SYADILOH YPPAH- HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Tonight I actually went late-night shopping in the city ... coming home with a couple of books for gifts after some hours of gazing at things I did not need.... and resisting temptation. I finally got into the mood for such an evening! Its been a curious December...so much crammed into the first few days of the month with the exhibition at the Gardens... then a week or two of correspondances, sorting, catching up... and a couple of family get-togethers.

Then a 5 day trip to Melbourne that was quite wonderful... a post on that soon... and yesterday back home and into xmas mode - lunch with a lovely friend at an organic cafe and dinner for 8 at my home.

Today seemed to contain a long list of must do's and that's why the evening in the city eventuated.

I found this excellent sample of old wooden type put together for the festive season on a post at Anthology... Do pop over if you wish to read more about the talented Jen of Starshaped Press who produced prints for her Etsy shop. Read all about it here at Anthology.

Starshaped Press

Starshaped press

How did I get here... mmm....

I think it was clicking on an image of these braided rugs which took me here to ~>O<~ .

braided rugs

How did I get here?

Well.... that was by visiting the curious site - "intelligent clashing" which I found utterly compelling ... a kind of tumblr-like site. I got so engrossed in images on the 'intelligent clashing' site I have lost track of where I came from... here are more images!

Sheila Hicks

Thats uncanny...just clicking on this image on the I.C. website led me to the website of the artist I posted on last week in the previous post!!!

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois - The Fabric Works

Always a big fan of Sonia Delauney

Sonia Delauney - from this blog.

ditto

Antonia Sellbach - more here.

Josef G - here.

found here.

Nicholas Nade 2008 - see more here.

Nicholas Nade - 2008

Nicholas Nade

Nicholas Nade

Katharine Trudzinski

Katharina Trudzinski - more here.

?

Serena Mitnik Miller

Serena Mitnik Miller -read more.

Jenni Rope

Jenni Rope

Jenni Rope - Jangva Gallery, Helsinki

Jenni Rope - Puun takana, 2009 see here.

Bernard Frize - read here.

So .... here's to more intelligent clashing! Ive long been an admirer of the unpredictable in terms of color and composition. Its quite wonderful to be taken somewhere a little offbeat, the road less travelled!

Hope your festive plans are shaping up whatever that means for you. Quiet times here... relaxing and low key. No doubt Xmas morning will be spent writing cards Im just thinking I must start. I know... Im late! Best wishes all!

S x

How good is your memory!

Before I start in I'd like to acknowledge the new 'followers' who have come along lately ... welcome and thanks for connecting!
Recently I have been tagged, twice in fact ... first up by Mlle Paradis across the Pacific Ocean... and on the weekend by the Montreal based nathalie et cetera! Also  Mary Zeran from Iowa penned a post which actually makes me blush a little... beautifully put together for her 'discovering the world of art" blog. Take a peek here if you will!

Clouds of Calm , 8" x 8"x 2"
acrylic paint, acetate, masonite, pine, gel medium

Organica:   

Things that happen randomly or by accident.  The idea of layers, transparency, and our ability to examine things up close.  To work collaboratively  with a material.  Not forcing an outcome.  Being present to the experience.  Being in the moment. 

View Mary's website here to see more Artworks. 

Now to Mlle Paradis... I did find a moment to respond to her tagging and come up with a series of writers that have been influential in some way last week here....but what I didn't do is choose whom to pass it on to!  I really enjoyed the challenge of thinking about these writers... so I 'm keen to pass it on.

Before I got round to it Nathalie had tagged me with a very different kind of challenge - an 'I love your blog' award which required the answering of 10 questions:

The rules of the prize are:
Do a post with the prize
Answer the questions
Give the prize to 10 blogs
1. Why did you create the blog?
2. What kind of blogs do you follow?
3. Favourite makeup brand?
4. Favourite clothing brand?
5. Your indispensable makeup product?
6. Your favourite colour?
7. Your perfume?
8. Your favorite film?
9. What country would you like to visit and why?
10.Make the last question and answer to yourself:     

Nathalie did think some of us might balk at questions 3 and 5. Well.. yes... that could be so! But in the spirit of the silly season I'm thinking why not hybridize Mlle Paradis' great question on influential writers with these 10 questions above.

So...what would that hybrid version look like? ...something perhaps along these lines:

!. Name a fav book/writer that mentions blogging.

2. Name a blog you like that deals with books and writing.

3. Name a book/writer you're fond of that somehow features makeup.

4. Name a book/writer that deals with clothing.

5. Name a book/writer that talks of the indespensable anything.

6. Name a book/writer that you adore with a colour as a key motif.

7. Name a fav book/writer for whom perfume is a feature.(challenge 

   is to not go for the obvious one if possible!)

8. Name a fav book/writer which focuses on a film...or vice versa!

9. What country do your fav books/writers tend to hail from? egs..

10.What question would you like to make up about books and 

   writers... then answer.

