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.

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.

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.

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

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?