'Tis the Night Before Christmas

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.

Mary Ellen Chase

There’s much than I enjoy about Christmas, but like most people, I’ll also be glad when it’s over. We all need the rest!

Once again, Rona Green provided one of the year’s highlights, this time with Corporeal, her latest print exchange portfolio. As previously posted, I found coming up with an idea for this one particularly challenging. I tend to be quite hard on my own work, but perhaps because I struggled so much with this image, it’s one that I have a particular affection for. Corporeal will be exhibited at Geelong Gallery in February 2013.

Corporeal/Ethereal, 2012, linocut, 60 x 50 cm
Printer: Andrew Gunnell

Another high point was Inga Walton’s article Behind Beauty’s Masks – Works by Deborah Klein, which appeared in the journal Etchings, Issue 10, The Feminine. In my opinion, Inga is one of our finest arts writers. To read the article, scroll down the right hand sidebar and click on the link.

Steven Sondheim on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, 23 November 2012

One of the year’s most unforgettable experiences happened quite recently. On 23 November my partner Shane and I attended One Afternoon with Steven Sondheim at Melbourne’s Her Majesty's Theatre. I’ve revered this brilliant composer and lyricist for decades. To call the event a dream come true would hardly be accurate, because never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d see him in the flesh. Sondheim was genuinely modest, disarmingly warm, open and generous, discussing in entertaining and enlightening detail his work, ideas and creative process. It was pure gold.

Attack of Moth Women from the Moon, 2012, by Deborah McMillion Nering
Self portrait photograph placed in Sketchbook Pro, with collaged moths.
Tooned in Comic Book app

I’ve very much enjoyed an ongoing correspondence with Deborah McMillion Nering, an Arizona-based artist who makes her work on an iPad. In fact, she is a pioneer of this still relatively new art form. Over the last several months, we’ve found that aside from sharing the same first name, we have an uncanny amount in common, including similar tastes in art, artists, books, films – particularly a mutual enthusiasm for 1950s science fiction movies. We also share a fondness for moths, which we believe are far superior to butterflies. Deborah’s emails and imagery continually surprise, stimulate and delight, none more so than the visual treat she sent me prior to the recent opening of the exhibition BAZE at Hand Held Gallery. (To see it, click HERE. Take particular note of the book titles.)

It’s been a busy year, although next year will be busier. My first ever book art show will take place at Hand Held Gallery in June. I’ll also be making more work for Wonder Room, a group exhibition at Maroondah Art Gallery which is scheduled to open in late October. My fellow artists Rona Green, Filomena Coppola, Heather Shimmen and Paul Compton are a very talented lot, so I’m really looking forward to that one.

Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year. I hope you’ll drop by from time to time in 2013.

BAZE at Hand Held Gallery

The Moth Woman Vigilantes UNMASKED is the second of my two zines made for Hand Held Gallery's Christmas show BAZE (Book Arts and Zine Exhibition) and the third Moth Woman Press publication to focus on the notorious Moth Woman Vigilantes. For those few who have never heard of the MWV, here is a brief introduction.

The Woman Vigilantes is an ancient, clandestine order whose origins are lost in the mists of time. To countless millions its members are selfless, fearless super heroes with an acute (some would say misguided) sense of justice, whose sole raison d'être is to help the helpless, even if they have to bend - or break - the law to do so. 

The MWV have equally attracted a legion of detractors, who regard them as a gang of ruthless, highly organised, criminals, whose reasons for taking the law into their own hands are entirely sinister, self-seeking, and certainly not for the purpose of righting wrongs. If they are so heroic, their critics insist, why do they hide like snivelling cowards behind their moth masks?

For the first time in living memory key MWV office bearers recently bowed to pressure and, to the abject horror of their colleagues and devoted admirers, agreed to remove their moth masks.

The Vigilantes are famously camera shy (to date, they have never been filmed). The controversial event has instead been recorded in a series of detailed watercolour drawings. The revelatory pictures have been collected in the limited edition zine The Moth Woman Vigilantes UNMASKED.

At long last, it seems that the identities of their leaders will be revealed. How could they have sold out so readily? And how many more Vigilantes will follow suit? In the tradition of all great super heroes, their heroic deeds were largely dependent on their anonymity. Could this be the beginning of the end of the Moth Woman Vigilantes? 

To judge for yourself, click HERE.  

