It is almost the start of Spring, a time of year I adore.
A vase of branches pruned from the fruit tree that has been in a vase in our house for weeks has even burst out in blossom. The last of our caterpillars hatched today into a beautiful butterfly (well Cabbage Moth actually) but it has been exciting to watch it change. In todays Art Class we will be looking at flowers and blossoms. If you find any good small twiggy branches on your walk to class bring them along as we will be decorating them.
I really like folk music and not in an ironic way at all. I love lyrics and any sort of story telling and folk music has that in spades.
In the second house we lived in my sister and I used to pull chairs up to the turntable and watch the Peter Paul and Mary record spin and get swept away in all those lyrical adventures. I remember the square erasers my Dad had put under each foot of the player to act as shock absorbers and how I liked to pick little holes in them and wonder how long it would be until they no longer shock absorbed.
And now I wonder how thirty years later I have only just found The Train Song by Vashdi Bunyan.
I love that she made an album and it didn't do what she hoped so she stopped making music and thirty years later it is a cult classic and she reformed a band.
Ah there is hope yet.
And you too can have it in your life for only 99c which seems ridiculous.
If this is your cup of tea have a little look around for her contemporary Karen Dalton and the contemporary Josephine Foster they are also pretty gorgeous.
I went to the Melbourne Art Fair on the weekend. I saw some work by Melbourne based artist Daniel Agdad and it reminded me of an incredible show of his I saw a few years ago called Sets from a Film I Will Never Make. His intricate cardboard models almost have to be seen to be believed but you get an idea from these images.
Polly van de Glas makes beautiful jewellery looking at the interplay between the body and wearable art works. As someone who has my wisdom teeth in a glass cabinet beside my bed I am hooked. You can buy her works here. Now that puts the knuckle in knuckleduster.
I have been enjoying these stills from the restoration of dioramas at the American Natural History Museum. There is something so wonderful about the juxtaposition of the epic wildness of the animals and the domestic tasks of the people.
I always loved going there. When I was homesick I used to go and lose myself in the scene of Australian bird life and imagine I was out in the bush. It helped a lot.
Anyhow I hope you have a lovely weekend.
I may once again be a little slow off the mark as this wonderful animated version of Peter and the Wolf by Suzie Templeton has already won an oscar in 2008, but I found it by accident whilst trawling you tube for something good for my boys to watch whilst they are home sick. It is just gorgeous, funny and the right amount of scary. On her website you can see wonderful behind the scenes footage of the shoot and set making progress as well which gives you a great insight into the process.
If you are coming to this mornings Art Class there is an option to take home a very small and not very needy "pet". So bring a glass jar or container if you are interested. Hope to see you there.
