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Odds and Ends

Photographs and fridges

Life has been busy lately ~ a birthday picnic, lunch with friends, coffee, my weekly sewing group, a hair cut. So I am narrowing my focus to three things. As the title tells you …. a photographic exhibition, a cyanotype workshop (a type of simple photography) and a new fridge.

Let’s start with the exhibition.

Women Photographers 1900 ~ 1975: A legacy of light, held at the National Gallery of Victoria (the NGV) and showed many photographs from their collection. My friend and I had made two unsuccessful attempts to get to it, so we were determined that nothing was going to get in the way of this visit. We are exhibition buddies and usually peer intently at each work. This time we decided to do the free Sunday tour and talk. That was a great idea, as the tour guide was so knowledgeable and interesting.

There were a large number of photos to look at. If you click on this link and scroll to “Themes” you can see a selection of the photos. And this review gives you a good idea of how the exhibition is structured and some of the women photographers.

One stand out for me was the realisation that there were a significant number of women who ran their own photographic businesses between 1900 and 1920, when it was a relatively new technology. Pioneering women in the exhibition included Alice Mills, Ruth Hollick, and sisters May and Mina Moore. All four women who had successful studios, three in Melbourne and one in Sydney.

Olive Cotton’s evocative “Tea cup ballet” (1935) contrasts with Germaine Krull’s “Metal” (1928), 64 black and white close up photos of industrial machinery, cogs, metal struts etc. It has been described as one of the most influential photobooks of the 2oth century. You can see each photo in the link above.

It’s an important exhibition because, as we know, too often women have been hidden from history, with their work going unrecognised or even attributed to men. It shows that women have always been involved with photography. These photos show that they were prominent, not just in a domestic setting, but as part of the artistic and social movements of the the 20th century.

I’ve played with cyanotype photography a couple of times, so I was interested to be involved with a project that uses it. For a detailed explanation of the process of cyanotype read an earlier post.

The project, organised through the Incinerator Gallery, was to make a quilt/wall hanging that will hang in the newly renovated Ascot Vale library ~my library. The first session was to create the cyanotype fabric, the second to embroider on them.

For the first session we met at Queens Park in Moonee Ponds. It was a chilly day with showers and some sunshine. I mention that because the best weather for cyanotype is strong sunshine……and we certainly didn’t get that.

You can see from the photo that we used found natural objects and printed onto a few different coloured fabric rectangles. I was interested to use fabric as I had only printed onto paper. It worked well ~ as well as it could with limited sunshine ~ and I am keen to play some more.

The second session was last Saturday. We met at the library and embroidered onto our pieces. You can see the embroidery on some of the pieces in the photo. There were different levels of experience with embroidery and only two hours, so there was only time to do a limited amount. I wasn’t sure about that, but at the end when the pieces were placed together I realised that these little pops of colour and texture worked really well. The cyanotype pieces were rather moody and not always distinct and the embroidery suited this, picking out an edge or a shape rather than filling in the whole.

Mine is on the mid-right. Isn’t the softness of the feathers in the orange one above glorious?

And so to fridges…..

I bought my old fridge in 1997, was back when I was renovating my kitchen. When the fridge started leaking earlier this year I knew it was time for a new one. Choosing the new one was quite easy ~ a bottom mounted freezer was really all I wanted. I am a sucker for little compartments, so when I saw the little freezer drawers I knew it was fir me. The price was good, and importantly it was the right width to fit into the slot.

So, I went home, cleaned out the old, defrosted the freezer ~ for the LAST TIME!!! A few days later the chaps arrived with the new. As they were organising the old one out and new one in I realised, with a sinking feeling, that the new was taller than the old! I had checked the width but assumed that all fridges were the same height. I was frantically thinking through my options when fortunately it squeezed into the space. Not a centimetre to spare; I can’t open the cupboard above, but the fridge is in and working like a dream.

So when I am buying my next fridge, in 30 years time (!), I will remember to measure in all directions.

Lastly, case moth updates. Now that I know they are in the garden I am seeing them in lots of places. One has been chomping my iris leaves, which surprised me. I can’t tell if they are all different or the same few who move around a lot. Dragging that bag over quite a distance must be hard work. This fine creature was hanging in the grape vine, but lately seems to have moved on.

