Visitors

Amidst preparations for my upcoming show at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery (more about that soon), Shane and I are still beavering away at the house and gradually making it our own. 

Despite a setback with the roof which has yet to be resolved, last weekend we enjoyed some first-time visits from old friends. On Saturday, our near neighbours Annie Drum and Carole Wilson came for lunch (unfortunately we neglected to take photos) and on Sunday afternoon the delightful Jazmina Cininas called in after her linocut workshop at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Tea in the sunroom was followed an impromptu evening meal before Jazmina headed home to Melbourne.

Jazmina's visit coincided with Alice's afternoon walk time.

In what was a weekend of firsts, the large cactus in our front garden burst unexpectedly into bloom. The results were spectacular.

All three of our guests remarked that it looked like we’ve been living in the house for years, which warmed the cockles of our hearts.

PS

Just as I was about to publish this post, there was a knock at the door. It was Ballarat friends Christine and Gary Hickson, pictured below. This was also their first visit to the house. They came bearing a gift of Lindt chocolates. I love the packaging created by Christine (see final photo below), which is inscribed ‘Wishing you many wonderful times in your new house!’ Thanks to our lovely visitors, we’re off to a great start. 

Burning Boat

Liberated from storage: Burning Boat, circa 1995, oil pastel on two sheets of Stonehenge paper

Back in the day, in this instance, around 1995, there was an autobiographical bent to much of my work, although I didn’t always admit to it and in many cases, was genuinely unaware of it. This is another work that has been stored away for decades, but which, thanks to Shane’s encouragement, now hangs in a prominent spot in our house. I’ve absolutely no recollection of the original narrative and its personal significance, but viewed today (at least, it seems to me) the drawing could be a response to these deeply troubled times. 

The dining room of our Ballarat East house with newly installed Burning Boat

WONDERMENT: last weeks

My Homo-insecta watercolours have been keeping great company in the Queenscliff Gallery & Workshop summer exhibition, Wonderment. (Other featured artists are Antonio Balletta, Christine Gibson, Lizzie Horne, Hyun Ju Kim, Michael Leunig, Soula Mantalvanos, David Moore, Geoffrey Ricardo, John Ryrie and Lucinda Tanner).  

Above left: Chrysochroa buqueti beetle woman

Chrysochroa buqueti beetle woman (detail 1)

Chrysochroa buqueti beetle woman (detail 2)

There’s not much time left to catch Wonderment before it finishes its long run on 23 February 2020, so do go along and see it if you can.

I’ll be sad when it’s over, but the way the year is starting to accelerate, Animalia paradoxa, my solo show at QG&W in November 2020, which I’m very excited about, will be up and running before I know it. (More about that in future posts).

A big thank you to Soula Mantalvanos of QG&W for the installation views and details of my work.

https://qgw.com.au/wonderment

Queenscliff Gallery & Workshop (QG&W)

P 03 4202 0942 M 0438 866 068 A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

FOTP 2020

Featured here are selected highlights from yesterday's 2020 Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair. For the first time - and hopefully not the last - the event was held at the historic Meat Market in North Melbourne.

The Meat Market and surrounding area area hold many memories for me. In the 1980s, I worked for a couple of years as an administrative assistant at the Print Council of Australia. During that time, the Print Council established a gallery and office in North Melbourne after their original base in Collins Street was demolished. Subsequently, the PCA moved into an office at the Meat Market, where they remained for some years before relocating to their current office in Fitzroy.

Shane and I drove to the Meat Market from Ballarat. We were a little early and had an opportunity to see inside this magnificent building shortly before the hoards of stall holders and zine fans arrived.

In recent years, all exhibitors, apart from zine distros, have been allotted a half table, owing to the sheer number of zinesters requiring stalls. This year there were over 450 stallholders over the two days that the zine fair was held. Andrew Pilkington, pictured below, shared a table with me. I couldn't have wished for a more convivial neighbour and thought his zines were terrific. In fact, his first sale of the day was to me - and vice versa.

I was doubly blessed with zine stall neighbours because on the table to our right were our good friends Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison (centre and right). To their left are Gracia's parents, Elaine and Peter Haby.

There was a sensational turnout and the entire affair ran like clockwork. As always, we could only marvel at Sticky Institute's peerless organisational skills.

After spotting the splendid George Costanza tee shirt sported by a zine fan (below, centre) Andrew and I discovered we share a mutual enthusiasm for the legendary TV sitcom, Seinfeld.

Thank you, Sticky and the Meat Market for having us, and warmest thanks to all who stopped by the Moth Woman Press stall and helped me raise funds for Wildlife Victoria's Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

At the day's end, it was announced that Sticky hope to hold the 2021 Festival of the Photocopier in the same venue. My fingers are firmly crossed.

Life at the Top of the Art World

Life at the Top of the Art World - a survival guide by Alice is one of four Moth Woman Press mini-zines that will be launched tomorrow afternoon at THE STICKY INSTITUTE FESTIVAL OF THE PHOTOCOPIER ZINE FAIR.

