Small and Beautiful

ESPLAN.ART - in the evening glow

 A hot day, bushfires west of the city, wind and then a change - this is Melbourne yes? Drops of rain splatting on the windscreen, a flash of lightning, a cool breeze and then a glorious evening. There was a suitably complicated sky - any wonder with all that going on. So we celebrated - in a small way, the launch of Sioma's gallery ESPLAN.ART

I've got two small works - pride of place in the window - "Once Upon a Time" and "Protector" - I like to think they go well with the other work on show - work in bronze, precious stones and metals and some laminated wood.... and talking with eh guests and artists gathered - a privileged life in the face of the world's turmoil.

A complicated sky - bushfire smoke, wind, and different shapes of cloud sharing the same sky

Once Upon a Time - glass and redgum

Protector - glass and redgum

In even more prestigeous company

The Association of Sculptors of Victoria was given the opportunity to run a selling exhibition in the Sarah and Baillieu Myer Pavilion at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery. It was an amazing experience - the Pavilion is used as an education space, or for events such as weddings or conferences. And so we were able to lay it out for small to medium sculptures for two weeks. That was probably not long enough but we got to see some lovely visitors. 

The view through the exhibition to the grounds of McClelland Sculpture Park

I showed two works Lockdown 6 - with a little help from my friends and ...cry out: Olivia

..cry out: Olivia is a new work - carved salvaged wood from a tree in my daughter's garden... the wood with its warped form and grain full of character decided not to be a fruit bowl and told a story instead - of having two faces and a hidden yearning in the willow cabin.

Thanks to Rob Anderson Photography for the use of these images.

The inner surface
showing the text

transition one face
to another

the willow cabin

Three faces to Cry Out: Olivia inspired by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night:

Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love,
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills,
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out ‘Olivia!’ O, you should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth,
But you should pity me…

 

The Lockdown 6 - with a little help from my friends looked well in the easterly light and against the timber walls of the pavilion. 

Lockdown 6 - with a little help from my friends
image courtesy Rob Anderson Photography

In Legal Company

Framing the Victorian Supreme Court Building 

 I couldn't resist an exhibition opportunity - so here I have three works in a group exhibition at Studio 11, Owen Dixon Chambers East, level 11, 205 William Street Melbourne 11 July to 15 September 2023. The building is open 9-5 weekdays.

The works are Sun and Moon, Once Upon a Time and A Silver Nutmeg and a Golden Pear.

Stardust to Stardust

 A branch fell off a street tree near my place narrowly missing my neighbours' car... when it came to having it cut up and taken away they gave me two pieces. It took a long time to find the inspiration that suited the wood... but now the work is being entered in the Herring Island Summer Arts Festival Sculpture exhibition - "Connection"

"We are all stardust formed in the creation nova - so a life flows between the stars in twists and turns and pools and rapids from stardust to stardust."

the start was seeing the bridge

 

and cutting out some of the less sound wood

then the wood started to tell its own story

and there comes a time to see what the oil brings out in the grain

and the grain is captivating -
details recording the incidents of the tree's growth

more grain... more interplay between
the inner and outer surface of the branch

The work is in the Association of Sculptors of Victoria exhibition on Herring Island as well as the online exhibition and will be on show until 5 February 2023.

Dreaming in Uncertain Times

 

"Once Upon a Time"
cast glass, upcycled red gum garden sleeper

A small one to supplement the big one at the upcoming Sculptors Victoria Annual Exhibition. I'm giving the Lockdown 6 companions another run - this time set up on a burnt oregon board. It's exciting to be back exhibiting in real life... but people are still catching it and dying. 

I'm collecting from @flb_58  tomorrow - last chance to see "Sun and Moon" - I'm quite fond of it... if it doesn't sell this time I think I'll keep it.

"Once Upon a Time" - a story about storytelling or a story about parenting? Well parenting never got an image out of me while I was parenting myself... too all consuming not to mention heartbreaking and demoralising. It's only afterwards I got romantic about it - and the children have grown up to be amazing people!

As they say - write your own story! 

first try with the
glass casting

carving from both sides

ready for the glass...