gooseflesh

The Retail Reef

The latest creation came off the hook yesterday.

The Retail Reef, 2010.

40x28cm.

Discarded Plastic shopping bags.

This piece is being entered in the Border Art Prize. A local art prize open to artists from the surrounding shires. The finalists will be exhibited at the Tweed River Regional Gallery. Hopefully it will get in........ fingers crossed.

I managed to find the sea urchin fossil I mentioned in an earlier post, in the garden. I've had it for a long time and it's really very precious. It needs a special safe position where it can be admired.

Some publishing news for the record......

Green Design, 2010. Braun Publishing. Stuttgart, Germany.

Making Art Connections, Chris Bates, 2010. McGraw Hill. Australia and New Zealand.

Festival of Textile Art and Craft. Ekaterinburg Museum of Folk Art, Russia.

I mention it here so that I don't forget. I'm thrilled to think that my work will be seen in Russia, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. It never ceases to amaze me how the internet makes it possible to make connections across the world

Lost at Sea

The following sculptures arrived safely at gallery hanahou, for the exhibition, Lost at Sea. I was a little concerned that they wouldn't arrive in time because of the volcanic ash in the atmosphere. Thankfully the sculptures flew over the North Pacific so I need not have worried. Actinia was a WIP last time I posted a photo of it. So here it is finished. These pieces will be for sale in the gallery.

Exhibition details:

Lost at Sea  

daring fiber artists delve into the deep

May 6 - June 11

gallery hanahou / 611 Broadway, Suite 730, New York City/ galleryhanahou.com

Opening reception: Thursday, May 6, 7-9 pm RSVP info@galleryhanahou.com

 

Actinia, 2010

Discarded Plastic Bags

20 x 12 x 6 cm.

 

Echino, 2010

Discarded Plastic Bags

14 x 14 x 11 cm. 

Diploria, 2009

Discarded Plastic Bags

13 x 13 x 9 cm.

Blue Cunjevoi, 2009

Discarded Plastic Bags

15 x 15 x 10cm.

I wish I could be there to say hello to some of you but I will be there in spirit. 

Large Unpredictable Licking Unit

Some more progress on the Beach Collection. When all the components have been sewn on, the entire composition will be stretched onto a piece of board and framed in a shadowbox. I started using a fabric glue to position the pieces, when dry they get sewn on. Unfortunately I glued the whole thing onto the tablecloth by mistake!! Thankfully I was able to gently pull it off.

One of my succulents has been flowering...... a strange foetid smelling maroony-purpley, browny coloured flower. If you look carefully there's a fly sitting inside probably looking for the origin of the bad smell.

Sweet Lucy loves living here with all the open space.... although, she get scared when she sees the two resident wedge-tailed eagles soaring above and runs into the house to hide under the bed. We now also call her Lulu, which is an acronym for Large Unpredictable Licking Unit. 

       

Linnaeus Coral Garden

It's been a while. 

The end of year flurry is over. Phew!!!! 

Happy 2010....... late, I know.

Some photos of the Linnaeus Coral Garden (a light fitting) in it's completed state. It's been a big job but an interesting challenge. A commission for a very posh private residence. I didn't anticipate how heavy it would be so there are some structural modifications to be made to the stand to stop it from wobbling.

       

It's 1.7mx 0.5m in area. It's wrapped around the lightshade with bits of seaweed hanging down below it. When all is done I'll post a picture of it in situ.

We've had rain. Yippee!!! The water tanks are almost full.

Linnaeus Project

Branching has been taken down and will be moving to Melbourne in January, 2010. It was a great opening night and all the work from the different artists complemented each other. 

Now I can concentrate on finishing the Linnaeus project. Phew!! So much to do and so little time.

I took photos of some of the various components....

How they all come together will be a puzzle.

Thanks to everyone for leaving comments. Typepad has a technical problem of some sort meaning I don't get any notification when visitors add a comment. Please know that Iove your feedback. 

A Vibrant Palette

A vibrant palette in the colours of the rainbow. Glorious! A wonderful new commission has come to me. It will be big and bold.

 

  

I'm naming it the Linnaeus project. It will be big, approximately 60 x 60 cm and made entirely from preloved tapestry wool.

The hook is sizzling at the moment. I'm also trying to consolidate years of little experiments into whole larger pieces. Much of the challenge is working out how to mount and display them. I hope to include these pieces in an exhibition by the name of "Branching" at the Gaffa Gallery in Sydney in October.

So it's head down and tail up for the next few months!

Inspired, frog, boulder

I have been visiting all the local libraries and have found some interesting books. One especially.........

Inspired. How creative people think, work and find inspiration. 

Dorthe Nielsen and Kikki Hartmann. BIS Publishers. Amsterdam 2006.

ISBN 90-6369-110-6

36 creative people each talk about: 

Inspiration

Working environment

Working process

Motivation

Reading 

Most inspiring person

You can flick through it here  

Reading this makes me ponder why and how I make stuff. A little cluster coral came off the hook yesterday.

Cluster Coral, 2009

Preloved tapestry wool.

8 cm diameter, 2.5cm high

Lots of incomplete little experiments came out of boxes and I sorted them and played with them for a while. It would be good to try and tie them all together somehow. They are all part of the same frenzy. They belong together.

Revisiting old friends.

It's about collecting and sorting..... mmmhhh!!!!!

This little green guy is less than an inch. I spotted him whilst watering my newly planted rainforest trees (about 250 of them). From paddock to rainforest... yes, in my lifetime I hope.

Found time to stand on a volcanic boulder too.

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.......... 

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

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.