Inspiration: Flamingo's

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Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great night - mine involved eating alot of icecream and trying to stitch as fast as I can for this exhibition. I am  in the middle of researching at the moment and wanted to share some inspiration for the works in the exhibition. 

There is going to be a major theme of animals and I am fascinated by flamingo's at the moment - they are so vibrant and interesting to look at. Will share some sketches soon.

Can't wait to see what everyone else has planned for art making this year! 

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Solo Show

I have booked myself in for a solo show at the end of February 2012. A bit of a leap forward from my previous post which is a good thing given the pending deadline! Here is a sneak peek at some works in progress - hope to share more with you soon.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Procrastination Is My Name

Why is it when you finally have the time to do something arty that you sit down and sort things out into little piles and colour co-ordinate them??????????

Inspiration - Soundgarden

In celebration of getting tickets to Soundgarden's Melbourne sideshow I am posting one of my favourite songs - I have been waiting for this moment for YEARS!! (Unfortunately all the video's I could find were from hand held mobiles - sorry for the wobbliness).

Inspiration: Fifi Lapin

This is such a bad photo and doesn't do the bag justice! I have been meaning to post about Fifi Lapin for ages and I got this bag for last Christmas and loved the print but had no idea who had designed it as it wasn't on the bag.

Then one day I picked up an old vogue magazine in a waiting room and ta da! the mystery was revealed to me.

I have been following Fifi Lapin's blog ever since and love her drawings. Here are a few of my recent favourites but you can check out more of her stuff on the blog.

Inspiration: PJ Harvey

I am so excited to be seeing PJ Harvey next year when she comes out. I think she is an amazing artist, so inspiring - and as much as I am a bigger fan of her earlier work her new album Let England Shake is awesome. Above is my favourite track The Glorious Land.

Etsy Treasury Feature

I am very flattered to be featured in my first Etsy Treasury 'The Eyes Have It' by Pat Ellerby. Thanks Pat!

New Works: Spectacle Brooch Series

I have finally ventured into having my first Etsy store which you can find here.  My first items for sale are from my new limited edition brooch series seen above.  Each brooch  is part of a limited edition of 30 (which vary in eye colour and glasses colour). They are free form sketched on the sewing machine with polyester thread on white felt, lined with black felt and hand stitched brooch pin on the reverse.

The brooches are accompanied by an individually hand painted face and their own personality. I do take custom orders or special requests for certain faces, eye colour, frame colour or frame style!

Craft Australia: Save Craft Australia

This is a shocker but Craft Australia has been defunded. To help and find out more follow the link below. Please sign the petition!

Craft Australia: Save Craft Australia

Knitting Obsession

I am currently on the journey of teaching myself to knit and I am so determined to figure it out! I am desperately wanting to knit a cardigan one day for myself and have never been one to have amazing patience with things like this or very technically minded (which is why machine embroidery suits me fine!). Anyway to my own amazement I can now do a rib, stocking stitch, add stitches and minus them thanks to my mum's advice and also my friend Liv (who revealed to me why my stocking stitch wasn't working - thread on the back for plain and thread in front for pearl - thanks Liv!).

Above is a random experiment trying out different things and below is my attempt at a triangle and a square which starts off as a triangle. I am having a knitting high obviously but there have been many many lows!

October Book Inspiration: The Peacock's Wedding

Time for another book inspiration feature and this time it is a beautiful children's book called The Peacock's Wedding by Koenner Ensikat which I found in a great second hand shop on Smith Street. I love the ink and line work of these illustrations - below are some of my favourites (including the cover above as well).

Exhibition: Vienna Art & Design

Egon SCHIELE
Austria 1890–1918
Self-portrait with hands on chest 1910

I am no good and keeping up with blogging but have been meaning to post about the Vienna Art and Design Exhibition at the NGV. So inspiring. Attached are some of my favourites all via the NGV Website.

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862–1918
Baby (Cradle) 1917–18

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862–1918
Beethoven Frieze: Central wall 1901-02 (detail) 

Gustav KLIMT
Study for The three ages of woman (c. 1905)

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862–1918
Johanna Staude 1917–18

New Works: Portrait Series

Some new works I have made recently continuing my portrait series. Will hopefully organise to show some process images soon!

