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Glorious Descent

Glorious Descent
Acrylic on canvas 60 x 40cm

Monday, December 26, 2011

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

New Series from Top Drawer Jewellery in Sydney




Opening this Thursday the 15th of December 2011 is Kaleidoscope Gallery's Gifted Art and Design Market. It will represent a diverse group of local artisans who will be selling their wares at an affordable size and price, just in time for christmas.

Making its much awaited appearance will be Top Drawer Jewellery, featuring a new series, titled: 'After dinner cards'. A selection of the label's classic recycled gems, including those priceless pennies will also be available for purchase. A peak into the process behind the crafting of such jewellery will be visible in the collection of still life paintings, accompanying the display of Top Drawer Jewellery. Glimpses into the studio, reveal tools of the trade and sustaining snacks, like the humble banana.

Please join the party on Thursday night for some christmas shopping with a wine in hand, or pop into the gallery before Christmas Day.

(kaleidoscope gallery has recently moved)

Address:

3-7 Danks St Waterloo

Telephone 02 9319 0934

Open Tue-Fri 10am-6pm; Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 11am-4pm

Stay posted for tomorrows sneak peaks of 'After Dinner Cards'.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Bowral Farmer's Market 10 December 8am - 1pm



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She Whispers Secrets To me

Acrylic on Board
45x30cm
2011

What started as a packaging of presents, a convenient absent minded task, has evolved to be a study of place, a bringing together of objects and their independent stories. Returning from overseas, my market painting has become a meditation of home. Furthermore, I have become intrigued by the instinct that draws me to certain objects and the narrative that seems to be yearning for a voice. Too meditate on the sphere of a watermelon, to place it in a black moonlit surround only to slice it open so that the wet red juice pours from its rind - I am seduced by the provocative nature of inanimate objects. I painted certain things to appeal to a sense of familiarity in my audience, not predicting any inspiration. What has happened has been quite unexpected. I want to de construct power tools, antagonise their masculinity and hard edges with flourishes of pink paint. I want to exploit the mechanics and invert the practicality. What can't I do ? What can't an object say ? - Listen, I am telling the story.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Egg Rivalry... Chicks inspire recent painting



'Look, I really don't see any alternatives, the holiday is over, we either get down to business or the those new girls will have taken our roosts and we will be roast chicken by the end of the week'

Kerry Ann had called a private meeting in the corner of the coop, a gathering of the old girls. A crisis was at hand. Ever since the new chicks had arrived from the co op the old sisterhood's reputation had been deteriorating. Not only were their feathers thinning but they couldn't keep up their lay in light of the fierce new competition.

'Just who do they think they are' clucked Esmay in disbelief.
'Haven't they ever heard of following suit ? Respecting their elders ? Honestly i don't know what they are teaching them these days in the nest, but in my day when you got to a new pen you consulted with your Mother hen about the goings on of the place and you certainly didn't start laying on day one !

'They will soon tire out' Assured Tracie
'And then we can all get back to enjoying life as we so wish, with none of this competitive nonsense. They will soon realise that the scraps will keep on coming even if we don't lay'.

But Kerry Ann wasn't as convinced. She had been around longer than Esmay and Tracie and had seen Joeline and Tattiana plucked from the coop on consecutive days, by a gloved hand, never to return. They too had indulged in the chicken feed and the scrap bucket without too much concern for honouring their eggly duties. Blinded by the luxuries of a doting housewife named Danielle they eventually gave up on the lay and took barn yard banter as their full profession.

But...They had never dreamed that such an indulgent housewife would have such a murderous husband looming indoors. And this ignorance eventually lead to their demise. For Danielle's husband was what you would call a cold a blooded chicken killer, his reputation preceded him in the neighbourhood and he was often recruited by cowardly neighbours to dispose of 'un productive' hens or noisy useless roosters.

Kerry Ann knew this because she made a point of befriending the sparrows that frequented their pen for seed. Unlike Esmay and Tracie, who saw the sparrows as mere scavengers, Kerry Anne understood them to be informants, with whom she would happily spare some barn yard seed in exchange for neighbourhood gossip. It were such stories of murder that kept her on her toes and reluctant to retire into brooding old age.

'Listen girls' Kerry Ann piped up...
'Christmas is approaching and I don't want to be the centre piece. Our feathers may not be as red as they used to be but there is nothing a little puffing of the chest can't improve. I am not about to offer my meaty neck to the chopping block, not while I can still lay a dam fine egg - and I sure as hell am not going to be out shone by some clucky chick flick ! Come on girls, lets show them how its done !'

Inspired by Kery Ann's motivational speech, Esmay and Tracie plucked up their courage and proceeded into the hen house to start some serious laying. With such rivalry in the air and the threat of the guillotine the Cruise family coop has never produced so many eggs per day.

With a full carton to be filled every two days.

Egg Rivalry
Acrylic on Board
5x15cm
2011

Monday, December 5, 2011

The computer says no and other humiliating moments for which I am to blame

It's lunch time and I have just finished three too many coffees for the day, which I know is not helping my agitation and impatience, but I can't stomach any food, I am trying hard to be productive and feel useful and with that there is no appetite.

Complaint one: it is 10 freakin degrees, Summer ? I returned from the Caribbean why ? My hands are wrapped in fingerless gloves and still freezing, for some one who relies on their hands I feel incapacitated today. I recently pondered in conversation with a musician what would be worse, as a painter - losing sight or hands or in his case, hearing or hands. I figured living with the lustre of the visual world all around with the inability to translate it would be hell, and I would prefer to die. Without eyes there would still be incalculable memories and sensations upon which to paint about and I could still embrace the physicality of painting, even if I couldn't respond to it in the same way.
With further thought, maybe painting blind would rid me of that endless dissatisfaction, I would never see the end product and could potentially be happy.

