POstal goodness

The other day I recieved something wonderful in the mail.

I'd been talking to a friend of mine's mother, who knits her grandson all sorts of clothes, and I jokingly said to her "Oh, you should knit me some socks while you're at it!" She laughed, I laughed, and the story was forgotten.

Until the other day, when I recieved this in the mail:



How beautiful are they? They're actually purple and orange, the camera couldn't capture the colour properly. HOw wonderful is she, to have gone away and knitted me socks?

I was so touched. So I'm going to make her some jam in return.

In random news, my article on how to organise an exhibition is now up at Artstuff (artstuff.net.au) If you haven't seen it already you can view it here.

And the lovely lady behind DELicious Designz featured my marionette a couple of months ago (I only just found it) so thank you! You can see the post here and check out some of her wonderful jewellery at the same time...

Echo's Lost is bowling along nicely, I have about half the works on my desk as we speak. I know I say this every time, but it's going to be such a beautiful exhibition! You can see all the details on the Fringe website here. Drop by and check it out, it goes for the whole 3 weeks of Fringe...

Small musings

I'm in a strange situation. I'm stupidly overworked at uni, so I'm not spending all day crafting like I have in the past. And when I'm not doing uni work, I'm working on craft for the play, which I can't show you because then it'll spoil the surprise. So bloggically it looks like I'm not doing much, when behind the scenes I'm working like a dog
(should be sleeping like a log...)

Ahh well.

Our house is covered in glitter. There was a small explosion from one of the bigger glitter containers and now our house is disco. No matter how much you clean and vaccum, the glitter remains. Very pretty, but very scratchy when it gets into socks.

This is a lot of glitter for someone who doesn't have kids. And this isn't even all of it

Echo's Lost is kicking along. Two of the works are already in the mail! I'm so looking forward to this show. It's been a really easy ride this time around actually, after the 4 months of hard work for Totem, this one is breezing by. Every artist this time are well acquainted with exhibitions and all but one I've worked with before, so it's beautiful. Remind me to organise small exhibitions all the time! Fliers arrive this week and, for the first time, I'm going to pay someone to distrubute them. I've done a LOT of walking into cafes and asking to put down fliers over the years and this year I've decided that I'm too old and too busy to do it. So I'll pay someone else too. It's a big chunk of time and effort I can save, so I'm all for it.

Ok, homework time...

The next exhibition - Echo's Lost (artist callout)

I'm curating another exhibition for Fringe this year. Info below:



Omnific Assembly is calling for submissions to their latest exhibition, titled Echo’s Lost, which will be held during the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2009.

Echo’s Lost is an exhibition focusing on the idea of Memory and an exploration of what is left behind when memories fade. Rather than look at specific memories, Echo’s Lost concentrates on the idea of memory itself and the space left behind when the memories are gone.

The venue for the show is an early 20th century glass fronted cabinet in the window of Circa Vintage Clothing on Gertrude St., Fitzroy

We are looking for small 3d works that have some kind of vintage feel and fit the classy ambiance of the Circa store.

The exhibition:
The cabinet is a semi-circle with 3 glass shelves measuring approx. 920mm in length. The top shelf is 310mm high, the middle shelf is 340mm high and the bottom shelf is 350mm high. The shelves are 310mm wide at the widest point, tapering to 140mm at each edge. The entire front of the cabinet is glass, and the back is totally mirrored, giving pretty much a 360 view of the works. You can see a photo of the cabinet at http://www.omnificassembly.com/echoslost.html

In the photo the cabinet is fairly full, we envision that for the exhibition there will be less items in it. We don’t want it too crowded.

Depending on the works, we are looking for around 12 to 15 artists to create 3d works of no greater than 200mm wide and able to fit into the dimensions above.

The exhibition cost will be $30, and the dates will coincide with Fringe, which is 3 weeks across the end of September and the start of October.

The company:
Omnific Assembly is gaining a reputation for interesting and unique group art exhibitions. Curated by Sayraphim Lothian, they have produced five highly successful exhibitions since 2005, including 21 Dead Bugs as a Gift, a unique cross platform project and Totem – Dolls with Souls at Federation Square for Fringe 2008. More information can be found at www.omnificassembly.com. Omnific Assembly is focused on developing cross platform projects that involve a diverse community of artists, from digital to traditional craft.

