21 September 2016
Public Art Paste Up at Bakehouse Studios September 2016
This paste-up on the billboards on Hoddle Street Richmond is a snap shot of my studio wall in Brunswick. Finished pieces, works in progress. It’s about process: ideas that evolve into drawings and sketches on paper or three-dimensional objects. For me this is the joyous part of being an artist; I love it. Mostly my work is deeply inspired by nature and what I see around me; but it’s becoming generative and increasingly abstract. Sometimes there aren’t really ideas, I just work in an almost meditative state and see what happens… playing with textures, surfaces, scale and materials such as watercolour, gouache, pencil and ink. Collages, small sculptures made from wood, glass beads, textiles and metal. There is rarely any obvious narrative or commentary in my work, but black coal and coral have found their way in here … what are we doing? I am appalled by the lack of real political engagement and action to protect all our marine environments and The Great Barrier Reef.
Usually my work is quite small, so seeing it this big is really exciting, the billboards are more than three metres wide and over two metres high. Rather than using a single finished art work for my billboard paste up I wanted some sort of connection between the exterior of the building and all that is happening inside: composing, writing, experimenting, playing with ideas and creating music, art, poetry.
http://bakehousestudios.com.au/
02 September 2016
Artichoke seeds in front of some new drawings I am working on
14 August 2016
06 January 2016
Playing with ideas for a wine label, the first wine from Jasmine Wakely. Le Timbre 2015 from Kilmore, Victoria Australia. Minimal intervention, fresh, pure and delicious. ‘Timbre’ is a music term that basically describes everything that is not pitch or loudness… it is the texture, the colour of music. For example you could the same note on a piano and a clarinet and they sound different even though it is the same note. The top image here is painted with a tank sample of the wine, a beautiful rich purple that will slowly fade over time. http://www.letimbre.com.au/
26 August 2015
Radiant Pavilion starts next week! http://www.radiantpavilion.com.au/
In Spanish ‘bosquejo’ is a sketch, or the rough outline of an idea. Shortly after the acceptance of my proposal for Radiant Pavilion I developed tendonitis in my elbow. Such bad timing, I could not work. Rather than withdraw due to injury I decided to present what I think of as three-dimensional drawings or sketches. Maquettes, pieces in progress, objects and experiments using light materials that would not hurt my arm such as balsa wood, Tasmanian oak dowel, string, ink, encaustic paint and a glue gun. Plaster, brass tube, wax cast into bronze. Steel wire and bamboo beads salvaged from the hard rubbish collection on the street. Sheep’s appendix, bone and pigment. Glass beads, waxed linen thread from Japan. Bosquejo has been an opportunity to search and play with ideas and materials in the studio. I made many things, some successful, others less so. Limited by the window space I have presented a small selection of work made during this challenging but most enjoyable time.
27 July 2015
Studio Monday morning
08 June 2015
Work in progress for Bosquejo. Wood, string, ink, plaster, bronze and a Donati’s cotechino.
01 June 2015
Bosquejo. A sketch, rough outline of an idea, a working drawing.
01 December 2014
New Zealand, South Island. The longest white clouds, July 2014
29 October 2014
Often when I look at work I have made in the past I wonder how and why I did it, so complex, difficult and time consuming. Sometime ago I resolved not to use environmentally unsound methods such as plating anymore. This work was for an exhibition in Itami, Japan 2010.
02 May 2014
24 January 2014
Studio
04 December 2013
28 November 2013
National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Lichen, twigs and wombat vertebrae
29 October 2013
10 October 2013
Shroud
28 September 2013
There are so many varied translations of this beautiful Pablo Naruda ode… sweet dianthus smells clove-like… silvery lillies…
I discovered this (the english version) at cathoward.wordpress.com/
Oda a la jardinera
Sí, yo sabía que tus manos eran
el alhelí florido, la azucena
de plata;
algo que ver tenías
con el suelo,
con el florecimiento de la tierra,
pero
cuando
te vi cavar, cavar,
apartar piedrecitas
y manejar raíces
supe de pronto,
agricultora mía,
que no sólo tus manos,
sino tu corazón
eran de tierra,
que allí
estabas haciendo
cosas tuyas,
tocando
puertas
húmedas
por donde
circulan
las
semillas.
Así, pues,
de una a otra
planta
recién
plantada,
con el rostro
manchado
por un beso
del barro,
ibas
y regresabas
floreciendo,
ibas
y de tu mano
el tallo
de la astromelia
elevó su elegancia solitaria,
el jazmín
aderezó
la niebla de tu frente
con estrellas de aroma y de rocío.
Todo
de ti crecía
penetrando
en la tierra
y haciéndose
inmediata
luz verde,
follaje y poderío.
Tú le comunicabas
tus semillas,
amada mía,
jardinera roja.
Tu mano
se tuteaba
con la tierra
y era instantáneo
el claro crecimiento.
Amor, así también
tu mano
de agua,
tu corazón de tierra,
dieron
fertilidad
y fuerza a mis canciones.
Tocas
mi pecho
mientras duermo
y los árboles brotan
de mi sueño.
Despierto, abro los ojos,
y has plantado
dentro de mí
asombradas estrellas
que suben
con mi canto.
Es así, jardinera:
nuestro amor
es
terrestre:
tu boca es planta de la luz, corola,
mi corazón trabaja en las raíces.
Ode to the woman in her garden
Yes, I knew that your hands were
the flowering clove, the lily
silvered:
that you had something to do
with the dirt,
with the earth’s flourishing . . .
but
when
I saw you dig down, dig down,
to push aside the stones
and finger the roots,
I knew right then,
my farmer girl,
that not just your hands
but your heart
were of the earth,
that you
were making
things
there of your own,
touching
damp
doors
through which
circulate
the
seeds.
So, then,
from one plant
just
planted
to the next,
your face
stained
with a kiss
from the mud,
you came
and went
flourishing,
you went,
and from your hand
the astrolomeria’s
stalk
raised its lonely elegance,
the jasmine
dressed
your snowy brow
with stars of scent and mist.
All
grew from you,
entering
the earth,
and turning
to immediate
green light,
foliage and might.
You made contact with
your seeds,
my love,
my red-faced garden girl:
your hand
familiared
the ground
and thus right then was
the growing made clear.
Love, so too
did your watery
hand,
your earthy heart,
give
fertility
and force to my songs.
You touch
my heart
as I sleep,
and the trees bloom
from my dream.
I wake up, I open my eyes,
and you’ve planted
in me
shadowed stars
that rise
with my song.
That’s how it is, garden girl:
our love
is
of this earth:
your mouth is the plant of life, the petals of it,
while my heart works the roots.
Translation by Terence Clarke
13 September 2013
The appropriate tool for the task
06 September 2013
A new studio in Brunswick! Bronze magnolias in progress…
05 September 2013
Gertrude street, Winter/Spring