I have had another fight with the world of IT, Leaving me feeling useless, inept, agitated, stupid, future less, an embarrassment to my generation, the list goes on. And no, I don't want to go to TAFE to learn about admin or computer programs. This is not because I am lazy, but rather I detest the idea that I would have to spend valuable time conforming to a system - a system which continually likes to 'improve', 'upgrade', update, refresh' and essentially outsmart you every few months so as to deliberately make you feel like a fool so that in fact never conform to the system but remain it's victim. The computer continually laughing at you.

I have just spent the last two days, actually the greater part of 5 years, painting and drawing, something I am proud to say I can do and others can't. Something that is indeed a skill, and for the most part of history has been greatly appreciated. I am part of a league of documenters, fiercely passionate creators, drafstman, activists, inventors and agitators. We have painted everything from God to your kid sister, from your wildest dreams to the absence of all measure. I speak of 'us' 'we' with a new found pride and ownership of my identity. Struggling continually with a sense of purpose and reasoning behind this career that I have chosen - or rather has chosen me, I take comradeship and inspiration from my predecessors. For in the face of today, my own reality, I find little to keep me painting. There is no contemporary canon and the ideals and systems that order the world leave little optimism in me.

In this new found world contemporary world of progress and multi tasking I can barely feed myself nor feel like a valued member of society. I know I know, artists have always struggled, the paupers life and all that, and actually I am quite resigned to dealing with this, IF it means I can carry out my practice and hold a position in society of dignity. And yet I don't feel this way. And it is not without trying.

Todays catalyst of artistic self loathing is indeed the computer. The manner in which I need to tailor my life and work into a metal box, that continually flashes 'error'. I have been working on some new projects, paintings from life. I have spent hours in my make shift studio studying the light as it falls on a carton of eggs. In the ridiculous 'summer' temperatures last night I worked until late. Listening to the radio - which in itself is a marvellous education (if you can bear the aussie accent, which in my new pretentious judgement, can not stand since returning to Australia - for example, did you know that half a carrot is the equivalent of one serve of vegetables in a daily requirement of five ?)
Over time I know these paintings will improve, and I am devoted to learning and honing this skill. I am building a world down in that shed, I am giving life and cause to the most mundane of things, when I present them to the world it is with the intention that one can more fully inhabit their environment. I am not just attempting to give my subject credit but working toward the audience too. We all have a role to play in this world and maybe mine is reminding you of the crema on your coffee every morning and how dam sweet it is. Anyway, there a multitude of justifications as to why the artist works, of which i am not particularly focused on right now, but more so that we work, we work hard and we do things of importance.

I am exhausted from focus, so I pick up my violin, shit, my hands are so cold can't keep up with the semi quavers and I am forgetting to slide down to the b flat - argh, this makes me mad. Yet tonight, after I have painted, I will practice again and the music will flow and I will entertain someone.

I have been ranting so much I can't remember how I started.... Ah yes. My point. Getting to it. I can paint, draw, play and cook and yet I can't use a scanner. I can't communicate with the world because the computer says no. I am with little patience, and perhaps this is my problem. BUT, No art pursuit is adequate without its techno equivalent. I have to tailor some document so as to textually justify it, put into a more palatable language - essentially so no one looks at the painting but reads about it. Then I have to document, scan, email and god knows what -which takes hours. And when it all fails I am left feeling so incredibly inept I hate myself.

The life of multi tasking. I am a woman, and quite good at it. There are few strings to my bow. But I never realised I would face such fierce pressure to balance multiple careers the painter, the secretary, the pa, the promoter and then the bread and butter. None of them work without the other. And when you can't get the trifector it is humiliating.

Christmas Presents




Are you Feeling heavy with the weight of possessions, yet really desire that enormous duck statue with nowhere in your house to present it? Is Christmas looming yet your bank balance dwindling and you don't know where you will find the cash to buy that expensive pearl necklace for your girlfriend ? Or do you really want that angle grinder that no one will buy you ?

Well now your problems are solved in my new Domestic Christmas series of paintings. For a limited time only you can purchase what ever exotic or mundane item on your wish list, in an affordable and compact way. own that power tool you have always wanted, without the obligation of having to actually use it - display it on your wall and in all its expressive painterly beauty you can admire it every day.

Or maybe you have a friend who enjoys the finer things in life, art and a piece of decadent blue cheese ? Well these two things are combined in paintings of food and finery that also feature in the domestic Christmas range. Pick up a painting of cheese, eggs, a glossy lettuce or a bounty of bananas. Dreaming of a white Christmas, with no cash to fund it ? How about a reindeer snow globe painting ?

This month I have set up studio in my dad's shed. Sharing the space with drop saws, motor bikes and long lost boxes of family memorabilia. It is a tight squeeze as I paint amongst the possessions and bring in my own material. Mum angrily has to trudge down to the shed in the morning to retrieve the fruit she wants for breakfast, only having to repeat the process later when she can't find the mix master to bake her cake. So, between the mayhem of the shed and the domestic influences of living with the family again, I have some interesting subjects for my paintings.

From angle grinders to cartons of eggs, I have selected familiar objects of everyday life. There is a suitable amount of tasteful kitsch involved too as I can't take still life painting too seriously. All works are acrylic on board and are ready to hang. Sizes range from postcard to 40cm squared.

This new series of paintings will be for sale at the Bowral Farmers Market on the 10th of December and at the Mittagong Markets on the 17th of December. As well as by private or online viewing. Tailored toward the discerning Christmas shopper The Domestic Christmas range has a subject and price to suit all tastes.

Please contact me for more information and forward the idea to your friends.

More images to follow.

Merry Christmas