not bring themselves to cut out".
Her mastery of the colonisers' tongue has become her greatest weapon.
A.Frances Johnson has written a dark and evocative poem about dementia in "My Father's Thesaurus" that is hugely relevant to many of my peers, and probably to yours as well.
Julie Manning's "Constellation of Bees" is beautifully written with a subtle message about what we are doing to the environment. Julie has written my favourite line. It's about the vermilion Tulip Tree which  "blooms with fragrant open cups - nightclub porn
                               for bees"
And Ross Gillett's "South Coast Sonnets", a clever extended metaphor about a marriage in the form of five sonnet-shaped stanzas, is both clever and evocative.

I'm no expert when it comes to poetry and it seems in this case I don't even know what I like! (Well, not what I like best anyway.)
Take a look for yourself and see what you think. (Here's the link to the shortlist again)

I'm keen to see a Creative Doctor on that shortlist one day soon, and I can think of one or two already who deserve to be there. Could it be you?

Visual Arts Night 2019

Of course I didn't get away with failing to report on Visual Arts Night!
Robyn Coleman, who exhibits regularly at Creative Doctors Visual Arts Night has provided me with some reportage so that those of you who didn't make it will have an idea of what went on.

Here's what Robyn had to say:

"We had a wonderful night on 3rd October at our annual Creative Doctors Visual Arts Night, with exhibitions of some fascinating works.

Howard Gwynne provided an interactive display of "inner life " photos. Participants identified the photos they most connected with their own inner life and that of their parents. There were some fascinating photos and putting self-adhesive dots on the photos allowed people to see which were the most popular. Interestingly a very disapproving photo of Queen Elizabeth II scored the most dots to represent our parents inner lives. Therapy anyone?
Howard also displayed a favourite piece of glass art  made by another member, Marc Grunseit, that represented beautifully the inner and outer aspects of life. 

Marc was there too. He has finally retired from making glass art, for which he is internationally acclaimed, and has moved on to other sculptural media. He brought a new sculptural piece for us to admire which illustrated that his talent extends way beyond his old medium. If you have an orthopaedic interest you may be able to identify some of the materials he used in the photo

Work by Kai Lin Lie

Work by Sadhana Desai

Kai Lin Lie showed us the life studies she has completed in only one term of study at the Royal Art Society in North Sydney. Fabulous work!



Another former doctor, Sadhana Desai, is now devoting most of her time to art and exhibiting with the Kuringai Art Society. She showed us the beautiful wildlife inspired work she has been doing. She has been experimenting with depicting Australian wildlife incorporating patterns and shapes reminiscent of her Indian heritage.  The results are startling.

Tom Klug and his recent sculptural work

Tom Klug brought his fantastic surrealist-inspired photographs from a few years ago, and a wonderful sculpture that is part of his current artistic interest.

Robyn Coleman and part of her
Sydney to Hobart series

I presented four works that are to be exhibited in the 75th Anniversary Sydney to Hobart Race Exhibition at the Maritime Museum in Hobart. I also provided some earth pastel cards from my Antarctica and Flinders Ranges series which were popular. (These are also available from my instagram site @robyn_coleman)

Julie Gottlieb and her work

Finally Julie Gottlieb presented some of the haunting portraiture for which she is so well known.







Cliff Hing's creative streak is taking a slightly less visual path. We all enjoyed sampling the products from hte Hunter Valley vineyard and winemaking venture (Baringbah) that is his current  creative obsession (read more about it here) and the delicious catering so generously provided by Judith Babich of Active Locums

Thanks to the committee for organising the event. It is always a pleasure!"

And many thanks to Robyn for contributing that post.

Visual Arts Night was fantastic but let's move on to the next big thing!

I'm going to get into trouble for not paying enough attention to the wonderful people who came to see the art on display at our Visual Arts Night on 3rd October, but I'm too excited about the next event to dwell on the past!

Sorry, but Writers Night is my favorite and this year we are going back to the old tried and true formula of inviting Creative Doctors to read tidbits to us from their best and latest work.
We are also going back to the Heritage Room at Moore Park Golf Club which has proven to be such a

successful venue in the past. The food is always  great and the windows provide an excellent view of  sun sinking over the golf course with the evening cityscape decorating the other horizon.

If you're not too busy working on the essay you are writing for the 2020 Calibre Essay Prize (click on the link NOW - entries close 15th January!), your short story for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize or the poem you are writing for the Peter Porter Poetry Prize (whoops, entries for 2020 closed on 1st October - you've got to be quick!) then how about putting something together for Creative Doctors Writers Night?

SAVE THE DATE 
Thursday 5th March 2020 and keep writing!

