Lino Cuts

I have started to create some lino cuts out of a piece of lino that I found in a dumpster on Swanston Street. I've done a few so far with varying degrees of success both in the cutting stage and the printing stage. Its a really methodical and cathartic process that I'm really enjoying. I've been thinking about printing the designs from the lino cuts onto the Obi style belts that I have been making.

The Lino cut of the feather. One of my favourite i've done so far.

Printed verson of the feather.

I'm also cutting out one of the cameos i've been making out of felt to see how that goes.

I'll have some pics up of the belts i've been making soon!

Ron Mueck Exhibition

Ok, so one thing to see checked off my list. Today I went to see the Ron Mueck exhibition at the NGV. I was already a fan of Mueck and left the exhibition more so.

The exhibition is a fantastic collection of Mueck's works. All up there are about 9 - 10 works. Each one of them amazing. His use of proportion has the incredible ability to set the tone for each work. What amazed me was the power of some of his smaller works to be so intimidating.

These two old women were just under a meter tall and they were probably the most intimidating sculptures in the whole exhibition for me. Despite the size, their expressions seemed to command much more than their stature did.

As I was walking out of the exhibition I wondered why there weren't more descriptions of each of the works. I think that this may be because so much of it has to do with the individuals relationship wtih each of the subjects and how the individual percieves the change in proportion. You can't really be informed on how to feel about the proportion of something, it seems to me to be more of a personal expeirence thing. 

I'm sure there is an artists intent (in fact, i think Mueck details it in the book he has for sale in the NGV shop) but i'm glad that it's not particularly relevant when first viewing the work. 

 

A few more works that were in the exhibition.

Basically, if you appreciate the realism and amazing talent that is put into work like this, go see it in real life. It will blow you away.

Image Inspiration

Inspiration can be a hard thing to come by sometimes. Recently, due to my shiny new laptop, I have been constantly searching through many a blog, image share site and etsy seller page.

I thought I would share a few things that make my heart beat a little bit faster. These images are the kind of things that I have to save and have on hand somewhere so that if I am ever feeling flat and uninspired, they are there to pick me up.  

Meredith Dittmar - a flash artist turned sculptor 

I found her stuff on http://www.fecalface.com/SF/

there is also a really good interview with her on there and some really good shots of her work in her studio.

I am an absolute studio perve. I love to see other peoples working spaces. How they have it set up, what they use, how messy they are compared to me.

By an illustrator called Matt Taylor, really awesome colouring. Found this on http://www.ffffound.com - I check this site nearly every day

I found this on there today and think it's beautifully put together. Not too sure who the artist is.

Oh, and if you want to have a little perve on my newly, kind of clean studio, here you go

Pretty nice eh? And it's only going to get better, yeah!

It's been over a year......

It's been well over a year since my last blog. I have not felt my most creative, nor have I had a computer to actually blog on! After recently purchasing a lovely new laptop I am free to blog anytime I like!

The start of 2010 has brought about many changes. New house, new people, new ideas, new work, new studio. All exciting and beautiful. This year will be a year of change and development. I can feel it in my waters. I will be starting work soon for the same company we made the Kangaroo and Wombat for. This time making....wait for it, another wombat! But for the kids book Wombat Stew. Should be a fun little project. I am also working on getting some of my personal work up on Etsy.com, so watch out for that. In the process of taking photos of work and figuring out names, designs etc.

I have a very basic webpage up thanks to my lovely friend Laura Flowerday, designer extrodinare. So far it is being hosted through her site, but soon will be out there on its lonesome with updated photos and work.

Check it out and let me know what you think! http://www.lauraflowerday.com/laurenhome.html

and while you are at it take a look at Laura's beautiful graphic design work http://www.lauraflowerday.com/ as well as her awesome stationary range http://www.papercrane.com.au/

Here are some photos of little pieces i have been working on lately. I'm a bit in love with block shapes, silhouettes and interesting fabrics, so it revolves a lot around that. These are just preliminary photos of work, so there will be more to come. What do you think? I'd love a bit of feedback about them.

There is also two exhibitions coming up that you should check out if you are into amazing sculpture. Even if sculpture isn't a medium that you ususally connect with, these two artists have a beautifully technical and emotive style that is always amazing. First one is Ricky Swallow, exhibiting at the NGV in Melb http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/rickyswallow/ whose woodcarvings have always blown me away.

The second one is Ron Mueck who is on at the NGV International. He is a simply mindblowing sculptor who plays with proportion and incredibly life like subjects. Go and see it!

