here, there and everywhere...

I've spent a final day in the garden before I head off tomorrow 

for a stint teaching at Sturt Winter School in Mittagong

look at how lush everything is
(and its wintertime)

mustard greens and silverbeet

ruby chard 

broad bean flowers

and a first hellebore of the winter...

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone at Sturt 

and hopefully doing great stuff with passionate students

but I get soooooo homesick

sigh

....

art gesture sunday - week 25 ...

a small fire...

 creates....

'terra incognito'

hand-carved and charred book stack 

5 volume set of 'The Australian Encyclopaedia' 

.....

(a gesture that's now off to hazelhurst gallery)


...

bonus gestures...

 While away - I did play...

In the printmaking room

(mmmmmmmmmm me loves the Albion)

In the car park  

(a bird book in suitable place - a gesture for a special friend)

as it was a temporary I left something behind to mark the spot....

(I wonder if it was found before the rain came?)

and talking of things left to be found.....

...

Today I have to get my work packed & ready 

to go to Hazelhurst Regional Gallery

(the gals are turning up tomorrow to collect the work to install next week..... 

opening night is Saturday June 30 - but as I have to be in Mittagong the following day 

I won't get to see the show...... 

if you are in the area maybe you can go and tell me how it all looks?)

oooooo busyness

.....

did the earth move for you?

I'm baaaaaaaack! after an action-packed few days away at uni

This year marked my 6th (eeeek) and final winter sympo - 

so of course on the Tuesday night an earthquake struck

its epicentre was something like 15kms away from the university accommodation 

(yes... the earth, and more did a LOT of moving and shaking....... 

wooof! what a rocking time!)

I made the page above as part of the collaborative book project about 12hrs before the quake.... 

which has been variously reported as 5.5, 5.4 or 5.3 magnitude ..... 

ummmmmmm ..... right...... SPOOOOKY

lets just leave that one be and go outside eh?

I took my looooong book out for a bit of fresh air - 

and found fungus under the pine trees on campus

later that day our small sympo sub group did a walk together in Morwell National Park

 I found many more fungi

Mick with his trained eyes found something really special...

(a small fragment of an aboriginal artifact - 

Mick has the eye to spot these things among the leaves and stones.... 

which is a seriously impressive skill)

And then today I had the long drive home - back through the boonies

where they were still cleaning up from a violent storm of 10 days ago

that closed the highway for almost a week

as hundreds of trees were blown over the road 

blocking it for hundreds of kilometres

phworrrrrr 

I feel the earth move under my feet

I feel the sky tumblin' down...

(I'll show you all a couple of bonus arty gesture things here tomorrow.... 

right now I need the comfort of my own bed....... ahhhhh HOME!)

....

 

art gesture sunday - week 24...

 20 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica

laid on a wallaby track

between the Kooraban National Park and Sams Creek farm

* In a few minutes I'm hitting the road for the 7hr drive south.... 
through the forests to my uni


see you in a few days



....

the long haul....

It is cold and drizzly here at the creek 

 perfect weather for inside work by the fire...

my very long book is growing longer and longer 

as the days are getting shorter and shorter

 the long book is currently over 4m in length -

 it still fits in my mother's little suitcase from the 1960s

(but not for much longer) 

 

In two days time I will be taking this suitcase 

(along with my other cases of clothes and books and work)

on my annual loooooooooooooong road trip to university

 

its a long haul 

 in every sense

...

art gesture sunday - week 23

red books and a red leafed tree

one red book buried* under a red leaved tree

 

 one red book left lying in many red leaves

  

many red leaves left in one red book

(to be continued.....)

*for india and jennifer

....

art gesture sunday - week 22...

16 volumes of The Golden Book Encyclopaedia

planted in a newly ploughed paddock

....

making....

Now that the dust (the mulch?) has settled - I'm able to enjoy my revamped studio space - and just in time as I've got a myriad of 'things' coming up....

First is my annual sojourn to my Uni in a couple of weeks time.... (and there's a very real chance this may be the last time I have to head off to winter symposium....) I'm making work and preparing my presentation and steeling myself for the marathon drive through the boonies....

No sooner will I get back but I have to pack up work for a stint as 'invited artist' for a show at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery..... it's all come about at last minute but the organisers from south scribes have been soooooo accommodating I didn't want to let them down....

I was guest artist in the same place in 2001 - the year our little island nation was commemorating its centenary of federation -- I think many aussies took time to think about what it meant to be Australian (or maybe it was just me?) - For that show I created work around themes of national identity.... (here's one of the works from the show, and another, and another....)


This time around, at the request of the curator, I'm sending up some of the work I created for my stint as guest artist for Coffs Calligraphers back in 2007.....

(ps - here's one of the works that I'm sending... Its the ten panel painting - 'Weight of Words')

 

As well as a few older pieces I'm also hoping to make a couple of 'surprise!' new works (looky - I've got my sumi ink out and I'm splashing it about!) - and if I'm lucky I may even get to the June 30th opening this time...

fingers crossed