Small Pictures, Big Dreams
I’m a weaver by trade. Old-fashioned, tick. Cumbersome, tick. Addictive, tick, again. Whilst my loom is languishing in the garage, dismantled amid cobwebs and waiting for a space that isn’t restricted to a shoe-box, I’ve taken to a more spatially-convenient option. Woven collages. Small and increasingly petite, these pretty slithers of paper have been consuming … Read more
A Long Summer
Hello. I’m back. It’s been a long time. A whole summer, in fact. Small life-times have ensued. Tropical fruit has been devoured, decisions faced and braced, long swims satisfied, books read at leisure, markets trawled, arguments fought, sadnesses acknowledged, clothes thrown out, nasturtiums planted, tomatoes gone to seed, children looked after and given back, late … Read more
Going, Going, Gone (for now)
When I first started this blog nearly a year ago, there was an element of survival in it. I’d just moved to a new place and the challenge of re-establishing some kind of creative practice (after the respite of a post-uni holiday) was pressing. I recognized its urgency as a means to identify where I … Read more
Celebrating Winter Greens
Winter means… Cold snappy mornings, where smokey breath-rings are entirely possible, even when you’re in bed; Light so subtle and earthy that landscapes become watercolour images where crisp detail is conversely gentle; Discovering all the holes in your woolly socks…how DID they get put away last year?! Crumbles, of every description – fejoa, pear, rhubarb, … Read more
Trainstopping
Excuse me. Are you okay? Ugh, sorry, you’re blushing… Well. This IS embarrassing. Hiding behind my glasses, they’re a beautiful thing…collage, texta, ink You know those friendships which are perpetually clasped in a cycle of guilt, expectation and remorse? I hate to say it, but this little blog has begun to swim uncomfortably close to … Read more
Discovering Little Miss Sunshine
Brisbane is one of those places. It has a reputation, but it’s never very clear cut. Depending on who you’re talking to, the verdict could swing from mildly celebratory to a response that is furiously vindictive. There’s not the sense of unanimous glorification that Melbourne attracts where inhabitants and visitors alike agree it’s utterly fabulous. … Read more
Under the influence (of Brisbane)
…saw fantastic matisse exhibition, goma exuding the suave mellowness of middle age, ate sandwiches on the terrace, kids buzzing around, red-lipsticked old ladies confidentially gossiping, skinny jeaned kids on laptops, bohemian hairband types, couples with prams, girls out to lunch, interesting older guys with long pony tails looking intellectual, fat women who looked like they … Read more
Take a bit of better butter…
This is not a food blog. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE food blogs. (Take Whole Larder Love, The Patterned Plate, and Oliver and Abraham’s for starters.) It’s just that when it comes to inspiration and success of the most exquisitely aesthetic kind, my kitchen endeavours fall slightly short of the mark. Yes, I love … Read more
Colour stories: collage
I’ve been working, slowly, on a collection of fabrics (see the blurb here). Celebrating the hand as an intuitive, unique and fundamental tool (to paint, tear paper, to draw, scribble, delineate, erase, brush over, rub into…) the project analyses how messy-making can become the foundations for exuberant, innovative woven and digital outcomes. By utilising table … Read more
Print to post
Print to post is another way of saying, beautifythe streets with banners! Screen printed ones, to be precise. The brainchild of Napier Inner City Marketing and Nic Scotland at the Ahuriri Art School, the project is well and truly underway. Guided by the expertise of Rakai Karaitiana (of House of Aroha), the weekend disappeared in … Read more
This is the house that Dave built
I have a habit of overindulgence when it comes to words. In this particular case, I’m going to keep my mouth shut, and delegate the talking to imagery instead… Some inspiring details…how could you not fall for that dancing china man with his puku (belly) so proudly displayed?? Patterns – in gran’s carved box, the … Read more
Drumming up and out in Dunedin
There’s something to be said for the relationship between shit weather and the preservation of a city’s in-house attractions. If Dunedin was a regular in the hot and sunny stakes, it’s intimate, eccentric and off-beat bohemianism probably wouldn’t have a hope against the encroachment of big bucks and salubrious development. With perennial gloom pinned on … Read more
Take workshop, add small folk, have messy fun
The title pretty much says it all. Over the past few weeks there’s been lots of acion in the art activity department, with quite a few lessons learnt along the way (such as no paint shirt, no paint – graffiti pants aren’t a popular method towards gaining parental approval). It’s been a short, intense term, … Read more
Printmaking in Ahuriri
Self-investment has all sorts of incarnations. My partner, for instance, buys top notch tools, an investment in use and longevity; a girlfriend will ensure her makeup cupboard is stashed with only the very best product, dictated – rightly or wrongly - by the presence of luxurious packaging. Me, I’m a sucker for a long list … Read more
The new brief
Powerful words, it’s fair to say: words for a new chapter – Colourstory: Chapter 1. There’s nothing like a deadline to kick you into action. That’s what I’ve decided, anyway, finally propelled after a delicious – and luxurious – period of slow creative fermentation. So, without further ado, there’s a new brief in the hood … Read more
Colour collecting
If colour is the source of life, then I wouldn’t usually leap at the opportunity to get stuck into pastels. Baby blue, pimpled primrose , menopausal mauve, beige boredom – not to mention pretty pink, which I think I’ve avoided since I was a toddler, suffocating from a self-inflicted overdose of rosy hues. It’s not … Read more
High in the hills
It’s not everyday that you get to visit a sanctuary of design, good taste and refined, beautiful detailing. Add a surrounding landscape that’s nothing short of spectacular (oh yes, insert all the cliches here of ocean views, privacy, native bush and wild English garden) and you begin to get the picture: a pretty lovely nook … Read more
Onwards and Upwards, the Reflective Road: Part 3
An occasional, haphazard series that opens up the covers (sic) on Life: Anything to get that Piece of Paper (aka a BA)… 25 April 2010 Wandering through the folds of the imaginary Badlands Thoughts and thoughts and thoughts and thoughts – funnily enough, perhaps it’s time that I wrote some of them … Read more
a box well travelled
They say it takes two to tango, but add a new project in the middle and suddenly, you have three. Welcome to a box well travelled, the new bubba on the block who’s got the legs to live inside the square. In short: we’re building a house. It’s no ordinary house though, with a … Read more
It’s a patterning place
Yay for simplicity! A Recipe for a Happy Afternoon of Contented Folk, Small & Large: Messy glue (the flour and water kind works really well, especially if it’s sloppy) Tissue paper in as many colours as you can gather, scrounge, purloin, or beg Baking parchment Scissors, or just happy ripping Newspaper, or something to cover … Read more
