sophie munns : visual eclectica

too many late nights, tiptoeing around...

2012-03-07T00:50:00.002+10:00

One of those weeks when I found myself needing to put my head down and write, think some more and then type it up. Well... two weeks of that actually. In the end I was looking for cafes with Wifi to change the location of where I could work. Nothing to report on ... all part of creative work... reports, applications etc.

...but ...in those moments when a little diversion was needed I found some inspiration... where to start?

OK... Here....

You thought I was going to post all the images for you that are hiding between these covers?

there's too many wonderful pages so why not go to the artist's site yourself and see what lies within... its worth it I promise...and when you click here another page will open so you will still get to read this post... if thats what you came by to do!

When you've done there you could look inside this one too!

I'm being a bit obscure I know... there's a few books and journals in this one:

Go to a doodlers anonymous page and you can read about Lapin's story: In a Sea of Sketchbooks

now here's a story: from oliverjeffers.com . . . For 36 weeks in 04, myself and three other artists sent a sketchbook back and forth across the Atlantic between us, each artist responding to the spread that proceeded them. When it was finished, book had travelled over 60,000 miles

Theres hardly enough hours in the days for al the exploring you can do is there?

LB? Louise Bourgeois.. more here!

See above

Were did I find these images and more?

Some found here:

This is an image of the work of Lari Washburn and you can visit her wonderful 'Sketchbook and Journal' board on her pinterest site here.

Some came via here at my board Artist Books.... which has

These two images are from lovely blogger Velma Bolyard at Wake Robin...

So you start to get the picture. Between my tumblr site seed capsules and new Pinterest one I have been tracing all the artists books i can find... and paintings/painters I like and so on!

This is something you can do for ten minutes between tasks or walking off to make a cup of tea...

tea and toast and a quick look at these sites is just the bees knees. Ok ten minutes can stretch out... but who's counting. And when you are stuck at that computer writing some tricky thing... well... !

w o r d s

Above are wee images from my board on /// yes /// w o r d s ... some good things lurk there!

A little bigger so you can see ... sure!

This text is the opening of I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. Its comes via Printed Ink tumblr .. well worth a look. Anyone see the film by the same name... quite wonderful. Who's read the book? This opening line took me straight there.

This was a fun idea:

This really did take place ... read here.... i kind if think it might be fun ...Book clubs interest me but I dont see myself turning up each month with the book read and the night free. A one of book night could be good however.

Especially with these cards

and the lovely soup!

Here's something along similar lines ... reminiscent of a library anyway!

Liked this one...

Trong G. Nguyen, Library, 2007. The entire text and individual chapters of various books written word for word on grains of rice. A re-interpretation of the library.

This one from the lovely Elizabeth Bunsen ...

then to Art-propelled's Robyn Gordon who needs no introduction.

See her Artist Studio's board where this image of Sati Zech was found.

Read the Newspaper article here on Berlin painter Sati Zech

I also liked this image and quote on Robyn's board:

Art grows out of each particular situation, and I believe that artists are better off working with whatever their environment throws up. - El Anatsui, 2003

Read more here.

You'll of course find much to delight at Robyn's pages.

I'd better finish... so will take you to the ART page of Esa Lukala... i thought it stunning.... if you like paint you may too!

Something to show from this page...

Work by Richard Pearce who has a blog... have a look!

And another of his works...

thats all folks... bed time... school tomorrow!

Hope you're having a good week all!

S

ps Do pop over for coffee if you wish!

Found here at Girl of Instanbul tumblr

From Russia with love...

2012-03-01T14:37:00.000+10:00

Игорь Шпиленок

"I wish to convey the beauty of wild nature in Russia's protected areas to people around the world and evoke in them the desire to conserve those areas."

- Igor Shpilenok

Shpilenok's website may be viewed here. NB: Shpilenok is a professional Russian photographer, so do take care to credit his name and website if you choose to copy an image.

You may be wondering why I have posted these images today. In September last year I flew to London on Korean Air. On the trip over I was very restless and didn't feel much like sitting or sleeping so I spent time at the back of the plane in a cosy nook where I could gaze out the window.

We flew from Seoul where I'd stayed overnight and in no time we were crossing over China and into Russia.

It was tantalising to see the landscape stretching out seemingly forever. Cloud cover was light and patchy so visibility was good. Its hard to describe how absorbing the experience was... the intense desire to know what was going on down there!

I imagine you may have known this feeling from flying as well. The planet seemed so mysterious that day... and I've since found myself taking more notice of stories from that part of the world.

So close yet so far!

If you take time to visit the site: livejournal you may well be stunned by the wonderful photos waiting for you to view. These photos are in a small way an answer to the yearning I've had ... I hope you enjoy them, although I'm sorry they aren't in order! 1st March, 2011

September 14th, 2011

September 9th, 2011

September 13th, 2011

May 27th, 2011

May 17th, 2011

15th March, 2011

February 11th, 2011

December 9th, 2010

About this photo from the livejournal:

От моей избушки напрямик до Тихого океана километров пять. Вроде рядом - я постоянно слышу гул океана, чувствую его запах, даже во время сильных штормов вижу верхушки пенных волн. Но между кордоном и океаном раскинулась приморская топкая тундра плюс лиман, общий для двух крупнейших рек заповедника Кроноцкой и Богачевки. Поэтому остается один путь - водный. В сентябре, когда я только прибыл сюда, из океана через лиман заходили в реки на нерест стада лососевых рыб, поэтому мне приходилось бывать там почти ежедневно, контролировать обстановку в лимане и трехмильной морской акватории заповедника. Плаваю я к океану я и сейчас, но уже значительно реже, поскольку рыба уже поднялась вверх по рекам, а тревожить тысячи зимующих в лимане уток и сотни лебедей без нужды не хочется.

