Big changes!

What a ride the last few months have been!  Sold the house... sold the farm.....  brought a new farm....moved the studio ....and resigned from my job as an art teacher!  Going to a teaching job for two terms...teaching little tackers again! (8 and 9 year olds).  First time I will have been in a non permanent job since I started teaching in 1986.  I am looking forward to teaching topic, handwriting, maths, writing etc.....
Art teaching can be a bit like eating 'McDonalds' at every meal.  Nice at first...but the novelty starts to wear off and you crave variety.

Anyway...the new studio is about to be lined with plywood and white washed.  We  are going to polish the concrete floor- and I know it will look cool.  BUT at the moment it looks like this.  AND yes....I AM having issues with it.  Today I moved my table into the house until the studio is done.  It has rained most of the last 7 weeks here.  The house is cosy...so I can work up here and be in denial about the rats and grime in the studio/shed.

Taranaki

This painting was done about ten years ago.  I rediscovered it when we were packing.  It is one I have always kept as representing a particular style in my painting at the time.  Many aspects of it frustrate and annoy me now. However two things captured my interest about it.  One is the Hydrangea flowers which I remember being tricky at the time to do.  The place we are moving was an export flower business.  There are a lot of Hydrangeas there.... did I know something back then?  The other is the shift in my art over the last ten years from representing a scene for the wall (decor art) to making work that has a more conceptual base to it.  Ten years ago I would have looked at this and thought... Hmmm... pretty picture.  Now I look at it and it makes me ponder how I feel about Taranaki.  Is it all  sunny and rosy here?  Has living here changed?  I think it has.  Not the innocent friendly place it was.  I am not sure I agree anymore with the commonly said phrase "great place to bring up kids".  Or is it just that generally there is a more sinister undercurrent now in society as a whole?...or is it just that I am now older and more cynical?

Evil squirrel.

Lately I have been 'reworking' and adding to prints that I have done. I really like sewing on top of the print.  In some of the prints I have just added sewing and in others I have added fabric or plastic or other prints.  I like how the sharp claws of the squirrel 'echo' the jagged sewing lines.  Squirrels....crazy little critters.  This one is real nasty.

The Angel project

Over the last few christmas 'build-ups', the kids and I have made christmas Angels out of old wooden pegs, wallpaper, buttons, ribbon, cushion filling and feathers.  The challenge has been to make them without buying new stuff.  We attached a 'virtue' (google 'virtues project for more information) and a statement about the things we liked about the person we were giving the Angel to.  These were attached to their waist band (see above).

Last Christmas we made extra Angels and decided to go on a drive around town randomly leaving Angels in places where they would be found by strangers.  Some times we stayed to see who found them....but mostly we didn't.  It was fun and we really enjoyed speculating about who may have found them.  Once we ran back and picked up an angel we had just left on a seat outside a supermarket, as we decided she was too vulnerable where we had left her...we were worried who would find her...it was kind of a dodgy, scary area.  She is still here at home.  My youngest daughter has her in her room and gets edgy if we mention leaving the last angel anywhere.

The troll collection.

A quick post.  My bedroom over looking the sea.  The trolls mentioned in the previous post are along the rail above the door. The kids and I were trying to find enough of them to catch up with my husbands age.  Clyde is 50 next week!  We have done that.  I think we had in the late 50's, last count.  They used to be easy to find, but lately they have been really hard to find at second hand shops.  Maybe someone else is collecting them too.  Oh well, the rail is full now anyway.  I like the way that occasionally one of them jumps off the rail spontaneously...due to house vibration, wind.... who knows?... but it always scares the living daylights out of me.  Lately I have found myself talking to them in the morning as I get ready for work.  Thankfully they haven't started answering me back!  Everything I use in decorating is recycled.  'Up-cycling' is a term that seems to be gaining popularity.  I like this term because it implies that the things are not just used again in the same way.  It implies that the items being recycled are being re-worked/reinvented/given a new lease of life/a new purpose.  I like the idea of creatively working with what we have and not contributing to encouraging more conspicuous consumption.
On the right side of the blog there are links to other 'blogs'/sites of people who are working with similar ideas.

Compulsive collector!

