This gardener's no fool!

above: passiflora buds - aug 2.09

I have been wanting to share a place I go to for inspiration for a while now. Well..its not close by and I dont actually get to travel there...I'm referring to the wonderful garden fool blog I follow which is mostly a weekends only pursuit for Em who lives in the New York area and has a usda zone 6 garden...such coding I admit to being unfamiliar with!  Em is a biomedical engineering consultant in the medical device industry...a long title that sounds very serious and demanding to me, and the reason no doubt why Em's weekends in her beloved garden are so relaxing for her. Her blog, started spontaneously when playing around one day a few years back, has allowed her to document the exquisite, the rare and the humble and everyday plants in her garden, as well as the creatures that frequent this divine space... from family pets to many beautiful birds, insects, butterflies and bees, the odd rabbit and maybe deer!

Em added a potager this year which looks like its been there forever and has produced abundant vegetables, herbs and such..organically produced and despite great hard work a joy she says to watch growing...and a wonderful route to relaxation. She talks of photography as having given her a new way of viewing the world, shifting her perspective on things and the blog as a means of sharing these photos and experiencing a wonderful sense of community. 

Since I moved 16 mnths ago I have not had my own garden as such...so I love to visit Em's world and appreciate her attentiveness to her the garden she has cultivated and the keen eye she brings to all that is occuring in this space. There is something of the scientist and artist in her approach and her nurturing devotion is always a delight to witness!!!

Em's artistic daughter's gorgeous journal

Spring fractals: may 10, 09 - above: gaillardia 'fanfare' bud

below: maidenhair fern

above: Pink Peony among the grasses  - may 25.09

above: dogwood -  lovely image from May 3, 09

The series of photographs above are of an alium coming into bloom - taken By Em in July last year for her wonderful Garden fool blog when I feel like being thus inspired!

below:  from Em's delightful August 3rd post last year titled -  "small things"

Myrtle Street Studio

I was thrilled to find out about an exciting new venture on my side of town today...maybe not around the corner...but not far away!  Myrtle St Studio  is the brainchild of Jay Dee Dearness who has wonderful plans for this enterprise set to open in the new year. It will be a new ARI -   Artist Run Initiaive. It incorporates a gallery space, a specialist book/print store and artist studio. The focus will be primarily on print and paper based media. Workshops, readings, dialogue gatherings...all to be launched in a few months as part of the serious plans to create a vibrant and interactive art space. I'm keen to become aquainted with what's being offered here. Clicking on the highlighted text above will take you to Jay Dee's blog for the studio and click about to read a full description of what's on offer. If you are in this part of the world I'm sure a visit in 2010 will be a MUST!

Jay Dee setting her new press a few months back

above: a poster from a mid year event

below: a preparation sketch by Jay Dee from her studio work

below: from Jay Dee's work exhibited in May this year

Jay Dee has another blog which gives you an idea of this busy woman's life pursuing various artistic endeavours and extensive travel.

quiet earth

from this

to this

at les-contours-du-silence

You inspire - thanks Fanny!

(what is this?)

I've posted before on (what is this?) a.k.a. parenthetically // an undisciplined record of passing fancies. That's because Angela has a way with words that I find compelling, and when she's not up to her ears in her other amazing projects and actually finds a moment for this blog, then one is generally in for a treat! Today I find she has hunted down some US war-time Govt posters following on from her previous post on such posters from war-time UK. Rather than elaborate here I urge you to click over to "Do with less" posted 27.9.09 and also the previous post "Note to self: Eat Greens, Defend Freedom" posted 25.9.09.

I was fascinated with how topical these poster themes are now...even if the agendas behind the issues are distinctly different. Cheap flights and get-away offers bombard us daily...this temptation for those with time/cash collides with critical global consequences of increased travel. The poster below is a classic...so not of this time! Now a poster might read "get off that plane and when you're at home switch of all those damn lights will you, and the air-conditioning, 3 fridges and 2 freezers, 5 TV's, and clothes-dryer! Well no...that's a bit too cheeky for a Govt poster!

Thanks for the fascinating look at these signs from a very critical time not so long ago Angela!

living, breathing walls

Patrick Blanc's vertical gardens have made the name of this French scientist come artist. Green roofs Australia have a post on his work that includes a YouTube video interview with Blanc in Paris worth watching.

Book available now in bookstores

Marche des Halles in Avignon

These images I found on the always intriguing  Saint Verde blog. Take a peek at theis post of his...and more. His references are exccedingly eclectic and very often quite unique. From there I went to Blanc's website and was enraptured with certain travel and project images.

mystical, familiar, objective and subjective all at once...

Portrait -W-No. III, 1917

Untitled (tent door at night), 1916

Pelvis I, 1944

Untitled (Abstraction Red Wave with Circle), 1979

I chose these 4 images from a slideshow of 15 works by Georgia O'Keefe as I was unfamiliar with them and they offered a fresh take on this artist whose work has certainly attracted attention over many years, even if not always for the reasons an artist might wish for! More than 130 paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculptures by one of the most famous early painters of the 20th century from the US - as well as works from the photographic portrait series of O'Keefe by Alfred Stieglitz -  is currently being shown at the Whitney Museum in New York. The slideshow and a review by Jerry Saltz can be found at  the nymag. 

To quote from this article "O'Keefe produced some of the most original and ambitious art in the 20th century....her ideas about surface, colour and scale are not only daring; they presaged the work of artists as varied as Newman, Avery, Rothko, Louis and Heilmann as well as Colour Field painting, Lyrical Abstraction and contemporary Post Modern Abstraction". The title for this post I took also from Saltz  as I thought it a point to muse on!  I have to say...the watercolours immediately attracted me today.

image from the website of the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.

Click on the artists name in the text above to go to the museum.

Duststorm sweeps over Eastern Australia

The most extraordinary dust storm travelled across the Australian continent over the past couple of days. It descended on Brisbane this morning and we can just see stars coming through again now...  over 12 hrs later. This image above comes from Yuki's Art Blog and is of New Farm Park next to the Brisbane River (on the right). If you wish to see more images do visit her blog. She is a Japanese illustrator /photographer living in Brisbane and her post today - SEP 23 - titled  Sandstorm in Brisbane has other images you can view. I did not get to take photos and was ensconced in my studio with windows all shut to keep out the red dust. Many people reportedly suffered breathing problems and there were huge disruptions to normal services in many centres.