Connecting the dots once more!

Its so good to report that life is starting to settle into a more work-a-day kind of existence that's bringing simple contentment to this home. Even the potted plants brought from our former residence look happier now they are once more nurtured and adapting to changed conditions!

We're enjoying the birds around this new neighbourhood... there seems to be suitable habitat around here to ensure a variety of birdsong which is a surprise and most appreciated.

Internet connected and working again brings far more consistency and  productivity to following unfolding stories from the different areas of interest in my work.

My Instagram page

I was chuffed with this photo put up on Instagram today by Jo Cook whom I sent postcards to in Tasmania to say how much I liked her contribution to the FAIR FOOD WEEK Photo competition I recently helped judge. Jo is a freelance chef and Food Curator in Tasie who tweets her news here.

Photo by Jo Cook on Instagram

The Photo competition was conducted by the talented Sharon Lee for The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance's Fair Food Week held in August. She is a driving force at her website/blog Flavour Crusader in the dialogue fighting for a healthy, fair and delicious Food Supply and is based in Sydney.

Not only that... she brings an air of excitement with her wherever she goes and is more than likely to make one laugh at her infectious jokey turn of phrase!

Read here about the venture!

FlavourCrusader is a community of farmers, gardeners, cooks and eaters fighting for a healthy, fair and delicious food supply. Join us here or on Twitter,Facebook or Instagram. Soon, we’ll have our own app; signup (to the right) to know when it’s ripe and ready.

Sharon Lee devours magnificent peaches, strawberries and tomatoes. She cooks with exotic flavours, traditional recipes and real slow. She plants seeds in pots and occasionally, they do grow! She’s attaining a Masters in Public Health because there’s no Masters in Deliciousness.

James McParlane is the CTO of Massive Interactive and has architected, coded and managed the development of an array of award winning sites and applications over 20 years. When we meet and eat, he insists that I order. Smart move, programmer dude!

Volunteers are our lifeblood. We’re grateful to Sophie Munns, Zoe Bowman, Lucinda Dodds, Pauline Mak, Camilla Baker, Grant Young, Lucia Torres, Rohini Goyal, Mei Sun, Adriaan Stellingwerff, Angela Jann, Miream Rabba, Tony Hollingsworth, Pete Locke, Samantha Lipovic, Ivan Zugec and Michael Wardop.

We’d like to thank the catalysts and mentors at Asix, Social Innovation Sydney and XMediaLab. We love our research participants, talented blog contributors and anyone who’s made a suggestion, comment or joined in the conversation.  That's you!                                                                     Images by Zonie Zambonie and ~Essence of a Dream~

I'm sharing below her colourful post about the Photo Competition: 

My Food Story

Oh my gosh how freaking delighted I was during the two weeks of this competition! It was so exciting to receive the entries, pigs and chooks and tales of abundance into my email. Ping! Ping! Oink! Bok!

Here are the winners:

BEST PRODUCE

“It’s not always about what you can grow to eat. Green manure is both tasty and essential for soil vitality!”
ppmak

BEST DISH

“Apple scrap vinegar. Who knew that you could take the scraps from your fruit, and turn them into something useful. These scraps are from our first real harvest of apples from our various apple trees. I was making some of them into a pie, and remembered that I had read somewhere about turning the scraps into alcohol, then letting it become vinegar. Some of my bottles didn’t seem to turn, but the ones that did have made a beautiful subtle vinegar, with an appley flavour that goes great in salad dressings!”
Bec

PEOPLES’ CHOICE

“My apple pie :) ”
Tim

Thanks to the judges, Sophie Munns, Lucy Dodds and Zoe Bowman, who—amongst moving, weddings and work—were able to devote time to evaluate the entries. Thanks to the sponsors for your generosity. Thanks everyone for sharing, your comments, likes and for participating. It wasn’t just good fun, we were able to spread the ethos of Fair Food to over 25,000 people. Woohoo!

GO visit Flavour Crusader and see whats she's up to now!


So... after weeks and weeks and weeks since March of everything except studio time I'm settling in and finding that ideas are turning into planning meetings and conversations are growing new shoots and my brain is starting to process things in a whole more productive way again.

