making, eating, listening, seeing

Heide Gallery are currently showing an exhibition showcasing 30 years of their collection. Two pieces that stood out for me were Charles Blackman's 'Alice' and Mary Boyd's 'Hands'. Such powerful works, both of them.

Aimee Mann's music is keeping me blissfully happy. As is this beautiful autumn weather.

Have been eating at Pope Joan. Their corn cakes are to die for.

Lot's of carving still to do but am hoping to print next weekend. Now that it is said, I'm committed. Ha.

mojo thoughts + 21st century conundrums

I think I may have my printing mojo back. It's been a while. But sometimes I think it's good to step away and do other things. It can be quite conducive to letting the creative juices percolate.

Today's carving session was musically accompanied by:

1. Holly Throsby
2. Jen Cloher
3. The Jezabels
4. Sarah Blasko
5. The Be Good Tanyas.

A fabulously talented combination of Australian and Canadian musicians indeed! And really good to do some intensive carving to. In case you ever wanted to know.

Now have you heard about all the Pinterest fuss going on? It seems the web is full of debate about Pinterest inspired copyright and digital identity crises at the moment. And here I was thinking it was just pretty eye candy. To be honest though, the first time I looked at Pinterest (about 2 weeks ago) I found one of my woodblock prints pinned there without any reference to me, the creator or to where they'd pinned it from (my shop). I was a bit annoyed when I saw that. Then after I signed up to play on Pinterest I realised that when you click on a pinned image it takes you back to the original source so you can see who owns it. Eventually. I was still cross that the original pinner hadn't taken the time to mention who owned the print though. And then on Twitter I noticed some artists saying a big thank you to people who had pinned their work because they'd receive enquiries as a result. And one person I know sold a painting due to the publicity it received on Pinterest.

Then Flickr made some moves in response to the Pinterest copyright debate. They disabled the pin function on copyright protected Flickr images.

So it seems that it's a bit of a complex situation. A real 21st century conundrum.

Any thoughts?

recommended

Carolina | especially their brioche french toast with stewed summer fruit, mascarpone and mint. An old shoe repair shop reinvented as a cafe on Nicholson St, East Brunswick.

IQ84 | Murakami's new 3 volume-fiction piece. In paper form it comes as a massive 1000 page hard back brick. Not easy on your arms, hands or hips when reading. Go the ereader version if you can.

Hibiki-an | for beautiful Japanese green tea. Nothing available in Australia compares to what they have on offer through their online shop. Try their sencha range. The sencha karigane is very good.

Holly Throsby. Especially her album 'Team'.

in the heat:

| cold cherries straight from the fridge

| Maggie Beer's Quince & Bitter Almond ice cream

| gin & tonics with slices of lemon or lime and lots of ice

two places

A new series of woodblock prints is in the planning stages. These pics are snippets from my drawings. I'm a little bit excited about them but the proof (as every printmaker knows) will be in the printing. I'll be using some of that gorgeous shina ply I had shipped over from Japan via woodlike matsumura.

On other creative matters have you heard the debut album from seeker lover keeper (aka Sarah Blasko, Holly Throsby & Sally Seltmann)? I especially love this song. I've even put it on my blog side bar - see the ipod widget. Three amazingly talented Australian musicians! Sadly, I will miss all four of their performances in Melbourne next month as I'll be in Arnhem Land on the weavers trip. Some say escaping Melbourne winter for a bit of northern territory warmth is a good thing at this time of year. But this is one time I'd really like to be in both places at once!

a little bit of soul

I've discovered something about myself recently that you'd think I would have worked out by now. I really like classic R&B. All these years when people have asked what kind of music I'm into I've said, you know, a bit of everything. But as it turns out I'm a classic late 70's-80's R&B fan. It makes sense. I like music with a bit of soul, lyrics you can sing to, and something you can dance to = classic R&B. I found out by trying a whole lot of radio stations all over the world through itunes while I've been working in the studio. I've found this great one based in Chicago. It's a bit daggy but it gets me moving.

And the pics above? More egg studies in sumi ink. But this time with twigs.