comparing my insides to someone else outsides

The danger of blogs and the internet is like a really big version of comparing our insides to someone else outsides. A mistake most of us make and it is lesson I try to remember, when that person looks like they have a great life, they have it all together etc etc etc doesn't mean that is how they feel about. The pain of wanting to be somebody else...... I do this far less often these days(thank goodness), and sometimes when I look at blogs, and artists online I want what they have got. It is a really bad version of the same dis-ease only much bigger because everyone can edit and portray whatever they want on the web as their outside.

And then we have the amazing people who lay it on the line everyone now and then, or maybe all the time. When they are honest about how they feel, or what is happening for them. So even when they have the life I want they make it survivable so I can recall that we are mortal.

routines & mistakes

There is something great about disliking what your making that helps me take risks that take you to a greater place than you had planned or imagined.

Saturday was first time back in the studio for 3 weeks and I was tired, questioning my work that has been in progress for 12 months. So I just started working on some small works on card particularly the ones I didn't like and so was playing and something really lovely happened..... A surprise that led me down a interesting path. It feels a joy to be surprised and find my way back to the routines of making.

I have no idea how I would survive this world without having my art to make.

from the iphone a mistake I like

Thank you

Thank you world for everything right now even the difficult. This photo is taken on route via train Edinburgh to work and play while staying with the boy for a week.

Did I say I love train travel....
And my new iPad
And guardian online
And Leon superfood salads
And personal hotspots via iPhones
And Edinburgh
And the flat we are staying in
And just about everything

Red Ball - Inspirations

Discovered Kurt Perschke Red Ball Project which is completely great.  I also thought his interview was really interesting about his process and that of being an artist.

RedBall Project is a global art project by Kurt Perschke that exists as a series of temporary installations in a city over a few weeks. The work has taken place in places such as Barcelona, Taipei, Chicago, Toronto, and England among others. This film was created by the artist, who was later smart enough to get pro friends to help. So its early and rough, it literally is 'actions', or reactions.


As I consider could I install some of my work outside this man takes that idea to the maximum,  taking the inspiration to another level.  He talks about how sculpture wants to make you touch the work and feel it and that is something I think that is a really big compliment but how do you tackle that when you work isn't really built to withstand it?

Looking forward to it coming to England in Summer.

Inspiration via Ray Bradbury

"Books are smart and brilliant and wise. Love what you do and do what you love. Don’t listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the center of your life.”


via Brain Picking

60 from 250? more about the work

This work is a long term project researching into the languages that were spoken in Australia before invasion and colonisation, as part of my overall study of what it means to be a white non indigenous Australian.  How many languages were spoken in Australia? How many languages are left? What does language mean anyway?

Updated my thoughts on my research on my website.

Exhibition - 60 from 250?

Thanks to Jenny Thorburn my current work 60 from 250? had an opportunity to be shown in a textiles exhibition in Upstairs Gallery Berkhamsted, England. It is still so new to me to show my work and so always exciting to share something with the world and just see if there is any reaction.


3 vessels were shown on a plinth which somehow really worked. Now I can't wait to have the growing work shown as more vessels are complete.  Having some work in a gallery was a great start to my year and I hope it is a sign of things to come.

Australia's hidden history

Discovered via  the oneness project an interviews that sheds a little light on Australia's hidden history, the personal experience of colonisation. This video is a good reminder why I am trying to tackle my homelands ugly history as part my work. 


I find it difficult to hear the impact of white Australia, being a white non indigenous Australian myself and therefore very important.

inspiration for materiality

though not really a word materiality..... in my current work 60 from 250?  I am always seeking to push the limits of my fabric wind and weave technique. Each time I look to change or push something just a degree more. I love looking for the limits and look forward to seeing all the many versions that will happen.

