Present for Sis - The Seamstress

It was my sister's birthday over the Easter weekend and I was so excited to be able to give her this framed drawing by Cathy Cullis called The Seamstress. The framing came out beautifully and Emma assures me it will be given an honoured place in the formal dinning area.

Emma is about to have her first baby, the first in our family. So it was a doubly special occassion. Emma, like myself, grew up sewing. Her specialities were drawn cut work and bobbin lace. She's a IT manager now and doesn't get to spend time on making as much as she would like so I wanted this painting to be like a family ancestor reminding her of her connection to the cloth and the thread.

On the artist: Cathy is multi-talented, she paints, draws, machine embroiders and makes wonderful fabric jewellery and art dolls too! Her blog/website is called November Moon and she has two shops on Etsy.

Margaret Olley watercolour exhibtition - UQ

Yesterday I spent a pleasent day with friend M.B., he invited me to join him to see the Margaret Olley watercolour exhibition at the University of Queensland Art Museum.  We took the ferry from South Bank and travelled up river spotting attractive tree clusters, hidden river perches  and generally enjoying all the interesting things one never sees from the street.

The University of Queensland is a beautiful campus with a collection of curious architectural specimens ranging from the dignified sandstone of the Great Square to the concrete spirals and shaped bronze of the 70s...it really took me back to my own uni, the ANU, which has a similar 70s vibe.  But most deliciously, it was the tropical rainforest atmosphere the UQ campus had after the recent rain - rich earthy smells, and mushrooms everywhere!

It was my first visit to the UQ gallery and it was a real surprise.  It's a beautiful building, the friendly staff there told me it was formerly the Graduations Hall, now completely remodelled internally.  They directed us upstairs, where the whole floor is currently dedicated to the Margaret Olley exhibition.  I wasn't aware Margaret Olley is a Queensland girl, she now lives in Sydney, and as I myself am a Queenslander I enjoyed her Queensland sketches the most.  Like in the first painting above, perhaps only a Queenslander could appreciate the subtle implication of the crazy marks of green.  I smile to recognise the tropical summer growth that's slowly getting the better of the careful garden caretaker...much like what Brisbane is experiencing now.

Margaret Olley is known mainly for her oils, but these ink sketches reveal the artist's skill. Her brief colour washes have the effortless elegance of a master.  The skies are particularly fine. While her simple lines are generally bold and confident they display equally a curious and charming quality that betrays a fine sense of humour, never mawkish,  for her subjects.  I can feel her enjoying herself in the production of these works - in her abbreviations she squashes the cold distance of the subject while maintaining its fabulousness and beauty, she leads you into its everyday intimacies - a talent I truly appreciate.

The exhibition, Margaret Olley - life's Journey, is on at UQ Art Museum until the 19th April.  Then tours to S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 8 May – 28 June and Newcastle Region Art Gallery, 15 August – 26 October.

Images above taken from the catalogue of the exhibition, "Margaret Olley - Life's Journey",  Queensland University Press, 2009.

Image 1: A Queensland Property (Aroo),  c. 1960, pastel and watercolour on paper, private collection.

Images 2: The Tiled Stove, 1956, ink and pastel on paper, private collection.

the fourth book

A gift today of the fourth book.

I have slowly been developing my work as a writer/artist. It has taken me a long time to find the tools that I most prefer to use. I have tried many different notebooks and most of them I have treated no better than a bound version of post-it notes. It might seem strange but I couldn't take myself seriously when I wrote in the wrong kind of notebook. But it wasn't just the notebook it was also the pen! After the longest time I finally realised that I hated using biros. It wasn't until I discovered Moleskin notebooks and returned to the primary school use of the pencil that I began to have some satisfaction with myself.

A year ago I began the practice of recording my dreams and to practice the Jungian method of analysis. What an interesting process this has been. Almost daily I've written, describing the most fascinating stories and from them have learned many valuable things. But aside from the journey to the Self it has taught me about writing. Out of necessity I have been very diligent about keeping my writing legible and have made great efforts to adopt a form of record keeping that is consistent so that I might collate reoccurring motifs and symbols. After many months I noticed that there where different styles one could use to record action. Some I noticed where more suited to the notation style use in the scripts of plays while others took to a more prose like form. Of course the fact that I had adopted the form of separating the parts of dreams into acts and scene also help immensely.

