After Christmas

Back from a blissful holiday in Caloundra with my muses Faye and Pino I am filled with ideas for the year ahead. More geometry and some sculptured planes and I am thinking about crocheting some work which extends the ideas in pink squadron.

Installing at Shoalhaven Arts Centre

Yum Jenny Holzer

New Images

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Yesterday I received a CD of images of my exhibition at Anita Traverso gallery in October. So here are some.
Sorry can't work out how to get rid of the duplicate!

The Past Week

I haven't done much posting lately as I have been distracted by my participation in the Weather Project with other artists who attempt to communicate emotion with pictures of the weather. Very challenging as I have no photographic skills.
I have also started making some works in oils again. It is a continuation of my ideas about stolen geometry but I have suddenly started to feel shy about showing developing work.
I have been spending time with a friend who has been badly injured after being hit by a car. So sad and I am having difficulties with the confrontation with mortality and old age which I know is selfish when she is suffering.

If you are in Nowra.

The Magic of Blogging

The wonders of living now. I am able to get feedback on work in progress from artists whose opinions I respect. Thank you for your feedback. Oh and it doesn't have to be positive. I am open to constructive criticism.

Prototype 3

I am staring to feel better bout these.

This is not a life.

This image is from an exhibition at the New York Public Library. I don't know what else to say.

Prototype 2

I have been playing with the jigsaw. I'm making shapes which may have come from the floor plans of buildings.......mosques, romanesque churches etc and over laying them with stolen geometry from islamic patterns. I am interested in the period of cohabitation when Jews Christians and Muslims lived together in Spain and the overlaying of images and religions on specific sights like Hagia Sofia in Istanbul which was once a basilica.

Prototype

Here it is the result of my first experiment with a saw. First work so don't be too judgemental! I also need to find my photoshop notes to work out how to crop the image.

An Epiphany.

While I was tossing around at 2am last night I had an idea about making some new work. So today as well as wrestling with Leopard, my new version of iLife, photoshop CS4 and running out of downloading capacity on the 12th of the month (how was I to know that loading music back from my iPod to my computer would use it all)I've have taken up carpentry in a bid to outdo Joe the Plumber.
The results will be on show soon if I overcome working difficulties with Leopard, iPhoto, Photoshop CS4 and my longstanding trouble with understanding the workings of a camera.

Don't hold your breath. Relax and admire the picture of Pino below.

Yes I Know!

Revisiting 2007

 I'm still optimisitic about the resurrection hand balm. 2007. Acrylic on Canvas. 100cm x 100 cm 
Getting a new hard drive and losing some data and software does have some good outcomes. I have reloaded my images, refreshed my website and revisited the work I did for my exhibition in her high heels at Unplace Project in Brisbane last year. As I'm working with painting and geometry again this has been a good exercise.

This is my current favourite work from that series. I'm stil using the Aesop hand balm too.

 

Sunday arvo.

I am feeling very righteous as one should on Sunday.

I have just compiled 6 folios to send off to my favourite Sydney galleries in the hope that one of them might consider representing me. Fingers crossed.

We had lunch with our friends Chris and Brenda (writer and restaurateur) and Chris and I agreed that self promotion does not come easily and that we need an agent. 

Life without Photoshop

Reunited at Last

I've got my mac back! I now have regular scheduled backup and the luxury of an empty organised computer. That's looking on the bright side.

On the subject of things mac I waited with baited breath and crossed fingers for news of an Obama victory today.

November

Oh, November. The good things are that I can luxuriate in the perfume of gardenias and jasmin in my garden, and, the bad, that 4 months of sweaty summer are looming and I have to remove myself from the world of electronic communication to avoid being subjected to endless repeats of a horse race and images of leggless lasses stumbling around in unattractives hats and frocks. As you can see my mood has not lightened (haven't got my Mac back yet).

