tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79550845799454716302024-02-06T23:42:00.383-08:00An abstract epiphany ~ Deborah MilliganCome on a journey through my art-making as I seek inspiration and delight through people, art and ideas.Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-21499849117911961462011-09-11T00:05:00.000-07:002011-09-11T00:05:07.510-07:00I told you there were cows in the country<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Sometimes it's the simplest things that bring delight. Like yesterday. I was driving home after a few days in the city for work - admiring the green pastures and rolling hills and thinking how glad I was that I had moved to the country, when I drove into <a href="http://www.maffra.net.au/gippslandplains/cowwarr.htm">Cowwarr</a> ... <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's just a little bit lovely. </div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-36943386824944909952011-08-24T05:33:00.000-07:002011-08-24T05:39:43.536-07:00What drives you to creation?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What drives you to creation? Just what is that itch that must be scratched? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What drives you to pick up your brush, to dip your fingers into the paint and start marking that blank canvas? To scrape a knife across the surface of tacky oil paint. Is it the medium, the gooey texture - slippery or sticky, or thin and delicate. Is it the smell? The feel of the tools in your hands, the paint on your fingers, the hard swatches of it drying on your clothes. Are you moved by the full, thick brushes, perfectly maintained. The tubes lined up in order on your work bench - chromological of course. The jar of special favourites, clagged up, hard edged, paint spatted stubs of brushes - not so perfectly maintained. The twiggy sticks, rollers or scraps of lacy fabric that you use to mark the surface. The bubble wrap, the feathers, the bird bones, the twine and the seaweed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Is it collaboration that wags your tail? The thrill of bouncing ideas off arty minds - seeing those ideas grow wings and fly away. Sharing their wild and crazy madness where they will. I'm pretty new to collaboration but I can see that it has the power to hold me. Possibly forever. It might just be a never ending adventure. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Maybe it's the unique happy place that you go to when you sing with other people. When you find those angelic harmonies that hover about your head, and you try to hold them there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Maybe it is that intense and highly personal relationship with your hands and fingers that is part of the textile territory. Crotcheting close to the heart -</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> small and close and personal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Maybe you find out who you are when you beat metal, heat its points in a small cokey fire, then beat it, pull it, twist it, turn it, till it becomes your own. Forged by your own hand, driven by your vision. That's strong stuff. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Making something from nothing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Making something of power and beauty from nothing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I love painting. I love getting lost in the process. I love the difficulties inherent in exploring knotty issues through abstraction. Teasing them out and looking at what is there. I love the complex simplicity that is necessary in abstraction. I am inspired and stimulated by people's thoughts and ideas. By inventions and discoveries. By rituals and customs. I think I am trying to understand the world and my place in it better through looking at how all those ideas fit together, or how they don't fit together. By turning them over and over, looking at them from all angles, taking them apart, putting them back in different ways. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By trying to understand them from an artist's perspective. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I think that is what drives me to creation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What is it for you? </span></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-28647080359340178812011-08-17T04:07:00.000-07:002011-08-17T04:07:36.874-07:00Quarks, threads and a helpless longing ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhue5rCEu5BPs6GuRIL9Rky39bQouaUkFIXQt-1oDngeejq3sofn2-iqGFcwxMiEvo-rSmOWU2YnjEWA-WgoyZ573IcJn5Ghgj3lfOmZzrTeDGAcavFOMoxx3Al6m7r1wqPlFoS23_AOT/s1600/comp+RotH+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhue5rCEu5BPs6GuRIL9Rky39bQouaUkFIXQt-1oDngeejq3sofn2-iqGFcwxMiEvo-rSmOWU2YnjEWA-WgoyZ573IcJn5Ghgj3lfOmZzrTeDGAcavFOMoxx3Al6m7r1wqPlFoS23_AOT/s320/comp+RotH+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Regions of the Heavens I. Oil on canvas with cotton stitching. 1000mm x 1000mm. Deborah Milligan</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-It;">Regions of the Heavens I </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;">looks at the Heavens as place of profound mystery and reverence with one of the many <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Womans-Dictionary-Symbols-Sacred-Objects/dp/0062509233">ancient symbols for air</a> - and heaven - floating across the surface. The symbolic power of the four elements has long been part of our thinking and this enduring obsession is to do with their intrinsic connection to the cycle of life and death. Historically, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Womans-Dictionary-Symbols-Sacred-Objects/dp/0062509233">exposure to the four elements represents the only ways in which the dead can be disposed of,</a> and through this exposure nourish and support new life. Interestingly these symbols are largely circular.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJbyq8uGCKGg4-t3kPQnsiXYwg-PIFirSpnKAlNGF3NFifo3_j-M5YKJV7ELiOjp8225GGQNE16Ebb-loTVEXsCIfknUnfDNAkyxpU970pDBwYaWY_Dqra8-nhQp0QZ2qE060dUAxboaja/s1600/comp+RotH+2+A+Helpless+Longing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJbyq8uGCKGg4-t3kPQnsiXYwg-PIFirSpnKAlNGF3NFifo3_j-M5YKJV7ELiOjp8225GGQNE16Ebb-loTVEXsCIfknUnfDNAkyxpU970pDBwYaWY_Dqra8-nhQp0QZ2qE060dUAxboaja/s320/comp+RotH+2+A+Helpless+Longing.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Regions of the Heavens II: A Helpless Longing. Oil on canvas with cotton stitching. </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">1000mm x 1000mm.Deborah Milligan</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-It;">Regions of the Heavens II: A Helpless Longing </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;">looks at one of the points where science and religion touch. It talks of a more active engagement, a greater desire to explain and understand. Its initial inspiration is a quote from George Bernard Shaw:</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-It;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://quotationsbook.com/quote/17355/">To me the sole hope ofhuman salvation lies in teaching Man to regard himself as an experiment in the realisation of God …… He must regard God as a helpless Longing, which Longed him into existence by its desperate need for an executive organ</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;">There are other concepts at play in this work too. One is the <span id="goog_91125841"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Thread of Life</a> <span id="goog_91125842"></span>which weaves through many archetypal stories and is particularly symbolised by the Moraie. The Moraie are referenced in <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html">The Odyssey by Homer</a> and also reflected in the actions of Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, who each day unmade her day’s weaving rather than cut the thread that symbolised her husband's life. </span><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-It;">In A Helpless Longing </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;">the thread itself is symbolic, not just the form that the thread takes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The form however also references the 'Lattice of Life': that cosmic matter that possibly connects all aspects of the Universe. The threads in the lattice are carriers of matter, energy and thought, and have been described as ‘non-time, non-space grooves in which life will eventually run’. According to this theory the gaps between the strings are vital: between the strings there is nothing, nothing at all. Is this the ‘pause between the breaths’ of Hinduism? The ‘space between the atoms’? Some physicists theorise that, at a sub-atomic level, space has a foamlike substance, which has a certain synchronicity with the 'Lattice of life'. In his intriguing book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clap-One-Hand-Big-Bang/dp/1899171053/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313577798&sr=1-1">'Clap one hand for the Big Bang'</a> , Ian Pullen from the Theosophical Society states:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-It;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Science is generally logical until it gets down to sub-atomic levels and the idiosyncrasies of Quantum Theory. Down amongst the muons and quarks of this universe, all sorts of peculiar and illogical things<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-It;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">happen. Particles can be in two places at once; they can also ‘communicate’ with each other and seem able to foretell the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: white; mso-bidi-font-family: EdwardianScriptITC;"><span style="color: black;">Out of interest there is a pretty cool site with clear descriptions of Quantum Theory (and other related theories) <a href="http://www.thebigview.com/spacetime/quantumtheory.html">here</a>.</span> Regions of t</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: white; mso-bidi-font-family: EdwardianScriptITC;">he Heavens </span><span style="color: white; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Semibold;">Debor</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I like the friction between all these thoughts: the helpless longing, the thread of life, the 'Lattice of Life' and Quantum theory. These concepts don’t sit comfortably together, there are broken lines and unanswered questions, leaps of faith – to me this expresses the mystery of life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtiAB0-W1ErS-KBtJNGvdqc7trQX-3K-bCh_f7E7dyP4aqK9H-hnf9Oi7qWqPdbzYFfvOdkocpieGMXdb-Shwk-Yko5cvJVlO8MjdYt80gZ2CZBo26TOpx7pKIIuOrsC3hivXnHpp1IkS/s1600/comp+RotH+3+The+rift.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtiAB0-W1ErS-KBtJNGvdqc7trQX-3K-bCh_f7E7dyP4aqK9H-hnf9Oi7qWqPdbzYFfvOdkocpieGMXdb-Shwk-Yko5cvJVlO8MjdYt80gZ2CZBo26TOpx7pKIIuOrsC3hivXnHpp1IkS/s320/comp+RotH+3+The+rift.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Regions of the Heavens III: The Rift.</em> <em>Oil on canvas with cotton stitching. 1000mm x 1000mm.