Pop-Up Musem Found On A Fellow Blog!

About a week ago, I was thrilled to have found a photo or two of the Pop-Up Museum on a fellow Blogger's site.  And I haven't had time until this week to post about it!  

Take Me Home

My book is the third or fourth photo down... and well-photographed I think.

The Home Festival

What a day it was yesterday!  I was up by 7am and out the door by 9:30am.  All my gear fitted in my bag and my little blue trolley.  The day was nice, clear and fine - just as we had hoped it would be.  And it wasn't a scorching hot day either.  

The Art Installation was called 'The Pop-Up Museum' (I didn't know it was called that until yesterday afternoon) and it attracted a lot of attention from the public. People were reading my book and enjoying the pages in the trees as well as the other artist's collections.  It turned out to be a great hang-out spot for a lot of people.  And as the day wore on, and the sun moved, there was plenty of shade thrown by our tree and it was used by the performance poets and community choirs.  People enjoyed the shade and basked in the sun as well; lazing about under the tree with the extra plastic leaves, reading my pink/red leaves and the larger ones of green that Doug Cartwright had put up.  

Too soon, though, it had all had to come down.  We were all tired from the day, eating and laughing.  I had gone to the jumble sale and bought myself plenty of goodies to add to my various collections and scored myself a first edition of an American poet from 1968 - which stunned my fellow collectors - for only $2.  My brother, his fiance and my niece were there to see the installation; only to unfortunately take off and not able to see the rest of the festival.  Oh well, there's always next year's.  I hope you enjoy the photos below I've put together.

The Home Festival 2012 

Jumble Sale Scores 

On the Train

I was on the way to my brother's place yesterday when we were on the train from Roma Street Station and I spotted some outsider artworks.  These really impressed me to no end on how graphic and detailed the work can get.

Fresh Paint!

Last Wednesday, I was on the bus going shopping when I spotted some new outsider art on a fence.  I was so excited that I wanted to photograph it, but the bus was traveling too fast to catch it!  Darn!

So, today, I was out taking a walk to the chemist to buy some antihistamines when I came upon and took some photos of it and some other graffiti that was behind the shops where a gate was open!  How wicked is this find of great, fresh art?  I even found a tribute a young man who died in a car crash 6 months ago that I spotted around the same area; and thought it needed to be shown.  Enjoy!

 

 

The tribute to the lost young man.

This work can be found along Kingston Road near where Pet County used to be, on the same side of the street.  It's great work.  Until my next post, keep creating!

Discovery of Old Work

Today, I was busy around the house and then went for my morning walk around Kingston Road and down Randall Street.  While I walked past large businesses, I found a tree I where I had installed some knitted work of mine years ago; and I though the Logan City Council had removed it while they pruned the tree.  However, they haven't.  It's been there all this time; and it's still attached to the tree; along with the piece of leather I used to tag my work.  When I tried to remove the leather, I found I was attacked by a nest of ants who had made the knot in the leather their home. How's that for nature taking over where we had interfered?

Old Tree Art 

South Brisbane at Night!

Last night, I headed into the city to attend a Life Drawing class.  However, beforehand, a friend and I walked around South Brisbane and found there was a lot of artwork around that people just seem to walk past in complete ignorance.  I was amazed at how much there is around when you really look; and here are my photos of the pieces we saw as the sun went down and temperature plummeted.

This was taken at around 4:30pm.  I didn't use a flash and the light was perfect.

Love the lights on the end of this seat. There were about three more just like this one.

These were near the lit seats - as you can see - and have that Chinese lantern appearance.

Had to get a close-up of one.

I wanted to take more, but the light was fading quickly; and if I used the flash, everything would have lost its flavour.  So, these were the few photos I could take at the time.  Enjoy.

Local Mural Work

About two weeks ago, I was out checking the mail, and thought to take a wander down the pathway between the house and the set of shops as I had noticed a mural there for some time.  What I found there was gorgeous and suited the area well!

