There's something human about that garlic!- the paintings of Wendy Van der Drift

Wendy Van der Drift posts a painting a day on her blog "Painting Daily" Her beautiful paintings reference old masters and dutch still life painting.
What I like is that her composition and subject matter is modern and humorous. There's something human about that garlic!

Gone Swimmin'

We've been away for a week at Stradbroke Island.
There are hardly any shops on Stradbroke but Oceanic Gelati is the shop to end all shops. It is a little gelati shop sitting on the very point of Point Lookout. every day they make new flavours.
I had baklava with pale pink Turkish Delight gelato on my first day....several others in between and icy white zingy lemon gelato with homemade orange and almond cake on my last day.

Oceanic Gelati is a gelati flavoured cafe, from the tropical print dresses the shop assistants wear, to the sherbet coloured curtains and chairs.
One morning we interrupted the owner as she stood behind the counter with her binoculars looking at this....

watching for whales.

How to Use the Web for Artists OR a Lifeline for the Technologically Reluctant

I am doing a blog workshop this Wednesday at the Maleny Artworks Gallery. This post is also part of a panel I am taking part in at the Australian Ceramics Triennale in July this year.

Blogging can give people greater insight into the artistic process, most particularly how entwined the process of inspiration and making is in everyday life. I encourage all artists to find their own little corner of the internet, reading blogs, posting comments on others blogs and posting images to established blogs are all powerful ways of connecting with other artists and the wider community.

I heard an amazing statistic the other day...98% of web content is written by 2% of web users. Many people feel that blogging is something they just can't get into because they haven't got time. I maintain that artists can use the internet better, to meet their peers, learn technical information, gain inspiration and promote their own work. With this in mind I've compiled a list of links (or as I like to call it a lifeline for the technologically reluctant) This will enable you to dip your toe into the sea of blogs and wade out as far as you feel comfortable- who knows some of you may become addicted and venture off beyond the breakers!

Art and design
These blogs are good for inspiration browsing and researching names of galleries/markets etc that might be worth approaching personally.
Moda Muse- Australian Contemporary Craft and Design
Handmadelife- an artists blog featuring work from Ramona Barry and Rebecca Jobson and exhibitions around Melbourne, Australia.
Dear Ada- amazing art and design blog based in America but featuring international artists.
Design Sponge- design and interiors based in America, if you can get your work on this blog you will definitely recieve approaches from galleries- it is very widely read.
Udessi- Brisbane based artist and business woman Kim Wallace's blog connected to her online store, beautiful art and design.

Illustration Art- drawing and illustration blog.
High up in the trees- Gracia Haby, illustrator, zine writter and bookmaker extraordinare.

Fashion
Kris's Colour Stripes- fashion designer photography and colour swatches. Isolates the colours from his photos, excellent resource.

The Sartorialist- pure inspiration from fashion photographer Scott Schuman. Street shots from European capitals and New York.



Food
101 Cookbooks- cookbook author and photographer San Francisco based Heidi Swanson's cooking blog.
Not Quite Nigella- cupcake queen and food blogger from Sydney, Australia.

Recipe on Not Quite Nigella Blog


Photography
Simply Photo- Jennifer Causey excellent photography blog featuring international photographers.
Simply Breakfast- Jennifer Causey (professional photographer) beautiful photo blog of her breakfasts.

Jen Causey's latest breakfast.

Textiles
Kirin Notebook- Lara Cameron, Melbourne artist and textile designer gives insight into her studio and inspiration.

A shot from Lara Cameron's studio
Mantua Maker- Ruth Singer UK based textile artist and fashion designer.


Ceramics
Six Hundred Degrees- Sophie Milne, Australian ceramicist
Musing About Mud- Carole Epp's wide ranging ceramics blog. A good place to start.
Sawdust and Dirt- Michael Kline, a wood-firin' , country livin', dad from Carolina, beautiful pots and insights into the potting life.
Euan Craig- Australian born potter living in Japan and working with a top Tokoyo chef to create tableware and food that combine as one.



Australian Ceramics Triennale- Information about the Australian Ceramics Triennale and a comprehensive overview of the many exhibitors, speakers and ceramics. An excellent resource for those who can't attend in person.

Reserve Champion

Here is a photo of the Reserve Champion cheesemaker at the Maleny Show!

He is my husband and jazz musician Trevor Hart although he refused to wear the sash Charity queen style as we wandered around the Maleny show we had a great time.

