Inspired...

If I need a push-along with a project, inspiration is so easily accessed...there are wonderful books, magazines and a whole universe of on-line material in which to immerse oneself. It's immersion therapy - one wallows in a collection of colours and patterns and images, in the ways that others have collected and remixed, and after basking in this extraordinary collage, I find I can't wait to get back to my own work and let my own creative energy go crazy on whatever it is I'm doing.

Pinterest is full of visual feats - I can revisit my own pin boards or have a look at others or get a bit of pinning action...

• felticious

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• illustrious

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• fibrication

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• apron love

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And there are all the fabulous blogs out there to be read as well: like blissful Pink Friday; the chic carnets parisiens and the quirky All the luck in the world just for starters.

The library of crafting books out there is growing daily. State of Craft by Victoria Woodcock is a recent favourite...in fact anything that is a like a visual/literary craft compilation I find to be fascinating: Craft Activism by Joan Tapper and Gayl Zucker; and Handmade Nation by Faythe Devine and Courtney Heimerl.

And there are some lovely mags for sale as well...I really find the new-ish  Mollie Makes from England super-inspirational, the ads as much as the stories  at times, and it reflects the sans-frontiers cachet that stalks craft. Sunday is the perfect day for a bit of craft-immersion!  Enjoy your days, and weeks ahead!

Exhibitionist!

Gallery Frit, Imbil.

I have a mini-exhibition at Gallery Frit, Imbil, running through April. The curator and owner, Christina, has established Frit in Yabba Road, which makes me think Flintstones, but the local waterway is the Yabba, and this is main street Imbil, with the gallery housed in an elegant old Queenslander. My work is cheek by jowl with some other lovely and eclectic pieces and it's an absolute buzz to give my work this new home for the next few weeks. This is pop-up wimcee - because I am not attending markets at the moment I've basically provided my market stall for the show - everything from paintings to cushions, feather head-dresses to children's quilted jackets, and one monkey soft sculpture...

Imbil is simple to get to - head north from Brisbane, turn left at Eumundi, turn right at Kenilworth, and then take the turn-off left to Imbil and the Borumba Dam from the Kenilworth-Gympie road. Easy-peasy.

 

Not for me though. I decided to be clever and follow my nose, and the nose chose a round-about trip via the Mooloolah Valley, up the Razorback to Montville, back-track to Maleny, and finally down the steep descents to Kenilworth and the Mary Valley. It was a beautiful morning and I loved every minute of the lush hinterland countryside en route, but I was about an hour and a half late for my appointment with Christina as a result and unable to really enjoy the surroundings as much as they deserved.




With mention though of the Blackall range, of Maleny and Montville and Mapleton, of Kenilworth and Kilcoy and Cooroy, you'll appreciate that this is all utterly picturesque country, from lofty views to towering rainforest to lush pasture. Parts have suffered from flood in recent times so are also looking for support and to grow their tourist industry. If you're up for a country ramble in this glorious autumn weather we've been gifted lately do take a drive, and if you have the opportunity stop in at Gallery Frit too. It's open 9-3, Wednesday-Sunday. You can't miss it - right next to the only petrol bowsers in town!

Have happy weeks!

En famille...

My mother's 80th birthday earlier this week was the raison être for a reunion of the clan.

And of the tribe, as we had about 100 or so of her friends to a champagne afternoon tea to celebrate, together with a smattering of their young who we were friends with as children.

This was indeed a challenge, and Dad did promise us fine weather, and obliged, fortunately, as otherwise we would have really run out of room under cover. But an absolute pleasure as well:- equipped with pacemakers and walkers and sticks the tribe came ready to party, so it always was going to be a huge success. They quaffed champagne (the tea things went unnoticed, but the blue themed cup cakes all vanished, as did the oysters, and most of the prawns and sangers) and because they rarely get together now except for funerals relished with gusto the opportunity to catch up with old friends. I'd told Terrific Trev not to worry about music as it would never be heard above the cacophony, so we had a few chords or very pretty opera right at the start and then he gave up. He hadn't time anyway - he was seen with glasses and bottles in all corners, stopping only to find old girls a chair and a drink when necessary. They came at 3 on the dot, and all went home at about 5.30 with their designated drivers, and we fell in a heap for about 48 hours. But SO, SO worth it. Never was there a more appreciative bunch of revellers, and the little mountain of thank-you letters, beautifully written on letterhead, is what it's all about in their view... you enjoy, and you express that properly.

So the tribe came and went (not far; they mainly live within a radius of perhaps 2 miles) and the clan has stayed on. My baby sister from London and her growing brood and handsome hubby, here for several weeks...my little brother, his wife and child, mixing in too. Mum and Dad as happy as pigs in mud. En famille...

I have no photos yet, but will throw in a few from long ago for now.

Have happy weeks!

¡VIVA! [II]

Photo by Danielle Wood  (Manx Minx)

Opening night of the Viva la Frida exhibition was a scintillating success for the organisers - the Circle Gallery was packed to the rafters with floral hair-do's and sombrero-ed musos, which was not only gratifying for the 28 participating artists but also fiscally rewarding for fund-raising efforts benefitting the Women's Legal Service on the eve of the International Day of Women.

Win-win-win-win-win no less!


I'm heading back this morning for a quieter look after a family breakfast. The show continues for the rest of the week and is open daily, 10-4.

For me personally it was special to get a new portrait finished, framed and hung. I've struggled with painting for the last few years so inched my way back into this time by reverting to a childhood technique of oil crayon and water colour tin...an investment sans frame of about $15 in materials including the matt board surface from Reverse Garbage. The box of coloured derwents came out for finishing touches, and voila...!

Viva! (Stephanie Morris)

Love, love, love making do technically - love that it's possible to make art with whatever's to hand if the spirit takes you.

