Maybe I Just Needed a Reason to Get Out More

Maybe I Just Needed a Reason to Get Out More

I could probably give you a very polished explanation for why I started YOURS, CURATED.

I could talk about the changing media landscape, the creator economy, the incredible amount of talent that exists outside traditional creative industries, or the fact that some of the most interesting people I come across have surprisingly small audiences.

All of that is true.

But the real reason is probably much simpler.

I wanted to get out more.

I wanted a reason to go somewhere I had never been before. To walk into a market and actually stop and talk to the person behind the stall. To find the tiny studio hidden somewhere in Sydney. To hear someone singing and wonder why more people did not know their name. To discover a photographer, designer, florist, artist, writer or maker and have an excuse to ask them about what they were doing.

I wanted to meet people.

And, if I am being completely transparent, I wanted to do it for myself.

My own creative journey has taken a lot of different turns. I have always been drawn to ideas, design, imagery, storytelling and the possibility of creating something from nothing. Like a lot of creative people, though, I have also spent plenty of time wondering what I should actually do with all of that curiosity.

YOURS, CURATED has become an answer to that question.

Not necessarily the answer. I am still figuring that part out.

But it gives me a reason to follow the things that catch my attention.

Recently, I have found myself noticing people differently. Instead of scrolling past someone making something interesting, I want to know who they are. Instead of thinking, “Someone should know about this person,” I can actually do something about it.

I can ask.

I can listen.

I can tell their story.

And I can share it with you.

That is really where YOURS, CURATED begins.

There is no enormous editorial office behind this. There is no panel deciding who is important enough to be featured. There is no requirement for someone to have a certain number of followers before their work becomes worth talking about.

At the moment, there is mostly me, following my curiosity and seeing where it leads.

I think that might be the part I am most excited about.

I do not know exactly who I am going to meet yet.

I do not know which stories will become the ones people remember. I do not know whether I will discover someone at a weekend market, through an Instagram account with 600 followers, at an exhibition, in a tiny shop, through a friend of a friend, or because somebody sends me a message and says, “You need to see what this person is doing.”

That uncertainty is part of the point.

The internet has made it possible for almost anyone to put their work into the world. It has also created an enormous amount of noise. Some extraordinary work gets seen by millions of people. Some extraordinary work barely leaves the room it was created in.

I want to go looking for the latter.

Not because small automatically means interesting, or because popularity makes something less meaningful. I simply think there are people creating things worth seeing who we have not found yet.

And I want to find them.

There is another selfish reason for all of this too.

I want my own world to become bigger.

I want to learn about things I know nothing about. I want conversations with people whose lives look completely different from mine. I want to hear how someone went from an idea scribbled in a notebook to selling something they made with their own hands. I want to know what made somebody pick up a camera, start painting, write the first page, open the studio, launch the business or finally put their work online.

I want to know what keeps them going when nobody is paying attention yet.

Those are the stories I want YOURS, CURATED to tell.

Maybe somewhere along the way, one of them will make you start something too.

Maybe you will discover an artist whose work ends up on your wall. Maybe you will find a designer you follow for the next ten years. Maybe you will attend someone's first workshop and eventually watch them open their own studio. Maybe you will read about somebody taking a chance on an idea and realise you have been sitting on one of your own.

Or maybe you will simply discover something beautiful that you would never have found otherwise.

That is enough too.

I have ideas about where YOURS, CURATED could eventually go. A physical magazine. The Vision Edit. Photography. Contributors. Events. Creative collaborations. Stories from further away than Sydney.

But I do not want to pretend I know exactly what this will become.

Right now, I would rather discover it.

So this is the first story.

Mine, I suppose.

The next one will be somebody else's.

And that is the whole reason I am here.

I am going looking.

You are welcome to come with me.

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