the COAL LOADER STUDIO STUDIES,

#itsnowalittleautumn

24 May - 2 July 2018

inTransit Art Space

North Sydney Council Chambers

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An installation of playful considerations coming out of a
10 month studio residency at the
 Coal Loader Centre of Sustainability, Sydney

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a special thank you to the supportive arts team!

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@artsandculturenthsyd
#coalloaderstudio

It was a beautiful month spent at Haefligers cottage, Hill End. Yay to the BRAG team. 

A new website is also up, see here, with a few pics from the Red Project - I must say looking good!

The Red Project at The Coal Loader is going to be huge... here is a sneaky preview of an exhibition of pollinators made by my little friends within my showing of Homeloader, Eve in the Heart Garden. 
It will be a show within a show within a show within a show.. sometimes a little too much is ok

the resi at the Coal Loader has been packed full and workshops are happening from all directions ... so good to have a little bush break near my #coalloaderstudio

workshop season includes GreenWay Art Prize at Art Est. holding a drop in and help make an installation through the exhibition space.. 
10-3pm  Sun 5 Nov
please come along

Wrapper pile-up contains 130 watercolour cut-outs of found lollie wrappers from Sydney streets stacked here (detail) for the Hazelhurst Art on Paper show. It's not covered... the work sits on the plinth openly exposed for any finger fiddling.... so curious how it will end up

the new gig:

SydneyBAG 

Opens Up

IWOST (formerly LOST) Inner West Open Studio Trail

Annandale Community Centre

Sunday 14 May 10 - 4

... getting ready for 
Hazelhurst Art on Paper 
20 May - 16 July 2017

hard to admit.. things might have to get looser here with this ageing process of generalised vision... but I am a details gal!

birds & bits,  a cut out concertina in the round, that has come home from its showing with the Manly Library Artist Book Awards exhibition

8 Australian grapevine moths (Phalaenoides glycinae Lewin) are in flight for the MOTH MIGRATION PROJECT by Hilary Lorenz. I love these moths and did some googling .. the Lewin bit, I like to believe is after John William Lewin - my favourite colonial artist. So these moths are endemic to S-E half of Australia and are pests for the local vineyard farmers. The Indian myna was introduced in 1862 to deal with them and other insects but ironically and not surprising, this unsuccessful  bird is now the pest.

Back into watercolour... I have been getting new bits ready for a couple future gigs including the North Sydney Art Prize at The Coal Loader and it is an outdoor installation of unprotected watercolour on paper! A great lesson in letting go - from the precious to the abandoned once again

ps thank you to the marvellous installing gang led by Alison Clark... you made the day so enjoyable

Loaded detail for Safe and Sound

Safe and Sound
9 - 26 Nov 
curator Steven Cavanagh
Contact Sheet Gallery

Load at PLONK, Camperdown Pop in Space

It's a loaded month, lots of work in various places..

hmm, which 3 things are mine?

2 birds have flown 2 new destinations

The rainbow lorikeet here is for  BIRDS + US celebrating 20 years of TBN Threatened Bird Network and the art works will help towards raising their funds.   more info here

BIRDS + US 

15 -27 April

Claire Layman Gallery

4/640 Elizabeth St

Melbourne

hanging around and looking out for yet another superb sunset in Hillendia with a boyzie and a big fella (the roo at top left) ...

detail of Freeloader in the GreenWay with 120 drawn plastic pieces

With the end of summer, the birds in the garden seem more vocal...   did you know,  Australian birds were the first to sing... what sounds like celebratory pleasure from the adolescent-like rainbow lorikeets, hopeful reconciliatory call outs from the butcher birds and the solitary cries from the currawongs.... are my daily joy!

The new incarnation of Freeloader is taking a lot longer than I imagined... so I am trying not to struggle with the "duds" and just incorporate them into the final work... as I think the letting go of artist as genius syndrome and the preciousness we get caught up with - is pointless in the end...

loss is real and a part of life, bird numbers are on the decline.. that is real too but this loss is mostly due to our denial and self-importance... the bird, often for a lot of folk, symbolises freedom and hope... in ancient cultures, the bird as mediator between earth and the heavens....

Freeloader in the Garden of Joy 2015  for Portland Art Centre, Regional Victoria

Great news is that I  have been granted a Canal Road  Environmental Art Commission for a fresher, bigger version of  Freeloader   - hmm, with lights? from Leichhardt Council for its  Art on the GreenWay show.  I love having connections to Portland Victoria and Hill End  NSW, and better still is to my home locale ( 4 generations on my fathers side) ... connections are good.

Bird Spotting along the GreenWay  2013

I love when summer hits, the wattle bird dominates as her young chirp and test their wings in the trees  of my garden. The rainbow lorikeet in the showy grevillea, the cockies in the snow gum, the raven on the roof top... and in the last 2 years, its the butcher bird on the telephone pole singing its morning greetings and the Koels in lustful chase.. I must update this work .