Thank Goodness for Photographers

Beyond there Lies Nothing. 2010. Acrylic on Canvas. 150 cm x 210cm.

I've mentioned before that I was extremely lucky to have Carl Warner document my work while I was in Brisbane and I have been struggling to document my work since my move.

Today I received a disc with images of my work for my Melbourne Exhibition taken by Melbourne photographer John Bodin and they are fantastic!!!! Thank you John.

I have just uploaded images of most of my work to my website so please have a look at the new improved images.

Good news this week when Anita Traverso emailed to tell me that Beyond There Lies Nothing, pictured above and beautifully photographed, has sold pre exhibition.

This Week, Anniversaries and Life's Riches.

This week I exhaled loudly as my work was loaded on a truck for Melbourne. My tax was done and I had a few days of play baking bread, gardening and attempting to be a dressmaker.

On Sunday I visited an exquisite garden in the village and spent the evening roasting chestnuts for bread for the 70th birthday party of a fellow artist Liz Boothby.

It's funny how some weeks focus your thoughts and it's been that sort of week. Gathering chestnuts (yes more chestnuts!) Liz told me about her planned birthday speech which acknowledged life's riches and then on Thursday Donna Malone posted this clip of Coleman Barks reading from Rumi on Facebook

Thursday was also the anniversary of the liberation of Bergen Belsen, a time to remember those who were displaced, those who died and those who survived to build new lives.
Where is this all leading you ask? Well I am not a writer, so it's hard to say but these are the issues I try to raise when I make work about identity, displacement and the making of home and a place of one's own.

Openings, Chestnut bread and Good Company.

Waratah aka Telopea Speciossima native to the Southern Highlands and Illawara.

Yesterday Robertson Artist Julie Krone came to visit my studio bearing a beautiful bunch of waratahs ( No, spell check they were not warpaths!) and proteas from her garden. We spent a couple of hours chatting and looking at books and both concluded that these visits are essential to nourish the creative soul. I feel very lucky to be part of a community where there are plenty of friendly and talented creative people.

Last night, he Robertson Gallery, now renamed Gallery Chiron opened a retrospective of local artist, Brooke Maurice's work from the past 40 years. The space is becoming a great meeting place for members of the local arts community.

I once read somewhere that one shouldn't talk about what one ate on a non-food related blog but, I have to say that Director Pi Wei Lim makes the best chestnut bread in the universe. We are in the middle of chestnut season here and there is fierce competition among local chestnut fanciers ( Pi Wei and I) to see who can find the best chestnut recipe. Pi Wei, you win!

Packed Up at Last

All that is left now is to print the labels. I have spent the last few days attaching D hooks, signing and labeling paintings and wrestling with metres of bubble wrap to get my work ready to send to Anita Traverso Gallery for my show Stolen Geometry from the Gardens of Love which opens on 5 May. Save the date if you are going to be in Melbourne.