Margie Livingston

Study for spiral block #2

2010

Acrylic

5.75 x 6 x 6 inches

And today via Jealous Curator I found the most wonderful inspiration for pushing material limits, an artist Margie Livingston who makes paintings as sculptures. Margie's work jumped out at me as I looked and wondered and was touched, even through a screen. 


Then Margie did something very generous on her website.... a video where she talks to us the viewer about her process, I am hooked and well worth 9mins of your life.

it is all about the audience by Marcel

... the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act
Marcel Duchamp, The Creative Act, 1957

My new hero - Riley on marketing

Via Sarah Maple (by the way an artist I just discovered and very worthwhile checking out) this very inspirational video. I think Riley should take over and rule the world. 

Royal mail did deliver

orders@arthousecoop.com	Feb 8 (2 days ago)
to amandajayne414

Dear Amanda Carmichael,

Thanks for sending in your project for The Sketchbook Project: 2012! We just wanted to let you know that your project has now been cataloged into the Brooklyn Art Library! It can be found on the shelves with a call number of 143L.2-3.
Please stay tuned for more details about the project.

Sincerely,
The Art House Librarian Robot

Art House Co-op
www.arthousecoop.com

It arrived in the Brooklyn ,USA - MY SKETCHBOOK 'i remember you'.   I did meet the deadline of posting my sketchbook on 31st Jan. I didn't make it year 1, first attempt, so really glad I got it across the line in 2012 it was certainly touch and go with the illness that dogged many of my weeks in January.

This little sketch book is the end of an era, the book end to my flags and work with memories and saying good bye to Dad.

The Sketchbook 2012 World Tour is an unofficial way to have a little of my art be shown in America and then a mini exhibition tour in different countries - if you are in any of these locations below maybe you can check it out.

If you visit you can ask for me in the stacks with a with a call number of 143L.2-3. 

Soon you will be able to visit my virtual sketchbook online....

• Brooklyn, NY
  April 14th-30th
  Brooklyn Art Library
  103A N. 3rd St
  Brooklyn, NY 11249
• Chicago, IL
  
  May 3rd-5th
  Hyde Park Art Center
  5020 S. Cornell Avenue
  Chicago, IL 60615
• Portland, OR
  
  May 11th-13th
  The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel
  1022 SW Stark St
  Portland, OR
• Vancouver, Canada
  
  May 15th-16th
  W2 Media Cafe
  111 W Hastings St.
  Vancouver, BC
• Los Angeles, CA
  
  May 24th-26th
  iam8bit
  2147 W. Sunset Blvd.
  Los Angeles, CA
• San Francisco, CA
  
  June 2nd-June 23rd
  Pop-Up Shop

• Greater Boston Area
  
  July 6th-8th
  LynnArts
  25 Exchange Street
  Lynn, MA
• Portland, ME
  
  July 11th-14th
  SPACE Gallery
  538 Congress Street
  Portland, ME 04101
• Toronto, Canada
  
  July 18th-22nd
  The Gladstone Hotel
  1214 Queen St. W
  Toronto, ON

• Philadelphia, PA
  
  Aug 23rd-25th
  The Painted Bride
  co-presented with InLiquid
  230 Vine Street
  Philadelphia, PA 19106
• Atlanta, GA
  
  Aug 29th - Sept 1st
  MASS Collective
  364 Nelson St. SW
  Atlanta, GA
• Austin, TX
  
  September 8th-16th
  Co-Lab Project Space
  613 Allen St.
  Austin, TX
• Melbourne, Australia*
  
  November 10th-25th
  NGV Studio
  Federation Square
  Russell & Flinders Sts
  Melbourne
• London, England*

o

A sweet delight

An elementary sweet tasting, cute delight for a Friday evening.

Pursuit of happiness

Since forever, or that I means I don't know when I didn't think this, 'I just wanted to be happy'.  There were moments when I had grand plans of what I thought would make me happy but really underneath everything when push came to shove my decision was I just wanted to be happy.  This has meant when I didn't know which path to take, which step to make it was tough. I didn't have a clear framework or guide about wanting to  be famous, or rich or chef or something  specific I wanted a bit of everything and to be taller as well..