Thanks for being here. I hope the last few weeks have been kind to you. See you next time.

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. 

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Books of the Month My art work Odds and Ends

It’s a booky report this week

Let’s start with the weather report…. a couple of days of steady rain, then back to our warm and still Autumn days. One of the rainy days was quite cold ~ get out the jumper and thick socks cold. I wasn’t ready for that level of chill just yet ~ there are enough months of it in Winter ~ so I am appreciating the warmer weather of the last few days.

The farmers have certainly been enjoying the rain, perfect for Autumn sowing. Now they have to contend with poor diesel supplies for tractors and other machinery. It really is a difficult life and we are so dependent on their hard work.

On the fuel front, I have been trying to not use the car. It takes diesel, and I would prefer a farmer to have it than I use it to get to the supermarket. Most daily things are in easy walking distance. When I need to go further afield I have a good choice of public transport, which will be free for all of April. How are you going with transport?

Anyway, let’s leave those reminders that the world is a worrisome place at the moment, and turn to art. I don’t mean to trivialise art and creativity because I think times like this make them even more important. It is when we create ~ make art, sew, embroider, garden, cook, dance, and so the list goes on ~ that we can turn off the noise and worry in our heads. It gives us a space to just be.

I have been working on making a(nother) book about the Maribyrnong River. This time I have taken an infant’s board book as my substrate. The one I am using came from the op-shop for $3. These books are good to use as they are cheap, durable and available.

An added bonus is that mine was put out by our local water company and inside is a little map of the river. I’m not sure if I will keep it.

I have gessoed* the pages, covering up the story (although it is a stretch to call it that). I hadn’t used gesso before and I think I stuffed it up. My intention was to paint over the gesso and have a nice smooth finish. However I am finding it very difficult to not leave brush marks and lighter parts. Any advice is most welcome.

(* Not sure if gessoed is an actual verb. Gesso is a white paint-like medium that has gritty stuff in it. When it is painted onto a surface the gritty stuff adds a tooth which then allows paints and glues to adhere to what might have otherwise been a very smooth surface.)

I am working on double page spreads. On the right hand page of each spread is one of my photos of the river. On the left is mixture of collaged papers, printed paper, drawings or other photos. There is a folded piece of paper on which I have written the names of the creatures that need that part of the river. This will make much more sense if I show you the photos.

This one is of the upper reaches and stresses the importance of snags in a river. It is tempting to clear all these fallen branches and old roots from the river, but they slow the speed ~ the Maribyrnong is prone to flooding ~ and provide habitat for many things.

The next focuses on reeds in a river. Again these are vital for many creatures, and reeds are helpful in filtering excess nutrients etc.

The third finished page is the mighty river red gums. These trees are iconic along Australian waterways. They are often old and always magnificent. So many different creatures depend upon them, needing their nectar, their leaves, their hollows for nesting. (Sorry for that extreme blue in the first photo.)

The bark is a collage made of torn teabags, as well as other bits of paper. Teabags are a great, free resource that, depending on the type of tea can give wonderful mottled effects. If you go back to the first photo, the brown blobby-looking things are also teabags.

My next page is going to be wetlands, but I am a bit stumped with the paint colour for the backing. That gesso is coming back to plague me. Also, not sure what I will put on the left page. But it will come to me.

The other part I am mulling over is how to convey the pre-colonisation history. Of course the river was an important place for First Nations Peoples, and they cared for it over millennia. Again, the answer will come to me in its own time.

Reading is important to me, so I thought I would include some thoughts on books in these ramblings around my life.

When my brother heard of my sketching in the Outer Hebrides he sent me Sea room by Adam Nicholson, about the Shiant Islands which lie a few miles off the eastern coast of the isle of Lewis. In 1937 Nicholson’s father bought the islands from the author Compton Mackenzie (more of him to come). They came to Adam when he was 21. This story is not only his love affair with these three desolate islands but also a fascinating account of the history from way back in medieval times when a hermit took up residence. There was a time when the islands supported a number of families but now are only inhabited by sheep and sea birds, including the quaint puffin. This link sums it up well. It was a lovely read.

