walk with otto

yesterday otto and i went for our daily walk. we decided to go to the park and river near our place, and walk into the city center. this is one of my favorite walks, as it is close by, near town, but surrounded by nature. if i am having a bad day a walk in the parklands always makes me feel better.

and when walking with this cute little friend his little prancing steps always make me smile.

 

i love how he stops to see if i am still following him.

 

i brought my camera with a goal of looking up at the trees.

 

there are many beautiful gum trees along the river

 

there was no shortage of amazing tree forms.

 

i am looking for just the right image to try to use for a new artwork.

 

without even looking up some of the bark patterns are pretty beautiful

not bad for some quick snap shots to find a good model tree

again the bark patterns are amazing

 

half way through the walk otto got tired and hot

 

he decided to have a roll in the shady grass

 

he paddles along the grass

 

and rolls all around

 

happy tired hot dog

 

the view from where we had our rest in the grass.

 

the look i got when i said time for more walking

 

a few more up images on the walk home

 

it was almost mid day, 11 am or so, getting a bit warm out

 

but a lovely way to start the day, otto and me.

highlights from melbourne trip

a couple weeks ago i went to melbourne to take down my exhibition. i arrived a day early and went to heide museum of modern art and had a picnic in the garden. it was perfect.

i had a bit of time to walk around melbourne, this was a temporary public artwork on the stairs to the library. i really liked the grass, it really changed the vibe of the place.

 

i met up with my good pal tass, and we talked art, and checked out her studio.

 

then of course cocktails on the roof top above the city.

 

the weather was perfect.

 

and then the dangerous part of the visit, a trip to tesuti fabrics.

i bought this black floral liberty of london fabric

 

some really dark blue almost black linen (not sure i am a linen person yet)

this see through black cotton that has a lovely texture, and also some white fabric to line this fabric with.

 

and this lovely blue and purple floral cotton.

and then i bought some patterns.

this one is for the black see through lined with white fabric

these patterns are free and from the tesuti web site and for fabric i bought last time i visited the shop in melbourne

this one for the linen but i might make a black cotton one too

 this pattern will be the blue and purple one but in the shorter shirt version.

and then when i thought i could not shop anymore i ended up with this dress!

 

its called pina colada and has pineapples and a black background, so i was definitely in love with it.

i was not sure about the elastic waist but i think it looks ok, and might be a good new dress to copy a pattern from. 

i will update on the sewing madness that has begun soon.

exhibition planning and making

my blog has been a little bit quiet lately, and my excuse for that is that i have been a bit too busy in the studio. since i got back from my trip home to canada i have had the last 2 months to really get serious and think about a small solo exhibition that i have opening early september in melbourne.  i applied for some funding before i left on my trip and found out just after i returned that my application was successful. this was good news, the extra funds has helped make 2 months to make new work for the exhibition easier. 

i started as i usually do, making a to scale model of the gallery space. the gallery i am showing at has 3 spaces, and i am in the gallery 3 space, which is smaller and more intimate, but a perfectly good space for my work.

then i printed out some to scale artworks that i could install in the gallery to try out different layouts.

i also made some visitors to the gallery to get a sense of hanging height and wall space.

it's a bit of a tricky space, in that it has 2 doors that open into the space. the doors are really just moving sections of wall, and normally artwork can be hung on them, but seeing as my wall panels are glass it might not be such a good idea.

i tried a few layouts, and then decided on the direction for the work and the plan for the show.

there will be 6 of these large black sandblasted tiles that will hang across one wall and then around the corner onto the adjoining wall in a long row. 2 tiles being shown already existed but i have made 4 new ones for the show.

these 2 tiles were made during a residency in canberra, they are clown glass, with sandblasted outlines and then hand enameled. i really like them and want to make a small collection of work using these processes, and i thought i was going to for this show. but in the end i actually decided to make one large multi panel piece instead. i think i was worried that the feel of the hand painted technique would not sit well with the rest of the techniques i am using in the show. i know i will make work like this, just not for this show it seems.

this is the mulit panel piece as it is now. i am halfway done the sandblasting. i will finish it off tomorrow, and hopefully you can then make out what it is.

the last collection of pieces will be similar to this work. they are hand blown glass panels that will be sandblasted with a high contrast image. the new ones will only be one panel each.

this is the panels laid out in the studio with the negative of the images on each one. i need to make the stencils for them and then sandblast them. if all goes to plan will have all the work complete by the end of the day tuesday. leaving me a couple weeks to organise packing, freight and photography of the artworks for the show.

new work for upcoming exhibitions

i have started making work for 2 up coming solo exhibitions. one is in october and the other is in february. the plan is to use some of the same work for both exhibitions.

i have been doing some tests for a few new ideas, in the kiln, 

 

with sandblasting and stencils

these are some of the results from the tests that i like. the black on black fire polished image will be used in a piece for the show, as well as fire polished black and white image,

i have been cutting and grinding and sorting out the glass that i have in my studio, seeing if it will be useful for the new work.

 

and i have been planning, and thinking and making lists, doing sketches, taking photos, trying to make my ideas clear and let the creative process inform the work.

i have also spent many hours and many pieces of paper looking at images and photographs, and editing them in photoshop and printing them out to try and come to some final decisions.

it has not been easy, but i guess this part never should be, in fact until last weekend i was still unsure about what i was going to make, but then i had a few good ideas fit, and now i think i am on a path to make some really good new work. only time will tell.