What I did on Friday

wings of change

2012-02-08T06:51:00.007+09:30

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink,
taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each."
— Henry David Thoreau

Last year I read ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin, she writes about how she puts herself through a year of challenges to try to increase her happiness, focussing on different areas of life each month, such as work, family, friends… it’s an interesting and thought provoking read. She has a blog/website that you can check out. I have signed up to receive a daily happiness quote by email. The Thoreau quote above is one of these.

The quote struck a chord with me, maybe because I feel as though my life has entered a different season… for the longest time I’ve been the mother of little kids who seemed to need me all the time; now I’m the mother of big kids who just need me for food and chauffeuring!! It’s a big change that’s caused me a surprising amount of heartache as well as the thrill of a little more freedom.

At the moment every time I open my sketch book I end up drawing women with wings, I think it has a lot to do with this opening up of possibilities.

And a haiku!

Waiting for pizza

a flock of birds swoop and loop

I wish for wings.

Happiness Flags

2012-01-20T07:34:00.004+09:30

Between xmas and new year I dragged out my neglected sewing machine and made some 'prayer flags'. I'd been thinking about it for a while (I have 2 sets made by lovely Marita, in my lounge room and they make me happy!!) Then a friend have me an xmas present wrapped in a lovely yellow gold fabric, and I thought it would be funny to make something with the fabric that I could give back to her.

I used some of my old lino cuts that I've used before for card making. I gave a set to my friend and have a couple of sets for my stall at the next craft fair. I am still not really friends with my sewing machine, it takes a fair amount of swearing to do even the simple straight sewing involved in this project!

I've just been for a couple of days away with my family in Kakadu. It's still school hols here. In some ways it's not a great time to go to Kakadu as it's the wet season and large areas of the park are closed because the water is over the roads and crocodiles are roaming. But it's also a lovely time to go because everything is so green, accomodation is cheap and we practically had the whole place to ourselves!! I'm keeping up with a haiku (or something like it) most days, here are a couple from last week.

Native ginger blooms
in the shade of ancient rocks
wet season treasure

(this one about my daughter)

she lies on my bed
singing a song from the charts
milkshake round her chin.

Some People Catch Fish

People running
to catch the bright red sun
with their cameras.

Starting the year

2012-01-06T07:13:00.004+09:30

I'm starting the year with just one resolution, to be positive. Especially when I'm feeling emotional or defeated to go and do something positive, some sewing or lino chiselling, something that keeps me going forward instead of getting bogged down!

Over on flickr I'm playing catch up, I didn't post any of my work in the second half of the year so I'm trying to get all those into my photostream over the next couple of weeks. My internet connection is so slow in the evenings that I'd practically given up, but I've discovered I can get a lot done in half an hour in the mornings...so here I am!!

The sketchbook challenge is on for a second year, so I'm going to have another go at it... this month's theme is doodling.

I have set myself a little writing challenge, to write a haiku a day, I've bought myself a cheapo diary that just has room for a poem and a note about what I'm reading... here are a couple from the first week.

Lightning in the night
circling the house again
rain wave on the roof.

Last weeks pumpkin soup
seeds pushed in the ground sprouted
stems with twin green leaves.

I wonder how your resolutions and challenges are going. Cathy Cullis has a lovely post about daily challenges with a philosophy that is very forgiving!!

Hopefully I'll be back next week with some artwork to show! Have a great weekend.

Not really a review of the year

2011-12-31T13:23:00.004+09:30

I just wanted to mention some favourites for the year. My favourite fiction book was The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. My favourite non-fiction was Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

The exhibitions I enjoyed the most were the handmade books at Framed Gallery, in particular the work of Winsome Jobling. And Nocturne, and exhibition at Territory Craft, paintings by Sandra Kendall and glass by Natalie Jenkins. Sandra’s work had a Victorian feel, a bit Beatrix Potter but dark and atmospheric, and beautifully painted. There were heaps of other great exhibitions (not to mention the ones I never made it to) and that is one of the joys of living in Darwin amid so much creativity!

My favourite kind of night out has to be ‘off the page’, the spoken word nights organised by the NT Writer’s Centre. Coming up in 2012 will be Wordstorm combined with the national poetry festival which should be fabulous – I can’t wait.

Right now it’s very quiet, half the population of Darwin is either in Bali or down South. I’ve been enjoying a week off work – in particular pottering in the garden pulling out weeds which are rampant in the wet, and riding my bike down to the beach, I’m hoping to build up my stamina enough to pedal to work in the dry season… we’ll see!!!

Thankyou and best wishes to all the people who drop by my blog. Wishing you a creative and happy year in 2012.

More mermaids… if you can stand it…. and something about failure

2011-12-18T21:30:00.006+09:30

I have been meaning to post a picture of these ‘dolls’ which were also in the mermaid exhibition in November.

It was really fun to work within the same shape/template but just play with colours/fabrics and my entire repertoire of embroidery stitches! (chain stitch, back stitch, running stitch and oversew). I have already started a couple more of these – sewing just might keep me sane over the xmas hols.

For the book group I go to, we have just read the Anh Do autobiography ‘The Happiest Refugee’, it’s an entertaining, easy read – a love story, a rags to riches story, a family drama all entwined. What impressed me was his willingness to have a go at anything and to try again after failure. He writes this, about his father’s attitude to failure when he didn’t get chosen for school captain.
‘But my father treated that loss as if it were a win and it was a lesson that stayed with me for a long time. If the worst happens, if you lose and fail, but you still celebrate coming second because you’ve given it a red hot go. There is no need to fear failure.’
I could have used that advice early this year – I entered a couple of literary awards and an art award and was knocked back from them all – and got discouraged instead of celebrating the fact that I had work finished and good enough to submit.

Well, one of the positives of the year has been starting yoga classes, I’m working on a poem about it, here’s a bit of the first draft.

Going to yoga

What I get is an hour
and a half of peace,
a view out to a garden
where water trickles,
once a bird flew down and
perched on a ginger stem
as I made the tree pose.

I love the asanas with names
like eagle and warrior
the name is powerful,
and how our teacher
describes a pose as strong
instead of difficult.

When she demonstrates
I think
no way I can do that
and then I find I am
balancing one foot on the wall
the other planted on the ground
one hand resting on a block
the other reaching up –
half moon pose.

Wishing you all a relaxing xmas and a creative 2012. Hopefully I’ll be back next week with a bit of a review of the year, favourite book, best exhibition, etc.
Bye for now.

Sirens opening tonight!!

2011-11-04T12:48:00.004+09:30

The mermaid exhibition opens tonight at DVAA, I haven't seen it in all it's glory but I hear it is jam packed!! Wonderful Nat has an exhibition of paintings in the smaller gallery and I can't wait to see those too.

I only managed to produce this canvas in time for the show.

It was supposed to be a year of tackling big canvases (bigger than 5x7"!!) - a resolution I made early on in the year, which only seems to have stalled my painting completely...

In other news I have joined a book group at my local library. The first book we had to read was The Road by Cormack McCarthy which has about 6 pages of rave reviews at the start. The writing is beautiful, but the story is incredibly bleak, I had to keep putting it aside because I was too worried about the characters! I probably wouldn't have stuck at it to the end if it wasn't for the book group. If you've read it and loved it I'd love to hear why!

Hot off the press

2011-10-28T12:06:00.007+09:30

I've been madly chiselling all week, this lino-cut.

Which is based on this sketchbook gouache.

The mermaid theme is because I'm part of the Sirens exhibition at DVAA that opens next Friday.
The text reads -she considers joining the mermaids - it's about yearning to be something you're not; about being part of something or excluded from it. About longing for a mermaids tail while failing to notice how comfortable you are in the company of birds...

Did you catch the art show on ABC1 Tuesday night? There was a great interview with British artist Tracey Emin. I'd heard of her but couldn't have described her artwork before this!! (which involves sewing and installation work, confessional and considered provocative I think) What I loved was how passionately she talked about her work, in a way that was accessible not full of impenetrable art language! It made me feel pretty excited about art making, and sad that I'm so out of touch with what's going on out there in the world! May be you can catch it online.

still here

2011-10-18T21:38:00.004+09:30

Hi, I'm still here...battling computer and internet issues. Dare not even try to load a photo in case the whole lot crashes again!! I've been down a hole artwise too, not doing much except sketchbook stuff. Luckily I'm part of a group show 'Sirens' next month which has given me a kick up the pants, but not too much pressure as there are 16 artists involved! Hopefully I can post some photos soon.
Here's a poem

My neighbour
raises a cloud of dust
pedalling furiously
down the hill, his dog
galloping alongside.
Too fast for me to nod
an acknowledgement.

By co-incidence
His wife is from Yorkshire too
and has been learning to play
saxaphone
I have never spoken to her
except perhaps when she
(or her double)
came to my shop
and I was too shy to ask
-do you live across from the school?

You would never let such
an opportunity pass
that difference is an icy cravass
I scale daily.

some sketchbook pages

2011-09-09T13:34:00.009+09:30

I don't have much to show for the last couple of months except a handful of sketchbook pages.

In the garden we have 9 pineapples slowly ripening, I tried a few drawings this morning (some of the leaves are bright red amazing but I think it's a sign that the soil is lacking in something!).

Also I've done a drawing of the mango tree that's thriving (touch wood) the other one we planted keeps having it's new leaves chewed off - I think by possums. I might have to try a colour drawing next time as the new leaves are a suprising gorgeous copper colour that transforms to lime green and then the familiar dark green.

Interruption to regular programme...

2011-08-18T18:57:00.003+09:30

I seem to have lost my mojo.
Not much enthusiasm for painting or doing or making at the moment. I had great plans for a series of paintings and maybe an exhibition next year, but the wheels have fallen off that.

I need one of those test cards they used to put on BBC TV when there were no shows to broadcast.