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Deborah Milligan</em></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-It;">Regions of the Heavens III: The Rift </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;">focuses in on this tension – at the uneasy relationship between dissecting and accepting, between pushing and containing. Here the ‘rift’ refers not to the space between the atoms, but to our understanding of what that is. This work talks of our need to explain, and thereby contain, that which we don’t understand. To hold it back. It is a basic fear of the unknown. It also looks at when we push our understanding so far that something gives way. It explores that idea: when we push so hard we tear the fabric that holds in our understanding, and then we try, futilely, to re-contain what we have released.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This series is a cyclic progression: accepting, exploring, accepting the next step, exploring from there. For we are in uncharted territory and that is how we must travel.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://deborahmilligan.blogspot.com/p/regions-of-heavens-exhibition-2010.html">You can see these paintings in situ in the Regions of the Heavens exhibition here.</a><em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></em></span></span></div></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-62524393996982844082011-08-14T06:13:00.000-07:002011-08-15T04:00:16.134-07:00My mouth waters when I paint<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Abstract art can be difficult to interpret and people often ask me: What comes first - the thought or the painting? Or do they evolve together? How do you know what you are painting?</span> <br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is difficult to answer and any response is more an exploration than a definitive answer. For me, often the thought, or the general theme, comes first. Usually this thought is elusive and difficult to pin down. so I will write copiously trying to capture it. Sometimes, when all the elements are out in the open, I will then try to clarify what I want to capture by writing it in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku">haiku</a> form. <span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">This</span> strips away all the fluff and leaves me with a very clear direction to follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I don’t always use that tool. At other times I start with the elusive thoughts still wandering freeform.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqNh2Di7PQRk8S1iC19LDFkzSS81jsAkcz2dlpTV6rghzilX72NtrdhDlYA455LU_cnkmsnJgDyVL8Wouj5bzS6OAlxKwpDbvfji3UlA6aDziloiXWKIgkA-TdxHKBH4bIBTP1QtdZhhQ/s1600/white+hot+angry+tears+compressed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqNh2Di7PQRk8S1iC19LDFkzSS81jsAkcz2dlpTV6rghzilX72NtrdhDlYA455LU_cnkmsnJgDyVL8Wouj5bzS6OAlxKwpDbvfji3UlA6aDziloiXWKIgkA-TdxHKBH4bIBTP1QtdZhhQ/s320/white+hot+angry+tears+compressed.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White Hot Angry Tears. 250mm x 250mm. Deborah Milligan</td></tr>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The painting above was done a few years ago and was inspired by an aerial view of a desert detention centre that I saw in a newspaper. It struck me with it's stark sense of isolation - a ring road worn in the desert around a fenced prison. My feelings about the way we treat asylum seekers here in Australia were running hot and I found it hard to focus on what I wanted to say in my painting. I used haiku to really strip away all the excess thoughts and refine my vision. <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I don't have any literary aspirations, but I do find this an incredibly useful tool. </span>This is one of the few paintings where I have included the haiku in the final work. It summed up my feelings so well, and resonates with the image.</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>white hot angry tears</em></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>so wrong, this desert prison</em></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>our land cries with you</em></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When I paint I am often guided by the sensations within my body. When I feel it in my heart, in my stomach, in my hands - even in my mouth - then I know that the painting is working for me. It is a deeply visceral, even primitive feeling. It is only later that I step back and analyse it, refine it, work ‘by the rules’. Initially though, I gather the awareness of what I wish to convey within my body, observe my physical, emotional and intellectual reaction, and then endeavour to give it expression through paint. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Regardless of the way in which I start, the painting itself often tells me more about my initial intentions as it evolves. Sometimes it is only when I have finished that I fully understand what my intentions were. I enjoy allowing the painting to guide me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I remember once playing about with fridge poetry and making what I thought was an inconsequential five line poem. The next morning when I got up and saw it up there for all to see on the fridge I nearly died! “Crikey! I didn’t want to tell anyone about that!” Completely without my knowing, my subconscious had dredged up an old wound that needed airing and healing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Art can be incredibly powerful – never underestimate it!</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"></div></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-15658086164815708032011-02-09T03:47:00.000-08:002011-02-09T03:53:15.838-08:00Uncharted Territory - one painting's journey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I thought I would show you the development of a special work - <em>Uncharted Territory</em>. My work always changes as it progresses and this is possibly an extreme example. It went from something I simply wanted to work out of my system, to a piece that has significantly extended my practice and sent me off in a few new directions.</span></span> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflDqieG6VieKZ7k1Nq6L9MIJ5oPt9JDxAvMOWIDJYJH-t2pb8ezmRzeyJqlVDXNvllTr3YHWbG9aKYlLSfDIHEAx8hVM6daw7TEMA2f_Qzb3vIlJgbaWbBbix8PyFd4FbcblFM5pplnaa/s1600/comp+cropped+uncharted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflDqieG6VieKZ7k1Nq6L9MIJ5oPt9JDxAvMOWIDJYJH-t2pb8ezmRzeyJqlVDXNvllTr3YHWbG9aKYlLSfDIHEAx8hVM6daw7TEMA2f_Qzb3vIlJgbaWbBbix8PyFd4FbcblFM5pplnaa/s320/comp+cropped+uncharted.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Finished work. Uncharted Territory, Deborah Milligan</span></em></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was invited to be part of an exhibiton called <em>Regions of the Heavens</em> at the Gippsland Art Gallery - a beautifully broad and evocative theme and I was quite excited at the thought of exploring this through my art. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular;"> </span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I rarely start a painting with drawings or sketches. it's just not the way I work. Whilst I always start with an idea of how I want it to look, and certainly what I want to say though it, the painting itself always goes its own way. But this time I was nervous as I hadn't painted for quite a while, the exhibition was looming and I really wasnt geting anywhere. Still ... I had some time off work and tried to focus. I felt that I had some pretty bad art to get out of my system, so I searched my studio for some cheap material to play with. To muck about on. I found 15 sheets of Arches Velin 160gsm paper that my mother had given me a few years earlier and just started - playing with the idea of celestial navigation, just blocking in a design with acrylics.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="1 by Deborah Milligan" height="260" id="view-artwork" src="http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.4890202.1.flat,550x550,075,f.1.jpg" title="1 by Deborah Milligan" width="320" /></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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</div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was happy enough with the basic design, so just played around the edges for a while. I really wasn't taking it seriously at this stage. Like I said - I was just getting something out of my system.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" height="267" src="http://ih3.redbubble.net/work.4890215.1.flat,550x550,075,f.3.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But no! Now I start to get irritated by this work. It's too boring, too flat, too ‘designy’. I try to give it a more dynamic, painterly feel. Finally I engage with it!</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" height="264" src="http://ih0.redbubble.net/work.4890228.1.flat,550x550,075,f.4.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay ... its getting a bit better ... it's still weird and unsatisfying though. I work it a bit more and find that it is starting to get a sense of mystery in some of the areas, a bit more interest. By now I am definitely engaging with it and realise that I no longer want to abandon it to start on the 'real' painting. </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" height="257" src="http://ih3.redbubble.net/work.4890241.1.flat,550x550,075,f.7.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So now that I know I want to keep it I try to lift the whole piece, to take it away from the flat one-dimensional feel that is still there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I should say at this stage that, logistically, it was quite tricky. I hung it on a wall of cupboards in the studio with magnets borrowed from the Gallery, but the cupboard handles kept getting in the way so it wouldnt hang flat. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is a large piece - 2.8m x 2.3m in total - and so when I wanted to alter one section I had to go up the ladder, get it down and take it to my table, paint it, go back up the ladder, re-attach it, go down the ladder and stand back to see what it looked like. My studio has a large wall that swings open and often I would find myself way out at the other end of the garden looking in. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Around about this time, or maybe a bit earlier, I started using oils. That certainly added to the logistical difficulties – no longer was it dry and easy to manage when I put it back up on the wall. But oils are just so wonderful to work with! Also, working in a tin shed studio in a heat wave made acrylics too difficult: they dried before I could do anything with them. I also worked at night a lot due to the heat, so it was more pleasant, but it meant that I spent many hours picking the night-insects off with tweezers.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" height="260" src="http://ih2.redbubble.net/work.4890277.1.flat,550x550,075,f.9.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I started to get into trouble. There are two paintings going on here: one dynamic, one more subtle and I didn't know which path to follow. I always find this the hardest thing to do in painting – to choose between two (or more) possible directions. I liked some of the dynamic lines and areas that had been there for a while – I was comfortable with that style – but the new mystery was appealing too. Now that I was using oils I started scumbling, rubbing back and really working the surface to get interesting textures.