Japanese large brush calligraphy

Last week was another busy one with a visit from a 20+ delegation of Japanese friends from our 'Sister City' in Tatebayashi, Gunma prefecture, Japan. The highlight was a piano concert by a young internationally renowned pianist, Yayoi, originally from Tatebayashi and trained in Vienna. Saruta san 'performed' this amazing feat of calligraphic art on the stage in time to the music.

'Dream'...4 metres+ of shoji paper,

We shared restaurant meals in Noosa, bush tucker at the Council Chambers, home made pizza in Ian's pizza oven, took our friends to local scenic spots, tourist destinations, wineries, art groups, for walks on the beach, through the rain forest and finished off with Colin James triple flavoured icecreams [Saruta san had seconds!].

...'love',

I was very fortunate to have Saruta san demonstrate on my deck to a dozen or so Buderim Calligraphic artists, then she wrote our names in Japanese characters and we all had a practice,

  

'Noela',

 

'Wabi sabi'

[the sensai or teacher uses red ink in the classroom],

 

...this is my effor at 'wabisabi',

...ready to practice,

 

...this means 'leaf',

 

 'Japan',

 

'harmony',

...and doing the 'hockey pokey' after learning how to do the hula dance - a very multi cultural finish to our visit. 

'SAILS' aftermath

It has been a week since our hectic 'Lucas Parklands Sculpture on the Edge' exhibition. I am still recovering.

It was a huge success with about 1,000 visitors through the gardens, good sales and heaps of positive comments. We have been invited to exhibit in another local garden later in the year. Our arts organistion, 'Arts Connect' is flat out with grand plans and ideas for the future. Very exciting. I love my local arts community.

My 'Sail Away' installation did just that - one of the 3 sails moved around the dam a little bit as it was fixed to a floating log which obviously drifted around, so the corner became very dirty.

I tried to wash the dirt out and left the corner in strong bleach overnight - and guess what - the bleach has destroyed the fabric! Hmmmmmmm

Interesting effect but probably not usable in a practical sense.

Here are some of my favourite pieces from the exhibition:

'Renewal' by Fiona Dempster,

'Returning' by Fiona Dempster,

'Forest Letters' by Ken Munsie,

'Sounds of the Bell' by Kim Schoenberger,

'Windows to the Soul' by Kim Schoenberger,

'Droplets' by Barry Smith,

...and to finish off, a cheeky 'peek a boo' 'Sails in the Forest' from me.

Gumleaf Garland

Today I 'installed' my gumleaf garland, adding leaves to it until the last minute to make it long enough to drape nicely over the tree. How many leaves? No idea - I'm NOT about to start counting.

It was strangely difficult to photograph, but here goes.

 

 

I also managed to get better photos of  'Back to the Source' - the 20 metre long painted strip of fabric - again, difficult to photograph.

 

 

SCULPTURE ON THE EDGE

13 artists have installed 56 sculptures in the garden and rain forest walk of Lucas Parklands [a private 20+ acre property near Baroon Pocket Dam]. The exhibition was organised by Arts Connect, a local arts organisation with lots of drive and enthusiasm.

These are my pieces:

'Sail Away' dedicated to Delwyn's dad..

It has been a hectic few days with lots of physical work - lifting, bending, climbing ladders, scrambling over rocks and getting stuck in the mud, but I think the effort has been well worth it.

  

 'Sails in the Forest'

We have a bit of fine tuning to do on Friday before the open garden on the weekend. Lots of organising and hard work just for 2 days, but it has been a very rewarding experience for us all.

  

'Sailing on the Edge' 

 

'Back to the Source'

WABIBITO

This is the latest splodged fabric for one of my installations at Lucas Parklands. I really love this piece. The plan is to wrap a rock, Christo fashion on a mini scale!! 

I have just read a post by Delwyn about WABIBITO - people who are followers of the wabi sabi way of life. Thanks Delwyn, it's rather fun to have a quirky sounding definition of what I believe in. I was sitting in front of the telly tonight emptying pyramid teabags and was totally content. Someone on the TV was trying to entice me to a bigger house, a grander pot of superannuation [I have none], a swimming pool in the back yard, ra, ra, ra, and at that moment I didn't want to have one more skerrik of anything. I was very happy sitting cross legged on my uncomfortable couch emptying teabags. I am blessed.

GUMLEAF GLORY

Well - my third blog for the day!! I've really outdone myself!!

This afternoon, I filled a basket with gum leaves to continue my gumleaf garland, and couldn't resist posting on the beautiful colours of the leaves.

We don't have much of an autumn here in the subtropics [winter temps rarely drop below 15 in the day and 8 at night], but my evergreen 'blackbutt' eucalyptus tree sure is producing some gloriously coloured leaves.

I think the birds and possums knock down the green ones and they change to lovely mottly reds then golds and browns as they lie on the ground. This basket made about 30cm of garland. Still a way to go.

20 metres of fabric

 

Yesterday I joined my dyed sheet bits together, then late in the day I painted and splodged with a house paint brush on a long stick- the fun part.

NOTE TO SELF - rememer it gets dark and cold and sometimes rains at the end of the day!!

So here I was in the dark, trying to lift the wet painted 20m strip of fabric off the newspaper so that it didn't dry and stick to the paper. I draped it over various stools and things but then couldn't shut the studio door overnight. Hmmmm - I HAVE had rats in there on a previous occasion when I forgot to close the door.

Next morning - no rats, dryish paint and some exciting sections of painted wabi sabi fabric strips.

Lucas Parklands Sculpture exhibition

I don't class myself as a sculptor by any means, but I have joined in with local friends and colleagues who are exhibiting on June 12th and 13th as part of the Arts and Garden Festival in Maleny and Montville. Arts Connect Inc [a Montville based but rapidly expanding arts organisation] is organising the art side of things. I am making some 'ephemeral' and fibre based pieces for the weekend. My fabrics will be a stark contrast to the natural bush surrounding but I hope they will make a statement and get the audience thinking about 'art' and its various contexts. The piece above, 'Sail Away', was a 'trial run' a couple of weeks ago and will be dedicated to Delwyn's dad.

I am about to splash black paint along this length of fabric - about 20+ meters, draped along my deck into my studio. It was originally a lovely heavy linen hospital sheet which I dyed and stained and marked will various 'stuff'. I hope to drape it down a tree, over a rocky outcrop and maybe into a dam at the Lucas parklands. We'll see!!

How inspirational are the folds of this jersy fabric? I am toying with ideas such as "A FUN GUY" [ a fungus] and "RED MOSS" and attaching bunched fabrics to rotting logs.

The "'GUMLAND GARLAND" is coming along well, but I want it to be twice this length - hoping for a windy day to blow the leaves off my tree.

This is how I want my Gumland garland to look in the forest [this is a photoshopped pic].

Our big set up day is Monday 7th, so it will all need to fall into place in less than a week. My friends Fiona Dempster, Barry Smith, and Kim Schoenberger are all involved and have brilliant works. Keep an eye on their blog sites - they are great bloggers.

another Pojagi Scarf

I managed to put together another scarf last week. Creativity has been slow these past couple of weeks - the boring details of life keep getting in the way.

  

 

This one is also for a lovely lady I met in Japan. The original shibori dyed white and turquoise fabric she gave me was apparently VERY old. I wonder what they used to get this strong colour? I have overdyed with a soft light green commercial dye.

 

Of course it's the beautiful hand patching I love so much - I've even starting doing some patching myself - embarrasingly rough compared with the delicate Japanese work which doesn't show through to the front.