re-visiting the littoral
Now Playing: the rolling stones - sweethearts together
Topic: road trip 2010

bar open
Now Playing: lush - tralala
Topic: road trip 2010

black
Now Playing: space rocket rehearsal
Topic: divine diptychs



Over: Me
Under: Marico Fayre

I was pleased to be paired with Marico this round, as I've been a fan of the self-portraits she takes in nature since first being introduced to her work whilst working on the second Female Self-Portrait Artists' Support Group (FSPASG) book, In Her Own Image.

Both of us have been experiencing a bit of a lull in inspiration, and the theme of 'black' was actually harder than I had first thought.

Initially I edited a self-portrait from my archives, an outtake from my 365 Days project, which Marico paired with her image above; and though the images worked together quite well, on seeing Marico's self-portrait, I mentioned I'd also been toying with using an image of bushfire-charred trees from the aftermath of Victoria's Black Saturday.

I went back to those images, selected this one as working best with her self-portrait and best with the theme, and after a quick swap of layout suggested by Marico, here we are.

The Divine Diptych Project.

the convent ii
Now Playing: lamplight - the fish will walk...
Topic: road trip 2010

the convent i
Now Playing: jacques brel - grand jacques
Topic: road trip 2010

i've been tired
Now Playing: elvis costello & the attractions - i want you
Topic: self-portraiture



So this month has been crazy.

I decided not to extend my contract with the company I'd been with originally as a temp, then as a direct contractor, since mid-October last year.

I have now ended up working a crazy numbers of hours, including evening shifts, for the Australian Electoral Commission through an agency, in preparation for the Australian federal election taking place this Saturday. I will be working from 5:30pm Saturday until stupid o'clock this coming Sunday morning helping with vote counting, then from next Thursday with more of the same in a different format.

However, I took a time out from work this week from Tuesday to ensure I was able to submit applications for two grants. The first one, due a couple of days ago, is for a three month Australia Council studio residency in Green St, SoHo, NYC, which would be awesome.

The second was for the 2010 Toyota Community Spirit Artist Travel Award, which I was shortlisted for last year. My application includes a proposal for a self-directed residency in NYC as well as an informal mentorship with Aaron Hobson in the Adirondack region of upstate New York, assuming I don't get the Australia Council residency; but primarily covers the residency at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland, that I have been accepted to undertake next April!

Whether I manage to obtain funding or not, I intend to undertake the Hospitalfield residency, so it gives me something definite to aim for in regard to my intentions to relocate to the UK. The plan now is to head Blighty-ward mid-March next year!

I also have three portraits included in the latest portfolio issue of Color Magazine!

Around all that, I've managed to hit the gym as much as possible and finally feel I'm seeing some results for all my hard work!

As a treat for all my deadline-meeting, residency-procuring, gym-going and long-hour-working, I'm having an easy Friday night of cider and editing. Hope your weekend rocks!

superstition
Now Playing: nine inch nails - gave up
Topic: divine diptychs



Top: Me
Bottom: The Melody Censor

Quite appropriately for week 13 of the Divine Diptych Project I was paired with The Melody Censor for the theme of superstition.

Though we didn't discuss the theme or our images at all beforehand, it turns out we both view most superstitions with a fair bit of skepticism and amusement, so treated this as a fun project.

I had wanted to come up with something much stronger as my image, as I'd previously entertained the thought of doing a series depicting various superstitions, but again, life sort of got in the way.

I love TMC's distorted, wide-eyed image and I love that it appears she is responding in fright to the freaky look on my kitty's face.

You should really follow the link above to check out The Melody Censor's work. She is on her fourth(!) year of the 365 Days Project and regularly wows me with her ability to create alternately beautifully simple and elaborately processed self-portraits.

lost and found
Now Playing: rebekah del rio - llorando
Topic: self-portraiture



I finally had a chance to take some self-portraits today, and this is one of them.

I decided not to accept the contract extension offered to me, so I've been back temping since last Wednesday. Thankfully with the Australian federal election coming up, I've had plenty of work to keep me more than busy, and between that and my tax return I should be back on even footing financially in a couple of weeks, after the costs of my road trip in March and my solo exhibition in June / July.

Last night I sent off an application for an independently funded residency in Scotland next year. It would be a fantastic opportunity and a wonderful location, so my fingers are crossed.

If you're in Victoria and would like to drop into the opening of the Corangamarah Art Prize, from 7:30pm on Saturday 7th August, tickets are $20 and available on the door, or beforehand through Colac Area Health. The exhibition will run until Sunday 15th August at Otway Estate Winery and Brewery in Barongarook, near Colac. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it due to distance, but two of my prints will be in the running for the prize.

parallel
Now Playing: the glove - tightrope
Topic: divine diptychs



Over: Lena
Under: Me

It's been a few weeks since I've been involved in the Divine Diptych Project. As a collective we decided to make it more of a fortnightly than weekly thing, but even then with all the other things going on, myself and Heather both missed the boat in the last round. And this round, myself and Lena were running a little behind schedule again.

But, we did manage to pull it together and complete our diptych with the theme 'Parallel', set by Sarah.

Lena chose to explore the parallel lives aspect of the theme, and I think she captured it beautifully. I have been pretty flat out with trying to get fit, shooting the Abbey Medieval Festival all last weekend, and various other things, so I trawled through my backlog of unedited images and found one I took with a spare Nikon Lensbaby Mel Brackstone let me play with.

Having already seen Lena's image, I wanted to find something that worked with it, but kept it as the focal point, because I loved her double exposure and felt something too detailed would make the pairing too overwhelming.

You can keep up with all the Divine Diptychs on the blog.

simulacrum
Now Playing: fever ray - when i grow up
Topic: exhibitions



I can't believe how quickly a month has passed!

That's how long it's been since I've had a chance to update my blog, as my second solo show, simulacrum opened at Obscura Gallery in Melbourne on Sunday 13th June, so I was in Melbourne from the evening of the 11th until the afternoon of the 14th to hang the show, attend the opening, and catch up with friends and family.

I returned to Brisbane, and a mere five days later I was moving house into a lovely shared Queenslander with some wonderful folk, Nicole and Brady.

Despite how much I culled in the move from Melbourne to Brisbane, it still took my dad and I two weekends to move everything, though we did a sterling job of it, with some help from my mum, and it didn't involve removalists at all, thankfully.

And as with every move, there's always something that doesn't go quite to plan, and unfortunately, given the timing, that thing was that the internet was not connected at my new place until today :-S

Thus why it's taken me so long to post these photos of my work hanging in the gallery on the opening night, taken by the lovely Gallery Manager, Lisa Glück. You can still view the show until this Thursday, so if you haven't had a chance, please do drop in!

In other news, my current day job contract ends on 27th July, so I've had to add job-hunting to my already busy schedule. Which also includes taking photos at this weekend's Abbey Medieval Festival in Caboolture, which should be fun!

And on a high note, I found out last week that adrift and identity have both been selected as finalists in the Corangamarah Art Prize 2010!