Serendipitously I had picked up a copy of a Compton Mackenzie book from the cast off ones at the library. I was attracted to the title Whisky galore. (He also wrote Monarch of the glen) So reading about Mackenzie’s connection to the Shiants I had to read it.

Written just after the war, it is set on two islands, modelled on the isle of Barra at the southern end of the Hebrides. It is war time, and things, including alcohol is rationed. The islanders hit rock bottom when the whisky runs out. Sergeant-Major Odds is in an even worse way ~ he can’t get married because there will be no whisky to drink at the engagement party!

Salvation ~ and all sorts of bootlegging shenanigans ~ comes when a tanker carrying 50 thousand cases of whisky bound for America runs aground. It is based on a true story. In 1941 the ss Politician ran aground, and much of its cargo of whisky was taken off by small, local boats that ‘went out empty and came back weighted to the waterline with more cases than any of them had ever imagined’. Mackenzie promoted the Politician to the Cabinet Minister for his story.

It is a delightful story, full of quirky islanders, of whom Mackenzie was obviously very fond.

What have you been reading? Any suggestions for me?

Thanks for coming along with me, ambling through my week. I will leave you with an updated photo of one of my case moths, resplendent in her attached finery. See ya!

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live and draw inspiration from – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. I acknowledge their care for the land and waterways over tens of thousands of years. The land and the Maribyrnong River always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Categories
How does my garden grow? Odds and Ends Plants

And another week ambles by

It has continued to be very settled weather this week. Even the couple of rainy days were gentle, windless. March is often like this, which is surprising given Melbourne’s (deserved) reputation for ‘four seasons in one day’. Apparently we rank highly in the World’s Cities With The Most Changeable Weather.

So Melbournians can talk endlessly about the weather…..but no more weather report from me today.

Instead I want to tell you about an art adventure I had, as well as a David Attenborough moment in my garden. And welcome or welcome back. It’s always lovely to have you listen to my ramblings.

Do you remember me recently talking about sketchbooks? I mentioned I want to get more adventurous with my sketching as I am heading off on a sketching/art holiday later in the year. (That’s assuming that the world hasn’t gone to total shit by then……)

I was delighted to see that my municipal art gallery, The Incinerator Gallery, hosts monthly sketching sessions, in the gallery. Imagine how quickly I signed up to those! Monthly is perfect; weekly would just give me another organised thing to commit to.

We sat down the end of one of the spaces, and I was soon chatting away to other sketchers. Some were newbies like myself, others old hands. We had a pile of A3 size papers in front of us, a stick of willow charcoal, compressed charcoal and a smudge stick. There were also dry pastels for pops of colour.

Fiona, our tutor, gave us a little introduction to the media, giving us some idea of the marks, lines and other effects the charcoals could make. Then off we went to explore at our own pace.

We were seated before a large photograph (3 x 3??). (I am sorry but I don’t have details of the title or artist. I do know he is an indigenous man. I went back to visit the exhibition, but the gallery is closed until Wednesday.) The art work is a top down shot looking at many different types of Australian flowers, clustered together. Coming through the flowers were hands decorated with ochre, and in the centre a face, again with ochre lines, that may have been the artist’s.

The warm up was to choose a part that resonated and express that on the paper with the charcoal. We could have moved on to other art works, but we were engrossed in the photo in front of us. It certainly had a lot of textures and shapes to explore.

I decided to let my hand guide me, not my critical brain, to explore what marks I could make to represent what I was seeing. I was trying to put into practice advice from various sketching videos ~ keep it loose, explore all the parts of the charcoal, including the sides, and importantly not to be critical.

It was such a delight to just sit for an hour or so and let my hand do the creating. It was interesting to explore what the charcoal could do beyond draw lines with the tip.

During the week I worked more on my board book about the Maribyrnong River, nearly finishing the spread about river red gums. I intend to bring you fully up to speed with that next week.

Over the last few weeks I have played with the inky water that comes from soaking the bark of the tree. Lots of bark in an aluminium saucepan*, cover with water and let steep for a while. In my case it was a couple of weeks. I should have reduced it down, but never got around to that…..and evaporation gradually did its thing.

(*Do not use your cooking saucepans for dying and experimenting. Also aluminium or cast iron pots add a mordent to the dying process.)