Visual Arts Night 2019

The third and final event on the  Creative Doctors calendar for 2019 is fast approaching!

Visual Arts Night will be held at North Sydney Community Centre on Thursday 3rd October 2019 with a starting time of 7.00pm.

Creative Doctors is pleased to invite medicos of all stripes (including medical students) to show us what they have been doing in the visual arts space during the year. Every year we uncover some amazing talent!

If you are a doctor (past,  present or future) who is also a photographer, a painter, a sculptor, a jeweller, a crafter or a visual artist of any kind,  and you would like to exhibit your work, please contact us to reserve a space.

Our sponsor Judith Babich
 of Active Locums

If you are just  curious to see what your talented medical colleagues, relatives and  friends can do, you are welcome to be in the audience  - just RSVP so that we can get the catering right.

 Judith Babich from Active Locums is sponsoring venue hire and providing light refreshments. Judith has been an unstinting and generous supporter of these events for nearly two decades  It is worth mentioning that she also supports the NSW Doctors Orchestra and the UNSW Medical Students Musical Society

If you are keen to exhibit or just to peek at the show
please RSVP NOW:
by email to creativedoctorsaustralia@gmail.com
or message Jan on 0425215876

Meanwhile, take a peek below at some examples of work we have exhibited in past years:

Keeping Burnout at Bay

It's probably fair to say that many of us Creative
Doctors do what we do because of burnout - either in an effort to recover from it or to keep it at bay by maintaining the balance in our lives.

Writing is my thing, but I haven't had much time to do it lately because the sideways pitch of my career has led me to a role that soaks up a lot of my creative juices. I feel a bit lucky that after 3 decades of clinical medicine and immersion in primary care mental health I can now stretch my creative muscles and use that experience to help create podcasts, blogposts, webinars and face-to-face teaching events. 

You can access much of my online activity eMHPrac page of the Black Dog Institute website. But you might like to head straight for the podcast about burnout that we made based on a webinar on the same subject. Happy listening!

Attention Writers! A chance to bring out your bloodthirsty!

Here's an opportunity you mustn't miss - but you'd better start that story right now!

Entries close for the 2019 Scarlet Stiletto Short Story Award on 31st August.

Never heard of it?
Run by Melbourne-based not-for-profit volunteers Sisters in Crime, the competition has been held annually since 1993 and has been won by a crowd of great writers, many of whom have gone on to build great reputations and have novels published . This year's major prize money is $1060 but its not the money you enter it for - its the glory.

What do you need to do?
First you need to be a woman (sorry guys).
Then you need to write up to 5,000 rivetting and possibly bloodthirsty words of crime fiction in a story with a strong female protagonist.
You can get all the details at the Sisters in Crime website.

For a bit of inspiration you might like to look at this story about the 2018 awards ceremony. There is hope for all of us. 2018's Scarlet Stiletto was won by Philomena Horsley, a medical anthropologist who specialises in autopsies.

You'll notice too that there are more prizes to be had than just the Stiletto. The one that appeals to me the most is the Writers Victoria Crime and Punishment Award  that comes in the form of a three month residency at the Old Melbourne Gaol. How inspiring would that be!

Go on - you can do it. We both know you've been plotting that crime forever!

Life is like a barstool....

Burnout is alive and well in the medical profession - in fact we may have invented it!

I wrote a blog post about the importance of having more than just medicine in your life recently and I thought it might be a good thing to share with my Creative Doctors colleagues.

Here's the link to the barstool stool post. It comes from a blog called Being Well, an open access blog aimed mostly at a mental health professional audience. It is linked to other password-protected things but you are welcome to read the blog without having to sign in.

Please find below a few shots of some Creative Doctors (and some of their friends) contributing to their own wellbeing at Performers Night at Camelot in past years. More information about the 2019 Performers Night on 15th August  can be found 2 posts back. If you'd like a spot on the bill this year or you'd just like to be in the audience, contact us at creativedoctorsaustralia@gmail.com. We'd love to see you there! 

Invitation to Participate in a Photographic Competition

Michael Lockwood, Creative Director of Out From the Mist, has invited Creative Doctors'  members to participate in this unique photographic competition featuring photographic representations of mental health.

The Bridge - Saturday 8th June 10.45am
Jan Orman

Entries are open to anyone with lived experience of mental illness or those close to them - including health professionals. Photographs will be judged using four criteria - lived experience, relationships, recovery and change.

The competition is being conducted on behalf of the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia (MIFA).

For more information please use this link to go to the competition website

Save the date for Performers Night 2019

I'm back!
Sorry I've been away so long - been busy - you know how it is I'm sure.
It had to be something VERY BIG to get me blogging again and it is. Stop the presses!

We have a date and a venue for the 2019 Creative Doctors Performers Night.

