Zine Market at FEAR

  

Two new publications from Moth Woman Press (through which we publish our books and zines) will be launched this Saturday at FEAR (Femxle Experience Art Rebellion) in central Ballarat. 

Shadowomen 4, an eight-page mini-zine, pictured top, is illustrated with eight of my recent silhouette paintings. Limited copies of volumes 1-3 in the series will also be on display.

The mini-zine Eight Faces, pictured above, gathers together all of the paintings originally created for the annual exhibition One Hundred Faces at Playing in the Attic since the show was launched in 2020. The latest painted faces, which will be part of One Hundred Faces 2023, opening on 22 April, are featured on the front and back covers of the zine. 

A goodly selection of classic Moth Woman Press publications will also be available at FEAR Zine Market. 

I’m a big fan of zines and zine making as an accessible and affordable way of making, distributing and collecting artwork, and the sense of community it can bring.

Looking forward to unveiling Shadowomen 4 and Eight Faces, as well as meeting fellow zinesters - and hopefully you too - this coming Saturday. 

You will find us all at -

FEAR Zine Market

Femxle Experience Art Rebellion

57 Bridge Mall, 
Ballarat Central on 
Saturday, 1 April from 10 am - 2 pm

Clunes Booktown 2023

Pictured above and below: a handful of photos snapped at yesterday afternoon’s panel discussion Not Just a Pretty Picture in the Esmond Gallery at Clunes Booktown. 

A big thank you to everyone involved in the organisation of Clunes Booktown Festival 2023, especially Jon Hawkes and Sue Beal, who invited me to join the dream team of panelists, Simon Perry and Philip Faulks, to our wonderful Chair, Michele Ely, and to Shelley Hinton, who hung the accompanying exhibition, A picture’s worth a thousand words.

Thanks also to everyone who came to our talk. It was lovely seeing so many of you there. We couldn’t have wished for a more terrific audience. I hope you had as much fun as we did. 

Photos 1 & 2, L-R: Chair Michele Ely, panelists Simon Perry, myself and Philip Faulks; 

Photo 3: Discussing my painting ‘Apiary’, 2022;

Photo 4, L-R: Linocuts by DK and drawings by Philip Faulks;

Photo 5, L-R: My linocuts The Heavens Declare 1 & 2, 2022 and Pirate Jenny and Mack the Knife and Pirate Jenny in a Kimono, both 1987.

A thousand words at Clunes Booktown

 

On Sunday afternoon, March 26, I will join forces with artists Philip Faulks, Simon Perry, Darcy McConnell (ENOKi) and Chairperson Michele Ely in the Esmond Gallery at the renowned Clunes Booktown Festival for what we trust will be a lively and enlightening panel discussion about the stories we tell through our artworks. 

Accompanying the talk is an exhibition curated by Shelley Hinton: A picture’s worth a thousand words. I have four linocuts in the show, including two early works, Pirate Jenny in a Kimono and Pirate Jenny and Mack the Knife, from the seminal Pirate Jenny Suite, the first of my works to employ narrative.

📖Not just a pretty picture

🗓Sunday 26 March, 1.00pm

📍Esmond Gallery, Clunes 

🎫 https://tickets.clunesbooktown.com.au/Events/Not-just-a-pretty-picture

Pictured from top:

1: Pirate Jenny in a Kimono, 1987, linocut 61.5 x 46 cm. (Private collection)

2: Pirate Jenny and Mack the Knife, 1987, linocut, 61.5 x 45.5 cm. (Private collection)

Three Women in the Company of Morris

As a longtime devotee of the Pre-Raphaelites and their contemporaries, I’m eagerly anticipating the forthcoming exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings and Watercolours from The Ashmolean Museum, which runs from May 20 - August 6.

My painting Three Women, 2021, will hang at the AGB in the accompanying exhibition, In the Company of Morris, alongside works by historical and contemporary artists who have drawn inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites, and in particular, William Morris. 

