in search of inaudible quarters...

Climbing out from underneath it all, he found a surprising amount had changed. You had to know, of course, what it was like before he went under there in the first place which is, it has to be admitted, not easy from this angle. But there was snow, a marauding army had emptied his larder, his 12 sons were all practising their brass instruments under fruit ladened trees, a small carousel was turning to a merry jingle and there had been windows – many windows. Change is a difficult animal to muster and master. The views would be missed but it definitely seems quieter.

... written in response to this drawing - by Malcolm Turner

> @ lowrise projects

the blue path - lost & found

If ever there were a tale of a treacherous journey across the seas, then this is it! And how very apt, considering the imagined stories that have inspired these works.

Let's back track a bit... Renilde De Peuter of AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS is a wonderfully talented gal who makes all sorts of things, and is probably most well known, particularly through the blogosphere, for her delectably poetic needlework. I fell in love with her practice a little while ago, posting a small example from her worm hole series here, and have continued to follow her career. So it was to my absolute delight to discover that Mr Kitly, a super fine shop and gallery space on Sydney Rd in Brunswick (beautiful wares by the way... driven by a strong Japanese aesthetic), has also taken a fancy to "our" Renilde, and now carries a range of her mobiles, pin cushions, cushions & pot holders. It's no surprise that I was even MORE delighted to hear that Renilde had been invited to participate in the exhibition 'Denim' at Mr Kitly, a material investigation into the use of denim in craft, art and design curated by Dell Stewart. All the planets seemed to be aligning!

But alas, disaster struck. Renilde's contribution 'The Blue Path' didn't arrive from Belgium, and infact became officially 'lost'. Terrible stuff.

Fast forward... two and a half months after the exhibition opening, lo and behold, Renilde's package finally arrives! Fortunately, the exhibition that was scheduled only occupied the floor and the middle of the room, leaving the back wall available to hold a kind of satellite exhibition dedicated solely to her 'The Blue Path' series. The lovely folk at Mr Kitly even held a scumptious afternoon tea of homemade goodies to celebrate.

I popped in the following week, and it was sensational to see her thread & fabric pieces in the flesh. A couple had already sold, including the large cross stitch (which was so great), but fortunately one of my faves was still available - one of the 'St Elmo's Fire' squares - check out the top image. There was no doubt that the right thing to do (despite of course a questionable bank balance!) was to purchase it without delay! It is beautiful and delicate to handle and such a well considered size (kinda large denim pocket scale) - with two tiny little hoops made from cotton to hang it. How lucky am I.

> Renilde's beautiful blog
> Renilde's flickr
> Mr Kitly
> Maker's profile @ Mr Kitly
> 'Denim' exhibition blog

kids & art & appreciation

from left to right:
1. Seating for rehearsed aeronautics | 2. Advancing in familiar light
3. Birds ascending at c minor | 4. Outing for uncertain pursuits
5. Lessons in landscaping with music | 6. A league of shadows

An enormously warm thank you to everyone who came to the exhibition (in the rain!) on Saturday at Lowrise Projects. Not only did you all make my opening a super special one, you also bought half my drawings!! I'm so very very chuffed & honoured. The feedback was incredible, and the book with Malcolm's writing (& little b/w snippets of the drawings) received really fabulous praise. He's an uber talented lad & it's such a shame he wasn't there to enjoy it - but Estonia & animation goodness were-a-calling. I'll do a bit of formatting in photoshop and post the book in its entirety soon. Here's a pretty bad photo of the cover to inspire curiosity in the meantime.



The images posted above are the six that sold on the day. And the most interesting thing was that the first three were chosen by kids and bought by their wonderful parents. I love this outcome. I don't consider my drawings targeted at kids at all, but the fact that they have sparked their imaginations and engaged them in conversation is about as good as it gets.

Many thanks to Melanie & Jeremy for being such gracious hosts and for getting all the drawings up onto the Lowrise Projects website - I'll aim to get them onto my own website el pronto.

a gentler approach

It's funny seeing all the drawings on the wall together for the first time. This lot lack an edginess that has been evident in earlier work - heck, there's no axes, or guns, or decapitations, or burnings, or volcanic heads, or missiles, or nudity. They're all... well, kinda 'nice'. Maybe the gorgeous (but devious) cream Stonehenge paper I used, subliminally directed the whole thing!


a little example from the last exhibition at Chapman & Bailey
...ok, it was one of the sillier works!

it's a good day for a hanging (of art that is!)

Well, it's finally here! Soon I'll be heading over to Lowrise Projects in Richmond to hang a suite of 14 drawings - all doneski. Somehow I've managed to pull this off whilst working full time. The image above is another little sneak peek, inspired by time spent in my current place of work.

I still have to finish making pocket size booklets with wonderful fictitious passages by Malcolm Turner (Director of Melbourne International animation Festival & my partner in crime) that have been penned from planes, hotels & animation festivals in Germany, Poland, Portugal, Estonia & London, in response to images of my works emailed by moi from afar! Unfortunately they won't be available until the opening on Saturday, so if you pop in before then, don't forget to come back to grab one. If you're in Melbourne, please say hi on Saturday between 4pm & 6pm, otherwise the exhibition runs until 17 December - full details are in the last post.