I tried drawing with the bark water/ink, as it gives a lovely reddish brown. However it wasn’t strong enough to be really successful as an ink. So I decided to use it to stain paper and material. I now have some very interesting papers that I am sure will be useful somewhere.

And so to my David Attenborough moment….

I have a clump of Limonium perezii. (I call it statice, but I think it has had a name change.) I love it. It flowers forever and attracts butterflies and bees. It needs little maintenance or water. However over the past months I noticed that something had been chomping the leaves. Of course I blamed the pesky snails and started hunting around to remove them.

Then the other day I was standing in the garden, letting my mind wander and enjoy the bird song when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little movement in the clump. Wind? Well, no, as there wan’t much of a breeze, and it was quite a definite movement. Then it happened again and I had to investigate.

To my surprise I found that what looked like a clump of dead leaves was actually a case moth! They are also called bag moths. It turned out there was not one, but 4 of them on the bushes.

A couple had more elaborate bags than the one in the photo. They had attached part of the stems of the plant to their bag. So it was these critters who had been eating the leaves. The caterpillars stay in the bags and drag it around with them. I tried to photograph one while it munched, but every time I came close, it suddenly popped its head back into the bag.

Follow up ~ I investigated the plants today, and could only find a couple of bags, which I am fairly sure were empty. Hopefully they had turned into male moths and flown away in the night.

While I wasn’t happy sharing the plants with snails, I am quite happy to share with the case moths. And so pleased I don’t use any chemicals, including baits, in the garden.

Now I am off to do some more on my book. Thanks for coming along with me today. I’ll catch-up with you next week.

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live– the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. I acknowledge their care for the land and waterways over tens of thousands of years. The land and the Maribyrnong River always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Odds and Ends

Here I am again

Well, look at me…I published a post only yesterday and here I am again!

That’s because I have been thinking about bloggy things. Wondering why I have been such an inconsistent blogger. In a previous post I mentioned that I have been watching vlogs on YouTube. I love ones that show me how another person lives, the shape of their lives, whether they are in central Victoria, a cottage in Scotland (thanks Sue!), New York City or anywhere in-between. It’s also what attracted me to blogging, why I follow you, and why I stay.

So, I am going to try to write similar weekly posts, bits of my life over the past week that I think you may enjoy. Not that my life is wildly interesting! When people ask me “What have you been up to?” I really have to think hard! Instead of writing about one thing, as I seem to have been doing lately, I think the posts will be a hodge-podge of things that I have been up to and thinking about over the week.

Let’s begin…..

Last weekend was my birthday weekend. I like birthdays. It is a wonderful opportunity to be surrounded by the people who love me and who are special to me. Like the last few years there are the big gaps of Terry, Mum and Dad, but I know they are in my heart.

It began on Friday afternoon with a visit from my niece, her husband and their 2-and-a-bit year old daughter. What a sweetie she is! She ‘helped’ me pick a big tomato and she kept that tomato in her hand for most of the visit. The unicorn was tucked under her other arm. We sat in the sunshine on the front deck, drank tea, ate biscuits and chatted. Well, my niece and I chatted, her husband followed the toddler and unicorn!

Saturday was another beautiful day. March is often filled with still, sunny autumn days, another reason to love the month. Denise picked me up and drove me to Footscray wharf. Our friend Mary was waiting for us, alongside the Tramboat. No surprise to know that it is a boat fitted out to look like an old Melbourne tram.

We wended our way upstream on the Maribyrnong River. This river winds its way through much of my life, and certainly my art. Being on it gives a different perspective to walking beside it. You can feel the water supporting you, maybe even feel the pulse of the river. We tend to take our rivers for granted, but that they are beautiful bodies of water that connect us in so many ways.

There will be a lot more in future blogs about the river. I think it is becoming something of an obsession ~ but it needs all the obsessed people it can get.

Then my dear friends took me to lunch in Footscray. We always say to each other “No presents” and we always take no notice! I now have a lovely scarf that is almost a shawl, and a photo of me in my front garden, looking very proud.

Sunday was another settled, sunny day. And another lunch, with my family and two more very dear friends. I feel so blessed to be able to celebrate my birthday with my siblings.

