these were made for new little Luka in tassie. there are sixteen different combinations of arranging the fabric to spell luka. mathematics and art have a long history together. it is not true to say one is either an artistic type or a scientific type... they often come together. is that what they call a designer? a recent design forum at perth's art gallery of western australia pondered the title 'designer' ... one descriptions was that a designer sits between the humanities and the sciences? it seems to be a broad title.

we gleaned these olives from some trees down near the boat marina, fremantle. it took about two weeks of soaking the fresh olives in water with a splash of salt to help reduce the bitterness. the water is changed and replaced each day...after just a few days they start smelling like olives. once the soaking is done, brine is made with water and enough salt to float a fresh egg. then place drained and rinsed olives into prepared jars (sterilised in boiling water for two minutes), pour in brine and top with a glug of olive oil before sealing with lid. they take about 2 months of being sealed in the jars before they can be eaten. yummy olives for winter!

nicoletta ceccoli's work has a similar feel to it as mark ryden. perhaps with a little more lewis carroll about it.... the button and the dice are so symbolic and wonderfully domestic at the same time.

mother blessing bead... made for d.
there will be a necklace made of all the different beads brought by each woman to the mother blessing later this afternoon...then d will wear it or have it hung near her during the birth of her first child.
all the plans are for a beautiful home birth...the whole home birth issue happens to be a hot topic at the moment. it is one of the many choices for giving birth...but unfortunately in this country home birth is unsupported financially, medically and within general society (one astonishing and revealing comment that d heard from a neighbour was :" isn't that illegal?")

finally a long awaited escape to the wild south-western coast of WA... hopefully body surfing in some definite waves.
this tree was recently burnt out at prevelly beach, margaret river. such a perfect skeleton of it's origial form. a reminder of what a huge part of victoria must look like at the moment.


weekend textures of yallingup WA

finally these two artworks have been hung on the wall after a year of storage! they were to be framed, but with a relocation on the cards to a sunnier house it seemed better to just hang them unframed for now with the super easy and effective magnart.
newcastle artist lucas grogan (above) has been having a very controversial conversation with his artworks for quite a while now... this one was bought from his exhibition 'white' at watt space in late 2007...he is certainly an artist to watch...

clare weeks (below) has always inspired mystery with her very beautiful photography...she creates an incredibly powerful mood in her images with just the use of light and the mere suggestion of human existance, or existance of some kind...

these books seem to be very rare here in australia... these pics were taken by J in perth library... they are in the restricted area and could only be handled with white gloves!! today a good friend sent a secondhand copy of Aktil's Rescue to A.

this double sided doll was made in thanks to M... it represents quite a few things...the blue eye is the water, the pearly one the moon and behind it is an old watch face (not very well seen in this pic) without any hands to determine a specific time it allows things to take its natural cycle...the butterfly button at the belly is the soft feminity and the old buckle at the shoulder is the shield that guards and protects...

the new yellow bike

after being trapped inside for two days the trees and sky dominated.

the old tiles at KEMH ... public instututions don't get this kind of attention and detail any more.

some of the new pieces that have been made over the new year.
remedy has recently opened a new store in leederville and there is an opportunity to do another window display. it is a much bigger window than the one in fremantle. so the idea is to have a more extensive scene installed, all made from fabric of course. the cloud is a particular favourite. perhaps all the characters can rain down from one big cloud?

a new perspective on a very familiar room...

carrie chau has been mentioned in this blog before. here her artwork, the scarf, has been made into a set of brooches. if you look closely the scarf is being nitted straight from the sheeps back.

the beginning of a very big summer crop. the tomatoes have grown into a tangled jungle...nothing else in the garden is able to find space...the herbs are all but buried.

this black doll has been waiting to be made for ages. it will hopefully make it way to an artist back in newcastle and be painted...