I had a meeting yesterday with Jutta... one of those clever, hard-working people who is not just a brilliant catalyst for ideas BUT also seeing things come to fruition, steadily and potently. Humble to boot she plays down her achievements but they include working with the Cubberla-Witton Catchments Networks Inc in 2005 to hold a fungi conference in Brisbane. Seminars were presented by mycologists from around Australia launching an organisation the Queensland Mycological Society.

Events run by the Queensland Mycological Society (QMS) provide an excellent opportunity to discover the amazing Kingdom of Fungi. Get to know your local macrofungi by attending QMS forays (field trips). Meetings are informative and entertaining. Going to workshops is another great way to learn more about fungi and develop identification skills.

Always quick to honour the work of others it's not long before one discovers Jutta Goodwin is a woman of vision and substance and has much to do the success of many ventures she tirelessly gives both long hours and significant organisational skills to.

Regenration project via here

The Cubberla-Witton Catchments Network is part of Brisbane's Catchment network and plays a major role in community education and participation in land-care in the area close to Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens where I spent 2010 on a residency at the Seedlab. The CWCN website is down at present but with a brand new Community Centre for events, ongoing committee work and hire to interested  community groups and individuals I imagine things will be very busy.


As for life here at the studio ... attending meetings, seminars and soon a conference is keeping me on the go at the moment as I pick up on where I left off months ago.
Its hard to keep up with all the wonderful conversations of the last month when I think back. 

On Saturday I drove about 2.5 hours south to NSW to visit at this wonderful farm below where a meeting and overnight stay was planned. It was just the thing this change of scenery... and after much conversation we'd generated more than a few ideas for a possible collaboration down the track.

The view from the front verandah at the farm over-looking Mt Warning! My kind hosts were delightful company and by the time I departed late Sunday afternoon I felt quite restored after spending time in such a restful environment. 

              Images from the farm and nearby town!


Sunday night I stayed up the coast a night with relatives and enjoyed catching up on news, next day visiting their Carpet store at Southport where I took photos of the stunning wool colour spectrums and highly textured pure wool carpet samples from New Zealand. I was seduced by the incredible range of sustainable products they were selling with only a tiny percentage of synthetic options in the whole store.

Rich colours and wools with some wonderfully designed samples that reminded me of sea anenomes!

Well ... I am sitting at the desk on casters tapping away on my lap-top and there's a pile of tasks staring at me so I will say good-bye for today even though there are more stories that could be shared here... Enough for now!

Enjoy your week wont you!

Sophie

Time for a story?

A week ago I was in this tunnel ... walking along with my friend Nicki when we got to the point where the noise of bats became most unsettling. Maybe you're a tough-nut and would have kept going all the way through this tunnel ... I know Nicki, formerly a vet, would not have been nearly so nearly so keen to turn around and go back as I was... she's a formidable person... read her story and the others who play their part in the tale here at the homage blog post just up.

We'd been visiting around the area near her farm on the Darling Downs ... people on the land are generally a tougher mob that those of us fond of our city comforts. When she and her husband received a notice that they might lose their farm to a Mining Company she did not lie down and give up ... in fact she was in the middle of working on a large exhibition about the town nearby that was dismantled so an Open Cut mine could take coal from where the people had lived and communed daily with each other for decade upon decade. 

This flowering gum - Ironbark: Eucalyptus sideroxylon- great hardwood, termite resistant- (Nicki's notes) was photographed in the town that is no more ... Acland. Well...not quite no more ... it has a resident still... that amazing story was written up in the Australian, the national newspaper - page 4 no less - on Saturday!

The weekend I went to the Downs was quite eventfuI I can tell you ...stories in every direction, stories that are going national... that are symbolic of other's stories from around the globe.

Its was so exciting to see the way the visual arts, in this case Textile art, could play a major role in communicating, on a number of levels, something very important in the lives of this community... and beyond. 

We are all touched by the most profound density and velocity of change in contemporary life and as artists we have much to contribute  and in so many varied ways - whether subtle or overt - the time is here for artistic interventions of all kinds. 

Before I dash off to get on with things a little reminder in case you're down the road... and interested ! There's been a great response to the workshop series Im starting up at Percolator Gallery in Paddington this weekend...a couple of places are left for this Saturday, 25th of June and July, 9th and July 23rd too! With more dates coming soon!

Click on website page for more information or email me here: sophiemunns @ iinet . net . au (without the gaps of course!)

close up of section of a new work - view at website

The other day I got around to posting new work at my website...  and added a post at my studio archives blog about all this. I was reflecting on the fact this free website provider has continued to develop what they offer and is surprisingly user friendly ... and best of all I discovered a much better slideshow facility the other day to upload work onto. Maybe its new or maybe I missed it before this.

A couple of years ago I felt like I would never get my head around creating a website ... then I saw Robyn of Art Propelled renown create an excellent one through weebly, so I wrote to her about it, then worked on one myself. It was a very basic start... but after last year's busy-ness I had time in January to rejig it... and then again recently and every time I do I find I am learning how to improve the way I use it!

I've been seriously impressed by some wonderful streamlined websites ive seen ... like blogger friend's website: Mary Zeran ... they can add so much to the viewing experiecne ... but you know...its almost impossible for me to do minimal... my first page of the website is spare ... relatively... but after that its just what it is!  I guess I could apologise to the International Style Council for Artist's Websites... but what is this whiff of homogeneity all about anyway ...I'm all for bio-cultural-diverisity! Bring it on!

Bye all... have a wonderful week where-ever you are ... go forth  and may you be fruitful!

Oh... and if you're into textiles and living in this region you must check out this week's big event here at the website for Textile Art Academy.

a rather confusing image...

image form the Qld flood found at sir mitchell

A really brief post today... I found this here at Mike Mitchell's Tumblr of Amazing Things this morning when trawling tumblr sites which is a new enthusiasm of mine that allows one to hop around viewing some fascinating imagery and such. 

To see what I have been up to visit   s e e d  c a p s u l e s   and also the           a r c h i v e  thats is gradually building with this tumblr blog.  I must admit to have spent quite a bit of time there earlier this week when feeling anxious about the flood... 'reading' images from all over. A most engaging activity in a most unsettling time.

Been out riding the bike this morning... much of yesterday was spent cleaning, sorting, clearing out papers and now working out what could be given to those whose need for things is greater than mine. A new year's tidy up is timely after the big wet...fresh air coming into the house... discovering missing things... making way for what's to come.

Even my car is at the doctor's getting maintenance... its that kind of day!

cheerio,

S x

ps thank you lovely visitors for leaving such warm messages...Im slow to respond... but I so appreciate the warmth of these connections

ppss

On a lighter note...  pure whimsy after a dark week .... just sent to me by a Brisbane friend:

The next local fashion trend perhaps....

High Tide Heels

TED Prize - Wishes big enough to change the world

JR : Winner of the 2011 TED PRIZE - the title above is TED's slogan.

This story from the TED blog today just grabbed my attention ...with good reason if you wish to read on! Click on the link above to see the excellent TED video and read more!

Reached by telephone on Wednesday morning on a bus in Shanghai, where he was headed to work on a largely unauthorized photo-pasting project to draw attention to the city’s demolition of historic neighborhoods, J R said that he had learned of the prize only two weeks ago and that he had not yet had time to think of a wish.

But he said that it would undoubtedly involve his kind of guerrilla art, which he has been creating with the help of volunteers in slums in Brazil, Cambodia and Kenya — where the outsize photographs, printed on waterproof vinyl, doubled as new roofs for ramshackle houses. “I’m kind of stunned,” he said of the prize. “I’ve never applied for an award in my life and didn’t know that somebody had nominated me for this.”

Randy Kennedy of the New York Times got an interview with JR, winner of the 2011 TED Prize, for the Times. From the story:

I have rather quickly posted these images and links ... I realised I'd been looking at his work here and there for a while ... this was the first time the story came together for me. You're possibly better informed about this artist that I was ...his story seemed well worth sharing ... just in case!