BAZE (Book Arts and Zine Exhibition)
Opening night 20 December, 6 - 8 pm
Hand Held Gallery
Suite 18, Upstairs
Paramount Arcade
108 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000

Email: littleredfishy@yahoo.com

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12 - 5 pm

The gallery will be closed from Christmas Day and reopens on 16 January. The exhibition will continue to 19 January 2013.

'Poker Faces' zine

Here is a sneak peek of the small zine Poker Faces, which I’ve just completed. It was made specifically for the forthcoming group exhibition BAZE (Book Arts and Zine Exhibition) at Hand Held Gallery, Melbourne. Curated by Megan Herring, the exhibition will feature some of Australia's finest book and zine artists.

The zine is signed and limited to an edition of 100. It will be available on the opening night, which is from 6 – 8 pm on 20 December.

BAZE will continue until 19 January.

To see inside the covers of Poker Faces and learn more about it, visit Moth Woman Press Artist's Books and Zines (Blog Posts 6 - 8 December) HERE.

Pictured left: Poker Faces zine, 2012, colour photocopy, cut and folded, 10.5 x 7.5 cm, limited edition of 100. Photograph by Tim Gresham.

2012 Belle Arti Art Prize

Flight Centre was made for the fourth annual Belle Arti Prize exhibition, which opens at Chapman and Bailey Gallery on 12 December. The show has an open theme; the sole prerequisite is that all works are made on Belle Arti stretched linen, 36 x 36 cm.

The imagery was partly developed from the linocut Corporeal/Ethereal, which in turn was drawn from my current exploration of silhouetted imagery (see blog posts November 12 and 14). A key influence was Surrealist artist René Magritte, who on several occasions employed both cut out elements and bird iconography (see below left).

Chapman and Bailey Gallery

350 Johnston Street

Abbotsford Vic 3067

Gallery Hours:

10 am-5.30 pm Monday - Friday

11 am - 5pm Saturday

Telephone: 03 9415 8666

Email: gallery@chapmanbailey.com

The exhibition runs until 26 January 2013.

Images from top:

Flight Centre, 2012, acrylic on linen, 36 x 36 cm.
Photography by Tim Gresham.

L'entree en scene, by René Magritte

Afghani and Australian Women Artists Books Collaboration

In 2009 a group of Australian women artists were invited by artist Gali Weiss to participate in a project that highlighted the plight of women in Afghanistan who had been denied the basic human right of an education. The project was intended to support them and SAWA (Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan.) Pictured above is the book Women with Wings, in which my linocuts are accompanied by a powerful and moving text by Majabeen. To read her story and learn about an exciting development in the project, visit Moth Woman Press HERE. 

IMPRESSIONS 2012

IMPRESSIONS 2012 opens on November 30. As usual, some fantastic artists have lent their support (see above ).

I really enjoy this event. It gives me a chance to catch up with other printmakers, many of whom I haven't seen all year, especially as I'm in Ballarat so much these days.

My linocut Four Eyes, pictured left, was made for IMPRESSIONS 2012. (For more about this work, scroll down to Blog Post October 19).

Corporeal, Part 2

   Corporeal/Ethereal, 2012, linocut, 60 x 50 cm, ed. 23

As promised in my previous post, here is a reproduction of Corporeal/Ethereal, my linocut for Rona Green’s Corporeal.

Although it didn't directly inspire this image, I found much of what I wanted to express about body/spirit dichotomy reflected in a song lyric by Dory Previn. Here is a fragment:

Dory Previn, early 1970s

Curse the mind that mounts the clouds

In search of mythical kings

And only mystical things

Mystical things

Cry for the soul that will not face

The body as an equal place

And I never learned to touch for real

And feel the things iguanas feel

Down

Down

Down

Where they play…

Dory Previn, Mythical Kings and Iguanas, 1971.

To see her perform the song, click HERE.

Previn, a superb, shamefully underrated American singer/songwriter died earlier this year. I still treasure the memory of her concert at London’s Albert Hall in the 1970s. This work is respectfully dedicated to her memory.

The twenty-three Corporeal artists are:

Graeme Drendel, Di Ellis, Philip Faulks, Rodney Forbes, Susan Fraser, David Frazer, Rona Green, Rew Hanks, Kaylene Kelly, Michael Kempson, Alexi Keywan, Martin King, Deborah Klein, Terry Matassoni, Ron McBurnie, Janet Parker-Smith, Travis Paterson, Ben Rak, Heather Shimmen, Stephen Spurrier, Anne Starling, Clayton Tremlett, Scott Trevelyan

Warmest thanks to Rona Green for instigating this challenging and rewarding project which I’m so proud to be part of, and to Andrew Gunnell for printing the edition of Corporeal/Ethereal.

