Dear Diary, you suck.

The topic for Illustration Friday this week is 'Diary' so I have been playing with that. I am obsessed. Have not done a completed illustration yet but have done some ramblings...

- Dear Diary,
Today I cried because Marion from Masterchef got kicked off the show. I cried for the loss of cuteness in my world. She was so damn cute!

- Dear Diary,
Today I wanted to Twitter that my damn internet connection was not working. The trouble is, you need internet connection to Twitter.

- Dear Diary,
They are having a party upstairs and did not invite me. But I hate parties anyway.

- Dear Diary,
I always write my diary pretending that someone will one day read it.

- Dear Diary,
Today I saw a big fat black rabbit eating grass on the side of the road. I know it was someone's pet but now I wish I had kidnapped it. I would have grabbed it, thrown it into my car and driven away really really fast. I desperately want a pet but have nowhere to put one.

- Dear Diary,
I hate keeping journals and never have.

- Dear Diary,
I once read that journalling can help you to be less stressed. But I also read that journalling can make you more of a stress head? Where is the truth I ask?

- Dear Diary,
How do I save 1 million dollars to get to the moon? I would do anything to go to the moon.

- Dear Diary,
I always give myself a bigger food portion than my boyfriend but hide it very well.

- Dear Diary,
I hate sad movies and very rarely cry in them. I will never ever watch the 'Notebook' and I don't care how good you think it is.

- Dear Diary,
Are you just a sorry replacement for God?

- Dear Diary,
I secretly cringe during weddings whilst everyone else gushes. I also don't find babies that cute.

- Dear Diary,
I could not care less about stretchmarks.

- Dear Diary,
I hate the phone and very rarely answer it.

- Dear Diary,
Why does everyone have a therapist. And why do they always say 'My therapist says...' Is there something wrong with me if I don't have a therapist?

- Dear Diary,
I went snowboarding and hated it until my boyfriend wanted to use my excellent board. After that, I have never had so much fun in my life.

- Dear Diary,
I sometimes worry I will be one of those women who collect so much stuff their house has to be cleaned out with a bulldozer and the neighbours complain of rats. Of course I am nowhere near this state but it could be a possibility.

- Dear Diary,
I always worry about things that may never happen.

x

Who me?

Things I've done in the last week:

- Been to the snow and snowboarded very badly - but much better than the last 4 or so times I've been!
- Watched 'Hurt Locker' on DVD. Not my first choice of film but yes, as good as critics have said it is.
- Watched Marion get booted off Masterchef - crying over the loss of cuteness! Man, how cute is she???
- Bought a new car - a second-hand old, old Toyota Corolla for $2,500 off my boyfriend's mum. Want to sell my 2006 Suzuki Swift because I don't like new cars - it hurts too much when I reverse into a pole.
- Re-opened my Twitter account. Still not sure about its value in my life but hoping to find out.
- Re-started my art teaching blog and neglected this blog! Life is full of imbalances!!!
- Cleaned my bathroom. Why is it so hard to clean the space the size of a Target dressing room?
- Marvelled at the fog
- Procrastinated.

Holidays are a wonderful thing but geez they go so quickly! No drawing but I suspect that may come one day. I am obsessed with studying social media and its impact on teaching. Trying to find out everything there is to know about the internet. I really must get a life.

x

Glow

These are a few pages from my new journal which I covered in daggy fabric and felt.

My efforts in making art for me in the last little while have been sporadic and very random at best. Luckily now I am on the home straight at work - reports are marked and school is winding up for the term. Today is a day of assembly and soccer world cup games that the kids will play in the school grounds.

I am in the process of throwing out old stuff, tidying drawers and classrooms, cleaning the mac computers and generally just wanting everything fresh and new for next term. I am exhausted. But, I get great holidays - I know that!

So my drawings are refective of those little half hour spaces I get at home where I eat dinner and watch TV. Just play.

Inspiration

'Within the Glass Verdant'

I am currently at the 2010 VADEA conference at the Australian Catholic University listening to a speech by Sydney artist Janet Laurence. She is the artist who made 'Edge of Trees' with Fiona Foley (see my last post)

Her works are lovely - themes of the environment, alchemy, poetry, Australian history, apothecaries, science, regeneration, transformation, chemistry. A very prolific artist, and amazing crafts-person so check out her work.


'In the Shadow'

She is currently talking about how one of her site specific works (In the Shadow) has transformed the environment to such an extent that the plants are overgrown, blocking peoples' views, and the swamp hen population are out of control. It is hilarious that despite all these problems, because her work is an artwork it has to be protected! She says that she is sure people are tearing out the bullrushes! Isn't art fabulous?

On that note, I do have a love/hate relationship with technology. I am sitting in the lecture theatre and yesterday I couldn't connect to the internet, today I can instantaneously blog whilst watching a presentation. Oh well, keeps me on my toes!

