been there... done that....

a quick jaunt to sydney with a bunch of kiddies
 

(including our sassy-boyo)

from the rooftop of the YHA right in the heart of the city
things look a bit different to the usual vision
of cows and chooks and trees and paddocks of green

transportation... 

(I take it as a good sign)

the journey...

 

  under the bridge

our destination...

where the cobargo kiddies

join the nearly 700-strong primary school massed recorder and strings ensemble

for one night only at the Sydney Opera House

they performed

the Can-Can

and a new work called 'Gulaga Dreaming'
(how special for our mob, who actually LIVE near Gulaga mountain...)

and 'Prince Ivan' - a special work written just for the massive group



they all played so beautifully


what an amazing experience for a young lad from the bush....


(and his mumma-bear)


...

postcards from the winter solstice...

 postcard made of longest book

photographed (somewhat artistically and obscurely) in situ

on the shortest day


 may your solstice (long or short)

be super-sized with goodness

....

a little bit foggy but otherwise fine...

 Last week I returned to casual teaching in the local high school
after an absence of more than four years 

corrrrrrrr!
talk about foggy head!

was casual teaching always this tiring?

and this week I've had a high school student spend time in my studio
doing work experience

which resulted in lots of notes (hers)
about booky things...

 

 and first forays into the wonderful world of handmade booky things

concertina/ accordion books covered with old maps
(found in my treasure chest map drawers)

a first stab at binding
(coptic.... naturally...)

 

and already she is happily filling those blank pages 

with all sorts of creative deliciousness...

and that's what I remember I liked about teaching youngens

the possibility of igniting a life-long passion for bookyness and creativity


oh yesssss



....

welcome to winter...

just after dawn 

on the third day of winter here at the creek...

(click to see it in more of its glory)

in real life it was magnificent

the most amazing full arch double rainbow I have ever seen

...

moo...

said in my best yoda voice 

 'excited we are'

inside are itty-bitty 

 'carpe diem' moo cards

 

15 different cards 

spanning 2 years of ephemeral gesturing...

and I've made little book page pockets for them...

As soon as I work out a nice online store**

I'll be offering little packets containing 10 random art gesture cards

for folk to purchase (if they feel inclined)

mind you - if you were sweet enough to purchase either

carpe diem

or 

codex infinitum

at the blurb store

please drop me a note/pic and I'll pop a origami packet of gestures

 in the post for you as a thank you gift

** I haven't quite decided the who/what/where etc for an online store

so if you have some advice
I'm all ears!

...

in the background...

more collage



lots of little square collages actually...

of mostly white and black and aged papers adhered to hard boards

 

and as pleasant as I find the activity
and as carefully as I choose the bits and pieces and arrange them just so
this is just the first step in a project

for these are the grounds (backgrounds) for a series...

an effective background is a neutral background
one that doesn't have a lot of tonal contrast competing for attention

so it's time to add a thin layer of white gesso over the mottled collages

 

preparing them to become receptive backgrounds

but arctic white is not really my scene

so I brewed up a strong mug of tea

 

and gave them all a nice drink...

and NOW I'm ready to begin....


...

codex infinitum on blurb...

at loooooong last I can offer everyone
a little slice of my MFA project

codex infinitum the infinite book by Rhonda Ayliffe | Make Your Own Book

codex infinitum - the infinite book
contains modified excerpts from my MFA thesis
and reproductions of artworks from my research project

  all wrapped up in a  little blurb book

and for anyone interested enough to grab a blurb book -
I'll happily send you a PDF version
of my full MFA thesis (minus the images)

just drop me a line

...