After the excitement...the housework

I'm in a kind of lull between projects, after all the madness of getting things ready for various group shows and members shows, for the last rew months. Now I can stop and draw breath, and wonder about where to go next...not to mention change the sheets and mop the kitchen floor!!

Here's a shot of some voodoo dolls I made for 'the angry show' - the DVAA member's show which opened yesterday - I haven't been to see it yet. (I'll be putting more photos over on my flickr photostream).

I did get to the opening of 'Unique' at Territory Craft - an exhibition of work by Marita Albers, Ingrid Gersmanis and Karen Roberts. It's a wonderful show, quirky, colourful and bursting at the seams! There's heaps to enjoy!

I have just put together my second mini-zine. It's based on the round handmade book I made last month, of haiku and drawings, it's available at my etsy shop - along with my first zine from last year.

I'm still writing haiku, not everyday, which was my original challenge, but one or two a week if I'm lucky! Here are a couple of new ones.

On the luggage rack
a bag spilling celery
next to her grey head.

Opening the gate
a bird flies past my ear
I feel it's wing beat.

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend. Here it's cool and sunny, and there are flowers on my one surviving tomato plant - finger's crossed!!

More than a few words about Wordstorm

Last weekend was huge!!! I spent as much time as I could at wordstorm. A few times I've started on this blogpost, but it's hard to know where to start. It's like I've eaten a feast and I'm still savouring and digesting it.

So here goes... On Saturday I went to a panel called 'The Aesthetics of Poetry', which started off as a debate about performance poetry versus page poetry, got onto who cares as long as it's good poetry, then how do you define good poetry, the fact that poetry can be so bad it's actually good. A beautiful tangent where people talked about what got them into poetry, what made them fall in love with it or inspired them to want to write.

I saw Emilie Zoey Baker (one of the poets from the panel) perform at the Women of Letters Event in the afternoon. She and Clare Martin were the highlights for me. All the women of letters were very funny and entertaining, but those two left me with something more serious to think about.

On Sunday morning I went to a poetry workshop with Cathy Altmann, called 'you don't have to be a poet to write poetry'. I'm not at all a beginner poet, but I'm often stalled or floundering, a workshop can be a great kickstart. This one was held at the museum, in the maritime section, so that we could write about the boats. The idea was to write about the concrete thing, not feelings, to really pay attention to the thing and its details, and hopefully the feeling will be there underneath. It was a great workshop, just a pity that more people didn't take advangate of it - tho lucky for us who did and got heaps of attention!! (here's the proof of the pudding - I've been doing some writing this week, not boat poems but bus stop ones!) We got some great hand-outs with quotes from poets and poems, hopefully I can find a link to Missing the boat by Naomi Shibab-Nye - completely new to me- which I love.

All weekend there were readings under the trees at Civic Park (and an open air coffee shop!). I caught some of the poetry readings on Sunday afternoon - Kaye Aldenhoven and Virginia Jealous, Leni Shilton and Cathy Altmann - wonderful and I admit there were moments I was sitting there with tears running down my cheeks.

I would like to give a quick shout for Spineless Wonders Press - a new small independent publisher. I have treated myself to one of their books 'Small wonder - an anthology of prose poetry and microfiction'. I'l let you know how it is when I get to it. Check out their website, lots of interviews with writers and a novella competition...

I'd also like to mention Kim's Cubby - named in memory of NT childrens author Kim Caraher - there were readings, performances and activities for children all weekend. Thanks to Di Lucas for overseeing all this!! I led an activity of making a foam stamp to print on bookmarks. It was fun and the kids were great - 4 year olds in particular seemed to be so enthusiastic and pleased with their efforts where older children were embarrased to start drawing, and more critical of what they'd done.

So here's to living life like a 4 year old!! Hope you've had a great week. xxx

(Picture is of a bird box - my second piece for the outside the square exhibition which closes tomorrow)

Another Friday another opening!

This afternoon it’s the Territory Craft Member’s show opening – the theme is outside the square, featuring painting, glass, and jewellery. There will be another members show later in the year for ceramics, textiles and fibre.