Je suis desolee

My Mac is sick! I am writing this on a clunky PC. It's just horrible! The separation anxiety is intolerable. I can't even work out how to put the accent on desolee.
And, of course I hadn't backed up all my data so I now have to wait with baited breath and ready credit card for the call from the Mac Doctor.
Sympathy cards, wreaths and floral tributes will be accepted.

That after BAS feeling.

I don't know about anyone else but I put off doing my quarterly tax returns for as long as possible. I don't know why as they are usually fairly easy to do and then I hand some money over to the tax man. I will find any excuse to avoid getting on with the job. I even went to Ikea this morning( to buy plastic bag clips which my partner had to have!!) to delay the task. But I have finally faced the music and they are done for another three months.

Of course I now have to confront the fact that I will never become a millionaire from my arts practice (or even earn a healthy living) but I am doing what I want. What I must do and now I can get back to enjoying some time in my studio.

Last Week

Shepard Fairey

Look at this beautiful work! The show is on at Irvine Contemporary in Washington. I wish I could see it. I like the message, the only alternative to the crazy, gun toting narrow minded, war mongering Alaskan fruitloop, but the image also overlays beautiful intricate patterning.
Well I did promise to say more on the blog!

Stolen Geometry from the Garden of Love

I know I promised to write more but I wanted to post this new work. Its very early days but this is the new body of work fermenting in my head.

There should be a picture here but blogger doesn't seem to want upload it just now!

Blogger Angst

I've been thinking about my blog a lot recently.

I am not one of nature's writers and tend to make these posts pretty minimal which is fine for me but not necessarily for those without the ability to fill in all the gaps. 

Am I just rabbiting on in an egotistical way, posting short blogs to keep the blog active. The answer is yes and I am always in a hurry because I tend to blog at the end of the day and often at times when it takes ages to upload and image.

So I have resolved to put more time into blogging in the future and to write a real post about my time in Melbourne when my exhibition opened .....in my next post because I have just finished and have to walk the dog and get the day going so I can get to my studio. See what I mean! 

Life is Good

In between smelling the Rhododendrons and looking at art we stayed in this beautiful cottage near Healesville.

Rhododendrons

In between Gallery visits in Victoria I took time out to smell the Rhododendrons. In case you haven't guessed they are my favourite flowers. For some reason I find them Gauginesque (yes I know they grow in alpine regions) and expect beautiful Tahitian women to emerge from the foliage.......a fantasy I first had in Hampstead Heath. Yes my mind works in mysterious ways.

Shadow of a doubt

From The Age 3 October 2008.

Installing the Exhibition

On Monday afternoon I went to the gallery to install the exhibition. It went so smoothly.

See more info about the show in Art Almanacs Artist Profiles.

Beautiful Melbourne

I spent today in beautiful Melbourne doing my favourite things and seeing my work ready to be hung at Anita traverso gallery. It's the first time I've seen all the work out together. It was rather overwhelming.

This morning I walked past one of my favorite shops Le Louvre in Collins Street. I've never been brave enoug to go in. It's soooo stylish.

Ah Spring

Its spring in my warm temperate/subtropical garden. I know I am meant to live in a cool temperate climate so I battle to grow inappropriate things. This is my triumph, my rhododendron. Please excuse the spider mite...nature will have its way.

Knitter Extraordinaire

My friend Chrys Zantis' exhibition opens at Artisan, Brunswick St., Fortitude Valley at 6pm Thursday 9 October. Don't miss it!

Damien Hirst

On the weekend some friends who had just come back from London bought the catalogue from Damien Hirst's recent auction at Sotheby's to breakfast. They had been to see the work and told me about seeing it in the flesh. I was blown away. I have always felt ambivalent about Hirst's work and finally decided if Sophie Calle (one of my favourite artists) wanted to collaborate with him he must be pretty good!

The catalogue is a tour de force but I was moved by the powerful body of work which looked at beauty, affluence, greed, addiction, mortality, human frailty, illness and more and more.......

