sprung!

It's the first day of spring for all we southern hemisphere folk!

(these daffodils were planted at our sams creek home around the turn of the century.... by that I mean 1900s! 
they are not a named variety and after their century of isolation, are possibly now a mutant sams creek daff!
ever since I was a teeny-tiny kiddie I've watched these appear each spring.....)

I love the possibilities of spring. Although autumn, with its warm (but not too warm) days and garden abundance, is my favourite season, spring puts a spring in the step of everyone and everything! Yes it's a time for renewal and rebirth..... and for spring cleaning....

This spring is going to be especially memorable as it will mark a dramatic change of things here at the creek. (A few of my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed friends have already seen me post the beginnings of this HUGE change on the farm blog. And I'll have a lot more to share there/here in the next while - as the next BIG stage unfolds.)


So in the spirit of new starts and spring cleaning (and airing the linen) I'm going to start doing things just a tiny-weeny bit differently here.....


F i r s t

Now that blogger has these nice little tabbed pages, I think it's time to bring back the etcetera to art & etc – and that means posting my farm and garden type things on this blog. The farm and my garden activities are an essential part of our lives here at the creek (and I consider them integral to my arts practice) – which is pretty obvious if you've read my 'life at sams creek' page! So I hope my future posted tales of garden victories and defeats and jam sessions don't drive all you booky/arty creatures around the bend!


S e c o n d

however challenging I may find it – I'm going to TRY to post some 'how-to' stories...... like 'how-to-make-a-circle-bound-coptic-book' for one! And even a few simpler things like 'how-to-make-paste' (the story of paste was a revelation to me 15 years ago.... and I still love to swap recipes and techniques, just as I love to swap jam recipes and planting techniques in the garden)

The main reason I haven't posted about my processes previously is that I've never thought of myself as a 'master' of anything much  (so who am I to offer technical instructions or advice?) The other is, I've always figured if I know how something is done, welllllll everyone must (and I tend to think everyone else can do things a durn sight better than me!)  The irony is – I love to READ about how things are done/made.... and I never care whether the person sharing is a 'master' or a beginner. I find it strangely reassuring when I see similarities in process and revitalising to see a whole new way of doing ordinary old things (like making paste!).


Well those are my two blogging spring challenges


I've got a whole other set of challenges to tackle in the garden and paddocks... and studio!


hope the change of seasons brings good tidings for all

short 'n sweet

spring is almost upon us... so saith my peach trees!

I've had one of those nice week's this week..... amidst the huge life upheavals currently being navigated, I received a couple of bits of nice news..... there was of course the delivery of the current issue of sustain magazine...... within the week I also received news that my work has been selected for a forthcoming book on contemporary Australian and New Zealand calligraphy (and given that I submitted virtues and vices I'm MIGHTY surprised that the editors have taken the very brave leap to include me!). The book, being produced by the ASC, is slotted for limited release somewhere near the end of the year.... so I'll let you know all about it when I get my complimentary copy.

The bigger news was (drum roll please) I've been shortlisted for the Basil Sellers Art Prize...... wheeeee! again it's a looooong wait (the award is in October) and I don't hold out any hope of collecting the $15 000 prize (oh, but I can dream about how lovely it would be can't I?) I am however mighty thrilled to be a finalist - and again mighty surprised (I think my face has had a permanent 'HUH?' look to it this week)


...

sustain me

This was personally home delivered yesterday...

(click the pic to go to the sustain site -
where you can download a digital copy of the mag for free - yes free!
ps the guy on the front actually is an old friend who lives over the hill from our place!)

It's the latest edition of sustain magazine which is created locally on the far south coast by a dedicated team and is issued about twice a year - I really love what this mag is all about -

"Sustain addresses issues we need to know as we relocalise our economies and set about achieving social, economic and environmental sustainability."

The mag is printed on paper from renewable resources and is delivered FREE to all and sundry - the current issue is all about 'heritage skills' and so my little heritage self was included in an wrap up of hertiage-ish type things in the area that also uphold the ethos of the magazine....

(if you click the pic and screw up your eyes I think you might just be able to read this...
if not you can download the whole mag from the link above....
and yes - that's the same pic of me that I use on my blogger profile...and also for fb... I don't like having my piccie taken!)

Big thanks to Sustain's new editor Robyn Rosenfeldt for the nice story and to Geoffrey Griggs - who is the force behind the mag and the Austcom network (and the delivery guy yesterday!) - you guys remind me of a favourtie quote:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world". - Ghandi

...

donkeys rule!

Gosh - who would have thought that oz politics could be so exciting!  certainly not little-ole me with my little-ole donkeys!

As well as telling you guys here all about my donkeys - I told all my friends in in facebook land - and in that forum I had friends who laughed aloud, but also many who questioned what I was up to (and I could sense the disapproving looks of a few) - later on Saturday evening I posted the following on my facebook donkey album and I thought it was worth repeating verbatim here.......

