Book of the year- the winner

"Fludd did import, by train, a pale, creamy clay from Dorset, which he used to make a pouring slip, or engobe and mixed with the red clay to lighten it. Phillip learned to pound and sieve this clay, and mix it in water. He learned to revolve the clays in the bladed pug mill which stood where the butter churn had been.......Like most potters Fludd was secretive about the recipes for both these things. He had leather-backed ledgers, locked in a drawer, written in a code based on Anglo-Saxon runes and Greek lettering which Phillip could not read. He did not use conventional weights, but had his own spheres of dried clay, numbered from one to eight...." pp128,
"The Children's Book", A.S. Byatt, Chatto and Windus, 2009

The Children's Book by English writer A.S. Byatt was my favourite book of 2009. Set in England a the end of the Victorian era "The Children's Book" follows the story of the Wellwood family, a bohemian group of artists, writers and dreamers as they formulate ideas on living, loving and society through the changing fabric of British life at the turn of the 19th century. Olive Wellwood is the beautiful, talented matriarch of the family, in love an errant husband, trying to reconcile the emotions of an "open" relationship and the financial hardships of living a bohemian lifestyle. Olive writes fairytales. These stories capture the tension between creativity and family life as Olive is forced by continuous child-bearing and the pressure to bring money into the sprawling Wellwood establishment to write more and more stories. The wild joy of creation is suppressed under a thick blanket of weariness and worry .

Olive's children and younger relatives follow their own journeys through rejection of Bohemia, creative flowering and fervent belief in Socialism. An orphan boy adopted by the Wellwoods takes up an apprenticeship with genius mad potter Bernard Fludd. This character, based in some ways on Palissy runs his household with a rod of iron, terrorising his fey children and wife with his insane rages and depressions. Through all these stories run the twin threads of descriptions of work and descriptions of objects. Byatt's evocation of the era and use of tapestries, houses, pots, dresses, and jewellery to illustrate the emotional and political growth of her characters is wonderful. As you can see in the above description of Fludd's studio the research is meticulous. It is such a pleasure to read detailed accounts of working life complete with details of tools and materials.

This novel connects creativity to socio/political movements and to work and this insistence on the reality of the innovation and inspiration makes "The Children's Book " powerful document of artistic life. I found it very inspiring to realize that my ideas about the power of objects and the need for art to be connected and active in the wider world of politics are part of a long tradition of artists being politically active and changing the ideas of a nation. Amongst all the other beautiful, inspiring, intriguing ideas in this book the integral pairing of creativity and politics is the thing that galvanised me.
Fizzy D was inspired by the cover to do this drawing.

Book of the Year

I read between one and three books a week. Sometimes it's genre fiction, fantasy and crime that slips down pleasantly without too much effort. Sometimes it's what I think of a "serious" fiction, the books that I remember and think about long after I've read them. "Serious" fiction are the books I consider buying because I know I'll read them again and again.

This year I read two books that were so intriguing I have been thinking of them on and off for months since I first read them. The first was T. C. Boyle's "The Women".

Set in the early years of the 20th century "The Women" follows the fortune of genius architect Frank Lloyd Wright through the stories of the four seminal women in his life. Wright followed his vision for a new American architecture that worked in sympathy with the environment, was monumental, simple and beautiful, with a passion that bulldozed through all of his human relations. His first wife Mamah was left, with six children and debtors knocking on the door as Wright decamped to Europe with his new mistress, the wife of one of his clients. This disastrous affair is the background to the building of Wright's sylvan masterpiece the, wonderful "ideas factory" Taliesin. Built in his home town of Spring Green, Wisconsin Taliesin provides the spiritual, creative and physical backbone of the novel. Described by the various women in Wright's life as an inspiration, a prison, and a fortress to be breached it is this building more than any other that serves to illuminate the brutal force of a creative vision on the lives of those involved.

"The Women" is a rollicking tale evoking the cult-like atmosphere that Wright encouraged amongst his apprentices and workers. He was always in debt and refusing to pay his workers and suppliers of materials and labor as money was always short in the grand Wright establishment, but never too short to buy original Japanese prints or commission furniture especially for Taliesin. The women in Wright's life had to cope with his long absences, freezing Wisconsin winters in the huge, stone house, and the dislike of the locals to whom Wright owed money. These four women are fascinating characters, all individuals who struggle to maintain their identity and their families in the maelstrom of Wrights creative genius.

The Hinterland Times

This photo is from our lovely local newspaper called "The Hinterland Times". I love this newspaper as owners Micheal and Faith Berry work very hard to ensure that the content reflects our diverse, interesting local community. As a result we have a paper that is full of news , photos and articles about what is happening in the little towns all along along the Blackall Range. You can read the whole article and lots of other things here......

Inidgo Kingdom- Vipoo Srivilasa's latest work

Melbournites do yourselves a favour and pop in to
Anna Pappas Gallery.
3-23 December 2009
Opening Wednesday 2 December 6 pm. All welcome!

This show is the latest imaginative musings from the brain of Australian ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa.

"Indigo Kingdom tells a theatrical story of the contemporary human impact upon coral reefs. Using a traditional Thai narrative of an imagined kingdom as a foundation from which to create his own personal kingdom, Srivilasa turns ceramic sculpture into a storytelling device - in this exhibition the installation becomes the reinterpretation of an ancient Thai temple plan.

In the same vein, he uses his work to write his own biography. To guide us through the play of references in this complex commentary, Srivilasa calls upon the help of his mermaid alter-ego. The mermaid, like the coral, is the canary in the mine, an indicator of imminent threat. In all, Indigo Kingdom is as much high-camp globalist fantasy as it is a sober reminder of the environmental crisis of the present day."