its official...

(click to embiggen)

feel free to share 

(and a big thanks to all those who have already shared 

after I posted the invite on my facebook arty page)

codex infinitum - the infinite book

10 October - 7 November 

switchback gallery

monash university - gippsland campus

churchill

....

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

.....

reflections....

I had a spectacular four days down at monash uni gippsland - simply fab-ul-ous!

this is the fourth year I've headed south for the annual winter symposium - and it was by far the bestest trip yet - I had a marvelous (albeit looooooong) drive down in the super-duper subaru (I'm in love) - shared on-campus accommodation with a great bunch of gals (more love - especially for josephine-the-kitchen-queen woof woof what a cook!) - had a marvelous bunch of super-duper creative folk in my 'critique' group (I loves youse all! especially you neale!) - with not one, but two excellent arty leaders..... ros atkins and my supervisor susan purdy (super monster love here! these two ladies are SPECTACULAR artists - and I am feeling sooooooooooooooooo lucky to have susan as my supervisor I'm almost busting at the seams!) and if all that wasn't enough - on wednesday night monash wheeled in john wolseley as their guest speaker (bestill my beating heart! john has long been one of my art heroes - and he was simply the most charming and humble and delightful speakers imaginable).

(this is another of the works I showed during my turn for show and tell...... more to follow.....
I'm currently in recovery mode - and school hols have now started here at sams creek......
time to do all those things I've been promising my patient kidlins)

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!

why university libraries are fantastic...

Ok I'm ready to admit it....

I'm in love...

and it's not just a fleeting flirtation... it's deep, abiding passion we are talking about here...

I love my university library

Indeed I think the library is the very best thing about undertaking any course of study at a university (or so I've constantly written in any 'unit evaluation' that I've had to complete!)

As an external student my only meaningful contact with my library is via the internet and I have been known to spend a dreadful amount of time trawling through the online library catalogue..... and when I discover a 'must have' treasure - I send in a request and my uni library pops the book in the post for me to have and hold - at any given time I have between 10 and 25 uni library books on loan - and over the last couple of years I've (apparently) come to be known by the Monash University library staff as 'the woman with all the books' (hee hee hee if only they could see my pile of books in the studio and shed......)

Right now I've got some fantastic titles out on loan that I think every booky person would love to get their hands on.....

* the Artists Book Year book 2010-2011 (a damn good resource I say - and nice to see so many Australian links...)


* I've just started looking through The Mysterious Marbler by James Sumner - originally printed in 1854, last year Oak Knoll issued a special reprint - with gorgeous handmarbled paper examples enclosed....


look....

purrty....

* then there's Fine Bookbinding - a technical guide by Jen Lindsay (again published last year by Oak Knoll.... they are fast becoming my favourite publishers....) This book isn't filled with photos and illustrations, but has detailed (and I do mean detailed!) instructions for leather codex binding - I like what I'm seeing/reading so far...

* I love love loved Alphabet Stories by Hermann Zapf - with many anecdotal tales by the man who developed the Palantino type family and created Zapf dingbats! (you don't have to be a calligraphic/typographic creature to enjoy the stories...)

* I've also just received 'perfect paper' by page one..... ooooo pretty (and again a heap of aussies included)!

* and earlier this week I had to endure an 8hr bus trip to Sydney (shudder).... lucky I had 'the book is dead (long live the book)' by Sherman Young to help keep me amused!


ahhhhh my university library - how do I love thee? let me count the ways...

ahhhh it's good to be home!

Only a few moments ago I stumbled through the door, weary from my return drive all the way from Morwell today (6.5 hrs drive.... through what at times feels like the wilderness....)

this is what much of the trip looks like (only not with such a lovely straight road...)



most of the time the view was a bit more like this.....


(yes in case you were wondering - I WAS taking pics whilst driving - slap my wrist I'm a naughty girlie!)


I've been down at the Gippland campus of Monash University attending the grandly named 'winter symposium' - this year is my last trip (wheeeeeeee!) as part of the MVA I've been completing part time with Monash over the past 2.5 years so I was primed to to catch up with fellow students, check out what they are all up to and hopefully to give a solid presentation of my work and ideas ..... There were some truely inspiring stuff - and I should follow up and drop a few links to folks work.... maybe when I'm not so stuffed!

here's a little itty bitty glimpse of SOME of the bits I lugged down...





most of my stuff I presented in a digital format however....



ahhhhhh I'm so relieved to have that finished with - I still have a further 6 months of studio work to complete (and of course the fun of assessment) before I'm done with the MVA... but I feel like the hardest part is now over. I'll see this place again in November...







Oh BTW - this is what the drive in to the uni from nearby Morwell looked like each morning.... yummy soupy fog... (I was NOT driving whilst taking this pic!)




makes you feels toasty and warm doesn't it.... (have I mentioned already how pleased I am to be home?)

time for uni....

I'm packing up the car with all my wares preparing for the looooooong trip (close to 700kms... through what I like to refer to as 'the boonies') down to my uni tomorrow

This will be the last time I have to attend the Winter Symposium as part of the Master of Visual Arts course I've been undertaking over the past 2 and a half years (finished in November..... I'm dreaming of it now..... ahhhh). I've been very busy in the studio (and outside...) over the past few months creating new works. I'm feeling very positive about the current direction of all my work. Apart from 'Ex Libris', most of my current work hasn't been seen anywhere or by anyone outside the family yet.... so I'm nervous but excited about 'unveiling' it to fellow students and staff down at Gippsland.

When I return I might feel up to posting a few pics here.... wish me luck (my presentation is the first one, on the first day.... again....)

30 x 30 x 30 exhibition

A quick update - my little piece blogged earlier has been selected for '30 x 30 x 30' - an exhibition of work from faulty and staff of Monash Uni at the Art & Design faculty gallery

whee-har

The show opened last night (and as it's in Melbourne - of course I didn't attend) and runs until Dec 6