I organised Hardimans Hotel in Kensington. It was such a good choice. Not too noisy, so we could hear each other speak. (That seems like a bonus these ageing days!) Lots of windows and sunlight. Attentive staff. And delicious food. We all enjoyed our meals, and there were a number of vegetarian options. That’s not always the case with pub food. To top it off the chips were crisp and tasty too!

Today, Tuesday, the weather is quite different. It is raining. That gentle soaking rain. Those of you in the UK, who have had a very wet Winter are probably thinking “You can have some of ours.” In contrast our Summer has been very dry, so this rain is welcome.

The perfect weather for my plans for today, as it is my Do Not Disturb Day. After I finish this I am going into my studio to work on the next page of my artist book about…..the Maribyrnong River. I will tell you more about that next week.

I leave you with the outside of a card my sister gave me. I think it will resonate with everyone of you! Thank you for being here, and I will be in touch next week.

card by RosieMadeAThing

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live– the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. I acknowledge their care for the land and waterways over tens of thousands of years. The land and the Maribyrnong River always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Categories
Odds and Ends

March reminders

Like so many of us I am confused, angry, worried; unsure if I want to rage at the world or escape from it. Actually, I want to do both.

I had started a post about the entitled men in Epstein’s orbit who had not suffered for their actions either as perpetrators or hangers-on and enablers. Now many of these same men are causing havoc in Iran by bombing the shit out of it ~ including a girls school, which again, no one has been held responsible for. We know the impact of those bombs have spread far and wide.

It is easy to fall into despair. But I don’t want to.

And this is probably easier for me, living in Melbourne, at the bottom of the world. I am not confronting the physical impact of the war as millions in Iran and the Gulf States are. (Although I have friend who is teaching in Kuwait, and he sends our friendship group daily updates.)

Nor am I living in the States, having to see the country I love slide quickly to the extreme right, watching while people are arrested and democracy is eroded.

For me March has come at just the right time. There are some special days that remind us that we have fought against oppression and had our demands met. Hopefully we will remember this and know that we can do it again.

International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements we have made over the years. Its origins are in the socialist movements of Germany and Russia, proposed by Clara Zetkin at the International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in August 1910. The day is a reminder that the rights we have were fought for by many courageous women. They were never given to us. Fighters like Zelda D’Aprano, a feisty, militant woman who fought for equal pay.

In Victoria we had a public holiday to commemorate the 8 hour day These days instead of union parades we have the Moomba Parade and the day has lost its radical edge. However for many years it was a day to celebrate the successful struggle of workers to have better working conditions.

And just sneaking in, at the end of February, is Mardi Gras in Sydney. This began as a march in 1978, on the 9th anniversary of Stonewall. It was to promote gay and lesbian culture and to protest against daily discrimination. The march was attacked by police, and many were arrested and brutally beaten. The campaign to drop the charges was a catalyst for wider demands for queer rights.

I know these days have lost a lot of their original radical impact. However they still remind us that it is possible to make positive changes, to demand a better world for everyone, not just the entitled few. And maybe they help us claw out of despair.

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live and draw– the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

I also acknowledge that First Nations People have fought hard, not only for their own rights but have been involved in many campaigns for the rights of all.

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AnneLawsonArt My art work

Sketchbooks

It’s Monday afternoon and I am having a Distracting Day ~ that is I am distracting myself. This morning after my shower, but before I dried myself I cleaned the tiny amounts of glue left on a brush I washed yesterday and had put on the basin to dry. Fortunately it is a warm day and I was in no danger of freezing!

I watered the garden (rest-assured I was dry and clothed!), then instead of getting on with the To Do List I dead-headed some annoying plants that wanted to spread seed everywhere. I sat and cogitated a few times during the morning, finally getting to the shops and coffee at lunchtime.

This is in stark contrast to yesterday when I was uber-organised and even tidied up my working desk in the studio. In fact I got to the bottom of piles of things, rather than just shuffling them around as I often do when I am pretending to tidy up.

And of course I have obviously distracted myself writing this, as the title says nothing about ‘distraction’. So let’s be disciplined and talk about sketchbooks. (Ahh, but not before I wander off to clean up some egg yolk on my t-shirt, spilt during lunch ~sigh~.)

