Exhibition action

Having been pretty busy for the last little while, it seems the action continues!

COMA is holding another one of it's member exhibitions, which Ken is co-ordinating for us from Barcelona!  Is there no end to his talents? The theme this time is 'Wake up a memory…' The show is being held at the Tree Frog Gallery, 926 Montville Rd, Maleny from 21 November 2013 to 15 January 2014.  The gallery is closed Monday and Tuesday.

Given I have been up to my ear-balls with printmaking of late, I chose to continue along with that approach and prepared a larger piece.

Called Memories of Travel,  it seems to me that memories are often faint and blurred and merge over time… This piece draws upon recent visits to Japan and brings together the sense I have of several lasting images. In Hiroshima, the memorial posts. In Tatebayashi, a skilled printmaker using multiple plates in a beautiful and ordered manner. The red chop that is used to sign work. Calligraphic marks that are beautiful, yet without direct meaning for me. They merge and create a new memory.

It was quite a challenge for me to organise and register 8 plates, but I'm pretty happy with the overall outcome.

After a few trials and my ever-constant "notes to self"..

I made a few changes, and then more notes (and some changes back!)

Until we got something.

With some lovely details.

Secondly, the wonderful Laura of 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR is hosting the Eco-Editions exhibition where my wee book "We have bee-n warned" will be on show. In case you're in the area...

Here's a link to the catalogue with lots of wonderful books. And just between you and me - we're going to be there for the Artists Reception! I'm way excited about that!

Bits of black and white

Life seems to have had a few moments of late, but we appear to be in back front for a bit.  I have mostly been trying to get works ready for our exhibition in August - oh my goodness, is that really the time!?!?! - and also working on a few commissions, so I don't actually have much that I can show right now.

I do however have these images of a pebble commission and the front cover of a farewell card for Ken. He is heading off for a year, travelling the world, so we had a lovely Sunday lunch for a COMA farewell at Wendy's place at Maleny Retreat. A wonderful shared lunch, lots of good conversations, walks and wanders in such a stunningly beautiful and peaceful location.

The request for pebbles was large! One upper case alphabet, two lower case alphabets, extra vowels and some punctuation. I think whoever gets to play and write messages with these pebbles will have a fine time.

Don't you just love the question marks in life?

Old posts hold stories...

Ken has got us all organised for another COMA exhibition - this one 'for the love of trees...' will coincide with the Woodies - the name affectionately given to the Wood Expo held here in May each year.  The works will be on show at the Woodies on 4 & 5 May, and also at the UpFront Club in town for a few weeks afterwards.

The size was 12 inches x 24 inches or the same in cm and either landscape or portrait.  I am not one for canvas, so looked around the block and started seeing things happening with some of the old fence posts we have lying around.

Given that old fence posts were once trees, I figured I had a link.

I described my vision to Barry and he helped me out by cutting the posts to size and assembling them.  It's the sort of thing I could probably have done for myself, but it would have taken me ages. Barry gets this stuff and does it with ease.

The fence posts I chose had lovely notches and niches and rusty nails in them. Loud sigh.

They inspired my fiddling with barbed wire that I wrote about here, and I knew that I wanted those niches to hold books.

So... I made lots of little books using my embossed and de-bossed pages, and popped them into their niches.  I knew I really wanted one niche to look like a bookshelf.

I gathered some more old barbed wire and cut it to size and held it in with rusty old spikes.

I love it when  a piece you imagined in your minds eye come to fruition in a way that pleases you. I like the contrast of the grey timber, the cream paper and the rusty wire; they all seem to work together somehow. There is warmth and strength, gentleness, tenderness even, and respect for worn and used old things.

So to see the complete piece, here's an inside shot and an outside shot of  "Old posts hold stories".

Flags for Peace book

Last year around International Day of Peace (21 September each year), Ken the king of COMA (Collaboration of Maleny Artists) put out the call for local artists to join the Flags for Peace  project which had been started by Mary Jane.  Local artists were asked to make and fly flags for peace which several of them did.

We also got the local bookstore Rosetta Books to have a window display and we held a small artists' book exhibition of peace books in the Library here in Maleny.

We applied for small grant from the Sunshine Coast Council and were successful, and went on to publish a hardcover, coffee table type book of images from Maleny and abroad.  We were able to publish 40 books and have begun distributing them around local schools and libraries and to Councillors and artists. We have set aside several to take with us to Japan next month to share with our Sister City friends in Tatebayashi.

Here are a few snaps of the book - we are pleased and proud and happy to be sharing the idea of flags for peace...

Whilst Maleny artists feature, we also tried to include as many of the international artists' flags as we could.

The cover

Fiona Dempster

Christine Elcoate

Noela Mills

Ken Munsie

Barry Smith

Mary Jane's flags and other international artists' flags

Some more international artists' flags

Thanks to Ken, Noela and Barry for all their energy for the project and support for the book; to Mary Jane for her vision and support; and to all the artists near and far who contributed to peace in this small yet beautiful way.

