meroogal exhibition

Today I found out that my work 'My mother's hand's are still/unstill' (posted a bit ago here) was chosen for the full tour of the Meroogal Award...

I didn't say much when I posted the work originally - it is actually a sewn picture of my mother's hands (of course). The theme for the Meroogal this year was 'celebrating the everyday things that women do'..... earlier this year my mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I'd rather not give a huge explanation of the work - I think that those two bits of info are enough eh?

The work will now tour to:
Spiral Gallery 3-22 Oct
The Mint 28 Oct - 26 Jan 2009
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery - 30 Jan - 1 March
Tuggeranong Arts Centre - 6-29 March

the competition... more art from sams creek

I'm not the only artist living at sams creek - our 6-year-old boyo 'Sass' has been creating some rather fine sculptural wooden pieces....

'ship' by Sass
(complete with liquid amber seed pod cannon ball...)


and the installation piece

'wood road' by sass

I can see some shared aesthetic concerns.... perhaps we may do some collaborative work in the near future...

a new blog just for sams creek farm and garden bits

after much dithering I've finally decided (mostly on aesthetic grounds I must say) to create a separate blog for all things farm and garden and sams creek related - it's going to live here...

http://samscreekfarm.blogspot.com/

so please be patient as I feel my way through organising my various bits and bobs....

arty bits stay here,

garden, farmy bits go there....

let me know what you think - I might bring it all back together again (like humpty dumpty?)

running into spider webs

Every morning at this glorious time of year I'm greeted by the amazing spectacle of thousands and thousands and thousands of tiny spider webs in the orchard - well, the webs are there all year but it's winter and spring that the sight is so spectacular that it almost takes your breath away...

mini worlds... that mirror the macrocosm...

each web a unique jewel-encrusted beauty

little wonder I find webs of all kinds so inspiring!

how to teach a wombat

I'm something of a magpie and have strange and ever growing collections of 'things' (read 'junk') - an activity that my family find harmless despite being somewhat unruly (what would I do without sheds?)

One of the largest parts of my 'collection' are my old books - encyclopaedias in particular (just can't resist a Rotary book sale) This week I started to play with some of my old sets.

And with one thing leading to another (as it does at Sams Creek) I decided to share part of my collection with a resident wombat... leaving them a volume of the Britannica (open to the 'wombat' entry of course) for them to peruse and add any wombat thoughts to...

I'll keep you posted of any developments in human/wombat, wombat/human education

the new vegie patch

With tremendous fanfare the Sams Creek crew present their newest addition.....

Yep its our magnificent new vegie garden (to be.... I don't know if you can call it a vegie garden when it hasn't been planted yet)

It started out back in july... when Farmer Phil (FP) took pity on our sad old vegie patch...

and decreed that we would have Raised Garden Beds.... and it seemed that these Beds required a position suiting their elevated status... a nice flat area (for a change....).... there was only one place - right at the edge of our big yard - up against the highway... (oh this will be fun in the future - public vegie gardening - I'll have to wear something more suitable than some of my past outfits - which have included my swimming cosie - hey it's hot work gardening...)




and so it was decided - but FP is not one to take the easy route - there is no nicking down to the local hardware store to pick up some timber.. no no no... FP selected the trees on the farm, dropped them, barked them, then brought in the mobile mill to cut the timber to size (no pics of this in operation - I forgot to pack the camera - trust me its a major undertaking...)


after a small time for seasoning (and no I don't mean with salt and pepper... I mean drying)
FP finalised his plans and started cutting the timber to size....


Placing it in position for all the world to admire (well anyone having a sticky beak from the highway...)

then the real work began... enter THE STRING LINES


FP is a firm believer in the adage 'if a job's worth doing, its worth doing right'
(read - with bloody straight lines - none of this 'artistic' garden business for FP)

Its also worth doing with REALLY BIG EQUIPMENT... (enter really big tractor to make really big holes...)
note the string line still in position.... no hole dare be out of alignment...


note the string line still in position.... no post dare be out of alignment...


as soon as the posts were all in the 'raised' construction could begin...


After more than six weeks of hard work all it needs now is a few tonne of topsoil and compost and then - well then it will be our new vegie garden....

and then I'll post some pics of MY contribution (which to date consists only of taking pics and admiring my long-suffering husband's handiwork... I think I'll keep him on eh?)