Friends

It's hard saying goodbye to friends when you don't know when you will see them again but I see us all as thousands of little spinning cogs randomly living our lives and connecting by chance or design. Sometimes the encounter is meaningful and the two cogs mesh and slow down and sometimes it is a brief encounter and they barely touch before spinning away. However the length of time between encounters often determines the amount of meshing involved. So the longer the interval the slower the cogs spin when they meet.. In other words the quality of the friendship stays the same even if you don't see each other for a while.

How heavy is a life?

Autumn is upon us with cool mornings and brilliant skies. Spent yesterday upside down under the boat painting her bottom (I'm usually a breast man) and fitting new zinc anodes on the sail drives in preparation for winter. There is a lot of door closing for my move to France but they sure ain't going to be locked. I've been weighing my tools and rating them in order of importance so I am not over weight on the plane. Not much room for clothes but I'm taking my beloved Maton guitar. Paints are too heavy but ideas travel well. The hat collection has to come. Can I fit a life into two suitcases? I suppose we fit a life into one coffin. Freedom!

The Road to Monte Cassino

In twelve days I fly out to start a new adventure in France. Two days in Paris then a week travelling down to Marseille exploring the countryside looking for a house and workshop to rent. I only have six weeks to finish a sculpture for the Cassino exhibition which starts on the 15th May, it will be pushing it but I work well under pressure. Originally I thought of constructing a bombed building and have two figures rising out of it (Phoenix?) denoting peace, love and beauty (the exhibition has a theme of peace and remembrance of the war) but lately I have been thinking about those who died and if they could rise from the building and see the world today what would they think of it. Was it worth the sacrifice? Have we used it wisely? Are our values better? Is there less war? I don't think so. It's going to be hard to express but maybe on the two figures faces a look of bewildered horror that their efforts have been in vain along with some of the results of our hollow, celebrity seeking society, a TV with the E Channel running, a barbie doll, an AK47 etc etc.
I am a fan of hope and love and beauty but for them to be acheived we have to look very hard at ourselves and that is one of the job descriptions of an artist.

What the.......

OK just don't ask!! The title is 'Head in the Clouds but Open to Reason'. It seemed like a good idea at the time (the wee small hours) but then most things do. At least I was able to recycle lots of wood from our old bach and it's kind of nice that it's made another little house/lighthouse/abomination! It was in an exhibition at a local cafe but today I assembled at the Mercury Estate Winery, it will probably scare all their customers away.

Occult

In the deep, dark backblocks of Flaxmill Bay, past the blackened stump, through the evil smelling swamp where strange creatures stare, across the turgid river where people disappear, there stands a shed. Not just any shed but a place of cults and worship and strange goings on. Men meet there, no women allowed. Men with strange names like Gav the Midget and Jerry Spintoomuch, Cowboyhat Scotty and Baldeagle Merv, Chooky Hewhothinkshestoogood and the Great Lord Alty Canyoupicktheballup who conceived the dastardly idea. And their game? The reason for meeting at the dead of night? TABLETENNIS!! and we do allow Claire cos she brings cake and we worship a cold beer and maybe it's not really the sport we gather for.

Pre face

Just returned from a lovely 9 days in Sydney with my daughter Shelley and family. Like an old dog I have to leave my mark so attacked a dead eucalyptus tree in their Balinese pool area. Pity there was some cancer (rot) which I had to take out on the left hand side of the mouth but there are flaws in all of us!

Shedding a life

There is little mileage left
In this old skin
So do I throw it down
With the others
Or burnish it
Every day
Until the new one fits

Art should be like breathing

What is it about art in museums and galleries that I don't like. Is it the attempt to objectify and canonise it, to separate it from life when it should be part of it. I love coming across art in unexpected places where you can take it or leave it, love it or hate it but it hasn't got all the artworld bullshit behind it. It's a natural progression of what you are doing. Of course it's more difficult with paintings because they need a wall and must be protected so give me sculpture and a wide plain or the side of a mountain or the ocean (I have plans for a fountain generated by wave motion) or a grimy city street.
Or maybe I'm just trying to justify my latest abomination (more later [not more abominations I hope!]) that I'm going to unleash on the poor world.

Viva la France!

So I'm off to France at the end of March. I have been accepted into an exhibition at Cassino in Italy where many NZers fought and died with the Italians in WW2 and rather than ship my big, bulky sculptures up there I thought I would rent a house in south of France, make them there and deliver them personally. Oh the hardships!!! It will be a tight schedule, I only have 6 weeks to find a house, workshop, tools and materials before delivery. I have been learning French for the last 4 months so it's a good opportunity to put it into practice.

Billie

Great friend Billie Mallett has arrived from England and is painting up a storm for our annual art escape event.

Possum up a native tree

What is it about the hierachy of animals that if someone tortures a dog there are calls for higher prison sentences for animal cruelty and yet the state poisons (read slow, agonising death) hundreds of thousands of animals (mostly the Australian possum which is eating our native forests but also birds and fish that get caught up in the cycle) with the blanket use of 1080.
Interestingly enough when the gypsy moth (a threat to our agriculture industry) was found in Auckland they actually sprayed poison on parts of the city with a plane.
Go figure!

Art Escape

The internet has been down for five days which is annoying but in some ways a bit of a relief. I got so much done!! I am part of the committee that organises an annual open studio weekend which runs for two weekends Feb 26,27,28th and Mar. 5,6,7th. It's focus is on selling art and we have 39 artists taking part this year, all from our local area. The Coromandel has a great history in the arts (comparitively NZ wise) with a lot of alternative people (artists, musicians, craftspeople) moving here out of the cities in the 1960s.
It's hard times selling art but hopefully we can encourage people to shake the moths out of their wallets.

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