an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day thirty...

.... aka the last day

(I'm up predawn after a big storm overnight)

and ending this gesturing where it began

with encyclopaedia brittanica in the garden

but fear not - the end of the world is not nigh

for as Scarlett O'Hara says at the end of one of my favourite movies of all time

"tomorrow.... is another day"....

....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty nine...

Time for the (sorta) fortnightly 100km round trip shopping day in Bega

(blah!)

made almost bearable by an arty intervention

I pinned three hearts to a gum tree in the car park...

(I figure Bega can always do with a little more romance....)

.....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty eight...

to the studio batgirl!

time to dust off my trusty (if neglected) calligraphy nibs...

(a love job for the kidlets school...)

 

corrrrrr - its been a loooooong time since I sat down to do some seriously real calligraphy!

I feel like a retired olympics track star.... 

really out of shape .... 

staring down the track -

remembering how quickly and fluidly I could run the course... 

once upon a long ago

(sigh)

It's been many years since I last seriously wielded the pen and nib, 

which is in part why last year I resigned from the ASC.....
(I no longer felt comfortable with the title 'guild member' - a peer acknowledged 'master' of the calligraphic form - and I never felt that I was all that crash hot in a technical sense anyway.....)

but

but

 

unlike a retired olympian -  I CAN see how I could get back into shape.... 

 

and pushing gouache around with my brause nib 

reminds me just how much I really loved the craft...

 

after I penned the graduation certificates for all the delishous kidlets of cobargo public school 

 

I pulled down a box I'd put away when EJ was a toddler...

 

 

 a monster sized calligraphic/ graphic project I shelved about 5 years ago

 

 

 I had spent months and months developing calligraphic renditions of nursery rhymes

and natty little complementary illustrations

 

 for hours on end whilst baby EJ slept I worked away.... 

refining the lettering and the designs

 

I planned to sew/collage the illustrations 

(hence the massive box of gathered fabric scraps)

 

the calligraphy was rather idiosyncratic -

an individual style I developed over years of fiddle and practice

 

I was well into the final stages before I put everything in the big box 

and then put the box up on a high shelf

and left it there.....

 

recently a lovely girlfriend was visiting and she spied the box on the shelf

I got it down and shared it

and her reaction made me question all the excuses I had for shelving this all those years ago...

I wonder if it's time to revisit this project?

....

 

 

 

 

 

bonus...

arty bonus day

this afternoon we headed up to the Cobargo AP&H showground
for the annual Cobargo Folk Festival Christmas gathering

much music and verse and food and merriment was had by all....

sass was very interested in the mando-guitar played by Luch

EJ liked the date scones and the guitars and 'the ladies who sang the sad songs'

then Jude reminded them how much fun it is to make weed guns... 

so everything soon descended into anarchy as war of the weeds began...

what a wonderful way to spend a sunday afternoon!

(ps the hills in the background were my pop's property,

my baby brother inherited the farm and lives there with his family - 

meaning he moved 1km from our childhood home, and I moved 6kms... 

neither of us are what you'd call world travellers eh!) 

...

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty seven...

 quick sketches on cardboard

 of grevillea robusta

 flowering in the garden

drawings pinned to the tree's bark

.....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty six...

It's very very wet

(very)

I decide to collect rainwater in five old pots

now I'll spend the rest of the day inside playing games with the kidlets

dreaming of the projects I'll soon attempt with those old pots

(hint - I'm collecting fabric and creek finds)

....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty five...

Oh goodness - exactly one month to Christmas!

time to get making my Christmas cards!

 

** I've been making my own Christmas Cards since I was a teenager and over the years a funny set of guidelines has emerged --- cards must be inexpensive, quick and easy to execute, they must essentially be handmade - even if they involve some mechanical processes, they need to reflect something happening in my studio or life from the past year (like the major motifs or materials from my practice that year, or some BIG event....) 

Today I'm making my 50+  handmade cards - each one a little bit different to the others - so each one of my friends will receive something individual - made with my little hands - made with heart .... 



I'll share the final design AFTER I've finished the bunch and posted them out to my lovely mates.....

.....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty four....

 

....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty three...

not making - but moving...

 

 music as loud as the system can muster

I dance through the house...
 

 jumping, twirling, throwing my hair into the air and caution to the wind!

I remember my teenage years - 

hours spent in a darkened room listening to/ playing music 

and dancing as if my life depended on it

(back then music and dance and my labrador gessie saved me from myself)

 

what a blast! 

what a relief!

(what FUN!)

** musical soundtrack was the recently released tribute album Ǎhk-to͝ong Bāy-Bi - Covered 

buy it for Jack White's stellar version of 'Love is Blindness'

or for the warm fuzzies you'll get knowing all proceeds from album sales are heading to the charity Concern

....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty two...

 a lesson or two in the ways of the world for my free range chooks...

  

 

...

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty one...

...

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day twenty...

twenty callistemon seed capsules arranged as a grid

...

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day nineteen...

 late afternoon

colour pencil drawing of my favourite bird 

(a superb blue wren) 

on a spotted gum (jumping out of its bark!)

** for my dear supportive friend M 

(congrats on your birds in ABAJ)

EJ getting into the arty gesture 

(watching our kidlets inspired to make a small arty something alongside their mumma
is the very best thing to happen as a result of this funny arty exercise)

 I suspect EJ is the superior arteest in this household!

(ps - in case you are wondering about the numbers on EJ's arm -

we've been at a swim carnival all day today - all the kidlets at the carnival write their events on their arm 

so they know when to go to marshalling...)

....

an art gesture a day (aagad!) - day eighteen...

 ...