After a lucky start using the thin paperback Moleskins I finally graduated to the hard cover classic black books and I now use them exclusively. From the recording of dreams, in what I call the Book of Dreams, I began to take my writing seriously. I witnessed the value of recording my thoughts and it occurred to me that this method could be applied to my other areas of thought as well (seems obvious enough!). So I began a second Moleskin notebook series for the exclusive use for my theory work calling it the Book of Philosophy and this lead, naturally enough, to the creation of a third book series called the Book of Stories for creative writing. Now I knew I had one more book that I had yet to find - the Book of Pictures. I needed a visual diary, but which one was going to be right for me? I had a small Moleskin visual diary but for some reason I wasn't gelling with it yet. I needed to begin somewhere else, but where and on what? Now well aware of my fussy disposition when it came to notebooks I was perplexed!

Today, the answer to my question has been gifted to me by my good friend Margaret Barnett. When checking my post box in the village I found a little blue slip saying I had a package to collect...how mysterious...I hadn't been expecting anything. On returning home I sat down to open it. Inside was a beautifully wrapped present with a note that read, Found this in Cairns Gallery - thought you could use it - Love M, accompanied by a postcard of a large Japanese stone Buddha seen at twilight. Opening the present was to my surprise a visual dairy made from an old book that had previously been a primary school reader made by Aunty Art Studios called a Bound Again Book. It's the blue book on top of the pile. The original book's title was Eric or Little by Little by Frederic W. Farrar - how appropriate!

I have yet to use it of course.....but its synchronicity seems to indicate its suitability as the fourth book.

Tags: windbagandthunder, Windbag and Thunder, story telling, Florence Forrest

Nolan and Jung

A couple of the books I'm reading at the moment.

On Saturday I went to the Sidney Nolan: A New Retrospective exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery. It is an amazingly comprehensive exhibition. I'll be going back quite a few times just to take it all in. I'm so very impressed with his whole career as an artist - he surely does deserve to be one of the great Australian 20th century artists. I highly recommend seeing this exhibition if you are able to. The good news is that it is free to the public! So no excuses!

Tags: windbagandthunder, Windbag and Thunder, Sidney Nolan, Jung, Florence Forrest

Moon on Ice

Music "Moon On Ice" by Yello, lyrics and vocals by Billy Mackenzie from the album "One Second" (1987). This video clip was made by wjwheeler.


I spent most of today watching YouTube looking at Yello videos and collecting videos of Voodoo for my other blog Design Dramaturge. I found an interesting video from National Geographic, a great photo documentation of a Voodoo ceremony in Brooklyn New York and also a short "tour" of Haitian art from what looks like an art gallery in Haiti. If your interested in taking a short tour yourself of Voodoo see my post A Short Video Tour of Voodoo.

Tags: Yello, voodoo, Moon on Ice, YouTube, Windbag and Thunder, windbagandthunder, Florence Forrest

With a Little Luck - The Southern Cross

Currently I am working on constructing flyingstartoys.com and I was doing a little research yesterday on the Australian Flag and the Southern Cross as it relates to the story of Star Boomers (the Kangaroo toy set above). While doing so I discovered a whole array of very surprising facts and stories.


Firstly, it was a coincidence that piqued my interest while reading about the Australian flag on Wikipedia. I had just added the details of the inspiration for Star Boomer into its Story page, noting its connection to my Mt Ainslie poetry pilgrimage to read Dante. (See my post The Divine Comedy - Dante for more on this story.) I thought I'd link the Wikipedia page to the Australian Flag text so that anyone not familar with the flag might quickly understand my point. Reading through what Wikipedia had to say on it I nearly fell out of my chair when I read the following:

"Ivor Evans, one of the flag's designers, intended the Southern Cross to refer also to the four moral virtues ascribed to the four main stars by Dante: justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude."

!!!!

