Rachael's photos

I finally managed to get Rachael into the studio for a photo shoot.  She is very photogenic, like her son Justyn.

Maryborough collections project

I wrote a little while back about a new project I have been selected to be part of…..I have cut and pasted some of that info to remind you what it was all about.

Curator Judy Barrass wrote with this information for the selected artists:
‘The project approaches the museum as a place of relevance to contemporary culture and local community. The intention is to stimulate audience engagement and interest in museums through innovative approaches to interpreting and examining their collections.
Six artists will be asked to focus their attention on the historical collections in Maryborough. Each of the artists will be allocated a collection and asked to develop artworks for an exhibition to be held in Gatakers Artspace in May 2011. Artist interventions within museum spaces are also possible as part of the exhibition.
The artists will be expected to interact with the objects in the collections in creative ways, and to explore and invigorate the interface between the collection and the audience. They will be encouraged to question the assumptions and expectations interwoven into museum practice and the acquisition, ordering and display of objects in the museum context.’

Susan and I travelled to Maryborough for the two day workshop…where we met the other artists involved as well as the curator Judy Barrass and Fiona Mohr from Qld Museums.

It was a very interesting weekend, which included a visit to the historical museum in Kent Street.

I have been chosen to develop my artwork in response to the MAVISBANK collection.

On Sunday I went with Fiona to meet Elizabeth who, with her husband Patrick,  is owner of MAVISBANK, a beautiful old home full of treasures dating from about  1720 - 1920.

Elizabeth is a most gracious host and I am really looking forward to getting to know her and to meeting Patrick.  Check out their website using the link below.

http://www.mavisbankmaryborough.com/


I will be visiting MAVISBANK next Wednesday, to take some photos and become more familiar with the collection.

Till soon.  C x

Honours for Alan

I am very proud to let you all know that my eldest son Alan has been listed on the Australia Day Honours roll 2011 and has received a Commendation for Distinguished Service.
Details of his award are available on the Governor General’s Website. Click on the following links for more information.
http://www.news-mail.com.au/story/2011/01/26/defence-doctors-honour-bundaberg/
http://www.gg.gov.au/res/file/2011/honours/ad11/Media%20Notes%20CommDS%20(final).pdf
http://www.gg.gov.au/index.php
http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/awards/medals/commendation_distinguished_service.cfm
About the Commendation for Distinguished Service Award: (Only 271 awards have been presented since its inception.)

Alan wrote the following article about this award for an Airforce publication and you will find it most informative.
Reporter to Alan:
Could you explain briefly your role at the Role 3 MMU?
I deployed to Kandahar AirField (KAF) with Force Support Unit 2 for just under nine months from Aug 2009 - Apr 2010. My two primary tasks were looking after the healthcare of the Aussie personnel who were located at KAF and fulfilling the role of the Aeromedical Evacuation Operations Officer - East. This second role meant that I was responsible for the validation and planning of all aeromedical evacuations of ADF personnel that originated within Afghanistan. While these roles were demanding at times, on the whole I had a significant amount of spare capacity to get involved at the Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit (R3 MMU), one of the two or three busiest tertiary level trauma hospitals in Afghanistan. Over past rotations, the RAAF doctors who preceded me had progressively built up a wonderful relationship with the R3 MMU and as such, my offer to the Canadian hospital hierarchy to assist was gratefully accepted. After a month of learning the ropes in the trauma bays, I was given the responsibility of becoming a Trauma Team Leader and working with a multinational team of nurses and medics. My trauma team was on-call 24hrs a day, seven days a week and we treated coalition forces, local nationals and others. The work was demanding, both physically and emotionally. The injuries we were treating were some of the most horrific that can be seen anywhere in the world and the frequency with which they presented was nothing short of shocking. I am certain that the professional experience I gained during this period will be invaluable as I continue my career as a medical officer in the RAAF.
What is the walking blood bank and how did you contribute to it?
Given the nature of the injuries treated at the KAF R3 MMU and other similar hospitals in Afghanistan, there is a frequent need for patients to receive blood transfusions as the result of massive haemorrhage from their injuries. Most of these blood products are transported to the hospital two or three times a week from the United States and other coalition countries. However, in times of multiple or even mass casualty situations or even in the case where a single patient requires a massive transfusion, the blood product stocks can be critically depleted. In some cases, a single patient can require upwards of 80units of blood, that's about 30 litres, or six times the amount of blood in the average person's body. In order to ensure that there is sufficient supplies of blood to cope with these situations the R3 MMU established the Walking Blood Bank (WBB). The WBB makes use of the fact that there are a large number of fit, healthy military personnel at these locations who can, when there is an immediate need, report to the hospital and donate their blood. As the blood is required immediately (in many cases it is merely a matter of minutes between taking the blood from the donor and transfusing it to the patient on the operating table), there is no opportunity to screen the blood as exhaustively as would occur back home. As such, all potential donors must be pre-screened for blood-borne diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and malaria by sending samples to Germany for testing. Once screened, the prospective donor is placed on a roll and in the event that blood is required they are contacted and transported to the hospital to make their donation. Previously, ADF personnel were not able to be included in this process. I felt strongly that this was an opportunity for us to contribute to the hospital in a meaningful way and at the same time boost the morale of everyone involved. After a great deal of liaising with both the Australian and United States medical hierarchies, ADF personnel were approved to be included in the scheme. By the time I returned to Australia at the end of my deployment, just under 50% of the ADF force deployed to KAF were registered on the Walking Blood Bank donor roll.

