gooseflesh

Bleached Coral Garden

The preparation and packing for the big move to Northern NSW is taking up a lot of my time and energy. I have managed to do some work on my Bleached Coral Garden. It's made from paper yarn. The yarn is lovely to work with having very different properties to the plastic bag yarn. One interesting quality is that it can be shaped using a little pressure from the fingers. I like the ivory white too. Note to self..... pieces made from paper in the future, when the dust has settled.

 

                                                     Photo: Tigger Newling

Bleached Coral Garden, 2009

Helle Jorgensen

Paper

17 x 21 cm

Happening simultaneously:

An interview with Little Thing a Chinese magazine. To be published in July, in a special issue focusing on the ocean. Thank you Jie Zhou for your interest.

Trash Menagerie, an exhibition of 30 improbable works of art created from trash, including my plastic sea creatures. At the Peabody Essex Museum's interactive Art & Nature Center, Salem, Massachusetts, USA. June 20, 2009 through May 2010. 

Plastic Detritus III , has been included in the CPM National Print Award at the Tweed River Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah. May 15 to June 21, 2009.

Packing up my studio has been (sort of) fun. I flicked through some old sketchbooks and had a little giggle. My collections of driftwood, sponges, shells, bones, bird's nests and plastic detritus is massive and safely packed into boxes and boxes and more boxes. 

Back to packing.......... 

Oh I'm feeling good

Utopia beckons.........

A dream I've had since I was a small girl is coming to fruition. The boxes are being packed and are on their way to my slice of paradise. The little red house will soon be my permanent home. Oh! I'm feeling good.......

Joanne Woodward

An image from one of my favourite books which I found tossed on the side of the street during council clear-out many years ago. Jump Book, Philippe Halsman, Andre Deutsch, London, 1959. Available here

Feeling Good, Nina Simone

Found at dear dearada .

Work in Progress on Location

As usual many projects have been started and few have been finished. That's the way I like to work. Bouncing around from project to project, hoping somehow they are all connected because they originate from the same brain. It's difficult and overwhelming sometimes to keep track and meet deadlines. It feels as if the projects are swirling around and it requires a moment of focus to pull them together. There is a clear path in the chaos. The following images are pieces which will be part of a bigger piece which I'm entering into an art prize.... deadline looming!

 

Shot on location on my favourite magazine World of Interiors. I have been collecting this journal for more than 25 years and every issue continues to inspire.

Collecting, this compulsion for multiples has been on my mind lately. Another post......later

The Incredible Print Show

Some framed and unframed prints from the Plastic Detritus series. They are part of The Incredible Print Show at the Artstream Gallery, Rochester, New Hampshire, USA. The Exhibition runs from May 1 - June 27. 

50 artists 100s of prints.

I wish I could be there for opening night. 

Thanks Susan for including me in the show.

Lucy Lubilator

Lucy and I at wonderful Culburra. 

Her coat is shiny because she eats sardines a lot!

Accidental Art

Lint...... what can I say?

Lisa Hannigan performing "Pistachio"

Ode to Psyche

Some dreamy drawings from my sketchbook dedicated to Psyche. Apparently, in Greek, Psyche means butterfly and thesoul. I found some words to go with each from Milton's Comus and Keat's Ode to Psyche.

  

Dear Psyche, sweet entranced...

Fancy's painted wings...

In dark disguise tonight...

 

Love's angel bride...

 

Flutter in the blaze of day...

 

Pale mouthed prophet dreaming...

 

High and mystic things...

 

Bursting on brilliant wings...

HAPPY EASTER POSSUMS

Today's Treasures

There were lots of seeds on the beach today. Mostly seeds from tropical trees. Tropical cyclone "Hamish", off the Queensland coast, probably shook a few trees  a couple of weeks ago. 

 

The top seed (pea-pod) is from the Poinciana tree (Delonix regia). The next is a mango seed. I'm not sure what the other two are. Perhaps I should germinate them to find out what they are.

This flowering Poinciana grows not far from my little red house in northern NSW. It's native to the tropical forests of Madagascar. Endangered in the wild.

 Another treasure found on the way home, lying in the grass......

It's the first bird's nest I've found for some time. There's been a bird's nest drought. 

                         ***ATTENTION*** 

No baby bird was evicted in the making of this collection. The nests were all found on the ground.

Plastic to Print

So much fun being had printing the plastic bits. Not so easy to get a decent print though.

Plastic Detritus IV, 2009

Hand coloured Linoprint

19 x 26 cm.

This prints are available in my SHOP

The Postcard Show at the Grafton Regional Gallery

Grafton Regional Gallery is the home of the biennial Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA). The gallery will soon be hosting the 2009 Postcard show which offers postcard sized artworks from Australian artists. The works will be auctioned off to raise funds for the 2010 JADA.

