White Pigeons

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of a white porcelain pigeon I made (and here's another little one above). There’s quite a lot of pigeons, in various forms, in this upcoming show of mine. My nana’s second husband was a pigeon fancier, and during the Second World War he served in New Guinea in the Australian Corps of Signals Pigeon Service looking after the messenger pigeons. There are some incredible stories surrounding the feats of these little birds in World War Two, some of them even being awarded medals of bravery after surviving against incredible odds (exhaustion, tropical storms, being shot down by snipers, attacks by hawks and falcons) to deliver messages that sometimes resulted in saving the lives of hundreds of people. Clever little birds.

As kids we used to climb up the wonky narrow steps to his huge pigeon loft and peer in at the cooing (and stinky) birds, and a shelf in my nana's lounge room was packed high with shiny golden pigeon racing trophies that he had won over the years! We always thought his obsession with them was just a little bit strange, but the more I read about these little critters, the more I can understand his fascination!

Kamenendo and I were having a cuppa at Bum Crane’s house a couple of weeks ago when in flew this little beauty.

I’ve never seen a white pigeon before, and it was kind of spooky she flew in just after I’d made one. I’m thinking I might make a big porcelain pot of gold next…you never know what might turn up!!

Australian Ceramic Stories

I’ve just sent off some work to the upcoming exhibition Australian Ceramic Stories that is being held at the Western Plains Cultural Centre (Dubbo Regional Gallery). That’s a nice big red line through my things-to-do list. I’m really excited about being part of this show, not only because of the amazing line up of ceramic artists I’m exhibiting with, but because the whole theme of the show is right up my alley. The curatorial premise was inspired by Matthius Ostermann’s book “The Ceramic Narrative” and looks at the ways in which Australian ceramic artists are using clay to tell their stories. Love a good yarn I do! And Australians really do have such a distinctive and unique way of story telling. Here’s the fancy official blurb:

Australian Ceramic Stories explores the use of narrative in contemporary Australian ceramics. Surveying the work of artists from across the country, the exhibition will include many new works by some of Australia’s most highly regarded ceramic artists. Dubbo Regional Gallery - The Armati Bequest is staging the exhibition from 5 April - 18 May 2008 at Western Plains Cultural Centre. Curated by Dr Julia Jones, the exhibition brings together the work of artists from all parts of Australia, offering a unique view of contemporary ceramic practice. The curatorial concept is inspired by international ceramicist Matthias Ostermann’s research which resulted in the book The Ceramic Narrative in 2006. The exhibition will explore how “stories” are told in Australian ceramics, highlighting the various ways that clay is used to express them. All of the ceramicists tell stories about Australia in ways that stretch the narrative capabilities of clay, and draw our attention to the versatility of the medium. The exhibition will seek to engage with contemporary themes and ideas in the broader visual arts and ceramic practices and examine the various ways in which narrative is a crucial element in their work.

Participating artists are Stephen Benwell, Louise Boscacci, Kris Coad, Patrick Collins, Bern Emmerichs, Gudrun Klix, Pip McManus, Fleur Schell, Vipoo Srivilasa, Thanakupi, Gerry Wedd, and me! There's also a great forum being held in conjunction with the show, and you can read all about that here.

(images above: From left - Gerry Wedd, Pip McManus, Mel Robson)

Sifting and Sorting

home-ing pigeon, slipcast porcelain, 21cm

All this new work I keep rambling on about is for a solo show I am having later this year (July) at Jan Manton Art, here in Brisvegas. I am way ahead of myself and for once am not going to be pulling hot pieces out of the kiln a day before the opening. In fact, I am MONTHS ahead of myself and have almost finished the whole show! There is a very good reason for my weird and miraculous state of organisation, but I will tell you about that another time.

I am lucky enough to have the super duper freelance writer and art critic for The Australian, Louise Martin-Chew, writing the essay for my catalogue, and spent a lovely morning with her yesterday looking at and talking about the work. It’s the first time I’ve really shown anyone outside of my immediate circle, so I must admit I was a little nervous! It’s always a little scary when you first put new things out there. I was also curious to see what would come out of my mouth in talking about the work, because although I’ve chatted to oodles of people about bits and pieces of it, this was the first time I had really sat down and comprehensively spoken about what was behind it all – which to be honest has only really just started to become clear. It was fantastic to sit down with someone for a few hours and just mull it all over, having someone fire questions at me, inquiring about this, giving their own interpretations and readings about that. I find that process of talking (or sometimes writing) about my work incredibly useful in sifting through the myriad influences and ideas that float around while you’re making it all. It really helps me to clarify things, and also raises lots of new questions to pursue. In my bygone days of shared studios these kinds of conversations happened a lot more in the natural course of the studio environment, but working from home, and mostly alone (violins playing in the background now) they are fewer and farther between. So opportunities like yesterday, especially with people like Louise, are damn great!