via google translation:

From my cabin straight out to the Pacific Ocean about five kilometers. Like a number - I hear the ocean roar, feel the smell, even during heavy storms can see the tops of the waves of foam. But between the cordon and the oceanstretched coastal tundra of the furnaces, plus the estuary, the total for the twolargest rivers in the reserve and Kronotsky Bogachevki. Therefore, it remainsone way - water. In September, when I first arrived here, across the estuaryfrom the ocean came into the river for spawning salmon stock, so I had to go there almost daily, to monitor the situation in the three-mile estuary and marine areas of the reserve. I swim to the ocean I am now, but much less frequently, because the fish had already climbed up the rivers and disturb thousands ofwintering ducks in the estuary, and hundreds of swans without need not want.

Go see the live journal for more!

Bye for now,

To curate or not to curate....

2012-02-21T15:10:00.000+10:00

So what's your take on curating and curators?

David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 6RY, 14 Jun 2010

Curators' Series #3: History of Art, the

Wiki:
A curator (from Latin: cura meaning "care") is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritageinstitution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or archive) is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material. The object of a traditional curator's concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be inter alia artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections. More recently, new kinds of curators are emerging: curators of digital data objects, and biocurators.

found here - This is young!

Today I found something on this subject that really interested me at Brain Pickings where Maria Popover wrote a post on Feb 14th titled:

This Will Make You Smarter: 151 Big Thinkers Each Pick a Concept to Enhance Your Cognitive Toolkit

by Maria Popova

Click on that title and read the whole post...about this book below its well worth a read!

I've posted here this excerpt quoting 'curator extraordinaire' Hans-Ulrich Obrist:

Lately, the word “curate” seems to be used in an greater variety of contexts than ever before, in reference to everything from a exhibitions of prints by Old Masters to the contents of a concept store. The risk, of course, is that the definition may expand beyond functional usability. But I believe ‘curate’ finds ever-wider application because of a feature of modern life that is impossible to ignore: the incredible proliferation of ideas, information, images, disciplinary knowledge, and material products that we all witnessing today. Such proliferation makes the activities of filtering, enabling, synthesizing, framing, and remembering more and more important as basic navigational tools for 21st century life. These are the tasks of the curator, who is no longer understood as simply the person who fills a space with objects but as the person who brings different cultural spheres into contact, invents new display features, and makes junctions that allow unexpected encounters and results.
[…]
To curate, in this sense, is to refuse static arrangements and permanent alignments and instead to enable conversations and relations. Generating these kinds of links is an essential part of what it means to curate, as is disseminating new knowledge, new thinking, and new artworks in a way that can seed future cross-disciplinary inspirations. But there is another case for curating as a vanguard activity for the 21st century.
As the artist Tino Sehgal has pointed out, modern human societies find themselves today in an unprecedented situation: the problem of lack, or scarcity, which has been the primary factor motivating scientific and technological innovation, is now being joined and even superseded by the problem of the global effects of overproduction and resource use. Thus moving beyond the object as the locus of meaning has a further relevance. Selection, presentation, and conversation are ways for human beings to create and exchange real value, without dependence on older, unsustainable processes. Curating can take the lead in pointing us towards this crucial importance of choosing.”

The crucial importance of choosing... I find value in whats is being said here! Certainly worth thinking on. Perhaps many of us bloggers are engaging in a spot of curating ourselves.... perhaps frequently when you think about it. Well the potential is there.

Obrist's moleskin notebook

I found Obrist's notebook at a Moleskin website...a video takes you through the book if you're curious... I was! I rather liked the way his diary/notebook contains almost decipherable personal references rather than methodical note taking. I don't know about you but sometimes for me the marks hold the memory more than the words!

About this notebook: Obrist's notebook is a collage of his busy schedule while traveling in Asia last year, visiting many art exhibitions, like the 7th Gwangju Biennale, the 3rd Guangzhou Triennial and the 7th Shanghai Biennale. In a slot of one month he had many meetings and kept notes and stripes of paper, making his notebook into a conceptual work.
Born in, Zurich, Switzerland in 1968, Obrist is a curator, art critic and writer. After studying economics and politics he turned to contemporary art and has since gained wide acclaim for his extraordinary exhibitions, which often take place in spaces not previously used for such venues. He has curated exhibitions at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Kunsthalle Wien, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Serpentine Gallery in London and the PS1 New York. He presently is the Co-Director of the Serpentine Gallery in London.TEMPORARY DIVERSION: Whilst at the my moleskin pages I spied this entry below... a painting by Borsa Valori which was quite a different image to what is often found on Moleskin pages.

Borsa Valori

Then, because I wanted to know more on Obrist I skipped over to this post here:

HANS ULRICH OBRIST INTERVIEWS

Since 1993, curator, critic and art historian Hans-Ulrich Obrist, whom you might remember from the 2010 documentary The Future of Art, has been interviewing hundreds of noteworthy characters who have piqued his curiosity, from renowned luminaries to emerging artists, including writers, scientists, designers, composers, architects, and other thinkers and doers. The project was inspired by two long conversations HUO, as Obrist is often referred to, read when he was a student — one was between Pierre Cabanne and Marcel Duchamp, and the other between David Sylvester and Francis Bacon.