Exhibition: Ben Guy - Helm 2

My mate Benny is having his follow up exhibition to his 2010 Helm exhibition at the Collingwood Gallery on Smith Street. The opening is Friday 19th August from 6pm so come along and support! 

July Book Inspiration: Old Man and the Sea

I love hearing about other people's art books and what inspires them, it always leads to me wanting to expanding my collection! So I've decided to start a regular post on books that inspire me either visually by the artwork or verbally from the text (or both!). I'm hoping other people might want to join in and share what inspires them.

The first book I would like to share is a beautiful edition of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. How amazing is the cover art. I can't seem to track down who illustrated this so if anyone knows let me know!

Inspiration: Mastodon and AJ Fosik

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One of my favourite bands Mastodon has teamed up with an artist I love AJ Fosik for their new album artwork. I discovered AJ Fosik in a publication I bought called Juxtapose Handmade which I posted about here on my old blog. He makes the most amazing sculptures from wood and found materials. 

Here are some images of his other work from the Juxtapose Handmade book (sorry about the dodgy photo's) but you can see better one's here at this great blog also.

Inspiration: More Shadows

 

More shadows around the house.

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I am now offically saving every last penny for this clock - I've spent years looking for an awesome arty clock and here it is. Made by A Skulk of Foxes

The Creative Haven - MIAF and Interviews

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Busy week over at The Creative Haven - we are doing interviews all week with some of the Australian stop motion animation artists involved in the Melbourne International Animation Festival. Come visit and hear about some of the amazing stop motion films screening at the festival next week. And on a high note for The Creative Haven we have been lucky enough to be featured on the MIAF website as official interviewers here! (Thanks Helen).

We already have two interviews up here with Fi Dalwood and her film The Batchelor Experience and here with Seamus Spilsbury and his film Blown Away.

Stay tuned for more!

New Works

Some new works I have made that will be showing at the Brunswick Street Gallery Small Works Exhibition starting the 17th June.

Inspiration: Shadows

I love finding inspiration like this in your own home - and I love cityscapes.  Look below at what created it!

Interview: MaricorMaricar

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Sometimes it is seriously confusing having more then one blog! The majority of my work though has recently been over at The Creative Haven trying to build up the blog and start sharing the news on stop motion animation in Australia. One of the great things we have had to share recently is an interview with creative duo MaricorMaricar about their inspirations, education and processes.

Plenty more coming though and some new textiles work too!

Interview: Malcolm Turner & Helen Gibbins - Melboure International Animation Festival

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Just a quick post to let you know what is happening over at The Creative Haven. As mentioned previously we had a bit of a blog makeover - and have turned it into a blog about stop motion animation in Australia.

We have our first interview up with Malcolm Turner & Helen Gibbins from the Melbourne International Animation Festival here. Please come visit and check out all the great stop motion coming up at the festival - very exciting!

Stay tuned as we also have some other awesome interviews coming up!

Stop Motion Animation Experiment - Hard Days Work

I have finally put this little experiment up on youtube here. Was done at an animation short course a while ago and haven't done much more since! We have a few great interviews coming up at The Creative Haven though with some great Australian stop motion artists so please pop over from time to time to keep an eye out.

We currently have some behind the scene's shots of a beautiful paper cut stop motion animation by Helene Ducrocq (from France!) called Elle Demeure who was lovely enough to give us permission to show them so check that out here.

New Work

starting something new - will have finished images soon as i figure out how to frame it!

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan Tour

This is very exciting news - I had to share that Mark Lanegan (of Queens of the Stone Age fame) and Isobel Campbell (of Belle and Sebastian fame) will be coming out to Australia for Splendour in the Grass and also doing their own sideshows!

Here is one of their earlier tracks. Have been waiting for this for a long time!

Jumper Makeover

I truly have also been making things and not just playing with my old toys! I found this beautiful knitted jumper at an op-shop for Audrey but the neck was way too small so decided to make a cardigan out of it for her for winter.  Below are some process shots.

and the final results: