Gloria Steinem

L-R: Gloria Steinem and Virginia Trioli on stage at Melbourne Town Hall, 16 May, 2016

2016 has certainly been a year of extreme contrasts and, speaking personally, it was another exceedingly busy one in the studio. So much so, in fact, that there were some items I simply didn’t have time to post when they were still current. Frustratingly, that included one of this year’s high points. At the end of most years (or sometimes at the start of the new one) I've selected personal highlights from the past twelve months. This time I've decided to concentrate solely on this one.

It’s not too often one gets to see a lifelong hero in the flesh, however, it happened to me on 16 May, 2016, when I was among the audience at Melbourne Town Hall to witness Gloria Steinem being interviewed by Melbourne journalist, Virginia Trioli.

As the seating wasn't numbered, I decided to turn up early in order to secure a place near the front of the queue; hopefully this would in turn lead to a good seat. The event had received relatively little publicity, but when I arrived at the Town Hall entrance in Swanston Street, the queue was already leading around the corner. I joined it there, and before long it had snaked on up Collins Street, as far as the eye could see. Once inside the town hall, I was dismayed to see that entire rows of the best seats, including those in the front row, had been reserved. I consoled myself with a position several rows back on the far right of the hall that was far from ideal, but could have been a lot worse. Minutes before the interview commenced, however, many of the reserved signs were removed. Moving quickly, I found myself front row centre, from where the photographs in this post were taken. I had to keep pinching myself at my good fortune, especially since in the end there wasn’t an empty seat in the house.

Narrowing the dozens of photos I took to the handful posted here was a considerable challenge

At the time, Steinem had just released her autobiographical book, My Life on the Road. (A signed copy of the book was included with our tickets). Prompted by Trioli, she talked about her life, beginning with her early years, gravitating to her activism for women's rights, a cause she has devoted her life to. She spoke of how much has been gained, but also the ground we have lost and how much further we still have to go. And this was before the 2016 US election! 

Steinem stood to take a well deserved bow at the evening's end; she received a standing ovation 

The evening is well summarised HERE.

Thank you, Readings Books, for making the evening possible and thank you, Gloria Steinem, for, well, just about everything.

Wishing everyone the very best for 2017. 

Dreaming of a Cool Yule

Unless I relocate to the northern hemisphere, it seems my fantasy of a white Christmas will always come to nought. But you can't stop me from dreaming, even on this most humid of Australian Christmas Eves.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to friends old and new, near and far. I do hope you'll drop by again in 2017.

Detail of our Melbourne Christmas tree 

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

Victorian hair jewellery, L-R: bracelet, brooch and watch fob. Collection: Deborah Klein

With Christmas Day nearly upon us, and New Year's Day following closely behind, planning for several projects in 2017 is already well under way. One of these is From the Bower - patterns of collecting, an exhibition focusing on the collections of four artists, namely Carole Wilson, Louise Saxton, Loris Button and myself

The following excerpt is from our our combined artists' statement:

Each of us connects with or interrogates our collection in myriad ways, at both a subtle level and more literally. For some of us, the material and objects collected form the very fabric of our art, whilst for others it is a source of inspiration and imagery.  We source our objects from opportunity shops, junk shops, garage sales and markets, both at home and while travelling. Andre Breton said of flea markets "… I go there often, searching for objects that can be found nowhere else, old fashioned, broken, useless...” (1) We can also add: objects that are disused, discarded and even disinherited.  Opportunity shops and flea markets are in a way a kind of ‘bower’ where objects are gathered, and which reflect the lives of many other people.

Among my own contributions to the show are a substantial collection of hair ornaments and a small collection of Victorian hair jewellery (pictured above). Gathered together, the objects put me in mind of a story I've loved since childhood, The Gift of the Magi (1905) by the American writer, O. Henry. Hair, decorative combs and a watch fob are central to this, one of his most beloved tales, which unfolds over another Christmastime, long ago. To read The Gift of the Magi, go HERE. To learn about O. Henry and read more of his stories, go HERE.

FROM THE BOWER - Patterns of collecting can be seen at Warrnambool Art Gallery from 18 March - 12 June, 2017. 

It then travels to the Art Gallery of Ballarat, where it will run from 29 July - 17 September, 2017. 

Full details will be posted nearer the times.

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[1] Plant, M, “Shopping for the Marvelous: Life of the City of Surrealism” in Surrealism: Revolution by Night, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1993.

APW ARTIST PARTY

On Friday evening, 9 December, the Australian Print Workshop held an artist party to thank the artists who contributed to its biennial fundraiser, IMPRESSIONS 2016.