Throughout The Interview Project, HUO has amassed thousands of hours of tapes and more than 300 interviews to date. The first batch of 75 were released in 2003 in Hans-Ulrich Obrist: Interviews, currently out-of-print and a collector’s item. In 2010, HUO released the highly anticipated sequel, Hans Ulrich Obrist: Interviews, Volume 2 — an epic 950-page tome featuring 70 fascinating interviews with great minds from inside and outside the art world born between 1900 and 1989, organized by date of birth. Though you might recognize some of the bigger names, like Ai Weiwei and Miranda July, the beauty of the project is that many of its “endless conversations” live in the fringes of culture, where the most provocative art and thought take place.

A meditation on the art of the interview by the exceptional Douglas Couplandcaptures HUO’s unique gift:

Hans is one of the few people who know what a true interview out to accomplish, and he has an amazing knack for getting to the essence of a person. He’s the press equivalent of laser eye surgery. With HUO you never get to the twenty-first minute, and with HUO you feel like you’ve had a conversation. He does it the old fashioned way, in person, with a microphone, transcribing the results. This second volume of HUO’s interviews is more diverse than his first, and reflects a broader span of voices and points of view. Each person is a person, and each person is unique. This is a difficult feat to accomplish.”

so here's the book

At e-flux you can find out about the book.

Whilst on this theme ...here's a journal:

Manifesta Journal: around curatorial practices

Read about Manifesta Journal Issues here.

I'll close with this book:

Read about this here... towards the end of the post!

Words of wisdom indeed...

Spicing up the life!

2012-02-16T01:59:00.000+10:00

Home again and catching up today...

Downloaded some images from Sydney and wrote a post at the Homage blog on Spices after visiting a wonderful Sydney store aptly named Herbie's Spices.

Pop over here to read all about this fabulous store ....homage to the seed weblog . . .: Adding spice to one's life! You'll find lots of images as well and you can order if not visit in person if you want to try some of their more unusual offerings!

Being the largest city in Australia you can be sure there's thousands of places tempting one's palate. But didn't just eat out... I also cooked some evenings at home with my brother and his wife as company and others too!

One place I was most inspired by I have posted photos of and a mention goes to Phamish where I had
this scrumptious offering to try.

best go read all about these!

this was the venue...

via here.

I passed by this place... Bourke St bakery and had to stop in. That's the look most of their customers are wearing when they pause at the counter.

Just found these pics below

ginger brulee tart with pistaccio

seriously good... whoever thought up this I wonder?

at this blog ... The Melbourne Gastronome who was obviously holidaying in Sydney when writing this post!

Newtown is always a lively place to walk the streets ... I lived here in 1982

lots of art on walls everywhere: image from Beastman

partial to these... Affogato - espresso and ice cream. Image found here

My Sweet Memory - Korean cafe and stationery store

One place I ended up by chance for an hour was a distance from the city - I drove a friend to a doctor's appointment and waited at this Korean cafe selling stationery items. Not kitch but rather stylishly designed stuff that was eco and minimal/ Its been almost 30 years since I spent time around here ... so to find the suburb of Strathfield bursting with Korean eateries and shops was fascinating.

That was my experience there this time... finding new and old places, drifting around some of the time in order to happen upon things rather than be on a mission with a long list of must dos!

On Sunday I got along to the Marrickville Growers Market which was a very eco-oriented market indeed. Colourful, alternative and organic etc. Like this stall:

I watched the woman behind this counter making
the most fabulous towers of interesting tidbits on
lebanese bread dishes .... as in these below.

image from here.

Also at the market... via here.

ON I still haven't told you about the secret garden... my photos are on the other computer. Time to go now... I'll be back.

Hope your week is going well all you lovely passers by!
Ciao,
Sxo

ps: Here's the secret garden photos I have been meaning to post from my first weekend in Sydney.

This garden tumbles down the hill at the back of the house that's home to Wendy Whitely at Lavendar Bay. Looking out from the top of the garden the view is like this:

For those who've not heard of Wendy Whitely before, she was married for many years to eminent Australian artist Brett Whitely. His death in the early 90's was followed later on by the untimely illness and death of their only daughter... and so the garden became the place in time where she took her grief and made something come to life.

This particular photo I found here. Also more on the garden there as well.

'The Balcony 2' or 'Sydney by night' - from here:

'Windsor and Newton Deep Ultramarine oil colour has an obsessive, ecstasy-like effect upon my nervous system quite unlike any other colour.'
- Brett Whiteley 1975

'The paintings ... begin from the ... highest point of affection - points of optical ecstasy, where romanticism and optimism overshadow any form of menace or foreboding ... Almost all the works have been rendered in a lyrical and personal style where colour ... has this time been used in saturation.'
- Brett Whiteley 1974

Encapsulating key elements of Whiteley's art - his beloved harbour, fluent draughtsmanship, an erotically charged curvilinear line and ability to invest minimal brushstrokes with multiple associations - 'The balcony 2' is one of his most poetically evocative paintings.

Whiteley's return to Australia in 1969 heralded a new preoccupation with colour and beauty. Inspired principally by Matisse, but also by the tranquil ambience of his house at Lavender Bay on Sydney Harbour's north shore, he created a series of spectacular paintings: expansive interiors and views evoking the sumptuousness of the harbour's liquid presence. Text from the site where the image above was found.

Book published in 2004

Its so in keeping with the spirit of this artist that a lovingly created garden tribute exists by the harbour which so many of us saw brought to life in the artist's magnificent large canvases.

