Misc. Stuff

I have been busily scattered and the health finally seems on the improve. Lots of interesting and quirky things about.

Saw this poem I Write in the Laundromat over at Homepaddock blog and liked it very much. It sort of ties in to an article I have been analysing for my studies – The Per/son Authorised: Married Women’s Autobiography and the Death of the Author, 1882 & 1992 by Tracey Slaughter around the Edmond family auto/biographies, which has been deeply challenging.

I also spotted this book about Maori Architecture on Beatties Book Blog which looks excellent. I was initially attracted by the cover photo of one of my favourite buildings.

Peter Peryer is blogging more regularly again which is great. I liked today’s rose photo – although personally I prefer Bantry Bay.

Have been having some great and some very inane conversations over at twitter with myself and other people (follow me @artandmylife). Great place for working out ideas. Don’t expect high level stuff from me though.

Am trying to think outside the box for employment options at the moment. Haven’t got very far though.

I am breaking my #1 blogging rule. My 6-year-old’s artwork appears on the Dunedin Art Gallery website – here (the brown owl at the top)

Finally, here is a photo I took in an alley near the Art Gallery.

Campbell’s Soup. P Dawson (2009)

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Can’t see the wood for the trees

Ok – actually I can’t see art because of stress. Surgery, Christmas, major inter-island move – whoopee the stress hormones are racing in my house!! One interesting side effect is that I haven’t been seeing/finding art in my usual way – its like being blinkered. Maybe if I could organise a conglomerate cleaner/gardener/window washer/carpet cleaner/glazier to do all the work that I need to do it might come back to me…? *sigh*

However I have come across some amusing ‘net stuff:

Awesome article on art merch at C-Monster (where the pic came from) Santa – please take note – although really I am waiting for a Clairmont beach towel ;-)

Cool Bananas

Art cakes – so if using all my domestic skills, I made a cake reproduction of say “Victory Over Death II” – would that be a copyright infringement? Cass, of course, has been done.

I have been listening to a lot of music and stuff of late. The arrival of William Burroughs “Spare Ass Annie” CD is timely with “The Junky’s Christmas” on it. Burroughs was a legend and I am still haunted by those Dante-like photos. Also Tom Waits’ “Christmas card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” is on high rotation. You may note I have a slightly dark view of the season. “Fairy Tale of New York” is another favourite and I like what Helen L wrote about it

“…the lyrics capture so much of the mixed feelings Christmas can bring – you’re happy, but you’re also remembering people who are no longer with you, you are enjoying your family…but you are also often pushed up against your family in ways that can be challenging…aah, Christmas – you gotta love it.”

Oh and super-congratulations to Helen H on being accepted into Hogwarts. We must have bubbles soon.

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A year ago today

Well its a year since I started this blog. A year with some pretty big ups, downs and change arounds for me but I managed to keep going here – which amazes me. Blogging has opened doors and introduced some wonderful people into my life which has been all good. I feel I should list people but you know who you are….It’s also opened my eyes to many new ideas while letting me have a forum to explore them.

My first post was about Clairmont and I’ve continued to rattle on about him and his work. In fact one of my biggest regrets for the year was not making more of an effort to go see the blue self portrait (1975) that was in the recent Art+Object “Important Paintings” auction. I will now probably raise the ire of someone as I reproduce it here (from the Art+Object catalogue)

Someone suggested to me that it had Baxter-like qualities. I agree – it’s a special one. I hope it is happy in its new home (if it has one)

This blog is meant to be about art and my life and so is a very personal view. That has been problematic at times because I am always learning. The biggest education experience for me this year was a tour of  “Reboot” at the City Gallery, Wellington with a talk by collector Jim Barr. I think I get it now – I don’t necessarily like it all, but I see. I feel a bit guilty about not searching out more challenging art since then, but access to formal art remains a bit of an issue.

I’ve had a busy day today and not really on the lookout for ART, but at my daughters ballet exam this morning my eyes wandered again to a graphic of Martha Graham * that hangs on the studio wall. Of course dance is an art itself but this picture seems to capture the freedom Graham embodied. I couldn’t find an exact copy online but Warhol does an ok job of dance art – and its taken from an excellent 1940 photo by Barbara Morgan. It doesn’t quite capture the same spirit though as the poster in the studio (whoever that is).

Martha Graham : Letter to the world. Andy Warhol

I try to honour a tradition of  “a year and a day” to decide about committing myself to things, so I guess I have another day to decide about the future of this blog. Whatever – its been fun.

*Oh, Gosh – maybe it was Isadora Duncan? Nah…

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Presidential qualifications

I have had no cause until now to talk about the US Presidential elections. I find it it a bit sick-making and since Palin entered the fray – quite frightening. Anyhow I read this today and it made more sense to me than most things I’ve read on the topic so far.

“A Black American President? About time? Or more of the same white fare in the form of John McCain as many put it?  Much more radical would be for a Native American President to emerge and capture the White House.”

So would Obama or McCain be immortalised by Warhol? Obama maybe, but the suggestion of Russell Means for President or even the Republic of Lakota brings hope. So Mr Obama – a Native Amercian President really would be change.

American Indian Series – Russell Means (1976) Andy Warhol

And if things go really badly with the US elections or our own – there is always this

From the streets of London

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