Freight

I just had word from the Brenda May Gallery that my boxes of tins have arrived safely!!  This is a great relief!!




 There are about 13kgs of biscuit tins in each of 6 cartons.  Just over 300 tins in all.Total weight 78kg.

What a wonderful opportunity this is to exhibit at the Brenda May Gallery.  Thankyou Brenda and Meg.  See you soon. c x

Grand opening

The opening of the Open Mind exhibition turned out splendidly!  We estimated that approximately 120 people attended the show... artists, families, and their friends predominated. 

There was a buzz of genuine enthusiasm for the artworks, most of which addressed in some way, the theme of 'recovery' from mental illness.   It was so good to see the people of Bridges standing proudly in front of their works to have their photos taken.

Thanks must go out to several people......Adam Anderson, who has been the Bridges art tutor over the last few months has done an incredible job to generate excitement about the Open Mind project.  The art group has grown, and has been very productive.  There are some standout artists amongst them, who produced some stunning pieces...a few of which I will post here over the next few days.

Helen F and Mark G have been consistent helpers, across a range of tasks.  Irene has been wonderfully supportive.  And of course we all missed Kerry (who kicked off this project).  It was so good to have him at the opening. Thankyou Jenny McDuff for your interesting speech.

Art Plus were incredibly generous donating the plinths for the show and subsidising everything else.  Thanks Phil and Marlies.

Thanks to BRAG for loan of a couple of  plinths also.

Special mention must go to the Bundaberg Art Society for the donation of strings for hanging the works.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank Tony Hills, who hung the better part of the show by himself.....he is a machine!!  Thankyou Tony for your brilliant effort and for your advice and company.

My job at Bridges is almost complete.

Till soon.  cx

Recovery - Open Mind Exhibition

This is turning out to be a big week.  The rush is on for Adam and I to have everything in order for the opening of Bridges Open Mind exhibition.

Art Plus owners Phill and Marlies have made very generous  donations in the way of matt boards and foamcore  for the artworks and loan of plinths, as well as generous discounts on all other manner of artistic goods.  We thank them very much.

The  nominated artworks are rolling in now and it is looking like we will have over 80 works.  This is a stunning effort by the artists of Bridges.

The typing is almost completed and will be transferred onto labels and then onto  foamcore as title and biography plaques for  the various artists.

A party of volunteers will hang the works this Friday, ready for the grand opening on Saturday at 5.30pm.

This will be such an exciting event celebrating recovery.   Great work people of Bridges!!

As I have been preparing information for the exhibition, I came across the following notes that were drawn up by the members of Bridges while 'brainstorming' with Kerry B for this event:

What does it mean to you to recover or what other ideas do you have  about this  art event?

Kerry and the members  drew up the following list:

Get in touch with, glimpse that person you used to be
Feel alive again
Able to connect with the world again
You’ve done the hard yards
Life is worthwhile – works of art that show what it feels like to discover life is worth living again.
That I have control of my life again.

                                                                                                                 Artwork by Shelle of Bridges


It has been said an open mind is open so it can ‘close on something’……
Come and be challenged about notions of recovery from mental illness.
Come and see hope and progression to  recovery from the viewpoint of people whose
lives have been touched, shaped and changed by mental illness .

Open Mind Art Exhibition, September 22 – September 26

See you on Saturday!!   c

Open Mind exhibition

Adam and I will have a busy week with the Bridges opening next Saturday.  Hope to see you there!

Government House, Sydney.

It has been a while since I posted a blog.  I have been very busy with the Bridges  exhibition,  packing for the Brenda May Gallery exhibition and I am currently in Sydney to see my eldest son, Alan receive his Commendation for Distinguished Service for his work in Afghanistan.  That happened yesterday, and it was a very moving ceremony held at Government House. Official photos will be posted later when they arrive.

 

I wrote about this award last year. You may be interested to read that post if you haven't seen it yet.  Click here.

I only wish Ben, my younger son could have been there,  but being as far away as Alpha made it too difficult on top of work commitments.

Today I went out to Waterloo to the Brenda May Gallery,  to meet curator of the 'Art + Food: Beyond the Still Life,  Meg Fizell and Gallery Director, Brenda May.  I will be back in Sydney at the end of the month to set up my work for the exhibition that starts October 2nd.

The gallery is beautiful and a marvellous space has been allocated for my work.  It will be another very exciting time.

Till soon c x

Rose Garden

At last, I have finished my latest collage called 'Rose Garden'.  It is an exercise in patterning and is made of pieces of plastic tablecloth and doilies etc., on canvas.   It is 150 x 150cm.  It is basic black and gold.  Hard to photograph successfully.

It will be one of my entries for the Bundaberg Art Festival, coming up shortly.

Detail

Treasures

I have been struggling all day with the collage that has been giving me a difficult time lately.  I can't remember how many layers of paint it has had now, but it has had many.




Tonight I lay the canvas on the floor and scrubbed off as many layers as I could revealing yet another unsatisfactory surface.  I took the canvas outdoors and hosed it  clean.

I have now painted the surface black and I will work some gold  features back into it.

About midday, I had a call from a friend and fellow artist Ella.  She was clearing out her garage and had a small timber step ladder to give me.  She had seen my work called 'Water Falls' and thought I may like another ladder.  Of course I was delighted and picked it up straight away!  

I set off for home, but decided to drop in at the Bundaberg dump shop. Really, its title is 'Trash and Treasure'. I should try to get used to calling it that.

So there I found the lovely old pram. 

These are just the types of domestic objects that I like to use in my artworks.  The artwork below - 'Water Falls'  uses a full sized  timber ladder and a bridal veil and is a response to   the recent flooding in Bundaberg.

Till soon!   cx