I do love sketchbooks, and have filled many of them over the years. My work in them has been sporadic, usually of things that take my fancy. The common thread is that I draw realistically. The view out the window. My shoes. Flowers and leaves. Pots in a gallery. Pot plants. My chair. It makes for a lovely record of my life.

Searching through older posts I found this one about sketching in very cold, squally weather on Flinders Island, quite a few years ago now.

Later this year (and this is not another distraction, you need this to understand my differing sketchbook needs) I am travelling again, going on a sketching tour/workshop for 10 days in the Outer Hebrides. They are islands as far west as you can go from the Scottish mainland without falling into the Atlantic Ocean. I am so excited! And if something like this is your cup of tea look at the interesting adventures Wild At Art Scotland organise.

I don’t think my realistic style is going to capture the wild expanses of these islands and the seas surrounding them. I need to add another style of sketching to my repertoire, a style that allows me to respond to a changing environment and weather more easily.

I have been watching Youtube videos of sketchers like Oral Stevens who use big sweeping brushes and mixed media to capture the Scottish highlands. They are quite inspiring. I know I need to experiment at lot more.

Which brings me back to sketchbooks.

Previously I have used bound sketchbooks with good quality paper, made by companies that have a reputation for making paper. Blank pages in these books are often quite intimidating. Good paper deserves a good sketch, right? I have a new one, ready for me to start, but I haven’t used it. I don’t want my fumbling efforts to be expressive staring at me every time I open the book. Bossed around by a bit of paper!

So, my solution was to buy a really cheap spiral bound book from Officeworks, our big box stationery store. It is cheap cartridge paper. It’s rough and not archival. And that’s its appeal. I also have crayons (children’s crayons!) and oil pastels that are too thick and chunky to allow me to work in fine detail.

So far I have been trying to train my eye just to see shapes and to draw those. That’s it. A five minute, maybe less, thumbnail sketch of the shapes in an area in front of me.

And you know, if I don’t like something I tear it out! One time I cut a reject page into strips, wove them together and glued them back into the book. A reminder that I don’t have to keep things I don’t like. And to not be precious about things.

My next step is to play with some of the many different media I have. Play and experiment, to see what comes out of it. What works for me, what I might be able to use it for, which play nicely together. I also hope to do more outdoor sketching, perhaps adding some texture to my shapes.

So time for another cup of tea (and a glass of water, as I am trying to be good and drinking enough) and a sketch of the shapes I see through the window.

Take care and thanks for reading.

PS. Last post I wrote about recycling, and we chatted about recycling old x-rays. There are good suggestions about why and where we could do this. I left mine at the recycling centre at the Elsternwick Library, in bayside Melbourne. (I was on my way down the Mornington Peninsula, so it was a sensible diversion.)

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live and draw– the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Categories
Odds and Ends

Textile recycling

Over the last couple of years I have been gradually working towards getting big things done to make the house calm and quiet and peaceful. A refuge. The front garden is a major one. Thank you to everyone who commented on that post. I haven’t replied, but your thoughts made me smile. This year’s major project is to get the bathroom renovated. (There will be lots more news to come.)

There are also many little things too ~ rearranging furniture and changing around the pictures on the walls, tidy up and sweeping away the daddy-long-legs that that love to party in forgotten corners.

And the on-going one of clearing out cupboards and getting rid of stuff. I know I have spoken about this many times before. The dilemma I face, and I am sure you do too, is how to move the stuff on in a responsible way. If you can’t reuse it, recycle it or send it to the op-shop where does it go?

One of my blockages was textiles ~ old bed linen and towels that were too worn for the op-shop, raggedy clothes, curtains, shoes, pillows, etc etc etc.

My council gave me the answer. They partnered with an organisation, After, to have a textile drop off at the council depot. I booked a time, then had the liberating experience of going through the cupboards where these textiles had been lurking. I ended up with five big bags in the boot of the car, and surprised myself with the amount.

On Saturday morning I took the bags to the depot, emptied the boot and drove away feeling so much lighter. The added bonus is that I have more space on my shelves.

After is an organisation dedicated to removing some of the many tonnes of textiles that go into landfill. They seem to have a number of avenues for the textiles to be repurposed, including artists and fashion designers.

