For My Mate

Slack

Been a bit slack of late with blogging but the preparations with getting school work ready and up to date so I could nick off up to the Tropics for a bit was pretty much all I did for most of the first two weeks of the month after I finished the quilt- which was a hit btw.
Just heard in the last hour that the house we wanted to buy his been signed off by the vendor and I hand over the paperwork tomorrow and the process begins in earnest- It is OURS!!!!!!
Got up here last Tuesday evening and have had some full days with looking at the house in person and going sailing and planting trees with a bunch of locals doing reafforestation work etc.
Sailing I am not convinced about but getting there and we had a little visitor yesterday before sailing- a SNAKE!!!!! who cares if it is a harmless tree snake I am not fond of them to say the least and my friend I am staying with nearly wet himself laughing at my reaction.
hope to put some stuff on i have been working on while I am here but in the meantime some piccies of adventures,Ooops after schooltime here and the network lags a bit. Oh well only one piccie after all.
more soon I promise
/R

Butterflies again

Or rather Flutterby, my latest piece. Yes butterflies are very evident in my work at present- I wonder why? LOL
But this is to say thank you to a very dear friend for all his help and support over the last few months.
I have always been fascinated by the Ulysses butterfly and saw my first real wild one in my friend's garden about this time last year- I had seen them in the butterfly house at Melbourne Zoo of course but seeing that first wild one was a real thrill.
I havent been blogging because I have been stitching and stitching and stitching. Still considering quilting the blue bars because the black and black looks so good but basically it is finished.

Things have been a bit frantic around here of late with proposed moves look like going ahead- we have agreed on the price with the buyer now just waiting on the signed contracts etc and the house in Qld is ours- and hopefully I will have my own Ulysses fluttering around the garden- oh well if not I can always go for a walk up to my friend's house and look at them in his.
But I will be seeing them in his garden first because I am leaving for another fortnight up there next Tuesday - 17 days of sunshine I hope LOL because this winter has been cold and damp and drab in Melbourne
the quilt is to say thank you to our dear friend who took M.O.T.H around to look at real estate during his visit- and give the thumbs up on the house - kept me from crawling the walls during all the delays and was and is just generous and sweet with his time and skills to help out a pair of bumblers like us.
Thank you Ken

Cheering myself up

Feel the need because while we have made the offer there has been no response from the vendor SIGH bloody woman is somewhere in Romania at present apparently.
Supposed to be on semester break last week and this but spent last week finishing off my Digital imaging course and fighting a dose of the flu as well. SHeesh things can only get better!!!!!
So yesterday- my first actual day off from VU - I could have done lots of things but decided to do something purely for fun. And to maybe cast a little spell- this based on a Ulysses butterfly which flutter around my friend Ken's place frequently. I adore butterflies in general but the Ulysses is a bit special. Iridescent blue and black it seems to glow when the sun catches it in the shadows.
So I made it into a pin and stuck it on my woolly hat that I wear when I walk to the station on these cold cold mornings- a symbol I hope that I AINT GONNA BE LIVING IN MELBOURNE NEXT WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well here's hoping LOL

Meet Sister Blues

Meet Sister Blues
the hitherto unknown (younger!!) sister of Jake and Elwood Blues.
I am having a ball with this short course and the Fake ID assignment is going to be heaps of fun
this is my basic Idea and I love the Blues
and even those reprobates Jake and Elwood- come to my juke joint folks!!

Published

online again but not for my writing or recipes this time but for a picture I submitted to a blog on one of our daily newspapers. Crativity corner is a blog with challenges to submit visual works in The Age.

http://blogs.theage.com.au/creativitycorner/archives/2007/06/texture_the_res.html#comments
mine is the fourth pic down - already on the archives here but I saw the challenge knew this pic might fit the bill.

Digital Abstract Expressionism

Doing an intense course to pick up a unit on Digital Imaging this was done in Photoshop then colour matched with Van Gogh's Church at Auvers-sur-Oise
Kind of fun and only took about 20 minutes unlike the two hour effort this afternoon
something worth exploring

Under offer

This might be my new home- MIGHT I did say.
M.O.T.H has actually seen it in the flesh although I found it online before he saw it. Initially the response from him and his partner in crime was very neutral which was disappointing because it had 'spoken' to me.
Anyway based on seeing floor plans, measurements and photos we decided to make an offer- I will go up in about 6 weeks to see it myself. We gave a 'credible' offer according to the estate agent so are waiting to see if it has been accepted. Here's hoping!!

Paper pulp vessel experiment

Made this a while back but only sealed it last night while I froze my whatsis off last night - damn cold - and I lost my computer chair to Miss Jazzy because it is right next a heater



paper pulp formed over an old bowl
the texture is great fun.
coloured with acrylic paint, wax and dye.