I like to collect things.  It is more than a 'like'... it is an obsession, a need.  I sometimes wonder if I have a touch of Asperges syndrome.  Seriously.  I get overly intense about things.  I go through phases of intense interest in certain items.  I get very excited by the shape, color and the memories associated with the items. Some of the collections include shell necklaces (see above), old toy trolls, microscopes, fondue sets, colored glass, white vases, glass paper weights, kitsch ornaments, airline bags, tacky tourist souvenirs, old silver and black cameras... look to be honest the list is endless!  My husband is a minimalist and I am a compulsive collector.  For the last six months many of my 'finds' have just been stored in the boxes under the house as soon as I get them.  We/I had quite simply run out of places to put the 'treasures'.  We are moving to a bigger house soon out in the country.  It is going to be exciting opening boxes and 're- discovering' and arranging the collections.  I do sense a need to cull some things though.  The necklaces in the picture are a 'fraction' of the collection of Pacific Island art and craft.  I love the shadow these necklaces cast on the white wall.  Recently I have been pondering my need to collect. It is true the things give me great joy to behold and consider where they have been on the journey to get to me.  But what does this say about me?  Am I being materialistic?  Am I being greedy? Sometimes it makes my head hurt pondering this issue.  However just recently, during a discussion with my daughter about her career options, it occurred to me that I missed my vocation.  I would have liked to have been a museum curator.  SO maybe I need to be kinder on myself and accept that compulsively collecting is okay. (and I am in charge of my own 'museum')  

In memory of creative times...

We are moving.  I am packing up the studio.  Sad, but a hint of excitement about projects ahead.  As the studio has become very much a 'shell', a room, a shadow of it's former self....I post this photo in memory of a busier and creative time. I am reminded of the saying that it is 'always darkest before the dawn'...and creativity is like that...  The struggle and then the break through.  I feel I am at that bit just before the break through... the house, studio, garden all in disarray before the move... and then the creative rebuilding will start with moving day.   

'The red shoes'

In an earlier post I showed progress on this painting.  It is finished now and I have sealed it.  It is of my cousin Julianne.  For years now we have exchanged cards, knowing looks, jokes, sewing and even little red shoes based on the story often told to children about the little girl and 'the red shoes'.  A discussion about the 'meaning' of this story also appears in the book "Women who run with the wolves."  The story is about a poor orphaned girl who loves her authentic handmade red shoes. But due to circumstances and peer pressure/desire to be accepted when taken into a 'well-to-do', family she begins to wear the flash shiny leather ones they tell her she must wear. On the way home from church the shoes begin to dance.  They are in control of her and she can not make them stop.  They dance her down the road, out of the village into the wilderness.  She is exhausted but still the shoes will not stop.  In the end she has to cut off her feet and watch the shoes (and feet) dance away with out her.  Do you know the story?  It rings bells with creative women who give up or compromise their creativity... you can see the light go out of their eyes... and in doing so, they sell their soul.  I have been there.  It is a fine line we all face as creative women.  How far do we go selling what we make to others or making to express our true self?  Balance is tricky. Julianne is one of the most creative people I know.  Her hand sewing has started selling well at design stores around the country.  Making to sell can mean a balancing act to keep your creativity authentic... it is a problem I constantly struggle with.  Lately I am trying to make with no thought of selling... so I make for me and if it sells at a later time then that is a bonus. It has freed me up to experiment and play again. Will Julianne face this dilemma soon?


Problem:People do judge an artists success on if they sell (and how much for)..I wish I could stop worrying about that aspect of it.  Now that I am choosing not to actively sell...I am not feeling like I am valued as a 'real' artist.....


Postscript:  In the last month I have randomly sold several big artworks without actively seeking to do so.  What does that say about 'the red shoes'.

Rat family

In a previous post I talked about the rat that died in the ceiling.  I have made more Rats....a whole family now.  The middle sized one fell over just after this photo and broke the tip off the end of his nose. Rat karma, I suspect!

Faith, hope and no charity

More reduction woodcuts from the end of last year.  This is a series of six but only four are shown here. Hand painting over part of the completed print is very satisfying.  The paint takes on a really different quality when applied over the printing ink and creates a glorious range of textural effects.  That is not quite what I wanted to say.... some times it is easy to be clever... and others it is not!  But for what it is worth -here are the prints.

Woodcuts

I haven't done a new run of woodcuts for a while.  These two were from the end of last year.  I did a series of ten and then added paint to some of the prints.  I really enjoyed the whole process and in particular the 'randomness' of the colour combinations that you can get with the reduction woodcut process.

