No Art-Making This Week...

Despite the best laid plans I have not been able to get to work this week. I have simply been too tired and had a migraine on Friday and Saturday after trying to push myself. Today my head feels better, but I just don't have the energy or the concentration to make anything.

I am finding this terribly frustrating and difficult to accept after feeling so well while I was in Melbourne - I guess I was on a high and simply emptied the fuel tank.

In an effort to try to see that I have achieved something this week, I am going to be completely indulgent and list what I have done that is art-related:

1. made a full-sized transfer of self portrait image onto kozo paper - this did not turn out perfectly, but it is the largest transfer I have done, and may be usable.


2. decided to test my MIL's Epson printer for a comparison transfer - made original on sandwich wrap and collected some Epson Photo Quality Inkjet paper (recommended for transfers on the Yahoo inkjet transfer group)


3. researched a source (Paperboys) for paper for my flag book after going to an exhibition of artists books (more later) and seeing the beautiful Mohawk Superfine paper. I don't know how to explain it, but it is soft to touch! Irresistable! It isn't inkjet paper, but I should be able to use InkAid on it to ensure full colour reproduction, if I'm not happy with the result. The lovely people at Paperboys are sending me a sample to test.


4. I also found out about some opportunities to get my work "out there" later in the year - if I can just get any work made, that is! Grahame Galleries + Editions here in Brisbane is again organising the Artists Books Fair in September. So any book that I make in multiples (maybe the flag book?) I could enter there. Also Fusions, the Australian Network of Clay and Glass Artists, recently called for Expressions of Interest for their newly constructed gallery space, which should be ready by late 2007. I am planning to put in a proposal for the Self Portrait work as soon as it is finished and I can take some images.


5. Finally, something I did before I went to Melbourne came to fruition this week. I was asked to write a profile on my work for the Fusions newsletter and this has been published.

I guess I can see that even in a week where I can't get to make much, some progress does still happen now that I have the ball rolling. Hopefully this will let me relax into resting and help the energy build up again.

Incidentally I noticed that Alyson B. Stanfield over on the Art Biz Blog was recently talking about writing bios and profiles. She has some advice over there, including her own bio.... what I can see from all this is that it is one of the hardest things we do, and that everyone needs to develop their own in a style that represents them. I am going to post the profile I wrote for the Fusions newsletter on this blog in the next day or so, and while I don't necessarily think it is an example of the best, hopefully it might help clarify what you do and don't like in a profile.

Finally, because a post with no picture can never be as good as one with a picture: This image shows some pages from an artists book by Australian indigenous artist Judy Watson entitled: "a preponderance of aboriginal blood". At Grahame Galleries I was able to hold this in my hands. This is what I love about artists books.

Unfortunately the image doesn't show the wonderful graininess of the red ink - it really looks like blood. The book explores the incredible situation that went on prior to granting indigenous people in Australia the vote in the 1960s. The exhibition is entitled Lessons in History Vol 1 and comprises about 35 artists books exploring both personal and political history in book form. I spent about one and a half hours there, pouring over the books, and talking to Noreen, and would love to go back for a second visit if I get the chance.

The Refinery (Artwords #47)

The Refinery
Originally uploaded by potsrme1962.

It's great to be contributing to Artwords again after an enforced break. Actually this is the first artwork I've done since returning from Melbourne nearly 2 weeks ago. The whole thing took a bit of a toll on my health and I guess I will have to factor in that sort of recovery period after each trip down this year.
Tomorrow I plan to get back to my masters work but today I took a trip to Wynnum about half an hour from my home and took some photos.
This refinery is on the way back. The whole area is full of "Jeffrey Smart" moments, as my husband pointed out. Wonderful if you like photographing industrial scenery - and I do.
Photoshop is a wonderful way for me to get my creative juices flowing again and I was even able to locate the exact spot to show you on a map on Flickr - great fun! Check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandaw-w/450575858/

By the way, there is actually quite a bit of yellow in the sky, it just doesn't show up so well on screen.

Exhibitions in Melbourne

While I was in Melbourne I managed to get to a few exhibitions. I was surprised and pleased to see the number of people I studied with who had shows while I was visiting - there is so much going on in Melbourne in the way of art. I made it to two shows by dear friends and I wanted to show you images of their work, but as I didn't take any photos in the gallery, I'll have to rely on their invite images. The posting order of images relates only to the order in which I saw the shows...


First I went to the State Library of Victoria to see the ANU Edition + Artist Book Studio exhibition titled "How I entered there I cannot truly say". This gorgeous triangle book on the left was my pick - triangle books are my favourite and with that succulent red section, well who could resist this beautiful piece.
There were some wonderful etchings but I was hugely disappointed that the books were displayed in cabinets. Where were the white gloves? A book is made to be held in your hands and the pages turned...and I told them so in my feedback sheet.



This invite is for an exhibition of beautiful works by Hannah Bertram, a talented artist who I met at RMIT. Hannah's work concerns the decorative, is often ephemeral, and frequently surprises. This installation consisted of a trail of everyday paper ephemera beautifully pierced with intricate patterns. The works extended along the wall, filling the entire length of the gallery like a chain of buddhist prayer flags. The contrast between the labour-intensive decoration and the incredibly mundane substrate is at times quite amusing.



In the same gallery as Hannah's work (Dianne Tanzer Gallery) I stumbled on a wonderful group show with quite a few Australian "name" artists including two of my favourites, Kris Coad (her work left) and Sebastian di Mauro (below). I know I saw this show advertised somewhere but I can't find any images of it online to show you so I have used some older works by these artists which are particular favourites of mine. Kris Coad works with the translucency of porcelain to create works with almost-hidden symbols that rely on light to be exposed.

Sebastian di Mauro is a wonderful artist from my home state, Queensland and this image shows the first work of his I ever saw. It was called Floccus and as you can see he created these wonderfully ambiguous huge sculptures of some soft material that looks like fluff from a clothes dryer or something. The forms really took on the feeling of being creatures that you just wanted to hug or stroke, but by the same token, in the semi-dark space, you couldn't be sure they might not turn on you suddenly! It is one of my all time favourite installations. The work in Melbourne continued to explore similar forms but in bronze and less than 30 cms in length.

The last show I saw was by another talented artist from the MFA program, Katie Roberts. Katie's work has focussed on the Yarra River, which twists and turns its way through Melbourne. She has used video previously and in this exhibition presents her second series of mixed media drawings which functions as documentation of the social and natural history of the river. With moody depictions of the city in the background, Katie has manipulated her materials to create what looks like a record of the very soil on the river banks. Indigenous imprints are overlaid by the European ways of thinking about and interacting with the river, creating a visually "sedimentary" historical record.