Dilemma

I have been working on my mid year assessment work and M.O.T.H is away for two weeks sailing etc with a friend so I could make as much mess as I like but I am pretty much up to date with getting the work completed and now I find myself thinking about this issue that has arisen.
Doing my major research essay for Contemporary Art Studies was a bit of an ordeal. M.O.T.H. reckoned I was sweating blood over it and in some ways I was. Not over the actual writing but over issues it raised for me personally. We were pretty much able to choose our subject the brief being that it be about something that would help us in our work. I chose a working Title of "Artist/Artisan: Art/ Craft. When does the work become Art?" I ended up examining the art vs craft debate and it helped me decide where I stood on this issue.

Basically I need to work to my philosophy for my personal work, commission work is different of course and so is work used in teaching techniques but my personal pieces have become intensely personal over the past couple of years and I feel that I am developing some interesting areas of work to explore.

I have an interest in the environment and the sea as well as some stuff that touches on spiritual and emotional aspects of life that I want to explore but the problem is now that a group I am involved with have chosen a theme for our next show that on the surface appears rather shallow and bland. Aaargh I hate to say it but it actually is rather suburban mothers club stuff - I have not been active in this group over the past 18 months mostly due to health issues and school and wonder how I can approach it with the group without sounding like the thing I hate most- the snooty artist!!

So much of my life is still in a state of flux at present with the proposed move to the tropics etc that my work has taken on an deep importance to me- not that there is a lot going on at present but the ideas keep flowing and I am getting them down in writing if nothing else at the moment. I just dont know if I can compromise anymore and yet I hate conflict too so this is not an easy one for me.
I've talked to several close artist friends about this dilemma and their reactions have only underpinned my misgivings about this proposed theme. Oh for an easy life (decision) but something tells me that is not likely to occur. Aaargh!!

Temasek

Had to do a woodblock for an assignment
the brief was City scenes and I played around with some of my images from Singapore as my base idea. Still needs a touch more carving but this is the first proof print- shaping up okay I hope

Something to think about

Catching up on some other things at present and came across this on the web.

My Island Home

I also come from a saltwater people so when I first heard this song- by the Warumpi Band I loved it but this version was great too
especially as the timing of it was a direct swing at our dearly despised (and hopefully soon departed) Prime Minister and his refusal to utter one little word- sorry.
closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000

More mermaid

Not happy but then again I am rarely happy with my work
Wouldnt do the white cut on this one again but the ideas I worked on with the inks are interesting- dark to light is sort of against the 'rules'

I should be getting on with my assignments but I DO have all the equipment out so some block printing on fabric coming up LOL
And it is for a practical purpose after all - want to make a bag I can carry my notebooks and few supplies in but not rely on mass produced monsters

Mermaids again

Doing an assignment for printmaking in three colour reduction lino cut not convinced it will work but this is the image printed like a conventional lino block.
Handprint- not press printed - because I like the softness of handprints
and I was mucking about with blending inks with the brayer on the block.

this made me giggle

And thematically appropriate ;-)


One day, when a seamstress was sewing while sitting close to a river, her
thimble fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord appeared and
asked, "My dear child, why are you crying?"
The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water and that
she needed it to help her husband in making a living for their family.
The Lord dipped His hand into the water and pulled up a golden thimble set
with pearls.
"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.
The seamstress replied, "No."
The Lord again dipped into the river. He held out a silver thimble ringed
with sapphires.
"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.
Again, the seamstress replied, "No."
The Lord reached down again and came up with a leather thimble. "Is this
your thimble?" the Lord asked.
The seamstress replied, "Yes."
The Lord was pleased with the woman's honesty and gave her all three
thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home happy.
Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the
riverbank, and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under the
water.
When she cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked her, "Why are you
crying?"
"Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!"
The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney.
"Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.
"Yes," cried the seamstress.
The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is not true!"
The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding.
You see, if I had said 'no' to George Clooney, you would have come up with
Brad Pitt. Then if I said 'no' to him, you would have come up with my
husband. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three. Lord,
I'm not in the best of health and would not be able to take care of all three
husbands, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to George Clooney.
And so the Lord let her keep him.

The moral of this story is: Whenever a woman lies, it's for a good and
honorable reason, and in the best interest of others. That's our story, and
we're sticking to it.

Signed

All Women

Dahlia days

the tree dahlia is in flower- this came from my grandmother's garden originally and I am not sure if it will survive in the tropics but I am going to try to grow it because the nights on the hills are a lot cooler in winter time up there so it just might make it.
the dahlia usually heralds the cool weather but the sky behind is brilliant blue today but with nice fresh southerly which hopefully will pull in some rain from the Southern Ocean- we can only hope

Pied Oystercatcher and Silver Gulls

birdies

more patterns