Little Wonders

Lost in Transition  screenprint from collage

Last days for the brilliant Janet Parker - Smith's show 

at Brenda May Gallery

"This new series of collages and objects deal with ways of seeing. Using humour, they explore displacement and aim to provoke enquiry into how one receives, perceives and imagines physical ‘otherness’. 
The work explores nature’s boundless capacity for reinvention and rejuvenation, as well as the necessity for these processes as a means of survival. Referencing nature and alchemy, the work discusses the effects of progression and existence on nature and our environment."  

love = Janet. 

All the Pretty Birds No. 4   deconstructed book and collage

Guess where we are today.... a view from the MCA's 4th floor cafe; an incredible installation Waste Not by Song Dong at my fave Sydney venue Carriageworks - please have a  further look, as it doesn't show here the intensity and brilliance of this highly personal piece, there are links at my other blog: along the greenway; one of Jo Grant's pieces that I own and another couple hanging with my pattern for a bird concertina book. Jo's beautiful art can be better seen at her blog here. 

It is all about friends, food, travel and Art. Going back in time here when Jo Grant and I visited Sandra Eterović and Melbourne was having the horribly hot 42°C. Starting with Sally Smart's installation at Ian Potter; 3 of us feasting at Sandra's; "I didn't do it" by Monty;  Taste 1987-88 by Aleks Danko; Sandra's dancing lady found at her etsy shop here; and in Port Fairy, with Jo and Monty at home.

Syd's Centrepoint to the moon 

all hail ye Hill End folk!

best pic as busy brushtails gave me their end views

Noel McKenna (my most fave Sydney artist) would appreciate my crooked shot of the latest in his The piano of my brother show at Darren Knight Gallery 

From night to day for a walk with the gorgeously engaging Gail, the pin up girl for this parked cockpit. This heart with cheese eaten by another in line and I left with no buys - yay!

Two Aussie  emblems of regal gold, lost and found at the local shops 

I am home

after a trip away there are so many images to sort through... so later with that job. Firstly into the studio to play and complete another book project. 

another day of avoidance of must jobs with instead some sorting through and tidying up... here are some random past finds: 1784 church from Norway, a collector's card from Nestles chocolate, autumn street in Canberra, and another adopted family photo. I love the colours from older images and I am always looking for hairdo styles especially from the 40's.... do you have any?

Busy times are shaping into good times as stressful days form into a steady stream of wanted activity. I do love Sydney at this time of year solely for the selfish reason of having the city to myself as the dissipated masses of activity is at a minimal (most people are away) . Then comes the summer evening of arts festivals to enjoy.... but meanwhile today's little domesticated-driven outing gave a little pleasure as one of my local oppys had this $1 special (just for me the struggling artist) to inspire.... 
It's a beautiful German collection of  Eugen Sporer's  woodcut (holzschnitte) illustrations - very typical and traditional but made from the 1950's to 1960's.... Look, from a weather house, pillows on windowsills ( I take photos of these! )  to someone like the beloved Czech Saint Václav on horse known in the Christmas carol in English as Good King Wencelas..... 
oh yum, it reminds me of my traditional Xmas meal to come.... schnitzel and potato salad.

    

A little more Australiana....

this is rare to see now but in the 50's and 60's these figurines were popular knome replacements like with cement kangaroos and the tyre made swans!  All australiana is now highly sort after ... the girl here with her now albino koala - are un/fortunately retouched... I couldn't find out any info on her but the lady in the distant is often known as Noelene and usually  seen with Neville who stands proudly with a spear. There is a story that most were buried after a well watched 80's TV program Kingsford Country poked cruel fun at their owners. So there you are...

Browsing through "The New Book of Knowledge" and found a pic of an Australian lady (it could be me) with "her pets" - how fabulously ridiculous! 

Love these skirts worn by Danish girls who are singing and playing something apparently similar to London Bridge is Falling Down?

For some colour and some kitschness... here is a most magnificent 'sun god' by František Kupka (1871- 1957) an important czech painter and graphic artist. Found this powerful work as the pin up for an exhibition of prints and drawings from the Prague National Gallery collection - unfortunately no other images. ps There is a beautiful example of his colour abstraction paintings at the Art Gallery of NSW in the Paths to Abstraction exhibition.

Went to Rozelle Markets to visit a friend and ended up with at long last a new- old thermometer and it being a german weatherhouse is grand as now I will know if it will rain or not. Yes it did rain today as the gent with his red umbrella is out by the deers..... 

Thank you to Gail for my new vintage czechoslovakian tea towel to go with other finds of the day. Outside her place I found this envelope I could reuse in some art and then laughed when told it had already been spotted, picked up, read and discarded. Yay, the double rejected ephemera is now mine...

Thanks to Gail for my happy-making handy-craft pattern books!

Elenore Meherin Sandy Gosset & Dunlap, 1926.

Is it about me? Found these great vintage book covers via Book Patrol, a fabulous reference place and please check it out for more detail. Titles in this particular collection on women mainly by women include The Constant Sinner,1931 written by Mae West!; Women Over Forty; Notorious Ladies; Bad Girls and Wild Women; Harlot's Return; A Maid and a Million Men; Ladies in Pants; Terrania or the Feminization of the World; and the list continues...