I will be donating these three postcard sized prints.

Plastic Detritus V, 2009

Hand coloured Linoprint

15 x 10 cm ( 6 x 4 in)

Plastic Detritus VI, 2009

Hand coloured Linoprint

15 x 10 cm ( 6 x 4 in)

 

Plastic Detritus VII, 2009

Hand coloured Linoprint

15 x 10 cm ( 6 x 4 in)

These prints are also available in my SHOP

In 2006 I was a finalist in the JADA with a drawing of Luke Fletcher (AKA "Moffy").

Moffy, 2006

Charcoal on paper.

The Hanging Swamp

Come for a little walk with me to the hanging swamp and beyond and let me introduce my new canine companion, Lucy.

I'll take you to one my favourite places; the southern headland of Newport beach, up over the top to Bilgola beach. In between are panoramic views of the South Pacific ocean and, of course, the hanging swamp.

Lucy is a greyhound and was adopted from the Friends of the Hounds. She's 2 years old and has never raced. She was probably too goofy and playful to be a racer.

Here we are looking South over the beach. The dark shape in the water is a reef and it's a famous surf spot called "The Peak" by the locals. Two bullsharks were spotted here a couple of weeks ago.

I love the colour of the water and the rocks. 

Here we are at the hanging swamp. "There is a slight dip in the landscape, an area where the natural drainage flows meet. This, together with an impermeable layer of clay soil has creating a permanently wet area", (Pittwater Council).

The old seed pods on  Callistemon rigidus. 

   

Stick to the path........ 

You will see lots of skinks sun-baking on the path. 

Here we are looking north to Bilgola beach. The next beach is Avalon and it was here, a few weeks ago, a boy was attacked by a shark....... eeek!! He's doing well and looking forward to going for a surf again.

Let's return to Newport. 

Looks like it might rain!

Let's have a little rest and enjoy the view.

On the way home you might see this in someone's garden.

A beautiful Eucalyptus hybrid.

I hope you enjoyed the walk.

Woolly Work in Progress

When I visit Northern NSW, one of my favourite activities is to check out the op-shops. Last visit I found a bag of woolly goodness, a rejected tapestry kit, and paid $2.00 for it. The limited palette is a very enjoyable challenge. 

A coral garden, yet to be finished.

Some other strange organism incubating in my brain.

Work in Progress

The little red house

I have been away visiting my little red house.

It's nestled in the hills of a caldera in Northern NSW. All around are rainforests, rivers and farms; sugarcane farms mostly.

The parrots are raucous, the kangaroos bold, the green tree frogs loud, the snakes abundant and the night sky seriously spectacular. 

A carpet python sun-baking on the road.

 

The sub-tropical climate is perfect for vegetable growing. The warmth, high rainfall and rich volcanic soils makes everything grow like crazy. The grass has been so high that cars disappear in it as they drive down to the gate.

 

The local town has a great mix of people. Weathered farmers talking about their crops and rainfall; ferals with dreadlocks coming in to buy supplies from remote properties; Krishna worshippers from the large local Hare Krisna community; tourists visiting the world heritage national parks and people like me escaping the big city.

It was especially difficult to come back to Sydney this time.

Here's to new beginnings.

Wayfaring Stranger by Jamie Woon

Plastic Detritus (toothbrushes)

A curious thing happens........... for some reason there are lots of plastic toothbrushes washed up on my local beach. Have they fallen overboard? 

Plastic Detritus II, 2009

Hand coloured linoprint

19.7x27.4cm

The block

By the way, these prints are for sale in my Etsy Shop.

A map of thoughts (sorts)

My pieces of coral are crocheted spontaneously. 

It's possible but highly improbable that I will create two pieces exactly the same. 

Whilst playing around with a piece of coral I realized how it's branching pattern is a bit like a map of my thoughts. I start with a germ of an idea which quickly grows out of control in a branching pattern. It could also represent a network of nerve fibres firing across the brain. My thought patterns are like pieces of coral or perhaps I just have coral on my mind. 

Fine branching coral, 2008

Dimensions variable, (16x9cm)

Wool

The mind is ordered in a disorderly way

The first of 2009

The printing bug has taken hold. 

All the boxes full of plastic detritus finally have a purpose. I've come very close to throwing the collection out many times but didn't because I knew it would have a purpose one day. The colours are vibrant, each piece has a history and represent some form of human activity....... play, celebration, housework, food, sport, plumbing, construction, writing, hygiene, packaging, etc.

 

Plastic Detritus I, 2009

Hand-coloured Linoprint

26.5 x 19.0cm

The block........

More to come!

       

        

         PEACE .............ssssshhhhhh!

                        Best wishes to all