Submissions:
Please email submissions consisting of a description of the artwork (including size!), photos of the work if it has already been created and a quick bio/cv to curator Sayraphim Lothian on them (at) omnificassembly (dot) com

Submissions close July 4th. Artists will be notified by July 15th

Echo's Lost image fragment by SaraMae Belle Page

interview on 3CR!

I just wanted to let you all know I'm being interviewed on 3CR today at 5:30!

They have a program called DIY Arts Show woth Nicole Hurbutise and Jane Curtis, and they're running a series called:Arts Geek, DIY artists and the web. John Retallick from The Comic Spot was on last week, and this week I'm going to be talking about using online communities to organise exhibitions and events, as well as general thoughts on web communities.

So tune in on 855AM, or go the the website and listen to it streamed live.

There'll also be podcasts of it after the interview goes out here.

I'm so stoked!

And how amazing is technology. You'll get to hear my thoughts today about the amazingness that is community and the net, but technology, there's another incrediblness! My internet is down today, so I'm sitting in an outside garden area of a cafe under a big shady umbrella enjoying free internet and the weather. There's a coffee slowly getting cold by my side and the birds are occasionally singing. Who'd have thought, even a few years ago that this would have been possible?

There's a lot of downsides to it, but really, how good is modern life?

Curating according to Soda Jerk

So I'm part of a Craft Exchange Salon for Melbourne Fringe, put together by the Safari Team

It's a cool idea. The Safari Team made a bunch of craft and then put the call out. Anyone who wanted in emailed their name to the ST. The ST in turn, sent each participant some craft, in exchange for something crafty in return. There was no other requirements, only that it could be posted.

I got a group email from them jsut a moment ago stating "We are putting up the show as I write. It's looking superb! What a weird bunch of people you all are..." which made me proud.

However, that's not really what I'm here to talk to you about. One of the Craft Exchange's featured artists is Soda Jerk. I recognise the name but couldn't place it, so I googled them. I found their website, www.sodajerk.com.au which is a funky looking oldschool computer screen, and wandered about the site, trying to place the name. Regretably I've still drawn a blank, but amongst other things, they curate shows, and this is what I wanted to show you.

On their CURATE page they have written: Like cutting a mix tape, curating involves bringing together different works and forging new connections between them.

And I think that's an ace way to view it! All Rock and Roll. Which reminds me that at one of my jobs, they're calling me a Craft Rock Star, on account of the Age article.
And that makes me laugh.
And wish I had a tshirt with it emblazoned across the front.

Totem: Dolls with Souls

I'm curating a show for Fringe at Fed Square called Totem: Dolls with Souls through my artistic company, Omnific Assembly. I'm asking artists to create self portrait dolls, not of how they look on the outside but how they feel about themselves on the inside. I've had an incredible response, over 110 artists have signed up and are busy creating dolls in their studios and homes all over the world.

The dolls are slowly trickling in, and every time I receive one I am blown away by the artistry involved. I feel like a kid on Christmas eve every day, and this'll continue until we install the dolls in the space at the end of Sept.

Ive curated 6 shows in the past 3 years and I'm always honoured by the artworks that are created. Seeing so many beautiful works based on themes I've concocted is always humbling.

And thus today's post. The amazing and talented Beth Robinson, of Strange Dolls fame is one of the artists participating, and this morning she posted her Totem doll on her blog.

The doll is an incredible art piece and I cannot express how beautiful it is. I watched with awe the flickr slide show of images of her doll.

This is the part of the job I love the most. I ask the artists a question, in this case it's How do you feel about yourself? And their answers always fascinate me. It's why I organise shows. I could have made 100 dolls about how I feel inside, but I already know the answer to that, I already know what I'd make and how I'd do it. I'm interested in other people's answers, what other people have to say, what other artists create. I'd never in a million years have made a doll like Beth's, or indeed any of the other artists who have and are contributing to the show. And that's what I love. Standing in the venue on the day everything's due and seeing for the first time the incredible art every artist has contrubited to the exhbition.

Totem: Dolls with Souls is on at the Fracture Galleries in the Atrium at Federation Square from the 22nd of September to the 13th of October as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Totem is part of the Fringe/Fed Square resedency program and opens offically on the 24th of Sept with the other two resedency shows. Opening is from 5:30 - 8:30. So if you're in Melbourne at the time, come on down and join in the festivities.