The Maleny Show is a small agricultural show abounding with examples of what is now known as "rural crafts" These crafts are not only useful in country, as I'm sure all lovers of a decent homemade Anzac biscuit can attest. The cakes and jams are all on display bizarrely behind a screen of chicken wire! (I guess some patrons found the goods were just too tempting)

We had a great day....isn't this


enough to lift anyone's heart?

around in a circle

"The dawn is steel grey as I wake, the sun a pale smudge behind the clouds. Somehow the wind finds its way through every crack in this old house. I get up and light the wood stoves in the kitchen and studio. It will take a while for the house to warm up, so I let Mika and the children sleep on for a little while. Down in the studio I open the sliding door to the damp room and check the pots which I threw yesterday. Row upon row of bowls fill the shelves, the regular pattern of circle and curve, light and shadow beautiful in the diffused morning light. I touch their surface, applying gentle pressure to check how firm the clay has become overnight. Despite my efforts to seal this room from drafts in an attempt to control the drying of my work, this wind has nonetheless breached my defenses. The bowls I made yesterday morning are drying very fast. They are perfect for trimming now, the rest will be ideal by this afternoon. I cover the pots with sheets of plastic before I go to prepare breakfast."



These evocative words are from Australian born Japanese based potter Euan Craig. Euan has been deeply involved with creating pots for Japanese food and for the last few years has been working in collaboration with Japanese chef Touru Hashimoto from Toyoda in Nihombashi. Together they have created these beautiful dishes where the food and pots are in harmony , each enhancing the other. Euan has a great blog and a beautiful website (you'll have to get to it through Google I can't get the link to work. Sorry!) which includes some of his other essays, they are insightful and interesting. What I love most about Euan's style of writing (and the insight he gives into his domestic and creative life) is the link between being creative and having a family and all the love, eating, making, potting, firing, friends, eating, love, potting going around and around in a circle. It is a real privilege to be given such an eloquent insight into the intimate, creative process.

Pots on the left of me, cheese on the right.....

"No matter what it's size the Vaishnava kitchen is divided into two areas: one for preparation and cooking and another for storage of staples...... A cook bathes and puts on clean clothes before entering the kitchen, then sits comfortably on a low stool and uses the floor as a countertop space....Cooks develop a sixth sense for their ingredients ,and, without assistance from recipes or measuring tools, they prepare sumptuous meals..."
from pp.xii "The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking" by Yamuna Devi

It is always interesting to see how other crafts arrange their working spaces.
Yamuna Devi's kitchen sounds like a good description of a beautiful clean, calm studio (apart from the clothes!)

But look....

AAAAAAARGH! Today my studio is being pulled apart in preparation to being rebuilt.

I have moved temporarily into the kiln shed.


We are rebuilding the studio because Trevor Hart husband, jazz cat is now becoming a CHEESEMAKER! (I am so happy that Trevor's personal fullfilment is leading him to become an expert in my favourite food) Half my previous studio will now be a cheeserie producing buffalo mozarella and yoghurt, chevre and goats camembert amongst other things.

6 o'clock Monday night

Around our place, 6 o'clock Monday night......



Thinking about The Necks waves of sound, Trev and I went to see them last night. We had a Persian meal (no kids!!!) at Zafron in New Farm. The food reminds me so much of our friend Farideh who is the chef. It is comforting and glamorous, the warm spices wrapping themselves around your palate like a beaded, shawl.



I had a good day decorating today. The Magnolia Project is under way and I'll have the first images soon...
It is still raining

pastizi and pots in Sydney

I went to Sydney on the weekend.
We packed the kids and descended on my marvellous brother and his one bedroom flat for four days. It was a huge trip but when you are an exhausted parent- artist it is really worth making the effort to do these things. It affirms the fact that there is more to life than toilet training and paying bills.

My favourite parts were pastizi with brother and sister at the Maltese Cafe in Surry Hills.


Wandering around the Harbour in Birchgrove playing our favourite game of "I could live there!" with the stone convict cottages and wooden houses overlooking the water. And ........
seeing the pots of Jane Sawyer and Andrew Halford at Freeland Gallery.


I've written about Jane Sawyer's wonderful thrown terracotta and slip vessels before. In this latest work Sawyer has captured movement in clay. The terracotta slab pots epitomize what it is to be a potter. They are thrown then cut off the base and flattened out. The firing process causes the pots to curl up again at the edges with the memory of their old shape. The finger holes in these pots create an almost violent punctuation, but when you put your fingers through them your whole hand is drawn into the vessel, through the soft, smooth texture of the slip and glaze. This drawing of the hands into the pot then creates an impetus to lift it up. These pots are so clever and funny and beautiful . An abstract drawing of tensions - pulling the wall of the pot up, flattening it out to make a platter, the drawing together of the hands through the finger holes and the final impulsive lift this creates.

The other Sawyer vessels I was very attracted to were the double walled, pillow bowls. I love the use of the hard medium of clay to create something so soft. Once again these pots seem to contain a gentle humor , playing with the viewer/user, inviting them to touch and consider the nature of the material and the relationship of this shape to the human body.

being human

I've been watching a documentary called "The Choir of Hard Knocks" . It follows the work of an opera singer, Jonathan Welch as he forms and records a cd of songs with a choir of homeless and disadvantaged people in Melbourne. Jonathan saw the idea in a Readers Digest magazine, secured sponsorship and donated his time and expertise to this wonderful program. Apart from being a great philanthropic venture "The Choir of Hard Knocks" is a documentary about the power of art.