Long time no see

Ahoy, it clearly has been a ridiculously long time since I have posted anything at all. All due to moving house, having no internet, time and breaking my camera. Ah how the fates can work against you. I've seen months and months of exciting things, perhaps too much to mention. But an exhibition I saw recently truly amazed me. Julia DeVille is an amazing artist who works a lot in the jewellery realm, She recently held an exhibition at Craft Victoria (who also have a blog on here) and it was just amazing. The level of skill and artistry she uses to create beautiful pieces is so exciting. If you get a chance to check out her work please do.

Short post but hopefully I will be up and running again soon. Happy Christmas!

Inspiration comes at the most random of times. And then sometimes, i guess it doesn't come at all. After feeling incredibily uninspired lately I have now embarked on too many things when I am just about to get busy. A few days off can lead to trouble I tells ya.

There seems to be a trend at the moment of a general lull in everyones creative passions. Especially with a lot of production people that I know. It can be a really disheartening thing to have a constant sense of want. But never really being able to articulate what it is that you want or even what direction you think you should be moving in. Constantly working to someone else's creative views and inputting yours when you can can sometimes be a soul destroying endeavour. It seems to train people to ignore their own personal aesthetic and rely on a situation or project to instigate any creativity. Outside a structured project, it's hard to know how to start your creative flow when you have only really being doing it off someone else's steam. Hard times. I've had to deal with a lot of these things lately and it can be terribly hard to find that spot of inspiration that starts you on sometime, and that actually does start you, not just in idea form, but doing.

Feeling like you have to have a reason to do something is also a difficult one. Why does there have to be a reason other than I want to? It's easy to doubt why you should start something before you even have. gah. Constantly searching for that inspiration. Totally see why people need a muse. Perhaps I should start looking for one? Any suggestions?

On the other hand, this book has been a massive source of inspiration for me and never ceases to thrill me with its lovely content. It contains pages of sketchbooks from street artists from all over the world, and they all have massively diffrerent styles and use different mediums.

Alice is in my Wonderland

So Alice has opened, awesome, not quite how I imagined it, not so awesome. My puppets had a 2 mintue cameo, got altered and were operated by children even though they were made for adults. Despite that they actually looked pretty good and got a good laugh. The rest of the show, i'm not so sure about. Definitely didn't feel justified in spending 40 freakin bucks on this show. I'm still puzzling over why there was a projection of giraffes with their necks on fire.

Woodcarving class will be starting again as of tonight! hurrah! Perhaps I will actually finish my hand!? Have been working on it at home and succeded only at stabbing myself mulitple times.

Next Wave is in full swing. Get out there people! I reccomend Kids Can Get Lost a show based around site specific theatre and a hilarious watch. Book now though because seats for pretty much every show are selling fast. Heading out to see Please Hold next week, it is now completely sold out, so, sucked in if you didn't get a seat. Tomorrow night at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces there is an art opening of a friend of mine. All attend! Its from 6 pm to 8pm and is part of the Next Wave. Support of good work is vital, do it!!!

In other news, I have graduated, yes I did it. Awesome. Not so awesome is that some dick bag stole my wallet on the night of my graduation. Not having it is an absolute pain in the ass. I also had some momentos in there that I carried around. A 100 korun note from Prague, money from singapore, friends business cards. Gah, absolute dick bag.

As my computer is also being frustrating I will have to upload photos at another time.

Talking pudding and the like

So I have concluded that life is much better once you have danced. If your down, grab yourself a partner and shimmy like there is no tomorrow. Saw Flap! again last night and had a song dedicated to Maeve and I, which is entirely appropriate seeing we are getting married soon. Great song, great night, check Flap! out at the Fox for the next 2 Tuesdays before the disappear overseas. Boo.

Now working on a show for the Malthouse, making a talking pudding, a talking ham and some talking oysters. What they are for I don't know as the show is 'Through the looking Glass". Will be a mad week of crazy making. I think I may have to take a holiday afterwards, lucky I recently bought myself a tent! woo hoo! I spent a lovely weekend in Shepparton recently and it has given me a taste for more travelling. Also have bought a bike and the sense of freedom I get just from having it is amazing! I can ride around, true story! When I finally do move to fitzroy it will serve a much better purpose that it is currently serving. The poor thing gets a tour around Nam every now and then. Once I'm i the city, ah, the things it will see.