What have been the main highlights/achievements of your career?
Without a doubt, my deployment to KAF last year has been the best experience of my RAAF career to date. Shortly after I returned I was fortunate enough to be selected to study the Diploma in Aviation Medicine in London this year and although I have only recently arrived, I have been having a great experience already.

What does this honour mean to you?
I am extremely humbled by this honour, especially because what I achieved could not have been possible without the support and hard work of a great many other people. I was only able to achieve what I did due to the fantastic relationship that previous RAAF docs have built with the R3MMU. This relationship has been progressively built upon by each subsequent RAAF MO and the strong foothold we have forged at the R3MMU has many significant benefits in terms of the care we can provide sick or injured ADF personnel. In addition, I also had very supportive medical and unit hierarchies who gave me the flexibility I needed to perform my primary roles while also working in the hospital as I did. Most importantly of all was my medical teams, both the Army and RAAF health personnel who formed the medical unit who looked after the ADF personnel and also the multinational medical staff who I worked with in the trauma bays. Whilst the deployment was extremely demanding at times, it was an incredibly positive experience that I will never forget.
This award will be a constant reminder of my time there. Dr. Alan R Turner
………………………………………………………………
Ben and Sarah are hosting an Australia Day party today and have many friends coming for that. I’m sure they will drink a toast to Alan for his outstanding achievements.
(Just as I am doing now!!!)
Alan L Turner was incredibly proud of his two sons, just as I am. You are both amazing, wonderful and so special ! Words are not sufficient. I love you dearly.

The countdown is on now for Ben and Sarah’s little girl’s arrival. That could be any day now! Life has its very sweet moments.

Quiet weekend

It has been a busy and stressful week. I have had a lot of business to attend. I am hoping to spend the weekend finishing the latest collage.

I also had an email from the Director at Pine Rivers (Where I exhibited Jip's panorama). He is keen to show the Goddess sculptures either November or March. I'd like to have the show in November as long as it doesn't clash with my trip to London to visit my eldest son Alan.

I will have to do some costings of a few of the 'Broken Woman' series of digital prints, as I will be showing a selection of them. And a digital projection would be good too.

Till soon ,

C x

Justyn & Kyle

Justyn and Kyle were 45 minutes late for their photoshoot and blamed Justyn's mother!! Justyn hadn't done his hair....so he wasn't happy and Kyle was nervous...so we kept the session short.

