Dying, not dyeing

This week was mostly a celebration of food - and then, my divine retribution, severe viral gastroenteritis and suspected giardia.  I am convinced it is nothing that I ate or did.  There is apparently a bug going around the town and I was lucky enough to get it.  Never mind, while I eat my dry biscuits and drink Japanese tea, and gastrolyte, and I can look at pictures of past meals.
                                     
 Before I got ill, I went to lunch with the ladies at Bar Alto in the Powerhouse at New Farm.  I love New Farm.  It has fantastic shops and eateries, a wonderful park, and lovely walks beside the river.  We had great meals overlooking the river, including this yummy seafood and polenta,

 

and zucchini risotto

and this fabulous cassatta desert.


  I must go back again,  as the rest of the menu looked fabulous!

We also had some Romanian friends round for lunch.  They brought some lovely entrees - stuffed eggs in a creamy sauce and chicken and vegetables in aspic.  We offered my mum's famous schnitzel with lemon and sour cream  sauce and baby potatoes and this salad,

 which turned out to be delicious.  And then, it was my favourite Gabriel Gate cake

 and homemade Creme de Menthe ice cream. (Thank you, Paul Martin).  Good company and good food - a good combination!

Back to the focus of this blog, before I got ill, I was working away on my embroidered sampler quilt, and am nearly finished the embroidery.  Now I am trying to decide how to bind it and whether to quilt it or not.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, I am not quite sure,  though people often accuse me of being organised, I am very organic in my work.  I change it as I go along, and go off on tangents, and rely on what I feel like and what the work seems to want, rather than the original plan.  A bit like my cooking, actually.  I find it difficult to follow a recipe completely, as friends and family can confirm.  Sometimes this method works, but occasionally it is a disaster, but that too is typical of my life.  Anyway, so far this method is working for me on this work.  I was a bit worried that I was getting carried away with the different colours, but it all seems to be balancing so far.

As well as that, I gave in to my yearning to get back to watercolour.  Two years ago, I went and visited my son and his wife in Alice Springs and, to my surprise, fell in love with the place.  I guess I had thought of it as dead, sandy, hot, red desert, and I hate heat.  But I went in September, when it was cold at night and warm in the day, and I was really inspired by the desert. It is full of life! And most people were friendly and welcoming.  My family took me to King's Canyon, Emily Gap, and Jessie Gap, among other places and I loved the rocks, plants, sky, the colours, the rock paintings and the scenery.  I hadn't expected such an abundance of birdlife - the bower birds, the Port Lincoln Parrots and the little zebra finches were really enchanting.  While they were working, I borrowed a car and  took myself to Simpson's gap, toured the McDonnell ranges, visited Olive Pink Desert Garden, explored the Galleries and the Museum, and wandered round  the Desert Park.  It made me want to paint so much.  I kept a diary, did some little watercolour aide memoirs and took lots of photos. And I thought a lot, because it changed my vision of Australia, the place of aborigines in Australia, the future of aboriginal Australia, my vision of beauty, my vision of myself, my vision of art.  This week, I was contrasting my experience there with the scenery and the weather here, in Brisbane.  While floating in the 27 degree sea in Caloundra last weekend, I started thinking of experimenting with an abstract painting, using the colours of the outback.  But, I had also become besotted by the series on the ABC on Grayson Perry's series of Tapestries which are inspired by Hogarth and explore the British social classes.  As my husband pointed out, that influenced me too, and my initially fairly abstract background got transformed into a cartoonish homage to Alice, using pen and watercolour and gouache.

Meanwhile, I was using my last few sheets of eco-dyed paper to make greeting cards.  I had sent a friend one of the cards I used to make

and got inspired to add to add to my stack of greeting cards. 

 

 

 

The styles all vary tremendously,

 

 

 but they, and postcards and gift tags, are a wonderful way to use up scraps I can't bear to throw out.

Before convalescing I also cleaned up my ipad and revisiting old web sites.  All the Japanese indigo sites led me to thinking that I should do something about my stack of Japanese fabrics - mostly blue.  So, I dragged them out and I have sorted out a pile to make another strip quilt.  A vague plan is in mind, but I might just start and see what happens!

And then, there a was a period of quietly dying rather than dyeing.  Such a waste of time!  Now, thanks to my darling husband, and my son nagging me to go to the doctor, I am on the mend and can't wait to get back to work.

The sweatshop artist

 I am working in a sweatshop - literally!  I have gone from the horrible, dry, off-the-desert, heat of Melbourne, to an exceptional bout of horrible, humid, no-respite-from-rain, heat of Brisbane. Both are my idea of hell.  Give me cold, ice, snow and cold wind any time.  Since I can't do anything too strenuous without losing my eyesight from all the sweat dribbling from my hair to my eyes, I have hunkered down with fan and air-conditioner going ( I know!  I am a sinner and contributing to the fate of the world.  I'l  try better tomorrow, I promise!) and have been sewing madly, while listening to recorded books.