I had never known about the association of Dante with the stars of the Australian flag before and thought it quite beautiful as well as a striking coincidence. Then another funny point struck me - the person I was with for the reading of Dante on Mt Ainslie in Canberra (Australia's capital city) was named Ivor.....hmmmmm, what would Jung say?

I thought I'd read a little more closely when it came to reading about the Southern Cross or Crux. Reading along I discovered that the Southern Cross was visible to the ancient Greeks (c 1000 BC) but by 400 AD it had slipped below the horizon, officially it had become a southern Crux visible mainly to the lands down under. Acrux, the bottom star in the cross is the 13th brightest star in the night sky and was called Trishanku in Hindu Astrology.

The story of Trishanku is recorded in the Valmiki Ramayama. In short, Trishanku was a King who wanted to ascend to heaven in his earthly body. He asked one Sage to perform the ritual but he refused. After much trouble he met another Sage called Viswamitra, the rival of the first Sage, and he agreed to perform the ritual. As Trishanku was ascending to heaven Indra, the ruler of Heaven, forbade it as unnatural and sent the king hurtling back to earth, but due to the Sage's promise, Viswamitra sent forth his powers and suspended the king's fall. This uneasy situation was a cause for some concern. The sage had to create a way of fulfilling his promise. Viswamitra's solution was to create a second heaven and a second Indra to rule the new heaven. This caused great upset in heaven and so a compromise was reached that only Trishanku would live in this heaven, though not rule it, and he would abide there upside down.

This is why you might say that the head (or brightest star) of Trishanku is upside down. The illustration above shows the Sage Viswamitra creating a second heaven with Trishanku upside down in the sky.

The word Trishanku is used in India to this day to refer to an uneasy situation, neither stable nor unstable. The Acrux star looks to wobble from earth and is therefore said to be neither stable like the Pole star or unstable like a wandering star (a planet).

The Southern Cross was also known by the name Swastika an ancient sanskrit word which meant well being or lucky....In Australia we are said to be the "Lucky Country" and after reading the story of Trishanku, it could also be said to be a little piece of heaven :)

And finally, if Dante is to be regarded, Australians might find direction on the path by the virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude.....I hope so.

It certainly has been an interesting couple of days exploring mythology, toy making and the Australian flag.

Tags: Australian flag, Southern Cross, Hindu mythology, Trishanku, Star Boomers, Dante, Acrux, Carl Jung, story telling, myth, Flying star Toys, toys, windbagandthunder, Windbag and Thunder, Florence Forrest

I Owe it All to My Mum - practice makes perfect

Last Weekend was Mother's Day and I spent the day with my mum on Gold Coast having lunch and picking up lots of great fabrics, felts and embellishments from her shop, Laraine's on Capri. My mother has run a craft shop for over 20 years and it's from her that I have the wonderful ability to make things with fabric.

The heart above is one of her many designs that she package as kits. She also holds workshops teaching silk ribbon embroidery and elegant crazy patchwork. As you can see her work is immaculate and has been published in books on silk ribbon embroidery.

One of the most valuable lessons she taught me was to be conscious of the neatness of my stitches. When I was younger I would watch what my mum made and tried my best to copy. One year it was mum's birthday, I had secretly made her a cross stitch rose bookmark. I was very proud of myself because I had taught myself to do it and knew it would be a big surprise. Mum was very surprised to see what I had made her, but when she turned it over she saw how messy my stitches were on the back and then promptly told me the way it should be done so that all the stitches on the reverse when up and down in neat rows. I must admit to being a bit crest fallen...but it was that attention to detail that has stuck with me through all these years. Without her advice I might never had looked for ways to correct my work - this has been so useful in so many areas that I've had to forgive her ;)

(Flying Star Toys on Etsy update: 2 new Snow Walkers available in new colours Pistachio and Blueberry Ice)

Tags: craft, Laraine's on Capri, Mother's Day, windbagandthunder, Windbag and Thunder, Flying Star Toys, Florence Forrest

