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

Herring Island 2019

Herring Island in the middle of the Yarra River is a great place - it appears to be natural bush but the Friends of Herring Island will tell you the long and arduous battle they have had to get things to grow. But it's coming up a treat as pioneer natives give way to something closer to a community. The Association of Sculptors of Victoria runs a show as part of the Herring Island Summer Arts Festival - in 2019 from 12 January to 3 February.
So I put two works in:
"Sun and Moon" and a new one "Meander"

Sun and Moon (image Rob Anderson Photography)

"Meander" is a continuation of the bronze and glass story - and the subject - maybe a lament for the Darling River - was intended to find an echo of sunlight through water and the re-wilding of rivers.

two waxes for the two media under construction

In Mal Wood's Foundry

glass fish out of the kiln

In the exhibition

Where it won the People's Choice Vote

The Next Step

Extending the lessons learned from the Dancing Tree I got hold of some casting wax - much harder and structurally sound - but still the ideas marched ahead of the technique and Mal Wood had heaps of work making sure that the cast work reflected my plans... but it worked!

The Moon

Casting the glass pieces provided its own adventure... it's been a while since I built a mold and one ruptured - the mess is still in the bottom of the kiln - but the next firing with both sun and moon in the kiln together gave me the results. And thanks to James Thompson of Blackwood Crystal for coming up with the right colours... the adventure never stops...

The Sun

The final work was shown at the Association of Sculptors of Victoria Annual and Awards Exhibition. And amazingly my peers awarded me a Highly Commended mention. And of course I got a professional image of the work in all its glory.

"Sun and Moon"

So what is the work about? A bit of nature worship? The fire of creation and the water cycle? To me it is a mini cosmos - the pull of the sun and moon driving the water cycle and linking growth and maybe beauty. Hopefully it will speak to different people in different ways - there is no one perfect art form and no one perfect idea of being. Just this is the way I'm working at the moment.

The work is at Qdos Gallery until the end of October... then - who knows..