I have made a lot of little artist booklets to sell on ebay.  I am really pleased with the way they have turned out.  Each is individual - I'd never be able to get the same pattern on the paper or the "bobble" again.  Each of the covers is eco-dyed with a  different ingredient and in some, the prints of strawberries, mulberries, apples, stems, leaves or onion skins is very clear. Each booklet has three sections to it made of eco-dyed paper, and then pages made from either Japanese paper or newsprint.  The  bobbles are made of found objects- bottle caps, wood, shells.   I am going to use my one for drawing in and making notes for new works, but I suppose they could be used as note books, shopping list books, diaries or just coffee table books since they are so interesting to look at.

 

        

I am also rather pleased with how a new experiment is working out.  I took a lot of watercolours I was not happy with, and ripped them into sections to glue together to form a new picture:

Then, I photocopied part of the picture onto some fabric using the method I described in an earlier blog.

 Next, I fused the picture onto some wadding.   I started to "paint" the picture using the sewing machine.

And when I had finished, I had what looked like a woven picture.













Now, I need to decide how to finish the piece off!


 I have been continuing with my sampler quilt at night.  Embroidering madly while we watch crappy tv.  I am deciding that I really like the way it is turning out, and wondering if I could bear to make a bigger one.











I haven't been able to get my dyes yet because Batik Oetero doesn't resume business until the end of the month, but I have taped up some water-colour paper, ready for a new project.  Unfortunately, I haven't yet got the image quite right in my mind.  Time I took the dogs for a meditative, if hot, walk for inspiration.

And, I have been inspired to cook again after Bob made me one of his spectacular breakfasts last weekend.  Poached eggs with anchovies.  Sounds weird, but trust me, the anchovies are on a par with bacon at its best.  After eating and looking at his creation, I am convinced that cooking is an art.

After watching Nigella on tv, and sending Bob into guffaws with my sexy rendition of her style, I made a version of her Mackerel with yellow sultanas, pine-nuts and marsala and spaghetti.  Very yummy in a sweet and salty way.

Inspired by a friend's attempt at okomogoyaki, we trundled out in the heat to our local Asian supermarket, specialising in Japanese and Korean food, "Good Morning Asian Grocery" in Gympie Rd, Chermside, to get our ingredients (love the name of the store).  Now this was a success!  I reckon it tasted better than the one we got in the market in Kyoto.  I'll do that again!


And now I am off for that inspirational walk!

From Melbourne to Brisbane, and back to work.

My last days down south were very rushed as I tried to see as many people as I could.  Unfortunately, I missed seeing many of my family and friends, but at least I spent some time with 2 of my grandkids.  It was such fun - if exhausting!  They are really full of love and laughter.

They enjoyed their "add water to paint the picture" sheets. I was fascinated to see their different techniques. Will liked the "dab with the brush" method, but Jac preferred applying the paint with a sponge squeezed onto the paper, or her hand. I discovered a liking for finger painting.

I tried to use them as child labour to clean my windows by giving them sponges and paintbrushes to "paint" the windows.  They were making great progress, but unfortunately lost interest before I got the whole house done.

I was also spoiled by my good Jamaican friend, Derica, and my son-in-law preparing a Jamaican lunch for me on the last day.  We had a delicious meal of

 ackees and saltfish:

johnny cakes:

jerked chicken:

accompanied by a salad I made up, which is sort of Vietnamese in style, but tropical enough to go with the food:

So good!!!!! My daughter is going to describe the process of cooking the ackee, saltfish and johnnie cakes on her blog ( www.kaetoo.blogspot.com.au).  Check it out!

And then it was home to Brisbane with the dogs, where we were greeted by Bridie, the cat, who seemed rather repentent for having run away and missing the trip down south.  She is voluntarily staying in the house and sticking close to me (which means that I am continually covered with her hair, and have little needle holes all over from her kneading), so she obviously missed us.  She is very lucky that our kind friends offered to feed her while we were away.  She has always been a very thin cat, in spite of the amount she eats, but she would have been a skeleton without them.