Of course life goes on... I'm reading To Kill A Mockingbird, because my 13 year old is reading it at school and needs someone to discuss his homework with!! This is no chore, it's one of many classics I thought I'd never get around to, it's also lovely to be in a tiny book group with my son!... which is a bit of a family trait, when I talk to my mum on the phone, after we've discussed how the kids are etc, then the important question, 'what are you reading?'

Checking in

2011-07-26T12:29:00.005+09:30

Just checking in really, these are busy times with family visiting, a weekend away and the twins turning 9!!!

Here is a painting I've been sitting on! I finished it a month or so ago and I was really pleased with it. It was one of those paintings that happened really easily, I think all the slaving over the other ones seems to be preparation for these ones that just paint themselves. So now I've sat with it for a while and I still like it I'm ready to share. Hoping to get down to some more painting soon, now that the kids are back at school.

I hope things are going well for you and the sun is shining!!!

sketchbook snippets

2011-07-12T10:58:00.007+09:30

I wonder if you have been taking part in the sketchbook challenge? Or checked out their blog/website...I especially enjoy reading the artist interviews. There are some very tempting monthly prizes!!! and all you have to do is post a drawing to the sketchbook challenge flickr group each month....Having said all this, I haven't managed to enter anything for May or June and it's nearly halfway through July and still nothing posted...sometimes the weeks just get away. BUT I have been drawing, and maybe this is the best prize, to be using my sketchbook again for the fun of it, to explore and play, some pages are awful and just get painted over, some are too private to share, some are a few scrappy lines that only mean something to me! Here are a couple of samples.

Just a little aside about sunflowers! I planted some sunflower seeds because of Van Gogh, they did grow and finally flowered over the last couple of weeks. I don't know if it's the kind of seed or if it's my poor soil, but they are a tiny stunted variety, knee high not shoulder high, and the flowers are very shortlived, they barely last a week before they start to shrivel and go brown - a bit disappointing. I'd love to hear if you've had more success!

work stress lino

2011-07-02T21:07:00.008+09:30

Dear reader I've been neglecting you... and lots of other things in my life.

The last 2 months have been hectic because a workmate has been on leave and a lot of her responsibilities ended up on my plate, it's been incredibly busy and by the end of it quite stressful. I've been feeling like someone swimming through an underwater cave, holding my breath, knowing I'll get there if I just stay calm and keep swimming.

Now I'm back out in the air and the light I'd expected to feel relieved and happy but instead I'm exhausted and out of sorts. It's been hard to settle down to painting, but I have started a lino cut based on this gouache drawing. Chiselling a lino is very relaxing for me.

Hopefully next time I'm here things will be back on a more even keel.
best wishes to blogworld!

Garden painting

2011-06-03T13:25:00.013+09:30

From Feb to April this year I worked my way through The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. I did it half-heartedly, not expecting to dig up any demons from the past (to explain my laziness, lack of time, lack of drive) - but also hoping for some flashes of insight into what I might do with my life.

One of the things that did come up - was that I want to do some BIG paintings, it's a really long time since I've worked on anything bigger than 12 x 12 inch in paint or lino. (since before I had kids so at least 13 years). By co-incidence Sue from one of the blogs I love to read Mouse notebook has also been dipping into the artists way and had big paintings on her list too!

A month or so ago I started on a canvas 20x20 inch - huge for me! Here are some in progress shots.

And here it is now, I think finished.

My work tends to be about whatever is going on in my life, so of course it's about gardening.

garden news

2011-05-14T21:06:00.008+09:30

The dry season is here with cool nights (freezing for us softies!) and sunny days. I’ve really been enjoying getting into the garden and planting some seedlings, mostly veggies, and a tiny flower garden which my daughter has been keen to have a go at. (Also in theory, the flowers should attract bees and good bugs to the garden which should help with fruiting plants like tomatoes)

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know I’m a learner gardener with plenty of failures last year! When I dig my veggie patch it’s full of the roots of nearby palm trees – stealing all the goodness from the soil. So this year as an experiment I’ve put some plants in those polystyrene veggie boxes with good potting mix, and so far so good…I have these eggplants fruiting now, so beautiful, they are a small Asian variety. And the cherry tomatoes are flowering so I have my fingers crossed. Now I’ll have to learn some new eggplant recipes!

I'm still here

2011-05-01T22:33:00.005+09:30

I dropped off the poetry challenge, and off the internet for a while... over Easter the kids had the flu and we just stayed home quietly. This weekend has been more exciting with an exhibition opening the Seabreeze Festival and a craft market I had a stall at today.

The Seabreeze festival has to be one of my favourite events of the year, a series of stages along the seafront that you can stroll to or catch the free shuttle bus. By the end of the day I want to go to dance classes, join a choir, learn the bagpipes!!! It's so inspiring and a wonderful community event of local talent.

Next weekend will be the DVAA members show of ATCs, here are my Trading Cards finally finished.

pad day 16 snapshots and 17 the big picture

2011-04-18T21:16:00.004+09:30

Here are the little linoprints I promised last week.

I have bombed out a couple of days over the weekend on the poem a day challenge, but better late than never, 3 snapshot poems for day 16

My gardening gloves
two pairs of dirty hands hang
on the washing line.

At the pet expo
the dogs were obedient
the mic misbehaved.

I
stack
dishes
the kids nag
for snacks, even though
they just ate their dinner, I yell
just as two strangers
come knocking
at my
door's
shame.

My day 17 big picture poem (which is a lot like my snapshot poems!)

Digging for victory

Digging in compost
to revive depleted soil
planting seeds of hope.

pad day 13 - relationship

2011-04-14T21:49:00.004+09:30

Gesture

A steamy morning at the markets
we huddle in the patch of shade
under an awning, waiting to request
spring rolls and samosas.
The ladies are hot and hurry
to keep everyone happy
this one smiles and slips something extra
in the bag, does she remember me
pushing the twins in their stroller,
two buddhas for good luck
years back? Or is her kindness
for a familiar face?
One day I'll ask her name
for now, we exchange
across the counter, a few dollars
and true smiles.

pad day 12 - a form poem

2011-04-13T22:19:00.004+09:30

A slightly different poem than the one I posted over at poetic asides. A fib - the form is based on the fibonacci sequence.

(fib)

School
boy's
velvet
cropped short hair
on the seat in front
on the bus
she wants
to
touch

pad day 11 - maybe

2011-04-12T20:58:00.002+09:30

Maybe or not

When the kids ask
to go bowling or the movies
I say maybe - we'll see,
not to fob them off
but because the future is uncertain
and in that fog it's difficult
to plan anything.

pad day 9 - time of day

2011-04-10T22:36:00.003+09:30

4pm

At this time of day
I am usually watching the clock
tick round to 5 and freedom.
Or sneaking off for a lie down
after too many hours of housework and kids.
Today the kids are packed off to the movies
and I am printmaking
a tiny lino-cut
woman and bird.

I do have this print to show you, maybe tomorrow I'll get chance to upload the photos, fingers crossed. Hope you've had a great weekend!

pad day 8 - celebration

2011-04-09T15:40:00.000+09:30

Neglect
has let our pool
go green, no swimming
this wet season
celebrated this morning
by two kingfishers
swooping from the pool fence
to scoop up
tadpoles.

pad day 6 - Don't ......

2011-04-07T22:02:00.002+09:30

If you just dropped by and wonder where the paintings are, it's poetry month and I'm attempting to write to the prompts at the poetic asides blog. This is my effort for day six.

Don't look down

Eating dinner at the wharf
everyone fights for the tables by the water
while we sit the next row back.
I couldn't comfortably spoon my Tom Kha
with that gap yawning at my side
I'd have to hang onto the kids wrists
so they didn't slide into the abyss.

After dinner they take their left over chips
to feed the seagulls or fish
with their Dad as escort
while I study the food on my plate
and look the other way.
I don't think I'm scared of heights
just the magnetism of that edge.

pad day 5 - silly or serious

2011-04-06T21:08:00.005+09:30

I completely flunked out yesterday. Today the choice was between a silly or a serious poem, I went short and silly.

My daughter came to work
and made us all shirk
our proper responsibilities,
played with sequins and paper
to make flowers that later
made our window display look pretty.

pad day 3 - a world without me

2011-04-04T21:59:00.003+09:30

This one was like pulling teeth!!

Without me

The washing would pile up
the kids would scrabble for
school uniforms, but maybe
someone else would do one mammoth
wash a week, instead of everyday.

Without me
the dishwasher would get stacked
higgledy-piggledy and no-one would complain,
someone else would have to nag the kids
about their homework
or forget about it
the world wouldn't end.

I imagine a quiet place
a jewelled garden in a Persian miniature
a place to sit in peace,
while they sort themselves out
and then I'll come back.

poem a day - day 2 Postcard

2011-04-03T21:07:00.000+09:30

Greetings from Darwin

I have been turning over the veggie patch
half of it in fact, two square metres of dirt
riddled with roots from nearby palms
I could hardly get the shovel in.

A cloudy morning and the cyclone
that was flirting is still just a low
skirting the coast headed west.
I have spread the compost too
the other half still to do next weekend.

Poem a day - day 1

2011-04-02T11:40:00.003+09:30

Just call me crazy!!
It's poetry month in America, the poetic asides blog is doing a poem a day challenge and I'm going to have a try. Here's my day one poem.

How I got here

By the power of my two legs
not fast from A to B
but allowing time for thinking
for noticing - the garden
with a cloud of cream flowers
open in the morning twisted shut
by afternoon, how I first saw
a double-barred finch flit
down to the footpath and up to the fence
I learned to look for them.
On windy mornings I long
to spread my arms out
dive into it like a wave
and ride the current.
I get to work knowing
I'm alive.

domestic...laundry

2011-03-24T21:45:00.005+09:30

Just dropping by to show that I'm still keeping up with the sketchbook challenge. This month's theme is 'spilling over' and eventually I came up with this -

I also did a colour version with gouache which you can see over on my flickr page.

