The Wall, Tasmania

The highlight of the trip across to Strahan (other than an echidna tally of three) had to be a visit to The Wall. This incredible place must be one of the best kept secrets in Tasmania. Frank had heard of it from one of his brothers who stopped in on a visit to Tasmania. The feedback must have been good as one minute we were driving along the road and the next we had veered off and were finding a place to park. This place is almost indescribable. A labour of love, self funded by a local wood sculptor named Greg Duncan The Wall is both a personal testament to an artists' skill yet also depicts a personal view of the history and environment of this unique island. Made up of a series of carved wooden panels 3 metres high by 1 metre wide, the panels joined make up a scene almost 100 metres in length. The panels run back to back down a long enclosed hallway. The space itself is awe inspiring and a lot of thought has been put into this purpose built space. The carved timber panels take pride of place running up the centre of the building. The walls themselves will, over time, hold customised display panels. Some of these have been installed, others are yet to be erected. The interesting thing for me was to see that the art on display here is very much a work in progress. While many of the panels are completed with detailed carving and textured images, many of the panels are part carved and some are yet to be begun. As a learning tool this makes for great viewing as at different points you are able to see the artists' rough sketches, more detailed drawings, rough carved sections and detailed carving int he middle of unstated panels. It is incredibly interesting to see this work in progress. For me, perhaps even more interesting than seeing what this will be an another 10 years time. I'm only guessing at time frames, but the level of detail in the carving suggests it is far from finished. Panels depict early settlers, people working clearing forests, farmers, draught horses, dogs, children, native flora and fauna. Stories depicted range from settlement to environmental impact. From now extinct animals such as the Tasmanian Tiger, to those under threat like the orange bellied parrot. The bounty for Tasmanian Tiger pelts as documented is heart breaking yet the artistic talent required to carve the record is inspiring. A long list of names and dates shows the human impact on the native population of this animal. The rest of the centre is set out around a reception area, massive fire place and lounge area and a mezzanine displaying work by the artists' son, also a wood carver, and the artists' sister, who paints. There are also numerous examples of carved items that until closer inspection look like a pair of leather gloves draped on a shovel, or a coat and hat hanging on a rack. The timber screams out to be touched, but it is clear that this is not an option. The smell of the space however almost makes up for it with timber scents everywhere. It is easy to get a feel for Greg Duncan. His views on unruly children as visitors and vehement demands for no photography suggest an artistic temperament. That said, I can understand his concern for copyright - that was before I read an appeal from him, stuck to the door, that detailed a list of injuries he has received from disgruntled visitors - fractured eye socket included. It truly is an amazing place to visit and I hope long term plans include capacity for coffee and cake added to the alcohol currently on offer. Our morning visit was not the right time to take up the offer of local spirits, the honey tasted however was enough to encourage us to buy a block to take with us. Almost like creamed honey, but solid, this tasted sweeter than chocolate but with a similar texture. Heavenly! Coffee would go a long way to making The Walls commercially viable, but I wonder whether this is what the artist wants. It really is a labour of love. My thought at present is that some people would think the $10 adult admission price a little steep. As for me, I loved this place and could happily have stayed on. 16.12.13

Arrival in Strahan

We arrived in Strahan in time for a late lunch so joined everyone in town for a nibble at the local bakery cafe. After a very good toasted pita bread with chicken and salad washed down with banana flavoured milk (tasted exactly like banana lollies!) we headed off to walk around town exploring. We collected tickets for the boat cruise we had booked for the next day, then checked in to our accommodation. Everyone is very trusting here - we were directed to head on up the road to The Crays - Kelly and we would find the key in the door. We did, and it was! Neat and tidy, with a living area, kitchen and two bedrooms we had everything we could need for a couple of days stay with a glimpse of the water and walking distance down to the main part of town. Perfect. Being early summer it is easy to spot the tourists, but being early in the week was still quiet. We went to the local IGA and got supplies for self catered breakfasts, water, snacks then headed back into town for dinner at the local Hamers Hotel. All good and everyone happy. 16.12.13