Near the beach and Edge of trees.

Saturday morning.
I've done two classes at the gym with a friend. Sounds energetic but I am a bad exerciser and since I joined the gym I have been feeling a lot happier and have been able to deal with stress so much better. I know I keep saying it but I LOVE my job, but I also recognise that it is hard work. Last week I had 60 reports to write in 2 days and I didn't worry much - I just worked till they were done. I think the lack of worry is the extra exercise I have been doing.

After the gym,
A trip to my at the mo' favourite deli - a really unglam European deli where old dudes smoke out the front. I always order a proscuitto and Jarlesberg panini. My large skim coffee comes with a glass of water and a sweet biscuit. I read the weekend paper in the sun and try not to breath in the cigarette smoke from the old dudes.

Home for a shower.
I delay the shower because I get on the internet and plan my excursion with Year 7s for Monday. We are going to the Museum of Sydney and the Australian Museum to learn about Indigenous art and culture. I love the Museum of Sydney because it reminds me that the Circular Quay area is the site of the first settlement and a place of such significance - a real site of history and memory. I am putting together a little education exercise for the kids so they can learn about a favourite artwork of mine called 'Edge of Trees' by Indigenous artist Fiona Foley and non-Indigenous artist Janet Laurence. The work helps me to connect with the significance of the site.



The photo I have posted here does not do the work justice.

The work is a
'A 'forest' of 29 massive pillars – sandstone, wood and steel – cluster near the museum entrance. Wooden pillars from trees once grown in the area have been recycled from lost industrial buildings of Sydney. The names of 29 Aboriginal clans from around Sydney correspond to the 29 vertical poles. Walking between the pillars you hear a soundscape of Koori voices reciting the names of places in the Sydney region that have today been swallowed up by the metropolis. Organic materials such as human hair, shell, bone, feathers, ash and honey, are embedded in windows within the elements, evoking prior ways of life. Natural and cultural histories are evoked by the names of botanical species carved or burnt into wooden columns in both Latin and Aboriginal languages, along with the signatures of First Fleeters. Place names are engraved on the sandstone pillars in English and Aboriginal languages' (http://www.hht.net.au/discover/highlights/collection_items/edge_of_trees)

To my dear blog friend Mita - I will try to do some of my own work this weekend. It has been a couple of weeks but end of term kills me. I will let you know. Been painting a few pears but don't know how to finish the work. Little by little.

Now. Shower time and to the beach for coffee with friends.

Enjoy your weekend all!

x

Saturday night

I am so so happy it is the long weekend. Thank GOD! Such a hard week, but my presentation went really well (despite me wearing converse amongst a group of suits) and my flu is gone!!!

I am cooking casserole. I have never cooked casserole before. Beef, potatos, carrots, brown onion, portobello mushrooms, tomato paste, French mustard, beef stock and dark beer. I used to think I was a great cook - my friends and family used to tell me I was pretty good after many dinner parties and Christmases. But alas, in the last year I have lost any magic touch I may have had. I find it quite funny really as very easy things have become difficult and I have many more misses than hits!!! Maybe it is being far too busy to feel the love for the food.

I tried to brown the meat tonight and managed to burn the bottom of my fancy French cast iron pot more than 'brown' the meat...just to let you know, this happened twice ;-)

But it is cooking now and it smells ok...

My prep took ages. Its getting late and it still needs another hour cooking...

My boyfriend had pizza at his soccer match, celebrating their win. He forgot to tell me so he will have a 'little' of my casserole rather than it being a special dinner...

I am watching foxtel, excited to have to tele to myself for a while. Being able to choose from Rick Stein and the English 'Come Dine with Me' (YAY!) I realised I have seen both episodes...

So, I am happy sitting in front of the tele, watching not much really, waiting for dinner with my tummy rumbling, my feet warming in front of my new $20 fan heater. Life is bliss!!!

I think I will make individual apple and blackberry crumbles for desert. With Greek yoghurt. Yum.

x

Me

I have just arrived at a conference. I am meant to present. It has to do with teaching and technology. I am not prepared. I am 'winging it'. The flu has made me too complacent but it is too late now. I know what I am going to show and I think I know what I am going to say. But despite the nerves I am blogging. I like to blog when I am nervous. I don't have any pictures to show. You wouldn't want to see pictures of a university cafe - it is far from interesting. Someone has walked in wearing a suit and I wonder if he too is attending the conference. I look down at my grubby converse and think I really should have put in a bit of effort and worn some nice shoes. But I just wear sneakers everyday, even to work, so I never really thought about it. I am wearing the boy's deoderant and it stinks. So, me and my converse will stand up in front of a group of professionals and hope to God that something will come out right. ;-)

Thank God there is a long weekend coming up...

Have a good day!

x