CULMINATION OF A FABULOUS YEAR !!!

My year of residency is nearly over, and what an exciting year it’s been!

I hope you will all be able to come to my final exhibition at Richard Randall Art Studio from 6 – 14 November, 10am – 4pm daily.

Then from 16 – 18 November I’m joining The Botanical Artists Society of Queensland, in their exhibition “FLORESSENCE” in the Auditorium at Mt Coot-tha, 9am – 4pm daily.

Now, does anyone remember that one of my first blog posts was about 2012 being the Year of the Farmer, and I outlined my monthly plans for the year?

Well, here's what I said :

October …HARVESTING
... no doubt I’ll be working hard this month to get all the finishing touches completed.

November … DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRODUCE
... this will be a marketing exercise to encourage people to come and see the fruits of my labour during the year.

… and how true is that October entry!!!

Here are some of the collaborative projects that I’m still completing!

 

FLOWERS OF FRIENDSHIP HANGINGS

The original deadline for delivery of the flowers was 30 April, but after seeing them hanging in my June exhibition, lots of people said they still wanted to make one  … and I just got the last one two days ago!
So an eleventh hanging is now in the making … is there a subtle message here? … it's the eleventh hanging at the eleventh hour for the eleventh month!
There are photos in my previous posts (if you'd like to re-visit them) and here’s the latest update!

INTEGRATE / DISINTEGRATE

I am collaborating with the ladies from "Broadstrokes", a group of artists with a focus on creating work using fibres and textiles (Suzanne Marshall, Kate Oszko, Kathryn Iliff, Jane Rundle, Mel Forrest, Merody Buglar, Chris Jones and Sue Dennis).

Each member of the group layered various materials (which included paper, fabric, metal and organic materials) to form three similar bundles ….

• one was hung in their home garden
• one was buried in their garden
• one was hung in a tree at the Gardens

This is what was in each of my bundles.

Here’s me hanging and burying my bundles at home.

.. and I hung everyone’s bundles in a Scented Bells tree (Rothmannia manganjae) in the Exotic Rainforest area at the Gardens

The bundles progressively disintegrated over a three-month period from May until August.

These are my bundles in August …I’m not sure what I was thinking at the time!
If I hoped they would disintegrate, why did I wrap them in sturdy paper and write on them in waterproof ink?

At least the buried one (on the right) disintegrated well .. it was full of worms and had tree roots growing through it!

Each artist is now creating an A3 page from these fibres, and I will assemble them into a book which will be displayed at my exhibition (and have I already mentioned that it runs from 6 - 14 November?)
Here are some of the completed pages.

ENVIRONMENTAL EXHORTATIONS AND ELUCIDATIONS

I have created nine almost-identical books which contain quotes about conservation by the famous environmentalist John Muir.

These books have now been passed progressively to different people, who are responding to the page in their own way, using a variety of techniques (drawing, stamping, painting, collage, etc).   This should result in many unique and interesting interpretations of the same text, and I can’t wait to see the many wonderful interpretations.

So far I’ve received two back .. and each is a special treasure!

Carolyn Morrisey, my dear friend who now lives in Melbourne, is the talented lady who first taught me calligraphy, but she hasn’t picked up her pens this time – she’s now exploring digital art!
Carolyn has the most marvellous sense of humour, and you really must come and read this book in detail. Here’s how she has decorated the cover and first page.

Erica Michaux said she’d done ‘a few simple drawings’ in the copy I gave her.
Well … simple they definitely are not … and elegantly beautiful is what they indeed are!
You must come and see the other pages in this gorgeous book.
(did I already mention that I’m having an exhibition in November?)

FLORAL FOLDS

I invited the staff and volunteers at the Gardens to send me close-up photos of flowers.
I am printing these in square formats, folding them into origami shapes, then assembling them into kaleidoscope designs.
This photo shows a similar idea (but these photos were of Hindu offerings in Bali).

