my inner grotesque

owl by kevin tran, interview (finders keepers)
from the interview,
Explain your work and what areas you love to explore?
My work is pretty straight forward really. There’s a giraffe, a couple of owls, a whale and a guy wrestling a bear. For me, it’s not so much what the subject matter ends up as but rather how I stumbled on that particular composition and the textures, shapes and colours that give it character and personality. I like to experiment with different mediums, that’s why I didn’t limit myself to the pencil drawings I started back at uni. I muck around with gauche, watercolour, oils, crayons, ink, charcoal and collage- basically anything that makes a mark.
What is your creative process and how do you find inspiration?
My creative process isn’t very methodical or strict. When I draw, it is quite an introverted experience – I’ll start with a line and just let it go. I try not to think about what it will end up as, but rather focus on completing detail areas of patterns or texture and branch off them. My worst images are the ones I plan or over-think because they feel forced. I enjoy not knowing what it will end up as because there is no pressure. When I’m not sure where to take it next, I’ll turn the page upside-down and work from that.

waiting for god-o*

today i was strolling past a biker, and my eye was drawn to the satchel slung across her back ...deus ex machina.
that is such a good name for biker gear
as good as the ulysses club, old bikees

Deus SR400 Manx


*if god was australian he'd probably be known as godd0. or maybe godsey

house rules

recently, i was in a cafe that roasts as well as makes coffee

it was a nice place, delicious coffee and someone had written some house rules on the chalkboard wall,

1. there will always be orange cake

this was a nice thought!

... a bit further down

we will not serve skinny cappucino and cake with cream

at first i thought this was railing against the skinny milk phenomenon

but then i thought, no, this is raging against being contradictory.
well f*ck me!

what's all this fuss about consistency? who says we need to make sense?

i'm with walt, i also say:

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

which way the wind is blowing

there's not many things i like about the australian newspaper, but i do like their huge colour weather page with satellite images and phases of the moon






the online version doesn't do it justice
being from melbourne it's important to think about the weather, or at least talk about it a good deal.
a few things made me think about the weather today.
1. it's my first day back at work so i am in a highrise office instead of a ground floor house & garden, or indeed 50m in-ground pool
2. a friend sent me this piece of internet wonder, david lynch's daily weather report
and
3. i am reading the hawkline monster by richard brautigan i had never come across his work before so diligently went to the wikipedia entry. it told me about his difficult life, that murakami is a fan, and ended on this rather beautiful and bittersweet thought,
Brautigan once wrote, "All of us have a place in history. Mine is clouds."

mine is clouds seems such an eloquent phrase, i googled it and found a rather wonderful blog
beautiful images, a good place to travel

accidental travel is a good way to start the year

herb and dorothy

how many people can claim this?
In the 1960s, Herb and Dorothy Vogel (postal worker and librarian respectively) began amassing one of the 20th century's most formidable minimalist and conceptual art collections.

an article appeared in today's newspaper about this "obsessive couple who built an art collection in one-bedroom flat"
they're showing the documentary, herb and dorothy, at acmi from 7-10 january 7pm











i like their collection criteria,
*it had to be affordable, and
*it had to fit in the lift at their apartment building.

one year (2008 i think) i decided to start buying art - i bought a ship painting from a local painter, and a very small minnie pwerle

this year i might try and keep it simple and just try and see as much film and art as possible
lots of good and inspiring stuff out there.