Put it in your diary NOW:

7.00pm THURSDAY 15th August 2019 
CAMELOT LOUNGE (Have you been before? - its a great venue with lots of camels!)
Cnr Marrickville Rd and Railway Parade Marrickville

Yes, we have had illuminated hoops
at a previous performers night!

NSW

Entry is free for network members and all their friends and relations (thanks to our sponsor Judith Babich of Active Locums) and food and drink are available to purchase from the bar 

Please try to come along - even if you aren't one of the performers you will enjoy seeing our "performing doctors" (and medical students) sing, dance  (possibly with illuminated hoops), play musical instruments and do stand-up routines - maybe even all at the same time!
Our doctors are able, on this one night of the year, to do all the things they can't get away with on the wards or in the office.

RSVP If you'd like to perform on the night, or just want to tell us that you will be in the audience, please contact me, Jan, at creativedoctorsaustralia@gmail.com


And while I have your attention....


The NSW Doctors Orchestra; Musicus Medicus also has exciting performances which may interest you as well. Their next performance is at 2.30 pm on Sunday 16th June at the Concourse Concert Hall in Chatswood.
You can find out more from the Musicus Medicus website 

A website to help support your creativity

I've never quite been able to understand why I am on LinkedIn, thinking, as I do, that it's mostly about people networking to find their next job. I'm not so keen on getting another job, as it happens! However,  every now and again something comes to my attention that makes me pleased I am there.

This week I got a contact request from fellow named Richard K Potter. The name meant nothing so I looked him up and got a pleasant surprise. 

 Richard is an artist who also runs a website called Creativity 4 Wellbeing (C4W for short). The site is all about promoting health, wellbeing and a sense of belonging through creativity.  It's about sharing creative ideas and about supporting people who want to start an activity group or an art workshop in their own community.

Richard is actually a visiting lecturer in Narrative Writing at the university of Brighton so his skills are not limited to visual arts. He seems to be particularly interested in using creativity to help people with mental health needs.

Take a look at the site. Here's the link again if you missed it the first time: Creativity 4 Wellbeing. If you don't get inspired to start a community group I'm sure you'll  be personally inspired by some of the fabulously creative ideas.

Here's a link one of my favourite project ideas on the site, the treehouses.

Creative Docs in the media

Much as I don't want to draw anyone's attention to the terrible photo of the Creative Docs committee that appears in the article I do want you to know that we have had some very nice attention from the media as a result of our publicity campaign for last week's Creative Docs  Performer's Night. (More about the night in a later post)

Here's a link to the article by Amanda Lyons from the RACGP Newsletter

Bringing Your Stories to Life

Creative Doctors Writers Night 2018 is on Thursday April 12th at Moore Park Golf Club and this year we are taking a slightly different look at story writing.

It is true that we all have personal stories that just won't leave us alone - stories from our work and stories from our lives. Drawing on both oral and written traditions we hope with this event to encourage Creative Doctors members to bring those stories to life - and maybe even to create something tangible from them.

Some of our number have already volunteered to tell a first person story in the campfire tradition. They will have 5 minutes to tell their story in an engaging and entertaining way. "Story slamming" like this  has been made popular in recent years by organisations the US  the Moth but, it has to be admitted, the tradition of storytelling around the campfire goes back a whole lot further than when the Moth began in the 1990s. It's even possible that it started before the campfire was invented!

You can listen to  some great examples of oral storytelling on The Moth website by clicking here.  

On Writers Night  2018 Dr Hilton Koppe will come to listen to our stories with us. He will lead us in some exercises to help us find ways of making our real life stories into something more than just dinner table conversation. Even the greatest raconteurs amongst us can do with a little extra help from time to time!

When: 6.30pm 12th April 2018
Where: Heritage Room, Moore Park Golf Club
RSVP please to Dr Howard Gwynne howard@aya.yale.edu

Snippets from Camelot - Nick Brennan

Nick Brennan joined us again the year at the Camelot Lounge to sing and play two more of his original compositions. Usually Nick sticks to his guitar, but this year he hauled his banjo out of the attic for one of the songs and showed us just what a versatile musician he is!

Nick's day job is as a geriatrician at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and at War Memorial Hospital in Waverley. Each year he organises a concert at War Memorial Hospital with special guests and proceeds to charity. This year the concert is on Saturday 23rd September from 7.00pm to 11.00pm with special guests "Naomi and James" and proceeds will go to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

If you were unlucky enough not to have seen Nick perform at Camelot here's a link to some of his music Nick Brennan in Triple J Unearthed (beware if you go looking on the net for him. There is another Nick Brennan who is a young country music artist - that's not our Nick. Follow my link to find him!)

