Tag Archives: art

Flowers NOT Flags

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Flowers not flags!

We (some of us) respond to flowers with awe, wonder, appreciation, and love.

Our response to flags is mixed and full of preconceived ideas and misguided ideologies. Flags indoctrinate us with feelings of pride, hate, and unresolved tension.

Flowers ask for nothing.

Flags are human designed combinations of graphics and colours forged to represent national belonging and pride. But, also serves to alienate and divide us when we are not part of that team.

Flowers are natural and evolve from life forces that humanity fails to understand. Their textures, colours, shapes, and constant changes are infinite in their variety and beauty. We pick them, paint pictures of them, take photos of them, and put them in a vase, and still they continue to fill us with awe.

My Instagram feed is full of flags and hate and military postering. And then I see a photo of beautiful flowers and it takes me away from the constant flow of hatred.

One IG video is of the military postering parade in China. Men needing power with lots of metal and bombs and soldiers in perfect obeyance.

My next video is of a bunch of colourful flowers held by a woman in France, offerings from her garden.

This contrast sits heavily on my psyche. What does this precious Earth need now? More bombs, or more flowers?

I know that “flower power” cannot save us. It failed in the 1960’s; lost in a haze of mind-destroying drugs.

My attention though is a valuable thing, and I ask myself who do I wish to give my attention to?

Perhaps these: @sharonsantoni, @foxandwhimsyflowerfarm, @the_ark_garden, @rachelle_kearns, @thornbernie, @isa.paige, and others.

Don’t even think about putting a flower on your flag, because I won’t follow it!

As I write this these are the flowers in my house, and Spring has arrived here on the Mornington Peninsula and the fragrant native freesias have sprouted.

What trip?

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As our recent trip to the far side of the Earth fades into memory, I take stock of the few months since we’ve been back at home. The trip of a lifetime seems like a dream now. Did we go at all?

So, what have I been doing with myself for the few months since then?

Exercise

I’ve been tracking my walking using Strava just so that I know how far I go and how many steps I have taken. While I walk, I listen to podcasts: Rich Roll of course, and Bronwyn, the true crime mystery, among others.

I continue with my yoga routine at home, and I play Mahjong and learn French with Duo on my iPad to exercise my brain.

Visits

Baden Croft is an artist whose work I admire, and he had a recent exhibition at the Studio and Co. in Moorooduc. I love his big bold paintings thick with colours and it was great to see these up close.

Original artwork by Baden Croft

Lunch with friends is a treat and I’ve caught up with a few recently at Kirk’s in Mornington and the Wildflower Café in McCrae.

Watching our granddaughters and the local primary school children perform Christmas songs was lovely and we felt very proud to witness Lily confidently present the “Welcome to Country”.

We went along to a gorgeous family wedding at Noojee beside the Latrobe River on a hot sunny day, and then to the fun and happy reception at a family home in Drouin. It is always precious to catch up with extended family, especially our 80-year-old aunt.

Sue and Mick beside the Latrobe River, Noojee

Watching

Too much screen time applies to Grandmas too and I am guilty as usual. I’ve been watching Homeland on catchup TV, Survivor 47, Yellowstone, and vlogs and podcasts on YouTube: Isabel Paige, Valerie Lin, Nick and Mathilde, and Alex Ferrari to name a few.

Reading

I haven’t read many books this year and won’t reach my Goodreads target of 50, having only finished 27 so far.

I recently read The Color of Everything by Cory Richards after listening to a conversation between him and Rich Roll. I gave it five stars on Goodreads and found it exceptionally insightful and well written.

I am rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig for about the fourth time. It is one of my all-time favourites.

I am also reading Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari, which is about Artificial Intelligence, something we all need to learn about. In fact, in preparing this blog post I tested the Microsoft Copilot function which was a real eye-opener but totally generic and boring to say the least.

I have a lot of books reserved at the local library, but the queues are long and inevitably they will arrive together, which is of little use to me.

Thinking

My mind is always searching for new things, and I’ve been thinking about art, creativity, inspiration, learning, and house design. I enjoyed making a vlog this year but can’t see that expanding into anything. I will continue to watch, like, appreciate, and enjoy the efforts of others who are making this into a positive lifestyle.

Planning ahead

We have been actively looking at potential prospects for a new house design project which is exciting.

I will set my reading target for 2025 at 50 again on Goodreads.

I plan to join a local meditation group and a local art group.

My own reading, study, writing, and art will continue and if anything of interest emerges, I will mention it here. I did enjoy the Armchair Travel exercises that I plotted out prior to our actual travel this year.

As a committed SiLLé learner I love expanding my knowledge and enjoy delving into things that interest me and are available online.

We have no big trips planned for 2025 at this stage, but you never know.

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful 2025.