Congratulations - you've scaled the giddy heights of the Art World. Now comes the hard part. In this indispensable instruction manual, Alice shares some tricks and tips on how to stay there. For an insider’s view of the making of Life at the Top, visit Moth Woman Press HERE. 

Better yet, for a mere $4.00, you can pick up a copy of your very own at FOTP 2020, the Meat Market, 3 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne, 3051, tomorrow, Sunday 9 February, from 12 - 5 pm. Proceeds from this and all our zine sales will be donated to Alice’s favourite cause - Wildlife Victoria’s Victorian Bushfire Appeal: https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/

New Horizon and FOTP 2020

New Horizon (progress view) acrylic on linen, 50 x 50 cm

New Horizon, the painting-in-progress pictured above, is destined for the exhibition 20 [2020], a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Tacit Galleries in Melbourne.

Exhibition dates are 4 - 15 March, 2020.

Meanwhile, over at Moth Woman Press, we are busily constructing four new zines and making up some new copies of old favourites (see below) for the upcoming Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair, which this year will be held at the Meat Market in North Melbourne.

FOTP 2020 is a two-day event, running from 8 - 9 February. Moth Woman Press will be there on the second day, Sunday, 9 February, from 12 - 5 pm and would love to see you there.

For full details about FOTP 2020, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

All proceeds from Moth Woman Press sales at FOTP 2020 will be donated to Wildlife Victoria's Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Save the date

If your year isn't already booked up, please save the date for Backstories, my solo exhibition at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne. The show doesn't open until 15 April, with the opening event on Saturday, 18 April from 2 - 4 pm. But with Easter buns already in the shops, it will come round fast enough. I do hope you can make it.

Recent acquisition by Maroondah City Council Art Collection

Pictured with Phyllium giganteum homo-insecta on Thursday 28 November 2019 at the launch of Anthropocene, 
the 2019 R & M McGivern Prize, at Maroondah Federation Estate Gallery. Photo credit: Shane Jones.

Last week I received the happy news that my watercolour, Phyllium giganteum homo-insecta (2018), currently part of Anthropocene, the 2019 R & M McGivern Prize, has been acquired for the Maroondah City Council Art Collection. For more about Anthropocene, go HERE.

Phyllium giganteum homo insecta, 2018, watercolour, 41.91 x 29.72 cm.
Maroondah City Council Art Collection. Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

There is still time to catch this superb show, which is exhibited in two venues: 

Maroondah Federation Estate Gallery: 32 Greenwood Ave, Ringwood Vic 3134 

and 

ArtSpace at Realm: Eastland Shopping Centre, 179 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood Vic 3134.

Anthropocene runs to 1 February 2020.

A Repository of Memories

Step inside my studio, if you will.

This is the view from the work table. My works on the opposite wall span well over three decades. Like all the walls in the new studio, it’s a repository of carefully selected memories. The oldest by far are the undergraduate self-portrait, circa 1982, (upper left hand corner), posted previously, and another student work, the still-life painting on its right. Some pictures have been stored away for decades. I’ve a tendency to feel ambivalent about older work, seeing nothing but its flaws. For the first time, it’s occurred to me that I might actually learn something from it. Nevertheless, it’s somewhat disconcerting to be eyeballed by a younger version of myself on a daily basis.

Directly below the self-portrait is a poster of one of my favourite paintings, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia Von Harden, 1926, by Otto Dix. I discovered the original work on a visit to the Pompidou Centre in 1993 and still recall the colossal impact of that first sighting. The poster was purchased in the museum shop soon afterwards and it’s been one of my most treasured possessions ever since. For a short biography of Von Harden, go HERE.

The oil pastel drawing in the bottom corner, far right, dates from the same period and is another work that hasn’t seen the light of day for many a long year. It was made at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, where I was undertaking a three-month long Australia Council residency.

During this happy and productive time, Shane Jones, who I’d met the year before, joined me for several weeks and produced a substantial number of oil sketches. A selection of these, including a couple of portraits of me, as well as an exquisite, and (viewed in the light of recent events), poignant drawing of Notre Dame Cathedral, now hang in our Ballarat house. They too had been in storage, due to lack of wall space. It’s quite moving to be reunited with these fragments of our shared history after so many years. To view Shane's drawing of Notre Dame, visit his Instagram Page HERE and scroll down to his post of 10 June 2019.

NB: Since this was posted, Shane has published his drawing of Notre Dame Cathedral on his art blog. You can view it HERE.

My younger self

Deborah Klein, Self-portrait as an undergraduate, circa 1982,
 oil on canvas, 50.8 x 38.1 cm

The self-portrait pictured above was made in the early 1980s when I was an art school undergraduate at what is now Monash University (Caulfield Campus). Buried deep in storage for decades, it resurfaced during our recent move. 

The two photos directly below date from around the same time. They were sent to me in late 2018 by Melbourne photographer, Russell Brooks, although this is the first time I’ve shared them. In the second photo, I’m pictured with Tania Sironic, a fellow printmaking student. Hard to believe I was ever that young, although I still feel the same at heart. Happily, I’m still in touch with some of the good folk from those dim, distant days.