Corporeal will be exhibited at Geelong Gallery, Victoria, during February-May 2013. Based on the works Rona showed me yesterday in her studio, it's going to be an impressive show. (Full details TBA nearer the time.)

Corporeal, Part 1

A project that has occupied me of late is the linocut Corporeal/Ethereal, my contribution to the Rona Green-curated print exchange portfolio Corporeal. (See also Blog Post October 8.) I was very drawn to the theme and began preliminary research some months ago. Several weeks and dozens of rough drawings later, however, few of my ideas felt quite right. Even compositions that appeared to have some potential failed to take the square-ish format fully into account (designated paper size was 60 x 50 cm.) Reluctantly, I had to abandon them all - at least as far as Corporeal was concerned - and put the project on temporary hold.

Concurrently I’d also been experimenting with painted silhouettes, some of which have featured in recent posts. I came to believe that I would eventually find my way back to Corporeal through the silhouettes, if only I could hold the faith while I took the necessary time to develop them further. This was indeed what eventuated. 

Corporeal/Ethereal was editioned by Andrew Gunnell; the completed work will feature in my next post. Another forthcoming post will illustrate its impact on the project that followed directly afterwards. In fact, although it’s still a little too soon to tell, it may well be a key image in terms of my work’s future direction.

Pictured above: Corporeal/Ethereal block: work in progress

Four Eyes

During the past week in Spring-deprived Ballarat, I editioned and hand-coloured the linocut Four Eyes, destined for Impressions 2012, the fundraising exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne, which opens on November 30.

The image, a continuation of a long-term fascination with the concept of the Other, also draws from my repertoire of masks and moths. The latter, Milionia aetheria, hails from Queensland, in northeastern Australia.

Pictured above, from top: The project in various stages of development; and (immediately above) completed work: Four Eyes, 2012, linocut, hand-coloured, 15 x 20 cm (image) on Velin Arches paper 250 GSM, 25 x 38 cm, edition: 10

Lino cutting at Ballarat

It's hard to believe that only a week ago it seemed that Spring had finally decided to live up to its name; Ballarat's infamously cold Winter always hangs on with dreary, grim persistence. Don't get me wrong. There's much that I love about Winter, but this one had definitely overstayed its welcome.

Taking advantage of what turned out to be only a brief respite from the cold, I moved operations out to the sunroom. Its warmth, which to a great extent has remained even after the cool (and wet) change, is so much more conducive for cutting lino.

It was good for the spirit besides, especially when combined with musical accompaniment from the magpies in the garden. To me their song is as lyrical as Mozart, as uplifting as the sunshine - and considerably more enduring than the latter.

The linocut in progress pictured above (captured during that all too brief spell of sunshine) is destined for the exhibition/exchange Corporeal, curated by Rona Green.

On Silhouettes

As followers of this blog will be aware, I’ve recently begun experimenting with silhouette forms. Here are three more examples. Like those posted previously, they are on a small scale, although I’m working concurrently on a relatively large-scale silhouette, a linocut for Corporeal, a project curated by artist Rona Green. (More of this in the near future.)

In the meantime, I’m finding it fascinating to research the origins of the silhouette. Its varied and distinguished lineage can be directly traced to the legend of the first portrait. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (circa 77-79 AD) wrote of Dibutade, a Corinthian girl who traced her lover’s candlelit shadow on a wall before he set off on a long journey. Silhouettes have also been aligned with the black-figure vases of ancient Greece and the art of Chinese paper cutting.

Silhouettes became extremely popular in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Because they were relatively quick, simple and inexpensive to make, many amateur artists, including women, enthusiastically took up silhouette portraiture.

By the 19^th century professional artists had patented several silhouette-tracing machines. The principal behind them was little different to the method employed by Dibutade centuries before. But the drawing now served as the artist’s cartoon, which was then reduced in size using an instrument called a Pantograph or ‘Stork’s Beak’.

Even though professional silhouette artists were patronized by the rich and famous, their clients were equally immigrants who, in the days before the invention of photography, recognized a quick and economical way of commissioning a likeness to send to loved-ones in their homelands.

