A New Leaf

Memory #1, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 22.5 cm 

Memory #2, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 19.5 cm

Goldfields Printmakers, the regional printmaking group I belong to, have been invited to present a portfolio at the upcoming international print conference, IMPACT9, in China. The topic of this year’s conference is Printing in the Post-Print Age: Critical and Creative Methods in the Context of Contemporary Art and Society - in short, digital printmaking - which few of us, including myself, are entirely familiar with. After some trepidation, I decided to take on the challenge, using my iPad to make the works. Visitors to this blog and its sister blog, Moth Woman Press may be already aware of my occasional forays into iPad art, but this is the first time I’ve pushed it to this level.

It was decided that each of our group would make two works focusing primarily on China’s historic link to the Victorian Goldfields. To give the images in this post additional context, here is a slightly extended version of my artist statement:

There were virtually no Chinese women on the Australian Goldfields. For the thousands of Chinese men who flocked there, separation from their families was a cause of deep sadness. At the height of the gold rush, there were almost 3000 Chinese immigrants in the Victorian Goldfields town of Newstead alone. The forest floor is still pockmarked with holes, enduring evidence of its gold mining history.

The Eucalyptus leaves in these works were sourced in Newstead. The silhouettes are emblematic of the women the Chinese miners were forced to abandon, and in some cases would never see again.

In taking on this project, I sought a way of linking it to my own practice and some of the concerns it aims to address. The images are intended to suggest old photographs that are faded, scratched, creased or otherwise degraded by time.

Memory #1 and Memory #2, the digital prints pictured above, are the works that will travel to China.

19th century photograph of Chinese miners aboard a stagecoach, Newstead, Victoria 

As mentioned above, a selection of the Eucalyptus leaves gathered on my initial visit to Newstead were the basis for this project. Silhouettes of Chinese women were painted onto the leaves with drawing ink and black acrylic paint. These were photographed with my iPad, after which, successive layers were applied via numerous iPad apps, all of which needed to be capable of saving the images as high resolution files at 300 dpi.

Original artwork: ink and acrylic paint on Eucalyptus leaves

Memory #3, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 22.5 cm 

Memory #4, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 19.5 cm

Memory #5, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 22.5 cm 

Memory #6, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 22.5 cm 

Memory #7, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 19.5 cm

Memory #8, 2015, digital print, 29.5 x 22.5 cm 

I was delighted with the print quality of my first efforts and look forward to further exploration of this exciting medium in the near future.

Coming Soon: Inking Up

Yesterday morning Shane Jones and I made a flying visit to Castlemaine to deliver my four Inking Up linocuts to Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum.

We got into town a little earlier than expected, so had time for a coffee at Saffs Café. The notice board just inside the front door (pictured below) immediately caught my eye, initially because it reminded me of Shane's quodlibet paintings. The sharp-eyed will notice two Inking Up handbills, one (right hand, top) featuring a linocut by Rona Green, the other (roughly centre) featuring my linocut Corporeal/Ethereal. Students from the local secondary school made the posters as work experience exercises - they did a brilliant job. Another striking example of their work is reproduced at the top of this page.

From the café we drove to Castlemaine Art Gallery. I’ve always loved its elegant Art Deco facade; set against yesterday morning’s clear blue sky, it looked particularly fine.

The work safely delivered, we headed for Melbourne, where I began hand colouring the first prints in the edition of Ideopsis gaura (Dainty paperwing) Woman (see previous blog post, Saturday, 22 August). Later this morning I’ll be taking number 1/36 to photographer Tim Gresham for documentation.

For someone so determined to cut back on printmaking, these days I seem to be doing little else but. Clearly it’s going to be a long goodbye.

Dainty paperwing Woman x 36

Last Wednesday's intensive printing session in the Ballarat studio has resulted in a veritable swarm of Ideopsis Gaura (Dainty Paperwing) Women (see photo #4 below).

Once the ink has dried, each print will be hand coloured (the butterfly from which this Homo-insecta evolved is yellow, black and white).

Due to the magic of the multiple, Ideopsis gaura (Dainty paperwing) Woman will make simultaneous debuts in October at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and Wharepuke Print Studio, New Zealand, as part of Parallel Prints, an exhibition featuring 11 Australian artists and one New Zealander: the show's curator Mark Graver. Full details TBA.

Pictured above: stages in the editioning process of Ideopsis gaura (Dainty papering) Woman, 2015, linocut, 30 x 30 cm (paper size) edition: 36.