Flower Gardens

2011-03-12T22:14:00.008+09:30

The last couple of weeks I've been painting flowers. When I think about it lots of flowers grow her - frangipani, hibiscus, bougainvillea, just for starters. Not to mention all those gorgeous helliconias and gingers. But I haven't been painting any of them, I've been painting sunflowers (I think, they're not very realistic!) I was inspired by a lovely photo on flickr by Dalbhat - if you've never been on flickr take a look around it's vast and inspiring!!

In my Mum's garden in England I imagine the snowdrops and crocuses are up, and the daffodils soon to come. Here the seasons are all upside down - it still feels that way after 20 years. And in the tropics it's even more confusing - this is summer but it feels like winter, not because of the temperature but because of the rain. Soon will come winter that feels like summer with blue skies and sunshine everyday. We're about three quarters of the way through the wettest wet season on record. Maybe the flower paintings are just to cheer myself up mid-deluge.

I'm re-reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal Vegetable Miracle', and thinking about another attempt at veggie gardening when the dry comes, maybe I'll plant some flowers too.

Deadlines...

2011-02-21T21:33:00.006+09:30

Everytime I say I'll be back in a day or two with something, it never happens. Once a week at best seems to be all I can manage with blog posts - sometimes blogger is so slow I start and then give up. Today it seems to be behaving so here are the sketch book pages I wanted to share.

Drawings of a tea cosy I was given for xmas, the colours are brighter even than my acrylic sketch...I think I prefer the charcoal drawing though. Being part of the sketchbook challenge is keeping me inspired to keep drawing and playing. I've also been enjoying dropping by their blog, especially the interviews with artists.

It looks like being a busy couple of weeks I seem to have a few deadlines looming, most of them are optional things but I really want to have a go, I will maybe say more as I leap through the hoops!
Best wishes to all!!

Bus blues

2011-02-12T21:45:00.004+09:30

Here's my effort for the big tent poetry, it didn't come so easy this week!

An antidote for the blues

On Monday
someone will flip the switch
the bus driver will be smiling,
passengers will embrace
like long lost friends
the security guy and the office worker
the chef and the shoplady
will clasp hands
and meet the other's eye.

Serene as a cruise ship
we will glide in and out
of bus stops
no one will have to run
no one will be left behind
and at the terminus
a round of applause
for the driver
a brass band playing and fireworks
for a safe trip on schedule.

I'll be back in the next day or two with more sketchbook pages.

A Few Things Poetical...

2011-02-05T21:57:00.010+09:30

On my wanderings around the internet I came across Big Tent Poetry, a poetry site that posts a prompt on Monday, then you can post your poem inspired by the prompt on Friday and over the weekend.
This week's prompt was a wordle (I'd never heard of this - it's a group of words) you could include one or as many of the words as you like in your poem - I think I managed to use about half:-

Skatepark

Not exactly fearless
but determined,
gripping the handle bars
poised at the lip of the ramp
alert to other riders
timing his launch
into the flow.

His scooter is
an aluminium blade
slicing the air, down the ramp
across the flat, left foot pumping hard
to make it up the slope
get air, rotate 180
maybe.

And repeat
until his shirt
is drenched with sweat
and the sky is darkening
storm clouds banking up
and we run
at the first drops.

For xmas I treated myself to a book of poetry by Adrienne Rich with essays and criticism. I think I'll be dipping into it all year, there's so much to get my teeth into! I was attracted to some of her poems I read in anthologies. I've been trying to work out what it is that hooked me, and I think it's the imagery, the way she describes things is striking and beautiful, also the feeling that there's a lot more going on in her poems, they're full of emotion which made me curious about the underlying themes or meanings - the essays are really helping with unravelling these. About being a woman, and a woman in relation to a man/men, and being a creative woman. I'll point you to - Storm Warnings, The Roof Walker, Diving Into the Wreck and Integrity, as a taster!! I think I'll be back to talk about these more another time!!...

The paintings in this post are the ones I did a week ago. Yesterday I did some monoprints which you can see on my flickr page, I also finished carving a wood-cut that's been on the go since September...hopefully I'll print that next week.

I hope you've had a productive week.
Best wishes xx

Sketchbook again

2011-01-28T13:22:00.010+09:30

Just a quick hello, and to share a few more of the sketchbook drawings I've been doing over the xmas break. I don't do much drawing from real life - I have a friend who will sit down anywhere and find something in the scene to draw, she's a fabulous sketcher and I'm so jealous of her sketchbooks, it's something I'll try to spend a little time on this year. My drawings are usually from the imagination, but based on things I've seen or done, that stick in my brain!

In early December I wrote this in my notebook-
For some reason I just don't want to draw at the moment, I can't force myself to do it even. I don't seem to have any ideas that I'm desperate to express - it's a really strange place to be.

Thank goodness, slow days hanging out with the kids has relaxed me and let me see moments to draw, like the bird reflected in the puddle! Now the kids are back at school and I'm back at work I hope I'll beable to hang onto some of that slowness and openness. I've done a bit of painting this morning and hope to share photos of those soon.

Finches

2011-01-18T21:11:00.007+09:30

Do you have a subject that won't go away? Mine seems to be birds, in particular double-barred finches at the moment. Tiny little birds that I see in other people's gardens when I'm out walking. Recently I did see a pair very briefly in my garden and it felt like a gift or a blessing! I did a painting of them a couple of months ago.

By co-incidence I picked up a back copy of the journal Meanjin at a 2nd hand book shop and there's a poem about double-barred finches in it, by Martin Langford. (unfortunately I can't find a link to the poem) I've been working on my own poem in response and some sketchbook pages that I'm using as the design for a lino-cut.

This is my poem in progress so far - I'll be taking it away for reworking in a couple of weeks.

Finches

You might only see them as a movement
from the corner of your eye
you have to look in the right way, focus
on something small, like a thimble.

Pale faced with a dark bonnet
common, from the Kimberley's
to Groote Eylandt, from Darwin's suburbs
to Sydney's, an ornithologist might not
look twice.

I've seen them on neglected nature strips
taking off in a wave at my approach.
Today at the backdoor, I looked to
where the palm tree was cut down, now
perfectly overgrown.

There a pair of finches flit and perch
make the long grass bow, peck a seed
and flit again to the chain link fence
and go.

Sketchbook

2011-01-08T21:55:00.006+09:30

Lucky me I'm still off work for another week. I've been doing some sketchbook drawing, trying to be playful and open-ended!!I've had time to be exploring other blogs, which is a treat, and via the lovely blog Stitchworks, I discovered the sketchbook challenge, the challenge of one themed sketchbook page per month sounds like something I can manage...we'll see...

I've done some not very successful monoprints - the paint was too thick I think - but I cut up and collaged this journal page.

Here's the story behind it.
Last Sunday we went to the local markets to grab some lunch, the day after New Year's Day, there were not many stalls and not much food left by the time we got there. The kids really wanted a fruit milkshake so I joined the queue. The milkshake lady was on her own, maybe her helpers were on holiday or didn't turn up. It was hot and the queue was slow moving, she was determined, dogged.
By the time we got to the front of the queue there was no ice-cream or milk left, she made a banana mango drink with water and ice and honey, I said 'that will be beautiful' and it was. The kids were as happy with it as they would have been with a shake, it was cool and fruity and refreshing. She could have packed up her stall and gone home, I guess that's why I wanted to make a piece of work about her.

Haiku New Year

2011-01-03T21:55:00.006+09:30

At midnight fireworks explode
dogs bark then settle
geese pass honking overhead.

Around the dinner table
kids ride their scooters
outside rain is still falling.

Happy coincidence!! a few days ago I rediscovered Watermark a poetry blog by Sharon Brogan. It used to be on my favourites list, but got lost in one of the computer crashes of 2010! She is welcoming in the new year with haiku and anyone can contribute via comments at watermark blog.

As promised here's a random snapshot from one of my walks. Where rapid creek meets the sea, storm clouds are brewing.

Season's greetings - going slow

2010-12-30T21:50:00.005+09:30

December is not a good month for me artwise, my Friday mornings are given over to xmas shopping and going along to end of term assemblies and the like at school. I chaffe against it for a while and eventually get in the mood just in time - I wrote my xmas cards 3 days before xmas this year!

The main drawback for me is that I don't enjoy shopping, and that's what christmas seems to be all about these days. Luckily I squeezed in time for a bit of sewing and made these presents for two of my workmates.

Now I'm off work for a couple of weeks, I'm busy with the kids of course, lots of trips down to the skate-park for the twins to ride their scooters - which is the latest thing! I'm going for walks inbetween rainstorms and taking some truly awful photos!! (maybe I'll share some of them through January) I'm getting back to my sketchbook which has been growing dusty on the shelf!

It's exciting to think of the new year just around the corner and what it might bring. I hope you're enjoying some relaxing times over the holidays and that the creative ideas are brewing...

craft fair and more

2010-11-26T12:01:00.006+09:30

The craft fair is over!! Here's a photo of my stall, last Sunday.

It was a good day, very busy and with pretty good sales. I must admit I find it a bit stressful getting organised, coping with my expectations, and feeling exposed sitting there with my art. Hopefully the more I do it the more I can relax and enjoy... This time I made the mistake of letting all my kids stay for the second half after dropping in for lunch, and they drove me round the bend!! Just too hot and too tired to deal with them by then. Oh well, you live and learn.

Here's a photo (taken by my son) of one of two pineapples we grew in the front yard - which have been guzzled, very sweet and beautiful! All the family love them so we've planted all the 'slips' (little shoots that grow off the bottom of the pineapple) so hopefully we'll have ten to eat next year.

Bye for now, have a great weekend!

too busy!

