Le Beach

Back, baby

Say what? On here again?

Getting old and crusty

Matey, it's been a long time. "Hello Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again", to quote Simon & Garfunkel. *nb. substitute 'blog' for 'Darkness'.

It's been a busy year as you can guess by the frequency of my posts. At the moment I am enjoying some free time after the opening of a show with myself, Carly Preston and Clare Fennessy at Allan's Walk Artist Run Space in Bendigo. We collaborated on our pieces and I'm pretty excited about a small blanket I made, even though I'm not a quilter and it shows (especially at the corners). The piece is a patchwork of squares printed with the silhouette of a dead swallow; I took the photo, Carly printed the squares and I sewed it up. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and getting excited about Carly's Gocco screenprinting set - it looks like a toy but it's an incredibly easy way to create your own screens if you're interested in printing on a small scale.

The prints are around about A5 size so anything bigger than that can be tricky, but seeing that they are the perfect size for a quilting square I'm going to bully Carly into trying some more screens out and see how they work.

After a hectic year I have realised that I am keen on blankets. Having made one for Next Wave (left), and now Flock, I'm getting excited about a rectangle of material that can have whatever you fancy on it. I really struggle to rationalize my work and there is no rationalization for making blankets, not in my mind anyway. But I enjoy the idea of having something crazy on the end of your bed, or on the back of your couch, or on your lap at the footy. Looking like possible Christmas presents. Don't think Mum will be getting a ruffled seascape one though, perhaps a nice Laura Ashley print.

Re craft activity, just Googled 'crafternoon' and it turns out there is a group in Tas that use the name - www.crafternoon.com.au - worth a look; and I had a very inspiring conversation with my ex-flatmate Christi this afternoon about resin cast bangles (the ones she makes are amazing) and craft websites that I should be checking out. When she sends me links I'll be posting them up. Have a good craftern'evening!

New elements

I've started working on a new sort of project with Andre Conate, actor extraordinaire from the Swinburne days; we're starting to take my costumes and create movement pieces in them. The Growing a Fringe festival in Benders is in two weeks and we are hoping to put something together for the performance showcase. I'm really excited because it's another step towards the kind of work I want to do, ie. visual theatre. I'm hoping that we can get something exciting happening for this piece then extend what we're doing in future projects.

I watched two fully sick films today - a Russian film called Stalker and The Maltese Falcon. Part of the Birthday series - I bought them both last Friday on the trip to Melbourne. It was a really enjoyable day, got to spend the day dragging James around town (he's such a trooper) and popped in to Swinburne and saw two of my lecturers - George, our lighting teacher who gave us a tour and all the gossip, and John, who forgot my name and called me Kylie. This is what happens when you aren't a star in the acting classes! But George loves me, so it's ok!

I think I'm going to be doing a radio show next month, so I'll post the details up here when it's happening. The broadcast is going to be within about a 6k radius of the station so don't get too excited if you don't live in Bendigo. And to be honest, if you don't live in Bendigo or know me personally you're probably not reading this so it doesn't matter. But if you are, I'm going to start practicing my radio technique: For the readers out there, do you watch theatre? and if you do, what do you like/hate when you're watching it? Go to www.cvcb.org.au to respond. I think that's the website anyway. Don't really, there's nowhere to respond. Just have a look or something.


Wow, look at the shit I've written!

Hello, boys

Long time no speak. I've lost my camera in the junk in my room so I've been putting off making an entry, but I've accepted the fact that if I don't actually look for the camera I'm probably not going to find it any time soon. I'll get onto that, I swear.

Well, the Olympics are almost upon us, and the title of this entry is a reference to Roy & HG's The Dream show that they did during the Sydney Olympics. They were commentating Men's Gymnastics and didn't quite know the names of the positions, so they made them up. "Hello boys" was the splits, and the 'Chiko Roll' was a forward roll, I'm assuming. Somehow it came into my lexicon when I was experimenting with different ways of answering the phone without having the person on the other end of the line pick up on it. Sometimes they do, sometimes not. "Happy House of Fun, Ellen Speaking" is a bit harder to go unnoticed with.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with sewing. Next big thing is Flock, which is Carly, Clare and I crafting it up at Allan's Walk with the theme of birds and nature. I've been designing for it in my *studio* (aka front bedroom that no one wants to live in) and it's slowly getting there. There is the possibility that I will end up creating works that use patterns and techniques I've used in previous works - ruffles from Foma, scales/feathers from The Reality Hour. Is that bad? Who cares, I'm doing it anyway.

In other news I've applied for a workshop with Next Wave - I just can't get enough! It's a thing to collaborate with an artist on work - something I want to do if I can find a dancer. It's part of a few things I want to do with my work - work with a dancer/performer and then get into filming. When that happens, it will be an achievement with my work. A pinnacle, if you will.

Super-fine, 100%!

Weaving together shredded parts

Well, it's been a while since my last post, and I just wanted to catch up and see what everyone is doing. Watched The Notorious Bettie Page before, had to turn it off and find a better movie to watch. In between I've been trying to attack my fringe with a pair of kitchen scissors in an attempt to fix a horrible, horrible haircut.

I went to an artist talk on Sunday at the Ararat Art Gallery, about conserving medieval tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Very interesting, Tina Kane was talking about the techniques in conserving these tapestries which often come to them in pieces; the process is something that takes a great amount of expertise in a traditional craft, which I respect a great deal. It's made me realise that to get where I want to be and to have that expertise I have a long way to go.

Have to go - Malcolm, or Paris, Texas?

Foma variations

I'm working on some ideas for Foma and I'm liking this mask idea - the motif is a representation, for me, of the idea that most people deep down are scared, but it's ok, because we all are. It's something I don't like to forget.

I was trying to see what the wedding dress would be like with the blanket - I am someone who believes in a lot of the doctrine that organized religion teaches us, but don't believe I need to be told this by an organized religion. The blanket is a metaphor for the protection that a religion gives its members - from the responsibility of working for our ideals, our principles, our own process of rational thought. The wedding dress is my own tendency to have belief in certain aspects of religion despite my lack of faith. It's my own truth and lies. And how they work, or not.
I don't know, what do you think?Releasing Ceremony
This is my old flatmate Christi at the Releasing of the Costume Ceremony, where we took a costume that I hated and stuck it in a tree in Rosalind Park. I'd decided that it's time in my life was at an end, so we met up in the park and left it in a tree. When I went back the next day it was gone, so if I see any homeless people in Bendigo with it on, I'll be happy.

I think this is in line with an idea of mine that my costumes shouldn't really be in galleries anyway - they need to be on the street on people, or in trees, or hanging from telephone lines (if I was doing shoes that is, which I am actually). I'm going to investigate this further and get back you. Cheerio!