Missing MIFF

Before the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival (one of the best ever) becomes a distant memory, below is a short list of my favourite films. They are in no particular order - although if pressed to name my number 1, I guess the top spot would be be shared equally between Deniz Gamze Erguven's Mustang and Sebastian Silva’s Old Cats. 

Although he is only 36 years old, Silva rated a survey season at this year’s MIFF. We also saw his most recent film, Nasty Baby. Unfortunately I only discovered his work when the season was half over, but lost no time in racing to see was left, namely The Maid and Life Kills Me, both of which have also made the list.

Old Cats (Chile/USA, dir. Sebastian Silva, 2010)

Mustang (France/Germany/Turkey/Qatar, 2015, dir. Deniz Gamze Erguven, 2015)

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry (USA, dir. Mary Dore, 2014)

Body (Poland, dir. Malgorzata Szumowska, 2015)

Tales (Iran, dir. Rakhshan Banietemad, 2014)

Tehran Taxi (Iran, dir. Jafar Panahi, 2015)

The Spiderwebhouse (Germany, dir. Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 2015)

Listen to Me Marlon (UK, dir. Stevan Riley, 2015)

The Thoughts That Once We Had (USA, dir. Thom Andersen, 2015)

The Postman’s White Nights (Russia, dir. Andrei Konchalovski, 2014)

Life Kills Me (Chile, dir. Sebastian Silva, 2007)

The Maid (Chile/Mexico, dir. Sebastian Silva, 2008)

Tea Time (Chile, dir. Maite Alberdi, 2014)

One Floor Below (Romania, dir. Raphael Elisha, 2015)

Spartacus and Cassandra (France, Henry Thong, 2015)

Palio, (Italy/UK, dir. Cosima Spender, 2015)

Another MIFF highlight was British film historian Adrian Wootton’s talk on the incomparable Fred Astaire. 

Our longtime favourite MIFF venue is the Forum Theatre, a once spectacular picture palace, now in need of some TLC, but glorious nonetheless. Its Mandala Lounge (formerly the theatre's stalls) is a very civilised spot to unwind after a hard day’s MIFF-going.

Shane in the Mandala Lounge, Forum Theatre, Melbourne

It was all over far too fast. Goodbye, MIFF, till 2016.

Declaration of Independence (Manifesto #1)

Idepopsis gaura (Dainty paperwing) Woman is another step closer to liberation from the lino block - and so am I. 

In future it is my intention to establish some distance between printmaking and myself. This work in progress is intended for a curated group show, admittedly a terrific project, that I was invited into to last year - and make no mistake, I'm giving it my all. It’s the first linocut I’ve undertaken in 2015, however, and with it has come the surprising, but better-late-than-never realisation that I haven't for one minute missed making prints.  

There are still a number of printmaking commitments to fulfil before I can confidently cry 'freedom'. At the same time, I’m a firm believer in the truism ‘never say never’. For starters, I still have some of my own print-based projects to complete - but in my own good time. I also look forward to exhibiting a selection of the 2007 Moth Masks linocuts in Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop's inaugural group show later this year.

So although this signals an end of sorts, it is more a new beginning, of only taking on outside projects - of any kind - not just print-based - that will also serve my work and, as much as possible, of operating within a framework that ensures a smooth, continuous workflow and encourages, rather than interrupts, delays or in any other way hinders its development.

Printmaking actually began taking a secondary role in my practice some time ago. I don’t remember feeling happier or more fulfilled than I have in the past 12 or so months, working predominantly on the Homo-insecta watercolours and paintings. Conversely, there are aspects of printmaking I don't enjoy - in particular, the frequently unpredictable, maddeningly inconsistent, dogsbody process of printing and editioning. Moreover, I have never felt entirely at home in the printmaking world. A mentor of mine once remarked - a trifle cynically - that there are no loyalties in the art world. I believe he is wrong about this, but, based upon my experiences, not enough for me to continue pledging undying allegiance to the World of Print - except from the outside, as a longtime admirer of so many of its gifted practitioners and their works.

Nevertheless, for a very long time printmaking was central to my own creative endeavours; I have accumulated a storehouse of priceless memories from those years and met some marvellous people. Late last night I began work on a PowerPoint presentation for an artist talk I’ve been invited to give at the Art Gallery of Ballarat in October. Compiling images for the talk brought about the recognition that some of the prints aren't so bad either.

