Amanda Ruck:

I was having an exhibition at Yering Station, I think it was in about 2007 or 2008, and at the opening Ali came up to me and said, ‘I’m really interested in talking to people about art, and I’ve got a new space in Healesville and I want to connect with people about art, and I reckon you and I could get along pretty well’, and I really loved hearing that. She suggested that I come up to the space and we could chat about art, and I just thought, ‘This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened.’ So I’d go up to Three Stories (Ali’s art studio); she eventually moved in there after the fires, and so was there permanently, and it blossomed from there.

There’s a core group of four women now. We started calling it Google Thursdays because we were always googling – ‘what about this artist, what about that artist, what was that technique?’ and it became the ‘Googals’, [although] I don’t really like giving Google any more advocating than they need. And it was a great opportunity to talk about art without boring the pants off all of our friends, who would be engaged for a little while, but if you really want to immerse yourself you can’t expect everyone who isn’t working to have the same drive, or go over the same old ground and get new answers. Most of society is happy to look at the outcome, but they’re not really interested in engaging in the process: it can be really boring, it can be really intimidating for some people, and we can sound really pretentious. We’re not, but we want to be informed and we don’t want to be judged. 

I’m the most conservative one of our group, because I’m a painter. Ali’s more of a conceptual artist, where she’ll take on any medium to tell a story or have a voice. The other women are sculptors mostly, but do do a little bit of 2D as well. There’s nothing hard about it [the friendship], there’s everything interesting about it, and I wonder if it’s because we come from different disciplines. I don’t feel there’s a jealousy or anything competitive about it. In fact, it’s such a pristine environment for generating ideas and being really honest with each other; there’s a genuine respect for each other. And she started it all, Ali started it – I feel like I go in there, and my heart just opens up and I flow, I can work while I’m talking to them; I have absolutely nothing but respect for them, and it’s how I’d like society to be! 

A few years ago she said, ‘I feel like I want to invite you round for dinner!’, and I said ‘Yeah I know, but we just don’t do that, do we!’ We’ve just got this really unusual friendship. Our circle of friends intersects, definitely, but there is a really special place in my heart for her, and I feel like it’s the same thing [with] me. It’s quite a unique relationship, where it’s for the practice, and it is about the practice, and I think that’s stimulating enough for us. And I think we’re very different and very similar!

The intentions of her practice really inform me, the way she goes about solving or resolving an idea, from its beginning – I see the dry ingredients, if you will, and then I see the dinner party at the end. It’s very intimate too – I wonder if we were together in social circumstances whether we would end up at the end of the table just talking to each other, and bore the absolute shit out of everyone else in the room! 

There’s a real intimacy and honesty, just as a result of working closely with each other. She’ll be working and I’ll be working, and there’d be days when we’d hardly even speak to each other. I have to say, it sounds a little bit like a love affair!! [I love] her intellect, and her generosity. And her pursuit of a better life, leaving the world in a better place. Her intentions are fantastic, and she’s very true to them. 

Ali Griffin:

I have probably known Amanda for at least ten years, I think. But I’m not 100% sure how we met! Maybe it was through Open Studios, maybe it was Three Stories. I wonder what she said?! [On hearing Amanda’s story: ] Approaching someone like that is not something I’d usually do! I guess maybe I could see [a potential connection], or maybe there was something she said in her opening speech, as well as just her artwork – there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. 

I think probably what brought us closer was that I was working on the Yarra Valley Open Studios [and also] at Three Stories; it was almost like an artist-in-residence program – without being a program – where people would just come and hang out for the day, and work in the studio. So Amanda came up and painted from the space quite a few times in the early days. And I can’t do this – she’s fantastic at it – she can paint anywhere, she could paint underwater I reckon! She could paint on the street and have people talk to her at the same time, she can just do that, whereas I can’t really do much when there’s my own family in the room! I have to be able to really concentrate. It’s so inspiring to watch, and to have someone in your presence that just gets down and does it is really good for me. 

Along the track, we made the coming and working together on Thursdays a priority, and Amanda would come, and Mim Kocher [and then Genevieve McLean] would come, and we would work together in the space. And we’d just sort of chat about life, love and the universe. Then someone would inevitably ask a question that nobody knew the answer to, so we would Google it. We ended up calling ourselves the Google Girls, so we’ve got this little group. 

I really, really, really respect her opinion on anything, but mostly we talk about art and she’s very honest. But in a very caring and positive way, and I don’t think she would ever blow smoke up your arse just to make you feel good. But the way that we talk with each other is really caring, and I think that we know that even if we say, ‘you know, why don’t you push it this way or that way’, neither of us are ever going to take offence, because we know that we’ve got each other’s best interests at heart. And as an artist, just as a person, that’s so valuable. I’ve got a lot of friends, and I don’t know that I’ve got that relationship with anyone else. It is really special. It’s a weird friendship – and we have spoken about this a little bit – where we don’t hang out with each other for dinner parties and things like this, but we are absolutely in contact … it’s almost like a ‘day friendship’ rather than an ‘other time’ friendship. And we’ll text and send each other images of what we’re working on, and it’s such a rich exchange. I was saying to her the other day that artists like to get deep really quickly. That’s what [we do] – go deep really quickly about all sorts of things. And the honesty that comes with that is really important.

When I need to be pulled out of something, if I’m in a rut, or vice-versa, we can do that for each other. I think we understand each other on that level – it goes back to knowing that we care, we know that we’re really nice people. We would never deliberately try and do anything that might upset each other, and so we don’t ever misunderstand each other. She could probably say to me, ‘Ali, that’s a bit crap, you can do better than that’, and I’d go, ‘Yeah, I know, OK, thank you. Thanks for being honest’ – but she would never say it like that. And neither would I (but it would be OK if she did). I think we complement each other in how we can pull each other along.

She can just do it, with her artwork, she just does it. I love her depth. And the way that she sees the world, the way she sees art. She’s really amazing at interpreting artworks, and I often step back and go ‘Oh God, I wish I could speak like that.’ She inspires me to look at things differently, and through different eyes.  A bit deeper too. I’m usually a pretty deep thinker but not always when it comes to other people’s artworks. I don’t always take the time to analyse and try to figure it out, but [it’s great] to have someone like Amanda who’ll rattle off her interpretation to get more out of art, but also life, and show different angles. And she’s bloody funny too. She’s damn entertaining. She’s loving and caring and honest.

She’s a very very special person. I hope she knows that. She just is, she’s incredible. It’s really precious and it doesn’t happen very often, and I am aware of that, definitely with Amanda and also the other Google Girls. I feel really lucky to have this friendship.