TAG 22 ...

red (carved) book

sitting among in the silverbeet

a red cross book for a garden in need of first aid



(ps this morning I woke to find a massive red welt from a spider bite on my arm....
so now I'm the one in need of lavender oil first aid...
oh the irony... oh the synchronicity... oh my itchy arm!)

....

and for my next trick...

I've been studying for soooooooo long now (some of you long-term readers would already know that 

I started my coursework Masters at the beginning of 2007 and finished in 2009 only to jump right into a research Masters with just a few weeks off in between... soooooo essentially I've been studying for almost 7 years without coming up for air!). I expect you can all understand that I'm having trouble readjusting to life-after-study --- and when folk ask me what I'm going to be doing next I usually jokingly mention lounging on one of the many wonderful beaches around here and looking off into the distance - thinking of nothing at all (for the longest time possible!)

but I HAVE been starting to think of life after the MFA

and here's a few things that I see happening in my near future...

* reading all the delish new books I've been collecting
and staring at wistfully...




* rediscovering my garden
(it's been mashed by dogs and currently buried under weeds... )



(keep your eyes on the acanthus..... do NOT look at the weeds behind the acanthus!)


* finishing that patchwork quilt top
(commenced over a decade ago  - oh myyyy)

* finding my good health
(I lost it somewhere after the first year's study stint and haven't seen it since....)


* digging into my crafty bag
& seeing what delishous projects I can throw myself into

 

(look at some of the lovely things I've been hoarding...) 


*  cracking open my old guitar case - reforming a few callouses
so I can accompany the kiddies
and trying to figure out how to play this little beauty...

  

(yes its a C19th mandolin - can you believe this was a GIFT
that arrived via a stranger just a couple of weeks ago?
I'm still pinching myself!)



* undertaking a monster room-by-room overhaul of the sams creek homestead
(including removing resident dust bunnies and oiling the woodwork)

and most of all

*spending lots and lots and lots of unhurried, unharried time
with EJ and Sass and other family and friends and farm animals

mmmmmmmmmmm now THAT sounds positively delicious!!!!!



ps stay tuned in the next while as I'll tell you some exciting projects

I/we have in the works

including what I'll be sharing here in the new year

(ooooo I'm very excited)



oooops I thought I was supposed to be gazing out to sea

and thinking about nothing!

look - its beeee-ooo-tee-full Horseshoe Bay, Bermagui 
 I hope I'm going to be seeing a whole lot more of you this summer!

....

honestum circuli - the artists book...

and finally - the last (but by no means the least) piece
from the codex infinitum project
that I've not shown (anyway)

allow me to introduce you to my large artists book

honestum circuli - the virtuous circle....

 

 

 

honestum circuli - the virtuous circle 

is both a semi-permanent physical structure 

in the form of a book/herb spiral 

surrounded by an emerging dye garden 

with citrus trees and associated beneficial plants

AND

an accompanying book consisting of 

garden plans and musings,
original drawings, calligraphy and collage, 

 progress photos and musings on the nature and value of 

spirals and gardens and art
(and art as gardening and gardening as art....)

and no -- I didn't end up exhibiting this work at switchback... 

(it seems incongruous when placed near the other work in the show don't you think?
wellllll that's what I thought!)

but the importance of the work in terms of my research project 

cannot be overstated (it figures highly in my exegesis)

oh and here's how the virtuous circle is looking today...

(time to pull on the garden gloves and get back out there!)

....

and other things not seen...

or shown...


I'm sure the arty folk reading this already know what I'm going to say

When you put together an exhibition - be it a solo show, a group show or a massive arty-type event (of sorts) - the whole is always more important than the parts... all the bits have to be cohesive, tell your 'story', complete (not compete with) each other...  so as you are hanging a show or creating an event you need to be quite ruthless: culling anything that doesn't work to complete that whole...

sometimes that means work that you might be passionate about has to be left out... and work that you feel unsure of is suddenly right..... ahhhhhh its all about the company you keep!

here are a few things (some of them pivotal works from my research) that we (ie my supervisors and the director of switchback gallery) decided to leave out of the 'codex infinitum' show

  

Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.
‘They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.’

Guerrilla artwork undertaken during Sculpture on the Edge exhibition 2011,

300 origami boats folded from the pages of 2 volumes of Colliers Encyclopaedia

released at dawn on an incoming tide, collected at low tide.

Bermagui Harbour.

Terras irradient ‘Let them illumine the earth’ 2012,

27 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica each illuminated by a small candle,

Cuttagee Lake foreshore

non omnis moriar ‘Not all of me shall die.’ 2012,

One volume Encyclopaedia Britannica illuminated by a single candle

Cobargo Cemetery 

oh and then there's honestum circuli - the virtuous circle

(but I'll show/tell you about that next time eh?)

 ...

TAG - 21...

Wallagoot Lake

Bournda National Park

 click to embiggen

I took my gal on her school excursion 

to learn about marine life at Bournda Environmental Education Centre

she went dip netting... and I dipped some things of my own...

one coptic bound circular 'book' form

created from pages of Childcraft volume

'Science at Work'

temporarily placed beside some of the many moon jelly fish

of Wallagoot Lake

...

not seen...

I just realised that although I've packed up my show and moved out

I haven't shown everyone one of the most substantial pieces
of my 'codex' project

(even though it was the smallest piece in exhibition - 

it was one of the largest in terms of time, process, concept and content)

allow me to present for your delectation

a few page spreads from the artist's book 

carpe diem

(the final version)

 

 

 no you're not going crazy - you've actually spied different version of this

emerging over the past year

including

two red bookcloth artists proof mini versions

the BAO edition version

and

the three variations on a theme 

(one ended up a finalist in the Libris Awards,
one ended up a finalist in the National Book Art Prize,
and one is still rattling around on my supervisors desk!)

all of them are a little (or a lot) different

all stem from my weekly art gestures of 2012

all rely on QR codes and smart devices,

all are hand bound

and all of my trials were leading up to this beastie (bestie?)

....

finito...

Thursday..

 

my capable (fantastic and ever helpful) studio assistant

(aka sassy boyo)

travelled with me all the loooooooooong way to victoria  to help pack up

codex infinitum - the infinite book

now it's more .....

 

....

last days...

... of codex infinitum - the infinite book

at

Switchback Gallery

Northways Rd, Churchill Vic.


the exhibition closes this Thursday

(ps I'll be at the gallery later that day if anyone is around and wants to say 'hiya')

I have been heartily choffed by bits and pieces in the press

both the local (Morwell) newspaper...

 

AND

the nationally in Art Almanac and Art Guide

 I was particularly choffed to be featured in the eAlmanac for October

(thanks Art Almanac!)

Next week I'm heading back into the wilds of Victoria

 for the very last trip to 'my' university

...