I wanted to be happy not because I want to bliss out and live in a hippy love world, more because it was in short supply when I was a little person.  I guess I have always known from experience that life can be hard that it can break your heart and so I just wanted to be happy.  On many days now, I have those moments I am incredibly grateful for life and feel incredibly lucky that the cards have fallen my way.Just like I have won the lottery that my life can be filled with so much good stuff. I still wonder how did I get here.....

Look some people would see my life as a little crazy, too full, too hard - I work too much; I don't sleep enough; I have time consuming art projects that suck all my time but in the end it is how i got to this point.  I still feel bewildered that I got here really, that I don't have the tears that used to flow too often, the sadness, the fear and everything else.  I know I have worked hard at it 'doing' and that I have come to accept that I need to compromise in my goals and be less self punishing but what makes it so.

I always want to learn more about the subject of meaning and happiness, so as a New Years treat when I was in Oxford I purchased three books:

The Social Animal - By David Brooks
Happiness - Lessons from a new science By David Layard
Is That Alll There is? Thoughts on the meaning of life and leaving a legacy By Julia Neuberger

I have finished the Social Animal and love understanding more about how we work as human beings how much is genetics, how much is environment, how our unconscious mind impacts who we are and what we do. This text also challenges the individualistic paradigm that the contemporary world is and starts to suggest some alternatives.

Happiness also challenges the current paradigm of individualism has put into words my own experience and makes me ever thankful for my Mum and Dad for giving me the big empathy button that has lead me to have so much of my life to be about making a positive difference to people's lives for my day job.  To be kind and compassionate and to have a strong moral code, this scientifically has set me up to be a happier person.

Apparently, my art practice has given me meaning and long term investment is something that enables me to experience 'flow' time, an activity which you can get completely lost in in not ware of time. This too is a key factor to long term happiness according to the Social Animal.

So maybe not as much luck as I has imagined....... but I keep crossing my fingers as in a heart beat life could be different. For me now, I am going to challenge myself to create two side A4 with some of the learnings to help reinforce and remind me when I am unsure what step to make,

Maybe for you, Social Animal is a recommended read. Happiness a solid book but I am not sure it is 5 stars, it certainly gives some solid ideas on how policy can impact happiness overall and explores why we are richer but not happier as a western society so worthwhile.

Also you could check out the TED Talks By David Brooks, and I will let you know about the third book still to be read.

I hate being sick

So the third week of my holiday has been taken over by me being sick. I haven't been very happy about it and I feel like precious days have slipped through my fingers.

I have so few days when I am not working or have deadlines and then my body decides I am going to make you do nothing so that is all I have been doing all week.

I have been in a lovely location of Sandbanks to do it. So there was fresh air and water all around but I didn't really manage to do much at all. Now on the coach back to London and fingers crossed I think I have taken a turn for the better.

no art, no seeing shows, no sketchbook

just sleeping, coughing, a little bit of reading and some terrible old movies

A week in Oxford

Photos from my Oxford week

not the normal snapshots of beautiful Oxford but I am not looking for the usual experience

The boy and moo cow behind Christchurch College

Ghost Forest by Angela Palmer

Pitt Rivers Museum

1 of 1000's lovely buildings

Pitt Rivers Museum

Pitt Rivers Museum

1 of 1000's lovely buildings

Pocahantas's father Ceremonial Hanging via the Ashmolean

1 of 1000's lovely scenes

1 of 1000's lovely scenes

Aegean figures via the Ashmolean

1 of 1000's lovely scenes

Magdalen College

Bellini from Jamie's Italian

Inspiration via the Ashmolean

As part of living the boy's dream life and living with him in Oxford while he is on tour, today I visited two great places the Ashmolean  Museum of Art and Archaeology and Pitt Rivers Museum. Inspiration on their own merits, and much more of the influence of Pitt Rivers later, I discovered the work of Angela Palmer.

