The red centre II

We had travelled to central Australia so that I could see Uluru - and yet it took me some days to really make my way towards it.  We were really fortunate that our room had a view, so I could look out at any point in the day and watch what was happening.

We did some sunset and sunrise viewings, but it wasn't until day three that we actually drove all the way there to visit and walk around it.

This was in part because it it is so majestic. So imposing. Even from miles away you could feel its presence and its energy. To be truthful I was fairly in awe of it and needed to be ready to visit.

I had no idea I would feel like that.

One of the reasons folk visit the centre is to watch the fabulous change of light on Uluru and Kata Tjuta. There are special viewing places set aside for visitors to gather to watch the sun work its magic on the rock face.

This was our first sunset.

You get a slight sense of scale from the first picture to the second. If you look closely at the bottom left of Uluru in the first picture you can make out a few boulders. I have zoooooomed in on them in the second and you can see how big they are, and Uluru is, compared to fully grown trees!

And our first sunrise.

The sun was burning up the sky here - the grasses seem alight.

My special present was a helicopter ride, a chance to see Uluru and Kata Tjuta from the air.
Isn't this the most beautiful calligraphic line?

Circling around...

 Sunset from where we had dinner under the stars.

And then as I mentioned, on day three we went for a walk - it is about 10.5km around the base of Uluru and it was fairly warm even in the morning (about 33 degrees) but it was magic.

I found this heart in the rock.

The amazing formation, with Kata Tjuta to the right - 60km away.

Along the way, Barry took this, almost my favourite photo of me ever!

This was the most precious waterhole.

Turn your head upwards at the waterhole and this is the view. Stunning!

What most amazed me was the fact that having been somewhat wary of the powerful energy of Uluru, feeling as if it were warrior-like in the landscape, strong and immoveable, when we walked around it my sense of it was utterly transformed.  The energy shifted to show what a place of care and nurturing it had been for millennia; how often it had sheltered people, and provided for them. I was immensely moved.

Another sunset - this time with moonrise.

and a little while later...

 Sunrise on our last morning.

And we turned to watch the beautiful glow on Kata Tjuta.

Farewell.

The red centre

A couple of weeks ago Barry and I headed to Central Australia for a mini-break and a celebration.

I had never visited Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) and I felt it was an important part of Australia to see.

The landscape is wide and open; not really desert-desert; and the light and the colours just beautiful...

As you fly in, you cruise above salt lakes...

I love the mark-making of the spinifex and its gorgeous get green colour against the red earth., and beginning to understand the important role fire plays in renewing these desert plants.

On our first day, we visit Kata Tjuta (formerly know as The Olgas). This is a collection of around 37 boulder-like, mountain-like rock formations.  They appear like a family grouping and somehow very comfortable in the earth, tethered and nurturing. It was lovely to see them from a distance and then gradually get closer and closer.

The sky was overcast and gave them a very soft and gentle light, radiating from within almost.

 You can see from the trees, and the people below, just how large they are.

And as we walked, through and around them, the light changed and they became more orange, more red...

We did a long walk, through the valley of the Winds, with views like this to reward us. Looking forward to where we're headed,

and looking back to where we've been.

As we returned to where the car was, the sun came out, the sky cleared a bit and the redness  and boldness appeared.

Along the way there were many magical moments.

We built and added to traveller's cairns along the path.

And enjoyed seeing these guys...

It is such a beautiful place, awe-inspiring in the true sense of the word, and very very special.  I'll be back with Part 2 soon - Uluru.

Thursday Thoughts...

“To be an artist or a writer is to be this weird thing — a hand worker in an era of mass production.” 

Susan Sontag

I was sitting somewhere the other day and thinking just this - how good it feels to be a maker; a person who does things by hand; who digs in the earth; who cooks up produce into food; who sometimes can make clothes; and who sits quietly and makes art by hand. Stitch by stitch. Letter by letter. Line by line. Print by print.

I didn't stop to think of it as weird or out of kilter with the mainstream of life; I just thought how wonderful it was to be able to do it.

The satisfaction I get out of making by hand is enormous. It's so funny; whenever I think I'll try to simplify things by mass-producing a booklet or doing some production process, I sit down and try to work out layout and where to put things and centre things and all the rest, knowing that in the end I would much rather have simply sat down and cut the paper and placed the image and written the words by hand.

