Lockdown #6

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!

"Unity" detail

"Unity"
at the foundry

"Unity" in bronze

I'll show the original at Herring Island - and as much bronze as I can manage - it would be great to see the set gracing a winery somewhere...

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:

The official name for rosemary is
Rosmarinus officinalis - dew of the sea.
I had no qualms about feminising it.

without the mess and in different relationships

The molding process cost some damage...
 I will repair it sometime... but here they are at home

And on show at Herring Island with white and red wine bottles to indicate the process

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.

out of iso... and Against the Odds - on exhibition

 What a long lonely year that was! And then the frantic preparation for a Covid19 safe exhibition! I had a part to play - the real work was done by experts but there's a lot of running around... and thanks to https://www.instagram.com/robandersonphotographer/ for the images of my work - that made a huge difference to the presentation!

Contemplating the Finite

And of course lots of other people helped - the online exhibition 

Contemplating the Finite

https://sculptorsvictoria.asn.au/virtual-exhibition/2021-herring-island-summer-arts-festival will be active until February 28 2021

Today I would have been....

Today I would have been helping set up the title labels for the exhibition at the Carlton Gardens.... but the whole Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show was cancelled a week ago and we have all been running around ever since trying to figure what to do....

Hopefully there will be an online exhibition. It will be hard putting that together since sculpture is a matter of real presence.

A Silver Nutmeg and a Golden Pear (2018)

It's been a bit tricky getting work done lately - car out of action in the airbag saga and not going to be replaced because my dear little Honda is 22 years old... but irreplaceable... I suppose I'll be managing with car share for a while - I'm just nervous of that too while the 'rona is about.

So wash hands everyone - we'll get an online exhibition going and put on a better show on the other side of this world changing crisis.

On the record again

After a long break it's time to update the records.

"Meander" went into the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show. No sale and no prize but it looked pretty well there.

"Meander" as photographed by Rob Anderson at MIFGS 2019

Lucky for me - and a pretty impressive compliment the work sold later to one of my suppliers... it's gone to a very loving home. Wow!

So on with the show fortified by that bit of confidence raising I worked on the inspiration of Shakespeare's Sonnet 29... and thought of the emotional lift at dawn when the birds go up all together.

The process was prolonged... finding the form and then figuring how to make it... and then transporting the wax in its frame hanging by bits of jute string to the foundry.... Mal Wood is not only skilful but extremely courageous!

And so the work was exhibited at the Association of Sculptors of Victoria Annual and Awards Exhibition - to prize winning acclaim! An honour! Lucky me!

a work in bronze, glass
stainless steel and pebbles

with a signature "rock"

... at break of day arising.....

as photographed by Rob Hay

The Gunnersen Thomas medallion
sculptor Michael Meszaros

Winner of the 2019 Margaret Gunnersen William Hoggan Thomas Award 2019