2010-11-14T21:03:00.004+09:30

Sorry I haven't been around for a couple of weeks, I've been busy getting work ready for the last (and probably biggest!) craft fair of the year, next Sunday. Here are some new cards I've been making from the monoprints I did a couple of months ago.

Also had a lovely evening out at 'Off the page' our local spoken word event - Bronwn Mehan, another Darwin poet describes the evening on her blog, I also braved the open mic and read a couple of poems (and won 4th prize!!) best of all I'm feeling very inspired about poetry again.

I hope things are creative for you too!!!

Bird Sculptures

2010-10-29T14:29:00.007+09:30

When I'm at an exhibition I trip over the sculptures because I'm so busy looking at the paintings - this is an old joke of mine, but not too far from the truth!

So it's quite amazing that my latest creations are 3-D. Remember back in August I was trying to play with new materials and made some clay birds and hearts? I was partly inspired by the bird house sculptures by Sue Pelletier in Cloth Paper Scissors, and partly because I've been painting birds and making felt birds and fridge magnets, it's another way of exploring that theme.

I wanted to combine them with wooden bases, and by amazing co-incidence found some lovely bits of wood on the roadside on my walk to work over the last month! I bought a roll of wire, I painted the clay pieces and glued scraps of fabric to the hearts. Everything was there but nothing was happening...

Then I realised I needed some work for the Territory Craft Xmas Exhibition - this gave me the push I needed to get moving and bring all the elements together....after being quite tentative (and grumpy) about the early stages it was great fun, and I'm already playing with making more of these!

I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend, hopefully with a bit of time for art making - this is the time of year when the kids get in the pool and I can have an hour's peace keeping an eye on them and doing a bit of sewing at the same time. Right now the thunder is rumbling and we might be in for a storm with any luck!

and the winner is...

2010-10-24T22:21:00.003+09:30

My computer has decided to fix itself - maybe it just needed a weeks holiday from the hammering it gets from the kids, possibly the screen is about to die we'll soon find out!!

So I've decided that, as there were only 3 comments for my giveaway I'll send you all something!! Lisa and Clare I'll need your postal addresses so please email me. Many thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment, and hello to any 'lurkers' out there don't be shy!

I've been pretty busy in the studio (verandah) and hopefully will be back in the next day or two with some photos to share.

gnashing of teeth

2010-10-21T08:55:00.002+09:30

Just a quick note to say - my computer is down again. So the giveaway that's supposed to be drawn tomorrow will probably be delayed. Sorry everyone, and hope to be back online soon.

Ramblings on painting

2010-10-16T22:20:00.006+09:30

Such a pleasure to get back to painting - I've started on another wave of little paintings for the next craft fair.
These 2 are the ones I did last Friday, starting to paint felt thrilling like standing on a cliff edge ready to launch off - it feels silly writing this, I know some people really do it - parachuting, hang gliding, bungee jumping. I'm not that brave!! I suppose I do it creatively, jumping in not knowing what will happen. Such a treat to have the house to myself and be completely absorbed in the process.

This painting was inspired by seeing a large bird in our garden, it perched on the fence for a few minutes then disappeared, though I heard its call in the neighborhood the next morning. I got a book from the library and discovered it's a pheasant coucal, the description of its call was the clincher 'deep hollow...like liquid glugging from a bottle...'

I did a bird painting yesterday too, hope to have photos soon when it stops raining.

It's not too late to leave a comment and have a chance in my giveaway.
Hope you're having a great weekend.

giveaway at last!

2010-10-11T21:33:00.004+09:30

As promised I'm doing a giveaway to celebrate one year of blogging, which happened mid-September. I've been doing a bit of clearing out and here are a couple of collage postcards I made two years ago that have been unearthed! They will be part of the giveaway, and also a new card, as I'm back in cardmaking mode ready for the next craft fair.

Just leave a comment to be in the running, I'll be drawing the giveaway on Fri 22nd Oct.
Best wishes to all!!

birthdays and revisiting still life (now with photos)

2010-09-26T21:18:00.014+09:30

First, to get back to what I was saying when I got all tongue tied in that post about the still life painting...

I have a beautiful book from the library 'The Bird King and other sketches' by Shaun Tan. Shaun Tan is an amazing artist, illustrator, writer of children's books. This book is something different, a collection of some of his unpublished work, the doodles that turn into children's books, the sketches for his own entertainment, and drawings from life/nature. Here's a little from his introduction:-
'Some are exercises to simply keep fit as an artist, where the practise of drawing is about learning to see, a study that never ends.'
I think that's kind of what I was trying to say!! He also reminds me that I don't draw enough.

It was my birthday last week, we celebrated fairly quietly! But my 8 year old son made me this lovely diorama, and took the photo (much better than the photos I took.)

Sometime in September was my first year anniversary of blogging, I was intending to do a giveaway to celebrate, hopefully I'll get my act together soon, watch this space!!!

Here are some little xmas decorations I've started making ready for the next craft fair.

*aargh!!!* for some reason blogger won't upload my photos, I'll try again tomorrow.
Monday my photos still won't load, any ideas why???

So then I tried to load the photos onto flickr and they wouldn't work there either. I've never had any problems over at flickr so that made me think there was a problem with the photo files...so eventually I reloaded the photos from my camera and voila!!!!

Busman's holiday

2010-09-17T12:54:00.008+09:30

Through August I tried to have a month of trying different/new things, as a kind of break after working towards the craft fair in July. The things I tried were -
handmade fabric books (inspired by a project in Ecobooks),

a scroll book(from a project in Cloth Paper Scissors),

making things with air-dry clay - birds hearts heads

a series of drawings of women artists (I did 2!)

All these projects are in stages of half-finished.Not really a holiday! it was harder than usual to get down to work, I found it really hard to work in an open ended kind of way, and most Fridays I did a little painting too, so that I had the satisfaction of something finished under my belt! Hopefully I might have picked up a few new skills or ways of looking at things along the way. If nothing else I'm back refreshed and have dived into a woodcut. I've done plenty of lino-cuts over the years, but this is my first woodcut. I went to a demonstration of woodblock printing a few weeks ago - using the traditional japanese method, no press required... well I've been inspired to have a go, and should have some photos to share soon.
Hope you're feeling inspired about whatever you're doing!

still life

2010-09-08T22:00:00.005+09:30

Recently I did this still life painting 'Tea for Two'.

Here's the real still life set up.

I've been doing lots of little paintings with teacups in them, over the last year. I thought it was about time I looked at a real one...only to discover that I didn't have a proper tea-cup in the house (I always have a mug/bucket of tea!). So I took a trip to the op shop to buy these cups to paint.

I guess photographic realism is not what I'm after in my paintings - they are usually about a memory of something, or a feeling/emotion. Not quite sure what I'm trying to say here!! might have to get back to you...

Red skirts and red studios

2010-08-31T21:00:00.007+09:30

Here's a new painting - about 2 weeks old, called Ginger cat in the red room.

I seem to associate red with creativity, Matisse has a red studio painting doesn't he? Twenty odd years ago when I was an art student I bought a red paisley skirt at a jumble sale for 2p!!! And then wore it to the studios everyday for the next 3 years. I called it my painting skirt and somehow putting it on put me in the right frame of mind to be creative. Eventually it wore thin and fell apart - I wish I'd known I was going to end up gluing fabric to my paintings and I'd have saved the scraps to turn into art!

Here's a photo of one of the pineapples, also about two weeks ago, growing bigger and with tiny purple flowers.

About the birds

2010-08-21T21:02:00.008+09:30

I think this is the first painting I made where there are birds on people's heads. It's from about 4 years ago, and is a kind of a family portrait of myself and the twins who were 3 or 4 back then. The birds are ones that we see in the parks or beaches in Darwin - from left to right - plover, wedge tailed eagle and ibis. (Neither the birds or the people are very realistic, but that's a whole other discussion.)
A while ago someone on flickr asked me if there was a story about the bird in this picture,
this was my reply. 'I do a lot of paintings of women and birds, I think the birds can express something about the woman's character, also that it can explore the tension between freedom and duty. Also I like the humour of the image if you take it literally. I don't have an exact story for the paintings and I hope the viewer will bring their own ideas to it too.'

I'm completely submerged in the book 'The Time Traveler's Wife' (about 3/4 of the way through and dreading a tragic ending.) in it there is a scene in an art gallery where a ten year old girl is talking about the artworks 'bird boxes' of Joseph Cornell. She says... 'He made the boxes because he was lonely. He didn't have anyone to love, and he made the boxes so he could love them, and so people would know that he existed, and because birds are free and the boxes are hiding places for the birds so they will feel safe, and he wanted to be free and be safe. The boxes are for him so he can be a bird.'

Joseph Cornell is a real artist although the book is fiction, you can see a slide show of his works here. It's funny that he was mentioned by an artist in the last issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine though it didn't make much of an impression until I read that scene above and some kind of little alarm bells went off!!

Here are a couple more bird quotes;

Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken winged bird
that cannot fly.
Langston Hughes

“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.” Emily Dickinson

Hope your weekend is going well, I'm trying to have a quiet one - though the kids have other ideas!!

Composting

2010-08-10T22:06:00.006+09:30

I'm sure no-one else in the world is interested in this photo, but here it is anyway, my compost heap!!
I'm ridiculously pleased with it- a mountain of palmfronds and kitchen scraps. At the weekend I squeezed on the last few leaves and sweepings, watered it and topped it off with some flattened boxeds and a brick - to stop the whole lot from blowing away. It will moulder and rot through the wet season and hopefully be useful compost by the early dry (April/May) next year. I have a second bay to fill in the meantime!

My whole weekend seemed to be spent breaking up squabbles with the kids...and filing. We just got a second hand filing cabinet, and now I have no excuse not to organise 15 years worth of papers. I did manage to do this little painting.
And today this possible - first draft - poem.

