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

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...

Once more in iso

 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.

Questions for the Angels

This work started as a tribute to Paul Simon's song of the same name.

As it progressed I chose to dedicate it to the environmental defenders who put their lives on the line to care for their country.

Then a hero arose and Clinton Pryor walked across Australia to be the voice of his people - the archetypical pilgrim asking all of us the question.

 In August 2017 the work was shown at Bourke Place as part of the Association of Sculptors of Victoria Annual Exhibition. It will be shown again as part of the Association of Sculptors Exhibition which leads the 2018 Herring Island Summer Arts Festival.

It Started with a Walk in the Park

My neighbour Anna was walking in the park when the arborists were removing a tree

There was a significant crack so the tree had to go. We would have carved the three meter stump that was left but before that happened the tree was chipped - nothing left but a pile of wood chips.

Fortunately Anna rescued some rounds of the trunk and they duly arrived in my driveway.

The work I built was a response to the Build Bridges Not Walls campaign. Being my first serious effort with a chainsaw the work proceeded carefully and slowly - with many a call to gurus, chainsaw shops and sculptor friends.

I made a lot of shavings

I also made a sample piece - a tribute to the tree that never turned into sculpture and a gift for Anna.





Finally the work was ready and sent to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show

And then it came home again - to teach me how cypress will weather and to allow me to see what could be better.

Back to Work

The past few months have been interesting domestically - and now the studio and house are surrounded by a sea of mud as drainage issues are addressed. Soon it will be back to normal with only the chooks to stir the place up.

Poseidon (maquette)

Poseidon

Poseidon

I put a bronze casting into the Annual Exhibition - a maquette because I wasn't brave enough to go for a metre high work before resolving the form. It took a bit of effort to make it look as though I'd just thrown it together.

And then to the question of the presentation of art - or the presentation of food.... and so I made "Deconstruct" which would be a pleasant enough piece of Manchurian pear wood - so how do you like it served?

Deconstruct

The exhibition is on at 600 Bourke Street Melbourne until 26 August

A Chip Off...

Chip Bjorn

Having the loan of a chainsaw made roughing out a new stand for the bronze "For Sheena" that much faster - it also produced some nice cut pieces... so there's fun to be had seeing what is in those interesting shapes.

Today the new stand - "Petal for Sheena" is at Herring Island and I'm off to the opening! It looks like perfect weather. See you there.

The ASV Annual and Awards Exhibition

In amongst everything else I managed to put my work into the show. The foyer of 120 Collins Street is an awe inspiring spot - the ceiling is very high and there is a skylight way above. The 105 odd works fill the place reasonably well -  and my three are in there. I've got two works from previous Herring Island shows and one new one.

Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen sit pretty well - even though that particular work would go best against a wall. I put together a YouTube clip to explain the concept of that one ... I wonder if I'm imposing my interpretation on an unwilling audience?

Release the Dream

Then there's Release the Dream that decided its own mood .... a lovely piece of Manchurian pear wood that came from Canberra.

After that the new one - a piece in wire and plaster coated with polyurethane by Austuf and then painted... and that was fun! Here's the background for The Pelagic Creation:

In the beginning, Eurynome's movement southwards caused the North wind to spring up behind her. She turned and thought this looked interesting and rubbed it between her hands. So was the serpent Ophion formed. They danced and coupled, then Eurynome became a dove and brooded their egg on the waters. From this egg all living things were born. Précis from Robert Graves Greek Myths. The work is painted in homage to black opal – a distillation of the primordial sea. It would cost five times as much if cast in metal.

The Pelagic Creation

The photography of the show was a marathon effort - although Rob Anderson took it in his stride - I suspect he works that hard every day. It will take a little longer to get all the data entered on the ASV website... still glitches in the system for entering prize winners - but it's getting there.... wish us all luck.

