A Short Time to see Tall Tales

Join me on the last day of TALL TALES at Hand Held Gallery, next Saturday, July 6, between 2.30 - 5pm
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

As Tall Tales enters its final week, we are experiencing very mixed feelings: thrilled that the show has had such a fantastic response, but equally saddened that this will be Hand Held Gallery's very last exhibition.

Although I've been regularly popping into the gallery, Megan tells me that a lot of visitors to the show have been disappointed not to see me there. I'm very sorry to have missed you. To try and make up for it, I'll be in the gallery on the final day, Saturday, July 6, between 2.30 and 5 pm. Your invitation (not that you need one!) is above. If you are free, we'd love you to join us.

For those countless others who are sad to be losing this unique gallery, find about about Megan's post-Hand Held plans HERE. 

Turbulent Times

Weather Girl, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
Photographer: Tim Gresham

Megan Herring of Hand Held Gallery told me that on the opening night of Tall Tales many people were taken with this miniature silhouette, apparently amused by the way it paralleled the veritable tempest that was raging outside at the time. (As the cliché beloved of hoary old melodramas goes, it was a dark and stormy night).

On Wednesday afternoon Tim Gresham took some installation views of the exhibition. He also photographed this work, which had somehow slipped through the net when he documented the rest of the series prior to the show. Tim promised to email me the images later that afternoon. In fact, they were waiting for me when I got home. It was then that I first learned of the extraordinary political upheaval that was taking place. As we know all too well, it resulted in the disgraceful ousting of our Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Viewed in this context, the painting now seems to be about an entirely different kind of tempest. But this storm won't blow over so readily. And this time there is nothing to be amused about.

Tall Tales: Installation Views

Tall Tales is now very much up and running. We've already had an impressive number of visitors, including groups of secondary and university students. 

The artist book The Maiden Flight (below, third from left) has been acquired by the University of Melbourne's Baillieu Library, Tree House (below, sixth from right) was acquired by the State Library of Victoria and the State Library of Queensland has acquired Eve's Apple (pictured fourth from right).  

In addition, the State Library of Victoria and Baillieu Library have each acquired a copy of the limited edition mini-zine Card Sharps for their permanent collections.

For more about the exhibition, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

 

 

Pictured from top:

Artist's books: installation view

Artist's books (detail)

Shadow Women miniature paintings. Photographer: Tim Gresham

Shadow Women (detail). Photographer: Tim Gresham

Tall Tales - Opening Night

Amongst the lively crowd on the opening night of Tall Tales were a great number of old friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen in far too long. But we forgot to get the camera out until just before the gallery lights went out and the doors were locked. A handful of loyal, patient souls (not all of them shown here) stuck it out until the very end. It was great to catch up properly with most of them afterwards at that marvellous time-honoured Melbourne institution, the Waiter’s Restaurant. 

If the quality of the snapshot above isn’t as good as it could be it’s because Tim Gresham, who usually photographs my artwork, didn’t take it - he’s in it. Pictured from left: Julia Boros, me, Tim Gresham and Gaye Britt.

Above, from left: Diane Soumilas, Rose Matassoni, Dean Bowen, Catherine Heng, Terry Matassoni and Euan Heng in the Paramount Arcade outside Hand Held Gallery,

Tall Tales at Long Last

It was quite extraordinary watching Hand Held Gallery Director Megan Herring hang the Tall Tales exhibition. Never in my exhibiting history have I known an exhibition hang to come together so smoothly.

Now, after a marvellously buzzy and crowded opening night on Thursday, June 13, Tall Tales is up and running.

Pictured below are some snapshots of the installation in progress. For more detailed information about the exhibition visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Miniature silhouettes: installation in progress. With Megan Herring.

A very happy DK pictured with Megan Herring directly after the installation of the miniature silhouettes. Photograph by Shane Jones.

Megan completing the installation of the Tall Tales artist's books

Card Sharps

Card Sharps, 2013, artwork for zine (detail) ink and acrylic on playing cards

Earlier today I collected the miniature silhouette paintings for Tall Tales from the framers. The books have been bound, the invitations sent. On Sunday evening we will hang the show.

It's sad to think that my first solo exhibition at Hand Held Gallery will be their last. I've been exhibiting my books there since 2009, when they took some copies of There was once...The collected Fairy Tales soon after it was published. 