Declaration

When I come out
from the bedroom
where I've been drawing
or reading poetry,
you're watching tv
and want me to be enraged
about something you've seen
on the news or perhaps
on youtube.
I don't have the strength
to take on the world,
I need to save it
for the daily tussles
over showers and readers.
I make my declarations
for hope, with paint on canvas
with seeds planted
in warm soil.

Reasons to be cheerful

2010-08-02T21:11:00.008+09:30

(The title of this blog post shows I'm an Ian Dury fan from way back.)

First reason to be cheerful, is we have two pineapple plants flowering. Growing pineapples in the tropics is easy, but only for the patient! You just cut off the top of a pineapple, plant it in the garden, water it now and again, and wait...a couple of years...

Here are the plants, about thigh high,

and the beautiful spiky flowers nestled inside that should be fruit by christmas. I'm also waiting with bated breath for 3 eggplant flowers to open. Fingers crossed they won't just drop off like the tomato flowers did.

The second reason is these gorgeous embroidery threads that I couldn't resist at the dollar shop. I don't do much sewing, even less embroidery... I'll probably sit and look at them for a while, maybe steal the colour combinations for some of my paintings.

The third reason is this inspiring new book I picked up at the library - Eco books by Terry Taylor, it shows you how to make books from recycled materials, there are 40 projects to try, some simple, some too complicated for my limited bookbinding experience! I'm having a go at a fabric covered one and I'll let you know how I get on.

new journal page

2010-07-26T21:53:00.003+09:30

While I was preparing for the craft fair, my journal was neglected!! This is my first 'getting back into playing' page. I started off by loosely painting some faces and then worked more into the ones that interested me. I'm reading a book of short stories set in India (the anger of aubergines by Bulbul Sharma), and I think the atmosphere of it has sneaked into this page.

I've been really struggling with writing (poetry), possibly sending out work has made me too worried about the finished thing, so I'm going back to basics, here's a couple of not quite haiku...

Hard as rock
round and green as peas
baby mangoes.

clattering
at the kitchen sink
indigo sky descending

That was the craft fair!

2010-07-20T21:43:00.007+09:30

The last couple of months I've been very focused on getting work ready for the craft fair, it finally came around on Sunday. Here's a shot of my stall.

We made some cards and bookmarks from the kids prints, here's my daughter looking after them.
I really need to make some more of these...bird fridge magnets!

We had a nice day, I managed to sneak off a few times and look at some of the other stalls. Now I'm looking forward to a month or two of being a bit more experimental, doing open-ended work, following my nose just to see where I end up.

The hopeful gardener

2010-07-11T21:19:00.011+09:30

I finished this painting about a week ago, it's called the hopeful gardener. She's dropping seeds into the soil and telling the bird not to eat them!
I feel a lot like her about my efforts in the garden! This is my first year of seriously attempting a veggie garden. I've planted things before and even had some success (mainly basil) but it's been a bit haphazard and disheartening when things don't grow because it's the wrong climate and I don't know what I'm doing...

bok choi seedlings
So now I'm using Leonie Norrington's book as my bible - if she says it's easy to grow here I might have half a chance! The garden has changed a bit since these photos as I've had to put a knee-high fence around it to keep the bush chooks (scrub fowl) out. The bush chooks are about the size of a chicken, black with orange feet and a wierd call that's a cross between a screech and a gobble. They must come scrabbling for bugs in the soil and throw the mulch around - they've got into my veggie patch about 5 times now - I started off with 5 capsicum seedlings but only 2 survived. The basil seedlings have been flattened 3 times and I've had to replant again... Sometimes I wonder why I'm trying to squeeze another thing into my life! but the first thing I do in the morning is check out the veggie patch!!

parsley and mint

eggplants

Kids and computers...

2010-07-08T10:39:00.003+09:30

My home computer is on the blink again, shutting down and sending error messages, so I might not be around much until that's fixed. Funny that my partners computer (that only he uses) hardly ever breaks down, but mine (that is hammered by the kids) seems to crash every six months. In some ways it's a good thing, it's school holidays and the kids have been much more creative in using their time since it crashed. They all have to have their hour's turn - morning and afternoon if they're allowed, and tend to watch each others turn, which doesn't leave much time for anything else. Now they've been playing boardgames, making cards, and more trips to the park than ever!

Hope your holidays are going well, and hope to be back here soon!

a couple of new paintings

2010-06-26T21:57:00.005+09:30

Here are a couple of (blurry) photos of new paintings. I did these 2 or 3 weeks ago. The one of the woman in the boat was sparked by my 7 year old asking why did boats have those old tyres ?...
They are supposed to be for the craft fair that's coming up fast in 3 weeks! But the boat painting sold already. So I'm busy at the moment finishing off little birds, fridge magnets and lots and lots of cards. Hopefully I'll squeeze in a couple more paintings too.

Catching up on a bit of reading!

2010-06-21T14:51:00.007+09:30

I finished reading Wolf Hall, and really enjoyed it. I was a bit perplexed at the end that she chose to stop there, it didn't feel like an ending. I don't think this will spoil it if you haven't read it yet, to know that there is going to be a second book.

Tim Flannery came to Darwin for Wordstorm unfortunately I didn't get to the events he spoke at, but I thought it was about time I read his book The Weather Makers (before I dive into another novel). It's a really important book about climate change, and pretty depressing reading. The science is made interesting and relatively easy to understand. My natural reaction to anything bad is to bury my head in the sand. This book is arguing against that attitude - that accepting global warming is a fact is the first step towards doing something about it. He does give a note of optimism - 'the most important thing to realise is that we can all make a difference and help combat climate change at almost no cost to our lifestyle...'

Kind of in the same vein, I came across a great article by Jeanette Winterson in the Guardian online which is also about the individual making a difference. (Just by the way, the Guardian book blogs discusses a poem each week, if you haven't come across it it's great to read new and old poems with a brief intro, and discussion via comments.)

I'll be back soon with a post with some pictures!
Hope you're having a great week.

On the run!

2010-06-14T22:16:00.006+09:30

I didn't post last week as we've been busy with visitors. Oh we're terrible creatures of habit at this house, so it's a good shock to the system to have lovely friends come to stay, and make us go to the markets and the wildlife park, and out to dinner; and to remind us that there is life going on outside Darwin!
Now we're back to normal for a week, but then school holidays will mean more chaos!

I have done a couple of new paintings, but haven't uploaded photos yet. So instead here's my favourite batch of cards I made from recent monoprints.

Discussion of a painting

2010-05-30T21:35:00.009+09:30

Be warned this could be a long and rambling post!
On friday my partner looked at my new painting and said - what's the story with the buildings and birds? I said nothing really they just are. That wouldn't be an acceptable answer for his tutor at uni, or for an exhibition proposal...

This is not a major or significant piece of work, but it is interesting to think about a better answer for that question. This painting is a spin off (or continuation of a theme) from one of the monoprints I did last week. When I do the monoprints I work fast, I have a few art books/magazines/sketchbooks open on the table as I work, for ideas and inspiration. The bird and house image came from the cover of the last issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine which featured a sculpture made of clay, paper mache, and wire of a bird atop a small house. I really liked the dark - negative version of this print and that's what set off the painting.

There are other things that I might associate with it but they are not what the painting is about such as-1) I'm reading Wolf Hall at the moment, about the court of Henry VIII, it has constant references to people being sent to the Tower - which also reminds me of the superstition that if the ravens ever leave the tower of London England will fall...
2) Lying in bed listening to bush chooks (scrub fowl) scrabbling on the roof.
3) The fact that they are towers not houses has a fairy tail feel, also the size of the birds is magical.
4) Whether the birds are protective, malevolent, imaginary...
5) I could even look at it with an environmental slant - all those high rise developments in town, people living cut-off from nature, unaware of the birds swooping down to roost on their roof at night.
I hope that another person looking at the painting would bring their own associations and meanings to it. But really it's about the visual - that I wanted to make a painting with the dark silhouettes of the buildings and birds, and from there I wrestled with colour and composition to get something 'satisfactory'.

I'd love to hear how others feel about explaining the ideas behind their art. Hope you had a good weekend!

new monoprints

2010-05-22T23:05:00.003+09:30

Just a really quick post (it's late) to show you these new tiny monoprints, around 10x7 cm each.

I've added colour to one with coloured pencils, and will probably be working into and collaging some of the others. I've already used some on cards and hopefully will have photos of them to show soon.

The weather is strange, the rain is back it's very confusing!

I'm a third of the way into Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - my Mum and sister raved about it so I have to read it too!! It's about life in and around the court of Henry VIII seen through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, amazingly detailed and completely absorbing. I keep having to go for a little lie down and read a few pages...

Wordstorm and beyond

2010-05-17T22:00:00.004+09:30

This weekend was Wordstorm, the NT writer's festival. It's a huge festival for a small town, I managed to get to only a fraction of it. I missed/avoided the big names and big ticket events, and went along to some almost randomly picked forums, and readings, which all turned out to be wonderful. I won't forget for a long time Andrea Hirata struggling through tears to read a chapter of his book, of course tears were rolling down my cheeks too.
Each day I dashed off for a few hours of inspiration and then back home to reality, clothes to wash, kids to feed, my mind still buzzing.

So there wasn't much time for painting but I did start this little canvas.

It's the same lacy top as last time - a very young woman was wearing this on the bus a few weeks ago, she was beautiful but 'undressed'. Probably fine for going out to a night-club, but not for the bus at 8 in the morning. I wanted to tell her to beware...

On the writing front another rejection, and nothing sent out yet for May.

The Crochet Story...

2010-05-10T21:35:00.007+09:30

It all started on a Saturday morning... after our usual trip to the library, I popped into the fabric shop for 5 minutes. It's a shop for patchwork/quilters, I don't quilt but I drool over the fabrics and threads and wonder how I can use them in my work. Well, my son came across a book of 'amigurumi' (cute animal softies), 'let's make these' he said, 'oh but they're crochet,' I said, 'I don't know how to do that.