Inuit Intuit - Eskimo Art and Song

"I soon became melancholy. I would sometimes fall to weeping and feel unhappy without knowing why. Then for no reason all would suddenly be changed, and I felt a great, inexplicable joy, a joy so powerful that I could not restrain it, but had to break into song, a mighty song, with room for only one word: joy, joy! And I had to use the full strength of my voice. And then in the midst of such a fit of mysterious and overwhelming delight I became a shaman, not knowing myself how it came about. But I was a shaman. I could see and hear in a totally different way. I had gained my enlightenment, the shaman's light of brain and body, and this in such a manner that it was not only I who could see through the darkness of life, but the same bright light also shone out from me, imperceptible to human beings but visible to all spirits of earth and sky and sea, and these now came to me to become my helping spirits (Rasmussen, 1929, p. 119)." Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism, I. M.Lewis; Routledge, 2003 (1)


Thus the Inuit shaman, Aua, describes his transformation out on a lonely vigil in the wilderness. I came across this quote twice in the last month. The first was in a lovely book called Songs are Thoughts: Poems of the Inuit edited by Neil Philip and delightfully illustrated by Maryclare Foa (Orchard Books, New York, 1995)(2). I found it while thrifting and was ever so pleased with it when I got home. I dug out a small book on Inuit art I had (a strange little treasure found at the Lifeline Book Fair one year) and as I sat with them both I discovered that the book of Inuit art had some very interesting pictures and songs towards the back, some of which were in the book I had just found. With all these coincidences, I thought I might share some of these lovely poems and pictures with you.

Anerca is the Inuit word for both "breath" and "poetry". Songs are composed and sung as an integral part of community life. They convey deep feelings, observations about life and offer the opportunity to openly release personal grievances in a acceptable way. Knud Rusmussen, the Danish explorer, described the experience, "Words, music and dancing mingled into one great wave of feeling... The singer stands in the middle of the floor, with knees slightly bent, the upper part of the body bowed slightly forward, swaying from the hips, and rising and sinking from the knees with a rhythmic movement, keeping time throughout with his own beating of the drum. Then he begins to sing, keeping his eyes shut all the time; for a singer and a poet must always look inward in thought, concentrating on his own emotion." (2)


While the song might be a public expression, Inuit carving seems to be a more intimate art. These tiny stone or bone carvings are often kept wrapped up rather than displayed and are only shown if one where to visit your friend and ask if they had made any new cravings. Shyly brought forth, the artist would customarily be very self effacing about their work. They are, however, very beautiful; much modern sculpture could only hope to have both its minimal lines, intensity of expression and poetry of spirit. The image at the top of this post is so peculiar as it is a carving of trees based only upon descriptions of them, as the artist had never seen a tree in his life - a concept in itself we would have trouble imagining. It has a ghostly quality that seems to me to fit the visionary world of the shaman upon the ice. (Images and information from "Canadian Eskimo Art", Queen's Printer of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 1965)(3)

Maryclare Foa's illustrations are roughly worked but spare and heartfelt. They make a wonderful accompaniment with the songs of the Inuit. She spent several months living in a tent with an Inuit family on the banks of the Northwest passage and from her interpretations must have, in that time, shared something of their spiritual world. The one above faces a poem by Aua (the same shaman as mentioned previously):

Morning Prayer

I rise up from rest,
Moving swiftly as the raven's wing
I rise up to meet the day -
Wa-wa.

My face is turning from the dark of night
My gaze towards the dawn,
Towards the whitening dawn.

I'll leave you with these thoughts by another Inuit shaman, Orpingalik and another illustration by Maryclare Foa:

"Songs are thoughts, sung out with the breath when people are moved by great forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices. Man is moved just like the ice floe sailing here and there out in the current. His thoughts are driven by a flowing force when he feels joy, when he feels fear, when he feels sorrow. Thoughts can wash over him like a flood, making his breath come in gasps and his heart throb. Something like an abatement in the weather will keep him thawed up. And then it will happen that we, who think we are small, will feel still smaller. And we will fear to use words. When the words we want to use shoot up of themselves - we get a new song." (2)

Tags: Inuit, Eskimo, art, carving, sculpture, illustration, poetry, song, Canada, shaman, folk art, Windbag and Thunder, windbagandthunder, Florence Forrest

Good after Bad - The Museum of Bad Art

Today, Rebecca the Wrecker sent me a link that she thought I might enjoy, I did and I asked her if I might have the dibs on sharing it with you. She said she was "totally" OK with that :) So without further ado I can share with you the wonderful world of The Museum of Bad Art or MOBA as it is called.