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" height="257" src="http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.4890327.1.flat,550x550,075,f.96.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All along the theme is developing along with the painting. I always seem to spend as much time thinking and looking as I do painting. The ‘celestial navigation’ theme had evolved into a journey through uncharted territory – whether that be celestial, terestrial or spiritual. I liked the ambiguity that I was starting to play with and that helped me to bite the bullet and plunge headling down the more mysterious path.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here it is virtually finished. As you can see there are creases and ridges in the paper which I had to flatten out before taking it to the gallery. I did so by gently rubbing the back with hot water and then flattening the sheets under weights.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" height="258" src="http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.4890374.1.flat,550x550,075,f.99.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below is my Artist's Statement for Uncharted Territory. It really did take me on a journey – from something that I thought I was going to discard, to a piece that has significantly extended my practice and taught me a lot about trusting the journey.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am intrigued by the slippage where science and spirituality touch: those points of similarity and difference where theories rub up against each other and cause a bit of friction. The beautifully broad scope of Regions of the Heavens presents me with an opportunity to focus my attention there.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Uncharted Territory speaks of charting a course through time and space, whilst experiencing the journey as separate moments, each complete within itself, yet combining into one: the character of each moment informing the character of the whole.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It also implies that we can only touch little bits of ‘heaven’. However one views it, it is too all-encompassing to comprehend. All we can do is segment it, compartmentalise it and try to make sense of the pieces we can grasp.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a central piece in this work which, if upturned, still meets to continue the rhythmic path. This has a beautiful symbolism to me – the central element speaking clearly of how we may intend to take one path on our journey but end up taking another. This is still part of the original journey and works in a manner we cannot envisage at the time: it only becomes clear when viewed with perspective.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each of these parts can be read on their own. When you do this you see that despite there being an overall ‘colour’ or ‘feel’, each is unique with identifiable elements: some are quiet and dreamy, some speak of submerged obstacles, some of bright moments of epiphany – as happens in life. Then, widening our perspective, each group of four creates a harmonious whole too. Gradually we piece together the moments to make sense of what we are, and where we are going.</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my work I often explore the energy contained in a moment in time or a fragment of thought. I see an intense aliveness within these fragments – they are the space between the atoms – a bridge between form and formlessness. With Uncharted Territory it is not just one moment in time that I am exploring, but many moments and their interactions, the effect they have on one another, and their overall flavour.</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope you enjoyed my painting's journey - and I would love to hear yours too.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" height="287" src="http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.4903578.1.flat,550x550,075,f.roth-exhibition.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Regions of the Heavens exhibition, Gippsland Art Gallery. Works by Deborah Milligan</span></em></td></tr>
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</div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-45260962336808800452011-01-28T03:01:00.000-08:002011-01-31T04:05:25.113-08:00Contemporary Art from the Iron Age<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I have had another epiphany - I shall call it 'a contemporary epiphany' - but this time I dont know what it means! I know it will deeply affect my art practice - but how, I cannot yet tell. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">It was at the <a href="http://www.museum.ie/en/intro/archaeology-and-ethnography-museum.aspx">National Museum: Archeology, in Dublin</a> which I visited recently. There are a number of objects in this rich collection which are making me rethink my understanding of contemporary art practice and aesthetics. </div><br />
One was a small golden model of a boat made during the Iron Age in the 1st Century BC, part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broighter_Gold">Broighter Hoard</a>. It is what I would have - before this visit - thought of as a strikingly contemporary design. Its simplicity of form and exquisite aesthetic made my mouth water and my heart melt. It was not even as big as my hand, delicate and unbearably beautiful. If I saw this in a jewllers window in Barcelona or London today I would marvel at its contemporary design. How can something this old look so funky? What is it that travels so well through time? And what does this say about 'cutting edge' art today?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQSZdfBk5z9a0kTwXy3xqRgWNrkoBPof3Ha1XN7mDHkitukhJavwsySqtzC6CwUZ7TxMxbuouQ6UTcHmSnFenz6lS5lLD1ARMc9EbeJyHeK16xHqKusJY2GBS7CWa0CX0zIcg7aCfRMFz/s1600/gold+boat+Celtic+hoard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQSZdfBk5z9a0kTwXy3xqRgWNrkoBPof3Ha1XN7mDHkitukhJavwsySqtzC6CwUZ7TxMxbuouQ6UTcHmSnFenz6lS5lLD1ARMc9EbeJyHeK16xHqKusJY2GBS7CWa0CX0zIcg7aCfRMFz/s320/gold+boat+Celtic+hoard.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Golden model of a boat from the Broighter Hoard, 1st Century BC</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Another piece that struck me was a riveted bronze cauldron from the late Bronze Age, dated around 700 BC. It is quite large, about half a metre in diameter. It was almost the first object I saw as I walked into the museum and honestly, my heart quickened and I felt a surge of excitement. It was a powerful, visceral reaction. I was struck simultaneously by - again - what I saw as a strinking contemporary aesthetic, and an overwhelming sense of history. Centuries of human usage, day to day contact with this beautiful, simple, yet deeply significant artefact. Both a household tool and a ritual object. I was struck by its integrity - the combination of form and function, beauty and necessity. It is formed from plates and sheets of bronze which have been riveted together. The rivets themselves are stunning with sharply conical heads which, apart from being highly decorative, would also have helped to collect the heat and hasten the boiling process. Form and function, beauty and necessity. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ezzD_LqINMG8zs8FOqPbrvWN0MiL3hU0x-efJ4gDk64gPoEocSyjDvUgNpkhVy_lySUYRfvREEjA5bMwH6ILqJyK9TEdk0K4Y4osUDO0QED7emLfr54sgcrGNnnyxVMo13G9_YP_Pmme/s1600/bronze-cauldron1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ezzD_LqINMG8zs8FOqPbrvWN0MiL3hU0x-efJ4gDk64gPoEocSyjDvUgNpkhVy_lySUYRfvREEjA5bMwH6ILqJyK9TEdk0K4Y4osUDO0QED7emLfr54sgcrGNnnyxVMo13G9_YP_Pmme/s320/bronze-cauldron1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bronze cauldron from Castlederg, County Tyrone. Late Bronze Age.</td></tr>
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The ancient vessel form and the simple clarity of the repetitive rivets give it a powerful presence that, quite literally, took my breath away. <br />
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These two objects, along with the fine examples of Bronze Age golden jewellery, left me with an overwhelming sense of our commonality. It was simple to see, indeed to feel, the unbroken thread of humanity through all these works. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88IxquYzd5wcaypsvaDiZekTo7uZFAOePS7j12AX6MIiisu2RML61FDdczEYyLPBQwu5fRfO_ENUXvTV1GFGOzcJA9oNeuKgEJmDUpIcvAMHqTEoWKxJrH5tHFBTa4TDBNEG-8kJjrNdu/s1600/neck-sm.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88IxquYzd5wcaypsvaDiZekTo7uZFAOePS7j12AX6MIiisu2RML61FDdczEYyLPBQwu5fRfO_ENUXvTV1GFGOzcJA9oNeuKgEJmDUpIcvAMHqTEoWKxJrH5tHFBTa4TDBNEG-8kJjrNdu/s1600/neck-sm.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gold gorget. Late Bronze Age.</td></tr>
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To imagine oneself as a woman, or man, in 900 BC wearing these decorations, to desire them in the same way, to know that wish to adorn ones body and make a statement about power, beauty and priviledge. To look through the eyes of an artisan in 100 BC making a simple object of beauty and deep symbolism, to see through their eyes and witness the mark of their hands. And to see how - despite all our scientific and technological advances, all our modernity, our creativity and artistic advances - a simple crafted object from 2,000 years ago can look so incredibly contemporary! That strikes to my very soul and I dont think I will ever look at my own practice in the same way again.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">How can I call myself a contemporary artist when this small boat strikes me as the epitome of modern design? It is thousands of years old for heavens sake! No wonder so many artists become caricatures of themselves trying to be 'new' and 'different' as if that is enough in itself. </div> <br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Simple forms - the vessel being a fine example - clear craftsmanship, exquisite attention to detail and a certain sense of integrity. I think these are constants in 'good art'.<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">There is much more to be thought, but that will have to guide me for now! I would love to hear your thoughts on this as I am just going around in circles!</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: right;"></div> </div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-91776496050980278112011-01-01T14:31:00.000-08:002011-01-01T14:31:40.098-08:00The Unilever Series by Ai Weiwei<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzqDT9pk7KBxBwil3OIxvffR61eBITL7-hBDOkHe6JkGCHkFBKl_Gndcm97A9h6Ya-wmtDJRjX-JLZeaddAx91MpMogzBd-NSq79fXrbM0tJHI3X0LLQMlyqrmpXg7LccsXm6-MxJh96J/s1600/comp+L2+sunflower+seeds+at+tate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzqDT9pk7KBxBwil3OIxvffR61eBITL7-hBDOkHe6JkGCHkFBKl_Gndcm97A9h6Ya-wmtDJRjX-JLZeaddAx91MpMogzBd-NSq79fXrbM0tJHI3X0LLQMlyqrmpXg7LccsXm6-MxJh96J/s320/comp+L2+sunflower+seeds+at+tate.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
