Come hell or high water

Strandline: An exhibition dovetailing both the high water mark and two sister's art practices. A term referring to the margin of the sea where all things afloat find a resting place, where the briny deep deposits flotsam and jetsam, a liminal region where tidal pulse is made manifest, a coastal Plimsoll line.
A strand, a string - two siblings plied together to form a sisterly bond. Divided by geography, one living on the island, one on the mainland, the strandline links them through the tidal flow. Five decades have plied this strandline into a tightly bonded cord.
The exhibition directs attention to the family line and how time connects siblings. Here timber and clay tell the evolving story. Time and tide and two sisters converge.

The Strandline-a tale of two sisters

Only 21 sleeps before I drive down to Tasmania for the artist residency at Kings Bridge Gorge Cottage in Launceston. The kiln has been working overtime firing work for our exhibition opening on Friday 22nd July at Salamanca Arts Centre. I have compiled a CD for the opening which includes music on a maritime theme. It includes music from Master and Commander, Hornblower series, the Onedin Line Katchaturian theme, you get the idea. I made a candle holder for the opening table decoration from some driftwood I found on Lighthouse Beach.

studio time

I sent off my finished artwork to Grafton Art Gallery a couple of weeks ago under considerable time pressure. I used a plaster mold to help make the basic shapes for Fairytales in fairyland. I made seven versions of mythical Australia. This one is 'On the sheeps back' (each sheep is stamped with 457, referring to Australian 457 guest worker visas). The show opens in July along with local artists like Katka Adams and Avital Sheffer.

garden shards

Archeologists of the future will have rich pickings in my patch of soil. I keep chucking stuff out when it doesn't quite make the grade. This piece had problems with the glaze shelling off.

Salamanca Arts Centre

My sister Deborah and I have booked Sidespace Gallery at Salamanca Arts Centre for a pop-up show in July. We have swapped some ceramic and timber pieces through the mail to work on collaboratively. I'm working on two small figures suspended on driftwood which incorporate Deb's 'Port Jackson shark egg' corkscrew-like pieces. I have also started preliminary drawings which use rotalaria, twins and apes.

pandanus musings

Waiting for results from the kiln firing. Took some photos for publicity for Hobart. And a photo of the livingroom with the afternoon sun.

summervale residency

What a great experience it was at the Summervale residency, auspiced by Cudgegong Gallery. Wide blue skies, fields full of wild flowers, the long dusty Barney's Reef road to walk along.

high water mark

I'm going hunting for driftwood at Ballina beach this week to use in sculptures. I'm having an exhibition in July with my sister based on the theme of the strandline. We spent many weekends with our grandparents at the beach as children so it is a fitting subject for a joint show.