Little Black Book

Spent an entertaining day at

a book making/printing workshop on Friday

at Logan Art Gallery.

The gallery has been running workshops in conjunction with their

current altered book art exhibition "Recycled Library: Altered Books".

The exhibiting artist running Friday's workshop was 

Glen Skien from Silent Parrot Press .

It was a very pertinent and topical subject for me with my

participation in BookArtObject and

helped me further my ideas for working

with prints, editions and bookbinding.

Glen is such a humble and talented guy 

and had everyone busily creating at a great pace.

Passing on as much technical info and handy hints as he could 

in a one day workshop.

My friend Jack, who does fabulously quirky

artwork and limited edition books attended the workshop

and I must say a big thanks to Gloria Clay for letting me know it was on -

hope you all enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Arthouse Co-op - The Meal Project

Here is a terrificly simple and creative co-operative project that I have just joined up for.

Come join me.

It is being run by the clever people at ARTHOUSE CO-OP.

Their aim is to highlight hunger in our world.

Here is what they say about the project:

The Meal

One moment. One meal. One photograph. Let's eat.

On February 24th at 12pm EST, join thousands of people around the world in a simultaneous global meal. Whether it's breakfast in LA or a midnight snack in Beijing, let's take a moment from our hectic lives and share it with strangers around the world. Snap a photo of yourself and your meal and mail it to us — we'll create an exhibition from these self-portraits, documenting the world's largest communal snack.
Another cool thing about this project? It's free.

The Sun is Shining...

The sun is shining,

the sky is blue,

and I could swear those birds are smiling.

The paper, like my state of mind,

is beginning to dry out and return to a state of creative equilibrium.

Animals and Text

Now that the "Ex Libris Olim" exhibition is all set up,

I have been busy thinking about my online projects,

which all seem to have animal and text connections. 

In no particular order the projects are:

Project 1 - The Sketchbook Project

Project 2 - A Letter a Week

Project 3 - Book Art Object

Early days yet, with ideas and experimenting going on.

Reprieve from the rains

The heavy rains of the last few days have departed,

we have had a rain free morning.

The flood waters have subsided and run their course out to sea.

The cicadas are humming their merry tune loudly

as the humidity soars

and the creatures all try to dry out.

As you can tell I have had a little break from

book making over the past few days after a rather

intense time getting things complete for the exhibition. 

I have been out exploring the garden with my camera

(from the safety of my lovely verandah during the rain)

and making small progress on my a letter a week project.

As my younger daughter is still governed by

the school year calendar, I find the

 transitional period between holidays and term time

a bit of a readjustment for all of us.

26th January "Australia Day" here in the land of Oz

is our national day of celebration.

There are as many ideas about what the day means

and ways of marking the day

as there are individuals and cultures living here.

 It is a public holiday, so I am having a quiet day at home

and enjoying the nature that surrounds me.

(Rumours are the rain will be back with a vengeance tonight/tomorrow)

Deluge - with a capital "D"

We are still receiving constant heavy rain.

Flooding is occurring all over the place.

The usual roads are cut off by torrents of water.

Green paddocks have turned to inland seas.

A help line has been set up for people still traumatised

by last years flooding, people are anxious.

Must admit I'm anxious about driving today,

but it is first day back at school for us

so an attempt is expected.

Just so long as I can get back out to pick up this afternoon!

Would much rather cocoon ourselves here at home!

SOAKING WET

Everyone and everything is wet here today.

We have had continuous heavy showers 

throughout the night and it has rained all morning.

Unlike the unfortunate creatures in our garden,

we are all nice and cosy (although the wallabies

are all now taking shelter under the verandahs).

We are all extremely lucky here

that we are not expected anywhere

today, so we are taking full advantage

and doing rainy day things like sleeping in,

reading books, tidying and creating.

Thank you

Books are like imprisoned souls 

until someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them 

 (Samuel Butler, novelist)

Thank you to everyone who came

along to the "ex libris olim" opening

yesterday.

It is a wonderful thing to have

support from people whom

you cherish and admire.

Thanks especially to the quiet and humble

Rick Thomason for inviting me to display my

work at Redland Museum and for doing such a good job curating the show.

Today's the Day

 

Big Day today.

My exhibition "Ex Libris Olim" opens at 11am.

Am looking forward to having lots of wonderful

people together in the one space but

secretly,

I can't wait for my speech to be over already

'cause I hate being the centre of attention!

Above are some rather average photo's I took

during installation.  We have put up

more signage and moved some stuff around

a little since taking them and it looks

somewhat more improved.

"The Jealous Curator" - June 2011 discussion

Stumbled upon this post from The Jealous Curator

from June 2011 about the ups and downs of being an artist and thought others of you 

might find it interesting reading too.

Although the post itself is not that long, the idea behind it seemed to resonate

and the gazillion comments left by artists make (I think) for  interesting reading. 

(ps my little wind up dragonfly toy is a totally irrelevant image and  has nothing to do with the topic,

I just think it's pretty cute and I can't put a post up without an image!)