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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