But the seed was in my head, so a few weeks later I went back and bought the book, balls of wool and crochet hooks. The amazing thing for me was that when I sat down with the wool and hook, my hands knew exactly what to do even though I hadn't done it since I was a teenager (30years ago!)

My son who's 12, went in 2 days, from struggling to make one stitch, to finishing a ball that will be an octopus body! My 7 year olds decided they needed more hands...so I taught them finger knitting instead.

Two weeks later the crochet craze is over, hopefully he might pick it up again in the school holidays when he's at a loose end. I've managed to finish this very mutant turtle! (with the book showing how it's supposed to look)

Still in the doldrums...

2010-05-03T21:44:00.009+09:30

On Friday morning first of all I had to sort out a bad smell in my kitchen, which turned out to be a dead (decomposing) mouse in the bottom of a cupboard - it took rubber gloves and a lot of bleach to deal with!

Then I forced myself to sit down and paint - 2 little paintings. I'm not completely happy with them, they might need a bit more playing with before they're finished.

Last day of April I also sent out 3 poems to this Australian online journal, there's some wonderful poetry here, do take a look.

1st of May is officially the start of the dry season, and it is feeling a bit cooler in the mornings. I got the kids to help me dig over my veggie patch, raked in some fertilizer, and hopefully next weekend we'll start planting.

Well, it sounds like I got a fair bit done, so why the doldrums? I'm feeling like a surfer waiting for the next big wave of inspiration...

A bit of a mish mash

2010-04-26T21:23:00.011+09:30

There's always a bit of a feeling of deflation after the craft fair (even worse after an exhibition). After being really focused and working madly for the last month or so, I feel like I should beable to relax and play around a bit. Which I have been doing - rediscovering crochet!! - but also feeling a bit guilty for not powering onward...

At the moment I'm reading a book (borrowed from a friend) about the Canadian artist Emily Carr (1871-1945). I'd never heard of her but I think she's well known in Canada for her landscapes and particularly images of the northwest coast Indians, their totem poles and townships. As a person she comes across as a prickly difficult character, and the writing of the book is quite dry, but I will slog on to the end! I'm at the point where she's 56 and is just getting some recognition from the art establishment for her work.

I did this drawing from one of the photos in the biography, of Emily,aged 16, with her pet crow. I've been painting women with birds for a couple of years now, and I don't seem to get tired of the subject. It's wonderful to stumble across a photo like this!!

Still also slogging on with the poem a day for April.

I have at last sent out one poem and will try to get a couple more organised before April runs out!

Hope you had a great weekend, the dry season is around the corner here - hooray.

Craft fair and more

2010-04-20T20:58:00.011+09:30

I'm a bit late posting, it was a hectic weekend with the craft fair on Sunday. It was well worth doing, I had plenty of sales and it's great to get feedback, amazing the number of people who say 'oh I never knew your did art'!!

Here are a couple of the last minute paintings I did.

My 12 year old has decided he wants to learn to crochet. We've seen a lovely book of amiguri animals, so I'll be splashing out some of my earnings on crochet hooks, wool and the book. It's a very long time since I did any crochet...I think when I was about 11 to 14, so I'm hoping it'll come back to me. I was a crafty kid but then was won over by 'art' (and less interested in sewing at school when it became serious dress-making), my sewing like the sock-monsters seems to come from that child-like place.

I'm still mostly managing the poem a day, some of my poems this month have been about art and art school, here's one (below) that still needs a lot of work. (I'm taking a leaf from Jessie's book, I'll leave it online for a few weeks, and then take it off to re-work and hopefully send out.)

I've had my first rejection of the year and still haven't submitted anything for March or April - must get my act together now the craft fair is over!

Back from the abyss

2010-04-10T22:50:00.007+09:30

It's so good to be back online!! Feels like I've been away for months, but it's only a couple of weeks.

The craft fair is only a week away now. I have a couple more paintings ready to take along.

This week it's been school holidays - for some (annoying) reason I just can't paint when the kids are in the house, so that all ground to a halt. Instead I've been doing some sewing projects, things I can pick up and put down when the kids yell. I've made a batch of felt brooches - I don't have photos of these yet. And this is my first attempt at a sock monster.

I've been admiring these on the net - there's a whole group devoted to them on flickr! We've been saving odd and too small socks for a while...

April is poetry month (officially in the U.S. but there are no boundaries in blogworld). I've been flying solo doing a poem a day while my computer was down. It's nice not to have the pressure to upload to the net every evening - which takes up valuable writing time. So hopefully I'll keep on to the end of the month. I didn't submit anything in March (blame the computer) and wll have to do double this month to make up for it!

silence

2010-04-01T11:29:00.004+09:30

Sorry for the silence. My computer has problems and has been at the fixer for a week...it could take longer. The timing is not too bad, less distractions when I'm getting ready for the craft fair, but I do miss you all and your blogs!
Happy Easter, back soon (hopefully) with lots of new work to share.

Grooving on!

2010-03-22T21:29:00.010+09:30

I had a good productive week, perfect timing with the craft fair coming, sometimes a deadline is just the kick in the pants I need! Here are a couple more new paintings, I'm especially pleased with the red bird one.

I've also made some fridge magnets - collages of different papers on heavy cardboard with a little saying or thought. It's a chance to get on my soap box!! and say 'read some poems' 'plant a seed' 'change the world with kindness'...

Now I'm reading High Tide in Tucson, essays by Barbara Kingsolver on a wide range of subjects. Here is a lovely quote from one titled 'Civil disobedience at breakfast' about parenting and creativity.

The remarkable poet Lucille Clifton was asked, at a reading I attended, 'Why are your poems always so short?' Ms Clifton replied, ' I have six children, and a memory that can hold about twenty lines until the end of the day.'

I would probably trade in my whole Great Books set for an epic-length poem from the pen of Lucille Clifton. But I couldn't wish away those six distracting children, even as a selfish reader, because I cherish Clifton's work precisely for its maternal passions and trenchant understanding of family.

Reading this put a big smile on my face!! What an amazing woman, what do I have to complain about with only three children!! It gives me a great feeling of encouragement, reminds me that I'm not the only one trying to juggle all these things. (the world of blogs tells me this too!). And it also sends me on a quest, I don't know if I have ever read a poem by Lucille Clifton, I definitely need to track some down!

Later note ; I just googled Lucille Clifton, and discovered I do know and love her poem Blessing the Boats. And sadly that she died last month.

Craft Fair coming

2010-03-13T22:20:00.006+09:30

I knew there was a craft fair coming, but still it manages to creep up on me. Only a month to go, and I have heaps of work to do. I've started on a batch of little paintings, 4 inch square and 5" by 7" mostly. I think of these as 'not serious work', but it's really interesting to work fast like this, take inspiration from anywhere - images in magazines, old sketchbooks, half remembered paintings - and let one painting suggest what to do for the next. Some turn out great, some don't! (Sometimes I'm surprised about which ones sell and which don't...)

On the writing front I did send out a poem for Feb, but didn't feel like mentioning it as I hadn't written anything all month. At last - after a couple of false starts - I have a new poem underway about a blind man I saw getting on the bus. ( Hooray for catching the bus!!! half my inspiration seems to come from there.) The experience also reminded me of a great poem by Denise Levertov, 'A Solitude' - about seeing a blind man on a train, of being able to gaze at him because he doesn't know he's being watched, and then helping him through the station; her feeling of him being closed off in his own world. Unfortunately I can't find it on the net to link to, but check it out if you can. If I'm sounding very knowledgeable here, don't be fooled. I loved poetry at school and as a student, but then didn't read any for 10 years or more, and only started again in the last 5 years or so - reading it and writing it have come along hand in hand. I have a couple of huge anthologies that I'm slowly dipping in and out of, finding poems that I love, and poets that I'd like to read more of one day!

two steps forward one step back

2010-03-08T21:44:00.005+09:30

On Friday I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. I printed up this new lino-cut of woman with guitar (& admirer), and re-printed some of my old ones so that I have a stash ready for card making.

Other than that I was running around - to the hardware to buy cord, then stapling the cord to the back of paintings, and then delivering the paintings to Territory Craft. I get frustrated when these jobs eat up half of my art morning, but they have to be done!

I've added an extra section to the sidebar of my blog, of books I'm reading. I always have a book on the go, and squeeze in reading on the bus and in my lunch break.

Hopefully this week will be a bit more productive...

Revision

2010-02-27T22:26:00.005+09:30

So I've finished the gluttony painting - which I think of as a kind of mona lisa with burger bun! In the end it only took half an hour and some very minor adjustments - an extra roof top, a tendril of hair, the colour of the flags, and that was it. I had it hanging on the verandah where we eat dinner, for the last 2 weeks, so I'd been looking at it and thinking about what needed changing.

It seems strange that I can jump back into a painting, but struggle to revise a poem. Especially because changes to a painting aren't reversible, once the acrylic goes on you can't go back. Whereas with writing you can keep a copy of each draft.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, it seems very yellow. The monsoon is back with more torrential rains, and very grey skies. No sun at all today, but it did lighten a bit this afternoon when I grabbed the chance to take this shot.

cards and confessions

2010-02-21T21:51:00.007+09:30

Some of the less successful monoprints have been gradually finding their way onto cards - collaged, coloured with pencil, watercolour or acrylic. The better prints I'm too scared to touch and will probably moulder away on my desk for months!

One of the blogs I like to drop in on is mouse notebook, always thought provoking and her artwork is beautiful. I enjoyed this post about the difference between how we might be perceived by someone on the outside reading our blogs, and how we are in 'real life.' I'm always jealous of those blogs that have beautiful shots of their house/ studio with displays of artwork and seasonal crafts. You'll never see a photo like that on my blog... there aren't any beautiful corners in my house, just cobwebby ones, with piles of the kids junk that needs putting away!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

First painting of the year

2010-02-14T21:23:00.008+09:30

Last time I posted, I mentionned an exhibition that's coming up that I've been struggling with. The theme is the 7 deadly sins, I've been racking my brain over the xmas holidays for some ideas for this... I did come up with a cople of things but they didn't work out.

