Fire and Flowers

 On our last visit, I created the first in a series called Charred. What started with some burnt fence posts became a lovely, balanced and elegant sculpture. Barry and I joined forces to create Charred II which I am not sure I ever blogged about! In fact looking back I never even photographed it! Must have been just before we left early last visit.

Charred II

And a photo a friend took to show me the sweet peas, but there it is in front!

Following the creation of The Fishers post as part of Barry's exhibition and our work with the students, there was a small (23cm x 23cm) cube left over. Which immediately said to us both it needed burning.

On Saturday we had a good day for burning - not raining, not too windy, and not too hot; kind of like a Goldilocks day. So we went ahead and have created the base for our next sculpture in the series Charred III.

I am looking forward to adding in all the bits of interest to make this another lovely piece for our garden.

And then, as ever, to flowers (with the addition of feathers and fruit). I have loved the summer brightness of so many flowers in the garden and how they have cheered each room I add them to. In the kitchen, with my favourite bird the chaffinch at the window.

And our fabulous crop of apples out the back - culinary ones some have been stewing them for our breakfast and they are delicious.

As we farewell the last of the bright colours, I turn to and enjoy the muted tones of the dried grasses and weeds.

And just keep arranging and re-arranging them...

And playing with effects.

A good day for burning

 Friday was a stunning and sunny day here in Armadale, and so we headed out to the garden, ostensibly to do some gardening (novel). We did however get a bit distracted and decided first we would do some art.

On our last visit we had gathered some posts for B to do his work with from a fellow called Toby. As we were collecting them I saw some of the fence posts had been slightly burned, and were charred in places. I REALLY liked them. Four of them came home with us.

I had no real plan except I could see them bundled together somehow. As B was fixing the cove post not long after we arrived this time, we chose to saw the charred posts down to give him some good lengths to work with.  

I looked at the charred posts and chose the best faces and we decided we should try to get a post made whilst we were here.  A few days later I thought - I want them to be black; not black with the raw timber still showing at the top, and we discussed if it would be possible. 

Today we tested the hypothesis.

Barry helped as ever with all the technicalities - he collected and presented me with all the tools I would need, and I hammered the four posts together.

Here they are standing. You can see what I mean about the raw/bare bits at the top.

And so we turned to flame and fire...

Mesmerising...

The final flame on one tip.

We doused it with water twice to make sure no embers lingered. Possibly less important in 10 degrees in Scotland than in an Australian summer, but old habits die hard.

And here they are, ready for their becoming.

I have thoughts about binding, about holding, about wrapping. 

Thoughts about balance about stone about rust.

Fingers crossed I can find a way to bring it to a beautiful conclusion.

I am also pleased to report that much digging and gardening did get done!

Dewey Dewey Dewey

We have had a pretty darn busy week this week, but I got a lovely surprise in the post when I received this great book on the Abridged Dewey Classification system from Liz Ackert in Texas.  Liz is a former librarian who put me on to thinking about using numbers as codes of classification and I am thrilled to have this book in the studio.  I have dug, and delved, and dipped into it, and fallen down many a rabbit hole as I investigate what numbers can mean; and I have been thinking about what they can become.

As a small gesture of beginning, I have printed some of my card sets and wrapped them in fine Habu threads.

The first five I selected are these.

My investigations made me think about how to ascribe peace within the Dewy system, and this is as close as I got - conflict resolution.  Part of me was a tad interested that peace in and of itself didn't seem to have its own classification...bu I will keep looking.

Of course, feminism gets a card; and I am pretty confident that this is its number.

I went looking for support for LGBTIQ rights, and landed here.

I came up with this as my representation of family violence/domestic abuse and I think its pretty close.

And here is where my support for asylum seekers and refugees was found.

As ever, I adore the edges with their deckles and threads.

 It is a small start but I think I can include these Dewey numbers in different parts of my work and am sure I will spend a lot of time digging into my new book!

Part of the reason we have been busy is that as part of our annual cull and clean up around the block; we held a garage sale on Saturday.  We had chosen to send all our proceeds to bush fire relief in Cobargo and were thrilled when we cracked the $1000 mark. We will be seeing our donation through to Cobargo Community Bushfire Recovery Fund, with thanks to Ronnie Ayliffe who has worked tirelessly to let the world know of the devastation so many have experienced and continue to face as the fires still burn.

If you are interested in funding direct to the community as they work to recover over the next weeks, months and years, here is a link to their GoFundMe page where you can also find their bank account details for direct bank transfers.

Fire

I have been a way for a week, and returned home Saturday.

Sitting in Melbourne airport on Saturday I was talking to Barry as he prepared our place in response to a bushfire down below.  He was checking the generator, sorting out pumps, extending hoses.  Friends came around with extra hoses, friends offered to pick me up from the airport so Barry could stay and keep an eye on things and friends offered us a bed if we needed.  The emergency bag was packed and in the car, and the bath was filled with water.

It was no fun being so far away and unable to stand alongside as we worried about our place.

He did a grand job preparing to protect our home.

As I flew north from Melbourne I watched the firefront from Newcastle north.  It felt at times like every ridge was joined in fire and some were severe.  I wept as I read a story of how a nursing home in Noosa couldn't be evacuated, so police and firies formed a human shield around it through the night to keep the folk safe.

Clouds amongst the dense smoke.

I was collected and delivered home just after the wind had changed direction and taken the fire away and to the side of us.

Fortune.

The tension of the afternoon watching the fire, hearing the relentless waterbombing helicopters collect water, dump, return, and into the evening as the red line was ever present, has left me tired and not up to much creating; so I simply unpacked my bag, did some washing, put things away in the studio, folded some cards and got some thoughts together.  Not much creativity flows from anxious times.

This morning the fire had been dampened and the wind had dropped.

This afternoon the wind roared again and it took off once more - across grasslands towards us, but  then was stopped.  It's a stop start, up down, worry relax dance we have going on, but we are safe, unlike so many others.

There redline dance last night...

I am in awe of, and full of gratitude for, the front line fire fighters and the helicopter pilots who have kept us safe.  The fire remains active about 2km away from us and we remain on watch.  But we are safe.