I bought my very first zines from Hand Held, including several by its Director Megan Herring. Not long afterwards I began making some of my own, beginning with A Short Book about Long Hair. Other zines soon followed. I've been making them ever since and have sold them exclusively through the gallery. It's fair to say that I owe this facet of my work, which gives me such satisfaction and pleasure, entirely to the creative association I've had with Hand Held Gallery. 

To mark the occasion of the gallery's final show, I'm making a small limited edition zine called Card Sharps. The artwork is now complete. All that remains is for it to be photocopied, cut, folded, signed and numbered. A detail is pictured above. When the zine is folded, these images will appear on its back and front covers. For more about Card Sharps, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Happy Birthday, Lotte Reiniger, Part 1

In 2011 a longtime dream of mine was fulfilled when I visited Berlin for the first time with my partner Shane Jones. We stayed in historic Charlottenburg, which, unlike many other parts of Berlin, wasn’t completely obliterated by air raids in World War II. But it was far from unscathed.

In the 1920s the Kurfürstendamm area of Charlottenburg was a magnet for artists, writers, musicians and composers, including Otto Dix, Alfred Döblin, Gottfried Benn, Else Lasker-Schüler, Bertolt Brecht, Max Liebermann, Stefan Zweig and Friedrich Hollaender. This came to a tragic and untimely end, however, with the rise of the Nazi Party.

It was only after I returned to Australia and started focusing on her work more fully, that I discovered that Chalottenburg was also the birthplace of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1889-1981).

From late last night into the early hours of this morning I sat at the computer sourcing online images and stills from Reiniger’s films. As regular visitors to this blog will be aware, it was her silhouette animations, in particular her masterpiece The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1922) that were the point of departure for my own silhouette imagery. With a forthcoming show that showcases this new direction in my work, it seemed timely to revisit her work here.

I’m not sure what time it was – perhaps 1.30 or 2 am – before I also noticed that today is actually the anniversary of Reiniger’s birthday, making this post doubly significent.

To learn more about Lotte Reiniger and her extraordinary achievements, click HERE.

To see some of Reiniger's shadow puppets, see Happy Birthday, Lotte Reiniger, Part 2 on Moth Woman Press HERE.

The restored version of The Adventures of Prince Achmed debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. The poster and a series of stills from the film are pictured below.

Tall Tales bound for Hand Held Gallery

My artist's books have all been bound and now await their debut at Hand Held Gallery on 13 June.

Pictured below: One of a kind artist's books, 2013, ink and acrylic on Khadi paper, 80 x 15 cm (open). Photograph by Tim Gresham.

For full page spreads of these and others in the series, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Final paintings for Tall Tales show

Pictured below are the last of the Shadow Women paintings destined for Tall Tales, my forthcoming exhibition at Hand Held Gallery.

From top:
Predator, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm; and
Homarsupial, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
Photographs by Tim Gresham

Homarsupial was also the basis for a unique artist's book of the same name. To preview the book, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Borders and Crossings

A Goldfields Printmakers exhibition: Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australia, University of Dundee, Scotland and Wharepuke Gallery, New Zealand.

Borders and Crossings was co-ordinated by James Pasakos, Lecturer in the Visual Arts, University of Ballarat and curated by Dr. Loris Button, Antoinetta Corvin-Behrer and Dr Carole Wilson, Honours and Research Degrees Co-ordinator - Creative Arts, University of Ballarat. Following its launch at the Art Gallery of Ballarat (see below) the work will be exhibited at Impact 8, the International printmaking conference at the University of Dundee, Scotland (28th August – 1st September 2013):

Foregrounding the inherent experimental and interdisciplinary nature of print practices Impact 8 will provide a critical and interactive platform for the varied interests that make print such a unique discipline.  From its hybrid roots in industry and scholarship, through traditional design applications and fine art practices to its consistent significance within emerging technologies and theoretical debate – print continues to play a crucial role in the exploration of borders and crossings – be they geographical, ideological, cultural, theoretical or practical. (1)

Two of my prints have been curated into this group show. They are part of an ongoing series of "unnatural history" illustrations in which the border between human and nature has not only been crossed - it has also been obliterated. Sadly, the highly evolved creatures that inhabit this brave new world can only survive in the realms of mythology, folk tales and fairy stories.

