Mini Print

I watched 'Julie and Julia' on the weekend. A very good movie about food, cooking and blogging - what else is there really? Except art of course.

At one point in the movie Julie types on her blog 'Hello, is anybody out there' or something to that effect. This was slightly reassuring because I often wonder this myself. Is anyone out there reading this? I would love to know if you are.

Sometimes I like to make little mini stamps out of lino. I use these on cards to stick to an envelope as a sort of pseudo stamp.






Today is the last day of Autumn. Awwwwwww. I have really loved Autumn this year as all you beautiful bloggers who are inspired by Waldorf, etc. have really put me in touch with the seasons. I feel a little sad that Autumn has come and gone so quickly. But I ddo have such positive thoughts for winter!

Possibilities

Is it possible that fairyland can co-exist with suburbia? I think so.

It's been raining for days. I cancelled a trip to the Biennale with a friend because I thought the cyclonic storm would hit, but it looks like it is really going to effect down South.

So I rode my bike instead. The rain has brought forth the mushroom fairy shelters and ducks and water birds play happily.

I wish I could live in the country, but in the meantime, I think finding the magic around me can be easy. See for yourself...















I haven't been able to blog much lately. School term makes working on my own projects difficult so I have to do little bits and piece which I love - a photo trip here, a sketch or two there, a spot of reading the arts section of the paper on the side.

Back into bed now to read the paper. I am sure I saw fairies and other woodland folk today!

IF_Early

From dark to light
to morning from night
Where sun and moon swap shifts in the sky
and each little star says its goodbyes.
The cold of my toes
Slight warmth on my back
That first little chirp starts a creschendo of cries
And each little bird spreads its wings and it flies
Goodbye to the night, wipe the sleep from my eyes.
Its early!

Watercolour pencil, white gouache, watercolour paper and text from an old book. My interpretation of the concept 'early' for 'Illustration Friday'.

I hope you too have woken up well from your dreams!

Nerves and Colour

I drew this image whilst I was doing Art Education at university, and a friend bought it from me for $20 - a lovely surprise considering that at the time I was broke, tired and desperately trying to keep up with lectures and essays.



Its now about 4 years later and I have been working in my job as an art teacher in a high school for over a year. I love it. It is constantly challenging, hugely busy and absolutely exhausting but also very very rewarding.

Today I am nervous.

I have an interview with the Department of Education to renew my teaching number. I have studied but I am still nervous.

So my interview is at 2:51pm today and I am sitting in a cafe around the corner drinking coffee and blogging.

It is 10:30am so I am over 4 hours early for my interview!!! Why you ask? It is in a suburb I have never been to before, at the end of the train line in Sydney's West. West West. West West West West West. You can't get much more West than here. I wanted to be confident I knew where the offices were, had time to study and was confident about what I am doing.

But I am having a good morning despite my nerves. Here in the West it is so so different to where I am from. Its really nice to be here as sometimes I get frustrated by the suburban whiteness and lack of diversity of my area. I would say the majority of people here speak a language other than English and I have already seen a million places to have lunch for under $7 - noodles, curries, pork rolls, a whole plethora of tucker from all areas of the world. I may even go shopping for a ceramic Hello Kitty mug with a lid for work.

I hope this picture is indicative of how I will go in my interview. I am carefree, confident and happy that I will be able to share all the wonderful things I have been doing with my great art students. Fingers crossed.

And on the 21st May I have my Graduation Ceremony. Yes I am fearless.

x

IF_fearless

Yes, she is about to jump but she does not go unaided - that would be very risky! She has her wings, her friends to catch her and a good deal of faith that all will work out just fine! I remind myself of that daily. I think there is a difference between being fearless and outright silly!



I hope your day today is a beautiful one and you remain full of courage and have faith that so much is good in the world!

x

IF_Cocoon

My image to illustrate this week's topic of 'Cocoon' for Illustration Friday:

Cocoon words: pod, contain, vessel container, hold, warmth, crysalis, wrap, hidden, hide, protect, sleep, inhabit, dormant...



I could think of many more words for what a cocoon embodies. I think the theme is perfect for this time of year. I can feel myself start to cocoon-up with doonas and jumpers and socks and shoes rather than thongs and singlets. I loved the theme as soon as I saw it however, the actual artmaking was not as glorious as the theme itself. It was hard work and there were very few points in the process where I was happy with where I was going, however I tried to have faith I was on the right track. I'm still not sure of the outcome but I am a lot happier with it now than at any other stage.

This image is composed of so many layers. Putting paint down, pushing it back, adding paper, painting over it, pushing back again. For eaxample, the pods themselves have gone from brown to white to brown again so many times until finally I turned them into faces.


You can see from the design here that I began with wanting to have a more abstract image than other IF designs I have done. I wanted to have beautiful pod like vessels hanging from trees and whilst it began that way, my image went from abstract to more representational.

Anyway, I hope you like it. I'm off to get a cup of coffee

x

Overcoming the artist bump

More little scribbles of not much really.

I'm trying not to be disheartened by my illustration for Illustration Friday this week. I can't post it yet as it is nowhere near how I want it to be. The topic is 'cocoon' and the image is coming along, well, slowly. I might post it tomorrow as it is, although I intend to play with it more today. I love how sometimes steps in my art become problems to be solved - oh the lovely feeling when I have solved these problems! What becomes painful is when there is no solution in sight.

Oh well, a nice problem to have on a sleepy Sunday morning.

x