you learn a new thing every day

my eyes are opening up to the world!

hello world!

for instance, who knew i was such a baldessari fan?

John Baldessari
Tips for artists who want to sell, 1966-68
acrylic on canvas
172.7 x 143.5 cm

seen here

such a smart alec prankster

abakanowicz

my mum is visiting her home town of kraków in poland

and yesterday visited the national museum - which alerted me to one of the current exhibitions, the work of magdalena abakanowicz

official list of things i don't need for my birthday

this seems as good a time as any to try out my listing techniques
(better than most as we're now within my birthday month, i can smell it in the air and feel the skip in my step!)

1. kiki smith pillow cases - light & bird from third drawer down










2. woollen monkey, little sparrow



3. crayon pebbles, third drawer







4. "jailhouse mugs", ersatz cracked enamel mugs but really ceramic, safari living





5. n'est ci c'est un pipe, obviously but a bag with a pipe screen-printed onto it, safari living

note to self

in my blogging explorations recently i saw that someone had a "to do list" for july or perhaps it was june, with crossed off items.
the next time i looked, the list was gone ... or perhaps i couldn't retrace my steps, anyway i couldn't find it.

i've found another site, with a different kind of list going on, one i quite like,
design for mankind - my life list

i like the overall style of the blog too ...
i've been meaning to highlight text for ages,
but i hadn't really thought about

underlining in a different color

something to explore

i like that the world gives ideas, and inspiration, even if it's about making lists (to give you ideas and inspiration) prettier

addendum, a few more "lists"
cy twombly (such a favourite of mine!)
letter of resignation (detail), 1959-67
industrial paint, colored pencil, and graphite on paper
38 parts: 25.5 x 25.5 cm (each)





















peter davies,
hot 100
& fun with animals: joseph beuys text painting


















as well as lists, a little note to self (or another) never goes astray

oh a new one, from ruangsak anuwatwimon, featured in

where we create

whale of a time

how wonderful whales are
they have come a long way from being the great monsters of the sea, leviathans, bohemoths, and all those semi-biblical words for giant creatures (here be monsters)
early illustrations certains seem to conjure these names, though
i fell in love with whales again after seeing a book a friend had borrowed from the library
called simply whale it collected wonderful images and stories of these mammals. i bought this book and another in its series, tiger..
a mural by niels oeltjen (design files interview)
which makes me think of pirates

a rather wonderful scratchie whale card, "what lies beneath"

a mobile index of whales
including
right whale*
humpback whales
sperm whale
minke whale
killer whale
... & more whale species

*horrible to think this poor whale got its name because it was the "right" one to kill
off the coast of australia, we now watch rather than slaughter the southern right whale
awful that the best watching spots are close to the coastal slaughter ports - warrnambool, eden

a rather wonderful photo of a whale launching itself out of the water near logan's beach

bad ole days of whaling
which reminds me of matthew barney's drawing restraint 9 project, which he did in cohoots with his just as quirky other half, bjork
link to drawing restraint site
i watched a making-of doco about the project (a blog about the doco by
alison chernick here), but couldn't begin to describe what i made of the whole thing.
other than that, barney and bjork join a japanese whaling ship on one of its voyages. whale blubber (maybe? no petroleum jelly, apparently) is pumped into a backyard swimming pool-sized container, and a film is made where bjork is a sea-siren ... i think
...
the finished work was exhibited in japan, and the japanese public said it was remarkable how barney
"understood whaling and japanese attitudes to whaling". perhaps this was what
happened. i got quite confused.

apart from appearing on scientific japanese menus, and whalebone corsets, another esoteric whale bi-product is ambergris
which sounds mysterious and lovely but is actually tremendously smelly,
a government website says ambergris is a solid, waxy material produced in [1-5%] of ...sperm whales... Large pieces of ambergris seem to build up in the whale intestine over its life and is usually released when the whale dies. Initially it floats on the ocean's surface and is black and sticky. exposure to sun, air and salt water oxidizes it, and eventually it becomes grey and waxy, loseing its unpleasant odour... ambergris floats and is sometimes found on beaches and shorelines
during the days of whaling ambergris was one of the many products to be taken from sperm whales

i first heard of ambergris in a song by the died pretty of the same name - a girl wore ambergris perfume
it sounded exotic and heady
tinctures are still available,
and this site describes how a tincture can be made if you happens upon a flotsam of ambergris ...
similar to pumice, with an aroma like the sea and an overtone of animal scent
here is a classy headline from the underwater times, january 2006, Rare Bit of Whale Vomit May Net Aussie Family over $1 Million,
and a rather marvellous photo of loralee and her ambergris (love that it rhymes)






Addendum (10/10/2012)
saw this image today, and liked it, so i'm including it here

moments of joy

when i was 4 i was given a toy poodle - it was tiffany blue, had furry ears, head, feet and tail (like a real paris-clipped poodle) and the "unclipped" bits were blue gingham

i called it "joy"

(i had another dog called "happy")

here are some virtual moments of joy i saw today,

you can touch this, from my funny eye

birthday cake joy, from pink shirts and car wrecks

(possible recipe to try)

lollypop fishing nets from hello sandwich

all this joy

i saw an article the other day about a teaching technique for young kids, called the reggio emilia education project

which is about the joy of children and how to keep this joy as they learn, to keep play and curiosity in education

sounds interesting...

i don't think you can have enough wonder joy and curiosity

step on a crack

on saturday i watched a documentary (art 21, made by pbs) which included the work of doris salcedo, a colombian artist
tremendous

she has a sublime way of talking

post, on muse-ings