If you are ever in Sydney and want to go somewhere off the tourist path this is a peaceful place to wander to and take a picnic, rug and good book! It must be said though ... the harbour is so extensive that you may find it easier to go somewhere by ferry to relax... still this is maybe 10 mins from North Sydney railway station... and not hard to find!

Luminous luminaries

2012-02-12T09:07:00.000+10:00

LUMINOUS THE LANDSCAPES OF ELISABETH CUMMINgs

Edge of the Simpson Desert 2011

On Friday I got to see a couple of shows...one by Australian artist Elizabeth Cummings and the other...well ....you'll see.

from a SMH article

Text from SMH article:

Elisabeth Cummings is the subject of two exhibitions but the artist remains reluctant to talk about herself, writes Steve Meacham.

Elisabeth Cummings apologises for taking her time opening the door. She's temporarily confined to a wheelchair in a friend's house in Balmain, recovering from a bone fusion operation on her right ankle, the result of dilapidating arthritis. Fortunately, her wrists aren't as badly affected, so she can wield a brush: ''They're not marvellous, but I can still paint,'' she says.

At 77, Cummings was recently described by The Australian Women's Weekly as ''the Invisible Woman of Australian painting''. Even the media release for the grandest exhibition of her career (so far) - a survey of her work over the past 30 years at the S.H. Ervin Gallery titled Luminous: The Landscapes of Elisabeth Cummings - introduces her as ''one of Australia's visual art quiet achievers''.

So, unless you are an artist yourself, an art critic (the Herald's John McDonald wrote in 1994 that her painting ''calmly restates the imperishable value of a fundamental visual intelligence''), or one of those astute collectors who have discovered her increasingly sought-after works over the past 20 years, you may not have heard of her.

Read more by clicking on Text heading above!

Pilbara read more here.

Images from the artist's King St Gallery shows:

The Shearer's Kitchen, Mt Murchison 2011

Post Prandial 2011

For images from her latest show at that Gallery click here..

To read about the show I just saw visit the National Trust website.

I now think Today maybe the last day of that show... I was lucky my friend was so keen to go on friday. We also spent a few hours viewing this show, which depute being a blockbuster allowed us some intimate time with an artist we rarely see work of in Australia.

From the NSW Art Gallery website:

Picasso: masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris

More than 150 important paintings, sculptures and drawings created by Pablo Picasso, which have come from the artist's personal collection.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales will host the most significant exhibition of Picasso’s art ever held in Australia. More than 150 important paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings created by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) have come from the artist’s personal collection – works he was determined never to relinquish.

Picasso: masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris is the most ambitious exhibition ever undertaken by the Gallery. Jointly organised by Musée National Picasso, the Art Gallery of NSW and Art Exhibitions Australia (AEA), the exhibition is part of the Sydney International Arts Series, bringing the world’s outstanding exhibitions to Australia.

The exhibition was conceived, curated and mounted by Anne Baldassari, general commissioner and president of the Musée National Picasso and one of the world’s leading experts on the artist’s work. The international tour was initiated and created by the Musée National Picasso, the largest and most significant repository of the artist’s work in the world. Since 2008 works have travelled to cities including Madrid, Tokyo, Moscow, Seattle and San Francisco. This unprecedented opportunity to bring this exhibition to Sydney is possible because the Musée is closed for renovations.

The exhibition room by room

From Spain to Paris: 1895–1905

The enchantments of Oceania and Africa: 1906–1909

Cubism, collage and constructions: 1910–1915

A return to classicism: 1916–1924

Brushes with surrealism: 1925–1935

Anxieties of love and war: 1936–1939

World War II to Korea: 1940–1951

The joy of life: 1952–1960

Last decades: 1961–1972

image found here

The bathers

The opportunity to see things up close rather than online and in books presents one with just how different one's preconceived image might be from the real work.

This painting is tiny compared to how my mind saw it. I was shocked and delighted to finfd it to be such a small work. The collection of works on show was stunning. Far better than I was expecting. Why do I say this?

enjoyed his work with the motif of the guitar - this looks to be an interesting book.

The tedium of walking through a show with hoards of people can really put one off.... on this occasion staggered hourly viewing sessions made a difference. Even though E and I sat midway to muse and talk at length no-one moved us on... we simply took in the show at our own pace which made it quite wonderful experience.

Ive not been able to find online images of the works I particularly enjoyed. All I can say is it was deeply satisfying to see so many works I'd not seen before. The Picasso Museum was closed in November when I managed to get to Paris briefly.... so this certainly made up for that disappointment.

The acrobat

Well I am setting off soon to take in some interesting places. Back soon. The sun's out after a grey old week... and I have a car today to get around easily!

Holiday reveries!

2012-02-06T10:58:00.000+10:00

I arrived in Newcastle Thursday evening to a wet and windy airport... 17 degrees is cold for summer here!
Next day my friend's children and I equipped ourselves with umbrellas and went foraging for material for our drawing workshop that morning.

The local community garden where they often spend time was a great place to find what we were looking for, and whilst there, we found real foragers from local restaurant Bacchus gathering things for the menu that night. They also plant and garden here and were more than happy to chat.

Loved these pretty garlic flowers... remarkably pungent... one flower is said to be virtually as strong as one small garlic segment.

I squeezed in quite a bit over two days... my gracious hosts J & P were delightful and with so many stories and exciting developments to hear about I forgot to take photos ... except for the casual workshop which I will put on my studio blog soon.

