Sunday, 19 May 2013

Reminiscing


Lillian Gish 1893-1993
When I was a teenager I was besotted with silent films.
My walls were plastered with posters of Charlie Chaplin,
Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino and Lillian Gish.
I spent hours immersed in books with stories and images of these people and their times.
One book in particular "A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen",
a present from my father, gave me access to endless black & white
portraits, which I endlessly sketched in graphite.

Lillian Gish, who lived to the ripe old age of 100, 
was always my favourite silent movie gal.

Jackie Coogan as a child with Charlie Chaplin in "The Kid"
Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester
Jackie Coogan, who played as a child in
films with Charlie Chaplin, amongst others,
always intrigued me.
For those unfamiliar with him,
he is best remembered as Uncle Fester
in the original tv series of "The Addams Family".
He was married, for a time, to Betty Grable.
The Coogan Law is named after him.
When he was 21 Coogan sued his mother and step-father
for access to the considerable monies he had earned as a child.
Up until this point parents were legally allowed to keep all
monies earned by their children.


I also had a big thing for Fred & Ginger
and Alfred Hitchcock Films.

For Mother's Day this year my elder daughter
gifted me a DVD copy of Alfred Hitchcock's 
silent films (who knew!).
What a great gift!




Wednesday, 15 May 2013

More paper cutting goodness........



Some shadowy images of a little hand cut
concertina fold book project 
I am currently working on.
Bound to develop RSI with this one!

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Enjoying Solitude






Have been enjoying solitude whilst quietly immersing myself in the art of cutting paper.



Thursday, 4 April 2013

Renovations continue................




The long process of renovation continues:
The upstairs deck is pretty much complete now
and has made a great difference to how we live in our house.
Downstairs has gone from muddy quagmire to lovely solid concrete
underfoot.  Soon we'll have the new walls and windows up
to utilise some of this space for storage and studio.

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Karakuri

Since my order of 
Keisuke Saka's (also info here in English) book "Karakuri" arrived
in the post the other day  
I have been busily making paper automata
from the templates inside, building up an
understanding of how these things work.

I have long been interested in automata 
and this is a great jumping off point for me,
combining paper sculpture and automata
with detailed instructions and templates.


Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Someone's been digging in my garden



Every now and again we get to see some
amazing creatures wandering around our yard.
At the moment we are very lucky to have
the biggest echidna I have ever seen
(I'd say he'd be at least 35cm long - almost 14")
He forages around in our front garden in the evenings.
We know he's arrived when we hear
a bit of shuffling and snuffling.
He moves slowly around
and doesn't seem to mind us 
coming out to have a look
at him from a distance.

It is such a thrill and a joy to see 
a healthy and content native animal
wandering freely around and knowing
we are able to provide a bit of space
and hopefully safe haven for
him to thrive and survive.

Monday, 4 February 2013

Concertina Child - Covered




A little while ago, 
when I was doing a lot of 
altered book covers, I played around a bit with
metal, nails and text in metal. 
Now, I know metal and paper aren't really good
partners for a long term relationship
as far as archival qualities go,
but sometimes
short term friendships can be
extremely interesting.

I had a hankering to put a metal cover
with a bit of text onto my
concertina child and
this is the initial outcome.


Still thinking.........................

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Concertina Child







Concentrating on 
repeated images,
slight variations in colour
and 
concertina folds.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Shaping Up








The deck is coming along
with the roof going on in sweltering 45 deg heat through the week.
Just a good paint and a few trims and she should
look like she's always been part of the house.

Now we just need a reliable concreter to move on with the next stage
of building underneath the house.
We thought we had that all sorted, but the world of tradespeople is a fickle place.