Etsy Night Out at the Rose Street Market

Hello!  I will be taking part in the Etsy Night Out at The Rose Street Market in Fitzroy tomorrow evening.  Doors open at 6pm, finishes at 10.  See you there....

The Boom Gallery Christmas show

My first feature!!  Actually, it's a contraption I have made for the Boom Gallery group Christmas show, called Merry Hell.  It's made from Sculpey, acrylic paint, embroidered cotton fabric, an old broom handle and plywood (thanks to Nick E for his help in assembling it).  I thought that you needed to see how it works, and I hope that these films actually work too, as I have never uploaded moving images before...

Above and below: Melbourne Babushke, also for Boom's Christmas show.  They are based almost entirely on types I have seen around our city.  The old man emerging from the Fitzroy commission flats wearing a fake Chanel t-shirt, the person wearing an animal onesie deeply engaged in their i-phone, the Northern suburbs crafty lady bedecked in cute brooches, the call centre worker fagging outside the office into a giant Nescafe tin.  I threw Angry Cat in for good measure.  (My suburb is full of angry cats.)  The blank babushke had been taunting me in my studio for years.  I am glad that I finally put them to good use.

The lovely Boom Gallery is at 

11 Rutland St 

Newtown (Geelong) in Victoria.  

The Christmas group exhibition opens this Friday evening and runs until December 24, 2014.  Plenty of great artists taking part, as always....

Around the place, lately!

Dancing wooden patchwork 'o' men in progress, above.  (These were made especially for William Topp in Perth.)

Above: working on some ideas for a special piece for Boom Gallery in Geelong. (It's actually finished now, and I will post photos of it soon.)

Above: giving the special 'Yeah No' vest an airing before packing and sending it to its new owner in the US!  I must admit that this one was hard to part with.  Behind it on the line: a new length of 'Under the Couch' fabric.  This one isn't destined to be a couch covering either......

Above: detail of my favourite piece made for this year's Design Files Open House.  I will show you more of these soon, too.

Above: an illustration for Gardening Australia magazine, December issue.  An article on the relative longevity of various plants.

Above: working on some new versions of wooden favourites for Markit next Sunday November 23!

(Phew.)

For those in Melbourne, here are the details:

Sunday 23 Nov 2014 10am–5pm The Atrium & Deakin Edge Theatre Federation Square, Melbourne

Markit will be an excellent opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done, I reckon!  I am very pleased to be in Deakin Edge Theatre again, right next to the stand of the beautiful Mrs Emily Green and her lovely staff. :-)

Totem

Further documenting work from my current exhibition at Hut 13....Totem, which is about two metres high and one of the biggest pieces I have ever made.  I'm not sure whether it's 'successful': it was an experiment and a bit of a stretch for me and I'm proud that I took it to completion.  In my recent Design Files interview I mentioned my lifelong fascination with the concept of 'keeping up with the Joneses'.  This piece is about the stuff that you would want the Joneses to see (hipster pot plant, Marimekko cup, OPI nail polish in Pantone's Shade of 2014, bunting, industrial vintage rusted letter, "Eames era" lamp)  interspersed with some things that you might prefer that they really didn't (bloody handkerchief, IVF injecting pen, rotten banana, cake from a packet, the workings of your bowel, mouldy bread).  I would love it if someone bravely bought this item for their designer home......