Do Art

Clay at the Corner was established last year at the Arts and Crafts Studios at St Marys Corner by Penrith City Council, aiming to promote community connections in the Nepean region through the creative medium of clay. Nepean Ceramics teacher, Susan Jorgensen opened an exhibition of ceramics by members of the Nepean Potters Society on the Friday evening, and followed up with a clay workshop for children on Saturday and another for adults on Sunday. There were "local families from St Marys and St Clare, Penrith , Blue Mountains and other regional areas...over 100 hundred in the first few hours of the Saturday workshops." said Adnan Begic, Cultural Projects Officer.

Congratulation to Simon Cook, a graduate of the Certificate 3 in Ceramics in 2011, who has been selected as a finalist in the UWS Sculpture Award. "The UWS Sculpture Award showcases major works by significant Australian artists, some of whom have created sculptures especially for the University's Campbelltown Campus." The Acquisitive prize is valued at up to $25,000. "The UWS Sculpture Award and Exhibition aims to establish closer links between the University and artists, and engage with the community by providing a valuable educational and cultural resource, as well as enhancing the campus environment for teaching and learning." Have a virtual tour of the work here You can even vote for Simon in the People Choice Award.

Views like this right in the city. As a matter of fact this is just a 12 minute walk from my doorstep.

Still nothing is fixed on paper so I can't tell yer, but it's only a matter of days now...

Novelist Chimananda Ngozi Adichie, author of  Purple Hibiscus ,  Half of a Yellow Sun  and  The Thing Around Your Neck  (stories) reads on Friday 25, May, at Treasure Beach in front of a packed crowd. (Photo by Andre Bagoo) * The more literary festivals there are in the Caribbean the better and Calabash attracts a devoted, enthusiastic (and large) following, amid the stunning backdrop of Treasure Beach.  The festival itself was dedicated to Jamaica's 50th Anniversary of Independence. Like the recently concluded Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad, the programme featured a wide range of talent from the Caribbean, the diaspora and all over the world. Readers included Adiche, Jamaican writer and poet Olive Senior, Orlando Patterson, Victor Lavalle and many more. I also managed to catch excellent readings from several poets including: Jacqueline Bishop; Loretta Collins; Christine Craig; Fred D'Aguiar; Shara McCallum; Anis Mojgani; Claudia Rankine; and Kevin Young. Olive...

Is this art or a joke? Personally I found it hilarious. Enjoy your Sunday and have a great new week.

          ITS SURPRISING HOW SOME PEOPLE IN GHANA THINK THAT VISUAL ART IS FOR POOR PERFORMING STUDENTS. THEY FORGET THAT BASIC THINGS THAT ARE USED BY THEM WHERE BROUGHT INTO EXISTENCE BY VISUAL ARTISTS.OUR CLOTHING , SHELTER ,HOUSING AND DECORATIVE  ITEMS WERE PRODUCED BY GREAT ARTIST WHO EXISTED. WHAT WOULD HAVE  HAPPENED IF THERE WERE NO HOUSES IN THE WORLD. IF NO CLOTHES EXISTED AND NO THINGS TO BEAUTIFY OURSELVES. THOSE WHO REFER TO THEIRSELVES AS SCHOLARS WASTE A LOT OF THEIR TIME BEAUTIFYING THEIR  BODIES BEFORE GOING TO WORK. THEY LOOK OUT FOR WELL DRESSED PERSONS BEFORE OFFERING THEM VACANCIES. OUR FASHION INDUSTRY IS CONTROLLED BY VERY INTELLIGENT PEOPLE WHO HAVE VERY FINE TASTE FOR BEAUTY. WE SHOULD RATHER FOCUS ON ENCOURAGING OUR CHILDREN TO STUDY ARTS. VISUAL ARTS FOCUSES ON DEVELOPING THE HEARTS , MIND AND THE HANDS.IT OFFERS A WIDE RANGE OF DIFFERENT COURSES AND VOCATIONS TO. ONE MAY CHOOSE TO STUDY LEATHER WORK,GRAP...

Visual Art is an interesting course that helps one to explore the world of creativity. Keep a date with me, Ange, always.

