sunlight recedes,
wolves howl in the night,
amongst red cellophane rooftops,
together we ate,
gnawing on the tense bread,
that was ours,
in the moonlight,
fur encompassed,
and mother's narrowing eyes were upon us.
Find me inhaling blue carpet,
sipping red currant iced tea,
mallards are windswept,
and frozen in flight.
Suspended above us.
As the ocean wails,
he comes,
circumfluent,
LED lights burn,
in the distance,
an amber glow.
Before sunrise,
before nostalgia,
we are enveloped by billowing red curtain lengths.
Toes exposed,
blue ice cold.

Rose Tinted Sinew

I'm not sure what's going on with my scanner, but here's a blurry image of a free form tapestry that I'm doing on a rug making base - it's a pretty quick little format, and I really love the alternate depths and dimensions the loose frame implies.

Tin Chandelier

I spent the entirety of my saturday drilling tiny holes into this tin box lid, with my trusty Dremel, and then threaded them with Swarovski crystals - I figured if everyone else in my class has decided to incorporate a kinetic element to their work (I would be utterly surprised if any of those aforementioned students knew the definition of this word) I've been forced to "up the anti" - and although these images don't really explain what exactly I'm doing, I think I have sufficiently 'upped the anti' with this tiny piece, I've just got to decide on lighting!
(Oh and I just thought I'd post some images of the damage you can do to your cheapo Ikea desk if you don't use a mat whilst drilling!!!)

Free style Text Cross Stitch

I'm getting much, much faster at cross stitch, considering these are the first non-abstracted/automated ones that I've done for about six months, I'm proud to say that each rather large scale stitching is taking me around four days to complete - therefore, I'm feeling good, a little less stressed even!

(Oh, and I'm calling them free style just this once, as my Mum was extremely surprised that I don't use a font pattern!)

The Bay

And seeing as I forgot my camera lead have a photo of it down here from less freezing times .. gotta love that graduated pastel sky!

Suck Lemons!

I'm at my Mum's place in the country at the moment, forcing her to help me finish my quilt, generally just sewing, sipping coconut black chai steaming hot tea with honey, baking carrot cake, watching my sausage dog make an absolute fool out of herself, and might I admit it, relaxing just ever so slightly!!

I'm loving the fact that the old ladies in the op shops down here (I got an AWESOME tan suede parka today for $5!) not only sew ALL of the stuffed toys in the shop jumpers, beanies and general warmth but also sell home grown non waxed lemons for 20c a pop!! So cute! These lemons on the other hand are of the fabric variety exquistely crafted by my exotic friend Sharon!

Carried on the tide of progress, we all seem to be fast-forwarding into a future where our memories become irrelevant relics from a useless and discarded past. - Matthew Flaming

Skully Wuggle

This week has been extremely productive - I've finished the topside of the baby quilt, organized alternatives to casting my bones (here seen in gesso process), taken numerous photos and numerous more shall be taken over the next 7 days and started on a new embroidery/wrote a few more pieces of prose that are waiting to be embroidered!

In the remnant of the study break I intend to finish the embroideries/quilt, take way more photos ready to have printed, source the presentation bits and pieces, consult with a neon maker, re-think and produce an alternative to the rose ceiling piece - thanks to a rather abrupt flourishing of kinetic works within my class.... mmmm let's not talk about it... re-develop the memoirs of flotsam and jetsam pieces, and at some point in time get to all of the bajillion awesome shows on in Melbourne at the moment! Excited much?!

Quilt #2

And so here are some shots of the completed first component of the baby quilt, it's made up for fabrics including swatches of old clothes, pillow cases and the main fabric is an old doona cover that I've had for as long as I can remember, and the one of the major concept behind the works is to mystify the object whilst maintaining it's imbued memories.
I do worry that it looks a little too much at this stage, and I had a few ideas for the installation that I think I might encourage towards different projects as I think it would just be way too over the top! But as much as I hate to admit it, that over the top, kind of clashing florals is very me, and I think everyone who knows me will probably agree with that assesment!
Anywho, tomorrow I'm off to have molds made for pendants, followed by a solid night of full-steam- ahead embroidery things are getting serious over here!!

Quilt #1

Over the last few days I've been working on the top side of my baby quilt, which will be a part of the Blue Hued Winter installation.. it's definately not perfect or mathematically accurate, but it's not too bad for a first attempt, and it's extremely personal which I feel is made concrete through it's slightly askewed aesthetic.

From Home

Exciting!

Beautiful Boys

When the child's forehead. red and full of pain,
Dreams of ease in the streaming of white veils,
To the side of his bed two lovely sisters come
With delicate fingers and long silvery nails.

They take the child with them to an immense
Window, where blue air bathes a flowery grove,
And through his heavy hair, as the dew descends,
Their terrible, enchanting fingers probe.

He listens to their fearful slow breath vibrate,
Flowering with honey and the hue of roses,
Broken now and then with whispers, saliva
Licked back on their lips, a longing for kisses.