The other interesting thing is that they do pick-ups. (Melbourne and Sydney only at this stage.) So a group of friends or neighbours could band together to fill a few boxes and have someone come to pick them up.

Do you have something similar in your area? Any good ways to reuse textiles? Let me know in the comments.

And of course one thing leads to another. Up in the wardrobe, buried under some of Terry’s old clothes, were a stack of old x-rays. My next recycling job is to find out where I can deposit them. The fun never stops!!

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Categories
How does my garden grow? Plants Uncategorized

How does my garden grow?

Finally, my front garden gets its time to shine!

Before I went overseas I had been working with a landscaper to design my front garden. Joel from Vale Living is a master with wood and one of the most creative thinkers I have come across in a while. Do jump over to his website; scroll down the site a little way to his Instagram posts to see the video of my garden.

You may remember that at one time my front yard was our veggie patch, until hospital visits and general caring took up our time. Then it became a large parsley and weed patch with other plants in between. For the last year or so it has been a nothing area. And the verandah was a sandy waste of space.

My brief was simple. I wanted a verandah but not a simple rectangle, something interesting. Thinking to the future, I wanted raised garden beds and easy access. I didn’t want lawn. I had seen couple of Joel’s gardens in the area and knew he would give me my most important wish ~ something out of the ordinary. And he came up with the most amazing design.

It was all systems go when I came back from my trip. Joel and Ben worked tirelessly over the next few months to construct my garden, which is certainly something out of the ordinary.

Let me walk you up the garden path…..

From the street it looks like this (although this photo is older and there has been an explosion of growth in the plants).

The fence is part of a boat, made from huon pine, a beautiful glowing timber from Tasmania. More on the boat later.

The path is made of bluestones which had been piled in my backyard for many years. It has a gentle curve up towards the deck, past upright timbers that came from various local factories built when the inner north was much more industrial.

Up to the deck. This is a more recent photo and you can see how much growth there has been in only a month or two.

Instead of a verandah, Joel built a deck, again from reclaimed timbers, that sweeps from the front door around to the rubbish bins hidden behind a slatted fence. Can you see the beautiful attention to detail where the deck and the bluestone meet and gently follow each other’s line?

Around to the left is a surprise ~ a curved seating area, hidden behind the bushes. Again this photo is more recent.

The quirky details keep happening.

This is more of the boat, the ‘Warana’. She was a ketch and spent much of her life in Williamstown, Melbourne, as you can see from the name plate. However she did have adventures. In the early 70s she docked at various Pacific Islands, on her way to be part of the flotilla protesting the French nuclear testing in the Pacific. She never quite made it to the protest site. However, she did make it to Hobart as she took part of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, again in the 70s.

Unfortunately she was broken up and sold, and Joel bought many of the pieces. Now she is in my garden, and I am proud to have her and know a little of her story.

Joel has also incorporated parts of my history too. There is my brother’s mosaic, created specially for me and remembering Mum and Dad, who would have loved this garden. There are things Terry made, like the tubular letter box now attached to the fence and is a planter for strawberries.

My garden is a joy. There are no steps, so I go easily from the footpath to the front door, the front door to the bins. I sit out there with a cuppa and watch the grasses and flowers move in the wind. The garden brings delight to the neighbours and people walking past. They stop and look, and if I am pottering, have a chat. I think it is the talk of the neighbourhood!

I am also delighted that I was able to give Joel’s creativity free rein.We need people like him that are able to see beyond the limits of the usual and make spaces for us that are full of wonder, and plants.

I want to honour the memory of those who were killed in the Bondi massacre a week ago. They went to a Chanukah celebration, a festival of lights, which instead became a very dark day. I hope we can remove the scourge of racism and anti-semitism.

Also, I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which my garden is – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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AnneLawsonArt

Social Media

A draft post about my new front garden has been waiting to be finished for over a month now. I haven’t read any of your posts in that time either. Nor have I been on Facebook or Instagram. I wasn’t sure why I was letting things slide. It wasn’t a deliberate detox or finally rebelling against Meta riding roughshod over so much. So I have been thinking about why.

Facebook and Instagram are easier to understand. Firstly there is so much clutter such as ads and unwanted suggestions for who I might like that I find it difficult to find the people that I actually like. The dreaded algorithm doesn’t help either.

