Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Completed Affluenza Chandelier.






Phew! The Affluenza Chandelier is complete and has been put past the panel for assessment. Pretty much the most involved project I've ever completed I can finally breath a sigh of relief. It brought it's fair share of stress along the way but I learnt a lot. I now have metal wrangling skills and look at mundane objects and (non vegetable) refuse in a whole new way. I also learnt that if you are sick stay away from permanent super glue based decisions: in these instances blu tac can be your friend. I am also really lucky that we had our assessment in two parts and that I learnt in a forgiving environment that I am NOT, even about a project I know inside out, capable of speaking off the cuff. Fortunately I had a week until the graded panel assessment to get over the virus and learn my presentation off by heart - also rewrite it so it made sense  (that helped, who knew?)  and sell the concept behind my chandelier the best I could. In the end it seemed too much for some flan tins and plastic cutlery to embody  the fullness of Hamilton's arguments in Affluenza so I narrowed it down to a metaphor: the Family Meal. That is taking the time to cook fresh ingredients in enduring materials and nurturing your connections with family and friends around the meal table in contrast with the takeaway meal eaten alone after a twelve hour day at work. The flowers are of course my depiction of the "Down Shifting" Hamilton cites as the cure for Affluenza. They start at the bottom tier, multiply in the middle and by the top tier form a thriving garden. Using yellow also helped me portray the sense of energy and new life and abundance (as opposed to material abundance) that comes from individuals downshifting (shame on anyone who thinks I used yellow because I've got a BIG crush on it and it's SO hot in design right now.....).
As a final note I should probably start calling it the Down Shifting chandelier because, like the book, it ends (and I'm hoping this comes across visually) with the feeling of optimism and new possibility. And plus no body wants a depressing chandelier do they?????


Monday, November 22, 2010

Sketchbook Project 2011.


A few weeks ago I joined up for Sketchbook Project 2011. I hadn't heard of it until recently and it seemed like a really good idea as I had wanted to use these summer holidays for working on my drawing and nothing works better for me it seems than having a deadline. And this deadline, it occurred to me yesterday, is ridiculously close. This is what I have achieved thus far....


I have an excuse though. I needed to wait until the chandelier was complete and I was free to focus on something else. Well the chandelier is done (!!!!!! will post some pics of it when I get a bit more time) and that gave me the opportunity this weekend to open up the envelope from the Sketchbook Project organisers which contained my moleskin journal and some extra details. Well the first thing that occured to me was "my, the pages are quite thin and there are a lot of them". Not being what I'd imagined I was taken aback. ALARMED in fact. Especially as there is only three months and I have missed the first month busy with course work. So some executive decisions: will use a lot of collage - both to give weight to the pages and to fill them a bit faster. Also I may glue some of the pages together (all artistic decisions obviously....). A quick scout of the web suggests others are wondering about the thin quality of the pages too. Like here. And here. Anyway, what am I doing sitting here blogging when I should be SKETCHING?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tim Ryan And Gold Lame.





I love gold lame. Pity then that so few opportunities arise in my life to wear it. I'm starting to wonder though if I should just start wearing it regardless. School pick up? For sure. Saturday morning cricket? Why not! Ask not where one  can wear gold lame but where can't one wear it. These are from Tim Ryan's S/S 2011 collection and they side step any connotation I might have for 60's gold lame, Samantha Steven's cocktail wardrobe, and modernise it thoroughly. Great updated silhouettes and really loving it with the pale blues, mauves and shots of graphic black. I hope there's going to be a lot more of this lame going around....

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Crap Parent Award.

Wow, two awards in one week! First the Versatile Blogger Award and now The Crap Parent Award which I have awarded to my partner and myself for the following incidents.

- Driving our daughter and her friends home accross town from band rehearsals in a car with a clutch about to give. Limping home in the dark having to restart the car every time gears need changing. Of course the kids loved the drama. "We thought we were going to die!!!" my daughter's friend gleefully told her mother, having to be picked up from our place where the trip was finally aborted.

- Sending our daughter off on the state band tour at 7.30 in the morning sans trumpet. Daughter's friend's dad (who is chauffering because our car has dodgy clutch) rings up at destination in panic "Missing a trumpet!".

- Discover later on that father of daughter's friend has also stopped en route at bakery for danish pastry when our daughter announces no one has fed her that morning.

We accept our Crap Parent Award as duly deserved and are happy to pass it on to whom ever else feels worthy.