A weekend assortment

Just recording two of the larger pieces from my exhibition which I have not shown here already.  The Severance of Relations Between East and West above about a failed relationship, and Burda Moden Juli 1977 below.  Burda magazine was very influential to me as a child.  It is partly responsible for the things I am drawn to aesthetically, and it has provided a good deal of my crafting inspiration too.  If you have a moment, click into this very old post.  It is still one of my very favourite things on this blog.

Contemporary craft above: a new stitched linen scarf that is presently in the shop.  Modelled by my beautiful sister in law EE.  A generous and patient woman!  Thanks E!!!!

Yesterday I decided that I was bored with my old Country Road jumble sale scarf and thought I'd stitch that too.  It didn't take long: I did most of it at JP's house.  JP in turn showed me a pair of suede desert boots that he MADE HIMSELF: that's taking craft to giddy heights!  More of his fantastic work here.

I love Rose Wylie

I had no idea who she was until I received an email about her exhibition from The Tate this morning, but I have instantly fallen in love with the simplicity and poignant humour of the work of Rose Wylie (b.1934).  Some of the images above are from here too.
Please excuse the rushed nature of this post.  I haven't done anything interesting this week, just emailing customers and filling the occasional order.  I have been at the studio too, and I can report that it is getting inhospitably cold.  Enjoy that spring, northerners.

A Bird of Paradise returns

This morning I took a trip up to TarraWarra to refresh their stock of my work.  I also took home a few things which we felt had been there long enough.  Some items looked ancient, like my first attempts at the mushroom series.  Other things, like Bird of Paradise I above, I still feel really content with.

I remember how he came to be.  While watching a nature documentary on the birds of New Guinea, I marvelled at how the males displayed their incredible feathers in order to attract females, and couldn't help but think of men and what they do in similar cirumstances.  How the inconsequential gets puffed up into something grandiose, and what gets hidden beneath the mesmerising feathers.  Or tries to be.

(Of course, to be fair, it works in reverse too.)

The original post about this Bird and his friends is here.
(Oh, and he is in the shop now too.)

Happy Mother of a Design Files sensory overload!

I am ALWAYS chuffed to be involved in anything that Lucy Feagins sets her hand to, but I think that she has outdone herself with her brilliant and slightly crazy Mother's Day gift shoot on The Design Files this morning, above.  (Photo by Sean Fennessy.) Wow, what beautiful, colourful temptations we have in our city!  I am really proud that my painting The Man Who Never Was has contributed to the sensory overload.

The subject of the work is a section of my studio wall, and is part of my current exhibition at Hut 13.  Here is a detail of it below, where you can spot the title, if you look carefully enough:

Thanks so much Lucy F + Lucy M!  And Lisa MC too.

My work on Supersonic Electronic!

My work was recently featured on Supersonic Electronic, a really fun and varied Tumblr art resource based in England.  Thank you very much, Zach.
And how nice that the advertisement next to my piece happens to be for a car that my brother helped to design.

Heart & Lungs cushion debut

I have a brand new slightly larger volcano and burning house in the shop.  They are also extremely pleased to introduce their new friend -- a much larger than life size cushion based on my 'Sack of Heart' painting, which you can see here.  For some reason I find this cushion extremely amusing.  I can report that it took A LOT of stuffing...so it should be rather comfy too.  It has a zip across the bottom and is backed in denim.

Exhibition: Opening Night

Some of the food that Mum and I prepared, with the man cubes looking on from the left.

There's me on the left with Mum and Dad at about 5:30pm.  Dad served drinks, including his own wine.  Thanks so much Mum and Dad!!

Beautiful gypsy music, played by Jill Kellett's husband's band.  Lucky us! Thanks Jill for letting me reproduce your photos too.

Part of the exhibition.  Click here for Lucy's little film, taken well into the night's proceedings.  If you were there, you might spot yourself!
Thanks SO MUCH to Lucy and Jill and to everyone who came.  And for those who have bought things from the exhibition: a HUGE thank you, and remember to send me a photo of it in situ one day, if you like.

Save so you prosper

These are my kind-of one dimensional piggy banks.  Put the money in, and it falls out the other side.

They are at Hut 13, lined up for the exhibition which officially starts this evening at 6pm.  I hope to see you there!

Hut 13
13 Morey St
Armadale

More advertising material, please!

Very politically incorrect of me, I know, but I just love advertising material.  It's very inspiring.
I have called this 'The Aldi Series', but the images are actually from various sources nabbed from the letter chute.  These will be at Hut 13 for the show too.


BY THE WAY: this weekend I will be at the beautiful Abbotsford Convent, taking part in the indoor market with my VERY talented friend Tracie Grimwood.  We will be selling our prints and cards.  I will have a few wooden items for sale too.  Please come and say hi if you are there on Sunday: 10 - 4 pm.

I made The Curator jealous!!

Well lo and behold, my work has made The Jealous Curator jealous!!  I can hardly believe it.  I feel slightly ill in the tummy, to be honest.  Thanks so much Lucy M.

Around the studio this week.

The days are getting shorter.  I like the afternoon light that comes from the east facing window.

I am having an exhibition!

I am having an exhibition of my new work at the beautiful Hut 13 in Armadale, starting April 24 and finishing on May 8.  Most of the work that I have been showing on the blog lately will be there, plus a few surprises!  Please come along to say hi, have a look and share some home made nibbles and drinks.

Gestalt Interview!

I was extremely chuffed to be asked to be a part of the fantastic local online journal Gestalt.  Laurie Steed challenged me with some great questions, and I hope I did my best to answer them.  Thank you so much Laurie, Tilla and Daniel Atkinson!

Dress to Impress

The dress is actually the largest of these, at just under 30 cm (12 inches) high.  The t-shirt is 10 cm (4 inches) high.  Another sort-of triptych.

Sack of Heart Triptych

This is a sort-of triptych.  The opened chest was heavily inspired by a 1920s paper fold out which I bought on Etsy many years ago.  I have always loved those fold out human body illustrations, especially the 1960s -70s ones that were printed on plastic.  My version is roughly life size.  Did you know that the Spam that we buy here is made in the U.S.?  Are we not capable of manufacturing our own Spam?!  I felt a little embarrassed buying my Spam model, which is interesting considering that grilled Spam sandwiches were my favourite after school snack.  The last part of the triptych is a moth.  It is based on the metaphorical moth which lands on the heart in moments of disappointment in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.  (Or something like that.)  I found the moth a bit tricky to paint.  Let's say it has a naive quality.