Still Running

Installing three of my 'running men' on friends' Meg and Jerrys' garage roof

See, I haven't been sitting on my thumbs. The latest creation 'In Your Arms at Last' going to a gallery in Cambridge.

Published (cringe)

Ooogh I have been published, even if I did it myself! It's nice to have done it but also a little embarrassing. I have many beautiful art books of important artists and now anyone can do it (not be important silly) so how are we going to sort the peas from the pod? Previously only artists who have made a significant impact on the art world have been printed so when you came to buying a book you only had to choose between who you like or dislike.
I only produced them for the kids for Christmas, honestly!

Kenny

I suddenly remembered Kenny the other day. He was a big, black bastard. The kind you only saw the eyes of late at night when we usually did business. He lived out in the sticks with wife and kids and we were partners in scallop shucking. We had seven boats and no money so I used to work my arse off all night long opening and packing scallops so Kenny could leave at first light to sell them in the city and bring the money back to pay the fishermen for the next days catch. One day he didn't come home. I was left with seven irate fishermen and six months of hard labour to pay them back. He greeted me on the street like a long lost brother some time later, offering me boxes of crayfish to settle the debt. Of course when I opened them up they were undersize and worthless. Liked him though. It was all a game, sometimes I won but most times he got the better of me and I had my eyes open. Last I heard of him he was on a hunger strike in prison. With the size of him he's probably still on it!

Yippee!!

I've had a good week. Friends Jerry and Meg are taking 3 of the running men above. I sold the stone sculpture below at the Little gallery of Fine Arts as well as the painted sculpture from the Eggsentric garden. The tall figure has been sold and is going to Murawai on the West coast and my good mate Jimmy wants some sculpture at his house on Waiheke as payment for the dinghy I picked up from him.
It's either a feast or a famine!!

Sail Ahoy

Just arrived back from a sailing trip to Auckland to pick up mate Jimmys' inflatable. As the photo shows it was a quiet trip up but a 30 knot sou'wester blew us home.

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.
via brainpickings

Long Lunch

A view of my sculptures 'The Righteous and the Sinner' running out to sea

Tom and Jane Parsons house

Plating up dessert

Yesterday I cooked 56 gourmet (matter of opinion!) meals off a barbecue to raise money for our open studio event in March. It went well if a bit hair raising. The artwork sold well with the highest price going to us. No that wasn't selling, that was buying, I'll have to keep Denise away from auctions in the future! She bought a lovely Michael Smither painting called 'Bellbird Song 2'

Long Lunch Menu

Entrée: Hot Water Beach gourmet paua with bacon and spinach risotto
Fresh local crayfish salad with avocado and chilled gazpacho
Vegetarian: watermelon and feta salad with roasted nuts and chilli jam

Main: Grilled pork with apricots and prunes on roasted summer vegetables and a kiwifruit red onion salad
Barbecue lamb fillet with courget and potato fritters, slow roasted tomatoes, fresh salsa and basil pesto
Vegetarian: pumpkin and silverbeet spanokopita on summer roasted vegetables with grilled asparagus

Dessert: Summer berry cheesecake with avocado icecream and chocolate chards
Frozen parfait with red wine poached prunes and macadamia praline

Contemplate

It has been quite a year! After finishing at the restaurant I thought I would have time to contemplate life but as usual I have filled it up again. I'm obviously that type of person. My art has improved a little (I hope) but my respectability (shiver) as an artist has grown a lot. Sometimes overnight successes happen but mostly it's just sheer hard work and persistence that brings recognition of the value of what you do (not that that is what I do it for of course!!). I hate the self promotion and just love the doing.
The loss of my good mate Ronny was hard but it made me think long about what I want from life (and it's not respectability!). Maybe it's time to move on.
My kids are busy in their separate lives and the grand children grow inward and outward every time I see them. Life has a habit of rounding off sharp edges and I have to work very hard not become a rotund little ball.
I wish you all (the 3 of you)a very happy festive season.

An inconvenient truth

I have always thought that even if we are wrong about the effect man has on global warming, what we do to fix it is only going to help the environment. But now I wonder. Big business has got hold of trading in emissions and taxing a country to it's knees is only acceptable if it makes a blind bit of difference.
A few figures from Air Con - The inconvenient truth about global warming by Ian Wishart
CO2 levels now - 385ppm(parts per million) - average temp 14 degrees
Co2 levels around 180 million years ago rocketed up from 1200ppm to 2500ppm and the temp dropped from 22 degrees average to 16 degrees with no cars, planes and coal fired power stations.
Are we being conceited in thinking our 3.4% of carbon emissions as compared to natures 96.6% are tipping the balance or is it just a natural, cyclic change which has happened many times before and we can do nothing about.