Little did I know I would see two of her great pieces in my time in Oxford, Angela Palmer has done amazing things with Ghost Forest and Mummy.  Her art is often a collision between science and art, often tackling environmental issues.

Angela has clearly had an amazing education at Oxford and Royal Academy of which I am a little envious and she has achieved technically, physically and emotionally beautiful work which is an inspiration.


There is something about a particular artist whose research and creations walks a fine line with science and research, anthropology, ethnography and art which really interests me. Artists like Susan Hiller, Mark Dion, Grayson Perry, Fiona Tan to name a few that are intriguing me.

Studio delights

One of the highlights of 2011 is finding a great studio to share with some very good friends and artists. It has pushed to me and challenged me in: time management, priorities, ongoing routine of going to a place to create. It has been great just to be able to make something even just a mess and leave it to be there when you return, no more lugging stuff around and also not concerned when paint splashes everywhere. 

I was delighted to see that a photo of our studio is being used to promote Bow Arts SE1 studios. Check out the second image in the 5 images used to promote SE1. In super hectic year I also managed to participate in the Open Studios, flickr has the full set. 

It was interesting to hang and install my flags again and notice people's reaction and be able to talk to interested people about my work. A really good experience even if it was freezing cold and a little quiet on the Sunday. It is my nerdy, art geek that gets excited about a window of opportunity to see that my making and art will grow and continue. That I can be part of the broader community of people who are doing the same, ok act cool and nonchalant now, sorry I just can't.

Boxing Day words from Louise Bourgeois

I have a thing for art books, a love and passion that I am often chastised about by the boy. Especially as piles of books in rooms are building along with our bookshelves that are groaning. I am also reminded that as we live in a foreign land one day we will be shipping all my books somewhere. But my love continues and this year it included a investment (somewhat wild when i consider the price) in Louise Bourgeois The Fabric Works Germano Celant.


I do reread the books, there are an inspiration an comfort, a pleasure and a luxury and when the TV box is on I often reading and flicking through an art book.  Christmas break brings about the opportunity of time in mooching and in which I have read some fabulous words in the opening essay which seems so pertinent to what I am working on at the moment which I share below:

page 13  
"....The lives and adventures of artists are traced by what they leave behind them: marks and tracks scattered over the terrain of images.  It is on the basis of this set of imprints and fragments left over the course of time, in different spaces, that observers can read an account and a story 'written' by the human being who has used different and varied materials to reflect her vision as well as existence.........these things and events reveal multilpe meaning s connected to a personal and linguistic story, one that can be told as a posteriori by someone who has not shared this set of lived and recorded events.  


...... So this observer does not set out aspire to set out a complete comprehensive and unifying discourse, but only aims to recount   the partial story of artistic adventure ... a wrapper if not an actual garment.....a fragile like all the theoretical mirages and adornments produced by the art historian who tires to define 'destiny" of an artist  but only succeeds in expressing his observation  of the visible and the potential invisible corresponding to a view from the outside, not from the inside. "

p.s. this also justifies my love love of books and my purchasing and wish listing of them

Making meaning.... a Christmas experience

I have for the first time developed a sense of what Christmas means to me.   A celebration that a year has passed and  you still exist, you may share time with your own important people, food that is special and not often purchased is cooked, caressed and eaten. Joy given to others by contemplating their dreams and wishes and trying to give a gesture of that under a tree. Resting, eating sleeping reading chatting for no particular purpose or reason, the luxury of time.

the boy's christmas cooking 2010, YUM!

It doesn't mean that our Christmas Day was what was planned either but all the same it challenged my sense of right or wrong, good or bad.

Then with the pleasure of time to actually contemplate, a lightbulb moment when I realised that I experienced tangible clarity on a day where I made my own meaning in contrast to my own going exploration making art, looking to explore how we as humans make meaning.