Good news

In recent news, these things happened: whilst walking Alice last week, Shane received an extremely welcome phone call regarding his warehouse apartment in Abbotsford, which has been up for sale. Scroll through to see the happy outcome.

Of course, Alice is convinced it was the photo of her on the real estate sign (see below) that clinched it, and to be honest, the agent (whose advice throughout the whole process has been right on the ball) was keen to include her in at least one shot.

Thank you so much to everyone who left messages of support and encouragement when we placed the Abbotsford place on the market at very short notice, our fingers tightly crossed.

We celebrated with a celebratory glass of bubbles in the ACMI cafe before last night’s Cinematheque screening.

We’re still hard at work preparing my Ballarat house for sale. Meanwhile, we’re a step closer to moving into our Art Deco dream house and making Ballarat our permanent home.

Full Moon in Abbotsford

‘He who has two women loses his soul. He who has two houses loses his mind.’

(Introductory proverb to Full Moon in Paris, Dir. Éric Rohmer, 1984)

Shane Jones and I still have a way to go before our respective houses are sold and we move full-time to Ballarat. I haven’t lost my mind yet, but have certainly misplaced it on several occasions. 

Meanwhile, Shane’s two-storey warehouse apartment in Abbotsford, our home for 21 years, has never looked neater or more clutter-free (for us) and is just about ready to go on the market. The last two views show part of his ground floor studio.

End of an era

It’s amazing what you find when you’re having a major clear out, for example, this snippet from THE AGE newspaper, dated Wednesday, April 24, 2002. The article focuses on the challenges faced by artists who are based in inner-city areas, in our case, Abbotsford. There is a long history of artists discovering affordable areas in which to live and work, then being forced out when they become fashionable and prohibitively expensive. The article contains some inaccuracies - for example, our soon-to-be-former studio/dwelling most certainly wasn’t purchased with the aid of a government grant. Aside from that, it’s spot on.

New Abbotsford workspace

Our place in Abbotsford has been a virtually constant work in progress since we moved here. (I've just asked Shane to remind me how long it's been and he tells me it will be twenty years ago next May. Goodness - where did that almost-two decades go to?) Aside from getting an air conditioner installed upstairs in recent weeks (heaven knows how we survived without one for so long) the other exciting - and considerably more aesthetically pleasing - development is the latest transformation of part of the downstairs area, which, over the years, has variously been used as a studio, an office and a spare bedroom.

It's now a small studio again, an adjunct to the sizeable work table I have upstairs. Shane has done a magnificent job of plastering its ceiling, which continues into the adjoining entrance area, as well as installing art deco ceiling roses and light fittings (the latter sourced in antique markets in the Victorian Goldfields). 

Not shown in these views are the storage cupboard to the left of the bookshelves and two wooden plan cabinets directly opposite. The remainder of our books are now stored on bookshelves in the entrance hall; there's a partial view of them in the above photo. After a recent flood, one of several we've had over the years, numerous books had to be rescued from Shane's studio, the entrance to which is behind the art deco door, in the top photo, right. Fortunately, this time the damage, which at at first looked horrendous, was relatively minimal, and all of Shane's artworks were miraculously unscathed.

Shane also built the heavily laden bookshelves which fill the entire back wall of the revitalised space. A section of them can be seen directly below.

I spent the better part of yesterday tidying up the space, particularly the books, with a little help from Alice. She is seen taking a well earned rest in the following two photos.

On this sunny New Year's Eve morning, it's a good feeling to have the space ready and set to go for 2018.

Artworks on the wall are by Shane Jones, Paul Compton, Priscilla Ambrosini and
Jenny Nestor. The small sculptures on the top shelf of the cabinet are by Shane.
The moth masks on the bottom shelf are by me.

Alice, sitting on the lap of my cushion doll, Elsa (named after her lookalike, the
great Elsa Lanchester. See also below).

On the wall, right, are some of my celluloid and theatrical heroes, including the
Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester,
Angela Lansbury and Ethel Merman.