NATURALLY INSPIRED

My friends from "Pulp Action" (a sub-group of Qld Spinners, Weavers & Fibre Artists) have used paper they have made from various plant fibres to construct cones. These will be embellished with a variety of plant materials and other found objects.. and I’ll be putting lettering on some of them!
Joanna Faber, Ngaire Macleod, Sandra Pearce, Jill Brose and Nat Billing are the artists participating in this project.

BUTTERFLY CASCADE

I am collaborating with some of my friends from “Scattered Arts” (a Community Gallery at Camp Hill which sells paintings and unique handmade gifts all made by local artists, including me!)
Ailsa McEvoy, Pam O’Reilly, Barbara Merrin, Kit Thomas, Wendy Goode, Helen Reid, Patsie Wishart, Carolyn Morgan and Jan Steer are creating 3D butterflies which will be suspended from a metal frame.
Here are some of them.

TREE OF TAGS

The “Paper Princesses” are mixed media artists who work predominantly in paper. Marilena Stanton, Celeste Santin, Gaye Todd, Judy Timmins, Kasha Rolley, Margaret Cullen-Erickson and Marlene Lynne-Truman have decorated tags, all featuring a nature theme.
Here are some of them.

PAIRED PRINTINGS

My friend Helen King produces amazing textiles (Paluma Prints) and she has printed her grevillea and wattle designs for me on fabric.
I am writing descriptive words (again composed by Alison Horsley) over these and embellishing them with embroidery.

GREVILLEA GRANDEUR FROM THE GARDENS

Joanna Faber, an art teacher and my friend, photographed the grevillea flowers in the gardens at Mt Coot-tha, and she has printed these on the lovely paper she has made from the plants in her backyard.
I am now lettering descriptive wording around these images and they will be framed and displayed in November (remember that exhibition I mentioned before, 6 -14 November?)

FLORAL FANTASY

Jill Brose created three abstract flowers in fabric, wire and beads, and I lettered the ribbon of descriptive words which link them together.

NATURALLY COLLABORATIVE

My friends in the “Book & Paper Group” (a sub-group of Qld Spinners, Weavers & Fibre Artists) created pages with a nature theme, using their own choice of techniques.

Each person received a page from everyone else to make into their own book.

I used green Nepalese Lokta paper for my cover, and I stitched the pages using a Japanese stab binding technique. I also included a page at the back describing the techniques everyone has used.
My book was on display at my mid-year exhibition in June, so if you didn’t see it then, you’ll have another chance in November.


TANGLED NATURE

This same “Book & Paper Group” joined me in another collaboration.
Inspired by leaves and flowers, we doodled on pages using only black pen and graphite pencil.
The pages were progressively passed around the group, and each person added their contribution to enhance and expand on what was already on the page.

These are some of the pages we created that day.

Jill Brose then kindly took charge of all the pages and added her own brand of designer magic to fill in any gaps and unify the designs.
I then assembled the pages into a book. I decided to continue the black and white colour scheme by using black Unryushi Japanese paper for the cover, and I stitched the pages in white thread using a Japanese stab-binding technique.
This book, finished for June, will be displayed again in November.

... and there are other projects on the drawing board too …. I’ll include some of these in another post (soon!)

So please come to Richard Randall Studio (6 - 14 November), and/or the Auditorium (16-18 November) to see how many of these are fully completed!

SEPTEMBER ACTIVITIES

In amongst all this frantic last-minute panic finsihing projects for my exhibition, we had some great fun in the Japanese Garden during the recent school holidays.

In “Fascinating Fibonacci Fun” on Tuesday 25 September, children and adults created books based on the Fibonacci number sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8…) and then they wrote and drew on the pages.

 

On Friday 28 September we had a “Spring Celebration” when we made light-catchers and  bookmarks incorporating flowers and leaves.

 

“Water Dragon Dalliance” happened on Thursday 4 October. We made finger puppets and  decorative wrist-bands, arm-bands and head-bands to celebrate 2012 as the Chinese Year of Water and the Year of the Dragon .. and a real Water Dragon came to join us!

So ... that's it for now ... please stay tuned, as they say ...