I trust my hands, my eye and my thoughts.

Although maybe in the end its all about control and where you feel it rests. Despite my many mistakes and mis-steps along the way as I make, I feel my best control rests with me and my hands, rather than with a computer.

I'm sure most  of you are very happy makers too - whether it's a weird thing to be or not!

Filing nibs

It's strange the things you do to resettle into a rhythm or routine.   We returned home from a few weeks away - with work-work and celebrations - and I knew I needed to be in the studio doing stuff.

But I was feeling my way back - it's not always easy to dive into something straight away; I need to re-familiarise myself with the space, the way I work and move through it; consider what I need to do. Work out where to start. So I started with tidying (which was long overdue) and filed and put away and threw away and set aside, and lo and behold the work surfaces returned!

Then serendipitously, we went into town and whilst Barry was asking about some photocopying, I saw on the shelf of the newsagent's a box filled with nibs. Like real nibs.  I almost fell over.  I took it off the shelf and opened it and played with them and thought good grief, how good is this? I could buy William Mitchell nibs and their reservoirs in my tiny town of 3, 500 people!

So I bought a few - including the blue pumpkin - and thought I'd better put them somewhere safe when I got home.

So I sat for a wee while, cutting up some corrugated cardboard into 10cm wide x 5 cm high strips and placing many of the nibs I re-discovered around the studio into compartments, naming them and having them ready to go should I ever need them.

These nibs are mostly NOT broad-edged nibs (I keep them in pen-holders elsewhere). These are nibs for copperplate or pressure-release writing. Some are stiff, some are very flexible.  The ones I use often I have popped into nib-holders; these are the ones I rarely if ever use. Most have come from op-shop finds or when I literally couldn't walk past some old nibs.

Then I found a beautiful old wooden crate-box and they fitted perfectly.  The other bags of nibs have now joined them and I reckon I'm ready to roar!

Filing nibs - who'd have thought?

Poppy progression

Having been thinking about poppies so much of late, they filtered into my mind around making.  I scribbled some lines in a notebook whilst we were working in Melbourne, then started thinking about how to use them in my work whilst we were away in the desert.

They were spilling over in my head and I had to get them out and onto the page somehow.

The progressions goes a bit like this...

Drawing some wiggly lines on scrap paper - filling some of the gaps with words.

Making a long thin piece with lines just at the bottom, enjoying the landscape they create.

Pencils - drawing stylised poppies

Thinking I might like embossed stems rather than drawn stems.

And wondering how blobby or round to make the poppies.

But liking when the black dots went in, and deciding that black ink was better for the writing.

And then working onto larger pieces - embossed and de-bossed rectangles.

Then working on long thin book pages, would I use some really large poppies, add in some words?

Would the words be lead pencil, black pencil, black ink?

And really liking the corners on the larger pieces.

Nothing is complete. Nothing is finished.  A couple of little ideas have flowed in so many directions...onto the wall, into a book. Do they work one way better than the other? Can I use both? Can I do some multiples?

I have been totally focused on these works the past few days - they have absorbed me and kept my focus, and really made me want to stay in the studio and not come home to eat! 

Thursday Thoughts...

I’m old-fashioned and think that reading books is the 
most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.
 

Wisława Szymborska
1996 Nobel Prize in Literature

Call me old-fashioned but I would have to agree that reading books is really right up there with the best things we have ever devised.

Reading a book is such a companionable thing, with a sense of ritual. Depending on the time of day and location, it is sometimes about gathering up the right materials to accompany one on the reading journey - a cuppa, a bite to eat...

Maybe it's about settling down into the right chair - curling legs up, stretching them out, getting comfy. Or clambering into bed, and rigging up in winter, covers pulled and reading mittens on!

Grabbing your glasses if you need them, especially if you're tired, the light is poor or the text very small.

And then the world around you dissolves. There is a transition period where distractions in the exterior world can interrupt or interfere; but then the time arrives when you are submerged in reading and nothing outside of you and the book impacts at all.

It sometimes takes me a while to cross that bridge into the dissolved world, but once I have I'm gone.

I've done a lot of reading on planes these past few weeks - finished some good books whilst I was cocooned in my own little world in the sky.

All of that travel led me to here...sunset at Uluru in central Australia.  A magical place and a special place to spend time.