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon in a mad frenzy of inspired decal design! I’m rolling with this inspired phase while it lasts!

Mistaken Identity

Some of the new work I’m making at the moment is based on some research I’ve been doing into the Second World War (thus the guns), and some of the experiences of my family during that time. I was talking to my Dad about it recently and he told me a great story that is too good not to share.

My grandfather was shot in the leg during the Milne Bay campaign in Papua New Guinea and was sent home for a few months to recuperate, during which time my dear old dad was conceived. Unfortunately, just before he was due to be born they sent my Grandfather right back there. A telegram was sent off not long after to let him know that his son had arrived and mum and baby were A-OK. However, along with our own Lieutenant Colonel Robson, there happened to also be a Captain Robson serving in PNG at the time, and the telegram was mistakenly sent to him! He was a bit surprised to receive a telegram telling him his wife had just given birth to a healthy baby boy… especially when he hadn't actually been home in over a year!!! Apparently he requested leave immediately and hightailed it home before they realised it had been sent to the wrong man! Oops!

(That handsome fella above is my Grandad! )

Trouble

Ky Curran , slipcast beakers, decals

I recieved a very nice present from local ceramicist and girl-about-town Ky Curran over the weekend. I'd been eyeing these little babies off in at Artisan recently (gun love), and now they're mine....aaaallllll mine.....woohoohaaaahaaaa. Thanks Ky!!

The real trouble is that I'm starting to run out of shelf space in my house!

Patsy Hely

Those of you lucky enough to be in Sydney over the next month best pop along to see Patsy Hely's show at Helen Stephens Gallery, which opened last week. Alas and alack I was stuck up here in Brisvegas and missed all the fun! Patsy is one of Australia's finest if you ask me, so make sure you get over and have a look. It's on until March 31st. A good excuse to also have a look at the new Helen Stephens (All Handmade) Gallery.

(image above: Patsy Hely, 'Noisy Miner Jug', slipcast porcelain, china paint, photo by Michel Brouet)

On The Trail

Well I’ve been on the research trail today. It’s the first bright sunny day we’ve had in a while, and I went and spent it all in dark rooms with artificial lighting! I’m knee deep in research for the Ipswich Houses Project at the moment (which is coming along swimmingly) and with the help of the poet Thomas Shapcott himself, I have just unearthed a minefield of material.

I arrived at the Fryer Library at the University of QLD (after negotiating a course through a 2km stream of medical students in very bizarre theatre attire) to find a stack of archive boxes ready and waiting for me. I tell ya, librarians are the BEST! The first box I went through was filled with Thomas Shapcott’s beautiful poetry, original typed copies on old thin typing paper with lovely handwritten scribbles all over them, some very poignant poems, a selection of amusing personal correspondences, and some hilarious parodies hidden away in the back!

One box down, 56 to go…..geez!! Hopefully those helpful librarians will be able to track down the one other thing I’m looking for without me having to pore through ALL those boxes!!

Virginia Jones

Virginia Jones is another top shelf Australian ceramicist. She’s also an old friend, and an old teacher of mine. Last week she brought over some of her new work (above and below) which I was so taken with I just had to share them with you!

A lot of Ginny’s works are ephemeral outdoor installations using unfired clay, as well as lots of other interesting materials such as bamboo, beans, toothpicks and plaster! She often leaves them out to interact with the environment in which they’ve been made, documenting the process and the impact of the cycles of nature on the work. She’s also a clever little woodfirer and makes super functional pieces as well. A fine all-rounder!

These pieces are a little more permanent than usual, part of a larger installation that will be showing at Metro Arts later this year, and then hopefully some of them are coming to live with me…! You can see some more of Ginny’s work here and here.