Well I guess I could not blame you for reverting to one or other of the original tag subjects... influential writers or the first list of 10 questions above... but I wish to dare you to find answers for my hybrid challenge!!! Who wants to have a go? ...I'm going to tag various ones...but I invite you to enter into the silly season spirit and have a go if you come by and wish to take part. This is something you could even do on the night before xmas for a party game (joking) with a glass of whatever ... sherry, egg-nog, vodka?

Im going to try and answer these questions myself before I put it to you... so here goes!

1. books with blogging stories ...I can only think of the Julie and Julia book ...but i read it last year and did enjoy it!

2. A blog I like that deals with books and writing - I like to visit Slow Muse for the fact it introduces me to poets Ive not read before... and ideas that come from a broad ranging literary sources. There are others ... but thats a good start for me!

3. make-up... any ideas...anyone? Oscar Wilde?

4. clothing ... Jane Austin books come to mind... there must be many on this topic! Aesop "The lamb began to follow the wolf in sheep's clothing" (thanks google)

5. indespensible - clothes are crucial in some parts.“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society'. Mark Twain

6. Colour - The film "three colours blue" just came to mind! For a book...well... any ideas out there.

7. Perfume - "Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself" - Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Trying to think of a book that has a scent or aroma that features.

Something is stuck in the back of my mind!

8. Film... mmm... these questions are hard... I need help... who made them up? Ben Okri's 'Arcadia' was a book about a painting which I rather liked. Film... any ideas?

9. Country of origin of fav books/writers - sometimes I have gone through stages of reading books from a particular place... Greece comes to mind and Scotland. Its a while since I did that though! 

10. Thank god I can make this one up... what books hold appeal when bedridden? Crime and Detective books - my mother gave me Agatha Christie to read when I was 14 and home ill from school. Its escapist for me... they come into their own at that time!

Well ... I barely scraped together answers here ... so of course you can do better than me...

And the blogs I'm choosing to tag:

Should you wish to respond to any of the three challenges - 

Passage Paradis , Mary Zeran , Nathalie, Caterina at La Dolce Vita, Janis at janis, Em at garden fool, Priya at the Plum Tree, denise at grrl and dog, a paper snowflake, gloria freshly art and design, Jaci at blue china studio, Lucy at nourish me , Ro Bruhn ... and you! If you have time in this busy season please join in! 

PS If you can help out with question do leave a comment!

Im thinking maybe everyone is just too busy at the moment for this... but if you're feeling game....dont be shy! Alternatively come back to it after xmas... when you've been given a few books... or have thought of some !!!! Sorry Nathalie for paying havoc with a simple idea... You can tell that Ive technically "gone on holidays'  from the fact I could be bothered to do something this whimsical...I am off to Melbourne for 5 days late thursday... so a quick break down south is also making for the feeling of lightness after a long demanding period of concentration!
See you all,
S x

Weaving as Metaphor

'Piedras de lana' 1990

Sheila Hicks 'Eventail' (fan) 1989 Paris

Cour de Rohan, Pas de mule, Paris
“Wow Bush / Turmoil in Full Bloom” 1980
Collection: The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Text from the website:

Among world civilizations, those of ancient Peru were probably the only ones that availed themselves to full extent of the latencies in textile arts. Not only did they succeed like others in elaborating richly decorated surfaces, but also they were unique in making bas-relief and even sculpture out of threads. Overcoming the neglect and oblivion in which these incomparable works have fallen, Sheila Hicks has retrieved and assimilated their tradition while marrying it felicitously to others such as those of Persia and India. Far from copying them, she has renewed them by original discoveries that appropriate them to the raw materials, the techniques and the aspirations of our time.
Her wall hangings have the living warmth and the thickness of fleece; their complex structure and their shadows seem to chisel out perspectives attributable only to dream palaces; they offer the mellow depth, radiance and mystery of the starry sky. Nothing better than this art could provide altogether the adornment and the antidote for the functional, utilitarian architecture in which we are sentenced to dwell. It enlivens it with the dense, patient work of human hands, and the inventive charms of a creative mind constantly stimulated by experiencing the gamut of those new materials which modern industry supplies, while remaining faithful to the immemorial rules of the most ancient perhaps of all the arts of civilization.

Claude Lévi-Strauss, Paris

“Baby Time Again” 1978
cotton, 9 x 20 feet
exhitition: Galerie Suzy Langlois, Paris
Galerie Carmen Martinez, FIAC

I was intrigued to come across this artist's work this morning and appreciate how enduring they are. The artist on her work:

"I found my voice and my footing in my small work. It enabled me to build bridges between art, design, architecture, and decorative arts." - Sheila Hicks

I had been visiting the delightful blog  'AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS' when I came across artist Sheila Hicks at this post. I was attracted to the pages from her journal and then discovered a book on her work published in 2006. Not being at all familiar with her work it was a most fascinating introduction for me.

and pages from the book:

SHEILA HICKS: WEAVING AS METAPHOR

The Bard Graduate Center, Yale University Press

The designer of this book Irma Boom, won the gold medal for “Most Beautiful Book in the World” prize at theLeipzig Book Fair for this book.  (from Book by its Cover )

and finally....