It's been a while since my last entry as I have been busy travelling and have found it hard to post. Mainly because it is tricky seperating my son from his laptop long enough to use it! So here's a very quick bit of inspiration. I went to the Tate Modern in London last week and was deliciously floored by The Unilever Series by Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei. It is an installation made of of millions of hand crafted porcelain sunflower seeds poured into the Turbine Gallery. I do wish I was able to visit in the first few days when the audience was allowed to walk on the installation - but alas that is no longer allowed due to 'dangerous dust'. Sigh. It is nonetheless an inspirational artwork and exciting concept. Check it out. <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/default.shtm">http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/default.shtm</a> The exhibition includes a fascinating video following the porcelain seeds being created, as well as providing an opportunity for visitors to ask Ai Weiwei questions about the installation via video. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-16368746477956331752010-10-23T07:49:00.000-07:002010-11-16T04:43:08.443-08:00Meet Meg Viney, Australian Fibre Artist<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCay-tGODTt6OIiNHhvhCWS8ma0G7HTcDbahtaCrJ5MJWMIcmEG5gP6hNO4qQ5nl4mPvCUUpZ15kujfa8tr9Qicl6A9Xg7a9qOhDTvlFykoGB8OxSVarlYRz8GcHOlRopbgjDHyuz-uwi4/s1600/Meg+Viney,+Australian+fibre+artist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCay-tGODTt6OIiNHhvhCWS8ma0G7HTcDbahtaCrJ5MJWMIcmEG5gP6hNO4qQ5nl4mPvCUUpZ15kujfa8tr9Qicl6A9Xg7a9qOhDTvlFykoGB8OxSVarlYRz8GcHOlRopbgjDHyuz-uwi4/s1600/Meg+Viney,+Australian+fibre+artist.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meg Viney, Australian fibre artist</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I have known Meg for about eight years now and my respect for her continues to grow. As well as being a uniquely talented and inspirational fibre artist, she is also an extremely compassionate and generous person -</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> always willing to share her knowledge and mentor others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you will see from her website, her work has great depth and integrity. I am honoured to share her work with you in this, the first of a <strong>Meet the Artist </strong>series. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimjdC8ixQrFAnnc8iIAAJdye7xA1xNqKd5nk83TVh9CKN35-0DVZ-3gGUMiTV3x0KO78hueiTOoFtAX8UK6kiETIVM8aQh8CL9Tj56WZyV9lopVR5M74fRlrxx5XNdesnBnU2wN4kYEy-3/s1600/meg_viney_-9259.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimjdC8ixQrFAnnc8iIAAJdye7xA1xNqKd5nk83TVh9CKN35-0DVZ-3gGUMiTV3x0KO78hueiTOoFtAX8UK6kiETIVM8aQh8CL9Tj56WZyV9lopVR5M74fRlrxx5XNdesnBnU2wN4kYEy-3/s320/meg_viney_-9259.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Echoes from the garden 5. Meg Viney</strong>. Orchard prunings, paper (Red Hot Poker) </span></span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.megviney.com/theartist.html">Your website</a></span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> references a connection to the spiritual dimension of Native American culture. Can you talk a bit about how that has influenced your artistic development and how it expresses itself, in a specifically Australian way, in your work?</span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">From 1969 to1983 I lived on the West Coast of USA, completing a B.F.A in Fibre sculpture at San Francisco University. I had not been aware of the importance of the spirit of my homeIand as an integral part of my life until it was absent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The experience was akin to a kind of cultural deprivation and<span style="color: green;"> I </span>felt strangely alone and homesick.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">However, during my studies, I stumbled upon Native American Culture and felt an immediate affinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was struck by the spirituality of these people, who consider all things equal, respect all things, care for all things and believe that all things have spirit. There is humility here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Many Western cultures seek to control the environment, often taking a rather plundering attitude – if we want to undertake a project that requires the logging of beautiful old forests, we forge ahead without due consideration to the impact it will have on the environment. In Native American culture, however, the natural order prevails.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Native American culture does not disturb the natural order, has a mystical sense of union with nature, and acknowledges that, on a spiritual level, we are merely part of the whole, and, like all things, come into being, have our journey and pass away.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The pace of life in California was rather alarming, but Native American culture offered a refuge, and, over <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>time, this affinity grew and began to influence my work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was never tempted to emulate the art, because, as an integral part of their daily existence, that would be disrespectful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, in most tongues there is no word for ‘art’ as an independent concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not the objects per se that drew me, rather the emphasis on respect for all that is, an abiding sense of Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, my work emanated from my understanding of, and my response to, tribal culture.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">During this period of time, each body of work was initiated by a dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenge was to create the work from the dream state to become a reality that reflects the image given. </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And so, upon return to my beloved homeland of Australia, I looked at the environment with more awareness, more reverence, and with what I had learned about ‘nature as a living treasure’.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBC2D6BtMt-wuBOaG4ubswEBwZd6-yrorCPyLEz_X5S9-AR-Qo1qJLylQVeW9C-hfqMm8F-JPzxsvRpHjOoVQ9VvxZ4BhmVFaZOAGq5v_cadAnvXSqzTcjTqadav-A23OHpKV65sH8D4Yk/s1600/VesselForWomanShamanS2+N3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBC2D6BtMt-wuBOaG4ubswEBwZd6-yrorCPyLEz_X5S9-AR-Qo1qJLylQVeW9C-hfqMm8F-JPzxsvRpHjOoVQ9VvxZ4BhmVFaZOAGq5v_cadAnvXSqzTcjTqadav-A23OHpKV65sH8D4Yk/s1600/VesselForWomanShamanS2+N3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Vessel for Woman Shaman, Meg Viney.</strong> Felt (sheep's fleece), paper (banana leaf), copper and linen thread, brass beads, feathers. 400 x 300 x 350mm</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZijv9SgfeM4M3XvEAPj7VnTwSRs-GOWOnU48l826Zdz9BkwzI1BNgp9Gb-a8RF2BkJPTW11-Zp8t10OXRAVXojVLFbRc-tSjNuZt9E9UaJ6dCo-p9UWngg3g9RDcMLsylzwAYI2B684xb/s1600/Shamanic+Transformation+S3N4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZijv9SgfeM4M3XvEAPj7VnTwSRs-GOWOnU48l826Zdz9BkwzI1BNgp9Gb-a8RF2BkJPTW11-Zp8t10OXRAVXojVLFbRc-tSjNuZt9E9UaJ6dCo-p9UWngg3g9RDcMLsylzwAYI2B684xb/s1600/Shamanic+Transformation+S3N4.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Shamanic Transformation, Meg Viney.</strong><br />
Felt (alpaca), feathers, paper (iris). 320 x 320 x 450mm</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I began looking at plant fibres, with their potential for making paper, and started to experiment with all sorts of plant fibres.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought about koalas eating gum leaves, realized that the leaves must be high in fibre, and made some pulp, which produced the most gorgeous rich brown paper.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfUyz2MMiQgYCJ_j5ltgTqJuo9pnP0BpgU6jLQNwinFRQ9VOfuI01NcbjYEBwv78hT8sCdPHiSIx8Bn1snl2qaeA8Fj0yQjbrFS-wxHte8zp-COaUKl0iqW74qqq8D6GVPhbKa2SX64t1/s1600/meg_viney_-9305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfUyz2MMiQgYCJ_j5ltgTqJuo9pnP0BpgU6jLQNwinFRQ9VOfuI01NcbjYEBwv78hT8sCdPHiSIx8Bn1snl2qaeA8Fj0yQjbrFS-wxHte8zp-COaUKl0iqW74qqq8D6GVPhbKa2SX64t1/s320/meg_viney_-9305.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #993300; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><strong>VESSEL. Meg Viney:</strong> paper (red hot poker & cumbungi), stick covered with paper (New Zealand flax)</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJoxrn3wDtm42_FjRbCe1iSyppZK645TikPnPVu1NDKIMuPvlog8WdEw27lSVBi-sDXPPmvHEJwWVyv8yvWEMdn54Au2rdLhFDsQmz_VBiD49fDzEClFRUpJsN7daQFOD-6R3rZzdAI64/s1600/meg_viney_-9312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJoxrn3wDtm42_FjRbCe1iSyppZK645TikPnPVu1NDKIMuPvlog8WdEw27lSVBi-sDXPPmvHEJwWVyv8yvWEMdn54Au2rdLhFDsQmz_VBiD49fDzEClFRUpJsN7daQFOD-6R3rZzdAI64/s320/meg_viney_-9312.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #993300; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><strong>VESSEL. Meg Viney</strong>: paper (quince) H. 900 mm x 420 mm x 420 mm.</span></span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There had been a shift from an affinity with Native American culture to a full immersion in my beloved Australian culture and a deep love of her environment.<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Is there an overarching theme to your work?</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I believe there is an overarching theme in the work of all artists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an interview of <a href="http://www.fredwilliams.me.com.au/">Fred Williams</a></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by Patrick McCaughey Williams said that he believes an artist essentially only makes one work in his/her lifetime, which, he went on to explain, is one central concern that is visited a multitude of times - so an artist revisits the concept that is central to his/her art.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is true of my own work – there has always been a central concern with containment – this concept ensures emotional, spiritual and physical security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is predominantly the subject of the writings of D.W. Winnicott, English Pediatrician and Child Psychiatrist, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Child-Family-Outside-Classics-Development/dp/0201632683">The Child, the Family and the Outside World</a></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Vessels attempt to conjure a recognition that all living entities emerge from a vessel which has held and nurtured the gestating form from conception to emergence – be it an egg, a cocoon, a uterus, a bud, a seedpod, a shell - the reality is Universal – the inference, the possibility of containment. There is something egalitarian about the thought that we are not really superior to any living creature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are born, have our time, and pass on.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Many of my works are figurative, and yet I perceive them as vessels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People are containers of life, of love, of one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mother contains the foetus and then emotionally contains her infant bringing him/her to independence and maturity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women are, in that sense, vessels.