He hears their lashes beat the still, sweet air;
Their soft electric fingers never tire -
Through his gray swoon, a crackling in his hair -
Beneath their royal nails the little lice expire.

Within him then surges the wine of Idleness,
Like the sweet deluding harmonica's sigh;
And the child can feel, beneath their slow caresses,
Rising, falling, an endless desire to cry.


The Ladies Who Look For Lice by Arthur Rimbaud.
Images scanned from Goldin's The Devil's Playground.

Etc.

And here are some of the shots from that particular day that have made the cut (at this stage I think) this whole process has made me realize that I really need to take my camera everywhere and get out a lot more than I do .. I say this on a Saturday night eating a sneaky brown ale cupcake for second dessert post Japanese dinner!

Recent images

My 2010 photographic series has taken a rather unexpected turn, focussing alot less on portraiture and more on abstract portraiture via a kind of photo diary style, anyway these are some shots from a recent photo taking trip, that haven't made the cut.

For the very first time in my entire life I opened the back of my camera before winding up the film and exposed some really awesome close ups of the underside of these mushrooms- they were saffron hued and honeycomb textured - absolutely hating myself right now and blaming it on the insomnia!!!!

Bois Trio

These are the only 35mm images that I took at the recent Forest Collective and Exaudi Youth choir evening, Bois as my camera is just a little too loud for these intimate music gigs.. I love the fact that it is almost entirely impossible to decipher these shots of my small contribution.

Seven Thousand Oaks Festival -ADAPTATION

Last night I attended the opening event of the 2010 Seven Thousand Oaks Festival at Guilford Lane Gallery that consisted of an exhibtion opening, the show entitled Adaptation, while I initially thought the opening was part of the Utopian Slumps initiative, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

To be honest, I wasn't being very attentive - celebrating end of exams - and I didn't do too much looking or figuring out whose work was whose, what I did do though, was feel and smell and be so utterly invigorated by what I experienced. The top images refer to what I believe is Brie Trenerry's work, (I'm terribly sorry if I'm incorrect, and I will be going back to check it out properly) a kind of jellified water and astroturf/flurescent light garden with real growing flowers! I'm not sure how long this garden will last, or if it will grow but I make another assumption in thinking that this process is probably the point!
The below images I believe is the work of Tim Cracker - a transparent partition made from dried fennel? The viewer was encouraged to grope and smell the materials and they smelt delicious! Okay, maybe that's going too far, and maybe it's very naughty to have not paid more attention, but I loved the show and highly recommend it and that anyone else who views it pays more attention than I did!

Jill Orr - Vision

Jill Orr is a reknowned Australian performance and visual artist whose fecund oeuvre encompasses shocking and highly emotive performance pieces that burgeoned from the 1970's. Her work seemingly concentrates, subtlely orbits and makes strong connotations regarding the connections between human existence, nature, environment and art.

The works currently on display at Jenny Port gallery of Richmond until the 3rd of July, within an exhibition entitled Vision, examine the identities of students from the Avoca Primary School, concerning creative, imaginative and sustained environments that they are immersed within at this pivotal moment in life. Whilst also poignantly and quietly regarding how drought and climate change (Avoca is a rural Victorian township that has been highly susceptible to and affected by drought) has influenced their lives, beings and subsequently their identities and sense of selves.

These subtle references are conjured through the employment of a drying and cracking white paint that the children's faces bare, whilst alluding to Indigenous culture, dance and dress, something that Orr has explored in the past. Here the children's faces become intimate baron and fruitless landscapes, reflecting their environment and reminiscent of Kahlo's The Broken Column.

Furthermore, the works acknowledge the dichotomy of the gaze and facilitate both a voyeuristic, penetrative searching within these young people's existence whilst acknowlegding the limitations associated with portraiture, in the form of closed or restricted channels of gaze within images that portray the subjects with their eyes closed. Here the viewer is forced to recognize their own reflection, and position within the conveyed issue, in the dark nothingness that now engulfs them.

Whilst this series is quite different than any of Orr's other work that I'm aware of, the poignance and extremely strong whilst simultaneously subtle messages imbued within and exuding from these works is indicative of her impressive and influential oeuvre.

All haired out!

Seeing as I've spent a good part of the last few days in and out of my bathroom I thought I should post some (really bad webcam) photos of the result! It's actually a very slight shade of pale pink, although you can't really tell in these shots - hoorah for a change!

Oldies for Sharon

My ma was seriously hot, don't know how I missed out on those pins in the gene pool..

Oh, maybe it was my predilection for snacks that did it..

Because I'd much prefer blogging than studying at the moment, and it is about time that I scanned these - here are some awesomely old photos, I miss living in the country, it was so green and fresh, as opposed to the city in which the smog locks in light to the point of a star less night. Also - why did everyone else in my family (including my father) have devine mermaidesque manes of hair, whilst I was shunted with the full bowl cut year in year out???