Just a bit of random fun with one of my favourite toys.  Really  not too much to be said here!

Charcoal portraits

Charcoal is also very cool to draw with.  I love the tension you can get between the marks made and how it makes me work fast and not get hung up on reality.  Quick, fast and messy.

Chalk Madonna

Chalk is so rewarding to work with.  It makes you go fast and furious and not worry too much about the colours that you use.  I really enjoy the impermanence of it... the fact that it is dust.  This is a large work.  A2 size on black paper.  Also, there is something about the 'Madonna' images from Medieval times that has always interested me.  I am not sure that this is a particularly successful work.  But, as a drawing for fun, I enjoyed it.  I would like to do more work at a later date around the 'Madonna' theme.  Recently I started a collection of Madonna bits and bobs (figures, tee-shirts etc) and other religious items such as rosary beads.  I think it is the spirtual faith, conviction and intensity that was invested in these things that captures my imagination.

Chalk drawing experiments

More chalk drawings.  This time experimenting with distortion of proportion.  I like the top one more.  The only problem with chalk drawing is the framing.  For preservation and display it really needs to be under glass.  I wish I could capture the vitality of the chalk drawings but in paint on board.

Ella's missing tooth

On my dressing table I have three little metal containers.  Each one has teeth in from the children, collected over the last fifteen years.  Whoops!  What I mean is, teeth that the 'tooth fairy' has collected over the years.  She has always left money but not taken the teeth!  See the Post a few back about 'Funny Bunnies' to get the drift of my mixed feelings about the things we tell our kids...mixed messages.  But I do also think a sense of mystery and a sense of magic in the world is good.  ANYWAY...this painting is large.  About a meter and a half long by a meter high.  It is of us with Ella proudly showing off her first missing front tooth.  I sort of wanted it to look sugary sweet ( like a dental nurses nightmare!) and a bit magical.

Drypoint Etching

Two little drypoint prints done last year.  The process of making a 'drypoint' is so cool!  I love the structure and discipline involved in scratching the plastic.  Then the printing part is almost the opposite where you get to bring the image to life by working the ink into the plastic.  It is a cross between drawing and painting.  So very exciting!  I have been loaned a press for the year.  It is a beautiful thing.

Noticing the small stuff

I like taking photos of the small things.  The patterns in nature.  These photo are hung in a grid on my wall.  I like rearranging them and playing with the different  combinations of colour, pattern and form.

Left to right top row-frangipani, Grasses @Raglan,Jellyfish@ Raglan

Left to right middle row-Seaweed@Raglan, Bunny tails@Raglan, Plant flower @Sydney

Left to right bottom row-grasses@Raglan, Bark@Raglan, Bunny tails @Raglan another view.

Short circuit

Recently on a visit to Dale Copeland, she gave me heaps of circuit boards from calculators and telephones.  I have been mucking about playing with little things from my printers tray on the wall and using them with the circuits boards. It is fascinating putting previously unrelated objects together.  It always throws up interesting thoughts and ideas to ponder on.

This one is about memories... imagine what is stored in the memory banks of this circuit board!  But much like what happens to us in old age... it is hard (harder) to access those/these memories now.

The bits mean to me/prompts these questions-

The Bobbin.  From an old sewing box from my Nana.  Sewing machines sew straight and true. Do we get more black and white about issues as we get older?  Will a straight line like Hansel and Gretel help us find out way home?

The belt buckle.  From a elderly neighbour when she passed away.  Belt buckles remind me of being tidy and safe... tucked in... but can they help us be 'safe' and valued in our old age.  Did it help my neighbour?  She was in her 90's with no children.  Her family bundled up all her stuff and it was discarded into a skip.

The Kewpie doll.  My Nana loved Kewpie dolls.  Without knowing this my daughter when she was 8 brought one as a gift for me from iko iko Wellington. I like the generational link.

The compass.  Hopefully we find our way in life.  Sometimes we go way off track.  What helps us get back on the track again?

The Lamb.  Like a lamb to the slaughter. Innocence lost.  As we age do we become more cynical?  Do we lose that excitement about the new... do we lose our vitality?  Do we have to as we age?  Is it a nature vs nurture question?  The lamb was part of a collection that I had on my window sill when I was very little.  My great grandmother gave them to me...a few at a time... all sorts of animals.  I still have one kitten, a pig and this lamb.

The hand.  From an old doll.  Hopefully showing me the way.