I got a couple of good pictures of Kyle and I will shoot Justyn another time. Susha had to leave. The session was a bit of a waste of energy. But never mind, we will try again another day.

Madonna

Susha has become a Madonna. She is a very versatile model and great company. We have another photoshoot planned for tomorrow, so stay tuned.

C xx

Sarah

Thanks Sarah for your comments below. They are greatly appreciated.

Sarah has a beautiful creation of her own on the way. My third Grandaughter. First child for Sarah and Ben. There's a little less than three weeks to wait. It's getting really exciting now.

I will post a picture soon of all my gorgeous girls.

c x

Stats

I just found my stats for the blog and I have had over 2,500 page visits, which is pleasing. But you are a rather shy and quiet lot aren't you??

Speak to me World!

C xx

Brisbane floods

The Brisbane floods are almost incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. I am fortunate that my youngest son Ben and his lovely wife Sarah are on high ground at Eaton's Hill. They have a baby girl due in 3 weeks.

Ben has been working through the day filling sandbags. Good effort Ben. XX

Suburban Goddess 2010 video

Maryborough Collections Project

Susan Hutton and I have been selected to take part in a new project in Maryborough. The curator is Judy Barrass. She says:

‘The project approaches the museum as a place of relevance to contemporary culture and local community. The intention is to stimulate audience engagement and interest in museums through innovative approaches to interpreting and examining their collections.

Six artists will be asked to focus their attention on the historical collections in Maryborough. Each of the artists will be allocated a collection and asked to develop artworks for an exhibition to be held in Gatakers Artspace in May 2011. Artist interventions within museum spaces are also possible as part of the exhibition.

The artists will be expected to interact with the objects in the collections in creative ways, and to explore and invigorate the interface between the collection and the audience. They will be encouraged to question the assumptions and expectations interwoven into museum practice and the acquisition, ordering and display of objects in the museum context.’

This should be quite interesting. There will be a two day workshop in January leading into the project.

In the meantime, Susha and I had another photoshoot. We worked solidly for 5 hours or so, and achieved some great results.




‘Susha Shulenski’, a portrait by Christine Turner


























‘Christine Turner’, a portrait by Susha Shulenski'

Susha

My friend Susha rang wanting to come and take a photograph of me. She said she had an interesting idea. So as a keen beginner, I was ready to jump on in.

Susha is going to one of the Greek Islands this Easter. I will tell you the name of it when I see her again. It sounds like a place where time has stood still. It is apparently rich with old churches and customs, pageants and so on. She has a fascination for icons and should find plenty to capture her attention there.

Susha is trying to hone her camera skills to be ready for the journey. She has a beautiful Canon SLR and she manages really well with it, but she thinks there is room for improvement and is learning how to adjust the settings manually.

As far as I'm concerned, at this early point in my photographic endeavours, I am going to use as many 'auto' settings as I can on my little Canon G9. (A cross between a compact and an SLR.)

I won't be using the manual overide any time soon.

I can really recommend the Canon G9. It is a fantastic little camera. I think you will agree that it takes a pretty decent picture. So I have attached one of Susha's pictures.





Title: 'Christine Turner', a portrait by Susha Shulenski.

If you come to visit me, I promise you won't find me resting on the furniture as I am in Susha's photo. She certainly had some great ideas and we had a lot of fun. Pledged to do some more shoots soon.

After Susha's shoot we went down to the studio, where I took a few photos of Susha wrapped in a wedding veil. (This is one of my favourites.) More photos may come in the following days.



Title: 'Susha Shulenski', a portrait by Christine Turner.

Let us know what you think of these works. Don't be shy!

Till soon. C XX

New canvas

I’ve spent most of the week tidying the studio/gallery,and hanging a few of the canvases that have been propped up against walls. It looks pretty good now. Jordy, my angel from across the road, helped me carry one of the big blank canvases up to my kitchen where I will produce the work in the evenings. I love making these simple collages. They are a kind of meditation. I find that I do a lot of planning for up coming projects while I am working on them also. Cxx