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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.