The faces.  My Nana had a thing about reusing stuff... more of a generational thing, being around from those post war years.  She made all sorts of stuff into stuff.  My favourite were her dehydrated apples carved as head shapes and her faces from stockings which she put in a jar to look like little trapped people.  These three faces are from one of those jars... watching and judging... always judging.

The Key.  Fairly obvious.

Funny bunnies

A group of laughing bunnies.  This time of the year, coming into Easter, I find myself surrounded by foil wrapped bunnies and it gets me wondering about the 'stories' we tell our kids.  On one level it is nice to believe in some sense of 'magic' in the world...and on another level it is slightly 'creepy' that we have the Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy and Santa.  I can visualize being in a room surrounded by these mocking surreal bunnies.

Two ceramic bowls

Two bowls from the kiln recently.  The lime green parts didn't photograph too well.  But  I really enjoyed making these two little babies. I discovered you don't twist the legs and tentacles to make them twisted...  you cut them and sort of carve them to give the illusion of being twisted.  Tricky!

Big yellow dog

I really like the work of Jim Cooper.  I made this dog last term.  It was a logistical nightmare to make... due to having to be in pieces and wait for the leather hard stage to join the bits.... and then the electrician moved him and a leg snapped off.  Then I had to move him to the kiln at my ceramics class.  I would so much love a kiln at home... and am frustrated by this at the moment.  We are looking at getting one once we move.. maybe.  Currently my work has to be fired with all the other students in my pottery class.  They are doing mostly glaze work.  The kiln has to go to the temperature that suits that suits everyone in the glazing.  The result of this is that often my underglaze colours burn out and are less intense.  My tutor and I have discussed this.  I could do a kiln load of my own work that fires to the temperature that suits what I am using.  The downside will be waiting a long time for my work to come back..which slows down the discovery and learning from my mistakes.  As by the time the work gets back I wold have made a whole heap more stuff.  Also the other problem is transporting fragile' bone dry' work to the kiln. I learnt alot from doing this dog.  In the coming term I will attempt him again...hopefully with more success!  I did experiment with oven heat set ceramic paint on him AFTER glazing which heat sets in the oven...the darker yellow on him is that stuff.  I have some  old plates which I have also been experimenting on with the same paint.

Mouse man

Still loving 're-inventing' soft toys that I have found at second hand shops.  I cut them up and rearrange them... often giving them new faces as well.  I like how they can be injected with new and quirky personalities.... like reincarnation!

Flying Ducks and Rabbits

I have always liked those ceramic flying ducks on the wall.  While having a bit of a studio clean out, I decided to play around with 'cut outs' of MDF and retro wall papers.  I had great fun blue-tacking them in groups and different formations around the house.  I like the rabbits best.

Wire work for Kina

Took another box load of wire work to Kina design store before Xmas. I love working with wire.  Not so much the fish and hearts etc .  But I do love the bigger pieces I do for myself.  Wire was a big thing amongst Gypsies.  I have a number of books that have photos of their work from the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Detailed works that often incorporate something that they were trying to recycle or rescue....like a plate or vessel of some kind.  These are the pieces I like doing most.   

The two of us

This painting usually hangs in the lounge.  It is very big.  A metre by two metres.  Lately it has been in storage.  I miss it staring out at me.  Initially I didn't like it and would never let it out in public.  I was trying to work very simple and stylized.  It is of Clyde and I.  It has grown on me and now I like it for the 'snippet in time'  that it represents.

Stuffed friends

More holiday projects using up what ever I can in the house.  Blanket and felt scraps.  Due to my obsessive nature I didn't stop with these few little chappies!  I am now up to 10.  My two favourites are not in this photo.  They are a 'Tiki' one and a 'Parihaka' one. 

Cousin Ju-Ju

I love my cousin.  She is sparky and creative.  She is one of those people who make the world a better place.  Recently my great Aunt Peggy passed away. I took at photo at the wake of Ju-Ju and another relative.  The wake was about 5 hours drive from here. A  large family gathering of Irish descent... farewelling a much loved family member....I bet you can guess how the evening went!  Much laughter, drama and drinking and a lot of memories shared.   The energy and sorrow in the photo was amazing.  I have started a painting from that photo.  It is always tricky working from a photo.  I know I will never capture that moment in a painting.  But I wanted to try to capture some essence of the event.  The other figure wasn't working out...so I washed over it with a white acrylic wash.  I liked the effect ..ghostly.  The painting will go on to be completed but I took this photo to capture how it was before I continued.  I think there may be a painting to come where the figures are washed over and the painting is largely white with shadows of figures coming through.
The photos here show it in progress and just finished.