Progress views of Ideopsis gaura (Dainty paperwing) Woman

The carving of the linocut Ideopsis gaura (Dainty paperwing) Woman is entering its final stages in perfect unison with the last days of the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival. (See previous post).

Directly below: the lino block on the drafting table, surrounded by reference materials and other paraphernalia and overlooked by chorus lines of Homo-insecta (top) Shadow Women (bottom) and artworks by Jazmina Cininas, Rona Green and Claire Humphries (left of screen).

My workstation at our warehouse apartment in Abbotsford, Melbourne

Below are selected views of the linocut’s gradual progress throughout the past week:

Ideopsis gaura (Dainty Paperwing) Woman - a new linocut

The 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival is now in full swing. As regular visitors to this blog will be aware, MIFF is an event Shane and I attend every year. Pictured below in its early stages of development is one of two projects I'll be working on between screenings: Ideopsis gaura (Dainty Paperwing) Woman, 2015, pencil and acrylic on linoleum, 22 x 23 cm (approx. image size).

The completed linocut is destined for Parallel Prints NZ/Australia, an exhibition featuring 1 New Zealand artist and 11 Australian artists. The exhibition is scheduled to open at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and Wharepuke Print Studio, New Zealand on 3 October. Full details will be posted nearer the time.

(Inter)National Moth Week

National Moth Week (actually a misnomer, as it is celebrated in several countries) is an annual event that runs from 18-26 July. The following Mothstralian stamps are my modest contribution. All feature the mysterious masked Moth Women who several years ago began life in my paintings, drawings, prints and one of my early fairy tales, then morphed into the far less pretty and polite Moth Woman Vigilantes (AKA the MWV). 

As previously documented on these pages, the reputed aim of the MWV is to overthrow the perpetually dysfunctional Ruling Party of the Penal Colony of Australia and establish a nation in which all are equal, that celebrates diversity and maintains an open-wing policy to political refugees. (This echoes the rallying cry of the Mothstralian Apolitical Party: 'Open Doors, Open Wings, Open Minds and Open Hearts!')  

Furthermore (in stark comparison to the current regime) if any member of the MWV needs to fly to a conference - or anywhere else, for that matter - she will use her own set of wings. Here alone (for those whose vision doesn't extend past their purse strings) the savings to taxpayers will be incalculable.

The stamps from this series will shortly appear in a new mini-zine. To preview the zine, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

 2015 Argina astrea Mothstralian stamp

 2015 Hyles lineata Mothstralian stamp

 2015 Eustixis laefitera Mothstralian stamp

2015 Agathia pisina Mothstralian stamp

 2015 Chelepteryx chalapteryx Mothstralian stamp

2015 Choreutis periploca Mothstralian stamp

2015 Othreis fullonia Mothstralian stamp

2015 Hednota bivitella Mothstralian stamp

Two reunions in one day

Last Saturday Shane and I reunited briefly with two old friends, fellow artists who once upon another time lived in Melbourne but now live and work elsewhere: Maryanne Coutts, currently Subject Leader in Drawing at the National Art School in Sydney, and Kathryn Ryan, a full-time artist who is now based in her home town of Warrnambool.

From left: Loris Button, Maryanne Coutts and Shane Jones outside the Art Gallery of Ballarat

Thank you to Loris Button, another fellow artist and mutual friend of Maryanne, for organising our reunion lunch at the Art Gallery of Ballarat cafe. (Thankfully Loris is based rather nearer to us in the neighbouring town of Creswick).

Left-right: Loris Button, Maryanne Coutts and I

After our lunchtime meeting, Shane and I headed for Warrnambool and the launch of A Quiet Place, the Warrnambool Art Gallery's 20 Year Survey Exhibition of Kathryn Ryan's work. The show is superb, charting the breadth and depth of Kathryn's connection to place. As the exhibition so compellingly testifies, the most significant and enduring of those places (which include Dubai in the UAE) remains the one in which she was born and bred. The exhibition, which is highly recommended, runs until 22 November.

Kathryn Ryan and I, snapped during the opening night of her survey show, A Quiet Place at Warrnambool Art Gallery

Fully formed Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman

A rainbow-hued Homo-insecta is released from her warm cocoon into the cold, grey Australian winter:

Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman, 2015, acrylic on wood, 32 x 30 cm

Pictured above: completed Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman, followed by further progress views. (See also previous post).

Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman, 2015, acrylic on wood, 32 x 23 cm