It is humid and warm here in Brisbane, but I have resumed my morning walks  along the creek with the dogs.  I find the time outside not only improves my health, but gives me time to think and get ideas for my art work - and gives me the opportunity for scavenging.  On one of my walks, I collected a lot of feathers, which gave me an idea about decorating some books.  Cooled by a combination of air-conditioning and fans, I made up some little artist books from my pile of eco-dyed papers.  I decorated one of them with feathers and some of my photocopied gum leaves.  The inside of the booklets consisted of a mixture of writing paper made from a roll of paper I bought in Japan, and a variety of eco-dyed papers with the prints and stains of leaves and flowers and fruits on them.  I bound them with coloured threads and the flattened and rusted bottle tops I found in Lake Bolac.  I  really like the results and can't wait to write in some of them.

I have also continued to work on embroidering my sampler quilt.  It is coming along well, but it is going to take a lot of time!  Here are some views of it:

I am going to take advantage of being inside to catch up on ordering supplies of dyes  from Batik Oetero ( www.dyeman.com ) and Kraftcolour ( www.Kraftcolour.com ).  Hopefully, there will be a break in the hot spell so I can go outside and do some more dyeing.  I need some more fabric dyed to make more fish and birds.

In addition, I want to cut some more lino to do more printing this year, and do some more watercolours and oil painting, and do some painted thread pictures.  Plus, I have lots of ideas and fabrics for quilts.

So many ideas, so little time!

Tripping in the new year.

Our Christmas break didn't start off very well.

  Bridie, the cat, managed to disappear at the last minute after we  had bought her a new carry cage, booked her a spot on the plane, and kept her locked in all night and most of the morning, then refused to emerge from where she was hiding when we called.  As a result of her antics, I was stressed, my son was disappointed in not getting the cat of his dreams, and our poor friend had to spend his holidays checking up on her and providing food and water.  Considering she was a wild farm kitten, covered in fleas, full of worms, and starving, that my other son donated to me after he saved her from being shot by a farmer, she has not proved to be very grateful.  Not only does she have fussy taste in food, spurn us when outside, and  cover the house and us with fur, she turns down an interstate holiday and the chance of being the only animal in a large house.  Spoiled brat!

Then,  once we got to Melbourne, we started  a series of marathon road trips.

After leaving the dogs at the family home, we had to go to a funeral in Mt. Gambier which proved to be very sad in more ways than one.  Very few people knew that the deceased had been ill or died, so many who would have liked to be there were absent.  The service was very short and the celebrant got lots of facts, including his name, wrong.  The eulogy was limited to  one person  who appeared not to know him well, and omitted mentioning some important facts about his life, including his relations with friends and family.  Such a shame when one has lived 96 years, has been well respected and loved, and led a very interesting and fulfilled life, inspiring many others in the community. I believe that funerals should be celebrations of a person's life and  their  effects on others, and love funerals where lots of people reminisce about the deceased.  At the best of funerals, there should be at least as much laughter as tears.  Sometimes, I think I would like funerals to be like the ones conducted by Ender in Orson Scott Card's the "Speaker of the Dead" (1986), where a neutral speaker sums up a person's life, including flaws, so that the survivors understand them, but I think most people prefer to focus just on the good aspects of the deceased, and participating in a positive service does help to heal the survivors.

On the up side, we got to spend some time with family we had not seen for a long time,  caught up with my eldest son and his family, and my mother in law agreed to have Christmas lunch with us (early, so the kids could share Christmas day with in-laws).

On the trip back to Melbourne, we re-explored Western Victoria, where hay-making and harvesting of wheat were in full swing, rediscovered the fantastic cafe we had discovered in Dunkeld on the previous trip, where we bought some "sheep yard Flat Reserve Port", which is " a full- bodied blend of sheep dags, toe nail clippings and sheep dog's pee...... And meticulously strained through a jillaroo's undies".  And I got a lot of embroidery done on my new quilt on the drive.

The family dinner was fantastic since it included all generations - from great- grandma to babies, and cousins, in- laws - and friends, lots of presents, laughter and bad jokes.  The food was  a fiasco in one sense since I mistimed the veggies, but we all ate enough food to feed a small town and still had leftovers for people to take home.  Plus, Barbados rum added to Nick and Jess' fruit punch, and some nice beer and wine kept the mood mellow. The ham and turkey were good, but the desserts were magnificent: Elle's berry and mango meringue concoction, and berry and pavlova concoction, Derica's incredible rum filled Xmas pudding, fresh berries, custard, Jon's chocolate peppermint ice- cream, Jessie's incredible raspberry cake, and Jon's chocolate birthday cake (from Helena's Cakes in Camberwell market).  Yummmeeeee.

Everyone seemed to like their Patapanart gifts, and I got a new book from Kris Kringle to inspire me further: "Printing by Hand" by Lena Corwin, which I plan to put to good use.  Among some really great gifts, I got some "arty" ones. My niece, the sculptor Jessie McLennan, gave my son and I one of her sketch sculptures each. 