In their own words:

As the only museum dedicated to bringing the worst of art to the widest of audiences we felt morally compelled to explore new, more creative ways of bringing this priceless collection of quality bad art to a global audience. Another Boston-area cultural institution, Dedham Community Theater, generously allowed MOBA the use of their basement. Our permanent gallery is now conveniently located just outside the men’s room in a 1927 movie theater.

I thoroughly enjoyed the featured works in the three online collections. I've selected one piece from each for you here.

The first is from the Portraiture collection: Peter the Kitty by Mrs Jackson, the accompanying text reads, "Stirring in its portrayal of feline angst. Is Peter hungry or contemplating his place in a hungry world? The artist has evoked both hopelessness and glee with his irrational use of negative space."

The second picture is from the Landscape collection: Dog by an unknown artist reads, "A remarkable fusion of ski resort and wolf puppy -- stoical in his yellow-eyed silence, frozen beneath the ice-capped peak, Dog eloquently challenges the viewer to re-examine old concepts of landscape. " I recommend reading the additional information that accompany each piece as it often contains amusing anecdotes and sagas involving the work.

And finally, from the Unseen Forces collection, In The Cat's Mouth attributed to Pangorda reads, "A comment on issues of power as experienced by those who dwell with feline pets. Is the artist consumed with or consumed by his love for this cat? Does he identify with the personality of the startling animal? Does the similarity between these inseparable cohabitants stop short at the nose? Or is he simply trying to observe a tree-lined avenue through a cat's eyes?"

There is so much to love about the MOBA, whether it's the art, the descriptions, the amusing stories, the free newsletter and membership (I joined!), even the possibility of purchasing postcards of "Peter the Kitty" , if I was in Boston I would enjoy attending the exhibition openings of the MOBA. But failing that, whenever the stresses of confronting the hydra-headed Gorgon that is the art world, I think I'll head over to the MOBA online gallery, enjoy a laugh or two and a quiet smile of appreciation for that crazy muse I love so much.

Tags: bad art, art, Museum of Bad Art, MOBA, animals, paintings, cats, dog, Windbag and Thunder, windbagandthunder, Florence Forrest

The Paintings of Katy Horan

After much anticipation I finally received my Painting "Owl #2" by Katy Horan from her Life and Death series. I discovered her work last year on Flickr and ever since I have coveted every one of her painting in her contemporary Folk Art style. I managed to put a down payment on "owl #2" before it went to be exhibitioned at Paperboat Boutique in Milwaukee and waited for its return to her in New York before it was sent to me. It was worth the wait as it is beautifully crafted. Painted on Masonite with plywood cradle, the whole piece is painted and there is a delicate white lace detailing around the cradle edge that finishes the piece off as an object. I was even more impressed with it in real life than I was with the digital image.

The painting above is one of her new works as yet untitled but it portrays a shaman (witch) charging her sacred knife from a stronghold of power (my description). I love this as I have a penchant for telecommunication towers, antennae, broadcast towers and electrical towers etc. I wonder if she does lay-buy?

I would love to have writen about her work in more detail, but I'm currently on a time-out to recharge my batteries (a bit like the second painting) . I think you will see, however, that her reduction of forms in an illustration style does not etiolate their symbolic power (as can happen) but rather points to older traditions of folk art and carving. I'm looking forward to seeing how her work develops and understanding more of the background of her inspiration.

Katy Horan's Live Journal blog is The K-Bear

Tags: art, folk art, contemporary folk art, Katy Horan, painting, Windbag and Thunder, windbagandthunder, Florence Forrest

I heart Web 2.0

A little late on the St. Valentine's day thing, but it was only just now that I found something worth proclaiming my love for after seeing this excellent video over on The Long Tail. Some of my friends have been wondering what I mean when I mention Web 2.0, this might help ;)

(run time approx less than 5 mins.)

Tags: web 2.0, youtube, the long Tail, valentine's Day, Windbag and Thunder, windbagandthunder, Florence Forrest