tiny details

That delighful Blueberry Fool has alerted me to the Biomedical Images Awards. These images are amazing. I love seeing things about the details of life and you can't get much more detailed than this.

In a funny kind of way the excitement I feel about the biomedical images links in to the excitement I feel about handmade objects. Both of these strange esoteric disciplines are followed by artists who have become skilled technichians in thier own special fields. The handmade object and the biomedical image are both ways of letting busy, unintrested people see into the life we lead and ponder for a moment or two over its wierdness, and wonder.

This image is a stinging nettle.

Artists! Speak Up

Derek Jarman, filmaker, gay rights activist, writer and gardener, lived in a little fisherman's cottage on Dungeness, a lonely spur of land sticking out to sea in southern England. HIV positive and eventually dying of AIDs Jarman created an amazing life-affirming garden out of the rocky shale surrounding his cottage. Full of sculptures made of beach junk, vegetables, stones and rare flowers collected from seeds in hedgerows and by the side of the road, Jarman's garden and life is an inspiration to all artists.

Jarman's final diary is called "Smiling in Slow Motion" and is a record of his final days of living. Even when bitterly ill Jarman was still raging at political injustice, speaking out about hypocrisy, making films and paintings and planting seeds. When I feel that the life of an artist is a hard one, or wonder what kind of cruel, indifferent world we live in, I think of Derek Jarman's courage and fierce, burning creativity in all areas of his life.

rare device

Have a look at Rare Device, fantastic shop full of totally covetable things in New York.

Rena Tom the owner is a true supporter of craft and design. Could she be a closet craft guerilla?

Her website is a treasure chest of links to designers and makers and while you're there look at her blog.

I also love the literary reference in the name of the store. "Strange Fragments" blog title came from a documentary on Bob Marley. One of his band members described his music as "A bunch of strange fragments.." I thought it would be a great name for a ceramics related thing... and the blog was born.

Gardeners not Economists

Adele Horin is a journalist of the Sydney Morning Herald and recently wrote an article on Australians changing relationships with their homes.( Emoh Ruo- An Asset More Than a Haven) Horin writes about the insidious knowledge that your home is a financial asset, rather than, well, a home, and how this knowledge can make you look with distaste on things that you are really very fond of. Those old 50's cupboards in the kitchen suddenly seem small and inconvenient rather than quirky. The horrible thought that if you ripped out the kitchen and replaced it with stainless steel it would have greater resale value slides into your mind.

The obsession with maximizing assets has affected us all in our relationship with the home. Even people who don't own homes dream of having one, not so much as a safe place to live, this is seen as a bonus compared to the financial power of "entering the market". This new idea of homes as an asset has also negatively affected renters as more and more people buy investment properties and renter's precarious existence becomes directly connected to the whims of the "market", interest rates and the rush to renovate and get a great price at auction.

Horin writes "To my parents the family home financed by a cheap war service loan meant security. It turned them into gardeners not economists." I love my home but sometimes I find myself wondering what would happen if we moved our house and sub-divided our land. I hate thinking like this. This is our place of safety. When I've been away I feel like Dorothy in the "Wizard of OZ" waking up to a raggedy little house and saying "OH Aunt Em! There's no place like home."

Guerilla Craft

I've just come back from a couple of days at Verge- the National Ceramics Conference in Brisbane. It was very exciting to catch up with old friends and meet new people. I especially appreciate these events for the fact that younger artists are exposed to the older (wiser!) generation. It was great to speak to icons of Australian pottery such as Kevin Grealy and Johanna Demaine about their careers and history in the ceramic community.

Michael Keighery was part of a panel talking about the future of ceramics in Australia and I think his comments could apply to all areas of craft and art. Keighery was saying that although there is less and less funding available and colleges and art departments are closing and consolidating artists have to get out in the public and not just rely on government funding to make a living or to create new work.

I think that in some ways our reliance on government funding and grants has taken art away from the everyday life and created a self referential niche of grant junkies and bureaucrats. This can be depressing for new artists trying to break in to the funding cycle and creates an exclusive feel to the arts which turns many people off. I think grants are great but you don't have to get grants to make it as an artist what you need are clients, patrons and supporters- to this end I say don't try to break into the government funding cycle, try to break away from it.

Hold craft guerilla events in your local neighborhood, open studios and street stalls are a great way to expose your work to locals in the environment where it was made. Blogging is also a great way to get your work out and create your own virtual community. The Mob Store in Brisbane hosts a tiny jewelry workshop and these craft guerrillas are on the front line fighting back control of their own craft destinies through competitions, home sales, and unusual venues such as Reverse Garbage. The Yellow House in Brighton (UK) opens every weekend in May for the Brighton festival and promotes five or six artist by turning the entire house into and exhibition space for a month. Craft is robust enough to be out in the world buffeted by the winds of change and excitement. Guerilla craft events can be a lighthearted way of engaging new people and compliment a gallery based practice.

I picked the first jonquils out of the garden today. Since I don't have a digital camera here is my effort with the photobooth on the computer!

Writing this talk about ceramics and decoration for the National Conference has turned out to be an interesting exercise. Writing about what I like in other artists work has made me go back and reconsider what I'd like my own work to be. This week (in the spare seconds) I've been thinking about how to strengthen the intent of my bowls, how to integrate the line and composition into the work.

Every so often it's good to deconstruct what you are making as if you are a total stranger- it helps to see new things, appreciate the strenghts and think about the weakenesses.

fiona hiscock

I've had a request for more information about Fiona Hiscock. She is an Australian ceramicist based in Victoria and her oversized, handbuilt forms reference colonial domestic ware. Fiona recently did an exhibition based on the remenants of old country gardens around Hill End. Each settler planted a plum, a fig, a quince, and a pear tree in their garden, hardy fruit bearing species. That carried echoes of home and would survive the harsh Australian climate.

busy, busy

I have been busy making work and writing a talk this week. I've got a show at the Marks and Gardner Gallery in Mount Tambourine opening this Saturday. It is a survey of Queensland ceramicists from emerging (Molly Bosworth, Julie Sheperd and me) to well established Keven Grealy, Jane Harthoorn Chiko Jones.
This exhibition is run in conjunction with Verge the National Potters Conference in Brisbane. I'm doing a presentation on ceramics and decoration so get to introduce people to wonderful artists such as Fiona Hiscock who made this handbuilt platter.


I'm also demonstrating on the Wednesday.
Maybe I'll see you there.