Friday, December 23, 2011

Holidays

As soon as school was finished for me on the 7th of December, we hit the road for a week's break at Noosa. It was lovely and just what the doctor ordered, but of course time went by in a flash. Picks taken on the Noosa River and Lake Cootharaba below:




Then the MOTH and I spent another 3 nights away at Springbrook to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Also good for the soul to disappear into the rainforest and commune with its creatures for a while, even if it did include the odd leach. It was cool and damp and of course I could have stayed there forever, but now I am back in the real world. and it is full steam ahead till Christmas. I did come back with lots of ideas for art work, but not the time to implement any of them! On Tuesday, which was actually our anniversary, we went in to South Bank and took in a number of exhibitions at GoMA, including Matisse. All very good, but I will save that for the next few blogs.  For now, hope you have a great Christmas!

Springbrook:



Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Art and Soul and Continuum

Really chuffed to present the work of three women artists I worked with before going back to school: Karen McColm, Renuka Russell and Marie-Louise Fry. Today I went to a local library where their work is on display and it was a terribly moving experience to see the work I already knew (and the stories behind them) and new works that prove that they really are on the Art & Soul Continuum. Fantastic, ladies, well done. Your work looks wonderful and talking to the library people, apparently you have had many good comments.

Apologies for the poor quality photographs, the lighting was difficult and the camera wasn't great, but here is a work from each of these wonderful artists:






If you live locally, make sure you get into the Arana Hills Library to see them!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Artists I Admire

Going to scrap the page (tab above) cos I never get a chance to update it, but you might have noticed a list of contemporary (and a couple of not so) artists to the right which I update when I discover another artist that I particualarly like. Yesterday I discovered Emily Valentine through the NAVA website and I have put on a link. She is an Australian artist and she 'paints with feathers'. I have pinched one of her images to give you an idea of the lovely work she does. You can go to her site by clicking on the piccy too. Enjoy.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Mini worlds with a function

I know it has been a while, yet again. Can't tell you how ridiculously busy life has been. Anyway, I have been trying to make some smaller pieces lately that might have more commercial appeal. I have made some little paperweights and my favourites are some mini rock pools. I have also been trying my hand at some jewellery, with some of the examples below. They all involve resin, of course, and bits and pieces of other things. I am not sure if I'll make any more, but this has been a good distraction for me over the last few busy school months. I will be trying to put these on Etsy in the next few days.

Rock Pool paper weights:




Sample Jewellery:





Sunday, October 2, 2011

2nd run at New York

My first attempt at exhibiting in New York and Broadway Gallery didn't quite work - the pieces were broken in transit. Then they came back to me in pieces. Now I am about to send new pieces over for an exhibition starting in mid October. One of them is a repaired and revamped version of one that went previously. The first version of Mother Earth was thus:


Sadly, she snapped off at the base of the stem on her trip OS. So I have reworked her and her creativity has extended somewhat. Now her 'earth' looks like this:



And a couple of close-ups:




To hopefully prevent any more injury to her, she is now also enclosed in a Perspex box. Bon Voyage (again) Mother Earth. Have a safe trip this time.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Spring has sprung

Friday week ago we had a 13 degree maximum, with a chilly wind that felt like it was coming off ice. One week later we had a max of 30 degrees. The signs of spring are definitely in the air, but I think that Spring will be short and we'll be pretty much summer from here on in.

Still it is good to be moving on from the winter doldrums - the freesias are poking their pretty little heads out and for once, thanks to all the earlier rain followed by a cold winter, they're looking pretty healthy. The brown honey-eaters have already fledged their little chicks and we have recently been visited by the elusive kingfisher. At school, the fairy martins have been allowed to finish construction of their nest above the men's toilet and furnished it with four cute little chicks that open their beaks wide and squawk at every glimpse of their parents who are run ragged all day bringing them food.





Life tends to start looking up at this time of the year in that perfect in-between-blue-sky-fragrant-breeze-weather. Soon we will be grumbling about the stinking heat and sweat dripping down our legs, but ain't it good to see the back of winter? On my birthday, William and I took a stroll along the waterfront at Redcliffe - just lovely. While we were there, parachuters dropped out of the sky in front of us. This has happened many times before but on this day, for the first time ever, I actually felt like I could see me possibly doing that one day - has to be a great sense of freedom. I am not an adrenalin junky in any way, so it is kind of odd, but I am left with the sound of the whooping of the passengers as they came down and, of course, the striking colours of the chutes.