Strahan, Tasmania

We decided to take the opportunity to head over to Strahan for a couple of days. I had not yet ventured to the West coast of Tasmania,while Frank knew something of what was on offer. Given Samson was with us for a few days and he too had not been to Strahan, we decide to go exploring. Leaving Tunnack on Monday morning we passed through a number of interesting towns. Tasmania is full of history and each little town or hamlet adds to the story. Bothwell had street signs of tartan with names harking back to what could only be a Scottish background. Even more intriguing was that each street sign seems to boast a different tartan pattern. I needed Mum or a book of Scottish tartans to translate. A cab driver might not like it trying to find a particular street, but for me they were a unique feature of this little town. Hamilton might be worth a stop over on another visit as it seemed to have a cluster of little shops, most of which seemed to be selling antiques and collectables. Just my thing. Then there was Ouse. Apparently this is pronounced "Ooze". Why, I can not say. Just seems to be the local vernacular, and with a servo and newsagent mixed with a supermarket of sorts it didn't seem likely that I would find out any time soon. These little places were on the Tunnack side of the drive. All up it was approximately a five hour trip to Strahan. At times the road was serpentine winding up and down mountains as we worked our way from the Southern Midlands across the range and down to the Central Coast and the township of Strahan. 16.12.13

Carol Shelkin Mosaic Workshop at MAANZ 2013

I had the privilege recently of attending a workshop with US mosaic artist Carol Shelkin.  Talk about being out of my comfort zone.  Not only does Carol work using sheet glass, which I rarely use, but to add to the challenge she is a portraitist.  Definitely not my thing so I was ready for anything and expecting everything. 

Either way 4 and a half hours flew by.  With this course generally taught over a number of weeks we were all happy to gain so much knowledge from Carol, who was more than prepared to share her expertise with us.  As a tutor she was great, and she achieved much with great forbearance in what must have been difficult circumstances.  So, my overview of what I took away from the session goes like this!

Carol showed us ways of looking at shapes, planes, and shadows on the face and how to teach ourselves to actually see them.  To see the face in terms of light and dark, black and white.  Quite a challenge, but it made so much sense to hear how she looked at work.  It also put into context for me why as an artist, Carol produces a black and white painting, a colour painting and a sketch before she touches a piece of glass when starting out on a new mosaic artwork.

Carol talked a lot about hills and valleys ie the contours, become the face, with the more drastic the value or shading, the more contours  will be revealed. 

Carol's philosophy being "if you can capture the shapes of the shadows, these become the face."  Easier said than done, but we all tried as hard as we could!

She shared too a couple of tricks with us - using a "viewfinder" to trick the eye and identify shadows.  Who would have thought a piece of card with a square hole cut into it would be such an effective tool.  As for the colour wheel she gave each of us - I don’t think I have put it down since I got it.  While a wrote a paper on colour theory many years ago I had never really utilised this tool in my practice.  Wow, what a mistake.  These things are awesome!

Colour is an incredible thing so being reminded that cool colours recede and warm colours stand out wasn’t a bad thing.  According to Carol, in general the warm colours are the hills (orange, yellow, red) and the cool colours (blue, purple, green) are the valleys.  I like simple connections that have a visual link.  They make sense to my way of thinking so I liked this thought from Carol very much.

The other concept Carol shared with us was the 60:30:10 rule.  Again, a general rule, excluding eyes, hair, teeth etc it works like this.  60% of the flesh area should be one colour in a range of shades. "Flesh" can be blue!  So long as you use shades and link tones using your colour wheel.  30% of the work is the secondary colour and all its shades which leaves 10% of one other colour and its shades.  I am sure this isn’t a new idea, but for this portrait novice it was a great way of understanding what we were being taught.

More tips included the secret that eyeballs are not really round, and the "whites" of the eye are rarely ever white.  Who would have thought.  As for me, I have certainly started seeing things differently.  I have been busily "squinting" to identify the shadows and contours ever since I got home. My portrait, which was the proud bearer of one eyeball on my departure from Melbourne, now has an eyeball and some surrounding skin.  Biggest progress made however is the mental leap and I think I do "get" this.  Time will tell.

My workshop buddy Kym and I agreed with our new South Australian friend Elaine's comment that she needed to "paint by numbers".  I could certainly see the connection!