Visiting Le Louvre

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I visited the Musée Du Louvre today. It didn’t cost me $35.72 Australian Dollars entry fee because I did a virtual tour from my home in Australia. (Although perhaps the same amount in Internet access?)

Back in 2008 I did visit in person and loved the fleeting visit that was provided by the Trafalgar Tour.

Me standing beside the inverted pyramid at Le Louvre July 2008

We bunched to see the famous Mona Lisa painting of 1503 to 1506 by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Crowd admiring the Mona Lisa painting at Le Louvre July 2008 (photo by me 2008)

But I was enthralled by the large painting on the opposite wall, The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Caliari 1562 – 1563. The detail on this epic painting stopped me in my tracks.

I think my favourite piece though is The Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Greek Goddess Nike. She commands her place and guards the Art.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace (photo by me 2008)

As a lifelong student of art, design, and architecture, I admire The Pyramid of Ieoh Ming Pei that was completed in 1989. Not only does it sit perfectly in the courtyard amidst the old buildings, the underground structure is genius. Standing beside the inverted pyramid below street level I paid homage to the architecture while also being excited to recall the fictional movie of The Da Vinci Code.

Pyramid structure at Le Louvre by Ieoh Ming Pei completed in 1989 (my photo 2008)

Via Google Earth I descend to the courtyard and view the 360-degree images of others.

Musee Du Louvre image screenshot from Google Earth 2024

I follow one of the Visitor Trails provided on the Musée Du Louvre website. I’m happy to choose Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Louvre Highlights from their music video of 2018. This music video has always captivated me. I love the music, the soundscape, and the juxtaposition of new performance art beside old masterpieces. So, I watched their music video again from my favourites list on YouTube. And of course I followed the Art Trail reading about each artwork.

I delve deeper into artworks via the official website, absorbing more. On the Musée du Louvre YouTube channel, I find more information about the restoration of artworks and the Arc Du Carrousel in the courtyard. I look at the images on their Instagram site.

Musee Du Louvre on InstaGram

Then I stumble upon a magical piece of work featuring Le Louvre in 2020 through the eyes of Flo. I join him as he walks alone through the Louvre. He whispers impressions in French that float on a quiet backdrop of imagined sounds. It is poetic, and art appreciation at its finest.

It’s been a great way to spend a cold winters day at home. I wonder where I will go next on my Armchair Travel adventures.

Beautiful Slow Life

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The half light of morning is my favourite time of day. I sit at the desk in my study looking out at the dawn, watching the colours appear, listening to the birds calling, and the distant traffic building.

Morning pages

I write in my journal. Not Morning Pages anymore as that habit is unnecessary now. This practice steered me through the difficult times. It helped me to sort through the things that irritated me or upset my sensitive equilibrium. With retired life, this need has lessened significantly.

I realise we are all subject to jumping into the “rat race” to be involved in this life. So, we push ourselves to achieve and acquire for decades. We rush and learn and train and work. For how many years did I wake to the alarm clock in order to rush through the day meeting all of the deadlines? It is exhausting.

Now though I love this slow life. And I have discovered some kindred spirits via the online world. Slow living is something wonderful and enriching. The Cottage Fairy offers videos on YouTube that shows her beautiful, natural, and considered life in a beautiful rural environment. The Artist Valerie Lin paints and sells her beautiful artworks online. Her videos too are pretty, precise, and mindful. These two young women offer an alternative approach about how to live in this world and not get drawn into this daily grind. I wish them well with their endeavours.

Inspired by their gentle and authentic reminders I returned to my own art. While my own “style” differs to theirs, I managed to complete an oil painting of a sunset with reflections on water on a large canvas. This topic differs greatly from my usual subjects. I often use variations of green for foliage and not the bright orange, yellow, and reds that I have used here. Of course, this scene reminds me of the many sunsets we saw when we travelled around Australia during the pandemic years.

Finished oil painting of Sunset Reflections by me.

Recently we spent a week bush-camping on the banks of a river with some other people. It was nice to get away from the traffic, signs, restrictions, tourists, and the daily news. While the others fished, I was content to sit beside the river and watch the water flow, the trees rustle, and the birds fly about. It is a treat to see Kingfishers and I came face to face with one wayward flier. A few snakes swam across the river making us careful while tramping around in the thick crunchy leaf matter.

Australian river scene

At night we gathered around a campfire, talking, laughing, and trying to identify satellites, stars, and planets in the clear night sky.

And while I soaked up the quiet and gentle sounds of the natural environment, these colours of the typical Australian bush do not inspire me. The olive-green river, and a million shades of brown and grey did not give me cause to pick up a coloured pencil or paintbrush.