The documentary follows some of the singers, exploring their home lives (what little some of them have) and following the difficulties they face through illness, poverty and struggles with drugs and alcohol getting to rehearsal. When these people arrive and begin to sing it's as if their secret, inner selves are coming out through their voices. If you closed your eyes and just listened you wouldn't know that the beautiful, innocent young girl was a single mother, battling addiction, with a care worn face and nervous manner, some of the old ladies sound just like they are singing along to the church organ ( You know those voices that carry the whole congregation and pick the mumblers up to a higher level?) and will go on to scones and tea afterwards. This alchemy captures the power and vulnerability of being human.

I think this glimpse of the human condition is one of the most valuable things an artist can bring to the world. Great artists manage to capture this vulnerability and passion in every genre. The drawings of Cy Twombly....


food of Thomas Keller....


The rough delicacy of a Simon Reece teabowl...

Everyday Sublime

today is australia day, tomorrow is grocery day, originally uploaded by Saffron.

Today I had a lamington for breakfast from one of our local bakeries and it led me to reflect on the old aussie country town bakery and wonder why someone who doesn't care about bread would become a baker. When run by an inspired foodie the Aussie country bakery is truly an inspiring place, cream buns with real cream, steak pies full of rich gravy and actual chunks of meat and lovely, fluffy lamingtons, the cake slightly yellow from the real eggs used in the sponge, fresh dessicated coconut and a juicy layer of chocolate sauce, creating a gooey barrier between the coconut and the sponge. (I've thought a lot about this!) Unfortunately many lamingtons are not like this and seem to be an excuse to use up any stale old sponge cake the baker has lying around.

The lack of a good lamington is symbolic of the lack of good solid , locally made crafted products in every area of our lives. When you take your stale cake lamington home and eat it off your Ikea plate that is not really quite the right size and the glaze is chipping off, drink your tea bag tea out of a manufactured mug whos rim is slightly too thick for comfort and add milk that is at least seven days old and comes from a corporate farm thousands of miles away you are wasting an opportunity to experience what I call the Everyday Sublime. These little moments each day when you can relax should be enhanced by the finest, freshest (and that usually means local and often organic), handmade items you can find. As one of my cash- poor friends once said
"When you are poor you can't afford to be cheap."

Everybody Cares What You Had for Lunch

I saw a book at the library yesterday called "No-one Cares What you had For Lunch". It is about blogging and how bloggers get stuck, the author, Margaret Mason thinks that you shouldn't waste your blog space with boring bits and pieces about what you had for lunch etc. In the craft world bloggers are desperately interested in what others had for lunch- Sometimes just a brief look at Tummy Rumbles, descriptions of food can cheer me up and provide thought provoking conversation for days amongst my blogging friends. Jen Causey's Simply Photo gets me salivating and I also love Port2port's recipes and down to earth exchanges regarding the all important subject of Lunch, Breakfast, Dinner or for that matter Snacks.
(photo by Jennifer Causey)


I think the frank exchange of delicious things is a wonderful way of connecting the cyber world to the earthy, burpy real world of the craft artist. Way back in the mists of time I was doing a Masters Degree and the subject of my thesis was the pretty obscure study of "...contemporary women novelists and how food and cooking are used as a means of communication in their novels." (Ann Tyler and Helen Garner were two of the novelists I studied.) I've left the brow furrowing world of academia far behind me but I still think that communication through food is very subtle, immediate and important. From breastfeeding to wedding feasts to helping some-one you care about calm down with a cup of tea , this is a language we all understand. That is one of the main reasons I love making domestic pots.

Today I did not have a very exciting lunch. But this is what I wish I had for lunch...
(photo once again by Jennifer Causey)
Pretty all my favourite lunches involve some combination of bread and cheese.

Actually I think every one should care what you had for lunch- What did you have?

the beautiful mechanics of the everyday

A few years ago when Trevor was in charge of the Christmas Pudding making he left the house to go shopping and the pudding was burned black, a sort of superstick surface on the bottom of the the saucepan. In a very bad mood I told him to go downtown and not to come back without a Christmas Pudding. Trevor slunk out of the house and swaggered back in an hour or so late - empty handed, but with an incredibly supercilious expression and announced that the puddings would be arriving this afternoon. And what do you know? That very afternoon 2 beautiful homemade Christmas Puddings appeared on our doorstep.
How did this happen? Well, in typical Trevor style he had gone down town and there was not a pudding to be found but someone said "I think little D makes puddings." So Trev went racing from cafe to cafe in search of Little D. Eventually giving up and walking down the street contemplating how to break the news to his mad wife Trevor heard a voice behind him saying "Excuse me ? Did you want a Christmas Pudding?" It was Little D and ever since in about October when we see him in the street we put our order in and around Christmas receive 2 handcrafted puddings.