 

Because of the title – outside the square – I decided to work on something in a round format. One of the things I made was a round board book with gouache sketches on old dictionary pages.

 

USEFUL TIP!!! – I worked on a background of white gouache, and discovered that if I made a mistake I could easily lift it out with a wet brush, and then re-apply the white paint background and work over it again.

If you’re a regular to my blog, you will recognise some of the themes and compositions, which are inspired by my haiku from the first part of the year. I’ve taken copies of these and I’m planning to put together a little zine based on this. Which I’ll be putting in my etsy shop….in typical Kate style I opened my online shop a couple of months ago and didn’t tell anybody (til last week on flickr!) I’ve made my first sale which is thrilling (thankyou Lorna)  and hope to be adding something new to my shop every couple of weeks.

Wordstorm is coming!!

Wordstorm is Darwin's literary festival, it takes place every 2 years, and is coming up fast, the second weekend of May. I can't wait!! To co-incide with the festival there is an exhibition at DVAA of work inspired by a poem by Michael Giacometti, an Alice Springs poet. It's a very landscape poem, and I've never been down to that part of the country, I was stumped for a while until I decided to work in fabric. For a while I thought this was going to be a sculptural wall piece, stuffed a bit like the mermaids, but it ended up stretched on a frame like a painting. The exhibition opens this friday. Next weekend (5th May) is the seabreeze festival, which is always wonderful. And the dry season seems to have arrived, I'm wearing a jumper!!!

A Little Something For Poetry Month

It's poetry month in America, or anywhere in the world if you're on the internet.

Last weekend I caught part of a radio programme (Poetica on Radio National) which was favourite love poems chosen by all kinds of different people. It set me wondering what is my favourite love poem? There was something half remembered about a tablecloth!! So I went rummaging through my poetry books and re-discovered this - On The Table by Andrew Motion (please do hop across for a minute and read it).

I like that it's about love after being together in a couple for a long time. I like the conversational voice in the first verse as if he's trying to justify going out and making the rash purchase of a loud patterned tablecloth. And I can completely relate to being so attached to a piece of clothing - to it symbolising something personal - I had a painting skirt at Uni, and even 25 years later I constantly find myself buying red paisley anything, to replace the one that is long gone long ago worn out.

I'd love to hear about your favourite poem, or if you've been doing anything for poetry month.

Walking and singing

Ooops haven't been here for a while, life has been hectic for a few weeks. One of those busy things I've been doing that I haven't mentionned is that I've joined a choir - since January. It has been sneaking into my artwork, my second painting for the Don Whyte exhibition is called After Choir.

After our weekly rehearsal, I come out past a garden of ornamental long grass and tiny finches cling to the stalks. I've written two haiku about it.

Under a full moon
finches sleeping and swaying
on stalks of long grass.

Even though I know
to expect them, every week
the finches are a gift.

The woman in this painting doesn't look like me, but vaguely like one of the altos!

My sketchbook page from last time also has a link to choir. I've had some of the music we've been learning loaded on my I-pod. The drawing is of the moment when some of the music clicked for me, when I sent from learning the music to loving it, when I saw the tree like an upturned boat and burst into song as an Indian couple came round the corner!! (which reminds me of long ago living in London I used to listen to my Walkman and sing out loud late at night to scare off possible muggers!)

I came across this lovely post at Tinnie Girl blog about following your heart/your dream. Sometimes it's hard to identify what it is you need - I hadn't been in a choir for 25 years!!! I didn't realise how much I was missing music - lucky I've been feeling bored and thrashing around trying different things, and lucky the choir I stumbled on is the most welcoming.

Hope you've had a relaxing long weekend. Happy Easter.

The Pressure's On!!

I'm working on a couple of sewing projects and hadn't realised how long they would take, the pressure's on now that deadlines are looming. So here's a very quick sketchbook page and haiku, and hope to be back soon with a bit more to say!!
At the park trees are
the shape of an upturned boat
clouds a curled white wave.