Tulips

  

 

Pictured above: An accumulation of lino blocks on the work table, the makings of an upcoming artist book inspired by the works of May Morris. In the foreground are Lotus and the partially carved Tulips.

The tattoo in Tulips is based on a detail from Tulip, an embroidered sideboard runner designed by May Morris for Morris & Co. in 1890. (Bottom right page view directly below).

Further progress views of Tulips follow:

Not just a pretty picture - Clunes Booktown 2023

I’m very much looking forward to being part of the upcoming Clunes Booktown Festival, along with some consummate artists and storytellers. We hope you can join us! 

The following information is courtesy Clunes Booktown 2023:

Not just a pretty picture...

Four internationally recognised artists - Simon Perry, Philip Faulks, Deborah Klein & Darcy McConnell (ENOKi) - talk about how their concerns infiltrate their works, be they sculpture, paintings, woodcut prints, or designing an art tram. Aesthetics aside, there's purpose and deep deliberation in these works. Chaired by Michelle Ely. 

Simon Perry is a Scottish sculptor and academic, based in Melbourne. Best known for his large-scale public art works for urban spaces in Australia and overseas, including Melbourne's Public Purse and Public Address sculptures. His practice incorporates numerous sculptural techniques including casting, carving and fabrication. 

Philip Faulks has been an exhibiting painter, drawer and sculptor since 1981. He has mounted 15 solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and China and been included in more than 75 group exhibitions in Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Italy. He has taught visual art within at tertiary level since 1991. 

Deborah Klein has held regular solo exhibitions since 1987 and participated in group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. In 2009 she founded Moth Woman Press, through which she publishes her artist books and zines. Her work has received numerous awards and is represented in public and university collections throughout Australia. 

Darcy McConnell (ENOKi) is a Yorta Yorta/Dja Dja Wurrung man who created one of the 2022 RISING First Peoples Melbourne Art Trams, My Aunty Once Told Me, running on Routes 58 & 59. He contributed to Solid Lines (2022), an RMIT sponsored report on fostering First Nations involvement in the design and commercial art industries.

📖Not just a pretty picture
🗓Sunday 26 March, 1.00pm
📍Esmond Gallery, Clunes 
🎫https://tickets.clunesbooktown.com.au/Events/Not-just-a-pretty-picture or go HERE.

Full details of Clunes Booktown 2023 events are HERE.

📷 Chelepteryx collesi Moth Mask, 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 25 x 20 cm by Deborah Klein

Valentine’s Day Greetings

A slightly late offering for Valentine’s Day: Heart Tattoos, 1996, linocut, 46 x 30 cm. Ed. 15. 

From the Tattooed Faces series, 1995-97.

Lotus - further progress views

Heading slowly in the direction of an artist book inspired by the work of May Morris (1862-1938).

Pictured above is the latest completed lino block, followed by views of the cutting process. The basis for my protagonist’s body decoration is a fragment of Lotus, an embroidered panel, one of a pair attributed to May Morris for Morris & Co, circa 1885. (A detail is shown in the final image below).

For earlier progress views, scroll down to Blog Post Monday, January 23, or go HERE.

A visit to Latrobe Regional Gallery

   

On Friday afternoon Shane Jones and I spent some quiet quality time at Latrobe Regional Gallery exploring the summer exhibitions prior to the evening’s lively celebratory event. 

It has been a long time since I last visited the gallery - much longer than I realised. The last occasion was in 2009 when I gave an artist talk in connection with the The enchanted forest: new gothic storytellers, a group exhibition curated by Jazmina Cininas that toured extensively throughout 2008-2009. It showed at LRG from 21 February - 19 April, 2009. 

Image 1 (top): On Friday afternoon alongside my linocut Anon, 1998, in Fellow Travellers, an exhibition guest-curated by Jenny Peterson. Image 2, directly  above: With my linocut A Man, a Woman and a Duck, 1996 in the exhibition In our own time, curated by LRG Assistant Curator, Gabriella Duffy. (Photo credit: Shane Jones).

Some installation views follow. I had every intention of taking more, but over the course of the evening, we met so many lovely people, the time had flown by before we knew it - rather like the last 14 years.

The above exhibitions (which opened last November) are highly recommended, but do make haste. They finish their run on February 12.  

There are two superb exhibitions in the ground floor galleries. In Gallery 3 is Observatorium, mixed media works by Josephine Jakobi (running to April 9). In Galleries 1 and 2 is the touring show Looking Glass: large works on canvas by Waanyi artist, Judy Watson and sculptures by Kokatha and Nukunu glass artist, Yhonnie Scarce, running to 26 March.

Fellow Travellers

Anon, a linocut I made in 1998, has been curated into the exhibition Fellow Travellers at Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Vic.

Fellow Travellers: Prints from the LRG Collection

26 November 2022 – 12 February 2023
Gallery 5 & 6

 

Artists: Rashida Abdel-Aziz, Marita Anderson, Rosalind Atkins & Ex de Medici, Helen Burkhardt, Caroline Durre, Rodney Forbes, Sue Fraser, Kaye Green, Juli Haas, Euan Heng, Kees Hos, Carolyn Jones, Tim Jones, Helen Kavanagh, Kat Kershaw, Deborah Klein, Stewart MacFarlane, John Ryrie, Liz Tyler, Bonnie Quirk, Brian Robinson, Judy Watson, Yvonne Watson, Kate Zizys. Guest Curator: Jenny Peterson.

Local printmaking stalwart, Jenny Peterson has trawled through Latrobe Regional Gallery’s print collection to create a show looking at comradery and collaboration among mainly Gippsland artists.

- From LRG website.

Fellow Travellers for me also refers to the many printmakers in the contemporary Australian art scene. We tend to communicate and collaborate in our varied practices. In the teaching and learning space of art school and the community press environment, collaboration around ideas and development of print exchanges and projects can flourish.

Many of the prints in the LRG collection have been acquired from the Print Council of Australia through their annual commission program. Over the years several Gippsland artist prints were acquired through this process. 

- Excerpt from Guest Curator Jenny Peterson’s essay, Print Council of Australia online, 29 November 2022. The full essay is here: https://www.printcouncil.org.au/fellow-travellers/

In 2009, Anon was exhibited in …a thousand words at Tweed River Art Gallery. Curated by Susi Muddiman and Gayle McDermott, the exhibition comprised works selected from the archive of the Print Council of Australia. My Blog Post of February 20, 2009, …a thousand words at Tweed River Gallery, NSW, includes a short essay about Anon. You can read it HERE.

Anon is the second of my prints to be included in the LRG summer program. The other work, A Man, a Woman and a Duck, 1996, is part of In our own time, curated by Gabriella Duffy, also current to 12 February. (See previous post). 

Image top: Deborah Klein, Anon, 1998, two-colour linocut printed from three blocks on Japanese mending tissue stitched onto brown oriental paper, 57.5 x 38 cm. Ed. 55. Print Council of Australia Commission Print, 1998. Collection: Latrobe Regional Gallery, Vic.