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My practise involves a relationship with Nature’s momentum – </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I find something wonderful in gathering her cast-offs, and, through a number of simple processes, transforming them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">cast-offs that would otherwise decompose are recycled to become new materials, which have a life of their own - thus the beauty inherent in the plant fibre and subtly concealed by the living plant is revealed as new form.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My choice of materials is driven by environmental concern. I use only what is given - in the application of materials there is no sacrifice of our environment. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What sounds like process, is, in fact a theme.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What comes first, the thought or the artwork? Or do they evolve together?</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the first three series, <a href="http://www.megviney.com/theartist.html">see website, series 1, 2 & 3</a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>each body of work was initiated by a dream, and the challenge was to create the work from the dream state to become a reality that reflects the image given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So this was as if the artwork and the thought came together.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOcik6hd0xdDYmX8eJsGC2dTXppFa9c6wVcY7G9QHDZEjvgC4hTp0kFvnmAqjYkJav9KGoWGXdAb-z9JdO9fugSXCuiM37E_Rnux2f9Hl8s-jJ0gwWEhKcqJeSPQTm6haMg7mZtactyRSQ/s1600/VesselForFriendlySpirits+S2N1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOcik6hd0xdDYmX8eJsGC2dTXppFa9c6wVcY7G9QHDZEjvgC4hTp0kFvnmAqjYkJav9KGoWGXdAb-z9JdO9fugSXCuiM37E_Rnux2f9Hl8s-jJ0gwWEhKcqJeSPQTm6haMg7mZtactyRSQ/s1600/VesselForFriendlySpirits+S2N1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Vessel for Friendly Spirits, Meg Viney.</strong> Felt (sheep's fleece), paper (cumbungi), feathers. 400 x 400 x 340mm</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_QMUkNlyy2HOqQAqyo0py3sdfZmXi6tzR1hKE9KdCBNoLjoRKxfVhSMAMKTGNWWd-cNBDoMjQWQVLTCYKjwkvuQYmX-zZzTIYHSLYGHC35ag9vW6M-j7Kw0Tn09Vl4v8j5Gx16SYrT5qQ/s1600/Tungralik%E2%80%99s+vestment,+S1+N5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_QMUkNlyy2HOqQAqyo0py3sdfZmXi6tzR1hKE9KdCBNoLjoRKxfVhSMAMKTGNWWd-cNBDoMjQWQVLTCYKjwkvuQYmX-zZzTIYHSLYGHC35ag9vW6M-j7Kw0Tn09Vl4v8j5Gx16SYrT5qQ/s1600/Tungralik%E2%80%99s+vestment,+S1+N5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Tungralik’s vestment, Meg Viney.</strong> Felt, silk, feathers, paper (iris), steel rod. 420 x 380 x 450mm </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Once back in Australia, with the shift from ‘other culture’ to an awareness and appreciation of my own culture and environment, the work took on a much more cognitive approach. I was looking and thinking all the time, forming ideas, which I documented in a Visual Diary. In 2004 I began an MVA in fibre sculpture at Monash University.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My supervisor told me that he wanted me to listen to the power of my inner vision and that he would push me out of my comfort zone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I read Ben Shahn’s, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shape-Content-C-Norton-Lectures/dp/0674805704">The Shape of Content</a> in which he proposes that a triality exists between artist, work and inner critic, and that this three-way dialogue moves between them, sculpting the progress of the work until there is a harmonious result and the work is finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This proved a powerful method of creating works that expressed my intention.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Dr. Robert Nelson, my supervisor for ‘Philosophies of the Studio’, asked me to describe my ‘methodology’. I read his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How to do Research in the Visual Arts, </i>and arrived at my definition - ‘the referencing of intentions’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">were</i> my intentions? I reflected … a desire to communicate a sense of spirit (which I believe to be innate, expressed or not) and to make works that subliminally resonate a sense of spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am asking people to respect Nature, to be gentle with our environment.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tell us a bit about the materials you use, and how you like to work with them. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My choice of materials began during my first years in California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a bit of a basket case – homesick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw a pine-needle basket in a shop in Berkeley and decided that I would teach myself to make them (there was a copse of long-needled pines close to our house).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved the smell, the feel and the meditative rhythm of stitching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I loved the end result of the finished work, and that, somehow, these containers went some way to containing me. </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Once I had become aware of Nature’s astounding resources, I loved the idea that, by paying attention, I could find all sorts of beautiful fibres to become art materials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lots of artists were paying dollars for materials, but I was paying attention.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2XAYEcZBdTBSZUUQeApGM3yeCVZWHoOCxl_ed7PU5itZLAsxbhgpzRy7l8w6C6fhnyRnD7j_gBcmM-nfU2jfvWXRCy-9FqYSu3KhqxKwLNV341wJ9_nijwe6jtecAtE8G9Y4GNB_StV_/s1600/Pine+needle+jar;+pine+needles,+raffia,+feathers+S4N4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2XAYEcZBdTBSZUUQeApGM3yeCVZWHoOCxl_ed7PU5itZLAsxbhgpzRy7l8w6C6fhnyRnD7j_gBcmM-nfU2jfvWXRCy-9FqYSu3KhqxKwLNV341wJ9_nijwe6jtecAtE8G9Y4GNB_StV_/s1600/Pine+needle+jar;+pine+needles,+raffia,+feathers+S4N4.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Pine needle jar, Meg Viney.</strong><br />
Pine needles, raffia, feathers. 120 x 120 x 250mm</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS3Rx0VG4e4KjAzS0knX-Po9lr5V0mdUBG16Z6Nhlg2HLAYpcb_aFqBrBhKfJdverDHV_AnxVWHQvpbyqgccNpOHa10eqrD6zqcR6l8RubhwEe9JQCa1MUcfOAcxQkOB0MvcQX9CFKkMy/s1600/Spiral+sea-grass+basket;+sea-grass,+raffia+S4N8.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Spiral sea-grass basket, Meg Viney.</strong><br />
Sea-grass, raffia. 120 x 120 x 300mm</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7x9xpGME82XO_nNRDPSzz3mih-AGyZhqUkepqf1IWOmu8ik4_BqFDcCGFvT0df0ohHBco92pcMTN55MCaNF4kBeVi-Ai6YZKamNuiK7IEUWWCDPWJXwD2mt3fO_wnv0e67Uke1VhFLJj0/s1600/meg_viney_-9317.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="248" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7x9xpGME82XO_nNRDPSzz3mih-AGyZhqUkepqf1IWOmu8ik4_BqFDcCGFvT0df0ohHBco92pcMTN55MCaNF4kBeVi-Ai6YZKamNuiK7IEUWWCDPWJXwD2mt3fO_wnv0e67Uke1VhFLJj0/s320/meg_viney_-9317.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #993300; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><strong>Pine Needle baskets, Meg Viney</strong>. Pine needles, raffia. Sizes variable</span></span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I love the idea that, in a society with the expectation of ‘instant satisfaction’ even my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">materials</i> take years to be ready for harvesting and processing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, once processed, they are but raw materials. Then there is the working of materials, the shaping, the drying and the surface treatment to ensure protection for works in fibre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love that my</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> work is immersed in process and time.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzKOpH9EF2-tMeS0ckwnibBCy7KzYujL-Oi4ucUXlyKv_9-ujIIpXkstOD887ofZ3TRZC8tFaIlTbdwydBKDeCoIYxpsHwf1-M6K1k1x1Dh75GXcLAd295Jl6oNdWwO3slO_JQ7IBnaNdw/s1600/Vessel+S2N7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzKOpH9EF2-tMeS0ckwnibBCy7KzYujL-Oi4ucUXlyKv_9-ujIIpXkstOD887ofZ3TRZC8tFaIlTbdwydBKDeCoIYxpsHwf1-M6K1k1x1Dh75GXcLAd295Jl6oNdWwO3slO_JQ7IBnaNdw/s1600/Vessel+S2N7.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Vessel, Meg Viney.</strong><br />
Paper (cumbungi, sweet corn), string (sweet corn). 550mm long x 250mm wide x 250mm deep </td></tr>
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</div><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What is your all time favourite piece?</b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Do I have a favourite piece, or do I have a favourite concept?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a recent exhibition entitled 'Echoes from the Garden' I have revisited the concept of the ‘Sipapu’. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In Hopi Culture, the Shaman dwells in ‘a kiva’, an underground dwelling lit by fire, and a tribesperson wishing to speak with him descends through a small hole in the ground, called a 'Sipapu'.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hole is filled with smoke from the underground fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The descent through the smoky ‘Sipapu’ represents the transition from the physical world to the spirit world.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The ‘Sipapu’ pieces are my interpretation of the transition from the secular to the spiritual. </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The works are enclosed in Perspex boxes, which are a part of the aesthetic of ‘other culture’ as well as providing protection essential for delicate works in fibre.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFSaW_REdws3LcCwExbiTn2DLx0iyOyueQfw7f5fPH7p41OUUWz1qV9Ue03GNzGfvd_wRitzxoSw-Nt6rHOI6ipAk3GNsVAtT-FhylmoXlVC4HMQ5iTpWodekJk7v8Xa55bCss4hTJogu/s1600/SIPAPU.S4N10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFSaW_REdws3LcCwExbiTn2DLx0iyOyueQfw7f5fPH7p41OUUWz1qV9Ue03GNzGfvd_wRitzxoSw-Nt6rHOI6ipAk3GNsVAtT-FhylmoXlVC4HMQ5iTpWodekJk7v8Xa55bCss4hTJogu/s1600/SIPAPU.S4N10.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Sipapu, Meg Viney.</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><strong> </strong> Pine needles, copper wire, silk thread. 70 x 70 x 120mm</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbfxiBvHNpDmbLQ3uFLjWCtY0gsaSi4H30jyME8Cm_erC7IJu6KW0PCnWexT9GZ_VGBHhpkb82YiDUKFvDXld_PXh8m5F5Os2mojmbZBTn6uJLGad5yKHLec7s8MAPm4KFsRf3DcQXdj74/s1600/meg_viney_-9276.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbfxiBvHNpDmbLQ3uFLjWCtY0gsaSi4H30jyME8Cm_erC7IJu6KW0PCnWexT9GZ_VGBHhpkb82YiDUKFvDXld_PXh8m5F5Os2mojmbZBTn6uJLGad5yKHLec7s8MAPm4KFsRf3DcQXdj74/s320/meg_viney_-9276.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>SIPAPU, Meg Viney.</strong> Orchard prunings, paper (Red Hot Poker) </span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">.800x270x270mm.