Recently I acquired a DVD copy of Vincente Minnelli's movie The Pirate (1948) a film I've long admired. Minnelli is an extraordinary colourist with an incredible eye for detail, for example the brief sequence where Judy Garland as Manuela sits for a silhouette portrait prior to her wedding. 

Silhouettes were originally referred to as ‘l’art d’ombre’ (shadow art) in France and ‘shades’ or ‘profiles’ in Britain. The art was re-named for Étienne de Silhouette, a French Economist, who, as Finance Minister during the Seven Years War (1756-63) imposed severe economic measures on the populace – particularly the wealthy. Consequently his name was applied derogatively to practically anything that was done on the cheap. In this instance, the name has stuck, but fortunately its original negative connotation hasn’t.

From top: 

Palmae, 2012

Cervidae, 2012

Omnivore, 2012

All acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm. Photographs by Tim Gresham.

Invention of the Art of Drawing, 1793, by Joseph Benoit Suvee

Silhouette tracing machine

Drawing pantograph 

Judy Garland in The Pirate, 1948. D. Vincente Minnelli

'Vignette/Vitrine': sneak peek #2

I've just completed another work for Vignette/Vitrine. In my last post I mentioned that I believe a great curatorial theme can potentially revitalise an artist's work, as curator Megan Herring's has done for mine.

Firebrand, the unique edition book pictured above, is an experiment of sorts, and like the works previewed last week, evolved directly from this project. It's already become evident that it will be a springboard for more books; in fact I've already started to map some of them out.

To see inside the covers of Firebrand, visit Moth Woman Press artist's books and zines HERE.

The exhibition opening at Hand Held Gallery is from 6-8 pm on Thursday 20 September (see below). For those in Melbourne, I hope you can join us, or that you'll be able drop in during the show's run. For full details, scroll down to the end of my previous post.

Pictured top: Firebrand, 2012, unique concertina book, pigmented ink, acrylic paint, Khadi paper, gessoed mdf and bookbinding tape, 8.5 x 9 cm (closed); 8.5 x 45 cm (open). Photograph by Shane Jones.

'Vignette/Vitrine' sneak peek

I have some new work in the forthcoming group exhibition Vignette/Vitrine at Hand Held Gallery, Melbourne. Curated by Hand Held Director Megan Herring, the exhibition will comprise paintings, objects and works on paper. Other participating artists are Sheridan Jones, Paul Compton, Bonnie Hanlon, Priscilla Ambrosini and Megan Herring.

The miniatures encased in the wooden box pictured above are my first forays into silhouette figures. Traditionally, silhouette portraits are black paper cutouts, sometimes with selected details added in white. The painted surfaces of my works deliberately emulate these effects.

Over the years I’ve found curated projects such as this one to be exceptionally challenging and stimulating. Seeking fresh ways to address a specific brief, at least if it’s one that particularly excites my imagination, will almost invariably introduce new life and direction to my work. In fact, I’ve continued to extend and develop the silhouetted figures, and plan to take them to a larger scale.

The shadow animations of Lotte Reiniger are the primary influence for this series. As a young child, I discovered her animated fairy tales on black and white television. I was completely captivated - I had never seen anything quite so magical before - and never forgot them, although I had no idea who their creator was. 

The mystery was finally solved in 2010 when I attended a special screening at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre of Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) the world’s first extant full-length animated film. I wondered if this could be the same artist whose fairytale animations had stayed with me for all those years. Indeed she was. The Adventures of Prince Achmed, an acknowledged masterpiece, is now firmly entrenched near the top of my list of favourite films. I have my very own DVD copy, courtesy of the British Film Institute, and, thanks also to the BFI, can also regularly revisit Reiniger’s short fairytale subjects that I first encountered in childhood. When researching her work, I was elated to learn that she shared my admiration of the work of film pioneer Georges Méliès, and that Jean Renoir, another of my cinematic heroes, was a lifelong enthusiast and supporter of her work.

Images from top:

1: Vignette Vitrine, 2012, by Deborah Klein, acrylic on miniature canvases in wooden case (31 x 31 cm overall); photograph by Tim Gresham

2: Lotte Reiniger at work on a shadow puppet

3 & 4: Stills from Lotte Reiniger's animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926

5: Still from Reiniger's fairy tale animation The Golden Goose, 1944

Vignette/Vitrine

Hand Held Gallery

Suite 18 first floor, Paramount Arcade

108 Bourke Street

Melbourne Vic 3000

Telephone: (03) 9654 4006

Email: littleredfishy@yahoo.com.au

Web: http://handheldgallery.blogspot.com.au/

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12-5 pm

The exhibition will run from 20 September - 20 October.