Looking forward to more art in the months to come after a long break, and more opportunities to find the overlap between art-making and crafting.

Have happy weeks!

More wimcee exhibits: mini monkey and cantina cushions.

VIVA

On the 9th March I'm taking part in a mixed exhibition called "Viva la Frida" at The Circle Gallery, Westend. It will run for a week, and features the work of more than 25 local artists and craftspeople. Associated workshops are being organized by The Art Shed.

This show has generated enormous excitement amongst those I know who are involved. Everyone knows, or should know, Frida Kahlo - that Mexican artist with the monobrow who painted many portraits of herself in a part naïve part surrealist style, often incorporating animals, flowers, fruit and other symbolic embellishments in her work.



Working with Frida as inspiration has been like a license to embrace colour, pattern, and exotic imagery. Others in the project have spoken of feeling like they are channelling the muse and it is a bit like that. Kahlo is admirable for her feminist attitudes, her political activism and her stoicism in the face of considerable physical pain and ill-health. Her work is distinctive, beautifully structured, always interesting, heart-felt, and undeniably strong.



As a person she was attractive (the famous mono-brow not withstanding), sensual, nymph-like (especially when seen in the company of her husband, fellow-painter Diego Rivera, and a charged-up representative of her culture, making a fashion statement of frills, beads, shawls and colour.

I'm contributing a variety of pieces: clothing, accessories, and a painting. At this stage my only complete work is a heavily embroidered, beaded and appliqued soft sculpture: Monkey Magic.

If you are a Brisbane local join the fiesta frenzy at The Circle - from 6 p.m. on the 9th there'll be Mexican music, wine, and nibbles, with gold coin donations benefitting the women's legal service (in the Frida spirit) so that we can all get in on the chic-a channelling process.                                         

                        Until next time:  ¡adiós!

Memory Lane

Memory lane can be a pleasurable, sometimes poignant, even a little challenging place for an amble. Last week I caught up with a friend who I haven't seen for perhaps 15 years - she lives in Murwillumbah, and we spent our time at her local, the extraordinary Tweed River Gallery. Trish and I have never been close friends because we've never lived for long in the same place, but our paths keep crossing and we share mutual passions, acquaintances, and some similar life experiences.

Above all, we both paint. I have a lino print that she made from one of her son's drawings of sharks watched from the jetty at Broome, WA, when they lived there; she has an oil still life that I did a hundred years ago for my first exhibition ever, when I lived on a Darling Downs farm.

Highly Commended, Michelle Dawson, Sparrow Man

The Tweed River Gallery is such a marvel - we had gone there to see the Stuart Cussons exhibition, that included an exquisite hand-made book reverencing his father, but there was also an extraordinary collection of 50 printmakers' works by a collaboration of Chinese and Australians, and the Portia Geach Memorial Award for 2011: an incredibly diverse range of portraits by contemporary female artists.

For me though pick of the pack was "Bessie Gibson: an artistic life". My mother feels that my grand-father knew Bessie from his time at Brisbane Technical College, and her work speaks of that earlier era of dynamic Australian female artists. And also has something of my grand-father's feel about it - the palette as well as the gestural brushwork of her larger oils.

Bessie Gibson, Untitled (Lady with Pearls), oil on paper

I think we all need the odd day out of our usual lives like that, and an amble down Memory Lane. My friend Melanie from Kimono Reincarnate talks about the pleasure of keeping art dates with yourself, and I enjoyed meeting up again with Trish so much - revisiting memories of my years in the country and finding out about how she's meeting the same sorts of challenges that life throws our way at this stage in our lives where ever we live.

I came home feeling a little challenged, wonderfully stimulated, and utterly refreshed - although that last might have been partly to do with a nice long drive in My Lovely Car's air con too, with Brisbane rejoicing in a typically sultry February!

Have happy days!

Bridging moments

Terrific Trev took me to Sydney for the January "long" week-end - to see the Picasso exhibition at the Gallery of New South Wales, to scour Oxford Street, the sales, the city arcades, to visit the markets, and to dine wonderfully at hand-picked venues. He is the king of travel planning, and I am a very lucky crafter as a result.

Before we left we walked along the Harbour Bridge feeder road, overlooking Circular Quay, to the foundation stone above The Rocks. The bridge was opened in March 1932, a week before my mother was born, so that was a bit of a moment as she, and the bridge, turn 80 next month.

And she is eternally grateful that her parents decided NOT to call her 'Sydney Bridgette'.

This week-end I have my first market - the very special Heavenly Harvest in the grounds of St Mary's Church above the southern reach of our very own Story Bridge.

If you have a fondness for Jane Marple's village of St. Mary's Mead, or the Parish of Didley, this is the market for you! You can take tea in a pot with its own eccentric cosy accompanied by home-baked scones seated high above the river on the Kangaroo Point cliffs, rifle the jumble, browse hand-made wares, take a self-guided tour of the church, and go home with farm-fresh fruit and vegies, sweet treats and great bread. It's a bit of a hike, and far from extensive or over-crowded, but that's part of what makes it so special.

And the site fees and other funds raised go straight to the restoration fund for the church.

My other bridge moment coming up is an exhibition in which I'm participating of paintings and other works inspired by our very own Brissie icon, the Story Bridge - not as monumental perhaps, but in its own way as structurally impressive as its southern cousin. I have contributed ten bags and pouches - no paintings on this occasion because I simply ran out of framing time, but thematic sewing is lots of fun, challenging to start with but in the end self-perpetuating. The exhibition opens on February 14th at the Robyn Bauer Studio and Gallery, Paddington (the Brisbane one) and includes work from ten artists.

Enjoy a Fabulous February!