"for all of you who 'liked' my donkey pics - thanks..... you got the spirit of the affair (its all about a bit of a laugh - for if you can't laugh at these things it will all get a bit too serious eh?) those who know me know that I genuinely respect the right of every person to hold their own political view - that irrespective of whether your politics lean left or right (or falling down drunk) I'm there with you... holding your hand, holding the hanky, holding the glass of celebratory champagne (drinking YOUR glass of celebratory champagne no doubt)

operation donkey brought together the left and right of cobargo politics in a way I could never have foreseen - BOTH sides of politics were wary of the donkey..... and they bonded in their distrust of the donkey .... was the donkey there to bring them down? was the donkey a comment about them? was it a subversive movement to encourage swinging voters to do the wrong thing and (gasp) throw away their precious vote in wanton informal vote?

the donkey was basically none of these.... it was an arty intervention brought to you by the smarty-arty-farty party

hope your team wins tonight (sorry - but I still hold by my conviction that by morning we will have yet another ass in the PM chair.....)"

It's now Monday morning - and as I type we still don't know who will ascend to the throne - the balance of power in oz politics is in the hands of a few independents....


golly, but isn't this exciting?!




...

is all the (oz) election hype getting you down?

well its been getting me down...

so - at 4am this morning, armed only with some newspaper cut-outs, wheat paste, chalk and a beanie - I headed up to town to bring a bit of cheer into the hearts of weary little cobargo voters......

and if you happen to find yourself in the small township of Cobargo today you may stumble across a 'special' little something-something....

OPERATION DONKEY!

yep, it's a few hundred up-cycled newspaper cut-out donkeys.... pasted all over the town paths - naturally I had them arranged to usher the crowds into the cobargo polling booth.... which of course sent the poor polling booth overseer into mild cardiac arrest at 6am (just kidding! it did however send him off to his rule book and he was ready to enforce a '6m rule'....)

a compromise was reached - my donkeys made it within the 6m ban - but not to the door (as I argued - 'hey man, it's only arrrrrrt - it's not like I'm spruiking for one of the parties!)

ahhhhhh - go to work my little donkeys.....

oh and a few donkeys managed to escape the paths and climbed the poles...

I hereby proclaim 'operation donkey' a resounding success - much fun and merriment was had by all (well, at least by ME!) and as I've been reminding folk far and wide for ages.... regardless of how things go down in the polls this evening, tomorrow we will wake up with an ass as the next PM......

show you know - VOTE DONKEY




** no real donkeys were harmed in the construction of 'operation donkey'



**

working pic....

I thought I'd share an 'action' piccie - believe it or not, this is my current project work site.....

Yep I'm hanging out down in my creek..... I'll show you what I've been up to in the next little while.....


....

'I think therefore.... I bind'

Back in June I began a project to bind another colourful loooooong book - this time created from an entire (15 volume) set of childcraft annuals....

and yesterday I finished all 2.7m (or 8ft 10 inches) of it....

(this is not the best piccie.... but at least it gives you a bit of an idea of its length...)

This is the third, and now longest, of these 'serpent books' that I've completed since last winter (here's where you can read more about the construction of the first and second 'serpent book') - this one is also the most colourful in the bunch....

and like the others, it can be arranged in a variety of ways... as a loooooooong book, or a spiral, circle, figure-of-eight, free-form or something in between....

(I like to drape them over my shoulders, like a boa constrictor,
to move them from one place to another.....

they are very fluid creatures and rather heavy!)

and of course like the others, this one took a loooooong time to complete - but I found the process of binding all of these both relaxing and meditative.... and while I was binding, something else was going on.....


Over the past few months I've been neck-deep in heavy-duty reading and writing as part of my Higher Degree Research (MFA/PhD) project.... (this past week I submitted the draft plan of my exegesis..... eeeek). I'm one of those people who needs a fair amount of time to digest written material - especially the heavy-duty philosophical stuff I've been TRYING to wade through lately (Pragmatism, Neo-Pragmatism, Pragmatic Zen and their ramifications for arts practice... for those who like to know this sort of stuff.....)

OH BOY!

I find I often need to take a break - to take a walk or work in the garden to help work out the meaning of texts (or more importantly, the ramifications of various texts to my research project and art-making). I've also discovered, that binding these long books (an activity most would describe as kraaaazy, obsessive making) does the same thing ---- somehow all the 'metaphysical' this and 'existential' that from the heavy-duty texts start to work their way into my understanding (just please don't ask me to explain any of it!).

So from here on, when I have something to work out I'm going to go for a walk, or work in the garden, or BIND SOMETHING.....


(and the way my reading/writing/research is going, I'll either end up hellishly fit, with a weed-free garden, or the lady with the largest collection of strange looooooong books this side of sams creek!)


OH BOY!