</span></span></span></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtWsurv4-DKFeabhwVS5jrqyfzOulz9e20pQsc6zAO7Dq2RT0GeJHzN_hWSrNaxjlAABiAY8wqInF5jdMmVXBIeVQro84p2IDvE3Maa4QZoIqThF2RZLucEpa6XRqpYGuBA2k958PINtWJ/s1600/meg_viney_-9280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtWsurv4-DKFeabhwVS5jrqyfzOulz9e20pQsc6zAO7Dq2RT0GeJHzN_hWSrNaxjlAABiAY8wqInF5jdMmVXBIeVQro84p2IDvE3Maa4QZoIqThF2RZLucEpa6XRqpYGuBA2k958PINtWJ/s320/meg_viney_-9280.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>SIPAPU 2</strong><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><strong> Meg Viney</strong>. Orchard prunings, indigo dyed raffia, base paper (Cimbungi)<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";">H.280 x 165x165mm</span></span></span></div></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What inspires you to keep creating work? What brings you most joy in the creative process?</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">How can an artist <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> create?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think most of us need to create to stay grounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, as I observe the environment, which is<span style="color: green;"> </span>always filled with inspiration from organic shapes, materials, light, texture, line, colour, I am filled with ideas of how to create a body of work that reflects the concept of my understanding of what I am seeing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this inspiration has substance, it is written about in the Visual Diary, a sketch made and perhaps a maquette created. If this is a viable concept, it will dialogue with me, and, over time, will gestate until it is ready to be born into a body of work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do adhere to the idea that came to me years ago, that artwork is akin to childbirth – there is the conception, the gestation, and, suddenly, the birth of the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following this there is a period of looking, and of examining the work to see if it has something else to teach me, some other form of creative expression, some further direction.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">You also work on community arts projects. Could you talk a little bit about the attraction that this type of work holds for you?</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Whilst studying Fibre Arts at San Francisco University, the Anglican Diocese of San Francisco asked if I would coordinate an ‘Anglican Symbology Quilt’ working with 15 women to create designs from Church history. We began with the symbols/designs and fabrics I had researched and began work on the many squares that would comprise the quilt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The finished article toured the diocese, was auctioned, and raised a lot of money, but the value was not monetary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The outcome was that each woman brought her ‘self’, each week, to share, to laugh, to cry, and all that belongs between.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not about the stitching, it was about the trust that was engendered as we stitched - meditatively, as quilting invites – as we came to know one another in the safe environment in which we found ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together. My appreciation of working with Communities emanates from that rich experience.</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In response to the bushfires, the Victorian Government initiated an ‘Arts Recovery Quick Response Fund’ to be administered by <a href="http://www.rav.net.au/">Regional Arts Victoria</a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>aimed at healing communities. I thought back to that earlier experience, and wrote a grant application for the women of Boolarra and surrounds, to create a quilt. The aim of the Project, entitled ‘A Stitch in Time – Community Bushfire Recovery Quilt’ was to give women who had been impacted by the fires an opportunity to articulate their experience, to create one or more squares to express this visually, and to piece these together to create a Quilt, and, in so doing, to find healing. In July, 2009 we began the Project, the women talking about their experience without restraint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lion-hearted, wonderful women, who had endured the unendurable and yet had a sense of humour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They wanted to be there, to share, to learn, to heal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.rav.net.au/blog/view/25">The finished quilt</a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a magnificent piece of work made by these women, many of whom had never stitched before, can be seen on the RAV website. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[edit: I should note here that I work for RAV. DM.]</i> We became a cohesive group, grateful for this powerful and meaningful experience that had led from the anguish of the fires to the beginning of something new and beautiful.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Each time I work with community I am astounded at how wonderful people are, humbled that I am the link that connects them, and amazed at what can be created when people <span style="font-family: inherit;">work together with a common interest at heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the other thing that I love is watching people light up with</span> a joyous recognition that they can express themselves creatively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once that door is opened, they are aware of their own creative potential. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><strong>Is your practice changing? If so, in what direction do you see your artwork moving?</strong></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">My practice is ev</span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">olving all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am developing a deeper interest in the environment, in using materials given by the environment and beginning to get the idea that in some small way I can influence an audience to think about what the environment means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter Andrews book <a href="http://www.naturalsequencefarming.com/">Back from the Brink</a> is a fascinating look at how mankind has warped the environment and is now paying the price, and one man’s incredible work toward rethinking our so-called ‘modern’ land management practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would like to investigate the idea of working with him as the conservationist with a series of artworks progressing from the ‘Sentinels of the Landscape’ series as an installation in areas where environments are threatened.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></b></span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCljTyVqjwh-M5LtwrLEM2QhUk78IFeWmV4rV0lfzjtU9R6EOhPfHBRr1BA3eV3C3mNfC2clYc0577_9kEo1xLAsYMVdH8LRhSLtqVCuFWZfh-5BNvrzPZVghlzwVaHY-m6Y05WpADewPw/s1600/5+figures+S6N3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCljTyVqjwh-M5LtwrLEM2QhUk78IFeWmV4rV0lfzjtU9R6EOhPfHBRr1BA3eV3C3mNfC2clYc0577_9kEo1xLAsYMVdH8LRhSLtqVCuFWZfh-5BNvrzPZVghlzwVaHY-m6Y05WpADewPw/s1600/5+figures+S6N3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>5 figures. Paper. Meg Viney.</strong><br />
New Zealand flax, 700mm high. Cumbungi, 800mm high. Gum leaves, 1200mm high. Ginger plant, 750mm high. Red hot poker, 600mm high</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyFSdSb7VptU3jPXHxrwefEAy6QM6BROo_sXGhNJvEP9oiZzQXufbhFMhkat9WJ7WJfGQ5R4CanA3P89_SGury1o-uC58BuNS82XZzZOnUUgbNk4GlhRp3JhM43jFBdNvuy8C6mNPsOhwo/s1600/Figures+Felt+(alpaca),+paper+(New+Zealand+flax)+S6N9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyFSdSb7VptU3jPXHxrwefEAy6QM6BROo_sXGhNJvEP9oiZzQXufbhFMhkat9WJ7WJfGQ5R4CanA3P89_SGury1o-uC58BuNS82XZzZOnUUgbNk4GlhRp3JhM43jFBdNvuy8C6mNPsOhwo/s1600/Figures+Felt+(alpaca),+paper+(New+Zealand+flax)+S6N9.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Figures, Meg Viney.</strong><br />
Felt (alpaca), paper (New Zealand flax). 100 – 120mm high</td></tr>
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</div><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong>Tell me of five people - whether they be artists or not - who inspire you, and why.</strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.antonygormley.com/"><strong>Antony Gormley</strong></a></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Gormley’s images draw me, but so do his concepts. His images speak for themselves. The concepts with which I share an affinity are:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Gormley uses what he is given – his body (and, for example, uses his own blood and semen as art materials).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I use what is given by Nature.</span><br />
<blockquote><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I see the body not as an object, but as a place where things happen</i>.’ </span></blockquote><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<blockquote><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From the moment we leave the body from which we came, to the moment we return to the larger body of the planet, we are on our own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The need for closeness, the need for intimacy, all of these very human senses of protection, compassion, concern, emotion, one of the things that sculpture has not been good at dealing with in C20 art. I think it is one of the extraordinary things that art is capable of, carrying feelings and often feelings that can’t be conveyed in any other way</i>.’ </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These ideas are akin to my ideas of ‘containment’.</span></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><blockquote><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Art is a core ingredient in everyday life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People can disinterestedly think about their own freedom and choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If imagination is not involved, if it is simply a matter of what we can have, we are diminished</i>.' I </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">cannot imagine a life bereft of art as a means of expression, as a means of learning and of connecting.</span></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong>John Armstrong</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Another influence in my work is the writing of John Armstrong the English Philosopher, who, in his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Power-Beauty-John-Armstrong/dp/0140294724">The Secret Power of Beauty</a></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">researches beauty, clarifying ideas, adopting a definition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He concludes that the experience of beauty consists in finding a spiritual value replete in a material setting in such a way that in contemplating the object, the two ideas are inseparable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I share this concern for spiritual beauty. I believe that the extent to which a life is good, beautiful perhaps, is reflected in the poise and harmony of the physical and the spiritual, each informing, inspiring and enhancing the other; a life thus balanced is both deeply satisfying and valuable.