I also heard that while Hirst is mega rich and plays with the art market he is also immensely generous and appreciative of those who work with him and support his practice.

some days are more challenging than others...today was one of those....but things turned out OK in the end so I thought that I would post one of Carl Warners images of my work. It should make a nice change from my amateur photography.

Portraits of the Unknown

If you are in Melbourne in October you are warmly invited to my exhibition at Anita Traverso Gallery

Great Artist Video

I have just received my very own copy of Third I Ceeing an Artist video by Uta Heidelauf  which i bought at the BARI festival.

It's great. See more of Uta's work on her website.

Tidy Studio

You may find it hard to believe but my studio looks tidy. I had to tidy up as I was showing work to visitors and also having work photographed before it goes to Melbourne. I now have this theory that if I have flowers here then I might keep it tidy. After a visit from the photographer I should have some really good images to post soon....stay tuned.

When I Look in the Sky

Safe in My Boudoir

Work in progress using the beautiful document below.

Beautiful Document

I found this visa for a young Romanian Jewish woman who migrated to Canada in 1920 on the internet. Isn't it beautiful?

New Artist Statement. Portraits of the Unknown.

Portraits of the Unknown.

These are the portraits of the foreign, of those who arrive at a border, inadequately described by their identity documents, hoping to find a safe new home.

Shredded identity documents overlay anonymous egg shaped faces and are over stamped with patterns suggesting the domestic environment.

The works look at two often opposing ideas of domestic security - the ideas of home, the safe haven we make unique with furnishings and patterns we apply to walls and floors and, the idea of national domestic security where our borders are protected by the rigorous enforcement of rules governing conditions of entry.

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Residency

I have just found out that my application for a residency at Ragdale near Chicago was successful.

I will spend a month there next year........bliss!

The Artists Statement

Today I have been working on my artist's statement. After a period of concentrated making I am now trying to distill all my ideas into a statement which describes my newest body of work. I had written a short sharp statement with a quote from Picasso which amused me but have decided that I need to bite the bullet and write about my work in a manner which is more 'engaging'. 

My Studio Mate

Every artist needs a studio companion. This is Pino.

Shred of Evidence

Detail from Shred of Evidence which I am working on for the 15 Artists Exhibition at Redcliffe gallery in October. I have shredded old zoning maps of Redcliffe which imposed a pattern on the land there and overlaid them with stamps to suggest the water and vegetation that were there before settlement.

A Dream

Yesterday, at breakfast, fellow artist and writer Chris Sharp and I were dreaming about having the funds to rent  the studio space currently available in Breretton Street West End. My partner said 'stop it you are dreaming!' But dreams are good and I do need the space.......and a fairy godparent.

Entrada...work in progress

Entrada is still not finished but I am very happy with the dense stamping.

Pictogram

 This image is from an exhibition at COFA in Sydney. The split suitcase says so much a great pictograph.

Post about no Posts

I feel filled with guilt that I haven't been posting. I've been making lots of work and will get the camera out soon. Also I have the endless flu that everyone else also has.

I have had lots of inspiration and fuel for thought after seeing Tim Sharp's show and hearing Nicola Moss talk about her practice.

Great Mook

Dumbofeather is an inspiring new mook (magazine/book) check out their website .

Ideal Dinner Guests

My partner came home and asked me to nominate the 3 people still alive I would most like to invite to dinner. She had been playing the "game" with her workmates.

It didn't take me long. They are

Peter Cundall

Dr Irene Amos

Gordon Bennett

I want comments with your favourites.

Rosie Lee Tomkins

Rosie Lee Tomkins' quilts are so beautiful. I love the grid deformed by the hand.

Settlement

Not the best photo

15 June

Today I added to Map and took a drive to Kangaroo Valley. Thanks to Nicola i no longer take offence to having my patterning described as quaint.  

? Quaint