Good Bye 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  2016.  Wasn't it something?  Ugh.  Who knows what we are in for now?!
I did slack off a bit last year with my blog posting: Instagram seems to be taking over the world and it seems so much simpler sometimes.  But I still like blogs.  I think that they tell a story in a way that Instagram just can't.  I present for you a summary of work that I did last year, but neglected to show on my blog for one reason or another.  Above: The World Would Be Great If....  This one was actually inspired by all of the post US election soul searching.  (SOLD.)

Above: my McGivern Prize finalist #readmymind is now available as a very special A3 print, printed especially by Lantern and signed and numbered by me.  There are only fifteen in total, and they are available from either my Etsy shop or Danielle Krysa's (AKA The Jealous Curator's) Fancy Schmancy Gallery.
Below: a selection of painted bats.  Thanks again to Miss Pen, Katie Blatt and The Earwig for finding these vintage beauties for me!!

 Above: Girl Wearing Persian Rug Sweater is one of my favourites, ever!  She is in my Etsy shop.

 Above: Hillary.  (SOLD).

 Above: a fortune wheel bat.  Currently in my Etsy shop.

 Above and below: these have both sold.

 Above: a pair of paintings from the current group exhibition at Boom Gallery in Geelong.

Above: Gardening Australia magazine, December.  Michael McCoy asks a child "What is your favourite vegetable?"  The reply: "Bacon!"

Above: All I Could Think of Were the Things We Didn't Have in Common, acrylic on wood.  When you find yourself in a relationship after a long spell of being alone, it's not all beer and skittles.

Above: experts in relations, and an all round fun project.  A fortieth birthday invitation and surprise wedding invite in one, for two lovely people.

Above: artwork for "The Book That Got Me" curated by Jess Rackyleft and featuring some of the most delightful and talented women illustrators I have ever had the pleasure to know.  At The Little Bookroom in North Carlton. 

Above: VIII Mediterranean Games Split 1979 was featured in the Mission To Seafarers Art Prize (along with hundreds of other maritime themed paintings).  I entered this prize both in the hope of visiting one of my favourite buildings in Melbourne, and to have a reason to work on this rather self indulgent painting.

The Mediterranean Games are much like the Commonwealth Games.  In 1979 they were held in the city of Split, a coastal city in the then Yugoslavia, where my family happened to be spending the entire summer.  I was a kid then, and prone to the grandeur of international sporting events, fireworks and the prospect of the odd souvenir.  I still have a tin mug which has "Split 1979" and the 'S' shaped seal mascot printed on it.  I coveted visors and t-shirts, but I especially wanted the striped blue beach towel.

I have been back to Split many times since.  In 2015, the Split 1979 beach towel was featured in an exhibition at the city's Ethnographic Museum, about fishing traditions in Dalmatia.  I was a few months late for that exhibition, but I got the souvenir catalogue.  It is extensively researched, lovingly written (though shoddily translated), and beautifully illustrated with various photographs, many from local archives.  I looked at the resigned expressions of women carrying giant boxes of fish on their backs, and pondered the rather prescribed culture of my forebears.  Even now, men got to fish and drink and get up to all sorts of things.  The women got to stay at home and cook and wash and clean.  I started thinking about these women, and getting a little angry.  Then I looked again at the Split 1979 towel and reconsidered the meaning of the word "Split".  1979 or not, I thought I'd give one woman a chance to escape.