Below are a few snaps of a gathering at another friend's home where I remembered my camera... lovely ambience, company and home cooked deliciousness thanks to M & W!

The youngest member of the party had had a big week!

Next morning I was out with camera for a while and catching up with an interesting artist friend from Uni (postgrad days) in 2007 so it was wonderful hearing about her recent projects. A grey but clear day we walked along a small stretch of coastline to this favourite place. Photos and paintings have been focused on this place by a huge number of people... it was great to visit once more!

The Saturday afternoon train trip from Newcastle to Sydney was a treat, especially when reaching the Hawkesbury River with its magical scenery. I took one photo after another from the speeding train trying to get a good shot that didn't feature electricity cables, bridges or trees blocking views.

Many a poet and writer has written about these winding waterways and islands, the oyster leases, people on remote reaches escaping city or other. I've always fantasised about having an old cottage as a holiday escape only reached by boat along here ... long train trips between these two cities at frequent intervals over the years afforded many an hour to imagine!

Waking up this Monday morning in the bustling harbour city of Sydney, clocked onto holiday time, fills the week with promise. Yesterday at a sunny picnic at Lavender Bay ... here overlooking both bridge and opera house ( if you peer closely under the right side of the bridge you'll spot it) ... my brother and his wife were great company. We found a huge shady tree, a breezy spot, to put our rugs down and lie reading books ... or napping in the case of my brov who'd been kayaking at 6.30am on the harbour!

The ferries were chugging past and boats of all kinds could be seen bobbing around. Later I will pop back to tell you about the secret garden I visited at Lavender Bay... located on the foreshore behind the boats in this image above.

Enjoy your week won't you!

S x

pinch and a punch...

2012-02-01T23:24:00.000+10:00

... first day of the month!

This morning I booked tickets for a trip to Sydney leaving tomorrow before everything begins in earnest. I was to go on this holiday at Xmas but you know how it goes when the year's been too fast and too full.... given the chance to change your mind sometimes home can seem like simply the best place to be.

Now I feel so much more ready for a week and a half of walking here and there, catching up with friends whilst staying with family, and viewing some interesting shows. With that studio overhaul I've really gotten back into painting (and using my camera) so the return home will be to an organised living space and studio with plans well under way for the months to come.

First I wanted to share some shots taken of that special painting job referred to last month here. A Xmas gesture to my mother was this room makeover! I possibly should have taken these in less of a rush... the light is not good and low res images don't help ... but you can get a sense of the finished room I hope.

the corner next to the door with the stained glass circle window

looks like someone is now proud owner of a new painting!

a cosy corner for writing and reading...
light filmy curtains are a must in the sub-tropics!

a place for momentos

I don't seem to have managed to get much colour consistency in my shots to show the particular grey I used. What I will say is that it works beautifully... the new colour is both soothing and pleasing.

Best of all it was greatly appreciated and well worth all the days of effort to see the smiles and pleasure it has brought. Just a few tasks remain to cross off the list... a couple of pictures to hang, whilst the door needs to be painted carefully as layers of paint were revealed after a washing down with sugar soap. The rest was far less complicated.

On another note altogether, last night I gave a slide presentation for a local environmental community group's monthly meeting in a library close by the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha. It was great to meet people again I'd met before and have interesting conversations with new people.... a delightful crowd indeed.

This was the perfect chance to review aspects of my work from recent and earlier times through the process of putting this together. I like to put ideas into context so there was imagery representing the span of time, right back to fossil seeds all the way through to recent past and present. Ive selected a few images here from what was a diverse coverage of the topic.

2009 - homage to the seed dinner in 2009

postcards sent by lovely bloggers for the Mail Art Show
in homage to the seed 2010

introducing the ideas behind the oval painting below

discussing the KEW MSB residency late last Year in the UK

drawings of a Lebanese seed pod that was quite fascinating

Wolfgang Stuppy contact person for my residency... below
seeds he's photographed in his work as a Seed Morphologist

talking about my projects for 2012... one of which is to
produce a book that expands on the previous one from 2010

my work from the last few weeks... concertina books

There were 168 images on the slideshow, some content heavy, others simply offering visual variations on a theme... stimulus that prompts questions and so on. They were such a wonderful group... very engaged and open. The entire process... first assembling the focus and thread of ideas in the slides yesterday, and later presenting, was a fantastic experience. I learn so much from recapping and formulating the overview that speaks to the central themes in the work and project, close up and at large.

If you visit my studio blog you can see images at my (newish) flickr site of this latest work on concertina books and here read the latest post on this most recent artwork.

Have a excellent week or two won't you! Back before long,

Sophie x

The Office... interesting!

2012-02-01T21:33:00.000+10:00

The Office

Artists: Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger Brazil

"A fully furnished open-plan office in the administrative centre of Brazil is overwhelmed by fertility. Shoots begin to sprout from a workstation, the office plants grow like wildfire, sumptuous vegetation spreads, and the table tops start to bud. It rains fertilizer, and the workplaces as well as the computers are gradually coated with a layer of fertilizer crystals like a patina." More

Whats your office like?

I'm just about to download some photos to post of what I've been up to.
See you soon!
Sx

Order ... then I guess the inevitable!

2012-01-28T01:40:00.000+10:00

If you pop over here to the studio blog you can see small low res images of the studio after a clear out and re-organisation.

Weary of the feeling there was no room to breathe it gave me great pleasure to rethink this essentially very small studio space and make whatever changes would resolve the dilemma of feeling crowded.