"Blessing" remembered

Last year it was such a wrestle with the camera and the timing to get a full day sequence of the finished sculpture at Lightning Ridge - but finally getting to put the pictures together has taken me right back there - to the clear light and the peace. So here is the day in the life of a rock - albeit one that I messed with a bit.

And if the embedded version doesn't work for you you can go to Youtube to watch it....

and a big thank you to Roger for completing the recording process when I had to return to Melbourne.

And this one says....

"Pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth..."

Thus spoke Shakespeare's Mark Anthony addressing the newly dead Julius Caesar of his need to negotiate with Caesar's murderers. I'm regretting my complicity in the economic system that made these trees "surplus to requirements".

The trees were planted in 1916 - in a paddock of thistles. Henry and Dolly and their six month old baby put their first energies into establishing the orchard - and it bore fruit in 1920. You can see the fine grain of the annual rings - but I know now how this one will go so I won't sand any more until the shape is ready.

More of the story in an interview with Aimee Volkofsky at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bushtelegraph/tree-pull-sculptor/5095778

Fruit Wood - the start

a stick with cracks... but William pear wood

The wood looks pretty shattered - being felled by bulldozer is not the ideal way to start a sculpture. So I picked the smallest piece and figured I'd have a go and see how the pear wood responds to the tools.....

It's a bit softer than the Manchurian pear so I'll have to see what sort of polish it will take - when I get to that point... Still this piece has some grace and reminds me of my Nana.

and under the bark there really is some nice wood.

My maternal grandparents retired to Mornington just after the second war. They considered chickens at the start but Grandpa worked out it was cheaper to buy the eggs. By the time I came for summer holdays the fruit trees were well established. They had two sorts of peach, apricots and plums. I remember hot days - I just sat in the shade and ate the best fruit but Nana sat up in the hot west window of the kitchen bottling fruit as hard as she could go - "to save its life". On other days Nana was tall and elegant and dressed up to the nines and went shopping in town with her friend Mrs Murray.

Collecting Fruit Wood

There was a touch of panic after I decided to start this project - it was just forming as an idea when I heard that the trees being pulled out at Shepparton would be burned as soon as they had dried out - and before the fire season started. So with help from people in the fruit growers association I set off to Shepparton in a rented moving van - fortunately with a friend - and looked at the mountains of trees awaiting their fiery end.

remains of the William pear trees

Three great piles of William pear trees that were already planted and growing there when Marley's father bought the orchard in 1948 or 49. All around other trees were blooming - their fate sealed by being a different variety suitable for the fresh fruit market.

Packham pear blossoms

new apple trees leaning out of their double rows

apple blossoms

As it turned out the orchardists were flat out that day - there was a storm with rain coming and the trees had to be sprayed beforehand. All around you can see the different way the newer trees are trained - apple trees in double rows leaning out must yield their fruit more readily and likewise open to the sun as needed.




One thing I was glad to have was a strong Dutchman to cut, and roll and wrestle the big ones into submission:

The Log from Lorne

Well it started as a lemon scented gum with a problem - then it was a felled log in the rain. We chose it to "clean up" because it had cool wrinkles on it. Then came the hard work of lifting it into Jamie's car and getting it to the studio.





And here it is with its spongy middle and wrinkly bark looking cool but heavy in the studio.



The next part was to make it stand up like a bridge and then take out the unsound wood from the middle. And for that I was working first with the arbortech wheel on the angle grinder and then with the old chisels..... and I dug and dug and dug... and found lots of ants and a huge witchety grub (which the chook enjoyed because I'm a wimp).

A moment of triumph came as I saw daylight through each end - then the fiddling to cut back to sound wood... a bit like dentistry - cut out the rotten, probe for good wood, cut some more..... wow I've got a bit of respect now!

And the space was too small for the angle grinder plus handle to get in there so a trip to Pop's Shed got me a mini grinder and onwards ever onwards.

 and then some more......

and well it's nearly there - so soon the grand oiled product ......

it's a very hollow log now - but mainly sound wood. Let's see how it looks finished and oiled....