May 25, 2012, Medulla Art Gallery, Fitt Street, Woodbrook, in collaboration with ARC magazine. As the name, “Interpretations’ implies the gathering will focus on various perspectives of Thomas-Girvan’s work through a critical, exacting and nurturing framework. Personal connections to her studio practice will be explored along with the various seductions of text and object. The presenters will engage with re-readings of Thomas-Girvan’s work from a literary, philosophical, art historical and liminal perspective. The event will showcase new works by visual artists Jaime Lee Loy and Michelle Isava. Speakers for the night include writer and scholar Gabrielle Hezekiah, whose work centers on philosophy, visual art and theories of the moving image, short story writer Sharon Millar, co-editor of Robert & Christopher Publishers and Art Director of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival Melanie Archer , artist and Rhodes Trust Fellow, Marsha Pearce, and Barbadian contemporary artist, educator...

Good morning, a totally unplanned post but when I tasted my latest concoction I had to share this blissful experience. But first a picture of Saturdays picnic which was the start of an evening with the theme "Once upon a time", which I had organized for one of my very best friends, a female Stag Night aka Doe Night. The evening was a raging success. And now todays blissful breakfast: the Pear-Potato-Omelette. I came up with it because I had a few cooked potatoes leftover from yesterdays rotisserie-chicken potato salad (which was fantastic too) and a pear. At first I wasn't quit sure about the potato pear combination, but the taste totally surprised me positively. Yummy. Ingredients for 1 person: 3 free range eggs, 1 pear, a few pieces of leftover precooked potatoes, fresh basil, salt and pepper, olive oil or butter or coconut oil for the pan. Enjoy your day.

Great news ahead, but again until I have everything in black and white I won't talk.

My favourite Cinderella-movie is "Three Wishes for Cinderella" and part of it was shot at Schloss Moritzburg in Saxony. I have to admit that I'm becoming more and more fond of the baroque style.

'softe', inkjet pigment print 60cmx80cm Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts graduate Amanda Mayrhofer has won 'best in show' for her artwork, 'Softe' at the 2012 Winmalee Artfest. Amanda's large-scale photograph was produced in the photographic studios at NADC using a CanonEOS 5D Mark II  and MP-E65mm F/2.8 1-5X macro lens. Congratulations to Amanda for taking home the $1500 first prize. Amanda intends to spend the money on a macro lens to enable her to continue her fascination with this style of imagry.

es5se. five drawings five seconds each and silence. graphite 0.5 B on A4 paper. osvaldo cibils 2012

Congratulations are in order for yet another staff member, this time Catherine O' Donnell  who has been selected  for the The Rick Amor Drawing Prize 2012 Rick Amor, one of Australia's leading contemporary artists, has sponsored a $10,000 acquisitive prize for small drawings at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. In sponsoring the prize, Amor says "I hope that this prize gives people one more reason to keep drawing on paper… the most direct and intimate expression of an artist's sensibility". 70 finalists were chosen from a field of nearly 600 submissions, all of drawings no larger than 76 x 56cm.                              Catherine O' Donnell - Block 253,  Charcoal on Paper  70X53cm 2012

Pictures from Paradise: A Survey of Contemporary Caribbean Photography (Robert & Christopher Publishers, ISBN: 978-976-95344-7-6, pp.222) IN THEIR introduction, editors Melanie Archer and Mariel Brown make clear their intentions. “Pictures from Paradise seeks to examine the ways in which contemporary art photography has evolved within the English-speaking Caribbean, rising beyond idyllic scenes to tackle more intricate issues,” they state. “Within the past few years, regional artists working with the medium of fine art photography have provided us with an increasingly searching image of the Caribbean and the people who inhabit it. In recognising that the region is not the picture-perfect paradise of traditional depictions, these artists focus instead on what is not easily seen or that which is often ignored – the complex social, racial, political and physical relationships and landscapes that exist within the Caribbean.” This is a book many have been waiting for. It succeeds — spec...