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://textiles.ucdavis.edu/laky/gyongy1.0/index.html"><strong>Gyongky Laky</strong></a><strong> </strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Gyongy was my teacher for sculptural form during my years at Fiberworks in Berkeley, California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was an amazing observer of environment and as she drove past the orchards beside the road she traveled, she noticed the beauty of the prunings, which she used in remarkable large sculptures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How odd, to find, many years later, that I would do the same with the prunings laying on the ground after my own orchard had been pruned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference with my work was ‘time’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I place these prunings into large pots to dry into organic shapes that I create into skeletal forms over which I drape a skin of plant fiber paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQFylRm-SP-7vH79Q29N6UP0fBOun_v3vKRFAVAT6mMey7nVAgKUFJsH5I2wWgXjJzTFi7SoWWL5Wk_vyDgjdcvEdgZQ7SIQt_1IBn_PVpUQaDZ6DE6Zn9sw1G4phUU2IDj8mpEpVXa9f-/s1600/meg_viney_-9263.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQFylRm-SP-7vH79Q29N6UP0fBOun_v3vKRFAVAT6mMey7nVAgKUFJsH5I2wWgXjJzTFi7SoWWL5Wk_vyDgjdcvEdgZQ7SIQt_1IBn_PVpUQaDZ6DE6Zn9sw1G4phUU2IDj8mpEpVXa9f-/s320/meg_viney_-9263.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Echoes from the garden 4. Meg Viney</strong>. Orchard prunings, paper (Red Hot Poker) </span></span></span></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7nVvRlPf1ffsSNMMKz8LIGhVTIh6znnfztWYJ26rtyK-Q9zmafcWNQ2YMArDzpfRYR_8elFnPqm5xYK5gBK9wb4VCfKreKTR8xSKGkfK4o4y3x7APlNBreQ9WUAomjlpN_ppq6B4RqHt/s1600/meg_viney_-9266.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><strong><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7nVvRlPf1ffsSNMMKz8LIGhVTIh6znnfztWYJ26rtyK-Q9zmafcWNQ2YMArDzpfRYR_8elFnPqm5xYK5gBK9wb4VCfKreKTR8xSKGkfK4o4y3x7APlNBreQ9WUAomjlpN_ppq6B4RqHt/s320/meg_viney_-9266.jpg" width="320" /></strong></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Echoes from the garden 2. Meg Viney</strong>. Orchard prunings, paper (Red Hot Poker) </span></span></span></div></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/"><strong>Magdalena Abakanowicz</strong></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Magdalena creates large figurative works in natural fibres.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are quite haunting, but at the same time evocative and beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My ‘Sentinels of the Landscape’ are influenced by my response to her work.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://yoshikowada.wordpress.com/"><strong>Yoshico Wada</strong></a><strong> </strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yoshico was my teacher for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibori">Shibori</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikat">Ikat</a> at Fiberworks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She imbued in me an understanding and a profound respect for Japanese fibre art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The patience, the intricacy, the emphasis on perfection of technique with the unlikely pairing of unique coincidences resulting from the number of dips into an indigo dyebath, the nuances of threads and of materials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yoshico would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>take all the utmost care in preparation of fibers and fabrics and yet would embrace the nuances that emerged with the unwrapping of the bundles from the dyebath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yoshico with her permanently blue hands, her calm demeanor and her beautiful warmth.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmO2SZE3aD3bng9x2_kEcBs24ZKzNNpnZ-uPSKnM08kiEut-ZFg8GIL9dju5USnSen0wU76OhmhhMOSWNAMaSlhu9pAsh_iTT18v70PbuxmXgyOeEr_82DNx49GGf1Fd07CPmvGlTchUBP/s1600/Cranes+in+flight+S5N1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmO2SZE3aD3bng9x2_kEcBs24ZKzNNpnZ-uPSKnM08kiEut-ZFg8GIL9dju5USnSen0wU76OhmhhMOSWNAMaSlhu9pAsh_iTT18v70PbuxmXgyOeEr_82DNx49GGf1Fd07CPmvGlTchUBP/s1600/Cranes+in+flight+S5N1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Cranes in flight, Meg Viney. </strong>Shibori on cotton, felt, kozo paper, sea grass, mollusk shell, feather. 200 x 200 x 200mm</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDBccShc2ODlD6SM-vfj3-ewm7RwBNjfFOdz3B0Wlgtzii1joe72HyeVZntqqDbAShsDGOmIwezvbufGRJMMRHkPq0fHlAxu6vVsQsqwXsj6QyLbTkzx4uFNqpw07FkQh93MZYfsYkJhq/s1600/VesselForShamanicJourneyingS2N5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDBccShc2ODlD6SM-vfj3-ewm7RwBNjfFOdz3B0Wlgtzii1joe72HyeVZntqqDbAShsDGOmIwezvbufGRJMMRHkPq0fHlAxu6vVsQsqwXsj6QyLbTkzx4uFNqpw07FkQh93MZYfsYkJhq/s1600/VesselForShamanicJourneyingS2N5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Vessel for Shamanic Journeying, Meg Viney. </strong> Felt (sheep’s fleece), paper (cumbungi), feathers. 470 x 470 x 400mm</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ16483ToVkNkGL9dgsTwBG5q6SrxHmECiRwrByJvbC2bYnp0odRHsKr2uGpObcim9_TyHUjeoP0XYvkA5pDCwPyrurRGbLrkK62UUzNhCbBbb8JLfRl0JbG3ioSxKmhmzYhy85J_EEstP/s1600/meg_viney_-9299.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ16483ToVkNkGL9dgsTwBG5q6SrxHmECiRwrByJvbC2bYnp0odRHsKr2uGpObcim9_TyHUjeoP0XYvkA5pDCwPyrurRGbLrkK62UUzNhCbBbb8JLfRl0JbG3ioSxKmhmzYhy85J_EEstP/s320/meg_viney_-9299.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #993300; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>VESSEL Meg Viney</strong>. paper (cumbungi), base, paper (New Zealand flax) and string (sweet corn husks) L.480 mm x H.220 mm x W. 220 mm.</span> </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-77948407242775204032010-10-19T21:56:00.000-07:002010-10-20T01:18:55.669-07:00A shifting dance<div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I want to tell you a bit about <a href="http://deborahmilligan.blogspot.com/p/gallery-deepening-exhibition-2010.html">an exhibition</a> I had a couple of years ago that came to fruition at a time when someone I loved was dying. I want to tell you about this because it made me understand how creating artwork is a two way diaologue, or more like a dance really - one where the lead shifts all the time. We give our art life and form, but it gives us understanding and depth. </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This beautiful man</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> had </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">lived </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">an amazing life, starting </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">his </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">work</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ing life</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> as a coal miner </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">when he was 14 – he survived two mine collapses. Then he worked</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> in a munitions factory, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">before </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">joining the navy and being sunk during the war </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">three, four, maybe even five</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> times – he never learnt to swim! He</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> was a survivor – strong as an ox! – and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> identified firml</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">y with his role as breadwinner and protector – a </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">strong, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">commanding</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> father figure. An amazing man</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">tall, powerful</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and very certain of his place in the world</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><br />
But what does one do with that identity as you get older, your body gets frail, your children no longer need a strong leader or a breadwinner? Your life partner dies</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> before you</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Why are you here? Why on earth are you still here? What can you do when your role in life no longer makes sense to you?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"></span></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One of the pieces in <a href="http://deborahmilligan.blogspot.com/p/gallery-deepening-exhibition-2010.html">the exhibition</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> I was working on at the time grew to encompass those thoughts and through that process, express those moments in time when we catch a glimpse of ourselves beyond the roles that we inhabit in the ‘real’ world and so gradually deepen into </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">softly-growing awareness of who we actually are. </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">We humans are incredibly complex beings. Our inner landscape is an ever changing tapestry, subtle shifts illuminated by fleeting glimpses of recognition and memory. Murky residues floating and shifting just under the surface. The almost-caught understanding of one moment might leave you but the shadow of its influence remains, affecting you in indefinable ways. Sometimes still, sometimes dynamic, sometimes inexpressible in any other form but that of simple acceptance.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Over </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">his</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> last few years, the journey I am speaking of here became more and more visible in </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">that much loved man </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">as he gradually became less rigidly defined by his physical body and his old roles, and more and more accepting and understanding of himself as he was now, not as defined by his previous roles. He gently deepened and softened as his view of himself subtly shifted and re-adjusted.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This work evolved as he was at the last stages of his journey and all those thoughts were seeping through my subconscious and influencing my work. It was too much to grasp in one painting, and too changeable, so I tried to express those fleeting glimpses in a tapestry of small works. </span></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MyriadPro-Regular; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For me this experience was a living example of how our art <span style="font-family: inherit;">tells us things that we dont understand until we see them laid out before us, until we actually experience 'thinking them into being' on canvas. When we create it is not a one way communication. It is a dance and the lead shifts all the time. </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLooEiPzxUCW3gFYwHlCd5QfP7ETIrui97c9a7MMd-qGpF7tKa1AaB9_QkkAwY1RFYuz_jXnWZ4uYhYXnU1YF-3uzBylid74PMKR1ATPZ-QMPH4efoZtteESfhR_bzxsCGymFj2OiIfTqn/s1600/comp+the+deepening+exh+shot+northwall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLooEiPzxUCW3gFYwHlCd5QfP7ETIrui97c9a7MMd-qGpF7tKa1AaB9_QkkAwY1RFYuz_jXnWZ4uYhYXnU1YF-3uzBylid74PMKR1ATPZ-QMPH4efoZtteESfhR_bzxsCGymFj2OiIfTqn/s320/comp+the+deepening+exh+shot+northwall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText3" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-45592094827484645252010-10-14T03:56:00.000-07:002010-10-19T20:49:49.328-07:00Do I paint for you .... or for me?I was just reading an interesting article and subsequent discussion on <a href="http://skinnyartist.com/the-delusional-freedom-of-an-artist/comment-page-1/#comment-168">Skinny Artist</a> called <em>The Delusional Freedom of an Artist</em>, about whether to paint for an audience - a market - or to paint purely for yourself. It raises the question of whether, if your art is too personal, it becomes meaningless to anyone other than yourself. A great quote in it is <em>How do we know when we have crossed that fine line between following where our inspiration leads, and going to that place where no one else cares about?</em><br />