Meanwhile, I have just turned a 'sample' project I did with the year 11s into a finished piece. Its called 'Inner Sanctum'. I am pretty happy with it. Pic below.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Doldrums

Haven't felt much like blogging in the last few weeks - you might have noticed. Life is becoming terrifyingly busy and not in a good way. Puts me in absolute survival mode which leaves little time for fun, or even a little peace. Haven't done much in the way of art work either. Would quite like to crawl into one of the glass-in worlds I have made and escape from reality for a while.


At school I've been asking myself WTF I am doing there a little too often. Hankering to be the artist cloistered in my attic, away from QSA forms, ungrateful adolescents and report card deadlines. Doing my head in. Still, it is coming up to my birthday, which means that the moon should be moving into the seventh house or something and things should start looking up. Hopefully the next blog will be more cheerful.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Dragonflies in Domes

Made two more dragonflies in the last couple of months. Not sure where in my brain-space they come from, but they are somethting to do with mysticism and other worlds; creatures that may exist (I'm hoping they do) on the edge of our reality along with other wondrous things that have nothing to do with Stock Market crashes, massacres or helicopters being shot down in Afghanistan. Hope you like them, and hope they take you away from 'reality' for just a little while.



Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Automatic Art

Went to the Surrealist Exhibition the other day. I was generally impressed, more to be reminded of what they were on about than particularly this exhibition. My major disappointment was the lack of variety of artists represented, and those that were there were not necessarily the best pieces in my opinion, e.g. Joseph Cornell's museum object. And there was not much representation of the female artists from the period - Georgia O'Keefe, Leonor Fini, Frida (although she didn't like to be called a Surrealist) and women like that. There is one piece - probably my favourite in the exhibition - by Dorothea Tanning; a fab installation, so that is something.

Anyway, have been playing around with the idea of Automatic Art, which is effectively glorified doodling, and these are some of the results:



Death of a Legend

So, Margaret Olley, a legend of Australian painting has passed at the age of 88. I am not a massive fan of her work, but I am a big admirer of the woman herself: paving the way in a male dominated world for women to follow and she was always passionately true to her first love, art. She didn't ever rely on a man to get by in the world and she died in her house surrounded by her art life. May there be many more of her ilk to follow. RIP Margaret.

Friday, July 1, 2011

New Work

I mentioned before that I have been working on a piece that was inspired by a quote by Sue Monk Kidd: 'The truth will set you free...but first it will shatter the safe sweet way you live'. The truth that is being referred to, of course, is that God is not male (I can hear the sharp intake of breath from here), Christianity is not meant to be patriachal and boys are not 'better' in God's eyes than girls.

Since I have discovered the Goddess, I can attest to the truth of Monk Kidd's assertion. Very freeing, but a painful road to take: completely anti-establishment and therefore not likely to win too many friends in circles I have previously operated in (can still hear it!). So out on a limb a bit. It was very therapeutic to build all of that into an art work, pictured below. I have used a photo from a previous piece as a background and gone from there.





The other piece is not so in your face, but along the same lines. It is a rework of a previous painting. I have printed on silk and added embroidery, crochet, beads and a fabulous frame. I have decided to call it Ariadne's Lace in deference (again) to the wonderful woman from Greek mythology and also refers to the Great Mother, the one who spins the web of creation.


Monday, June 20, 2011

Winter

My heart goes out to you if you live in the lower Southern Hemisphere or higher Northern Hemisphere - I don't know how you cope with the very short days of winter. I find it hard to cope with the slightly shorter ones here - definitely need a regular dose of Vitamin D if I have any hope of remaining sane. It is quite chilly here at the moment, but still very mild compared to most of the winters people experience around the world. Mind you we have got close to freezing overnight  - always makes me think of the poor creatures living out of doors in this weather, especially the human ones.

Even when not expriencing snow and ice, or dormant trees, winter in SEQ is still a time of slowing down and dying off. I so needed to get out yesterday and experience some of our beautiful winter sunshine. Picnicked at a local creek - did wonders for the winter doldrums. Pics below.









Thursday, June 16, 2011

New Work

Feeling fairly stymied at the moment but amazingly there is some new work coming out that I am quite happy with. I have just about completed the 3rd in the Dragonfly series. It is on a lit base (will upload photos when I have some) and covered in a glass dome. The following photos are of the dragonfly - once again based on the preserved seahorse, and yes, I acquired this humanely; do you really think I am going to go diving for illicit seahorses? They come from a place in Tassie that breeds seahorses for the aquarium trade - bit of a casualty rate, apparently.




They are pretty amazing little things, seahorses and just right for my dragonflies.

