A door closes...

In 2007 I took over a large room in the city of Melbourne that was to be my studio for over four years. Despite the frustration of persistent leaks (how many artists through the ages have had to endure those?) some of the most productively happy times of my life were spent there. Once I was inside, all else but the work fell away. The saga of the mysterious Moth Women, who first saw the light of day in my Abbotsford studio, continued here, and flourished. And here I created The enchanted hair ornaments, the multi-panelled painting which morphed into the fairy tale of the same name - the first story I ever wrote. More recently it was where the Winged Women linocuts and paintings were hatched.

So now it ends. Notice has been given and although I have not quite vacated my studio, it is close to empty and my head and heart are already elsewhere. Last weekend on iPhoto I trawled through some of the umpteen photographs I have taken there over the years, and found I had tears in my eyes. There’s no denying the time is right to move on, but I will take a great many memories with me. I will also be taking the gargantuan spider plant from my little balcony – a living monument to survival against the odds. It was there when I moved in, puny and barely alive. The room had been vacant for some time, and because of the ongoing drought, the plant couldn’t even depend on rain water for sustenance. I’m not known for my green thumb, but having nurtured it back to life (it particularly seems to thrive on washing up water) there’s no way I’m leaving it behind.

Here are some before, during and after shots. As the pictures show, the walls I inherited were in dire need of repainting. I took over the studio in the full heat of summer. My partner Shane (who I can never thank enough, both then and now) came in at night and worked late with me. Hard, sweaty work, but more happy memories. After working for hours in seclusion, stepping out into the buzz of the city on a summer night always gave us a startling, but not unpleasant jolt. Sometimes we’d stop for a cooling beer at an outdoor café on Federation Square to relax and unwind before heading off home.

An old friend is taking over the studio. It’s a solace to know I can still drop in occasionally to visit her, the other artists on my floor, Francine in the office, who has been such a good friend to us all, and my old studio. It’s a shame the owners of this fine old building don’t care about it as much as its tenants do.

Now Shane and I are just about back where we begun, living and working in our place at Abbotsford. But more of this and other developments once I am settled and sorted.

Green-Spotted Triangle Winged Woman lands at Montsalvat

Green-Spotted Triangle Winged Woman, formerly a vital part of the eighteen-strong Winged Women sister act (See Blog Post February 17) has gone solo. She has been selected as a finalist in the inaugural Rick Amor Print Prize, to be held at the Barn Gallery, Montsalvat.

The exhibition will be launched at 6 – 8 pm on Friday 8 April and runs until Sunday 22 May.

The Rick Amor Print Prize aside, Monsalvat's magnificent buildings and grounds are also worth a visit. Founded in the mid 1930s by Justus Jorgensen, it is Australia's oldest artist's colony. First time visitors can find directions on Melway Map 22 A8. For those without wheels, Montsalvat can be reached by bus 582 from Eltham Station. Further information can be found on their website HERE.

Montsalvat

7 Hillcrest Avenue

Eltham

Victoria 3095

Phone: 03 9439 7712

Montsalvat opening hours:  Monday – Sunday 9am – 5 pm

Pictured above:

Green-Spotted Triangle Winged Woman, 2010

Linocut

32 x 32 cm
Photograph by Tim Gresham

Artists' Ink exhibition at Bundoora Homestead

This touring exhibition (see also Blog Post 18 April 2010) spans 3 decades of Australian printmaking. It was curated by Anne Virgo, Director, Victorian Print Workshop, Melbourne. The prints were selected from the permanent collection of Warrnambool Art Gallery. Exhibiting artists include Dean Bowen, Yvonne Boag, Tim Jones, Geoffrey Ricardo, John Coburn, Deborah Walker, Rona Green and Graeme Peebles.

My work Untitled, 1999 (relief print, brown and white ink on interfacing overlaid onto brown oriental paper, 73 x 62 cm) pictured above, is also in the show.

Exhibition Dates: 18 March 2011 – 15 May 2011

Bundoora Homestead Art Centre
7-27 Snake Gully Drive
Bundoora
Victoria 3083

Website: http://bundoorahomestead.com/
Email: bundoorahomstead@darebin.vic.gov.au
Telephone: 03 9496 1060

Re-enchantment

My work can soon be glimpsed in Re-enchantment, an immersive journey into the meaning of fairy tales that will screen on ABC television.  The works shown here are those that were originally chosen, but I have no idea if they all made the final cut. Even if they don't, I thought it was an interesting selection, and show them here in their entirety. Hair has been a prominent symbol in my work for well over a decade. The Long, Long Braid, 2001 (pictured left) also illustrates my own fairy tale The Girl in the Tower, the opening story in my book There was once… The collected fairy tales (published by Moth Woman Press, 2009).