Ebb and Flow

Well not much blogging of late. I have lots of deadlines looming and I’m jumping from one project to another in the studio, with my head in a bit of a spin! But somehow I seem to be making progress! Its 5am in the morning as I write this, and for some strange reason I am awake, alert and raring to go. I have been on FIRE in the studio the last couple of weeks, with new work and new ideas flowing out faster than I can make them or scribble them down. Oooooh I love these phases! The ebb and flow of inspiration and the process of making new work is always intriguing to me. Sometimes it feels like pulling teeth, like nothing is ever going to come together, and then suddenly things fall into place, one piece or one idea can be the key to open the floodgates. The down times are all part of the process I guess…bit by bit, trying and sifting and playing and discarding and breaking (oh always breaking!) and adding and building and rebuilding. For me developing and making new work is about finding the balance between discipline and play. It’s about persevering when you might not necessarily feel like it, recognising when you need to walk away for a while, and trying not to take it all too seriously. It’s a hard balance to get right!

No pics of the new stuff yet tho... still playing…and persevering…and trying not to take it all too seriously!

Bang Bang!

I've spent the last couple of days photographing some new work, and trying to get a bit of clarity on where I'm going with it all! Things are still a little fuzzy, but i'll just keep plodding along until the fog clears!! In the meantime, I'm having fun playing with guns! The porcelain gun above is the result of some experimenting I've been doing with water jet cutting. I've been cutting up glass and crystal platters and ceramic plates, and am about to start playing with melamine saucers and wooden bowls and all kinds of interesting little bits and bobs. The gun started life as a depression era glass platter. I had the gun shape cut out of the platter....

...made a plaster mould of it (and broke the original in the process - yep, I'm still in fine form!), and then cast it in porcelain. All a bit of a roundabout experiment, but I think I like it. Bang bang!

Back on Board

Holidays are always too short.

Nice though!

Toodlepip!

This is my sparkly clean desk in my sparkly clean office. And the reason it is all so sparkly is that I am DONE for the year! I'm about to pack my bags and we're heading off to New Zealand for three weeks, cruising the South Island in a little campervan!! Bliss! Big thanks to all who have visited my blog this last year - actually its almost a year to the day! It's been blogtastic! And if anyone has any hot tips for galleries, studios, artists, markets, towns, vistas, sights or any must-see's on the South Island, I'd love to hear about it! Feel free to leave a comment or email me! Happy New Year one and all! Hope its a ripper!!

An excellent adventure

Today me and the other mud slingers (bum crane, kamenendo and yet-to-blogged-up Ginny Jones) went on a little adventure, an exercise in random spatial experience! It was an attempt to step out of our usual environment without having to spend lots of money or take up too much time (you know, busy busy). Here’s how it worked. We all met at Central Station. Then we threw a dice to determine which platform to go to...

Then we had to get on the very next train that came along that platform, regardless of where it was going. Then we threw the dice twice more to determine how long we stayed on the train.

A three, followed by a four, meant 34 minutes. So we got off at the very next stop after 34 minutes. We ended up in a suburb none of us had ever heard of before, called Altandi. Its kind of amazing how far you can get in a mere 34 minutes on the train in Brisbane!! The deal was that wherever we ended up we had to stay a minimum of an hour, even if it was hell on earth! It didn’t look like anything special at first, which was fine - we had a whole hour to find special things! And it didn’t take long…..

Yep, hidden away out there in Altandi are MAGIC BINS! We’re forbidden to tell you anymore about them, but boy were they GREAT! Then we stumbled across some local ceramic sculpture….

...discovered a super yummy Indian restaurant….and a very special Golden Elephant...

...and then sadly our hour was up and we headed home with camera’s full of possibly useful/inspirational/kind of odd images, full bellies and all caught up on eachother’s recent goings on! A most excellent adventure indeed!

Light on a cloudy day

Lynda Draper

Another top shelf Australian ceramicist is Lynda Draper (image above). I pretty much swoon over her work whenever I see it. Lynda won The Premier Acquisitive Award at the 54th International Competition of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Premio Faenza a couple of years ago (and deservedly so). Her work has a certain naivety about it, and I just love all the fingerprints visible in the clay. The forms always remind me of something, but I’m never quite sure what it is – and that’s what I like about them. They’re familiar, yet enigmatic. The images below are of some of her more recent work, which has a certain whimsy and a lovely fantastical quality about it (is fantastical a word?).

Song Books

In the 70s my nana bought an electric organ, a big old thing with wood veneer panelling and lots of big knobs and switches. Probably very cutting edge for its time. My sisters learned to play really well, but as usual I was Little Miss Impatient and could never sit still long enough to learn properly. But I did learn enough that I could accompany them playing Heart and Soul (just), and belt out a fantastic rendition of two fingered chopsticks. But my favourite thing about it was all the little buttons that played the samba and the bossanova and the waltz accompaniments. We used to turn up the tempo and the volume as far as they would go, and go ballistic in her dining room to the fastest and loudest bossa nova beats you ever heard, while bashing random keys and doing liberachi inspired slides along the length of the keyboard! Yes, it was very melodic, soothing and relaxing for the rest of the relatives.