Like many of the people I spoke to that night, Shane and I look forward to the event as a rare opportunity to catch up with old friends from whom we are increasingly separated by time (or rather, lack thereof) and distance.

Pictured above, L-R are: Richard Harding, Shane Jones, Lesley Duxbury and Catherine Pilgrim. Richard and Lesley are former colleagues from my teaching days in the Printmaking Department at RMIT University - and very happy days they were too.

I first met Catherine in the 1990s when we both used the presses in the APW's access workshop. In 2002, Catherine, Shane and I joined forces for the touring exhibition, Common Thread, which also left many happy memories in its wake.

Pictured below L-R: a slight regrouping, comprising myself, Richard, Lesley, Raymond Carter and Catherine. (Photo credit: Shane Jones).

No APW artist's party would be complete without the APW band, the incomparable Press Gang. When they were handing out the talent, these guys obviously stood in line twice - they are also remarkable printmakers and in the cases of Martin, Adrian and Simon, master printers.

Pictured below, L-R: Press Gang vocalist Jazmina Cininas, who, incidentally, can now add lyric-writing to her CV. (She also wrote the catalogue essay for Common Thread.) Behind her is Janice McBride and beside Jazmina, front and centre, is Martin King. Behind Martin is Adrian Kellett (just visible in the background on drums). To the right of Martin is Graeme Drendel and behind him, far right, is Simon White.

When the crowd finally thinned out, I had a chance to take an installation view of just some of the work:

Following is a detail of the installation. I was delighted to see that the edition of my linocut, The odd-numbered plait, has already sold out.

Below is a closeup of the print, as photographed by Tim Gresham:

I look forward to returning to the APW and spending quality time with the works, something that was impossible to do at last Friday's lively gathering. The general consensus is that this is one of the strongest IMPRESSIONS to date. I'm inclined to agree.

A birthday break in Queenscliff

Deborah Klein, A Man, a Woman and a Duck, 1996, linocut, 30.5 x 46.5 cm. Photo credit: Tim Gresham 

A week ago it was my birthday and my partner, Shane Jones, treated me to a short break at seaside Queenscliff for some much-needed R&R. We both grew up by the sea, Shane in Mordialloc and me in St. Kilda. Although we now live further inland (our time is currently divided between Abbotsford in inner-city Melbourne and Ballarat in regional Victoria), seaside towns have never lost their magic for either of us.

A Man, a Woman and a Duck, the linocut pictured above, is loosely based on the two of us and the place we once lived. It was made back in 1996 when we shared a Victorian house in Blessington Street, St. Kilda, just minutes from St. Kilda Beach (the street runs directly to the seafront).

The print is currently available at Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop, which, like me, recently had a birthday. It has just turned one year old. Heartiest congratulations to the gallery and its founders, Theo and Soula Mantalvanos. Their sea change was the direct opposite to our journey; they moved from inner city Melbourne (in fact, their former home was not all that far from our place in Abbotsford) to this most picturesque of coastal towns. You can find Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop HERE, although an in-person visit is far more highly recommended.

Shane and I stayed at the Vue Grand Hotel, the largest hotel in Queenscliff and one of the finest examples of high Victorian architecture one could ever expect to see (although it does have several close rivals in the town). The hotel was built in 1881-82 and partly rebuilt after a fire in 1927.

My favourite part of the hotel is its secluded courtyard. We celebrated our arrival on Sunday afternoon with a glass of pink bubbly before heading off to the opening of the exhibition, Place, at Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop.

Based on Theo's recommendation, we dined at Athelstane House, conveniently located diagonally across from our hotel. The food was sensational.

While we were dining there was a short-lived shower. We stepped outside to discover golden rain-washed pavements and the Vue Grand bathed in moonlight:

It wasn't all that late, but the opulent hotel lobby was deserted. It was fun to explore it when no one else was around:

The hotel dining room, snapped the following morning after breakfast:

Afterwards, we walked along the cliffs by the lighthouse:

Then we ventured down to the beach, where Shane wrote a message in the sand (Debois is his nickname for me):

Thanks to Shane, it was one of the happiest ever.

Surprise package

Proof that good things come in small packages, these two copies of KROM's brilliant Grammy-nominated CD, MEKONG DELTA BLUES, have just landed in my mail box. My drawing Virginia Woolf and the Lighthouse (1992) was used by designer Anya Minko as the basis for the artwork. Thank you so much, KROM, with with extra special thanks to Anya Minko and Christopher Minko.