Best thing is I now have two new FaceBook friends.

 

Carrie Reichardt - Mad in England

Ok, so these are my thoughts on the keynote address for the MAANZ Symposium 2013. From the UK, Carrie Reichardt advised us she is "not a Royalist" and proceeded to share her thoughts on life, art and politics. Her paper was unsettling and overwhelming...but inspirational. Days later, her words are still resonating with me. "The Treatment Rooms" is her studio and her work definately has a message with murals, mosaic, ceramics and screen printed political works her forte. Sporting a "Mad in England" windcheater and a hat rather akin to that of a tram conductor Carrie was never going to be boring. Art college turned her off art. Her tutors didn't like political work or feminist work which translated that they didn't like her. So she finished with art college and did her own thing, which she has continued to do ever since. Her art is autobiographical as is her way of working and from what she told us her art is cathartic and brought her back from the edge. After suffering from mental illness, her art was her salvation. Becoming involved in community mosaic and work with schools enabled her to make a connection to people and she was able to work again, but as she so clearly stated, Council pays you to dumb down the message and take meaning out of the work so Carrie stopped working for Council through public art commissions, and again started to do her own thing. This is where the discussion deviated from mosaic, and for just reason, but her time talking to us was spent discussing issues that at times were confronting, but were very much from the heart. I for one appreciated this. Death row is a tough topic to address and Carrie did it with humility while at the same time making her stance on related issues pretty clear. 3 out of 4 people on death row in Texas are ex military. Thanks to a connection made through the Big Issue, Carrie began a process of writing to someone on death row, and continued to do so for over five 5 years, becoming friends with Louis and engaging in a lifelong relationship of learning and engagement. This process too reinforce the message that it is ok to do your own thing and as a result Carrie began the mammoth task of mosaicing her own house! Louis spent the last two days of his life with Carrie before his execution. His message to Carrie was that her writing to him restored his humanity. Louis died on 20.10.2005. The death row arguement is a tough one - people either agree with the argument or don't. As Carrie sees it, there is limited opportunity for dialogue - unless you make art out of it. The process of creativity for her, has ensured sanity. As such, there is much in the way of subtle, sometimes hidden messages, in much of her work. Through her friendship with Louis, Carrie's sense of justice and law and order was overthrown and overwhelmed. For Carrie, the words of Martin Luther King Jr ring true "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." People are seduced by ceramics and mosaic and as such it is often possible to tell a story that might otherwise not be heard. Her work for Elephant Parade is a good example of this. Commissions for this project were completed free of charge and as such Carrie has final say over what her work says and shows. Her elephant Phoolan is half gorgeous elephant resplendent in ceremonial robes, and half skeletal to show both aspects of elephant conservation. The irony of the private collector who purchased the works intent to "push the elephant against the wall" was not lost. Similarly Carrie's Trojan horse , commissioned by Cheltenham Art and Craft Museum makes a comment on the abuse of horses by man in war, horse racing and abattoirs. Current work is progressing along the lines of utilising ceramic collage, with the ever present opportunity for political comment. Carrie is working on an international mosaic project in Chile in January 2014. Other influences on her work include the Black Panthers, Fred Hampton's statement "You can kill a revolutionary but you can't kill the revolution" and the concept of "craftivism" as defined by Betsy Greer 27.8.2013

