Friday, August 31, 2012

Archival Quality Limited Edition Prints for Open Studio Weekend


With the weekend's event kicking off tomorrow night I am glad to say I came home at 10pm tonight... and am reasonably sure all will be in place by 5pm tomorrow. Coming down with a virus last week was probably a very good thing... forced me to stay home and during that time I made plans for this weekend and used strategy in place of endless exertion of energy. 

Today I picked up Limited Editions prints I'd ordered from original works. During the recent Journal course I conducted over a 5 week period I dug out texts I am fond of, including some by Ben Okri. These were incorporated into works on paper...and I had a request for prints last week so picked them up tonight.

The files for these images were so large I had to work at reducing the resolution a couple of times over.
Now its a little hard to read...the original print is amazing in its clarity.

The text is the final page of Ben Okri's stirring epic poem written for the New Millennium titled 'Mental Fight'.




A little about Ben Okri from British Council | Literature:

In his recent book, A Time for New Dreams (2011), Ben Okri describes poetry as ‘the great river of soul-murmurings that runs within humanity’, and ‘true literature’ as ‘the encounter of possibilities’ that ‘tears up the script of what we think humanity to be’. 

Such poetic metaphors and humane concerns indeed characterise the peculiar beauty of Okri’s writing. This can be read as blending the African oral storytelling tradition with Magic Realism. 

A long-time resident in London, Okri takes as his grand subject the post-colonial history of his ancestral Nigeria, conjuring up panoramas of souls, visions, dreams, and suffering humanity’s struggle against exploitation and corruption. The latter especially resonates throughout the fabulous trilogy of novels that began with The Famished Road (1991), his several collections of short stories, essays, and poetry volumes including the just-published Wild (2012). Other important subjects for Okri are the demands of art and politics, symbolised in rich flights of fancy, allied to Jonathan Swift-like satirical allegories.

To read the whole article click here.


The second artwork quotes a much-loved excerpt from Arcadia, a novel of Okri's from around 2004-5. I cant tell you how many times I have painted text from this chapter of the book.



If you are interested its quite straight-forward for me to take orders to print on demand and send inside Australia... I will have to work through the OS scenario before I make that offer.

Send a message if you wish to know more.

And if you live near me then do come over to the studio in the next few days and say hello!
cheerio,
x Sophie

Thursday, August 23, 2012

A WEEK TILL THE OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND


This time last year I was working flat chat to get organised for the Research and Residency trip to the UK ... there were long lists of tasks to be getting through everyday... and definitely not much time for painting due to talks, events, serious fund-raising efforts and planning for the UK.

This year I am taking off again in September for a residency much closer to home...  there are definitely costs involved and fundraising efforts in place but most importantly there is a lot of painting happening whenever possible to be ready for the upcoming OPEN STUDIO EVENT the weekend after next...see below for dates... AUG 31, SEPT 1 & 2.


Rainforest Patterning : Seed-capsules ... cross-sections 90 cm sq, acrylic and ink on linen on canvas.

A recent work is this Rainforest seed-capsule cross-section painting which was a theme from 2010 which I wanted to explore further. A June trip to Cairns to check out details for the September Residency and familiarise myself with the Wet Tropics region meant I was able to collect pods to bring back and draw plus meet a number of interesting people at the Botanic Gardens and Tanks Art Centre where I'll be based as well as the Australian Tropical Herbarium.

Cairns journal



read the post about this work here.


On another tangent... I became connected to an important story in Regional Queensland through a friend working with

Queensland Rural, Regional and Remote Womens Network

I signed on as a sponsor for this organisation for their Leadership Awards to be announced on September 6th. A logo was created by my friend Bev Ryan with an image provided that I use as my Facebook Page Logo ...so I was delighted to view it on the website article about the awards.


 a new Logo for my Studio

QRRRWN Strong Women Leadership Awards

Awards will be made in three categories:
  • Business: for women showing leadership in running or managing a commercial rural, regional or remote business. This includes agricultural businesses.
     
  • Community: for women showing leadership in running or managing a community service or group in rural, regional or remote Queensland. Includes not-for-profit.
     
  • Professional: for women showing leadership providing services in the employ of an organisation or government body in rural, regional or remote Queensland.


Working on the Homage to the Seed project over the past (almost) three years has illuminated so many factors affecting our Global Seed Heritage ... whether one looks at Habitat Biodiversity  or Agrobiodiversity. Women increasingly are becoming leaders in this demanding era.

Rural and remote communities face huge challenges everywhere... in Queensland drought, fires, floods and cyclones have all hit savagely in the past 5 years. Besides these natural disasters Mining is increasingly seeing Farmers have to stand up for their livelihoods. And that's for starters. Long aware of the role of women in rural communities from my own family background I am thrilled to be a sponsor and contributing artworks to the winners of these awards.

The awards will be announced at this Conference...




Meanwhile I will be in Paddington at this OPEN STUDIO EVENT planned for the beginning of spring.






Read more details on this at the previous post.




Now for a sneak preview of whats coming up in Cairns.... I'll post on this again closer to the time and it will be on my website too. Opening night is October 12th!






This is the poster for the exhibition.






I'm at home today fighting of some dreaded winter thing that has not set me back badly... fingers crossed I'll be right as rain in no time... certainly plenty going on around here.

Best to you all,
Sophie

ps do come along if you live in this part of the world! Or share with friends if they are local! 

Saturday, August 18, 2012

you are invited to visit at the end of august and start of spring...





Ive been filling the studio with works small and large... space is disappearing and I've been much too flat out to take photos and share images with you here.

I'd love you to join me at the Open Studio soon.... Alas! most of you are simply too far away!

Back soon I hope with some snaps!
x S



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Blogging for me is an extension of keeping a journal which I have done in various forms over the decades. The difference being this is not a closed book! I like that it offers an opportunity to explore that which concerns me as an artist and as an individual about living and participating in this vastly complex, unquestionably exciting yet unnerving time in human history. Through the blog I hope to increase the possibilties for cross-pollination which I believe can strengthen the sense of being part of something both personal and universal that is vital, expansive and refreshing.