Sentinels and showboats at Geelong Gallery

Lace Face/Lace Wraith, 1997, linocut and hand stitching 
on interfacing, 123 x 61 cm. Collection: Geelong Gallery

My linocut Lace Face/Lace Wraith, 1997, is part of the current exhibition Sentinels and showboats – milestones in print collecting at Geelong Gallery. The exhibition aims to reflect the range and inventiveness of the works that have been acquired through the prestigious Geelong Print Acquisitive Award.

Lace Face/Lace Wraith was a recipient of the Award in 1997.  It was one of the final works that I completed whilst undertaking a Master of Arts (Research) Degree at Monash University in 1995-97. The motif of the tattoo, which I had explored via the Tattooed Faces and Figures series (1995-97) became ultimately a device through which to incorporate women’s sewing iconography as a signifier of women’s hidden histories. As an extension of this, I began to print onto fabric, then layer and hand stitch the imagery. At first I experimented with pre-exisiting blocks, beginning with the linocut Lace Face, 1996 (the basis for this work) before progressing to new linocuts designed specifically for printing onto fabric. The first of these was The Lair of the Lyrebird, 1997. To see this and other works on fabric, click HERE.

Lace Face/Lace Wraith reflects my ongoing fascination with the notion of the double - in this instance, the haunted double. In Scottish dialect, a wraith is a spectre or apparition of a living person; it is also regarded as a portent or omen.

Other featured artists in Sentinels and showboats include Heather Shimmen, Rona Green, Tate Adams, Raymond Arnold, George Baldessin, John Ryrie and Pat Brassington.

The exhibition continues until September 9.

Sentinels and showboats – milestones in print collecting
Geelong Gallery

Little Malop Street

Geelong Vic 3220

Tel: (03) 5229 3645

'Contemporary Australian Drawing' at Langford 120

On Saturday, August 11 we went to the Melbourne opening of Contemporary Australian Drawing: drawing as notation, text and discovery at Langford 120 Gallery. For Curator Dr. Irene Barberis, the exhibition’s original raison d'etre was to correspond with the Drawing Out conference at the University of the Arts, London in March, 2012 (see Blog Post Thursday, March 15) where the Palgrave Macmillan book Contemporary Australian Drawing #1 by Janet McKenzie was also first launched. 

For most of the 87 artists, this may be our only chance to see the exhibition. It seems to be taking on a life of its own, with plans for it to travel to the USA, Asia and Europe (dates and venues TBC.)

Langford 120
120 Langford Street
North Melbourne, 
Victoria 3051
Telephone: +61 3 9328 8558
Email: langford120@gmail.com
Hours: Wednesday - Saturday: 11 am - 5pm; Sunday: 12 noon - 5pm

The exhibition runs until September 2. 

Pictured below are some installation views:

    Above, second from right: Christopher Heathcote, who wrote the Introduction to Contemporary Australian Drawing #1

From left: drawings by Shane Jones, Deborah Klein, Tom Alberts, Godwin Bradbeer, Michael Esson and Euan Heng.
The 'masking tape' at the corners of Jones's image is a convincing example of trompe l'oeil.

More exhibits for a Wonder Room: Insect Women

This post features watercolour reproductions of several newly discovered species. These diminutive insect women will be housed in a miniature plan cabinet, which will in turn reside in my burgeoning personal Wunderkammer. They are related to the Moth Masks showcased in my blog post of June 7. 

The Wunderkammer (also known as a Cabinet of Wonder, or Wonder Room) originated in Renaissance Europe and was a forerunner of museums. Applying modern terminology, exhibits in these extensive, eclectic and frequently eccentric privately owned collections could generally be grouped under categories including Archeology, Geology, Ancient History, Art, Religious Relics, Ethnography, Antiquities and Natural History. Many examples of the latter were wondrously fantastical, for example, unicorn horns or the equally dubious Vegetable Lamb of Tartary.

Unnatural history specimens such as these were precursors to the similarly improbable exhibits later associated with P. T. Barnum's American Museum, which opened in January, 1842 - most notably, the grotesque mummified ‘‘Feejee” Mermaid pictured on the right (in reality, a monkey’s torso joined to the tail of a fish). Barnum’s museum of oddities (which also included a flea circus) was a precursor to carnival sideshows.

