it's that time again....

Time for me to head south - for my annual pilgrimage to the Gippsland campus of Monash uni for the winter symposium. Each year I'm filled with a mix of excitement and dread..... I'm excited by the prospect of spending a few days with a wonderfully diverse bunch of artists from all over (but all of us undertaking a visual arts higher degree of some sort via distance studies) - this is my only face-to-face contact with uni staff and old arty/study friends (and potential new buddies) so it's an intense and tiring time!

But - given that I have to leave my two wee munchkins behind (and that I have to drive 7hrs through the creepy boonies to get to Churchill) ... oh and that I have to do the whole 'show and tell' with my work.... well I'm also feeling a tad dread-ful.

I've been working so intensely over the past few weeks - well you can see by the new banner up top I've been playing with books and fire - again....

This time I submerged a purpose-built metal table into one of our (presently full) dams here at sams creek.... arranged a small collection of funk & wagnall encyclopaedic volumes on top.....

then (with the help of my long-suffering partner....who had to wade nakedly into the freezing water..... ahhh THAT'S LOVE!) the collection was set ablaze.....

these are the shots that best capture what I wanted to achieve with this ephemeral/sculptural interaction

I wonder what the gang at Monash will say? (heck - I'm still wondering what I'm going to say about what I get up to..... well I've got a looooong drive to think about that)




** I'll show you some more stuff when I get back..... after I recover!