More frustratingly is that I was coming in at the end of a story. A wonderful art work or artist’s book would appear in my feed. While I could admire it I want the backstory of how it was made, where the idea came from. Why those colours, shapes, medium? How did she make that box? What paper did she use? I want depth that those platforms couldn’t give me.

My social media of choice of late has been YouTube. I have become fascinated with vlogs. Blogs and vlogs both tell the story. I can get to know the person behind the name. Each person generously shares something of themselves ~ their story, their thoughts, how they made that box, why they chose this colour or that medium. I can spend time in their studio (don’t we all love a peek into someone else’s studio?) or as they make a quilt. Facebook and Instagram are both short and static. Someone (on a vlog!) compared them to small talk, mindless chatter.

So why consume vlogs and not your blog? It’s largely habit and passivity. I can sit on the couch at night and watch how to make an envelope from old paper or listen to Wendy’s thoughts on life or look at what Jen is making in her studio. I never comment, rarely like but I do subscribe and look forward to the next instalment. There is depth in this very one way connection.

Blogging is different because I want to be more engaged in our blogging world. Posting, reading, commenting, liking ~ actively taking part and connecting with you. We have been together for many years now and there is a good community here that I want to be involved in. I love the depth of the connection.

So the obvious question then is why am I resisting that pull? Why haven’t I visited any of you consistently for too long? Why do I always seem to be apologising for not being here?

Again partly habit.

On a deeper level I have to go back to why I started and continued to blog. I wanted a space of my own. A place where I could talk about whatever I want to talk about, no interruptions, no change in direction of the conversation. All about me.

That was really important in my years with Terry. He was very supportive of my art work, but not at all interested in it. He would drive me the outer reaches of Melbourne to drop paintings off, he came up to Menindee with me for so many years, he helped me set up markets. And he was very proud of me. However he wasn’t interested in talking about my art or asked questions about what I was doing.

Also, he was a big personality, usually the centre of attention and dominated conversations. That’s who he was and I loved him. So I found that blogging gave me a place to think my own thoughts, to talk about my art, to talk about whatever I wanted to.

My life is quieter now that Terry is no longer in it. I enjoy the peace and the chance to follow through my thoughts. So I no longer need to carve out my thinking space here. My reason to post blogs has changed and I hadn’t realised that. I think that’s why I have been inactive. Perhaps you can leave a comment telling me why you blog. has it changed for you over the years?

However, my wish to engage with you, my bloggy friends, is still there. My desire to write about my art and reflect on my life is certainly still there. Basically I need the stories, of all our lives.

And I will tell you the story of my front garden ~ promise!

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live and create – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Categories
AnneLawsonArt My art work

Tree

This is the finished piece I told you about last post. You may remember that I struggled with it, so I am pleased with the final result, especially as I had to work to make it something like the idea I could see in my mind.

It has a textured look and feel, like the bark on a tree. And the strips of brown and green paper hang down, reminding me of the way the bark of some gum trees hangs down in strips.

The different elements are attached to lengths of material ~ one a cheesecloth and the other a more open-weave curtain material. I used the geli plate to print the colour onto the material, and was quite delighted with the ridges of red/brown that process gave to the cheesecloth.

The elements are made from a variety of things ~ photocopy paper, tissue paper, frayed material, tea bags, pastel paper ~ each giving a different texture and effect. There is stitching in the mix too.

I found the lovely bronze washer for the hanger in Terry’s shed.

(Terry built the shed himself. He was a boilermaker and loved working with metal to make useful things. His shed is overflowing with with his tools and so many other bits and bobs that I have resolutely ignored it over the last year or so. Partly because his life is in there, partly because the thought of dealing with all this stuff overwhelms me. Extension cords, grinding discs, every sort of spanner, screw driver and wrench, screws, bolts, welding rods, the lawn mower and edger, a couple of grinders, his welding equipment, drill ~ and that’s just the stuff I can see; who knows what’s in the cabinets and on the overhead shelf. And, of course washers, which I eventually found in a little drawer. All in a higgle piggle mess.)

I am looking forward to working on a similar piece. As I had to resolve many of the problems, I have a sense of how I can make it work. Also I am interested in creating a series so that I can edit and refine my ideas and techniques.

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live and create – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.