Next Wave is starting May 15! Very excited as I didn't get much opportunity to see anything last year. Get into it! there are some great things going to be on. If you want some real theatre experiences then I think this is the time to get involved.

Will be starting the next woodcarving course in 2 weeks and I cant wait. My hand is coming along tre slowly. Hopefully will be able to finish it in the next round of classes. Also have bought my own carving tools, hurrah, which upon getting them promptly cut myself. Genius. At least they're sharp. I will soon be making beautiful little thingys of my own. Bliss.

Crafty Fun

Wood carving class is well underway and I have actually decided on a project ,hurrah!. I'm going to take my obbession with drawing hands just a little bit further and carve one. I've chosen a strange pose, which, as I was doing the clay machete for I realised is going to be incredibly difficult. gah!

Also have been trying to do my little canvas'. Have progressed only so far but there is something still not quite right. Very annoying.

Crafternoon tomorrow, theme for the day is deformed dolls, just to give it a bit of direction. Lets see what actually eventuates!

Whats the time? Roo time

Was that introduction lame enough for you?

Few days till the roo is due to be finished. Looking pretty good if I do say so myself, Jam's paintjob is just a little bit ohhh ahhhh. Very nice. I will post a pic as soon as I've actually taken one. Sweet.

So it has been a fairly mental 2 weeks, not too many nights off. Yes indeed I am a social butterfly. A few nights were spent drowning my sorrows. I reccomend not drinking pints if your feeling this way. Lots of good things happening around Melbourne though, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep myself busy. Woodcarving classes are well underway, my salad servers, the exercise we are doing to get a hang of carving, are the dodgiest things you ever did see, the only things that they are serving up are massive splinters.

Good exhibition at the Never Never Gallery and, as usual, Hosier Lane always has awesome things to offer -

Planning to see both Ross Noble and Suitcase Royale in the coming week at the comedy festival. To anyone looking for a good piece of comic ramshackle theatre, go see Suitcase Royale. I saw their last show and it was just fantastic.

Also thinking about what to do once the Possum Magic gig is up. Surely more work will come along but it's nice to think that I will spend hour upon hour productively doing my own work. Somehow, i think that this is not going to happen. Have been painting alot more though, i think because woodcarving has given me a new something to think about, so it makes me want to do even more. Did that make sense? Anyway, working on some little canvas'. I think things in miniature are much more exciting.

Also would really like to travel again. I have been missing the unexpected joys of being somewhere completely different. I think that Asia may be on the cards for next time, but I would like to go and spend some more quality time in Europe as well. Visit the millions of places I never got a look see in, and perhaps even do some work and live over there ('there' being a non specific country).

A big hello to Kristyna (check out her blog http://www.shotjournal.blogspot.com/) who all the VCA girls miss as well as our other DAMU friends. We all dream of staying in Prague again. Perhaps we can coerce the DAMU kids into coming to Australia? eh eh? Anyway, we say hello and to remember the hilairous night that was the closing of the Quadrennial and the Inaguaral Hair Cutting in the Dark Party, here is a photo of our hungover sorry asses the next day, just before we got on a train for Berlin. Sigh.

Nice to hear that a few people have been reading this blog lately, perhaps if you keep reading it will give me the motivation to keep updating. Oh, and you should leave comments too, then I know that you love me.

Countdown to Kangaroo

We have one week left to finish this Kangaroo and then we move onto some Wombat action. Deconstructing these puppets has been fun, but its nice to see them coming back into one piece.

Photo of the two puppets that I made for Mooba. "Friend" and "Mernda". It was crazy how much the kids loved the frog. Ah, small children.

Kanga is on his way to being done. One week to go!

Went to see "Sammy J" last night at the comedy festival, go see it! Hilarious hilarious hilarious. Fantastic puppetry and a really crazy show.

Possum Magic

So Possum Magic is well and truly underway. It's pretty massive but we seem to be doing alright. At the moment we are two days ahead and the producer is very happy with the work that we are doing. We had a showing of the sculpts the other day and there were very minor criticisms, super easy to change. He also said that he wished that he had brought all the puppets to us. hurrah!

Spidey and the Frog looked great in their show at Moomba. Apparently the show was really well recieved all round. I'll post some photos of them as soon as my computer starts to work again. god damn it.

Melbourne is so goddamn hot at the moment. It's making it incredibly hard to work. I just can't concentrate on anything with 30 degree heat pounding at me. Gah! I need to move to some cooler tempretures. Or at least holiday in some. I have decided that after Possum Magic is over that I am going on a soul search, whatever and wherever that is. Sigh. I just feel that I"m missing something right now.