Behind me is a cul-d-sac and a park which leads to Park Road.  This large mural is totally suitable for the area; keeping the industrial wall from interfering with the residential feel of the area.

A Day of Outsider Art

Mum and I hit the shops yesterday in an impromptu day out.  We bought up big at the Angus & Robertson closing down sale where we got 75% off everything!  We had a lovely lunch of sushi and did some things at Garden City before leaving.  But I did spot some very cool things to photograph like this retro stool... 

And Mum's car sticker.  She's had this on her car for years, and Gabe and I still think it's funny!

 Then, we were off to Morningside to Mum's hairdresser where I walked around and found this Traffic Signalling Box with lovely cats all over it.  Aren't they just beautiful, sitting there looking all snooty?

And then, I crossed the road and found an old-fashioned Community Noticeboard.  These aren't around much anymore; and the ones that are have survived a lot.  This one is painted up nicely and is still in use!  I love it as much as I love the one in Brunswick Heads.

Then, on the way home, Mum and I got stuck in traffic where I spotted this sticker on the back of a ute... very funny and true of Australia.  

So, there's my day of outsider art.  You can definitely find it everywhere if you look hard enough.  Where have you seen it in your everyday life?

New Photos of Anthony Lister's Work

Yesterday, I was out with the family and on the way home, Mum, Dad and I dropped in on the mural over near Keperra that Anthony Lister has been working on.  It was just past 11pm and Mum and I were curious as to what he had added since Christmas; as he took some time off to celebrate and 
 take a break. 
 

Well, it looks great; and I love it.  Must apologise about the cars being in the way; couldn't do anything about that; but I can't wait until it's finished.  What do you guys think?  Feel free to leave a comment and let us all know.

North Side Outsider Art

For the last six months or so, Mum and I have been driving past a wall on the way to my brother's house.  Now, it had some great artwork on it by an artist going by the name of Lister.

I just Googled his name and came up with Anthony Lister from New York who has been here in Australia doing some outsider art around Brisbane; and not getting very far with it.  On his official site I have found more of his art which was removed from Fortitude Valley here in Brisbane; and when I've brought up the photos of the wall mural I took on Christmas Day, I compared the style to the work on his site and found so many similarities.

The last piece of work ( http://365project.org/loey5150/365/2010-08-13) called Mural, was demolished when a building was pulled down.  Fortunately, my Mum took a photo of it and showed me.  We both thought it looked wicked.  And this new work looks even better!  Let's hope it stays longer than the wall did.

Secretly Admiring

I've been secretly admiring art lately; in the most interesting places.  A lot of the art is on Traffic Signaling Boxes; but some of it is in our own back yards (well, okay, maybe our front yards too!).  Otherwise, there's Mother Nature's way of making art; she just as spectacular in so many ways, we just keep on forgetting how many.

And then, there's my niece who is a great artist at the young age of eleven.  Yep, I've seen some of her work recently and she's improving with every month that passes by.  I'm so proud of her and her talents.  Riley has been working on all kinds of art from her Japanese cartoon characters to Calligraphy - which she's learning at school - and she loves.  She also loves the art of writing and can't get enough of it!

In the last week, I've seen a few other pieces of work on the north side of town.  There are talented people who are going unnoticed by everyone - unless you're the mailman.  And doesn't this letterbox look very cool?  I think so.  This guy makes me want to get a house so I can create a brilliant little place for my letters like that.

Well, right now, I'm working on that larger collage you see in the post below.  It's going well; and right now, I'm getting into what colours to paint it.  Unlike 'Love, Hate and Vampires', I'm not relying on just one colour.  I have to think about what other colours to paint it and see how far I can go with it.  It ought to be fun.  I might try out gluing a big thick book cover on it yet... I'll let you know at the finishing photos.

And I'm also working on knitting a scarf too.  It's for the K-Mart Wishing Tree this Christmas.  I'll be knitting a beanie to match it for an older person; which I'm sure they'll enjoy.  It's a lovely dark green colour and beanie will be a nice creme colour with the dark green put in stripes.  Not too bad if you ask me.