I have space under the house not suitable to work in but ideal to store large paintings and such.

The computer moved into the window area of the next room with a great view from the bay window. I thought carefully about what could go and that also helped. At the moment I'm doing a lot of small work, mostly working on concertina book formats. Also being planned is a second printed book for my homage project following on from the first which was published late 2010.

Even though I have ideas for large pantings on my mind the book and preparations around that may keep me working small scale for now. I'm picking up work this semester tutoring in Visualisation at the QUT Architecture faculty. Having connected there previously, and finding staff most engaging and friendly, an afternoon a week collaborating with other tutors and students in a very large open space offers an alternative from the routine of solo work at home. Ive had a keen interest in designed spaces over the years, lingering on from an adolescent obsession with designing houses and such. I'm rather keen to put my mind to this fresh departure in thinking.

And what is this you ask...

some might recognise it as a jacaranda seed!

I spent some time drawing one under the microscope at the Millennium Seedbank last October. I was captivated by its delicate structure... this image is quite a low resolution so it might be difficult to see quite what I'm talking about.

Today at the homage blog I added articles on the KEW Millennium Seedbank as an update... always such a lot to read over there!
Time to be off now.... Have a good weekend won't you!

Resources? WHat are our most precious resources?

2012-01-25T14:59:00.002+10:00

First some pics.... from seed capsules tumblr of course!

iceblack, via beverleyshiller)

Sometimes i feel like doing this...

(via Merce Cunningham Dance Company in ‘Roaratorio’ - Review - NYTimes.com)

Not that I can ... but I have imagination!

Pause to wonder...

Litter?
yes...

Litter by Anna Hutchinson via Sweetpeapath from Edge - Textile Artists Scotland

And this extraordinary painterly view...

landsat satellite image a of a swamp in Russia. from The RX tumblr

When I moved to Brisbane in 2008 locals were catching every drop of excess water in every bucket they could find the drought had gone on so long. One could almost hear annoyed mutterings about yet another person moving to this State and using their precious water. How dare I?

Well I thought about that and the place I had just left, Newcastle, in the Hunter region of NSW, which had such a good track record with water use because they had been charging for its use for many years and the locals had been careful in consequence. It was also a MUCH less affluent and showy place on the whole... presumably without a huge home, pools and lots of cars on large driveways, water use is less!

A boom state Queensland had been when I arrived ...and they kept coming till the GFC slowed that down. Last summer the rains certainly did come. This year so far has been rainy too ....nowhere near as catastrophic in term of deluges...but the last couple of days have brought flash flooding so I was outside in the middle of the night checking drains and moving stuff under the house. Our run-off is from neighbours with drains on their properties that get blocked. So at midnight there I was in the next door's yard with my brother to the rescue unblocking their drain of bark chips so the water could flow out where is is supposed to and not drown us! I was reminded how necessary it is to think and work together if we want the best results for all.

When I came home from my getaway last week this wonderful big fig tree (photo taken two years ago), that takes up half the street, had been chopped back so harshly we were in shock. Its already pruned frequently for power lines and the trucks using the street... huge limbs were now gone...though not once has there been any reason to worry that these stately old limbs were a danger. I was just pleased to hear we weren't the only ones in the neighbourhood horrified by this.

Trees that have taken decades to grow chopped out (or stripped back) in no time! Ive been seeing to much of that around here of late. Yet... paradoxically, because we are next to a tennis court and there are several huge wonderful shady trees on this part of the street, we get many vehicles parking here to eat lunch or rest throughout the day. They come to sit in their vehicles in the shade... buses servicing local schools, removals trucks, tradies... which reminds me each time how invaluable trees are to us... but do we forget this?

Over at the homage blog I have been reblogging some excellent articles found of late... I know how much you... like me... like to be seduced by all things wonderfully artistic and inspiring...and I guess the homage blog is short on that at times. BUT can I just fly the flag for a stopover at Homage today... ask if you might take a moment to read one of the articles I've reblogged of late. I know some of you pop in when you can... its a darn nuisance really not having a single blog... so I am not wanting to be be greedy and demanding in wanting your time...

simply saying...

I know you all care about theses themes ... and are doing things in your own signature way to make a difference...

so IF you can retweet or reblog for me I would be VERY grateful as the latest posts are all from reliable and news-worthy sources... I am simply being a vehicle... (OK... a little added editorial) for passing things on... so if you can be too I'll be SO delighted!

Lucy... big thanks for retweeting:

lucy_nourish_me lucinda dodds

@sophiemunns always has the best links RT food sovereignty ... are we talking about that enough? fb.me/16HWKfQA3 .

OK... I just did a tricky thing and linked this from the Homage blog so you can visit there more easily.

Yale Environment 360: Value of Conserving Habitats Could be Worth $500B to World’s Poor

Jan 25, 2012

As we in the...

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Food Sovereignty in New Orleans

Jan 24, 2012

Found at the...

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Improve your plant life balance!

Jan 21, 2012

An interesting...

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The biodiversity crisis: Worse than climate change

Jan 20, 2012

The biodiversity...

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Diverse ecosystems are crucial climate change buffer

Jan 19, 2012

This article is...

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Why plant science matters!

Jan 19, 2012

The following...

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low tech vertical farming from Sweden

Jan 13, 2012

Found via Green...

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thought for the day!

Jan 13, 2012

Next year's...

Continue >>

I hope you don't need a whisky after this reading ... but you know... its stuff that's gotta be chewed over.
Maybe I'd better find something really good to finish up with!