The next day it, was off to Mt. Gambier on a 5 1/2 hour road trip ( more time for embroidery) with grandson 2 and his mum, stopping at the Lake Bolac pub, which is very old and made of bluestone, for some nice fish and chips and friendly service.  We were pretty taken by some of the work of a local craftsperson who makes clocks from old shearer's blades.  As you do, I collected flattened and rusted bottle tops from the carpark, to add to some future piece.  Don't know what the drinkers looking out the window thought.

Mt.  Gambier was fun as our two dogs made friends with my sons two dogs ( and contributed to wrecking the back yard - they seem to be trying to dig to China underneath the back porch steps) and treated their two cats with a lot of respect and fear, as dogs should.  We helped my son, wife and son move into their newly purchased, Mt. Gambier stone house, and gave endless advice on revamping the garden.  We had several very nice meals from and in local restaurants.  And, as usual, we were struck by the generosity and friendliness of the locals.  We were invited to a magnificent Christmas lunch in the beautifully restored and extended home of my daughter-in-law's friends.  Not only did they include us into the celebration with their extended family, but we were made to feel very welcome, given gifts, and even presented with 2 take-away bags of oysters, which proved to be very tasty indeed.

The day before we set off for the return trip to Melbourne, we discovered that the radiator of the car had died.  Luckily, my son is a mechanic.  He located a new one in Warnambool, lent us his car, and we drove 2 hours through wind and rain to pick it up, returned in two more hours to the mount, and he installed it an hour later.  Phew!

Then, it was time for Road Trip Number 6 back to Melbourne in the rejuvenated car.  I drove most of the way, so no embroidery.  Luckily, the weather had improved and there was little traffic, but I am not impressed by the deteriorating state of Victoria's roads.  Putting warning signs up is no remedy for pot-holes.  Spend more money on infrastructure!

A day's break in Melbourne saw us at our third Xmas party - a very enjoyable bar-b-q at Laura and Long's with oodles of great meat, colourful vegetable shasliks and beautiful salads, laughing children and, once again, thoughtful presents.  Desserts were, as usual, out of this world: berries and Tres Leches cake.  On the art side, my friend, Trish, gave me a lovely little bell made by potter Shoko Mafune, who I intend to keep an eye on in the future.

The next day, New Year's Eve, we were off to Bairnsdale, via Pakenham, with my daughter number 2 and her son.  Gippsland is very different to the Western District, which is much older in terms of settlement. No bluestone or extinct volcanoes, less scraped landscapes from years of ring-barking trees, less plantations of pines and eucalypts.  I am very fond of the rolling hills near Yarragon, and mourn that Melbourne is gradually creeping towards them as the government encourages the destruction of good farm land and the destruction of wild country.  I embroidered on the way, and nobly did not insist on stopping at every craft store along the way, so we got to Bairnsdale in the expected 3 hours.

Bairnsdale was, as usual, a haven of rest in an idyllic location - between the ocean and Gippsland Lakes and the mountains.  My mother- in law's home is in an acre of lovely garden and, perched on a ledge, looks out over the Mitchell River,  farmed river flats, and distant mountains.  Beautiful.  Grandson number 1 had fun cuddling the chickens, digging in the vegetable bed, and collecting beetles.  He obligingly accompanied us to River Grill, a very good restaurant in the town, where I enjoyed an Asian style dish of muscovy duck and a very moreish dessert of honey creme brulee and stewed rhubarb, while grandson ate my icecream.

Only too soon, we returned to Melbourne on our 8th and last road trip - I swear my hips are resisting being forced out of the chair postion they have been stuck in during these car trips.  Everyone kindly let me stop in Yarragon for cofee and a quick visit to my favourite gallery, Town and Country Gallery.  Once again I displayed  self-sacrifice and did not invest in the gorgeous amber necklaces, the oil paintings, the hand crafted furniture and the glassware I lusted after.  My embroidery, as usual, benefited from the drive.

Collapsing in a very hot Melbourne (today is 41 degrees), I got to catch up with old friends and more relatives, play with my two eldest grandchildren, pat the neighbours cats, hear about the Falls Festival from a very sunburned ( he calls it "Tanned") Son Number 2, eat cup-cakes made by my young friend, Gemma,  and pay vast amounts of money to the vet, the cost of being told that my dogs, who have been coughing all week, will mend without any medication.  I swear these animals are not worth the nurturing I give them, and give me more worry than I deserve.  Why do I love them?

So, I have survived 2012 and my entrance into my new career as artist and blogger and am looking forward to expanding the markets for my work, developing my art, and discovering new food, in 2013.  I would never have got this far without the encouragement of friends and family, and the hands-on help of my daughter, Kate, of "kaetoo" Canvas Photo Boards. Thank you all!