Well, that's all for now.  Until my next post,  keep being creative and keep knitting.

TSB - Day Five. The Finishes Touches.

This morning, I woke up and found I was feeling very sick.  It had been a hot night and was turning out to be a sticky day.  Well, that's the beginning of Spring here in Australia for you.  But after I had some breakfast and a few glasses of water, I was well enough to get into going to finishing up the TSB across the road.

Mum and I arrived there at around 11:30am or so; and it was already a pretty hot day.  I had put on sunscreen at home,

but I could still feel myself being burnt an hour later; and the heat of the sun was really getting to both of us even though there was a nice breeze.  

But today, I had been asked to paint up the Top Hat section of the box.  This is what we left blue last time.  This is to really make sure that this box doesn't get tagged again.  so, I designed a template for a sun and some rays to come off it last night, cut them out with some small scissors.  We

had some funny times drawing on the sun as the Top Hat section is taller than both of us.  And so, when it came to me doing the main painting of it, I had to pull the paint out of the box, flip it over and stand on it (as we hadn't brought a ladder!).  The trials of being a shortie!  I tell ya!  But we had our fun with the sun on the box.

Once we had it drawn on, I cut out the circular section where the sun's centre went to draw in that area and then we were set to put on the rays and then some white birds.  We put some undercoat on before painting the sun a gorgeous orange (for the centre) and bright yellow for the rays.  So, that the orange centre wouldn't be tagged, I painted in red swirls that were visible from the road.  And once we had three coats of yellow on, I outlined the whole sun in a cool red so it stood out brilliantly.  The rays were orange and outlined in red.  Mum did some birds flying all over the blue sky and had to work on them.  She tried to make them look like Seagulls but when they looked like they had been picked off one by one(with red dots for beaks and eyes, it wasn't looking very nice), she decided to just stick with a nice white colour.  Then, to finish it off, Mum mixed a nice green together and painted the concrete underneath the TSB making it look like grass.

It was very hot work, but it's been worth it.  I do love the way it worked out; and so does Mum.  I would love to do another one next year.  Mum would be in it with me for sure!  I'll have to work on another design soon to get the wheels in motion for next Winter as today was so hot, we agreed doing this in the Summer months would be dreadful for both of us. 

TSB - Day Four!

Today, Mum and I finally finished the Traffic Signalling Box!  Yes!  After one extension, we spent all day today from 11am until 5pm applying the finishing touches.

It was a freezing cold day to get out there and do it but our last day to get into it was tomorrow, and so we made the commitment to  get it completed today.  So, once we were unpacked, we found the wind was coming from all directions and we had to hunt up some rocks from around the nearby tree to keep down the drop cloths.  All day, we were chasing down lids and plastic wrap from the brushes; it was funny, but it was freezing!  I had on both my painting shirts, a hoodie and a jumper with a cap to keep my head warm.  And I also brought along two cushions I usually use for reading outside to sit and kneel on when we had to do any painting down low on the box.

When we were wishing for a cup of coffee, Dad showed up with two drink thermos' of tea; nice and piping hot for us to drink!  He had stayed home today feeling a little under the weather and thought it would be nice to bring us something hot to drink.  What a great person to think of us out there like that.

The traffic got busier as the afternoon wore on and we felt the wind change and become cooler; but we kept on going until I put on the last bit of green paint on one of the

leaves around the back and Mum and I whooped in celebration!  It was done!  All we had to do was sign our names and date it!  Before that, though, the people who owned the house came out and had a look at our work.  An older lady - about Mum's age - told us that they were really excited that the box was finally getting painted and have been watching get better as the weeks passed and we had our days at it.  The lady said the each time they came home, something had been added to it and it looked even more lovely than before.  She was an artist herself and her granddaughter is a brilliant artist; and is still in high school.  I said that if she's great, she should look into working on one of the boxes with a family member as a practice for bigger works.

