making, eating, listening, seeing

Heide Gallery are currently showing an exhibition showcasing 30 years of their collection. Two pieces that stood out for me were Charles Blackman's 'Alice' and Mary Boyd's 'Hands'. Such powerful works, both of them.

Aimee Mann's music is keeping me blissfully happy. As is this beautiful autumn weather.

Have been eating at Pope Joan. Their corn cakes are to die for.

Lot's of carving still to do but am hoping to print next weekend. Now that it is said, I'm committed. Ha.

persistence

These gorgeous old Japanese medical prints made me smile after discovering them via print interesting the other day. Just look at that detail!

I've been pondering creative matters at length in the last little while. For work and for pleasure and now somehow they've become beautifully entwined. I've been particularly focussed on how creativity is fostered and nurtured for creative folk, particularly those in art and design. If you too enjoy thinking about these things check out Elizabeth Gilbert's wonderful podcast on TED about nurturing creativity. It's 19 minutes of your life that will be well spent. I have watched it a number of times in the last year and each time I come away thinking about something new. Today it was about the importance of persistence. Now ain't that the truth?

Is there something about persistence and your creative process that you'd like to share? Do you have any magical methods/approaches/routines that work for you?

printmaking in japan

I was having an 'I miss Japan' day today and so thought I'd check out what my Kyoto-based printmaking friend Richard Steiner has been up to lately. Even though the print above is from 2004 (titled: Harvest View) I hadn't seen it before so I was really excited to stumble across it via Richard's website.

And Richard also has info about KIWA (Kyoto International Woodprint Association) that's worth checking out. KIWA exhibitions happen every 4 years and the next one is scheduled for 2011. The rules for print entires are listed here. Who knows, with this kind of lead time even I might be able to enter a print if I get cracking.

cod pieces and the like

Well I rode my bike down to Port Jackson Press in Collingwood this morning to see Against the Grain. What a gorgeous spring day it is here! Sun is shining, a light breeze, everything is flowering (sorry hayfever sufferers!). The world looks good today. And at the exhibition I fell in love with a cod piece by Rhyll Plant - the gorgeous wood engraving above. The digital image here does not do this print justice I swear!

And I also really liked Georgia Thorpe's sensual tableau III, a woodcut and intaglio print. The exhibition finishes this Sunday so hurry down there.

I'm going outside now to catch some more of that wonderful vitamin d.

chelsea, ny

The MoMA was great yesterday but somehow all those famous paintings just started to wash over me after a while, despite the gorgeous building and location. Today was different though. I saw the woodblock prints of Zhang Huan at Pace Prints in Chelsea and fell in love with his work (see his print above). His works are large in scale (the one above is 40 x 67 inches) which any printmaker will tell you is difficult to do. He also works quite loosely and it looks like he carves on very large, rough pieces of wood, giving his prints lots of texture. The print above is just beautiful. And being a dragonfly devotee I was especially taken with it.

Finding the International Print Center New York was quite complicated as it's tucked away inside a massive building near the water in Chelsea. Once there I was extra happy because they had an interesting show on plus they had a flyer with a list of print galleries in New York for me to take home :) Do you know how hard it is to find print galleries amongst all those glossy, big scale painting and sculpture galleries? Not easy.

And for ceramic lovers I found Kai Tsujimura's work at Ippodo Gallery in Chelsea also. Kai's fragile, earthy ceramics and this gallery were lovely to discover because I developed quite an appetite for Japanese ceramics while living in Kyoto.

And finally a snippet of the view from a window at the MoMA. I still think you have to go there if you're in NY. The collection of all those big names in one museum is quite mind blowing.