Since childhood I’ve been attracted to science fiction movies of the 1950s and 60s, including The Fly (1958, d. George Langelaan) and The Wasp Woman (1959, d. Roger Corman). Although not primary sources, these films have undoubtedly exerted some influence on the current work.

The series also reflects my long-term engagement with British portrait miniatures; indeed, these are among the smallest images I’ve yet produced.

This is my first sustained effort with watercolours, although I’ve been drawn to them for some time. When in London towards the end of 2011, I bought a set of Winsor and Newton Artists’ Watercolours. I’m finding the new medium challenging, hugely pleasurable – and rather addictive.

Pictured above, left: 

Adalia bipuntata insect woman

Pictured below, from top:

Bombus lucorum insect woman

Dicronorplina derbyana insect woman

Lycus insect woman

Zycrona caerulea insect woman
All works 2012, A7 (approx 10.5 x 7.5 cm) on handmade Khadi paper. 

'behind beauty's masks' by Inga Walton online

Inga Walton's article/interview behind beauty's masks - works by Deborah Klein appears in the current issue of the arts journal etchings, issue 10, the feminine, published by Ilura Press. (See also Blog Post Wednesday 11 April, which provided a link to an excerpt from the text).

I'm pleased to announce that the text can now be read in its entirety by clicking HERE.

There is another link on the right hand column of this blog, directly under the Survey Exhibition in Miniature.

For full details of etchings journals past and present, click HERE.

In(two)art at S. H. Ervin Gallery

Monarch Butterfly Winged Woman, 2010, acrylic on linen, 36 x 36 cm. Photograph by Tim Gresham

In(two)art is an exhibition of works by sixty artists – 30 artist couples – including my partner Shane Jones and I. (My work is pictured above.) 

Since its initial run at Maitland Regional Gallery, NSW from August-October 2010, In(two)art has had a longish hiatus, but it is about to begin a lengthy national tour, which will continue into 2014.

The tour begins at S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, opening on Thursday, 5 July at 6pm and running though to 12 August. The final venue for 2012 is Orange Regional Gallery, NSW (17 August-23 September.)

In(two)art
S. H. Ervin Gallery

National Trust Centre

Watson Road

Observatory Hill

The Rocks

Sydney 2000

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Sunday 11 am–5 pm

Telephone (02) 9258 0173

www.nationaltrust.com.au

Contemporary Australian Drawing #1

On Saturday afternoon (June 16) we called into Langford 120 gallery for the antipodean launch of Contemporary Australian Drawing #1 by Janet McKenzie. The book was an initiative of Irene Barberis of Metasenta® and is published by MacMillan Art Publishing, Australia. Seventy-seven Australian artists are featured, each one's images accompanied by a comprehensive and informative essay. Janet McKenzie’s earlier publication Drawing in Australia – Contemporary Images and Ideas (Macmillan Australia, 1986) was a post-art school bible for me and I still treasure it. This exceptional new book will be an invaluable companion piece.

Directly below is a snapshot of the launch, followed by the pages that focus on my own work. Initially I was intrigued that author Janet McKenzie specifically requested these images for the book, as they are all relief prints. But then for me the lino cutter has always been first and foremost a drawing implement.

The book also includes written contributions by Irene Barberis and Christopher Heathcote. For full details, including a complete list of featured artists, click HERE.

Pictured above, from top:

Contemporary Australian Drawing #1 cover

Artist William Kelly’s opening address. Kelly also wrote the introduction to Janet McKenzie’s Drawing in Australia (1986). On far left: Irene Barberis. Centre: Jenny Zimmer, editor and designer of Contemporary Australian Drawing #1. Background: paintings by Jennifer Goodman

Book pages (1) illustration, left page:

Anonyme, 1998, linocut on Japanese mending tissue overlaid onto brown oriental paper with hand stitching, 73 x 62 cm. Collection: State Library of Victoria

Right hand page:

Sister Act, 2000, colour linocut on Japanese mending tissue overlaid onto brown oriental paper with hand stitching, 64 x 74 cm. Collection: City of Maroondah, Victoria

Book pages (2) illustration, left page:

Lydia the Tattooed Lady, 1995, linocut 89 x 60 cm. Collections: The Arts Centre, Melbourne, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, NSW

Right hand page:

Tattooed Faces Sampler, 1997, linocuts on interfacing, laid onto oriental paper and unbleached calico with hand stitching. Collection: University of Western Sydney, Macarthur