This last month since delivering the commission has been busy. I am curating an exhibition entitled Gathered Threads which will open at ArcYinnar on June 4 ( everyone is welcome). The exhibition will showcase work by nine artists, some of Australia's top practitioners in textiles. Everything I have seen thus far promises a feast for the eyes. Don't forget if you visit Arc Yinnar, that LRG (Latrobe Regional Gallery ) also has exhibitions and are at present showcasing regional artists and work about the region so you could make a day of it in the Latrobe Valley. One exhibition is entitled Hazelwood and of course Hazelwood power station has disappeared off the face of the earth though the coal hole is still there.
I am also exhibiting work in Gathered Threads and must admit I was not quite sure what I was going to exhibit. I have been busy making work but the work has been for the book ( the quilts are in transit in France- and I am getting a little worried this is more than a years work- delivery was attempted on 11 May and since then I have heard nothing- there is phone numbers plastered all over the parcel - not impressed Australia Post! neither for your communication and taking my money for Express delivery and 5 weeks after posting the parcel has still not arrived- it has cleared customs) And of course there was the recent commission I completed.
I have been making badges. I initially started making badges years ago but about two years ago I started making them more focused as in badges that address my concerns about climate change/environment. I have not quite worked out how I will display these but they will accompany my One World stitched piece that I finished early last year which I have not displayed yet. That piece grew out of the Climate strike back in 2019 ( doesn't that seem like forever ago) and took me two years to finish. The badges were meant to be quick things to do but they are anything but. Each one takes about 3 hours if not more. They are heavily hand stitched and use discarded printed fabrics where the print has not printed clearly or offcuts of fabric. I am still trying to decide whether I am wasting my time or whether I am better off to think of something else altogether. I still have 8 days to rethink????
Then today whilst printing some fabric for a customer order I decided to print my bush sentinelle linocut onto some silk organza I had- and I am rather chuffed with the way that came out. I thought a lot of the printing ink would squeeze through the weave of organza and that it would lose a lot of definition of the print but if anything the print is crisp and very clear whilst the transparency of the organza creates a certain fragility. I would like to print this onto a much bigger piece of silk organza I have , the only problem being that the bush rats that used to try and nest inside the shed whilst I lived in my shed in Gellibrand have eaten some holes into the piece- probably using shreds to line their nests. I am toying with the idea of somehow mending or embellishing these holes as part of the structure of the piece . The silk organza is way too nice to discard- I haven't decided whether I will dye it yet, given it has to be washed in any case.
The nights have been cooling down of late, though we have been having beautiful clear days. My daughters came and helped with rebuilding some gardening beds. The grass which spreads like wildfire had gotten out of control last year in the spring when I was not allowed to do heavy work after my heart attack. And whilst I managed to grow some vegetables, the grass had by that stage become rampant and trying to find a gardener has been next to impossible, When I have money there is no one available and off course when I don't have any money it is possible to find someone. Would really like to find someone who could help out ( and be paid) on a regular fortnightly basis or some such. Meanwhile I have started the winter plantings- and yes it is a little late but things seem about a month slower in the Latrobe valley and in discussing it with someone the other day we wondered whether the hydration clouds from Loy Yang and Yallourn North Power stations might be the reason this happens where I live, as I can see either power station from the ends of my street, although it might also be that cool air sweeps down valley and this is a wide valley at the foot of the Great Dividing Range
The fungi has been pretty amazing thus far, particularly near some of the pine trees along the road to Yinnar. I am toying with the idea of making another linocut of fungi, there is something pleasing about the shape of some fungi.
