monumental
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again, this image has been here before
taken in the Louvre a couple of years ago
so small and at the same time monumental
L'espace m'a toujours rendu silencieux
Jules Valles, L'enfant, p.238
Immensity is within ourselves. It is attached to a sort of expansion of being that life curbs and caution arrests, but which starts again when we are alone. As soon as we become motionless, we are elsewhere; we are dreaming in a world that is immense. Indeed, immensity is the movement of motionless man. It is one of the dynamic characteristics of quiet daydreaming.
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fairylights
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Again, I have put these images up here before, they were taken in Glasgow 2 years ago before Christmas.
Thinking of new designs and work I am collecting and re looking at images.
I can't go past a bit of glitter or a stack of fairy lights without stopping, and looking and always being amazed
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on my way to
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on the way to my sister's farm there are lots of things I love to look at
I don't think that I really understood where I came from until I travelled overseas and returned. My family is from down south in Victoria, by the sea. This new landscape where my sister lives is similar but also very different to where we grew up. It is also very dry and I suppose at times unforgiving. I try to go and visit as much as I can. I have an obsession with gum trees, and the drive which starts in the city ends on a dirt road lined with gums.
I am making copper boxes at the moment. On this recent drive I had to stop and take a photo of 2 sheds that I always look out for on the trip up. They remind me of something that I hope to capture in my work, and of where I come from.
We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
Winston Churchill
Falls Country
(for Peter Skryznecki)
I had an aunt and an uncle
brought up on the Eastern Fall.
They spoke the tongue of the falls-country,
sidelong, reluctant as leaves.
Trees were their thoughts:
peppermint-gum, black sally,
white tea-tree hung over creeks,
rustle of bracken.
They spoke evasively,
listened to evident silence,
ran out on people...
[the last stanza goes:
...Listen. Listen,
latecomer to this country,
sharer in what I know
eater of wild manna.
There is
there was
a country
that spoke in the language of leaves.
Judith Wright
( I brought my copy of Phantom Dwelling by Judith Wright in London in 1993.When I first went overseas, what I missed most was the Australian sky and the trees)
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Gemboree 2009
My sister lives on a sheep farm outside Stawell in Victoria. When I can, I go up and visit her and her family. I really love it up here. This is Rick the dog rounding up sheep. I am impressed with Rick as he is an old dog (I think about 12) but he ran faster than any dog I have seen.
(A little fairy that lives on the farm)
My Easter visit coincided with the Gemboree, a national gem and mineral fair that was on in Horsham, so we all went on Saturday. There were displays of gemstones, minerals, fossils, beads, lapidary equipment, as well as talks and demonstrations. There was so much to see, I was sorry that I could not spend more time there.
This was my favourite stall, run by an elderly couple. All the boxes housing the stones were hand made, and the nameplates were handwritten. It reminded me of visiting the Museum in Melbourne when I was a little girl (when the Museum was at the State Library site) and standing on tiptoes to see all the specimens in glass cases.
Going to the Gemboree reminded me of my own beginnings as a maker and why I like the things that I do. How a hobby turns into a lifetime of exploration and interest. And sometimes, by travelling you can go to where there is a concentration of interest, and once you are there, you can learn more as well as clarify what you already know.
more sketchbook images
One of the reasons that I wanted to go to Paris was to see the Musee Quai Branly. Unfortunately I do not have any photos, only quick sketches of things that I saw there. The museum was designed by Jean Nouvel, but I hardly looked at the building as I was so interested in the collection, I had trouble focusing on anything else.
While I was there, there was a temporary exhibition on called Upside Down - Les Arctiques, perhaps one of the most beautiful exhibits I have ever seen. You can see some images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/2950550740/. I am new to flickr and all of this but there are some good images of the museum and it's collection at this site.
This image is the front of an invitation to an exhibition I saw by Thomas Grunfeld. I found his work really interesting, all made from felt. From a distance the works( which were really large) looked like paintings, but when you went up close they were beautifully cut from felt.
The last two sketches were made at the museum, Guimet Musee Des Arts Asiatiques.
While I was there, there was a temporary exhibition on called Upside Down - Les Arctiques, perhaps one of the most beautiful exhibits I have ever seen. You can see some images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/2950550740/. I am new to flickr and all of this but there are some good images of the museum and it's collection at this site.
This image is the front of an invitation to an exhibition I saw by Thomas Grunfeld. I found his work really interesting, all made from felt. From a distance the works( which were really large) looked like paintings, but when you went up close they were beautifully cut from felt.
The last two sketches were made at the museum, Guimet Musee Des Arts Asiatiques.
Le Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle
Aside from the Lourve, one of the other places that I really love in Paris is the Natural History Museum, especially the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution. In this museum there are thousands of animal specimens. In fact through the centre of the building is a walking line of them, a Noah's Arc of animals.
Le Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle
Le Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle
some more favourite things
Some more favourite things from the Lourve in Paris taken last year. I love museums. I like to wander without a plan and only stop at what interests me. I also like going back to the same place on a different day and seeing what stops me in my tracks, it is especially nice if it is the same thing but sometimes it is not. When I was in Paris, I brought a museum pass that allowed me unlimited access to a list of museums, for 6 days. I think that I went to the Lourve 5 times. I realised that it is best to go to the Lourve with a plan, but because of my museum visiting habits, I found that in the Lourve I always got lost, and invariably ended up in the Egyptian area. If I wanted to see paintings by Watteau, I ended up seeing bronze vessels. Looking for Rembrandt, found bronze vessels. Looking for the toilet, I ended up looking at bronze figurines. One good thing about this was that the areas I found myself were pretty much empty, and I found that I saw things more quietly than in the busy lines to see the Mona Lisa. There is much to be learnt from looking at bronze figurines.
Lisbon, part 3
One thing that I really loved about Lisbon was the paving. All the side walks were hand paved, as a result the side walk surface was uneven to walk on. This struck me in a number of places that I went to in Europe. I think that you become more aware of the surface that you walk on. Also, the act of walking is accentuated. The surface is rarely consistent, some places dip, some have bumpy bits. This is what I like best about things that are hand made. When I first started making I wished that I could make things that looked 'perfect'. But I always found that my file would take off too much metal in one area, or that because I don't like following formulas, the edges never quite met the way that they were meant to. Eventually I accepted that this was and is the way that I like to work, it is always a process of discovery. Sometimes frustrating. Sometimes very funny and a bit dodgy brothers. But what I ended up with was always my own. My work looks like my drawings, in fact I think that I make my drawings. I prefer a hand drawn line to one made with a ruler. So the paving in Lisbon reminds me of my work. I like to think that some of the surfaces were uneven because, lunch may have stopped the work on one section and another person finished it. Or that the patterning was informed by the amount of tiles prepared for the day. When something is made by hand there is always a trace of the process, and of the maker.
Sintra and Seasons Greetings
About an hour out of Lisbon is the beautiful town of Sintra.
Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of it's architecture. There are some amazing details on buildings, I especially liked the 'bobbly' decoration on the image of the doorway.