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| Framing the Victorian Supreme Court Building |
The works are Sun and Moon, Once Upon a Time and A Silver Nutmeg and a Golden Pear.
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."
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| the start was seeing the bridge |
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| and cutting out some of the less sound wood |
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| then the wood started to tell its own story |
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| and there comes a time to see what the oil brings out in the grain |
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| and the grain is captivating - details recording the incidents of the tree's growth |
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| more grain... more interplay between the inner and outer surface of the branch |
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| "Once Upon a Time" cast glass, upcycled red gum garden sleeper |
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!
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| first try with the glass casting |
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| carving from both sides |
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| ready for the glass... |
That was hard! But so much better than even more death and disabling illness. It feels never ending - and so the mind turns to what I am missing - the everyday - the calm wisdom of the ordinary. I tried my hand with Sculpey - polymer clay that fires in a domestic oven so long as you haven't built too big. I guess I could use a kiln... well somehow I had all these wine bottles and I made them into lockdown companions
A bit of a crowd to stop me feeling lonely.
Right to left you can see "Maeve" I'm trying to find wisdom in this? Well good luck with that. Then a piccolo bottle - was that a sparkling white? "Love me Tender" and behind that "Mr. Braun" then poor "Maurice" just clinging to the only comfort left to him. "Wilhelmina" is no nonsense but "Gently" is more compassionate - after the George Harrison song. "Beat" is playing for the extinction rebellion - while we hide is the wild world under attack or fighting back? "I.See.You" - I spent a terrifying night looking at the Burnett Report - and fearing for the calculations that lead us to the knowledge that our actions have consequences - deathly ones. And then "Unity" vertical drinking hah! - whoever heard of it before? Are we divided in our unity or united in our solitude?
I stopped at nine.
I've had molds taken off them. The molding process did a bit of damage so the originals can be displayed but not sold... but the bronze! The bewitching bronze! Not to mention the masterful Mal Wood working the patina!
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| "Unity" detail |
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| "Unity" at the foundry |
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| "Unity" in bronze |
And while locked down I considered the trials and tribulations my forebears went through - my great grandmother had six children... but only my nana and great aunt went on to have families. With that inheritance came a sprig of rosemary - a cutting of a cutting of a cutting... of the plant by my great grandmother's gate. Great-uncle Herbert wore a sprig in his buttonhole when he went to Gallipoli and never came home. So to honour the past - and something that has been handed down from mother to daughter - I made a stamp for the polymer clay:
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| The official name for rosemary is Rosmarinus officinalis - dew of the sea. I had no qualms about feminising it. |
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| without the mess and in different relationships |
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| The molding process cost some damage... I will repair it sometime... but here they are at home |
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| And on show at Herring Island with white and red wine bottles to indicate the process |
Lockdown mark 4! We got cocky didn't we - thinking that we were on the gradual path to opening up. We thought we could run the Annual and Awards Exhibition with an opening and prizes and everything... and oh dear... well we can count our blessings - I think only one Victorian ended up in ICU and they are recovering now.
So to pick up the pieces of the exhibition - it's online - only the People's Choice Award is on offer - and we can run it again next October because our lovely hosts have found us a time slot.
I gave Contemplating the Finite another run... why not? It would have looked great at the Victorian Artists Society. That link won't work after the online show closes.... but if anyone wants to boost my People's Choice Vote... knock yourself out... In the meantime - stay safe - we aren't out of the woods yet.