Melbourne cuisine

Plans for tomorrow are all set. Frank is heading back to Bouzy Rouge to learn how to make Suckling Pork with the chef there and I am heading to the MAANZ Symposium. Food in Melbourne has been an epicurean delight. I am happy to say that more often than not we have fluked it and have eaten really well. Even the Chinese Takeaway we had one night was better than average. Our top pick of Melbourne cafes and restaurants include: Bouzy Rouge 470 Bridge Rd, Richmond. We had lunch there today and both enjoyed our meals. The secret ingredient in the Suckling Pig kept Frank guessing for the duration of the meal until he finally conceded that my guess of "cinnamon" might indeed have been correct. As for me, the Portuguese Seafood Stew with rissoni was the ultimate. I happily used the bread to sop up the sauce until the plate was as clean as possible without licking! Euro Patisserie at Kings Arcade Armadale has great coffee at only $3.50 for a flat white. The escargot pastries are to die for and the croissants are not far behind. With good food and dog friendly, highly recommended for breakfast or a casual lunch. The pick of the meals for me so far was lunch at The Atlantic. Although it has built its reputation on the concept of from the "ocean to plate" the braised beef cheeks with broad beans and mashed potato was the ultimate. It was the best meal I have had in a long time. Just for the record, I did have seafood pasta for entree. The salt was also incredibly good. Turns out it was Murray River salt flakes. Famous for their naturally occurring pink tinge I found a supplier today in our travels and brought some to take home. Actually dinner at il Solito Posto was pretty incredible too. We were seated adjacent to the book case, so after choosing between Barbara Cartland's The Very Naughty Angel and writings of Anne Frank, the menu was easy to navigate. The seafood linguine didn't disappoint and we decided fairly quickly that if we lived in Melbourne The Usual Place would quickly become a regular place to dine. Best breakfast so far goes to Caffe e Torta. A little piece of Europe in Little Collins Street. The breakfast was great with substantial portions, so pretty good all around. The decor was fun too with posters and bits and pieces. In general the decor in restaurants here tend to be quirky. Much more so than Brisbane. If they are not classic with white cloths and trendy graphic designs on the wall, they combine an odd array of bits and pieces, not unlike what you would find in the home of a collector, antique dealer or family restaurant in Europe. Point in case the tip bowl at il Solito Posto. A squirrel nutcracker which looked suspiciously like Alessi. I checked it out at close range but couldn't find a mark on it. The bar tender had no idea what it was, and seemed rather bemused by my interest. Interesting thing was we found a similar nut cracker in an antique store in Armadale - priced at $150. Recommendation for pizza? Papa Gino's in Lygon Sreet, Carlton. The best pizza around. All I can say is thank goodness we have been doing lots of walking. This city could have dire consequences on my long term health and well being. 22.8.2013

Melbourne Aquarium

A visit to the Melbourne Aquarium was reminiscent of the visit to the zoo. Wall highlights within a visit to what seemed to be a construction zone with all of the noise, dust, impact on circulation and trip hazards one would associate with a building site. Again, signage apologising for the inconvenience and a full entry price of $35 did little to appease. Ok, enough complaining! The highlights were worth the angst and they included seeing both Gentoo and King Penguins. These birds are incredible in real life and so much better than viewing them on tv. Sorry Sir David! The colours were incredible and so intense up close. Watching them walk was amazing with their momentum and gait unlike anything you can imagine. they really do waddle - until they hit the water where they come into their own. As for the Gentoos, how cute are they. Their trick is to build a pebble nest to impress their partner. Security is tight with pebble theft rife as males fighting to attract their own females, thieve pebbles from adjacent nests. The seahorses and leafy sea dragons were amazing to watch with their movement dependant upon the current. Sea horses use their tails to hang on to coral to stabilise themselves. Then on a whim, they release their tail and float off until they reattach onto another convenient branch. The octopus was a true character as only an octopus can be and I spent some time watching him. His ability to manoeuvre and shape shift is inspiring. The tank with tropical fish was good, but not as large or lavish as you would expect with the access to corals, anemones and fish we have in Australia. It was a little disappointing. There were some smaller tanks that were interesting. I loved the Thread Tailled Travelly and also enjoyed watching the Scorpion Fish. Seeing Travelly on the menu at dinner tonight I abstained and went for the pasta! As for the rainforest area, how it fits under the definition of an "aquarium" beats me. We saw our fill of snakes, bugs and spiders at the zoo so I really struggled to get the connection. The shark tank was ok, but was mostly an in the round set up with only two small sections where the sharks, fish and rays could pass overhead. That said, seeing the rays glide over with their "faces" so close to your head was an amazing experience. I think if you lived in Melbourne you would buy an annual pass to the zoo and aquarium and then when you visited and the construction meant you couldn't see what you wanted you could return another time and pick up what you had missed. Perhaps that's the way to do it. Certainly with both of them so close to the city centre there is no excuse not to visit. 21.8.2013