'secrets' from the 223 series. made in 2005 for the exhibition A Crowd.
he was finally dismantled after a torn and broken leg....
each piece taken apart and returned to the rescued pile of bits to be used again in something new.
a similar thing happened to another 223 series doll, 'Pupa'. he was not completely dismantled but just had some new legs made... he went on to be exhibited in an exhibition all his own.

bumper stickers can be so clever sometimes... often they are just weird. this one was on the back of a beaten up old country ute in bailingup.

empty beds seem to still be an ongoing theme for this blog.
these ones are from a holiday stay in nannup wa on the first weekend of december.
it was a weekend of bike riding, many birds, amazing bush, eating and skinny dipping in the blackwood river.

how you make it exhibition opened tonight at the fremantle arts centre. this piece is by Ess.Laboratory

jody wong (from the previou post) has just started her own blog like i hoped she might.
it is just at the beginning... but surely it will be full of interesting sketches and things in no time.

there is nothing quite like a sketch found in the corner of a diary, notebook or even a post-it note.
these two by jody wong are so whimsical and divine that i just had to post them here for all to see. the characters are anything but the usual...though at the same time they seem almost familiar...there is a story going on... yet the sketches only reveals tiny hints. it would be great to see more. perhaps the artist will create her own blog soon.

these pictures were taken at the most southern western corner of australia. augusta is the closest town to this wild and beautiful place... cape leeuwin, where the indian & the southern ocean meet, is a good place to watch for whales and of course to see squally weather blast over from the not so far off antarctic

empty beds

as part of the silver artrage festival in perth, windows on william 2008 has just started. this is where a large range of stores on william street give their window space over to an artist, or group of artists to create an installation in. in each store there are limited edition postcards to collect. above are six of them, below are pics of keith and lottie's window, and lala orange too.

a sea of lights in a cafe on the main street of leederville, perth

small tin insect brooches from japan, bought at the lovely store 'distracted' in leederville. 'distracted' is a store that is self described as being 'merchants of fancy'... it is incrediably beautiful in it's detail and careful collection of wares for sale.. it is also a hairdresser, a coffee shop and an art shop...all rolled into one inspiring & detlightful experience

in the gallery at distracted the current exhibition is by sabrina ward harrison. she is a canadian artist who is here is perth at the moment for her exhibition 'true living project' and was a guest at the recent 'dumbo feather' evening

this was a small project about monkey the finger puppet going north on a road trip from brisbane to cairns just after christmas and into the beginning of 2008. there was a lot of rain, a lot of sun too, even a tan along the way...and food seems to feature quite a bit too...monkey seems to always be hungry.

spring has finally begun...the first poppy burst open on monday, the perfect yellow. it was the morning of the first swim too, in very cold water, but such a glassy inviting ocean.

empty bed, sunlight, views, silhouette, the window... the nunnery, fitzroy melbourne.

this is the sort of thing that i love melbourne for... this beautifully crochet covered magnolia tree in gertrude street, fitzroy is both street art and environmental art (Andy Goldworthing comes to mind).
apparently the designer Penelope Durston who has a little boutique on gertrude street stitched old dollies and what looks to be sections of old tablecloths around the trunk and bare branches of the magnolia tree outside her boutique Cottage Industry during winter. on the opposite side of the street the magnolia trees get plenty of sun light, so they all blossomed first, and this year the magnolia tree outside Cottage Industry blossomed first on the shady side of the street. perhaps because it was kept warm by its elegant crochet garment?

image by Tim Walker taken from a past issue of selvedge magazine.
the theme of the princess and the pea seems to come up quite often in art

this is just a funny sign that i love finding. it was stuck to the phone in the nunnery where obviously many backpackers have thought they'd just try it out anyway as though the sign is the problem...

after every winter comes a spring - artist leon hendroff's beautiful puppets in remedy's footpath gallery, fremantle
'not only a representation of the physical changing of the seasons, it also represents the seasons highs and lows that we go through in life. May you be encourage with the hope of a "sunnier' tomorrow and even find some "warmth" in your "winter".'

One the inside... 'a group exhibition of the built environment in perth. the suburban home, the development in and around the city, the relationship of the building in the environment and the impact it creates.' curated by shiloh perry, moores building contemporary art gallery, fremantle