How about a cup of tea?

stilllifequickheart: Rosemary Valadon - Tea for Two III

pics from up the coast...

2012-01-20T10:21:00.001+10:00

It was a wild old day when I set off on my coastal escape.

Heavy rain slowed things down ...but I had a lovely afternoon with my niece at North Arm, near Yandina, before joining friends at Coolum for the evening. Next day we found a dry hour or so for a beach walk ...the coast looked windswept but the ocean water was rather tempting as it was warm enough for a dip!

These images are very low resolution ... still getting use to the laptop i-photo. Tried adding them to Flickr and Facebook this morning... I'm only keeping a public Homage to the Seed page on Facebook... the wonderful followers here at Blogger are the friends I want to keep in touch with ... I can't quite see how there could be enough time to keep track of the friend scenario over there at FB so I have not gone that way!

As for Flickr ... well I am a slow learner over there... nothing much happening yet... thinking about a new camera at the moment. Anyone know of a fail-safe camera for dummies... I really have little interest in gadgetry...i like on-off buttons,,, point and click. Well ... I do like being as artful as possible with framing things... but the technology for recording the image.... simple please!!

Coolum .... steps up from one of the many small beaches.

When we settled in at Noosa on Monday afternoon at our accomodation it was bucketing down. The pool was steps away, a private jetty a little further along... and where were we? Inside with our noses to the window staring out.No... it wasn't that bad!!

A trip to Organika for a few supplies and coffee (+ to check emails) was highly worthwhile, in large part because I discovered that my fav bookstore/gallery (that had been next door) where I had a show early in 2010 has relocated to Melbourne where its doing well ... situated close to the State Library in the heart of the city.

Organika in Wyeba Rd, Noosaville

Embiggen Books previously next-door to Organika in Noosaville...

Warren and Kirsty at Embiggen's first wonderful home - next to Organika!

I just found a great blog post on the new Melbourne store... so if you get to/live in that fine city be sure to pop in! And here's a photo (below the map) from the blog post.

Embiggen Books on little Lonsdale St in Melbourne

the Melbourne store

Back to the getaway story....

It rained heavily day and night Monday... and when I woke at 5am next morning I was itching to go explore. Despite grey with heavy clouds it was definitely not raining outside. At 5.30 I headed out with an umbrella and a little cash hopeful to find a coffee spot after my walk.

I came across this tree after hearing a quite amazing cacophony ( will send pics to a botanist friend for the name of this tree) coming from its blossom-heavy branches. Excuse my low res pics... can you see what was hiding in this riot of yellow?

Not just one... but a whole host of what I think were Rainbow Lorikeets. If ever there was need of a good photographer to capture this sight of a tree laden with delighted birds after the heavy rains... feasting on the nectar from these blossoms.

I think I passed two others on my walk along the beach. I guess everyone was tucked up asleep... you'd have thought the town completely deserted on this morning ... a rare sight over summer in this popular place I must say!

and yes... I did find a place that opened early... I was here by 6.30am and as you can see getting a seat was not an issue! The morning paper from Brisbane was gloomy about possible flooding... but then it was the 12 month anniversary last week for those who'd been through a particularly harsh summer of floods in our neck of the woods.

another cafe view...

Just about home from my walk it started raining again... luckily my spotted brolly, which I picked up at an Op shop in Cornwall last October, was on hand!

I managed to get in a swim everyday ... and found cafe's with wi-fi. I'd brought along my inks and brushes here ... and as getting to the end of a busy day I was left to occupy a corner seat for a long stretch!

Berkelouw Books (and cafe) has long been a favourite of mine so I was so pleased to discover a few years ago they'd set up in Queensland at 87 Memorial Drive, Eumundi.

This is a cotton paper book Ive been working in of late, playing around with the possibilities this paper offers. A basic mono-print below ... pressing onto the page that has been applied with paint straight from the tube.

my watch from the November Paris excursion... no... i didn't apply it with paint and press!

This concertina book I started at the KEW MSB in October... I find it interesting to keep adding and altering images at whim! There is something about this format that so suits mobile art-making.

MORE IMAGES of this work at STUDIO ARCHIVES blog ...posted also today!

Just noticed one of Berkeleouw's Sydney stores has this wine bar below.Now that's an idea!

The river-frontage of where we stayed was very peaceful. There were kayaks we could hire... perhpas a trip back here sometime when its sunny!

This amazing plant contains so much detail... where to start drawing?

Yesterday before heading for home we stopped for a coffee... loved this very homemade fruit scone!

This chair perhaps will be waiting for me if I return... next time we'll hope with clearer skies!

Well... there's much to do now... its been a wonderful time away and I'm ready to hit the studio... so more soon!

Have a good week won't you!

a little summer excursion...

2012-01-15T10:51:00.000+10:00

I have been in my studio till late last night finding a home for every single item thats kicking around that space...if It doesn't belong then it has had to go.

Today I an off to Yandina to visit my lovely niece and her partner, then staying a might at Coolum with an artist friend and tomorrow some of my family will join me for a few days here on this map.

Its only a couple of hours to drive here... so I am pottering around finishing off the studio before I leave so that when I return it will be all ready for the work I have been planning, So good to feel that the space is fresh and I know where everything is!

aerial view of Noosa

I'm staying where I can walk to that long beach in 5 mins... can't wait... and if it rains I'll still be swimming...i can promise you that.

Looking north

Noosa is a UNESCO world heritage listed site... so that even with its being a much visited tourist mecca a strong community has fought for contained development and preservation of national parks and surrounding habitats.