Well, as I finished the last bit of green, 5pm has just passed.  We packed up quickly and got some great photos of it as the sun went down and the temperature turned cooler.  If I had the chance to do another one, I'd definitely get in and do it!  It's a big thing to get into physically and mentally, but it's so much fun and my work is out in the public eye for a long time.  I do encourage anyone who has the patience and energy to try it out.  Urban Smart Projects' website is on the sidebar if you'd like to find out more about their work and other TSB's that have been painted around Brisbane. 

TSB - Day Three

Well, today, it warmed up fast and Mum and I were late getting to the TSB site.  So, we didn't panic; going at our own pace as it became hot really quickly.  The good this was that I knew what I wanted to do straight away:  I had to make the leaves on the stalks bigger.  And so, I did.  I drew around the ones already there and worked in the bigger - better-looking - leaves.  I painted the lighter green on first and then darkened it to a nice, darker green; which has set off the whole design really well.

Mum and I had gone out yesterday and last night; we were pretty tired from doing that.  However, seeing we took our time and kept our water up.  We were really grateful there was a lovely cool breeze as it dried the paint quickly; and kept us cool too! But the sun was really hot.

Lunch was freshly made hot chips from the fish'n'chip place across the road and I also bought some tartare sauce (home made; not store-bought) and a bottle of water for Mum. 

Later on, she drank it down.  I was thankful I got it at lunch.
During the day, the lady who lives in the house that borders this TSB came home.  She said it was nice to meet the artists who did these things.  She told us that her daughter was absolutely over the moon when she saw the the box had been painted blue and then the flowers were next.  And now, she can tell her daughter she met us. She also said it's looking lovely.  But we've got one more day to work on it; but she doesn't mind that we've parked right in front.

We began work today at 11am and came home at 3:30pm... what a long day.  But we got a lot done since Saturday; where we got a lot done then too.  Our next session will be our last seeing we have only the fiddly detailing to do and that's it.  I'll have to make sure to take detailing brushes with me; well more than one!

TSB - Day Two

It's almost been a week since Mum and I were at the Traffic Signaling Box and when we arrived at 11am this morning, we found that it hadn't been tagged. Yay!

We unpacked quickly, laid down the drop cloths and orange markers and donned our bright vests and got to work on applying the templates.  It was funny and interesting work.  Mum was really great at getting the centre of the flowers right and we got in and mixed the paints with the help of the mixing chart on the inside of the lid.  

Work was slow and as we had to put on three coats of each colour.  Dad showed up with a much-needed lunch of pies and pasties... yummo!  And he suggested we painted the rest of the flowers with a white before applying the colour.  So, we tried that and voila!  It was a lot easier. 

By the time we got most of the flowers painted white, I had drawn up the stalks in pencil; with the leaves as well.  We had taken a few breaks and found that traffic was slowing down to take a look at what we were doing; thus there were fair few people beeping horns at the lights.  And an accident nearly occurred when a tow-truck nearly rear-ended a nice white sedan.  The sedan was forced to run the red light so it wasn't destroyed.  It was scary to watch on and not be able to do anything about it.

While I went to get a drink earlier in the day, I spotted a gorgeous Thunderbird on a car trailer at the service station.  It was red and American-built!  I asked if they could stick around for a few minutes while I got my camera and took some photos of it.  They said yes and I ran back to the car and grabbed by camera.  Isn't she a beauty?  The owners had just bought her and were taking her back to Rockhampton!  What a car!

Well, we've got one more session to do on the TSB and it'll be finished.  I think I have to paint the leaves a little bigger and they'll be sweet.  Otherwise, it looks lovely and eye-catchingly pretty.   We finished the session today at 4pm... what an exhausting day!  I bet I'll be sore tomorrow!