    'May I have this dance'  - see website  here.

Myrtle St Studio... visit while you have a chance!

I'm just back from a lovely visit to Jay Dee Dearness at Myrtle St Studio,  The Grange myrtleststudio.wordpress.com  - where the most delightful show - Penny Black Project - is happening right now. You have just this Saturday, December 11th  to see the show. It's such a wonderful venue and Jay Dee is a delightful host. See below where I have taken text from Jay Dee's notes all about this show for you to read about the people behind the project. Visit www.pennyblackproject.blogspot.com

I love postage stamps so if you do too... see what these artists have come up with. I bought a zine which has all the artists represented in the show... great work all!

Jay Dee Dearness

E J Zyla - from her blog Real Pale Red

up close

E J Zyla is one of the artists featured in this current show - visit readpalered.blogspot.com  for some unknown reason the link mechanism isn't working... (you'll have to copy and paste...sorry!)

 This project was initiated by Joanna Coltman (of ‘Little’ fame) last year in August as a prompt for time-poor creative souls to increase their artistic output in a small but gradual way…  In her own words, ‘Start small by joining the PENNY BLACK PROJECT. Six projects, six weeks apart. Create a postage stamp for art.’

And so, a set of 6 projects was born!  Each based around a different kind of postage stamp with the following parameters for the artistic work - the denomination (what the stamp was worth), a feature colour and the stamp size/dimensions.  A little info on each of the six stamps was also supplied for some historical background with the results to be compiled into a zine once the project was finalised.

Well, the zine is literally hot off the press and we are now counting down to next Saturday (the 4th of December) when they will go on sale to the public!  The original artwork provided by eight of the artists for the zine will be displayed in an accompanying exhibition with the zine launch (some of which is also for sale!) and I advise getting in early if you are interested in purchasing (they make excellent well-priced Xmas gifts).

As we lead up to the exhibition opening, I’ll be providing a little more information on each of the artists so please keep an eye on the blog in the next couple of days if you would like to know more!

Vanessa Berry and Simon Yates

Vanessa Berry and Simon Yates are quite well-known in art circles – Vanessa is a prolific zinester and Simons’ work has graced many an exhibition space in Sydney (and elsewhere)…  Keeping it short and sweet, here are some links which will further your education on the two:

Vanessa Berry on ZineWiki, at Vanessa Berry World, in the MCA Sydney and in conversation.

Simon Yates with some current work, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and something from the Adelaide Festival.

Michelle from www.shelbyville.com.au


See more of Michelle's work here at her website www.shelbyville.com.au

Joy Serwylo

Joy Serwylo

Joy Serwylo

Joy Serwylo

Georgi Lewis

Manuela Dobelin

and to finish off....

The Mauritius Blue is one of the rarest postage stamps in the world. Issued in September 1847 the deep blue two pence stamp along with an orange-red one penny stamp, were the first stamps of the British Empire to be produced outside of Great Britain, Five hundred of each value were printing from a single plate. The stamps are highly prized by collectors because of their rarity, their early dates and their primitive character. An invitation to a ball hosted by the Governor of Mauritius's' wife that bears both the orange-red one penny and the deep blue two pence stamps was sold at a 1993 auction for 5,750,000 Swiss francs (about $4,000,000).

- from the penny black project blog feb 20th 2010.

Penny Black

The Penny Black went on sale in England on 1 May 1840 and is widely recognised as the world’s first postage stamp. The Penny Black revolutionised the postal service by having postage paid by the sender rather than the recipient on delivery. Over 68 million Penny Black stamps were issued. The stamp depicts a portrait of Queen Victoria on a background of finely engraved engine turnings. The two upper corners contain star like designs and the lower corners contain letters designating the position of the stamp on the printed sheet. Sheets consisted of 240 stamps in 12 columns and 20 rows. AA designated the first stamp on the top left, TL for the last stamp on the bottom right. Stamps were printed on unperforated sheets and were then cut from the sheet by hand. The Penny Black was in use for only little over a year as the red cancellation stamp was hard to see over the black ink and stamps were being cleaned and re-used.

catching up...

... it does feel most pleasant to be able to come back here and see what everyone is doing and leave traces of life on my blogs. Last night I got to go trawling and find something for my wonderful  mission of naming fav writers after Mlle Paradis tagged me last week! Just go to previous post...

Tonight I thought Id better try and add images from the just completed art show... so you can go to the december post at the Studio blog and even read an essay written for the show if time / interest permits ...and I then added them to the homage to the seed blog.... for those who are more likely to travel there.
I have rather a lot to post at the homage blog to get up to date... but everything in its own time as they say!'

eucalyptus seed capsule - 30 cm x 30 cm

Sadly I ran out of time preparing for the show and had planned to paint more small works from species collected at the Lab. Still the book was worth it... and there's always the next show!