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I have pondered this question of whether to paint for myself or for an audience for decades and now know what works for me. That is not to say that it would work for everyone – we all have different needs and different driving forces. All I know is that I can finally fully trust my own artistic judgement and – whilst I welcome mentoring and advice from artists whom I respect – I will only paint what I want to paint. For me there is no compromise for the sake of sale-ability. This works for me. When I disassociate my art from any potential market I simply make better art. Yes, art is about reaching out and communicating honestly and creatively with people, but I do that best when I am not concerned about the reception my work may have. When I have been overly concerned about the audience then my work ends up being shallow, forced and derivative. When I trust myself and keep my eye on the goal of becoming a better artist then I give myself the freedom to take risks. And risk-taking is critical for creative success.<br />
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So the answer is: I paint for both you and for me. But I can only do work that is worthy of you if I try not to second guess what you may think of it.Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-8548939447173928372010-10-10T04:55:00.000-07:002010-10-10T04:55:04.648-07:00The Blue PaintingsCalendars are on special at redbubble until Thursday. I got so excited that I made a new one 'specially: 'The Blue Paintings' - 12 images of my blue (and green) abstract paintings. You can flick through it at the redbubble website link below.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.4890046.2.caf,294x416,2011,RGVib3JhaCBNaWxsaWdhbiAtIFRoZSBCbHVlIFBhaW50aW5ncw==.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.4890046.2.caf,294x416,2011,RGVib3JhaCBNaWxsaWdhbiAtIFRoZSBCbHVlIFBhaW50aW5ncw==.jpg" width="227" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/neonarmadillo/calendars/6064798-1-deborah-milligan-the-blue-paintings">http://www.redbubble.com/people/neonarmadillo/calendars/6064798-1-deborah-milligan-the-blue-paintings</a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-49335504283618861552010-10-09T06:25:00.000-07:002010-10-09T06:25:19.507-07:00An abstract epiphany<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It happened one day over 10 years ago. Up until that day I was a representational painter: a landscape artist, seeking to loosen up. That was me, that was how I saw myself, that was how I described myself. I wasn’t particularly interested in abstract art. I enjoyed some abstract<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>paintings, but didn’t get it and really wasn’t interested enough to go deeper. On this particular day I was in art class and we were talking about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism">abstract expressionism</a> and how it sat within the modern world of its time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the last century a complete revolution has occurred in the way we see the world. Microscopes have opened up cellular and microscopic views, the power of flight has opened up aerial views, while telescopes and space exploration have opened up interstellar views. Painters of the day were affected by this, whether consciously or unconsciously. <a href="http://www.arthistoryspot.com/2010/02/jackson-pollock/">Jackson Pollock</a> in particular expressed the new ways in which the world was being presented to us. Looking at his paintings with freshened eyes I could see that they might indeed be aerial views, or microscopic views where the viewer is deep inside the painting, or cosmic panoramas. I saw in them that day an incredible amount of depth and complexity that surprised and excited me. </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><img height="457" id="il_fi" src="http://nga.gov.au/Pollock/action.jpg" width="350" /></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>Jackson Pollock at work</em></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We then continued talking about ‘the mark’ and its characteristics before breaking up into small groups for a mark-making exercise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Armed with acrylics in red, yellow, black, blue, violet and white along with brushes, palette knives, rollers, sponges and an 8 metre roll of paper we ran up and down it making repetitive marks, using a different tool and a different colour each time. I didn’t really get it, it seemed a bit pointless to me at the time: just a bit of fun. </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When there was more paint than paper we discussed them. Each of the long sheets had a lovely rhythmic repetitive feel, very vigorous and colourful. They were also quite distinctive – each group had given their own flavour to their piece. We left them to dry and had lunch. </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At the end of the day our teacher brought out some simple frames cut out of cardboard – a circle, a diamond and a square – and through these we looked at the most exquisite mini abstract paintings, absolutely complete within themselves, that were created by framing sections of the large gestural sheets. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was one of the most thrilling art moments where I became quite still and the thought rang clearly in my mind “This is for me”. It was a perfect and sparkling moment of focus and desire. </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_7615X_iN-lcefB4tNxTJCjr9cGhx2QP3SBjXq77ycsaS5mSEgl1r_BgvV-HQ7sL4YetQnoqyn8Z77FJDQBm_q0NkiJ6ZbDYaknW5Xdy3rPmov7s2hHOSmWoQ0ldYaQLQY9G3BYbdk2w/s1600/for+blog+abstract+epiph+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_7615X_iN-lcefB4tNxTJCjr9cGhx2QP3SBjXq77ycsaS5mSEgl1r_BgvV-HQ7sL4YetQnoqyn8Z77FJDQBm_q0NkiJ6ZbDYaknW5Xdy3rPmov7s2hHOSmWoQ0ldYaQLQY9G3BYbdk2w/s320/for+blog+abstract+epiph+1.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I can’t stop framing my views now – looking at mini framed sections of people as I talk to them, bits of shadow on stone, an edge of lace on china, sections of peeling paint on weather-beaten wood. Until that day I looked at the overall view. Now I can see all the pieces that make up the whole – each beautiful and complete within itself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now I call myself a contemporary abstractionist.</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_hWrBQCAldT9aTpp2DUMDxp1BtkExBDN2od8Kk6z1s3NmDgBn_4rDMKF-YMQyZiPaEVwrIzP43eWWLPqe4NNS0vipbtp14OmRHQiE3DXlbbUZlqa_dNl60lYuE_KZkfB4T-oxB99f2eJ/s1600/for+blog+abstract+epiph2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_hWrBQCAldT9aTpp2DUMDxp1BtkExBDN2od8Kk6z1s3NmDgBn_4rDMKF-YMQyZiPaEVwrIzP43eWWLPqe4NNS0vipbtp14OmRHQiE3DXlbbUZlqa_dNl60lYuE_KZkfB4T-oxB99f2eJ/s400/for+blog+abstract+epiph2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>windowed images from that first gestural painting</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7955084579945471630.post-82189735821534506612010-10-08T05:54:00.000-07:002010-10-08T05:54:47.693-07:00Welcome<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 1.0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Welcome to my blog! I live in a small town in regional Australia. It’s a great community with lots of artists, a beautiful view of the mountains and some seriously good swimming holes.</span></div><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I paint contemporary abstracts and have had solo exhibitions in Melbourne and in the Gippsland Regional Gallery as well as many group shows. I work full time but try to get into my studio every week – this is always easier if there is a deadline looming! I have also started playing around with photography and textiles. </span></div><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I recently established a business with my husband making furniture, sculptures and lots of gorgeous things. We are still working on the website but check it out <a href="http://www.littlemilligan.com.au/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">here</span></a>: <a href="http://www.littlemilligan.com.au/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.littlemilligan.com.au</span></a></span></div></span><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My day job is with a not-for-profit arts organisation helping other artists to realise their visions through project management advice, community arts projects, and funding assistance. Through this I have been lucky enough to meet some incredibly talented artists and work across many artforms: visual, performance, sculpture, textile, theatre, installations, music, dance and community cultural development. The people I have met in this field are a constant source of inspiration and joy.</span></div><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Through this blog I want to share some of this with you. I will be looking at other artists that I admire, and sharing with you some exciting community arts projects. I will show you my paintings - both finished ones and works in progress and try to provide insight into the way they develop - I won’t be looking at technique so much as inspiration and process. A</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">nd … I will often digress!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enjoy the ride!</span></span><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></div><div style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Oh! One more thing. Most of the images shown here can be purchased as cards, prints or calendars at redbubble. Originals can be purchased through my website. </div></div>Deborah Milliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00078924635530634071noreply@blogger.com0