The point of this long story is that there are crafts people throughout our community, making all kinds of amazing things with thought and care. These things, a perfect pudding, a wonderfully trimmed piece of meat from the butcher, homemade goats cheese, an elegant and practical solution to guttering, doors that close properly, add texture, charm and quality to our lives. As artists I feel we are part of this web of people entering homes,and affecting lives. This is a very powerful responsibility and the work of "good "crafting, creating art that works on a practical level as well as an intellectual one is central to my work as a ceramicist. I love the thought of my work in someone's home, comforting them after a long hard day, or piquing their interest as they idly sip their tea in the morning. This is my way of affecting the environment we live in. Although it's subtle, objects in the hands and the home can have a powerful, meaningful effect on the wider world.



Jennifer Causey's photographs illustrate this principle perfectly. Combining the sacred and the mundane, giving insight into the beautiful mechanics of the everyday.

3 Things Strangely Connected

"Mathematicians sometimes use the word "elegant" to describe the grace and felicity with which elements of a mathematical proposition connect. It may seem far-fetched to borrow the term and apply it to this most humble soup. But I believe it fits. It is certainly not elegant in the sense that it is fancy. It is elegant in the way the different properties of it's meager ingredients are explored, developed and exquisitely related...." from Marcella Hazan's "More Classic Italian Cooking"

This passage is not only an example of the wonderful, evocative cookery writing of Marcella Hazan but also a lesson for artists to take to their hearts. It is hard to describe what makes a successful piece of work and I have not found a better description than that "the meager ingredients are explored, developed, and exquisitely related"

Linking mathematicians and Broccoli Soup is the work of Australian potter Jane Sawyer. Sawyer's work perfectly illustrates the Broccoli Soup principle to me.


Jane Sawyer’s work is a contemporary interpretation of hakeme brushwork popularized through the Japanese mingei movement. She uses line in a loose gestural way which accentuates the soft form and also the very nature of creation of the pot.
The three "meager" elements, terracotta clay, white slip and clear glaze combine with the movement of the artists body and hands to create these powerful statements on the physical world. One thing I really admire about Jane Sawyer's work is that despite their abstract, sculptural quality these pots retain their original purpose by being usable tableware. In this way Sawyer’s pots are using form and brushwork to draw attention to the process of making but also in their tactility seduce the user to contemplate the process of using the pot. Carrying these pots to the table encourages one to consider the link between the human body and the inanimate object. In keeping a strong link to their usability Jane Sawyer's pots transcend the “mere” sculptural.

beads, babychinos and blood oranges

f
The Queen Victoria Markets, Melbourne. Boreks, fresh, flopppy yeast pastry wrapped around a sour, salty feta, parsley and spinach filling. Sausages, goats cheese and blood oranges.



Craft Victoria. A warm welcome from the staff for an out- of-towner. Counter, the retail space is stuffed with treasures from Sandra Bowketts wonderfully spotty wares.




..to Hammer and Daisy owls and Dani M beads so matt and tactile I feel like eating them- hmmm back to the Queen Vic Markets....


Books For Cooks. Two huge rooms of cookbooks and food writing, big wooden tables make it easy to pull out a dozen flick through deliscious pictures. Next door Enoteca is really a wine shop with a bar in the front- their hot chocolate took me back to Les Deux Maggots in Paris, an experience I am always chasing. Fizzy D approved thouroughly of the Babychino and even though I half feel it's unbearably prententious she has so much fun eating them I can't stop sharing the coffee shop experience with her.

When I first moved to Brisbane from my small country town at the age of 17 I remember thinking "If I have to live in the city I'm going to be right in the middle of it and gulp up all it has to offer." It was a hard but great experience and developed my lifelong love of bookshops, movies, and meeting friends at cafes.

chaos

So I went to Sydney, and got off the plane into a roaring torrent of liquid air. Crossing the road was like wading across rivers and there is always someone who takes special delight in driving through the puddles close to the curb and drenching the hapless pedestrians.

I waded my way through the park to Sussex St as promised and dried off with a comforting bowl of Pho. I love sitting in this Food Court as it is two storeys above street level. The window looks down on layer after layer of signs in clashing colours advertising everything from car rental to "unique quality gifts". The street level is crammed with shops selling dumplings ,groceries, jewellery, and unique quality gifts, and people are constantly walking across the road carrying strange things like huge piles of mosaic plates, or durian fruits. It reminded me that in our world of craft and design you can sometimes forget how vibrant and joyous chaos can be.