caro-rose-creations

BVAC

Over the past year I have been working with a group of people to set up an umbrella organisation for the promotion of visual arts here in Brisbane.  Together we have formed a non profit organisation, Brisbane Visual Arts Community Inc, or BVAC for short, of which I am the Secretary.

Tomorrow will be or first AGM and we will also get the keys to our first premises that we are leasing from the Brisbane City Council.  The lease documents are all signed and we are ready to rock and roll.  The building was a Scout Den so there is lots of work to do to get it up to scratch, but with plenty of community input I'm sure we will get it into shape.

Upstairs there is a hall with lockable rooms on each side.  It is planned to rent the rooms to our member organisations for storage of materials and the main hall area for workshops.  One group want to house their library here. 

There is a new kitchen, which we need to fit with appliances.

Down stairs at the moment is rather dark but with a little work it will make a great area for those messy arts, like pottery.

The building's neighbours are Weller's Hill State School and a Girl Guides hall.  The rest is parkland with lots of parking and no houses close enough for us to annoy.  The map still shows a scout den symbol but that will have to be changed. (We will have to come up with a symbol for community arts.) There are 7 different bus routes that pass close by and we are within walking distance of a great coffee shop.

For the future we are looking at a joint venture with a developer in another suburb were we can house a gallery and other retail outlets. Brisbane has a great cultural precinct but nothing for the grass roots.  Lots of small organisation all trying to swim on their own. We aim to bring all those small organisations together that feed the elite visual arts activity in our city. Now we have taken the first step. 

 

A space Oddity

This is the coolest video.  A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.  Some of the shots of earth are wonderful.
 

The Link

The link to the exhibition at the Met in New York that I put in yesterday leads to some wonderful images.  Here are two.

The Crow Helmet- Look at that face.

And a wood cut.

This site is just fantastic.  Not only for images but for videos also.  What a find.

A re-appearance

One of my favourite blogs went missing for quite a few months.  Well not actually missing, it was there but there were no posts for ages. ( Make that February this year.)  Now it's back and I can revel in the wonderful images and information.  (Big sight of relief.)

The blog is BiliOdyssey and this week he posted '100 famous views of Edo'.  by Utagawa Kiroshige (Ando), 1850.  No wonder the French Impressionists were fascinated by Japanese art.  This piece, Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival, is just so deep with meaning. 

Included with each image is a full explaination and at the end of the article is a wonderful list of references that will keep me busy for weeks.  I wonder if that cat is sitting on his tail or if he doesn't have one like a Manx?

(There is a great exhibition on at the Metopolitan Museum of Art in New York called, Birds in the art of Japan.  Here is a link to images of works in the exhibition.)

Delete

I have deleted the leaf study from my list of things to do this year.  I thought they would make beautiful embroidered broches but they will not be done.  (Says she with much regret.)  It was a good idea at the time. 

I took 52 photos of leaves that I collected on a morning walk.  Perhaps they could be a photographic study?

 

I didn't do anything special with them and they still hold the soil from the garden and the dew from the morning. Regrets, regrets.

The Mena Art Exhibition

I finally got to that exhibition up the road.  It has taken some time but was worth it.  It isn't a big exhibition but very interesting.  Some of the art was the same as in the book and it was painted onto thick brown paper, not quite the same as the walls but still effective.

There were some motives I haven't seen before..

And some of the work reminds me of aboriginal art.  I have noticed this similaritiy between Indian and Australian aboriginal art before.

They had some merchandise for sale and this included a tote bag with an applique of a motive on the outside.  Terrible applique that didn't do justice to the art.  I'm going to have to try some myself and see if I can do any better.

A book and an exhibition

I bought this little book a few years ago.  I didn't realise until it arrived just how special it was.  It is called "Nuturing Walls" and is about the art of the Meena Women in India.

I didn't realise until I opened my parcel that this book was hand made.

This video shows how the books are made, quite an eye opener.

 

There is an exhibition of this art in the Artisan gallery up the road from where I live.  There is an interesting website setting out the history of these people and their art.  I have been putting off going to see the exhibition but I see things are being moved in the gallery so I have to get in their quickly in case I miss it!

Inspiration for a quilt

I saw this image on Tumbir and thought how it could be a quilt.  I haven't been able to find a high resolution of it but those stars at the top seem to have a lot of texture

The reference was;

Hildegard of Bingen
Scivias Codex: Book III, First Vision, German Romanesque (detail)
1165
Weisbaden, Landesbib. Ms. Scivias Codex

I have tried to find the original but without a lot of luck.  I did find a series of images here which included this one.  Hildegard had a series of visions which were illustrated in her writtings.

I have always liked her music and this page 'heroines of history' has some interesting information about her and you can still buy her work (almost 900 years later) on Amazon. 

What could I do with this?

I have an iphone, ipad and 2 Apple computers.  I think I need one of these.

 

Not seeing

I visit the Southbank Arts Precinct all the time.  On one side of the road are the theatres and on the other the art galleries, museum and State Library.  There is always something going on there.  I catch the bus into town and the bus station is in the middle of the road between all the venues.

Also, in the middle of the road at the end of the bus station, on a traffic island sits a sculpture, which I have never really looked at.  In fact it didn't register with me that it was there, yet it is huge. It is of a cicada and with all the rain that we have had the wings have taken on a opalescent colour and suddenly I saw it.

It isn't as if it is a small sculpture, it's large.  Now I look at it everytime I cross over the road.

How could I have not seen it?