My nana had all these really old yellowed song books filled with the funniest old music, a lot of which would be considered very un P.C. these days, but also a lot of beautiful old classics. I’ve kept these books and have started playing with them in some of the new work I’m making. Most of it is still in the developing stages, but here are just two little bitty experiments (above) I did on some wall tiles.

Craft Research

Craft Research is a really interesting blog by a group of researchers from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee in the UK. It was put together to encourage and develop some discussion around a research project they are undertaking called "Past, Present & Future Craft Practice: exploration of the inter-relation between skill, intent and culture". Its full of interesting musings, ideas and debates on contemporary craft, and has just been updated with a summary by Mike Press of his impressions of the recent Neocraft Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Worth a read. I’m seriously wishing I could have gone (love a good conference i do!), but will have to make do with the book, the podcasts and reports from Carol at Musing About Mud, who attended the conference and chaired a panel on Global Craft. You can check out the program and find out a bit more about the conference here.

Barely There

These 3 little pieces are winging their way down to a beautiful new gallery and retail space on Oxford Street in Sydney called Pablo Fanque. They’re part of an exhibition called WHITE.

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to do a residency at the University of Massachussetts. I spent two (very cold) weeks working from a lovely studio space in the Star Store, New Bedford, hanging out with some old friends and making some new ones. While I was there I met Katie Parker, who makes really beautiful work that you can see here. Katie and I were both working with decals and she very very generously gave me the white decals that I ended up using on these pieces. I'd been wanting to play around with some white on white, but sourcing white decals at home had proven very difficult. Having them custom made had proven even more difficult, and outrageously expensive. But thanks to the generosity of that nice girl from Columbus, this little series will be glowing away at Pablo Fanque from December 11 until mid- January 2008.

Other artists included are: Anna Davern (who graced Brisvegas with her presence last week!), Elfrun Lach, Nina Oikawa, Emma Davies, Lisa Cahil, Pennie Jagiello, Melanie Katsalidis, Lucy Folk, Jane Bowring, Alice Whish (isn’t that a lovely name!), Joanna Levinson and more….

Granny Smith

Driving back from Toowoomba after visiting my nana a few years ago my sisters and I stopped in at one of the bargain fruit shops along the highway near Gatton. One of my sisters pulled this postcard out of the rack, and we all had a bit of a giggle as we scribbled a few words on the back and promptly posted it off to her. She kept it propped up on her kitchen bench for years, and when she died it found a new home on my mum's fridge. Everytime I see it, it still makes me giggle and think of her.

I’m playing around with some new work at the moment called 'short stories' (I think), about this very thing, that narrative aspect of objects, the way they can hold stories and evoke memories. Its an endlessly fascinating subject for me. It’s still in the early stages, and I’m not really sure where it’s going yet, but there are lots of spoons. Spoons and guns. Hmmmm. I’ll keep you posted!

Charles Eames at Artisan

Last night I went to the opening of “The gifted eye of Charles Eames”, a selection of 100 photographs taken by the American designer. His rather charming grandson, Eames Demetrios, gave a fantastic talk about life growing up in the Eames household and some really nice insights into the life and times of both Charles and his wife Ray. Their furniture is to die for, their films quirky, and some of the photographs were breathtaking. Three in particular really took my breath away (predicatably they were all of plates piled in the sink, breakfast settings and cups sitting on tables!) and had me standing mute, dazed and drooling in front of them, a most attractive look I’m sure. Oh but the lighting!! Stunning. So if you are in Brisvegas – GO!!! It’s on at Artisan (craft QLD), but only for two weeks until November 18th so hurry!

You can read about Charles and Ray Eames here (and on a kazillion other sites too).

The Pottery Liberation Front

Garth Johnson The Pit and the Pendulum 2002

I’ve just spent a large part of my day trawling through Garth Johnson’s farcical and fiery Pottery Liberation Front (PLF) website. If you’re involved in the world of ceramics it will probably give you a good giggle. Although, it could just as easily annoy or offend you! Whether you agree with him or not, its still worth a read! His approach is quite amusing, if not over-the-top! I particularly enjoyed trawling through the project section… take your time here, its worth it! (thanks for the link Laura, and for aiding and abetting a rainy day of procrastination).