Borders and Crossings will be launched on Sunday, 26 May from 2 - 4 pm

Art Gallery of Ballarat

Gordon Victor King Gallery

40 Lydiard Street North

Ballarat VIC 3350

Telephone: 03 5320 5858

Gallery hours: 10 am - 5 pm daily.

Dr Jennifer Jones-O’Neill, Deputy Dean Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Education and Arts, University of Ballarat will give the opening address.

The exhibition concludes on Sunday, July 7.

Borders and Crossings will travel to Wharepuke Gallery, New Zealand in 2014 (further details to be announced nearer the time).

(1) From Impact 8 website.

Pictured above, from top: 

Emergent Cicada Woman, 2013  and Red Bodied Swallowtail Winged Woman (Second State) 2013, hand coloured linocuts, 26 x 14.5 cm and 22 x 18.5 cm respectively (image size). Photography by Tim Gresham.

More Mysterious Maps - The Sketchbook Project, Part 2

In this post, additional Secret Sites of the Shadow Women are revealed. They have a distinctly seaside theme, which reflects something of my own history. I grew up in  St. Kilda, a beachside suburb of Melbourne. During the years I lived in London, the sea was one of the few things about Australia that I missed. Maybe this is why I became (and steadfastly remain) so attached to London's River Thames.

The Mysterious Map fourth from the top is called Shipshape. Its title comes courtesy of my friend and fellow artist Deborah McMillion-Nering, who lives in Arizona, which is in the desert. 

The final image (photographed by Tim Gresham) shows the complete directory of Mysterious Maps. The book now resides on a shelf in the Art Library, Brooklyn (call number 214.1-10, if you ever want to check it out).

To see inside the book - and save yourself the airfare to Brooklyn - visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Mysterious Maps - The Sketchbook Project

Earlier this year I signed up for the Sketchbook Project, coordinated by Brooklyn Art Library. The book is now completed and on its way to Brooklyn, New York. Each year there are several designated themes; the one I eventually chose was Mysterious Maps.

In June the Mysterious Maps sketchbooks will set off on a mobile tour to Providence, RI (June 13) Portland ME (June 14) and Montreal QC (June 16) before returning to Brooklyn and joining the permanent collection of Brooklyn Art Library.

My sketchbook, The Secret Sites of the Shadow Women, comprises a series of fantastical silhouette figures drawn in a range of artist quality black felt pens onto pages cut from a 1982-83 Gregory’s Melbourne Street Directory.

Some of the drawings are featured here. To learn more about this project and for a sneak peek at the book, visit Moth Woman Press HERE. 

The Drive Home

This recently completed linocut, shown in various stages of development, was made for two group exhibitions in the US. The print exists in two separate states. Pictured above is The Drive Home in its second state.

The Brooklyn Art Library initiated the theme for their Print Exchange 2013. It is reflective of their commitment to telling stories. Ironically, I don’t drive, but I do love storytelling; most recently I’ve been doing so via silhouettes in an ongoing series of miniature paintings and one-of-a-kind artist’s books. (To see the books in progress, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.)

The developmental drawings for The Drive Home were transformed into a painted miniature (9 x 7 cm, also pictured above, top). This in turn became a template for the linocut.

The Drive Home exhibition venues are:

Graphic Arts Workshop

2565 3^rd Street

San Francisco CA 94107

July 2013

Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop

323 W 39^th Street

5^th Floor

New York NY

September 2013

In July 2013 The Drive Home will also be exhibited in a group exhibition and print exchange coordinated by Jonathan Stewart at Fort Worth, Texas. Venue to be confirmed

The 2013 Exquisite Palette Exhibition

I’ve always enjoyed this event, in which artists are invited by St. Luke Artist Colourmen to make an artwork (most commonly, a painting) on a wooden palette.  The preceding exhibition was held in 2010, when my palette Behind the Mask was judged the "Most Exquisite". My prize, a voucher for art materials, was spent over an extended period of time, primarily on a range of acrylic paints. Ironically, many of these have been employed in the making of my 2013 entry, which is previewed above.

The profile portrait that appears in the upper right hand corner of this blog features an earlier palette, made originally for the second Exquisite Palette exhibition in 2008.

As I’ve previously asserted, play is an essential ingredient in any artist’s practice; using a more relaxed mode of expression, many do some of their best, most imaginative work. The successive Exquisite Palette exhibitions have certainly been testament to that.

