Be what you are becoming, the first live art event and exhibition by longtime artist-friends, Barbara Dawson and Natalie McDonagh, opens on Thursday 01 October 2026 in Erowal Bay. You are warmly invited to drop in, see an exhibition of new work by the artists, and join them in some mindful stitching as they create a wearable, textile artwork during the six day event.
About the exhibition and event
“If you think: yesterday I was, tomorrow I shall be, you are thinking: I have died a little. Be what you are becoming, without clinging to what you might have been, what you might yet be. Never settle. Let’s leave definitiveness to the undecided; we don’t need it.”
Luce Irigaray. On the sex which is not one (1985)
Barbara Dawson and Natalie McDonagh have each taken Irigaray’s thoughts and words as a starting point to create new bodies of work being exhibited alongside each other. Be what you are becoming brings together wall hanging art works, wearable textiles, interactive installation, and an opportunity to work with the artists.
The conceptual common thread of Be what you are becoming is matched by a material common thread: the role of cloth and stitch in the artists’ respective practices. Barbara and Natalie are in residence over the six open days, creating a shared, stitched work in response to Irigaray’s invocation to ‘be what you are becoming’.
You are welcome to come and stitch with them and add your own tactile response to the textile artwork that emerges.
I regularly use stitch in my art, engaging with the medium with a profound sense of peace and tranquillity.
Barbara Dawson
Reflect And Replenish
For one of her JBW articles last year, Natalie interviewed stitchers about their experiences of stitching and what effect it has on their wellbeing. Knowing Barbara to be a prolific stitcher in her art making, she was an obvious person to interview. In the article Natalie writes:
Barbara shared the following striking effect she’s noticed in relation to her physical wellbeing. Barbara is in her late 70s, is very fit and pays close attention to her physical health. She noticed over the past few weeks that her resting heart rate had gone up by 5 points and was wondering why, what was different? She realised she had not been stitching and made a direct correlation between the two.
While evidence of the direct benefit to her physical wellbeing is new to her, Barbara has long recognised its psychological benefits. She unequivocally credits stitching with giving her a sense of calm and peacefulness. As someone managing elevated anxiety Barbara gladly finds refuge in the process of making long lines of simple running stitch, ranging across cloth she dyes herself. She likens this to walking the landscape, another of her regular practices.
Invitation to stitch together
It is an obvious move for Barbara and Natalie to extend Be what you are becoming beyond being a static exhibition, into being a live event with the two of them as active artists in residence, stitching in each other’s company, creating an artwork in situ.
The artists warmly invite and welcome visitors to sit with them, take up needle and thread, participate in some gently guided, slow stitching; reflect and replenish through this mindful practice, and contribute to the becoming of Barbara and Natalie’s textile artwork.
WHEN & WHERE
Be what you are becoming
Open Thursday 01 + Friday 02 + Saturday 03 + Thursday 08 + Friday 09 + Saturday 10 October 2026 / 11-4pm daily.
Venue Artfulmind Studio, Erowal Bay. Email Natalie McDonagh for street address.
Barbara’s body of wall hanging artworks on display in Be what you are becoming was recently exhibited at Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra, attracting much interest and a significant acquisition by a private collector.
Read more about Barbara and her art practice in JBW’s Artist Profile