Now another pause between projects. What will I paint next? I do have an unfinished painting on my easel that I want to complete. I recall the encouraging words of Valerie Lin and know that this is my work, and I can do whatever I choose. I must remind myself to NOT watch the News. Especially when there are so many inspiring and positive things in the online media world. Rich Roll, Simon Hill, Rip Esselstyn, and many others.

Up close and Personal with Saxton Speakers

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I was fortunate to be invited to attend the Up Close and Personal Sessions presented by Saxton Speakers Bureau at this year’s AIME conference in Melbourne. This is the second year I have gone along to these excellent sessions.

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The first session I attended was called “The future…what’s happening and how will it change our world?” It was moderated by financial journalist Alan Kohler and the speakers on this panel were Matthew Michalewicz, Clare Payne, and Dr Hugh Bradlow. They discussed Artificial Intelligence, self-driving cars and how these will impact our lives in the very near future.

Reminded by the gorgeous display installation at AIME of the NGV during the lunch break I hopped up to see the Triennial exhibition. I loved walking through the experiential artworks that were so unique and varied from one another. My favourites were: Xu Zhen’s monumental installation Eternity-Buddha in Nirvana…, 2016–17 that combines replicas of famous Buddhist and Western classical sculptures; the work by Buenos Aires–based artist and designer Alexandra Kehayoglou who uses hand-tufted wool rugs to draw into focus landscapes under threat; and the swirling immersive digital installation of TeamLab. Ron Mueck’s work call Mass which was a room of over-sized human skulls was quite awesome to stand amongst and a very popular installation.IMG_9437

The second session “Resilience and acceptance…two powerful life-changing tools” was moderated by broadcaster Richard Morecroft. The speakers were Nasir Sobhani, Sam Bloom, and Jules Allen. This tear-jerking discussion pulled at the heart strings with stories about how ordinary people face extraordinary challenges and they shared the lessons that we can all apply to our personal and working lives. The strong message that came from this talk is that rather than learning ‘resilience’ we would do better to live with the attitude that every individual matters.

The AIME exhibition itself is well organised and utilised current technologies well with a real effort towards digital processes to save on printed paper brochures. There was a remote assistance ‘person’ available on several screens to answer any questions. It was a bit disconcerting when I asked the ‘person’ where the theatre was located.

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One particular installation held my interest as I watched a man wearing Virtual Reality glasses build an abstract 3D replica of Melbourne using a VR drawing tool. Apparently there are only two of these technical experts in Australia at present. His representation of Melbourne’s details was displayed on a screen and you could see his work as it evolved. As an ex Industrial Designer I envied this technology that was not around when I was active in this field, and I could see the many applications for this tool.

Appreciating Hokusai

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Japanese Art has always been a style I love. The design, composition, colours, graphic style, use of line, and deft touch is to be admired. Who can go past Hokusai?

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So not only did I jump at the chance to see the Hokusai exhibition at the NGV; I decided to invite an artist I know, Irene Crusca, to give a talk on the topic at the library where I work. The timing of this was intentionally aimed to be while the exhibition was still on, so that if people felt moved by what they heard, there was still time to go into the city to see the artworks up close.

Irene gave a thoughtful and well-prepared presentation easily filling the hour with commentary on the man and some of his works. She explained about the important contributions he made upon the international art world at that time.

Of course The Great Wave is an iconic image recognized by most. It is simply beautiful. At the exhibition I loved seeing Mt Fuji depicted in so many scenes. I love the waterfalls, and the little human figures everywhere going about their daily activities, sometimes humuorously.

The NGV did a fabulous job displaying many of his sketchbooks under glass protected from willing hands. Then on a screen digital images of his sketches appear in sequential arrays. Who would have the time to sit and admire them all?

I have invited Irene back next year to talk about her work as a portrait artist.

#glamblogweekly

 

To sit or not to sit

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Art, music, love, life and loss: a novel that weaves these themes together falls into a favourite genre for me. And obviously for many others, given that Heather Rose has won the Stella Prize for her 2017 novel The Museum of Modern Love.

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I love it when I discover something new that I had never heard about before, and I confess that I had never heard of the artist Marina Abramović before reading this novel that is inspired by her work.

The Artist is Present was an amazingly popular artwork that Marina performed at MoMA in 2010. For seventy-five days Marina sat while individuals sat across from her one after another. 1,554 people sat while another 850,000 observed from the sidelines, many coming back.

Here is a video clip from the last day of her sit. And here is another astounding video of when Ulay came back to see her after their epic parting on the Great Wall of China years before in 1988.

Heather Rose writes:

The days had been fields of faces, bright, unique, vivid, strange. …Every face told countless lives and memories and part of humanity she had never glimpsed, not through all the years of seeking.

But it is the intertwining story of Arky Levin that gives this work of fiction life and opportunity for exquisite prose.

His hands ran up and down the keyboard…He heard the theme that would run in and out of the film, threading the scenes together. Raindrops falling on leaves, a moon in the sky and this lovely melody.

