...98, 99, 100, coming ready or not.

I believe I am experiencing blogxiety.

This is my 100th post so I feel it needs to be some kind of spectacular. Or I could just ignore this self constructed milestone and continue on my merry blogging way. Yep, I'll go with that.

At the weekend I visited Arts Project Australia to see By Hand "a showcase of fresh and unique ceramics that point to the powerful artistic identity of the maker."

Dorothy Berry Not titled (spider) 2008

The media release for the exhibition states "One of the by-products of the ceramic firing process is an awareness of the temporal nature of humanity. Once fired, the mark of the author’s hand in the clay is literally immortalised, rendering it forever present in the reading of the work."

Terry Williams Not titled (green skyscrapers) 2009

"In a post-industrial age, much has been made of the significance of the handmade to contemporary art practice and culture. The resurgence of hand making indicates a reaction against the non human uniformity of mass production. After all, "The physical body is the primary means with which to experience the world and the most obvious tool for the production of creative work.” (By Hand: the use of craft in contemporary art, Joseph Magliaro and Shu Hung, 2006) The works in By Hand showcase the broad range of concepts expressed by Arts Project Australia artists through their fresh and unique use of the ceramic medium."

Tim Noble Not titled (black football jumper) 2009

I really enjoyed this show. It made me smile because you certainly could feel the presence of the maker within each piece. I was quite envious of the looseness and honesty of the works. In learning and developing my craft the emphasis has been on striving for perfection but at the same time leaving fingermarks and glaze dribbles on a piece is something to which I aspire. It takes confidence to accept the marks we naturally make and not fix and fiddle and refine. A confidence I am yet to acquire but am working towards.

By Hand
22 October to 28 November 2009
Arts Project Australia
24 High Street Northcote VIC 3070

Last Friday

I was thinking of titling this post 'antithesis day' or 'petulant child day' as they could equally sum up last Friday.

What I thought was...

"i must call mark about those cups and organize an electrician to check my harco box and i hope my friend is alright and i have to reply to mollie's email and take photos of those pieces and layout a brochure of some description and redo my website and send that information to my retailers and was it rude to invite seven children and three adults over this evening but not cater and i must start those pieces for the artist in residence show and confirm everything is alright for set up Sunday and pick up Finn at three and..."

What I did was...

ignored the voices in my head

turned Rufus Wainwright up loud

grabbed a clay I never use

threw some loose forms I hadn't been thinking about

and made as much mess as my nature allows.



Well, I was never going to get any 'real' work done in that state of mind.

Thanks Rufus.

Big names, big pieces, big show.

Paul Davis, Yuki-To-Ishi (Snow and Rock)

Yep - it's big.

Ceramics Victoria's 40th anniversary exhibition at Manningham Gallery has the work of no less than 64 ceramic artists on display. Not for the faint-hearted that's for sure! I attended the opening and it was wonderful to catch up with people and join the celebrations but I think I only took in about half of the works and even that felt cursory. This is the nature of openings. Not the best time to view the works but an opportunity to support the artists and listen to those involved speaking on the subject.

The subject in this case is quite broad - ‘Celebrating the Past, Showcasing Current Work and Projecting the Future in Ceramics’ - no small task, so the immense scale of the show is perhaps apt.

I would love to find the time to return and spend a quiet moment (or day) there but right now I would also quite like to find time, as that delightful saying goes, to scratch myself.

Ceramics Victoria 40th Anniversary Exhibition
Manningham Gallery
14 to 31 October 2009

Monster Zoo

Parenting a seven year old boy broadens your interests!

Justin Austin
Monster Zoo
13 Oct - 14 Nov
Pieces of Eight Gallery

Read an interview with the artist here.

...and over there are the cranes of Sagrada

Phil Elson
6-24 October 2009
Skepsi On Swanston

It wasn't just the reference to cranes in the title that enticed me to the opening of Phil Elson's exhibition. I have been an admirer of his work for many years.
Grouping unglazed, statuesque vessels next to his more recognisable glazed bowls the show represented a personal response to travels in Barcelona and I caught his floor talk last Friday which touched on this subject.

Phil spoke about his enjoyment of Gaudi's architecture but also of his experience of artist Richard Serra's work, stating that "if it is humanely possible to create a spiritual place" then Serra achieves this in his sculptures.

An interesting idea given spirituality's inherent other worldliness.

A couple of years ago I 'experienced' a Serra exhibition at MOMA. Walking through his immense rust coloured, curved walls provoked the feeling that a slight shift in time and space had occurred and I was immediately taken back to a childhood experience of passing between rock walls at Hanging Rock, a volcanic rock structure and sacred place for local Aboriginal people of the Macedon region in Victoria.

I enjoyed hearing Mr Elson's account of his travels. But I have to admit I didn't quite see how this was imbued in the pieces in this exhibition. Perhaps this is not important? The impetus to create doesn't always relate to the final enjoyment of an artwork.

There is no doubt Phil Elson is a master of his craft and there is a high wow-factor in the throwing ability required for his larger pieces.

But at the risk of crying "I like your old stuff better than your new stuff" it is his simple, small glazed bowls that engage me.

Floating half-hemispheres that are resolved, gentle and calm. The glazes have a highly reflective surface and although opaque have a depth into which you can fall. And the colours - well - no point going on really, you just have to see them for yourself.

I still love it when an artwork is simply beautiful.

cook (kuk) 1. prepare (food?) by heating

I don't really bake...or even cook... often... well... at all... really.

The other night I saw the movie Julie and Julia surrounded by my
wonderfully-skilled-in-the-kitchen friends
and while I could fully appreciate their joy and passion for the art of food preparation
I had greater empathy with the blogging.

I actually love to cook.
Well, I would actually love to have a lot of time to cook.
Wait, I would actually love to have a lot of time to... pot.
Yep, that's it.
If I was suddenly given a lot of time I would spend it creating pots.

But look...

I've been blending and mixing and weighing and seiving.

Blueberry muffins? No.
Coloured slip. Yes!

Beautiful, creamy, mesmerising coloured slip that, very shortly, I will drop by the studio to check on. It is drying on a plaster batt to form a positively dough-like clay with which I intend to
knead and throw.

Each to their own.

Thank goodness others love to cook or I might forget to eat.

Keep looking up

Mmmm - cranes.

Now I'm no Objektophile and I've never experienced a Stendhal moment but I do seem to be developing a thing for inanimate objects. Telegraph poles, railway crossings and now cranes. Urban infrastructure is an inspiring thing.

I blame the gene pool. My mum's dad, whom I never had the pleasure to meet, was a builder and my mum can't pass a building site without stopping and admiring. Over development, consumerism, greed, it's all awful I know, yet I am humbled and awed by our ability to construct.

But beyond that, these bastions of development can provide such a bold, striking graphic across an expanse of sky. I can't enjoy a sunset anymore unless it's interrupted by the silhouette of a telegraph pole!

And I love that cranes are painted pretty colours - who decided to do that?!