If you would like to see the whole book (38 pages), you can preview it online here , where you can also purchase your own copy. No profit is being made - the book sells for the price it cost to produce it.

At the Flags for Peace blog, you can see that we are beginning again, starting to think about and share thoughts about peace and about making and flying flags again... perhaps you too might like to join this year?

Go well.  Peace.

Dreamboats for COMA

Once more our intrepid and fearless leader Ken has organised a show for COMA artists - this time at the TreeFrog Gallery. The show runs from 22 November to 03 December.

Our life has been one big rush in the past few weeks and I am only just managing to keep up with my work commitments, my community and volunteering commitments and hosting Muna. I have had not much time to do any new art for the show and I was worried if I rushed something it just wouldn't be good enough.

Ken has kindly allowed us to enter works - old or new - so long as they haven't been shown in a COMA exhibition previously.

I thought this grouping of my Dreamboats looked like a substantial piece, and as the gallery is filled wth timber I hope they will look at home.

Depending on how things go, I might send along a couple of other wall pieces - warm, rusty ones...

Real Food art

Our town is hosting the Real Food Festival again on 8 & 9 September 2012. Last year everyone was stunned and thrilled when about 3000 appeared and wanted to explore and understand real food - food that comes from nearby, is organic, and carefully prepared. And of course, much more.

To coincide with the festival COMA is holding another one of its themed exhibitions at Maple 3 Cafe from 4 to 25 September. This time, the theme is "Food as art".

We were asked to work with 30cm x 30cm canvases (or to have framed work within those dimensions).  I bought a canvas and I tried a few things, but I don't know what it is about canvas, but I just freeze.  I can't think of anything that appeals, and everything I try is truly awful.

Barry suggested to just work on paper and get it framed to size. Suddenly I could think of dozens of things to try that felt quite nice and quite me.

So we began with rusted metal and an apple.

I took turns doing different things with it. Clearly I had to try tea...

And then I played with just embossing  the same shape (albeit reversed)

And then I tried the two together!

I am yet to work out which arrangement I shall use - there are four pieces at the framers for me to consider on their return.

I guess I could also just have framed the rusty apple couldn't I?

A weekend of bibs and bobs

We are having some of that perfect autumn weather - beautiful blue skies, clear nights, crisp mornings and sunny sunny days. The sort of weather that just makes you feel good.

In amongst the odd saga (oven breaking when dinner party cooking needing to be done) I managed to get in and sort, organise, plan, wrap and finish some pieces - not necessarily in that order!

I have wrapped my little 'snow falling in daylight' book which is the second edition for BookArtObject for the year for me. Tomorrow I shall pop them in the post, and then in about 10 days I'll be able to share their story more.

Here are the packed parcels...

We also have another COMA exhibition coming up. It seems to have come around rather quickly I must say.  It is being held in our favourite book shop in town Rosetta Books, and the theme is the western zodiac.  The show will run from 1 June 2012 - 22 June 2012.

I felt it was necessary to make a book if the work was going to be in bookshop, so I have had heaps of fun and here are some more work in progress type shots.

Anybody spot the little machine-sewing-on-paper addiction that is happening here?!?

The book is well on it's way - needs some covers and a tie than it's ready to go. And I'm even early!

COMA exhibition - making music

Another COMA (Collaboration of Maleny Artists) exhibition has come around in no time at all it seems.  The theme this time was "making music" to coincide with and support the Maleny Music Weekend (20-22 April at the Maleny Showgrounds).

Each of the pieces is priced at $120 or more, and are once again being displayed at Maple 3 cafe - here in Maleny.

Although I enjoy music, I would not suggest that I am at all musical; nor am I particularly good at 2-D wall pieces - I tend to get stuck in my thinking before I even begin; way too much "talk" goes on. Nor am I a happy painter or draw-er, which really limits my options. So I had to go with something that I could handle and this involved rust.

Edith-Ann and Carol managed to glean some beautifully rusted barbed wire for me from their property and together with Barry I cut it, untwisted it in part and then applied it to a canvas.

The canvas is painted the same colour as the previous COMA piece; although you would never know to look at the photos! Sigh.

I have called it "Wire Music" and I love the way it looks like a rustic, musical score.

©2012 Fiona Dempster, Wire Music,
Acrylic on canvas with barbed wire, 30cm x 30cm

I also love how the shadows play with the little barbs and create this second line of music - the harmony perhaps?

Here is my 100 words or less statement about it:

I love working with rust and all the memories and marks it holds. There is an honesty to rusty, old, and worn things.

This barbed wire has held fences together, protected animals and pastures and in my mind, may have sung as the wind and breezes moved through it.

I love how it looks like a musical score; with notes dancing along the five stave lines. I’m not sure what song it sings now, but it holds memories of music.

We are hanging the show tomorrow and I look forward to seeing what everybody else has managed to produce on this theme.

UPDATE:

Here is a short video of it installed - apologies for the big window appearance mid-video; I really need to learn how to edit.