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.