And if you enjoy that you'll probably also get a giggle from these two clips - Apparatu (via Design Boom) and Ceramic bowl (via Extreme Craft)

Laugh a minute

I’ve become very clumsy (well, clumsier than usual!) in the studio lately, tripping over my own feet and breaking so many pieces I’m almost scared to go in there for fear of what will come crashing down next!! Yesterday I broke not one, but two of my favourite pieces, pieces I could have sold twenty times over but decided to keep for my own collection. Only the really super special pieces make it into this collection. Yep, major bummer. I sat on the floor feeling sorry for myself when suddenly two kookaburras let rip in my backyard. They laughed and screamed until I just had to see the funny side of it and join in with them. It was impossible to mope with their hysterical laughter ringing through the air! They were beauties!! They spent a good part of the day frollicking in our big poinciana tree, cackling away periodically just in case I started to sook again!

A few new bits

A few new pieces. I’ve been having strong urges to throw for months and just no time to do it. But a few weeks back I just had to sit down at my trusty wheel and get it out of my system! I threw some mugs and bottles. The mugs were a bit of a disaster, and the bottles were a bit of a surprise. Not my usual thing, but I sat them on a window sill near my desk and they’re slowly but surely growing on me. They're thrown from Southern Ice porcelain and inlaid with black slip.

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott at Phillip Bacon

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott's show opened at Phillip Bacon Galleries on Friday night. You can see some of the work on-line here, but if you're in the area I highly recommend heading in there for a look. Some beautiful new blues in the glaze palette, something almost retro about them. I was captivated. And momentarily considered putting myself into deep debt to buy a little set of three. I left before I did anything crazy.

The drought breakers

Curator of Pattern Recognition Andrea Higgins, and myself have decided we are the drought breakers. Invite us down for an artist talk sometime, and I guarantee you it will rain! It seems to happen everytime we head off on one of our Laurel and Hardy expeditions to talk about the exhibition. Last week we headed off to Gosford Regional Gallery - and yes, down it came! Not that I'm complaining. Most places we go really need the rain! The folks at Gosford did a wonderful job with the show, the gallery looked fantastic, and they also did a wonderful job keeping us well fed, well watered and well entertained.

Next day we were up at the crack of dawn and made a beeline for Sydney where we did a mad dash around all the galleries before flying back to sunny Brisvegas in the afternoon. Peter Cooley ceramics at Ray Hughes Gallery, The Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award at Object, a quick look at new gallery/retail space Pablo Fanque in Oxford Street (very nice), and finally Prima Vera at the Museum of Contemporary Art especially to have a gander at the lovely Honor Freeman's work (below) and a quick sprint around the Julie Rrapp show. Phew!

Honor Freeman "markers" slipcast porcelain

Honor Freeman 2005 "Tupperware: An airtight container for every occasion" Slipcast Porcelain

You can read a little more about Honor Freeman's recent adventures here.

Breaking the Mould

I’ve just spent a lazy but inspiring saturday afternoon curled up with my brand new book that I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for ages - Breaking the Mould: New approaches to Ceramics. It was worth the wait. It profiles over 60 contemporary ceramic artists, includes essays by Natasha Daintry, Rob Barnard and Clare Twomey, and has a stupendously good web directory in the back of most of the artists included. A damn good resource. Hours of fun. For all the family.

Barnaby Barford "Shit! Now I'm going to be really late" 2006

Some of my old favourites are in there including the very amusing and witty tableaus by Barnaby Barford (above), the evocative and melancholy figures of Irish artist Claire Curneen, Justin Novak’s disturbing and slightly gruesome disfigurines, Clare Twomey’s site-specific installations and Marek Cecula’s porcelain carpet and super great Burned Again series (below)

Marek Cecula, In Dust Real: Burned Again, Industrial Porcelain/Woodfired 2005

And some great work I hadn’t come across before – check these out: Isobel Egan, Damian O’Sullivan, Wai-Lian Scannell/SOOP and Kjell Rylander .

Damian O'Sullivan Delft Eye Patch

Lots of food for thought. I’m lost to ceramic la-la land for the rest of the day I think.

(You can see a great preview of the book here))

More Little Uns

Some new Little Un's, fresh out of the kiln!

Bits and Bobs

A few things to check out:

The work of Dutch artist Anton Riejnders (above) which I have just recently re-discovered. And I still like it. A lot.

Melbourne-based ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa's recent adventures in China for the opening of A Secret History of Blue and White (Vipoo's work pictured below).

And some good things being done by Paul in Ireland.