Re-enchantment is written and directed by Sarah Gibson and produced by Sue Maslin. It will be officially launched on Wednesday 2 March at 5pm at the Palace Cinema 3, Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Film Festival. Further details are on the Adelaide Film Festival website: http://tix.adelaidefilmfestival.org/session3.asp?sn=Re-enchantment

The Re-enchantment website will also be launched on March 2:
 http://www.abc.net.au/tv/re-enchantment/

For those in Melbourne, ACMI are hosting a two-day Symposium called Fairy Tales Re-Imagined on the 10 and 11 March:

http://www.acmi.net.au/fairy-tales-reimagined.aspx

The Sydney launch will be on the evening of Thursday 24 March at the Surry Hills Library.

Re-enchantment will go live on Wednesday 2 March in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and the UK:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/re-enchantment/

The television interstitials and radio programs will be broadcast on ABC TV and ABC Radio National throughout the month of March.

Re-enchantment’s regular updates can be followed on Facebook: 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Re-enchantment/125219870872528

And on Twitter: 

http://twitter.com/reenchantment

Pictured above:
The Long, Long Braid, 2001, acrylic on canvas 141 x 40.5 cm. Private collection

Swaddle, 2001, acrylic on canvas, 

136 x 40.5 cm. Private collection

Column, 2000, acrylic on canvas,

20 x 15 cm. Private collection

Enough Rope, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 
30 x 17.5 cm.

Private collection

Scheherazade, 2004, oil pastel, 55.5 x 57.5 cm. 

Private collection

Witness, 2004, oil pastel, 122 x 76.5 cm
Private collection

Vorticist 2, 2004, oil and acrylic on canvas, 

122 x 91 cm. Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat 

The Art Vault Exhibition at Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery

Winged Women, 2010, linocuts, individual works 30 x 30 cm

Collection: The Art Vault. Photograph by Tim Gresham

Ian Tully, Director of Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, has curated an exhibition focusing on  artists who have worked at The Art Vault. Included in the exhibition are the Winged Women linocuts, the blocks of which I worked on during my first residency at The Art Vault in July 2009. Other artists in the show include ex de Medici, Rosalind Atkins, Mike Parr, John Cattapan, Martin King, Shane Jones and John Young.

It's good news that Swan Hill Gallery has re-opened its doors. Recently it was forced to close temporarily due to concerns about rising floodwater from Little Murray River.

The exhibition opened on 12 February and concludes on 27 March.

The Art Vault Exhibition

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY 


Horseshoe Bend

Swan Hill 

Victoria 3585 Australia 


Telephone: 03 5036 2430

Facsimile: 03 5036 2465


artgal@swanhill.vic.gov.au

Gallery hours: Tues - Fri 10 am  - 5 pm; Sat - Sun 11 am - 5 pm

Mildred Pierce in the Art Gallery of New South Wales

As I continue grappling with fledgling imagery in the studio, a work from the increasingly distant past has reappeared:

Mildred Pierce on St. Kilda Pier, 1995,
linocut, 65 x 45 cm

Only recently I learned that Mildred Pierce on St. Kilda Pier, a key work from the Film Noir linocuts of the mid 1990s, has been in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales since 2009.

Its primary inspiration was the film Mildred Pierce (1945, directed by Michael Curtiz) which in turn was based on the novel by James M. Cain. The setting has been transposed from its original locale of Glendale in Southern California to my home town of St. Kilda, where I was living when I worked on the series.

Mildred Pierce on St. Kilda Pier is also in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Deakin University and the Art Gallery of Ballarat. It was included in the 2008 touring Survey Exhibition Deborah Klein - Out of the Past 1995-2007 which was curated by Diane Soumilas.

My affection for Film Noir has never wavered. (See February 12 post More Moth Woman Vigilantes on Moth Woman Press Artist's Books and Zines Blog.)

Sketchbook stuff

Myth-entomology: some fresh ideas and new directions...

Orchard Swallowtail Winged Woman

Cicada Winged Woman

Shield-backed Katydid Winged Woman

Spider Hunting Wasp Woman

Red-bodied Swallowtail Winged Woman

Magpie Moth Winged Woman

Hover fly Winged Woman

All works pencil in A4 sized sketch book (21.0 × 29.7 cm)

A visit to Melbourne Museum

Last week I spent a day at the Melbourne Museum, mainly at Bugs Alive! doing some photographic research for my Myth-entomology project. Bugs Alive! is unquestionably my favourite exhibit in the museum. These pictures are a heavily edited selection from the dozens I took that day.

I was particularly entranced by the bewitching Rainforest Mantis pictured directly above, and returned several times to admire her. She was guarding a tiny egg case, called an ootheca (see photograph second from base.) It was well camouflaged, and if not for the small label on her enclosure, I doubt I would have spotted it half hidden amongst the leaves of a branch. Incredibly, an ootheca can hold up to 100 eggs.

January Brainstorming

It feels good to be back in the studio after a short break. The only time I ventured in over the Christmas period was to have a thorough clear up, which has certainly made the slightly daunting process of beginning afresh in the New Year go much more smoothly.

Currently the infamous Moth Woman Vigilantes seem to be dominating my sketch book.