WOMEN - project. After his first visit in 2007 JR comes back in the slum of Kibera in Nairobi (Kenya). He set up 2000 vinyl square meters on the rooftops figuring the portraits of the women who are living in. He pastes also a whol train with eyes to create an anamorphosis with the faces set ont the railway slope through the slum - january 2009

WOMEN - project. JR comes back in Cambodia (Phnom Penh) and in India (New-Delhi and Jaïpur) for pasting actions in the streets. In Jaïpur he pastes huge white and sticky stencils to catch the dust and the colors within the context of Holi fest. Then eyes and gazes are reaveled - march 2009

WOMEN - Rio di Janeiro exhibition. 4 video installations in the Casa França Brasil, including the China House one unbuild the past year in the Morro da Providência. Pastings on the Arcos de Lapa, the teatro Joao Caetano and the Salla Cecilia Mireiles. Free exhibition from the april 24th to the june 21st 2009

WOMEN - project. JR launches the "Casa Amarela" Cultural Center in the Morro da Providência who set up with the community. A photo exhibition by the kidz is presented. - april 2009

ARLES, Rencontres de la Photographie - participation to the symposium the tuesday 07 july at 12.00 am. Theme : JR and the Participativ Art. http://www.rencontres-arles.com/A09/C.aspx?VP3=CMS&ID=A09P806

Text: website - http://jr-art.net/

Text here from jr-art.net

JR owns the biggest art gallery in the world. He exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are 

not the museum visitors. His work mixes Art and Act, talks about commitment, freedom, identity and limit.

After he found a camera in the Paris subway, he did a tour of European Street Art, tracking the people who communicate messages 

via the walls. Then, he started to work on the vertical limits, watching the people and the passage of life from the forbidden undergrounds 

and roofs of the capital.

In 2006, he achieved Portrait of a generation, portraits of the suburban "thugs" that he posted, in huge formats, in the bourgeois districts 

of Paris. This illegal project became "official" when the Paris City Hall wrapped its building with JR's photos.

In 2007, with Marco, he did Face 2 Face, the biggest illegal photo exhibition ever. JR posted huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians 

face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities, and on the both sides of the Security fence / Separation wall. The experts said it would 

be impossible. Still, he did it.

In 2008, he embarked for a long international trip for "Women", a project in which he underlines the dignity of women who are often the 

targets of conflicts. Of course, it didn't change the world, but sometimes a single laugher in an unexpected place makes you dream that 

it could.

JR creates "Pervasive Art" that spreads uninvited on the buildings of the slums around Paris, on the walls in the Middle-East, on the 

broken bridges in Africa or the favelas in Brazil. People who often live with the bare minimum discover something absolutely unnecessary.

 And they don't just see it, they make it. Some elderly women become models for a day; some kids turn artists for a week. In that Art 

scene, there is no stage to separate the actors from the spectators.

After these local exhibitions, the images are transported to London, New York, Berlin or Amsterdam where people interpret them in the

 light of their own personal experience.

As he remains anonymous and doesn't explain his huge full frame portraits of people making faces, JR leaves the space empty for an 

encounter between the subject/protagonist and the passer-by/interpreter.

This is what JR is working on. Raising questions...

JR currently works on 2 new projects: Wrinkles of the City which questions the memory of a city and its inhabitants and Unframed, 

which reinterprets in huge formats photos from important photographers taken from the archives of museums.

jr

July 18....the last day...

Its been an extraordinarily busy week and one which has played out like a filmic assemblage of diverse experiences and conversations... !

Botanic Gardens of course attract every kind of visitor from far and wide! And they came! People recounted tales of foreign shores and wondrous plants and places.

Just quickly I will add a few more images... under this poster for tomorrow's afternoon event. I have to apologise for abandoning the usual mix of posts... partly there's been no time and partly there's been too much to report on - and wonderful postcards to add! Also the blogs have been the place some have visited to read what's on... so they are serving as a bulletin board.

Next week will get back to normal slowly ... and I may even have time to trip around visiting others blogs and see what everyone has been up to. Shall look forward to that I must say!

If you are local and can make this event above... do come along and say hello!!

Now to the lovely bloggers/card-makers whom I'm pleased to introduce here....

One morning Jay Dee Dearness came in to visit and spend a little catch up time ...only to find us flat out getting ready for an afternoon event. Before long she was industriously employed adding  postcards to the wall... including her own... and all I can say is a huge "thank you Jay Dee...your timing and effort was impeccable!!!"