He is a sad, reserved, composer of film scores: a private man who is reluctantly drawn into this temporary and unusual life that surrounds Marina Abramović as she sits and gazes into the eyes of strangers at MoMA.

Rarely do I give a 5-star rating on GoodReads. Thank you Heather Rose.

Paris Letters

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Janice Macleod, the author of the book Paris Letters, inspired me to try my hand at a bit of drawing once again. She makes a living selling her letters online. These letters are hand written and illustrated with simple pen and water colour sketches. And of course this all began in Paris.

I love using Instagram to share beautiful photos of our world and so I thought I could begin by copying some of the photos I had already taken. I love this one of cherries in a glass bowl for it’s cheery Christmassy feel. Here is the original photo taken by me, and my sketch. And this I used for Christmas cards this year.

Christmas cherries 2014

Christmas cherries 2014

Pretty pictures

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Like so many of us, I love art. I love to look at artworks created by artistic souls. I appreciate the creative process and the results of that pursuit. My first academic study was Art & Design. I have drawn and painted my share of artworks, but don’t call myself an artist.

I am lucky that in today’s libraries art is considered an authentic way to showcase the creativity of those in our community. The last public library service I worked in had a successful and inclusive local community art program that invited and encouraged anyone to submit works into the program. The library became a gallery that showcased new works every three months. Beginning artists had a place to try out their talent and successful pieces were often sold to art appreciators.

I am lucky again in my position at the public library where I now work, as I currently look after the Art for Loan Program. This program differs in that artists can include their works in the program and people who join the program can loan artworks and take them home to enjoy for 2 months. Then change them over for other works. The library again becomes a gallery where artworks are showcased and we all get to enjoy the creative efforts; and pretty pictures.

archibald_proze_showToday I visited the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery to see this year’s entrants for the Archibald Prize. It was busy with many other interested people keen to see these works. My favourite was the work by Anh Do of his father Tam Do. I didn’t realize Anh Do has this amazing artistic ability. I love the thick rough swathes of paint. The bold ‘unreal’ colours expertly and yet roughly placed to give form and light to the portrait. This photo of a postcard does not do it justice. The other portrait I loved was by Qiang Zhang of Yang Li. It shows a similar approach with bold thick imprecise brush strokes that give form to a large headshot.

My husband loved the portrait of Nick Cave, Citizen Kave by James Powditch. It intentionally looks like a movie poster and suggests a great movie with a cast to excite movie-lovers: Johnny Cash; Debbie Harry; Robert Mitchum; Tom Waits; and others.

Time rolls away

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Wow! Two months of 2013 have disappeared already. And it’s been busier than ever. What can I tell you about my work at the library so far this year?

We installed new movable shelving for our non-fiction collection in our main branch which entailed a team effort of unloading, loading, reloading, unloading, reloading books by hand. But the end result is very pleasing and we have just ordered the display fittings that go along with this new configuration. The plan is to rearrange the non-fiction books from Dewey to shop-style subject categories. Then we will need to get some new signage to suit.

We have also embarked on the RFID implementation. At present we have completed one small branch and almost finished the second small branch. Then it is just the tagging at the main branch to go. Another team effort is required to get this job done, and everyone is stepping up to the plate. This new technology will allow customers to check out their own items giving them more privacy and independency. It will also free up our staff so they can provide some deeper and more meaningful conversations with the customers.

I have completed and passed two subjects for the Master of Information Studies and have just two to go. I have started Social Networking for Information Professionals.

Next weekend is a long weekend here in Victoria and I will be going along to the Annual Port Fairy Folk Festival for the fourth year in a row. Last year I had the pleasure of seeing a band called Tinpan Orange and just love their song Every Single Day.

“Time rolls away, it rolls away, every single day it rolls away…”

My youngest son was married last month and that was a fun event despite my mother passing away the week before and her not being there (in body) with us all.

The Tomorrow’s Library discussions continue.

Our current open art exhibition is ‘Sunflowers” and we have received many bright works of art from local people. It is always such a privilege to receive and hang these creative pieces. I totally love the idea of inclusive community art, because after all we are all creative to some extent.

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Yesterday (on a Sunday) I attended a workshop Social Media for Small Business and the Arts presented by John Paul Fischbach and Criag Lambie of Auspicious Arts Incubators. It was a really worthwhile session and these guys really know their stuff. I got a lot out of it and wrote my notes to Twitter until my phone battery went dead. It really gives me a better perspective for revamping the social media presence of our library.

I am currently reading Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (this is my favourite genre – true travel stories with a twist or quest) and Face2Face by David Lee King. I am listening to Little Stories by Harry James Angus and podcasts of the Midday Interview with Margaret Throsby and This is Your Life by Michael Hyatt.