Read about other Australian sites on the World Heritage List.

Well ... I will take my camera and hopefully post on my recent room makeovers as well as holiday shots.

If you skip over to my Seed Capsule tumblr you can see it has been filling up with images during breaks from all these tasks Ive been consumed with at home of late. Its been great musing on what I am going to concentrate on in the studio whilst spending time on Tumblr. Part of my process has always been to search for images and ideas through all kinds of sources during these moments of stopping and refreshing my vision...tidying or redoing the studio.

room269:

At tumblr the world comes to you , visually, so its been a fertile thinking space during my search through imagery.

berndwuersching:

This one got me thinking about where I'm off to... loved it.

Now... wouldn't this make a great studio?

waaayward:

San Francisco’s Flora Grubb Gardens’ Wally Woolly Pocket

(via awyeahverticalgardens)

Interesting ...

Cordy Ryman via julianminima:

and a little reading perhaps?

via uncertaintimes:

Speaking of books...

yesterday I found myself a great breakfast spot in a cafe at New Farm... yes... its a Brisbane suburb that once was just that and now its so close the the city its filled with apartments and cafes! I decided I will perhaps frequent this cafe in the coming months .... its a large breezy space with good niches for writing. I started serious planning work on my next 'homage to the seed' book (she says tentatively!) yesterday whist observing this space... so that's where the idea was born to make it a bit of a working destination for this particular project.

well friends...

have a good week and I will be back with a fresh outlook I hope!

S xo

trying to summon the archaic...

2012-01-12T01:54:00.000+10:00

Here's something to ponder for painters...

TAAFFE: Essentially, I’m trying to make a primitive painting. I’m trying to summon the archaic. I want to enter into a primitive situation. This is my protest against the sensory deprivation that we experience, which is due to this tendency towards globalization, towards homogenization, towards the generic—a technological standard rather than an aesthetic standard. I’m mining history, trying to regenerate a pictorial situation that is more humanistic. It’s not about commodification, it’s not about fitting into some sort of corporate structure. It’s opposed to that direction.

That is part of this piece from Interveiw magazine which I found today.

October 2008 issue

I've posted on Taaffe here before in May 2009... an early post when I had just started blogging and was very uncertain about the way I wanted to present ideas. However... I was never uncertain about this artist and his paintings or ideas. Since discovering his work some years back now I found myself drawn... and curiously ... able to resonate with certain leading themes and ideas in his work.

Juncosa, Enrique (curator), Colm Toibin, and David Brody (artist interview). PHILIP TAAFFE: Anima Mundi. 128 pages, roughly 40 color plates, numerous color and b&w figures. Small folio, boards. Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2011. Exhibition in Dublin. Book available through Ursus books and prints.

Composition with Egyptian Vessels 1998
Mixed media on board, 32 x 24 in (81 x 61 cm)

Taaffe at work

I found the following quotes about his work here.

"What Taaffe has been doing now for almost three decades, as his paintings reveal again and again, is nothing less than bending the shape of time. He began by looking at art from the '60s; today he travels much further back, to earlier centuries, to ancient civilizations, searching for ways to reimagine the world in which we live that acknowledge those 'ancestral connections.'"
Robert Nickas, Artforum, May 2008

"Mr. Taaffe aspires to the condition of an Oriental rug weaver: Strict yet playful, he intertwines a lexicon of motifs into inventive structures. Then again, great rugs usually achieve an internal dynamic; however much they play games with scale, they exude a sense of containment. Like mosques, they are conceived as symbolic portraits of the universe…In his new paintings, as much as ever, there is a bravura insolence in his collision of cultures, his insistence that everything can be reduced to ornament. But philosophically these sumptuous canvases can equally be argued the other way, as reminders that every ornament has its origins in something once deeply experienced. Mr. Taaffe's eclecticism long outgrew 1980s attitude in favor of an enlightened universalism. These accomplished, rich, thoughtful paintings mark the election of the artist as a trustee of what André Malraux termed the 'Museum Without Walls.'"
David Cohen, The New York Sun, March 1, 2007

LEBENSZEICHEN - KUNSTMUSEUM - LUZERN via here.

Well ... perhaps this is quite a foreign line of thinking for you?

There are, after all, so many approaches, so many philosophical view points and ways into painting.

A title I've used for a painting more than once is "archaic, yet reverberating still." For me that is a really important idea and in Taaffe I find an artist who extends this thought quite profoundly through his work. He has been recorded in interviews, had a number of critical commentary pieces written on his work... and you can read more at his website. Also really engaging are his studio viewings here.

Its late so I will pop back tomorrow to check for spelling mistakes and such!
cheerio,
Sophie

sophie munns : visual eclectica

too many late nights, tiptoeing around...

w o r d s

From Russia with love...

Блог фотографа-натуралиста

To curate or not to curate....

David Roberts Art Foundation, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 6RY, 14 Jun 2010

Curators' Series #3: History of Art, the

This Will Make You Smarter: 151 Big Thinkers Each Pick a Concept to Enhance Your Cognitive Toolkit

HANS ULRICH OBRIST INTERVIEWS

Spicing up the life!

Luminous luminaries

Picasso: masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris

The exhibition room by room

Holiday reveries!

pinch and a punch...

The Office... interesting!

Order ... then I guess the inevitable!

Resources? WHat are our most precious resources?

pics from up the coast...

a little summer excursion...

trying to summon the archaic...

LEBENSZEICHEN - KUNSTMUSEUM - LUZERN via here.