Just when I'd resigned myself to not putting any work in this show (and with only a week until the deadline) I finally got the inspiration!!!

On the bus on the way home from work I saw a woman holding a silk fan, the shape of it reminded me of the old style hand mirrors, which ties in with 'vanity'. Here's the drawing I did in my journal.

And here's the painting. It's called 'Imperfect Reflection'.

It was one of those joyous ones that almost painted itself. Feeling ambitious now (!!!) I've started another canvas, this one is on the theme of gluttony/greed, and it's the complete opposite, I just can't get it right. I've been going back to it all weekend - to repaint this colour, change the sky, paint out those flowers... If it ever gets kind of finished I'll post a photo.

Distractions

2010-02-06T22:04:00.007+09:30

I haven't done any art in the evenings this week - no journal pages, or cards, nothing. I've been totally sucked in by 'Australia's favourite dancer' a tv show that's been on every evening this week. First selecting their top 100 dancers and then whittling it down to 20, it's an emotional rollercoaster for the dancers and the viewers, (and the presenters milk it every inch of the way!) the dancers cry with joy or disappointment, and make me weep too...

Consequently I sat down at the verandah table on Friday morning and didn't know where to start! I listened to the radio and flicked through an art book, and eventually knuckled down and printed a little lino-cut, which I carved the week before. These will be for cards.

I also printed a sheet of collograph prints. This is more experimental printmaking inspired by the book 'Printmaking and mixed media' by Dorit Elisha. I have a vague idea to cut them up and use as backgrounds on pages of a little artists book - which I was hoping to have ready for a members show that's coming up very soon, but it's starting to look as though I won't be ready for that. Sometimes a theme and a deadline can spur me on to do something good, but sometimes it sets me in a panic and stops me from doing anything. Just another distraction...

More on monoprinting

2010-01-30T21:45:00.006+09:30

As promised a bit more info on monoprinting.

There are two ways of monoprinting, one is to paint an image with inks onto a sheet of glass or acrylic, lay your paper on top, press down with a roller or just your hands and take a print. The other is to roll out a flat layer of ink on glass or acrylic, lay a sheet of paper onto it and draw with a pencil or sharp object onto the paper, it will pick up ink from the glass on the other side of the paper. This gives you a black line on white paper. If you're quickbefore the ink dries you can get a second print off the glass - the negative, white lines on black. It can help to dampen your paper to pick up more ink and get a better print on this second try. Thin paper like rice paper is ideal.

This is the proper way, but of course I'm doing the quick version with whatever I have to hand! Instead of a glass sheet I've been using a piece of shiny cardboard - even the waxy surface of a cereal box would probably do. Instead of slow drying printing inks I've been using acrylic paint with some retarder mixed in which I brush onto the cardboard plate rather than roll. I like the liveliness of the brushmarks and in a way it combines both approaches into one.

On other matters...to round up for January! I sent off a poem to the NT Lit Awards - my submission for January. I'm aiming to send off something each month, which hopefully will be do-able.

Last weekend we ate salad with 3 tiny raddishes - the entire harvest from those seedlings I showed you a month ago! My partner and kids found this laughable and asked for a magnifying glass to find them on their plates!! This didn't stop me from feeling proud of myself...well at least it's a step in the right direction.

Monoprints

2010-01-24T22:10:00.008+09:30

I treated myself to a late xmas present, a couple of books that I bought online (my first foray would you believe!) one is ' printmaking and mixed media' by Dorit Elisha. It describes various methods of printmaking without a press, I probably know this stuff already, but there's lots of colour pictures to help get me inspired!!

My first little play has been at monoprinting. A long time ago I used to do them a lot, before I had kids and when I had a proper studio I used to do a handful of monoprints each day as a loosening up exercise before painting. So it's wierd, you know how the negative voice in your head goes, ' why are you doing this, you're going backwards, this isn't anything new...' I've been trying not to worry about the finished product, just experiment.

This is a new one but is pretty typical of the work I was doing about 17 years ago.

I'm very interested in these more painterly ones, with several layers of prints.

If I get time this week I'll describe a bit of the process.

Soft rain

2010-01-17T21:57:00.007+09:30

When I look back at the few months of art journal pages I managed to complete last year, the ones I enjoy the most are the diary-like ones that remind me of the day we went to the wildlife park out of tourist season and had the place to ourselves, or the time we had a birds nest complete with eggs right by the back door, or the day I cooked pancakes liberally sprinkled with anger!

My latest pages are full of clouds and rain! When there's a lull in the rain we dash out, my favourite is to go to the beach for a good walk.

This one might become a lino-print, I've also been playing with monoprints today - no photos to show yet, but I will soon.

Now a question! This vine has sprouted in my compost heap, I'm hopeful it might be sweet potato, but probably it's just a weed. If it looks familiar to you I'd love to know what it is!

Patience

2010-01-09T21:26:00.007+09:30

Before I had kids I thought I was a patient person. These days I lose my temper a lot more than I'd like to admit. Often I hang onto it all day, and then lose it at shower time, when peace and quiet is almost within reach. You can be sure one of the kids just won't get in the shower, and then once they're in won't get out. (I'm gnashing my teeth just thinking about it)

Working on being patient is something I have to remind myself about often. I like the phrase 'practising patience', because of the suggestion that if I keep practising I might get there in the end...

These journal pages started with splaxhing about watercolour to let off steam after a grumpy evening, but the end result makes me think of how women used to embroider verses from the bible, an act of contemplation.

Happy New Year !!

2010-01-01T21:17:00.007+09:30

I hope you've all had a happy and relaxing Christmas and New Year. It's a fairly quiet time for us - both our families are a long way away, and once the crazy shopping is over Darwin seems to wind down. A lot of people head south to family or hop over to Indonesia, Thailand, etc for holidays. We've been sleeping in, trying to keep cool, and as far as possible doing what the kids want - movies, bowling, and numerous trips to the skatepark and waterpark.

It's a time of year for looking back and forward, for making plans and resolutions. Some of the other blogs I like to drop by have been posting theirs. Cathy Cullis has a beautiful and inspiring post on some of her plans for the year. My resolutions are ones I've made before, to draw in my journal daily, to write a draft poem a week and to work on revision. Inspired by Jesse I'm planning to start submitting my poetry again. I was feeling a bit discouraged that my plans are all the same old things that will probably fall by the wayside by June..if not Easter! But I came across this great quote by SARK "I've quit and started again and again, and I now know that starting is not better than quitting - it's just different. It's a circular dance of quitting and starting over and over again."

This time last year I went to a book binding workshop (run by Nat/smallest forest) and made a lovely leather bound journal, I used it for about 5 months and then neglected it...but the last few days I've dived back in. I'm also doing a bit of sewing, while the kids are in the pool I sit on the verandah and keep an eye on them, that's when I get time for a play at the moment!

little things

2009-12-22T21:13:00.008+09:30

Here are a couple of new cards I made over the weekend. I have treated myself to a few sheets of commercial patterned papers – I think they’re from Japan. Usually I just use my own hand-printed papers, but it’s nice to work with something different, it keeps me interested.

A new development is that I’m using some old prints that I’d put aside because they were too pale or smudgy. I was about to throw them out, but I hate to throw anything away! So I worked into them with coloured pencil and I’m very excited about the results…it’s a new little path to explore.

Sometimes it feels pointless or ridiculous to be fiddling about with scraps of paper, I tell myself I should be doing something ‘big, serious, important’…maybe if I wasn’t making cards I’d have time to do something big and important…more likely I’d sit and watch tv…big and important work is pretty daunting!

I don’t know if you can make out this photo of my latest attempt at gardening. Radish seedlings, the book I have out of the library says they’re easy to grow, shoot in 3 days (they did) ready to eat in 4 to 6 weeks (we’ll see!)

A quick post...a little outing.

2009-12-14T21:47:00.007+09:30

As expected I'm not getting much art done because of the demands of xmas shopping, not to mention now it's school hols so there's a houseful of noisy, distracting, demanding kids!! Also the monsoon has arrived bringing 4 days of torrential rain, luckily it eased for a few hours on Sunday afternoon and we went to let off steam at the local skatepark. And then to the beach to throw rocks into the waves (the boys) and to collect a handful of treasures - beach glass, pebbles and bottle tops (my daughter). I kept myself entertained taking a few photos.

Back to normal transmissions!

2009-12-03T22:23:00.007+09:30

Poetry month is over, and back to normal art posts for a while. Though I don't suppose anything will be normal over the xmas frenzy.

This is the last tiny painting I made before the craft fair a couple of weeks ago, and it was the first one that sold on the day, I felt a bit sad that I didn't get to hang out with it for long.

All my new paintings sold and these little felt birds and owls, which come with a little gift box. This was before I put strings and beads on the birds for hanging up. Probably I sell them too cheap, but really they are to suck people into my stall and hopefully they'll buy a painting!!

Tomorrow is Friday, but I'm afraid I'll probably be shopping not art-making. I hope you're surviving preparing for the festivities!

day 30 - last

2009-12-01T22:10:00.001+09:30

Last

This is the last poem
it wants to say everything
but it cannot encompass
weeks in a handful of lines.

This is the last poem
and what I remember
is the love, how we were
welcomed with open arms

all we had to do was show up.

day 28 and 29

2009-11-30T21:55:00.005+09:30

Here's my day 28 poem

Through this weekend
(remembering London)

My 11-year –old
had to put on my socks
and tie the laces of my running shoes
my back too sore to bend that far.
The box of chocolates I smashed
on the floor of the youth hostel
and couldn’t give to friends we visited
but used instead as a bribe only I
could reach on top of the wardrobe.