Congratulations to  our new full time painting and drawing teacher Tim Allen , selected as a finalist in the 2012 NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize. Congratulations also to  fellow Fine Arts teacher Stephen Hall who has also been selected. The term ‘en plein air’ refers to the practice of painting out of doors, in direct engagement with nature. Tim described this practice in relation to his selected entry: “This work was created over Easter 2012, at a property outside Cooma on the Monaro Plains. The collections of granite boulders and dieback trees that dot the property have the starkness of the European romantic tradition. This was emphasised on the day of this painting when the initially sunny day quickly transformed as a strong southerly front brought an unseasonal snowstorm. The energy and tension imbued into an artwork by the unpredictability of working en plein air is what I love about the process. The day finished with a beer, contemplating the painting on th...

What is Caribbean art?: why we need art history, a discussion at the 2012 Bocas Lit Fest * WHO AND what is art for? Is art meant to be seen or experienced? Who is the intended audience? Do artists make work just for the sake of the work; for themselves or for others? Do artists create for a country or a region or an even broader audience? Do they imagine their work speaking to others, speaking after death? We have to pose these questions when we address another: what is the importance of preserving Caribbean art? (And, by the way, what is Caribbean art?) A special panel discussion put on at the recent Bocas Lit Fest  at the Old Fire Station Building in Port of Spain addressed the question of the need for art history. The panel, chaired by editor Nicholas Laughlin, included co-author of Art in the Caribbean , Anne Walmsley, artist Christopher Cozier, art teacher Andy Jacob, and cultural studies lecturer Marsha Pearce. Walmsley spoke about the process of putting t...

A visitor views Wendy Watson's exhibition at the National Parks and Wildlife Centre, Blackheath, as part of the Head-on Photographic Festival. NADC Fine Arts photography students past and present are engaging with industry in two impressive exhibitions as part of the Head-on Photography Festival. Current student Wendy Watson has an exhibition of silver gelatine landscape images on display at the National Parks and Wildlife Centre, at the end of Govett's Leap Road, Blackheath. The exhibition runs until May 27. Former students Marcela Vilaplana and Lenore Gee are alos showing as part of head-on, at Gallery Blackheath (see previous post for details). Congratulations to all the artists  on their inclusion in this important festival.   Artist Lenore Gee, (left) and Marcela Vilaplana (right) with Dr Anne Graham, artist and academic, who was the guest speaker at their exhibition at Gallery Blackheath.  

 'Meditation 2' by Lenore Gee, type C print, 24 cm x 17cm Two of our graduates in fine art photography are exhibiting this weekend at Gallery Blackheath, as part of the Head-on Photography Festival. Come along to 'Vestiges' by Marcela Vilaplana and Lenore Gee, which opens this Saturday at 2.30pm. The opening speech will be given by by Dr Anne Graham. The Gallery's address is 44 Govett's Leap Road, Blackheath.  Congratulations to Lenore and Marcela for their involvement in Australia's largest photography festival! http://www.galleryblackheath.com/vestiges.htm

ARC  magazine and Rodell Warner are up to some magic. SEE more here .

Andre Bagoo, Vahni Capildeo and Nicholas Laughlin, Bocas Lit Fest programme director. Photo by Rodell Warner. SEE more photos here .

From my trip to the Black Forest last week.

Good Morning. I'm back from my little trip to the southwest and I'm quite relaxed from it. It was a brilliant week, with lots of great conversations, good food, sunshine and strolls along rivers. The new week is packed with art related stuff. For the next three days I'm at the Medientreffpunkt Mitteldeutschland representing my club Kreatives Leipzig and taking pictures. I took the picture above at Leipzigs Spinnerei during the last April weekend. I thought it was a good juxtaposition of Classic and Urban Art.

Photo by Rodell Warner DESPITE the carefully planned build-up, the Bocas Lit Fest still came upon me like a thief in the night. But how happy I am it did! For four days, all of my senses were overwhelmed by riches. The programme had breath, depth and variety and managed to not be dominated by any one single event or person. I was left listless at the end of it: wanting, remembering, thinking and looking forward to more festivals to come. Here is a list of some of my favourite events in random order. Audience at the Old Fire Station Building Music ‘From the Old Yard’ One of the most enjoyable highlights this literary festival (and there was an embarrassment of riches), was the premiere of a new piece of music, The Old Yard: Carnival Portraits from Trinidad , composed by Adam Walters, for strings, wind and percussion. The performance, at the UTT Academy for the Performing Arts, featured poems by Muhammad Muwakil and images by the great photographer Maria Nunes. This was a stunning event:...