smoke exhibition

Deb and myself collaborated on a piece for a group show that opened last night at black diamond gallery in port adelaide as part of the fringe festival.

the exhibition is called - smoke - here is more info on the show.

i was going to put up images of all the work but tony the show organiser and curator has done a great job documenting the show here on the official web site.

here is an overall photograph of the exhibition.

Deb and I had decided that we were going to use matches - some how. then we had the idea of using the redhead matches girl.

 

we recreated the match box onto some peg board.

 

then we stuffed in bunches of matches into the holes of the peg board.

 

the matches are set out only in the space of her fancy hairdo.

 

here she is ready to go.

 

we set the the artwork up in an empty lot close to the gallery for the performance.

we decided that we should record the performance and show this video in the exhibition. deb took on the challenge of learning the video technology on the phone.

unfortunately i don't have any stills of artwork with the fire.

here is the finished piece, as installed in the gallery.

 

we made a video viewer out of the empty match boxes, that allows you to look in and see the performance of the artwork being lit. it also hides the fact that the video is being displayed on a mobile phone. :)

you can see the video image that is playing in the white frame. here are a few more. 

 

you can see the orange frame of the matches lit up in the video.

 

i will work on getting the video up on my blog next. 

 

this is an image of one of the found objects that an artist displayed for the exhibition. it used to hang in the adelaide railway station - times have changed.

otto's haircut

this is otto worn out after a walk in the back of the van passed out next to his toy squirrel. as you can see he was starting to look a little ragged juts like the squirrel's tail. and he was getting very hot with all that hair in the summer heat.

we dropped otto off at the dog day care place to get his hair cut last week

he looks much better now, and he can see. i think he likes it.

but i am not sure about the lions tail cut he has. although he doesn't seem to mind.

hair update

its true, i cut off a lot of my hair.

the hair was tied up into a braid before i cut it off so i can donate it to a place that makes wigs for people who need them. 

 

there is no turning back now.

 

this is mid process, i brought in a photo to go from.

 

side profile. but fringe still long.

 

almost done

 

the next day out for lunch with a good friend and my new short hair. her hair used to be long too, longer than mine, but now we are both sporting the short styles.

another new haircut shot, in the garden. i like the new cut, its great for summer, and i think it will grow out nicely. (that's right might as well start growing it out again for the next wig donation)

 

here is the braid of hair i cut off. it reminds me of photos of my dad holding his catch of the day.

long hair

these are some of the last photos of me with long hair.

it was nice but time for a change.

otto's first haircut

last week we took otto back to the breeder we got him from for his first haircut. this is him before.

the breeder is teaching me how to do it so eventually i can give otto a haircut myself. he will need his hair cut about four times a year.

all things considered otto was very well behaved and not too worried about the shaver.

 

there were a few times he acted up but the breeder had a firm hold of his beard, and was able to wait for him to relax before she continued with the haircut.

 

there are so many different stages to the haircut, a schnauzer gets a particular hair cut, short on the back, short around the head, and ears and tail, with long hair on the legs, under the body and long eyebrows and beard. 

its more complicated than that with all these 

little details to remember.

using thinning shears otto gets the hair on the top of his nose trimmed and in front of

 his eyes trimmed so he can see.

 

as schnauzers do hot shed hair, they kind of grow a wool that keeps growing. the hair in between the pads of his feet keeps growing, and it needs to be trimmed, every couple weeks.

after the ears are shaved then very very carefully you cut and trim around the edge of the ears. otto needs to be very still while doing this.

there was quite a bit of hair cut off.

 

although the hair on the legs stays long, the edges were trimmed to neaten it up

 

the last part was plucking the hair from otto's ear canal. because he has thick woolly hair his ear canal needs to be kept clear of hair. there was quite a bit to do, but now they are really tidy and i will just need to maintain them. it sounds mean plucking the dogs ear hair, but if you don't then they are very likely to get ear infections or ear mites. otto has already had an ear infection 

so hopefully this will help.

otto got a nice treat at the end and i think forgot all about the ear hair plucking. he looks so grown up now, 

like a big adult dog.

 

this is the after shot, with his shiny soft hair, and you can actually see his eyes.

before

after

 

borris misses the fluffy ears but i think he so handsome.

the breeder said she thinks we got the pick of the litter. who knew?! we were just looking for a family pet.

exploding tulips!

last night borris and me and my friend shels went to the mid winter ball.
it is a good excuse to get dressed up and go out in the middle of winter and have some fun.



shels and i decided to head out to the charity shops to find out outfits for the evening. i luckily found this beautiful exploding tulips number for $9. i actually really like the pattern and will probably try and copy the pattern to make a nice plain cotton version. i may even wear it again to an exhibition opening i have with later this year with a garden theme.



shels luckily fit into this retro and fitted purple number. she actually already owned matching daisy earrings to go with the dress. shels looked great!

we got together before the ball to get ready and do our hair. i became a little involved in watching hair demos on you tube and came across this hair bow tutorial that i followed. it is hard to make out in the photos but it took an hour for me to get this hair bow in my hair. really if i am going to sport up dos in the future i need to practice.

this is me and the lovely borris just about to step out for the evening. we made it home by midnight before we turned into pumpkins and had a great time.

now if only spring would explode into action we could stop being so cold and in hibernation mode.

what's new?

i have a cold. that's what's new. so i left work early today, got some medicine and am on the sofa under a blanket. perfect to update the blog.

here are some random happenings from the past couple weeks.



borris and i ate ourselves silly with some yummy cheese and fancy (expensive) crackers. we have a bio-dynamic blue cheese, goats curd with garlic and herbs in vine leaves, and a washed rind cows milk cheese with ash, alongside some yummy brown sesame seed crackers and celery crackers. its all gone now, but was so delicious.


my hair has been driving me crazy recently.



so when i am out i am scanning the crowds to be inspired for new hairstyles. when i went and got my hair cut the other day the woman who cut it had her hair in braids like these, so i thought, give that a try.



not too bad, good for keeping your hair out of your face. i have a few other styles to try out soon too. any suggestions for long straight hair?


i also recently got a new favorite cook book. super natural everyday by heidi swanson. read about it here, or here.

i bought it online on a whim, hoping it was a vegetarian cook book, (i couldn't tell online). it turns out to be one of my new favorites. it is a vego book, but not the usual kind. it has lots of yummy recipes in it, all with ingredients that are simple. the recipes are easy and the ones i have tried so far are tasty.

this is the cauliflower soup with mustard croutons i made the other week, looks just like the picture! we have also had the popcorn, (yes i know a recipe for popcorn sounds crazy, but believe me delicious) and i have a list started of the next few to try.

after i get over my cold that is.