How to feel more alive

I picked up a fantastic little mag the other day called 'Mix Tape'. A great crafty zine that has lots of interesting things. In it this time was a list of 50 things to do to Feel More Alive. As I have been feeling rather flat lately I decided to try one of them

Number 31 "Shower by candlelight"

And gosh did I feel better afterwards. Thankyou Mix Tape for finishing my day on a good note.

Move move move!

So I have had a massive day, 2 meetings, checking out a few things that I always mean to see but never do, dinner and drinks afterwards. phew! But worth it. I now have a job restoring the puppets for Possum Magic, a show that I saw a few times as a kid, and more than likely, these are those exact same puppets. But actual work and money for a few weeks, lovely!

Here are a few things to check out around Melbourne:

1. Coop at 45 Downstairs, on until this Sunday. A wonderful visual theatre piece that has some simply amazing sound design and wonderful puppet manipulation. The overall spectacle of this show was absolutely priceless. Plus its at a really nice new space. Check Half Tix for cheaper tickets though.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts-reviews/coop/2008/02/14/1202760449343.html

2. Never Never Gallery in Hosier Lane. Only open from 12 - 6 Wed - Sat. But get your butt down there and see some really interesting work. Usually stuff you would see on the streets but somehow its ended up in a gallery.

3. Craft Victoria. The exhibition that is on at the moment is great! The jewellery art is so hilairous and beautiful at the same time. There are cast silver pieces of pigeon poo. Love it! As well as some seriously well endowed dolls, funny but gross at the same time.

4. Sustainable Living Festival. On this weekend only I think. There is heaps of good stuff to check out and this Sat there is a clothes swap. Also there is a really cool bike shop there that is selling great bikes for about $550. Which is awesome for a new bike with all the perks. Get into it! Ride your bike around Melbourne and you won't have to deal with all the tools on public transport.

Hurrah!

Frog Construction 101 pt 2

So here is the finshed product. Still due for a pain touch up but he's pretty much done!

Victorias Growling Grass Frog

Frog Construction 101

Here are a few snapshots of the frog that I have been making. It has turned out pretty well, although I do need to do a touch up paintjob. Definitely a big learning experience but I was so pleased that it was all done with my hands.

The frame work and mouth control

After having made a pattern, screwed it up, remade the pattern and a million alterations

With legs and arms just before they were attached.

Finished product photos to come as soon as I find my bloody camera. Gah!

Also, walking down Brunswick St today I noticed an ace drawing on a board screwed to a stop sign, i wrote down the website and had a look when I got home and found out about this amazing place that I never knew was right there! Gah! I have been so blind! When I came home from Berlin I was raving about a building we had found there that had a concept very similar to this one. That the artists live in the building whilst they create their work. Its something that I think is absolutely fantastic. First chance I get i'm checking this place out. http://www.wardlow.com.au/index.html

Sigh

Although I feel like I have a wandering soul at the moment, I still love to stop and look at this veiw every now and again.

Despite being near a skanky station, it really is quite lovely.

Ah Melbourne

Frog Nation

So I've got one more day to finish Mr. Frog and this is how he looked earlier today. I think he will be fine.

I've realised that it is usually a good idea to think things through before you start them...like every single part of something. Otherwise you really just end up fucking yourself over and causing more trouble. I'm glad that this is something i've done completely by myself because I can clearly see what I do and don't focus on when I make. Gah..if only thinking something through was something that I focused on. I'm always much too excited to get to the finishing part.

Haven't had a proper crafternoon for 2 weeks now. Got to make the next one good. Have only been working on the frog lately. Nothing non frog related has been happening. I did find my moose cut outs the other day though. I think thats what I need to be finishing.

Busy Busy Busy

I am busy. Its official. Its also official that I hate being busy.
Froggy is nearly due, there was a minor crisis there for a while but I do believe that it has been fixed up. Plus may have another job starting in a few weeks. Gah!
Why do I have to be busy, i just wanna do craft!

New Friends

So I have a friend that drops over quite often. She is gorgeous and oh so clever. I think that I might invite her along to crafternoon.

I have to watch out when I get home of a night time, cos more often than not she is waiting here. Do you think she is stalking me?

One night I very nastily wrecked half her web

But she built it back up and it looks like its made from diamonds! (its really rain...natures diamond..?what the?)

I wonder what kind of spider she is?