It was a very pleasant surprise to discover Three Women, which pays homage to his daughter, May Morris, reproduced in the article linked below.

Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings and Watercolours from The Ashmolean Museum, by Fiona Anderson, WEEKEND NOTES, 19-20 March 2023: https://www.weekendnotes.com/pre-raphaelites-drawings-and-watercolours-the-ashmolean-museum/

Pictured top: Three Women, 2021, triptych, acrylic on linen, 40.5 x 30.5 cm (each panel).

NOT JUST A PRETTY PICTURE at CLUNES BOOKTOWN

Once upon a time the old adage  ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ inspired one of the stories in my little book There was once…The collected fairy tales. The story is exactly 1000 words long. 

On Sunday 26 March I’ll be joining fellow visual artists Simon Perry, Philip Faulks and Darcy McConnell (ENOKi) at Clunes Booktown for Not just a pretty picture, an informal panel discussion chaired by Michelle Ely. We’d be delighted to see you there. 

Pictured top: Excerpt from A Thousand Words, from the anthology There was once… The collected fairy tales, stories and pictures by Deborah Klein.

📖Not just a pretty picture

🗓Sunday 26 March, 1.00pm

📍Esmond Gallery, Clunes 

🎫https://tickets.clunesbooktown.com.au/Events/Not-just-a-pretty-picture

Launch of THREADS at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum

 

What a fantastic turnout there was for the launch on Thursday evening of THREADS, The Stories We Weave at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum in South Gippsland. 

I only wish I’d taken more shots of the exhibition as a whole, but we found ourselves so engaged with the works and the lovely people we met, including Olivia O’Connor, whose extraordinary work Always Carry a Handkerchief, timber, oil paint, 2023, hangs next to mine, (pic #6) that time simply ran away from us. No doubt the museum will be posting photos of the evening’s highlights on their Instagram and Facebook pages, so you can head over there. Even better, a road trip is highly recommended. 

Last night’s personal highlights included reuniting with old friends, including Kim McDonald (pics #3 and #4). Kim and I go back a long way - we first met in the early 1980s as fellow art students. Kim and Jasmine Susic (seen in pic #7 with Shane Jones) have a terrific collaborative multi-media work in the exhibition, BLOOM - and the Sensate World, 2022.

I first met Cresside Collette (second from left, pic #4 above) soon after graduation from art school. As one of the invited artists, Cresside has several works in the show, including tapestries that were woven en plein air (pic #9). Her tapestry, Revealing Grace, 2000, is on the far right in pic #10. 

Huge thanks to curator Rachel Jones (pic #4, far right) for inviting me to be part of THREADS and to Coal Creek Community Park and Museum for their warm welcome and hospitality.

International Women’s Day

In the studio this International Women’s Day 2023: 

Working proof of a linocut inspired by Lotus, a textile design by embroidery and jewellery designer, artisan, educator, editor and socialist, May Morris (1862-1938). 

An Invitation to THREADS

Seven of my paintings have been included in THREADS, ‘the stories we weave', an exhibition at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum exploring the theme of women and textiles/fibre arts.

Please join us for the official opening of THREADS on Thursday, 9 March, 6.30 - 8.30 pm.

Click on invitation to enlarge 

Deborah Klein, Primavera ll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas,
37.5 x 15 cm, part of THREADS at Coal Creek Community 
Park and Museum, 6 March - 1 May, 2023

THREADS will showcase artworks and objects from the South Gippsland Shire Council and Coal Creek collections, together with works by contemporary artists and makers. 

Exhibiting alongside these will be works by the Coal Creek Spinners invited artists Sarah Parkes, Cresside Collette and Deborah Klein.

Some preview images, snapped by curator Rachel Jones, are below.

THREADS The Stories We Weave

Coal Creek Community Park and Museum 

Hours: Friday - Monday, 10 am - 4 pm

The exhibition runs from 6 March - 1 May 2023.