Meanwhile, I am hanging out for the school holidays. Starting to ask myself 'what am I doing here?' pretty much every day. Some days it seems utterly pointless to be working with kids who really don't give a stuff. But hopefully two weeks off from the end of next week will cure that. A bit anyway.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Cool Cat Video

My parents actually sent me this link. Its the kind of thing that will brighten up your day. Seems to me that these creatures recognise each other in some way. Anyway, enjoy! Click on the link below:

Cat playing with dolphins

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Stories from around the House

For the last week, I have been suffering from a rather prolonged sinus infection. I am blessed with some fairly dodgy anatomy in the sinus area, so no big surprise, but it doesn't seem to want to let up any time soon - now on my 2nd lot of antibiotics.

I have been dragging myself off to work, which is rather stupid in hind sight and keeping a very low profile on the weekends. The up side of that is that you get to notice what is going on in your own back yard a bit more, so I thought I'd share a few things:

One morning I went outside for a dose of vitamin D. It had rained overnight and everything was coated in sparkling drops of water. On some plants the sun was shining through the drops creating a magical jewel-encrusted display:


Yesterday, when in the bathroom, I noticed a funny dark smudge above my bedroom window which on closer inspection turned out to be a tiny bat. We get flying foxes blow through all the time, but I have never seen one of these 'micro' bats around, even though there are allegedly a dozen different species in the area. I was worried enough about the little creature to call the wildlife people, who told me it was probably a juvenile male who are often kicked out of the colony at this time of the year and equally often pick pretty stupid places to sleep. The lady said that he would probably fly off that night and would hopefully choose somewhere more suitable for sleeping the next day. Sure enough.

Its impossible to tell what species of bat it is in my photo, but you can clearly see its tiny feet clinging to the top of the wall. Visits from these kind of folk are a great comfort to me. They are like a reassurance from the Great Creator, that She/He is thinking of me.



Another creature that gives me comfort is of course my Matilda. She is so clearly living in between two worlds: our world and the mysterious other world that she often pops off to. Isn't she cute?


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Goddess

'Nother piece I recently painted is called 'Kwan-yin'. Every so often I feel a desire to paint, usually in watercolour and related stuff like acrylic inks - all pretty yummy. Kwan-yin is a Goddess of Asian Spirituality, associated with the peacock feather. She is meant to be a Goddess of watchfulness and caring. Its no coincidence that I am on my second reading of Sue Monk Kidd's Dance of the Dissident Daughter, and images like that are coming out.

Can't really marry all that up with my fundamental Evangelical upbringing in Patriachal Christianity. Odd place to be. So if you want to read a book that will change your life as a woman, read that one. As the author says: 'The Truth will set you Free, but first it will shatter the safe, sweet way you live.' (There is another work coming that relates to that quote). Love to hear from anyone who has read the book.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

New Work

Finally finished the piece I have mentioned before - it is titled Phoenix Rising from the Fenced in World of Perpetual Experience. I am inspired by the INXS song which includes the lines 'cos we all have wings, but some of us don't know why'. I have come to the way of thinking that sometimes it isn't so much that we don't know why we have wings - more that we have forgotten, or that we are unable to take off. I think women are much more at risk of losing the ability to fly than men in this world of perpetual experience. Anyway, pics below:




The other piece I have just completed is The Royal Nursery, which began with a wasps' nest I found empty of its inhabitants, and just begging to become part of some art piece. It is my salute to the magical creativity that happens out there in our natural world.





Friday, May 6, 2011

WetlandCare Gallery

Also, a gallery of the winning entries to the WetlandCare competition which I took part in earlier in the year is now up on their website. Some beautiful photography - highly recommended.

Go to WetlandCare Australia

London to France


Just letting you know that the work that was in Camden Gallery in London is now being exhibited in France at Galerie64. My work has now officially seen more of the world than I have! Anyway, you can access more information via the link below: My work is on page 6 of 7.

Galerie64

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Moreton Bay Regional Art Awards

I will have two pieces in the MBRAA this year: La Selva Subterranea in the 3D section, of which I have featured pictures on the blog previously, and Feels Like Having the Life Squeezed out of Me, a digital piece which is below. Gee, I wonder where the inspiration for that came from!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Back from the Bunyas

Been away at the Bunya Mountains for a week or so on a much needed break. The place is truly a patch of paradise on earth, with its magical forests and many fabulous creatures. Definitely what my soul was hankering for. The only down side is coming back to the 'rat race' at the end of it all. Anyway, the following pics should show you why it is one of my favourite places to be: