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.

K-Mart Wishing Tree Donation

Each year, I've been giving to the K-Mart Wishing Tree at Woodridge Central Plaza.  It's to support the Salvation Army and to give people who are less fortunate a Christmas that they normally wouldn't have.  I began giving to it about four years ago; just buying small things really and taking them in about a week before Christmas Eve.

This year, I thought to do something different.  I was low on cash and had bee knitting a lot in front of the television - working on my blanket for next year - when I thought to knit a scarf and beanie for somebody for when the weather gets cold.  And what do you know?  This Christmas hasn't been exactly textbook Australian Summer... boiling hot and all, has it?  Well, over the last month or so, I pulled down one of my tried and true beanie patterns I had grabbed off the net and used it.  But no matter what needles I used (sizes 4 or 8), the beanie came out the same size... so I had a short scarf with two small beanies.  Now,I had planned to give these to teenagers; and had to quickly change my age groups to babies.  Not a problem!  The scarf is green and the beanies are green and creme; lovely colours that really could suit a boy or a girl.

When I arrived at K-Mart, the lady at the doors saw what I had made and was amazed that I had gone to the trouble.  She took them off me and found a bag; then commented on how soft they were.  I said that I had bought the wool right there in K-Mart and thought that something hand-made would be just the thing; nobody makes things anymore, everything being so material and fake.  She smiled and said that it was wonderful I took the time to work on something that will mean so much to somebody I'll most probably never meet. 

So, whoever you are out there.  When you receive the beanies and scarf for you little one, I do hope you enjoy them.  They didn't take long to make, but I love to knit and enjoyed making them instead of knitting my blanket; as it was something for you to use in your baby's life.

Christmas Capers.

Well, it's that time of the year again where we run ourselves broke looking for the one or two pressies to give our loved ones.  This year, I stuck with nice, basic presents for everyone; things they needed and also things I needed also.  However, over the next few weeks, I'm not going away on holidays - as planned.  Seeing it's been so wet and the usual storms are coming thick'n'fast, I thought it would be safer - not to mention dryer - to stick around home and get into my paintings and collage.  So, over the next few weeks, through Christmas and New Years, I'll be putting up photos of my work as I'm working on it.

Otherwise, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very arty New Year.  I hope you all keep yourself busy at this time of the year with whatever projects you've gotten into and keep yourself safe too.

The Logan Art Gallery Christmas Party 2010

This year, we were off to the Gold Coast Art Gallery.  This meant we took off an hour later in the day and had a more relaxing trip because it wasn't all that far from Logan City.  

The Gold Coast Art Gallery is set on a large piece of land with plenty of parking and is close to Q1 and Broadbeach.  The exhibitions were amazing.  The first one we looked at was of graduating art students.  They had some wonderful work and I loved quite a bit of the jewelry, even if it was out of my price range.  Then, I spotted a large metal dragonfly which I really wanted to get a photo of; so I got permission.  it was until later that I found out it was a Christopher Trotter work.  Isn't it lovely? 

Outside this large gallery is a Sculpture walk which is famous.  And fortunately, the weather was good to us on this day; as it wasn't raining but it was sunny enough for us to walk around.  I found a lot of the sculptures very original in their appearance; and I had a few favourites.  I did like the bottle covered in thongs and shoes; and how people were trying to pull them off too.  And the Sculpture walk went right along the spit to the end of a parkland area where it overlooked some water/river and you could see the tallest building on the Gold Coast across the way.  

This one's called 'The Elements'

If that wasn't enough, we were shuffled off - by bus - to Jupiter's Casino for an all you could eat, buffet lunch.  We had worked up an appetite for it and so many of us went back for seconds and thirds; but I only had my lunch of a very refreshing salad and a very sweet and delicious dessert with hot chocolate.  After our lunches we were given our presents of a drink thermos.  When I opened my envelope, I found that we were all given tickets to the Australian Army Band's 'Merry Melodys' night on 14th, December.  I was given the ticket of one of my married friends as they were going to be in Tasmania at that time.  So, I'll see if Mum wants to go - or my Aunty Helen.

After we got our goodies, I took a wander around Jupiters and got a lovely photo of the staff putting up the tree in the lobby.  I also bought about 11 postcards for $5.00; and have sent off 6 so far.  Then, I sussed out the gift shop and found out why nobody buys the souvenirs from there... too darn expensive!

Well, we dozed on the way home and got our annual photo taken.  For anyone who's friends with me on Facebook, you can find my album of this on there; otherwise, I'll upload more photos as the new year comes in.  

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.

A Bigger One Begun.

There's another one I've been looking at doing; and finally I got into it.  And here's the first photo of it.  I'm thinking of calling it 'Love of the Written Word' or 'The Written Word'... I'm not sure yet which title; but it'll  be one of those two.

Love, Hate and Vampires

As promised, I have photos of the finished product of my smaller collage for you to see.  This one is all about the love and hate of relationships in all it's shapes and sizes; from real life through to mythology.  Most of the colour of it has to do with how the human heart is involved and blood.
In love our hearts are involved and they rule most of the relationship.  However, they break and shatter so easily that it's when we see red.  Hate can also make us see red in many different ways; in revenge and murder.  Then, there's the mythology of it all where blood is the life force of all vampires.  They need it to live and have a hunger for it all the time. 

So, the colour red in this collage means a lot in it.  Yet, there's the darkness in the background that holds all meaning for everyone.  Enjoy.

Progress - Slowly But Surely

I've been working on my 'Love, Hate and Vampires' collage and as I left it alone for a little while.  And so last night, I gave it go while watching a movie on television (my DVD player's broken).  And look how far it's come from the first photo of the first work on it.
I'll install a finished product here with all the photos of progress from beginning to end; so you can all see where it came from and how it finished up.

Love, Hate and Vampires

I've been working on a collage recently - well okay, two of them.  One is called:  'Just A Girl' and it's about how society expects girls to grow up in a particular way.  From the moment they are born, they are given dolls, teddy bears, prams, little shopping trolleys and tutu's to play with while boys are given all the cool toys of Tonka Trucks, soccer balls, water pistols and skateboards.  So, 'Just A Girl' is about how girls shouldn't be put into a box - or boys for that matter either.

The other collage I'm working on is called:  'Love, Hate and Vampires'.  It's mainly using old books that I've scrounged from charity stores (don't worry, they were falling apart
anyway) and I've glued the covers, torn pages and other bits on the canvas of other pages as a background.  Then, using the paint colour red, I've represented three emotions:  love, hate and vampires.  It's yet to be finished and I've still got to tweak it to make it look more or less better than it does now.
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on how it looks when I near completion.  It's look pretty good now, but I really want to make it look a little better than it does now.  The red looks too much like paint and less like blood... if you know what I mean.

How I Began With the Arts

I love working with all kinds of mediums when it comes to art.  I started off being a glass painter and having to buy a mask for the toxic fumes the leading put off.  It was a fun and very addictive art form.  Then, I did glass painting again; but used different kinds of paint... it involved brushes and a very steady hand. 

This lead me to painting on canvas.  But I didn't pick it up straight away; instead I took an 8-hour bus trip out to Roma in Central Queensland and was taught to paint by a wonderful woman... my then boyfriend's mother, Gail Humphreys.  She was a great artist when I knew her; and taught me the basics.  Dan was so proud of my first painting and I still have it around here somewhere (I'll never part with it or the other three I did that week).  She was so proud of how I picked it up so quickly.

Not long after I returned from Roma, Dan suggested I try to get some work in an art gallery.  He looked around for me and said that the Logan Art Gallery was looking for volunteers... I didn't know at the time that there was an art gallery here in Logan; so I drove there and met the curator at the time (Julian Bowran).  He welcomed me with open arms and I was on the roster immediately; and it was even better that I had a car!

Years passed and I learnt more about art.  There were installation days I was allowed to walk around and watch them hang the paintings.  Sometimes, I'd even pick out a detail in something that wasn't installed right and Julian was impressed and relieved somebody had picked the mistake (it would have been embarrassing on Opening Night if the smallest thing was wrong).

My art got better and I painted more and more when I left home on my own.  It was then, in my 30's I began working with collage and mixed media.  I enjoyed the texture of it and how it conveyed more than just plain old paint.  I tried out the style of artworks where you find stuff on the side of the road, but because of the lack of space, I couldn't do it.  So, collage with little things was the best thing for me.  And those things aren't hard to find in charity stores or in Council Pick-up days.

In the last month, I've painted a Traffic Signaling Box near my house.  Mum helped me and we had a ball!  It's so much fun when you take part in a community project; and it helps make your area look better.  And I've had such great feedback about that box since it was finished; so much so, I'm determined to do another one.

Art is something I've always loved; and will probably will always do in my life - as well as writing and love books - and so since I'm in a house full of arty things, I'm sure I'll be recognised for that one day as well in some small way; even if it's just my family who loves it and nobody else.