TSB - Day One

What an exhausting afternoon I had with Mum!  At first, though, we didn't think it was going to happen because it rained heavily; then fined up.  But we got going and spent three hours on the first session on the Traffic Signaling Box.

Mum parked the 4X4 on the footpath near the box and we unpacked and washed it down with sugarsoap and water.  It was filthy!  Then, after drying it off, we painted on two coats of undercoat and waited for it to dry.

I mixed the first coat of background colour - a lovely sky blue.  I called it Budgie Blue ( looked very much like the colour my budgie... honestly, it did!).  Anyway, the roller we used was still in a bucket of water and no matter how dry I tried to get it the paint was still watery.  So, we had to take the first coat a little slow.  Once the first coat of that dried - after half an hour or so - we used a paintbrush to put on the second coat.  The brush I used was a proper brush bought from Bunnings; not from an art store.  It looked great!

We decided that while we were waiting for the paint to dry (and while we looked like Council workers in our vests...hehe), we'd get a few photos taken of the site and something to eat.  I bought along some nuts, a banana and something to drink.  Mum ate nearly all my nuts and I scoffed down the banana and then we kept working on the box.

It was a good day and we soon had to pack up as we were very tired and there wasn't really much else we could do as the weather was beginning to turn on us.  Clouds were building around the back of Woodridge.  So, we began folding up the dropsheets and took off our vests and made sure we didn't leave any rubbish anywhere before driving away.  But the Traffic Signaling Box sure looked bright and lovely when we looked at it from the traffic lights... very bright and pretty.  I can't wait to finish it!

I just hope it doesn't get tagged between now and the next time we get to it; after the rain goes away.

Is Your House An Art Gallery?

Okay, I don't mean, a real one, I mean do you have pieces of work around that you've collected from across the world or across town or even across generations that mean a lot to you; so much that you thought it deserved a place on your wall?  I can say that I do.  So, here's a photographic list of my work around my small - yet lovely - home.

 At the top of the stairs you can see this century-old mirror from my front door.  It was first owned by my Great-Grandmother.  What a lovely piece of artwork; and I love it being in my home.

 I bought this piece at an auction to raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation of Queensland.  It's a Wayne Clements original and he painted it at Centro at Springwood years ago.  It was the last time I saw him doing public work.

 This is a Darcy Doyle print that a friend of mine posted up to me from Melbourne for one of my birthdays.  I love his work and it was lovely of her to send it all that way for my birthday.

 Now, I've been wanting to hang this in the house, but haven't found a hook strong enough for it.  So, the unfortunate thing has happened that it's stuck behind the television for now.  I want to hang it in the stairwell along with other works of mine.

 This is just outside the kitchen and is a spin-off of the above one behind the television.  I do love it; but it didn't sell at the exhibition.  And that's unfortunate.

 I bought this one in Chester, UK for 10 pounds.  We had a limited amount of time to wander around the city; but I didn't want to walk around too much as I had friends I was coming back who wanted to surprise me.  So, I stuck to looking at the East Gate Clock and the wall; and found an artist who was selling some lovely work... and I thought to buy this one.  This ones is just inside my bedroom door.

 This is my own work called 'Eighteen Butterflies'.  Trust me, there's 18 there!  I get a lot of people saying there's not, but there is.  It's a great optical illusion that played well at an art competition at Brunswick Heads. This one's above my bed.

 This lovely one is across from my bed, next to my bedroom window and I look at it every night before retiring and wake to it every morning.  Sitting Bull really does help me keep my head about me and the Commandments ring so true in today's society.

 Two of my favourite movie stars are always watchin' me... and a great artist too!  These have been on my wardrobe door since I moved into my unit in 2002.  After Heath's death, I just haven't had the heart to take his down.

 This one was bought at a Blockbuster Video store... actually I put it on layby and clean forgot about it!  Then, one day, the manager told me they needed me to pay off my layby and pulled it out absolutely covered in dust!  So, out came my wallet and I paid it off!  Thank God I had driven the car down that day; it had also begun to rain too.