Jay Dee at her Opening night of Myrtle Street Studio.

Jay Dee earlier this year opened her very own Artist Run Space in Brisbane which you can read about at her excellent blog Myrtle Street Studio. Jay Dee works in photography and various printing mediums.... and the new set up is I well imagine a printers paradise!

Below is her wonderful hand drawn postcard (with watercolour) which arrived in the mail early this week... one of the many she graciously arranged on the wall on her visit!

Below: Now for a special postcard from Los Angeles... from the effervescent Mlle Paradis.... this card had to be photographed closed then opened to appreciate its delightful construction. The top layer was of tissue paper... delicate yet bold! Each time I look at it I cant not think of Henri Matisse. Perhaps the free form colour paper construction element to it... a certain "frenchness" that seems to lodge in my mind... rightly or wrongly!

She sent others too which I shall delight in posting  later!

This was a photograph I loved that the lovely MP worked from! Posted on her blog June 24... go visit her at the city of angels ...Im not the only person delighted by the vivacity and yet cool and quiet observations that catch you by surprise when you least expect it! And often in a comment she leaves with you! This girl has a knack for the words that say with you! 

More postcards have been added since this photo was taken!

This beautifully wrapped and poignant postcard is from Julia at Verdigris Rose in Melbourne. the back is just as appealing... but I have refrained from exposing the address of Julia by posting the photo! Bi thank you julia... many have commented on the idea behind your card and the way it is presented.

Also from Melbourne below:

I love Lucy's blog... nourish me. It does just that whenever I visit... go look through her archives...you'll see what I mean!  Love pomegranates too... this recipe looks divine! And words... Lucy has a way with them! THANK YOU LUCY!

... and whilst on the theme of pomegranates Ro Bruhn who hails from the Dandenongs in Victoria delighted visitors with her vibrant pomegranate juice colours and tactile print on deliciously thick paper! You may have noticed I am taking quite a lot of time to post all these wonderful cards... well... I just think they are so lingering over...and the makers are all to be praised for bringing so much vibrancy to the week in the Randall Studio.

The audience is very impressed by the beauty of the gesture... the sharing aspect of this show. I think people need to be reminded of this fine aspect of human beings ...this capacity for allowing enthusiasm to spill over... and for turning concern with an issue as big as the future of seeds into a celebration of the abundance of nature we have access to!

I still do have more to share... but... on account of the evening growing late I shall sign off and take some rest... big last day tomorrow.... and fter what was a huge day today! If anyone reading this visited this week I send my best wishes... and to all who popped my call out onto their blogs, wished me well for the week or managed to do the slow mail thing..... and dazzle us with their artfullness   THANK YOU!!!

S x

artists, designers,makers, gardeners, seed savers, cooks, conservers, recyclers, poets, children...

Now...

 heres the thing

we have a great 

project you are invited

 to join in with....

if you are keen 

we'd love you to send us a

wonderful hand made 

postcard 

on the theme

"Homage to the the Seed" 

via snail mail very soon...

 maybe your card will be selected 

for a special honour to be sent to you

wherever you are on the globe!

Help help us draw draw attention 

to this global

story 

of huge importance

 in this the UN 

International Year of Biodiversity

* to read this properly click and it will open.

If you have any queries please do leave a message in comments ... or ... email me very soon! This project has been designed to bring in contributions hopefully from far and wide...across oceans and mountains, deserts and lakes, north, south, east and west - as well as around the corner and over the range!! 

The future of seeds is a global issue....something "Postcards from the Blogosphere" will highlight!  I hope  anyone with just enough time to put their signature marks on a postcard size surface and mail it off to me at the Gardens by OPEN STUDIO WEEK will do so! If you find you can  manage to send something without too much stress we will be very delighted!! 

The show will go up at the Botanic Gardens in Mid-July when I have a 'pop-up' artist-in-residency studio event happening that is open to the public over 7 days!!!  

Go the the HOMAGE to the SEED blog to see MUCH more of the entire residency project started in February!

PS...LESS THAN A DAY LATER!! -  already I have had a wonderful response in terms of queries from local bloggers, some southerners (down there near the south pole - well actually - not that far south! ), from different parts of the US and Europe!