Personally, I always relish the self-imposed test of how to incorporate the palette’s hole into the composition. My painted palettes have evolved as a thematically linked series, drawn from an extensive repertoire of insect and mask iconography. The masks and the basic artist’s tool upon which they are painted combine to reinforce the notion of artifice. And of course, the masks’ peepholes perfectly meet the challenge of the hole in the palette!

This exercise has also reminded me of what a sympathetic painting surface wood can be, especially for finely detailed work, and has cemented my determination to use it more often.

The Exquisite Palette 2013 will be launched on April 10, from 6-30 – 8 pm at:

St. Luke Artist Colourmen

32 Smith Street

Collingwood, Vic 3065.

Phone (03) 9486 9992

For further information, visit the St. Luke Artist Colourmen blog HERE.

The exhibition will run for a month.

Pictured from top:

Zodiac Moth Mask, 2013, acrylic on wooden palette, 29 x 20 cm

Developmental drawing, 2013, pencil, 29 x 20 cm

Some Press

A friend has just brought the above photograph to my attention. It's from the feature article A Weekend With Helen Gory, which appears in the current issue (March 13) of Inside Out Magazine. The article focuses on Melbourne gallerist Helen Gory’s private art collection. On the wall behind her to the left is my print Lydia the Tattooed Lady (1995, linocut, 89 x 60 cm). Photograph by Derek Swalwell. More about Lydia in a future post.

Meanwhile, the exhibition Corporeal (see Blog Posts November 12 and 14, 2012) has been getting some good press of late. Many thanks to Corporeal Curator Rona Green for passing on these links:

  

Printmakers putting bodies on the line by Penny Webb: 
The Age newspaper; and

Melburnin, Dateline March 2013 by Inga Walton:
March issue of Trouble Magazine

Click on 'latest issue' in the menu and go to page 30. 

The 23 Corporeal artists are: Graeme Drendel, Di Ellis, Philip Faulks, Rodney Forbes, Sue Fraser, David Frazer, Rona Green, Rew Hanks, Kaylene Kelly, Michael Kempson, Alexi Keywan, Martin King, Deborah Klein, Terry Matassoni, Ron McBurnie, Janet Parker-Smith, Travis Paterson, Ben Rak, Heather Shimmen, Stephen Spurrier, Anne Starling, Clayton Tremlett and Scott Trevelyan. 

Pictured second from top is a snapshot taken at Geelong Gallery on the opening night. Photograph courtesy Rona Green.

For more information, visit Geelong Gallery’s website HERE. Better yet, go along to the gallery and see the show.

Corporeal runs until 12 May.

Two Tall Tales

Although I’m currently juggling several projects, my primary focus remains on Tall Tales, an ongoing suite of one-of-a-kind artist’s books. Here are the first two, The Maiden Flight and A Tall Tale. To learn more about the project, visit my books and zines blog Moth Woman Press HERE.

Pictured above: The Maiden Flight and A Tall Tale, each 2013, unique concertina books, ink and acrylic paint on Khadi paper, 80 x 15 cm (open). Photograph by Tim Gresham.

The Moth Woman Vigilantes Going Postal

Opinion polls continue to list the Moth Woman Vigilantes Apolitical Party as clear front runners for the September Federal Election, fuelling further dramatic upheavals within the Australian Labour Party. In Melbourne this has just culminated in the shock resignations of two key ALP Members.

With an election victory virtually assured, the Moth Woman Vigilantes have commissioned a set of Mothstralian postage stamps (see below). Their intention is to ensure that the transition to Independent Republic of Mothstralia is as seamless as possible. The MWV have received an avalanche of advance orders from philatelic societies, philately students and stamp collectors worldwide. As readers of this blog will be aware, a set of MWV Coins of the Realm has already been minted. (See Blog Post Thursday, February 2).

(After La Philateliste by Francois Barraud, 1929)

The 2013 Mothstralian postage stamps are previewed below. Original artwork by Deborah Klein, completed in the iPad Face on Stamps app.

Flight to Granada

Last week I editioned the linocut Flight. (See previous Blog Post). Tomorrow, all going well, it will be winging its way to Granada for Impresiones Gigantes.

Pictured from top:
Printing in progress, Ballarat
Flight, 2013, linocut, 18 x 18 cm. Photograph by Tim Gresham.

Further details, including a direct link to the event, will be posted shortly. For a list of this year's international artists, click HERE.