If you'd like to be at the concert give Nick's secretary a call on 93690238 and she'll be happy to sell you a ticket or two for $25 each. You can also email Nick on nicholasbrennan@health.nsw.gov.au
For the price of your ticket you get drinks as well as the concert and you get to share the food everyone brings as well as share yours with others. You can buy tickets at the door but I do recommend you book in advance as these concerts are very popular and usually packed to the rafters.

As a bonus you can CLICK HERE to find the lyrics of one of the very moving original songs that Nick performed for us at Camelot.

Snippets from Camelot - Hawkeye Reis

Hawkeye Reis

Studying medicine can jolt you into real life pretty suddenly. Ali Cimen (AKA Hawkeye Reis) is in his fourth year as a medical student at the University of Western Sydney. He sang “Tough” at Camelot last week, his heart-rending song dedicated to “King”, a patient he met in palliative care.  

Here are the lyrics:

I used to run eight miles every day, young man,

See that's what you did back then,

No iPhone, no laptop computers, just you,

Your two legs, your two hands

I was training for the army you see, young man,

All my friends had gone to war,

Sixteen nine months I snuck my way in, saw some things I did,

Saw some things you wouldn't understand.

Now my shit just collects in a bag on my chest,

And I need someone there just to help me get dressed,

And the doctors keep saying that I should just rest,

So I sit here all day, stuck in this bed,

While my legs,

Just waste,

Away

Oh my legs,

Just waste,

Aw

My wife's lost her mind, young man,

She wanders around in a world of her own,

She needs me, She needs me at home, young man,

Where's your compassion? Don't you understand?

Now my shit just collects in a bag on my chest,

And I need someone there just to help me get dressed,

And the doctors keep saying that I should just rest,

So I sit here all day, stuck in this bed,

While my legs,

Just waste,

Away

Oh my legs,

Just waste,

Away

Oh I'm going to break this bed and run away

See I was a tough, old bastard, young man,

What have you done to me, what have you done to me,

Yes I was a tough, old bastard, young man,

What have you done to me, what have you done to me,

Yes I know where I'm headed, young man,

Oh I know where I'm going, young man,

Let me go home, let me go home, let me go home,

See I was a tough, old bastard, young man,

Look at me now

Performers Night Photo Gallery

Curious about the Creative Doctors doings at Camelot last week?
Click HERE to see the pictures

Love your work everybody concerned!

What a night we had at Camelot!

Camelot Lounge was busting at its seams last night with a house full of doctors and their friends and family for the annual performers gig. It was a night of exciting, varied and high quality entertainment. Who'd have thought that bagpipes and burlesque could work so well on the same bill!

Many thanks to the entertainers for their fabulous efforts and the audience for rolling up in great supportive numbers. Thanks too to the fabulous staff at Camelot who have now hosted SIX wonderful shows for us.
But most of all, thanks to Judith Babich from Active Locums who has unfailingly supported us as our sponsor for all these years.
This is what Judith has had to say about Performer's Night 2017:

"Huge congratulations to you all for another wonderful event  at Camelot last night.  The Performers Night was, as always, very inspiring and there were  many highlights.  It was a great turnout and an interesting and well balanced mix of doctors and medical students. 

Active Locums Pty Ltd  is very proud to sponsor such a fine and talented group of doctor performers  which allows them to explore and nurture their creative side. Everyone had wonderful time and I am already looking forward to next year's performance."

We'll post some pictures when Howard has recovered enough to provide them!

Here are some more doctor-friendly events coming up in 2017 that you might like to know about:

Doctors Gerard Ingham and Genevieve Yates

• From 14th to 17th September the Parade Theatre in Randwick will host "GP: The Musical" on the back of last year's sold out season in Melbourne with a cast of talented doctors. The show was written by NSW GP Genevieve Yates (on whose blog you can find photos and video clips of the musical and possibly even some familiar faces) and Victorian GP Gerard Ingham. Tickets are available on the NIDA website  

• On Thursday 5th October Creative Doctors present our Visual Arts Night at  North Sydney Community Centre. Doctor artists are invited to show their visual art accomplishments - from photography to felting, portraits to pastels, bookbinding to beading, sculpture to sandcastles - everything is welcome as long as we can see it and it's art and a doctor (or medical student) did it. More details later on the blog.

Members of the NSW Doctors Orchestra with founder
Dr Cathy Fraser at centre back (on flute)

• NSW Doctors Orchestra's 2017 performance in the afternoon of Sunday 5th November at Chatswood Concourse (also sponsored by Judith with proceeds to aid research into Huntington's Disease). Special guest at the concert will be Slava Grigorian who will play the wonderful Rodrigo guitar concerto! More details on their website soon.