Planting Cheer with IWEG

Sydney Biennale finishes today

detail of Hassan Sharif's Objects  materials include everyday rope, bags, plastic, wire and string

ARTcycle residency at INDEX project space

lots on during ARTcycle's residency 

on until the 11th August 

and for all the details please look here

water debris

© PAOLA TALBERT   Gyre 8   2012  60 x 60cm   awarded Highly Commended at the 2012 GreenWay Art Prize

Above photograph shows a fragment of an everyday urban detritus so beautifully enticing but revealing a part of our human disconnect. This work is from Paola Talbert's newest series Gyre, an ocean vortex, where originally full of plankton now collects millions of kilos of rubbish... our rubbish! Here is a good link with more information on what they call the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a landfill in the ocean.

Your piece Paola is an exquisite example of the beauty and the foul aspects of this wonderful and absurd world we live in! Thank you

GreenWay Arts Prize

Above is my rejected version of along Hawthorne Canal made for the 2012 Greenway Arts Prize Exhibition. The opening was on last night  with another full house at Art Est and tomorrow I will be there again to guide a free art workshop with a nod towards sustainability from 10am to 1pm. This is for our first GreenWay Hub Day...  

GreenWay festivities coming soon

Saturday 23 June  GreenWay Hub Day from 10 - 1pm at Canal Road Leichhardt near Cafe Bones


free activities: 
Bike skills training and tune ups
Kids blinging up bikes
GreenWay Food with Bike Tour
Walking tour - dog friendly - to the GreenWay Arts Exhibition at Art EST  
Sustainability art workshop at Art EST 


bookings and more details here

Story at Branch

Story starting with the letter B

Branch3d

April 30th - May 26        

9am - 8pm everyday       

26 Ross St Forest Lodge

Have a look at this fabulous space for art, design and architecture to connect with an everyday thoroughfare. More details at Branch3d. I wish that more windows around town could be used in a creative way. The work here was a playful interlude from my studio works and a lovely opportunity to make art merging with the suburbs.

Through a window, through the branches, on the tree top

birds, brooms, brushes

here we are reflected

past and future imaginings

together with abundant possibilities

suspended pages quietly in shadow and line

removed from Nature, held in museums and books

the birdsong mixed with the ordinary and disowned,

remnants of the human world.

http://www.birdlife.org/community/2011/10/a-call-to-action-for-australian-birds/

A big thanks to Sarah Nolan, artist and director of Branch

and to the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney for a wealth of history and inspiration

(admission free, open 7 days and just up the road!)

Insight Out of Sight

Last night was the announcement of the winners of the  Insight Out of Sight competition - a Leichhardt Council initiative with their Community Development Officer Bronwyn Tuohy. First place winner captured above at Birchgrove Oval was by the charming Neil Tomkins. The idea is to invite artists of all sorts to bring colour and interest to traffic signal boxes that are often covered in snoresville tagging. Why I know so much (my reward on left) was because I was given the honour of being one of the judges for this year and I have always been such a fan of this fun approach to liven our streets. Please have look around or at the link above.... and maybe you would like to enter next year?

long-nose bandicoot at Macleay Museum

Carmel Wallace detail of Colony at Brenda May Gallery

I love going to the old world Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney as their collection covers many interesting areas about history and stuff through the stuffed. I often go specifically to view their bird specimens for my art practice and recently spotted the above critter, a long-nosed bandicoot (in the centre).  I do recommend a visit and amongst the permanent displays is their next curated exhibition called Coral: Art Science Life

more posts about the long-nosed bandicoot here and here 

did you hear about the fab workshops?

on the mantelpiece are collages by Rochelle Summerfield 

  
Thirning Villa is where Ashfield Council houses their artist in residence programme and this weekend I have just completed a free workshop conducted by the newest artist on the block. 


You can find more on Rochelle Summerfield's blog and all her links. 


Workshops on printmaking techniques are open to all and there will be plenty to choose from so contact  Ashfield Council for details and to make bookings. 

here I printed a collagraph of "litter" over a fragment of an etching... its a great technique.

artists' books at Leichhardt Library

Curve Test - waste nothing is a constructed artist book made during an all day stay in a waiting room. I liked the idea of making this piece within the time I had and with materials I picked up from around this site (except the needle for stitching and the orange marker). The work may look junky but I see it more as a fun and real snapshot or record of a day that could occur for anyone. I do see beauty in the banal and hope others may tune into this too. 

ps no one was harmed during the making of this "book".

JCA Steel Bookbinders competition exhibition presented by NSW Guild of Craft Bookbinders 

at Leichhardt Library on until 30th Jan 2012

bright days to all for 2012