Loving the holidays.  Been having a 'craft-a-thon'!  Sewing up a storm!  Ploughing through all sorts of crafty things that I have been recording in my sketchbook over the last year as projects I have wanted to do.  I love the repetitive and therapeutic nature of hand sewing.... over, under, over, under, over, under....I am sure you get it.  Sewing sort of stills the mind.  One of the projects was using old blankets and recycled material and buttons to make a kite bag for our kite flying trips to the beach.  The bag also has a kite string bag inside it to hold the kite strings, tape to repair tears and scissors for quick untangling.  For fun and a challenge I have set the goal that all the projects should cost nothing and be as much as possible from recycled materials.  I like the idea of reusing/reinventing to create something useful. (The black bag behind has nothing to do with it)

The fat controller

Lately I have been 'borrowing' the kids toys and making jewellery to wear.  This is the fat controller from the kids 'Thomas the tank engine' set.  I have also used their lego, jigsaw puzzles, dominoes, barrel of monkeys and other assorted bits and bobs.  I fancy a necklace out of Barbie doll heads or legs.  We will see what comes next!

Favourite spots in the garden

These are a couple of my favourite spots in the garden at the moment.  I used to hate succulents.  But just over the last year I have come to really love their form and strength.  The pink flamingoes are much brighter in real life.  So plastic.... so 'kitch'... so  pointless and fun.  The bottom photo is out of the dining room window.  The goddess cabbage tree trunks are so strong.  What a fantastic plant.  It is like a cabbage tree but doesn't drop all the leaves over  the lawn  like a traditional cabbage tree....you know...how they drop those long brown spears and they get all caught up in the mower and piss you off when you try to mow?  WELL.....this plant doesn't do that.  Reading this back-I think I am in danger of becoming a boring old fart! Who really cares about the cabbage tree spears?  I do. (They piss me off)

The Garden

The garden is going off at the moment!  I am spending so much time in it that I am going to have to post it as an artwork!  I am finding the juxtaposition of colours and textures and shapes just fantastic.  I am getting excited about the sunflowers that just opened.... and the christmas lilly about to open.  It is unusual this year as the christmas lilly is way late.  Usually it bursts forth, on cue, the week before Christmas.  Oh well...it is a treat still to come!  Sorry about the hose in the top  photo!

End of year- ARTROOM

Just packed up and stacked for the Christmas holidays.  Found this photo and liked it.  I like setting up the room for the year.   Always full of promise of new students to meet and new creativities to do.

'He manu rere'-the flip side

Here is the flip side of the book.  This will probably be posted in the wrong order!  Details about the book in the previous post.

Me he manu rere ahau e

I always liked this song.  Used to hear it a lot when I was a child.  Currently 'nostalgia' is a theme in my work  and a chance to combine this theme with a growing interest in the 'community of birds' that co exists with us (in society) was too good to miss.  This fold out book sits on my desk at home.  Reminiscent of the  books that many teachers of junior children would have made over the years.  The book is in Maori and English.  It has a front and a back....I will post the 'backside' in a few minutes.

Small grumpy dog

This little dog is in the kiln as we speak/write.  SADLY though the tail was knocked off in the transportation to the kiln @ Devon.  It was a little 'piggy' type curly tail.  My pottery tutor  (Dianne Somers) has tried reattaching it for me... so I hope it survives.  Will post photos in the next wee while when it is out of the kiln.  I am working on a series of 'grumpy dogs' and 'wild cats.'  The cat I am doing at the moment is called 'Roadkill'.  It is the instant just before impact.  Bright wide eyes. Arched back.  Tense.  Just how I feel as a teacher at the end of the year!  Difference being... I will survive with the promise of a new year and the future.  Unlike the road kill cat.  Photos soon.

End of year

It is 'odd' at the end of year to be packing up the classroom... sad.  But also full of promise for the new year.  I took down this display yesterday.  It was a topic I particularly enjoyed teaching with my students.  Photographed it for the 'record'.  This topic really captured the students imagination and appealed to their experiences.... it was easy to make art history links as well.  Starting to think of topics for next year......suggestions?