Horizontal rain,
and the central line delayed
because of a body on the tracks.
Always somebody needed the loo
waiting outside the toilets
at St James’s Park
the brass band played
and Londoner’s lazed in deck-chairs
or on the grass half dressed
and I wished for a little
of that idyll.

and here's today's poem

Eight

Eight years and the guilt
if it hadn’t been for nine-eleven
and the outbreak of bird flu,
if I hadn’t had twins
the kind that scream all the
way to the shopping centre
the kind that run in opposite directions
if I’d got passports organized sooner,
if he’d wanted to come too,
if I wasn’t feeling safe
in the groove of my routines
it might not have taken 8 years
and the guilt.

day 27 - round

2009-11-29T21:36:00.002+09:30

I'm running a day late, but hopefully will catch up tomorrow, I'd hate to blow it right at the end.

Round

Spokes of a cart wheel
turn, white against a grey sky
new eye of London.

Bowls of pumpkin soup
once a week reminder of home
at least they’ll eat it.

day 26 looking forward

2009-11-27T22:16:00.003+09:30

I feel as if my brain is mush! I think it's all downhill from here...

Looking forward

At the railway museum
we peered into the Royal Mail carriage
leather seats and wood polished dark with use
row upon row of pigeon holes
a handful of letters slotted in.
Everything in it’s place – Mum notes,
That’s how my house will be,
I hope, dream, kid myself,
Ready for my visit –says Mum.

day 25 - cousins

2009-11-26T21:30:00.001+09:30

Cousins

Shifting from one hip
to the other, loll on the grass
in St James’s Park.
The cousins are an arm’s length
away, messing with a ball,
he laughs at her attempts to kick,
my kids are a little way off
in the opposite direction.
Eventually, after my brother
gets back with sandwiches
there will be a thaw
and they will all play soccer
together.

day 24 - Somebody said

2009-11-25T20:56:00.001+09:30

Somebody said don’t go to Covent Garden

not much to see
and it’s all overpriced,
and we nearly didn’t
but somebody else said
you must go, and look out
for the dog-box-man.
We got there early on Sunday
sat on the kerb to watch
the first busker of the day try
drum up a crowd, juggling
heckling passers-by, sword
swallowing, & (drum-roll) the bed of nails
for the price of a coin dropped
into a hat.
Then wandered on
to see the rubix cube up a ladder
against the clock guy.
On the way to the tube
rushing, late to meet my brother
we glimpsed the dog-box-man
setting up, a symbol of
all the things we didn’t see.
In York we bought juggling balls
the kids dreamed one day
of being street performers.

day 23 - muted

2009-11-24T21:44:00.001+09:30

Muted

Sitting here, louvers open
I can hear our neighbour cough
frogs croak, bats scrabbling in the trees.
Over there shut the door
and the world is shut out
shut the kitchen door
and the kids are muted,
classical music on the radio
while you cook
the chance for conversation.

day 22 - Inconvenience

2009-11-23T21:26:00.001+09:30

Inconvenience

The morning after the coal mine
something in my back torn
and I could hardly move
hobble in spasms to the bathroom
stand under the hot shower
and wait for something to ease.

It took the indulgence
of two days bed rest, reading
and gazing at the rectangle
of sky, shivering beech leaves,
red tiled roof across the road
(the view from the little bedroom
lined with books I won’t touch
politics, economics, dry history.)

Mum takes the kids to the park
cooks dinner, helps me dress
I worry how will she get downstairs
If anything ever happens.

day 21 - Airport entertainment

2009-11-22T21:11:00.002+09:30

Airport entertainment

It’s
a
long wait
between flights
at Changi airport
so they ride the travelators
pushing their trolleys
up and down
a strange
slow
race.

day 19 and 20

2009-11-21T21:31:00.003+09:30

I didn't manage to post yesterday, I was out in the evening at Off the page, our monthly poetry/spoken word event. I missed the first half getting dinner and the twins to bed, but the second half was great. I was so lucky to catch the performance by Omar Musa - an australian poetry slam winner. Open section poetry was great and I bravely read 3 of my new ones written this month!

my day 20 poem

And then he lost his jacket

could’ve been at the biggest toy shop in the world
where they spent their pocket money
could’ve left it on his seat on the tube,
probably it’s in the cafeteria at the museum
didn’t realize ‘til we were on the bus to the Serpentine.

I got angry and made him cry
and then felt bad, it was the nicest jacket
a hoodie, turquoise, black and cream stripes.
It’s not the worst that could’ve happened,

my nightmare was one of them too close to the edge
slipping off the platform onto electrified rails
as the tube train approaches.

my (teeny) day 19 poem

Nintendo DS

Spend five weeks without
playstation or computer
TV is inescapable,
his DS glued to his hand.

day 18 - walking pace

2009-11-19T21:37:00.002+09:30

Walking pace

People ask – has it changed much?
- not really, except cars,
when I grew up a family was lucky
to have a car, now it’s two or three,
whole suburbs without driveways
roadsides clogged with cars,
one way systems
bus lanes.

After Dad died
Mum sold the car
a neighbor sometimes parks
in the driveway
especially when Mum’s away
the favour works both ways.

We wander to the park and notice
clover and cowparsley
nettles and bumble bees.
How would we have felt the shape of Halifax?
if we hadn’t walked down the valley side
to the museum, and back up again
on weary legs to the bus.
I hope it’s not too late
for my kids to learn
to love walking.

day 17 - Multitude

2009-11-18T21:22:00.003+09:30

At the weekend the poetry was flowing!! but now I'm really struggling, I guess this is where I gave up on previous attempts to do a poem a day for a month. Just have to remind myself these are first drafts, something to work with later... oh well, here is today's effort.

Multitude

I forced them back on the tube
up escalators and along tunnels
popping out into a flood of humanity,
some with a purpose, marching over the bridge,
others loitering gazing at the river
taking photos, Big Ben at least
made an impression
‘I’ve seen it on Dr Who.’

I remember the years I lived in London
taking the tube each morning
the unbearable closeness of strangers,
some evenings I’d crack, jump off early
walk the last miles home
trying to shake off the crush, the madness.

day 16 - black clouds

2009-11-17T21:29:00.001+09:30

Black clouds

With the energy of anger
she shoves open the gate
crumples into tears
‘they won’t play with me’
We go exploring, dragging
her feet along wet paths
‘this is boring’
even the glass house
flood of flowers
can’t calm the storm.

day 15 - excursion

2009-11-16T21:42:00.003+09:30

Excursion (Amsterdam Zoo)

We have always been good at this
hanging out, eating chocolate,
losing a week here and there when we were students,
now there are 4 kids to consider
(3 mine, 1 yours) who need entertaining.

Later than we meant to the tram
it weaves through the city,
all the things we won’t see.

Queue, turnstile, zoo,
I don’t remember what was in the first house
except the smell, the boys couldn’t stay in there.

Then the reptiles, how proud my kids are
of the frill-necked lizard
‘we see them in our school-yard.’

The most alive lions
I’ve ever seen, pacing the enclosure
breaking into a run.

Lunch at a pirate ship playground
a sea-gull stealing our last sandwich
kids and chips and crying.

Butterfly house slows them to a sleepwalk
butterflies land on outstretched hands
her T-shirt, his hair.

We end with ice-cream and photos
the kids pulling faces, insane,
you and me smiling.

day 14 - almost

2009-11-15T22:04:00.002+09:30

Almost

You think, bloody amazing, we’ve made it
and step onto English soil
groggy and stiff limbed from the flight.

But then there’s customs,
a maze of barriers, a human train
winding in and out, moving forward an inch,
my son lies on the floor and howls
if the twins come near him
my patience is frayed to the last thread.

But then, a guardian angel,
an official in a turban, directs us to the fast lane
‘families with children this way’
we almost run, embarrassed, leaving the rest behind.

day 13 - underground

2009-11-14T21:50:00.001+09:30

Underground

I never imagined I could do this
kitted up with a hard hat and battery pack,
he pulls the cage shut and we descend slowly
nothing to see just the damp rock face.

Descending further into the dark,
our bags and cameras left on the surface
a spark from a battery could ignite
our guide tells us, he was an explosives man,
laugh at his jokes to forget
we’re half a mile underground
the kids stunned into silence.

We all turn off our lamps to experience
dark so dense it presses our eyeballs,
think of kids sent down here age 6
working twelve hour days.

He talks about canaries and poison gas
and ‘snap’ that’s what Dad called a packed lunch.
We crouch through low tunnels
dig some coal to take home in our suitcase.
Back in the cage at last
we’re re-born into the sunlight.

day 12 - if only

2009-11-13T22:31:00.001+09:30

If only

I step across the world
from partner to daughter
with three kids as cargo.

They vomit, squabble,
refuse to walk another step
in no particular order.

I will shiver
at playgrounds and forgo
the Van Gogh museum.

It’s enough to be there
at the kitchen table
with Mum.

cards cards cards

2009-11-13T13:19:00.006+09:30

A quick post in between the poems, of what I've been up to. Card making is something I can squeeze into half an hour in the evenings, not like painting which needs a decent chunk of time to get all the gear out and sit at it for at least an hour or two.

I'm trying to get another batch of cards done before the craft fair. I must be a glutton for punishment or plain mad to try to do the poem a day for November as well as getting ready for the craft fair next Sunday...xmas shopping is just on hold until next month!

Doing the poetry is a kind of gift to myself, I went back to England on holiday this year, took the twins to meet my Mum for the first time. I didn't write much or draw while I was there, I needed to just experience it and not get too emotional. When we got back I had planned a couple of weeks of painting, and time to think, but instead my son got sick and I spent those weeks up at the hospital (he's completely recovered now). Writing the poetry is a chance to think about the holiday, although the poems aren't turning out quite as I'd envisaged...