Quote of the day - Jim Jarmusch



From Happy Famous Artists

Poor, poor artist

With the arrival of the sculptors last week it struck me again how poor most of them are. If any of them have a decent vehicle it's because they have a second job to pay the bills. Is this right? Do we really undervalue our artists so much. I'm sure we respect them just as much as the plumber who earns $40 an hour. It's as if people think they are doing what they love to do and if they want to make a living go and get a proper job like the rest of us.
I think it is making people aware of the value of art in their lives. I was trying to sell a sculpture (not one of mine, I find it much easier to sell someone elses work)) to a woman this week, she loved it and kept looking at it but said she couldn't afford it. I asked her what would happen to her if she bought it. Would she be thrown out on the street, starve, have no Xmas presents for her children, die... no no no no. I told her in six months time she would have forgotten the struggle to find the money and would have a beautiful artwork to raise her spirits and fill her life with joy. She teetered back and forth and then left with an apology. I guarantee she is now regretting that she didn't follow her heart.
Most of the artworks I have purchased still 'talk' to me every time I see them and so enrich my life experience. How do we get that message across to potential buyers??

Shame

I have been traumatised all week! We entered our first yacht race with the Whitianga Yacht Club last Wednesday and the first buoy was set at the entrance to the harbour with a full tide running out at 8 knots. I was sure I had sailed far enough past it but when I turned the boat sideways to the current it swept us onto the buoy which hooked up one of the rudders and we were left stranded in full view of the town while the rest of the fleet sailed away.
Now you can say what's the problem but it's a small town and I have a reputation to keep up and of course Mike the mailman was there so I had no chance of keeping it a secret.
So we struggled to get free for an hour until a power boat came to our rescue and we sailed round the course with the other boats far in the distance.
Still we should have a good handicap for this weeks race!!

2009 Symposium

I've been a bit tardy with blog posts (as if anyone noticed!). Below is the finished work and artists from our symposium with thanks to photographer Hazel Shepherd. The winning work by Chris Van Doren is at the top. The auction went well, we sold 15 of the 24 pieces.

Bring it on!

Wow it's all go here. I had a visit from an old friend above. She was one of my very first artworks and bought from me by my good mate Jimmy for a far too cheap a price (now that I'm famous Jimmy!). She has come home for a few minor alterations and leaves again tomorrow. I hope she enjoyed her stay!
Travelled down to the Maratoto quarry to select the stone for our sculpture symposium which starts on Monday. We have 16 sculptors from around NZ coming to work in the garden for a week culminating in an auction of the new works on Sun 6th Dec. with fun, food and live music. Five of them will be working wood and friend Roger and I have to carve up a 150 year old macrocarpa tree to provide material. Come on, don't be like that, the tree had to go and it's being made into artworks. Roger is going to carve a big fish hook in situ with what's left.
Three personal chef jobs coming up next week and lunches every day for the sculptors and working on my own piece. Bring it on baby!!

Form versus construction

Still painting away! I'm happy with the results because it seems to concentrate the eye on the form rather than the construction.
I've had good reports about my family group in Whitianga. They are becoming a bit of an icon at the entrance of the town. I'm sure when someone new sees art when they come into town it alters their perception of what Whitianga is like.

Empty

Why no blogging this past week? Ronnys' death has left me empty, with thoughts of why bother. We have been with Samantha and the boys every day to help them through this terrible time.
I am usually one that moves on fairly quickly but sometimes something hits you at a vunerable time and makes you reflect on the big issues of love, life and death.

R.I.P. Ronny

Lost a best mate to a car crash yesterday, 35 years old with a partner and three little kids.
Ronny applied for the job as our chef seven years ago and within a week we were best friends. He arrived with his partner Samantha in an old van with only the clothes on their backs, cooked for us for three years then started a landscape contracting business, bought a farm, built a house and did a hundred other things. Amazing man with such a zest for life, he gave me so much and I'll miss him terribly.
Every fish will be for you Ronny.

Artists intent

Interesting concept. Does the artist own the meaning of his/her art work. In the strict sense of the sentence of course not as the interpretation by the veiwer is tremendously varied. He/she (now known as et.al) would own some of the meaning and would own completely what they say the meaning is. I wonder sometimes when I read a critics long winded statement of an artists work whether et.al is secretly amused/disgusted because it has absolutely nothing to do with et.als' intention.

High on a Hill

Son Sam and I installed my sculpture 'Group Show' in Whitianga yesterday. It's in a marvellous, prominent position beside the main road into town but very handy to be assaulted. I had some trouble with a sculpture I put on the main street of Hamilton being rolled around and broken on a Saturday night. I don't think there was any malicious intent just alcohol and high spirits so we will see what happens. Maybe I can get some good press if it is attacked!!