365 - Continuation

A few months ago I purchased a book - 365 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao, a contemporary book of daily meditations on the Taoist way. Since that day I have been reading my daily meditation as a positive and inspirating way to start my day.

This is my Tao today...

"Upon completion comes fulfillment,
With fulfillment comes liberation.
Liberation allows you to go on.
Even death is not a true ending.
Life is infinite continuation."

- Deng Ming-Dao

" Always finish what you start. That alone is discipline and wisdom enough. When you come to the end of a cycle, a new one will begin. You might say that completion actually begins somewhere in the middle of a cycle and that new beginnings are engendered out of previous actions. Completing a cycle means fulfilment. It means that you have achieved self-knowledge, discipline, and a new way of understanding yourself and the world around you. You cannot stop there, of course. New horizons are always there. But you can reach out for those new vistas with fresh assurance and wisdom. With each turn of the wheel you go further. With each turn of the wheel you free yourself from the mire of ignorance. With each turn of the wheel comes continuation. Turn the wheel of your life. Make complete revolutions. Celebrate every turning. And persevere with joy." - Deng Ming-Dao

A most inspiring Tao to start my day today and also to take with me tonight on my New Year's celebrations. It reminds me while celebrating the end of 2010, celebrate the beginnings, the continuation of life, and to surround oneself with love and happiness... wishing you all a wonderful and happy New Year for 2011.

welding gear

YAY! Who's a happy girl then... welding gear for Christmas. An assortment of clamps; trigger, spring, and parallel bar, gloves AND an apron.

Totally spoilt, thanks Bro!

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

A warm hearted wish for a very

Merry Christmas

Hope the big guy fills your stocking full with love and happiness... and some pressies too!

Opalescent Hue

Yesterday I happened to come out side just at the right time to see this in the sky! Nature turned on a very brief and magnificent hue in the sky. Only lasting a few minutes, I was lucky enough to grab my camera and take a picture before it vanished.

It was much higher than the heavier cloud, it looked to be a thin sheet of cloud spanning a few kilometres (easy!) closely hugging and around the sun, it transmitted this amazing aura of colours. Oh soooooo lucky to have seen it!

opening night

A few photo's...

From left; Richard Stiller, Pam Magdefrau, Kim Schoenberger & Jennifer Stiller

Next Exhibition @ Studio 4 Gallery

Deconstruction : Reconstruction ...a journey of intensity

December 16 to January 23

My next Exhibition of mixed media assemblages, supported with contemporary images by Richard Stiller.

Official opening by Pam Magdefrau President Arts Connect Inc.

Studio 4 Gallery, Marcoola on Saturday 18th Dec. 2010 from 5.00pm

For directions please click here

And the winner is....

So many votes for number three "All Things Lead to One" odds were, it was going to be the one to go!

I got my partner Glen to do the honours a draw the name from my pink fluffy hat.

Congratulations... Fiona!

And a big thank you to everyone that participated.

100 Post - give away

In the world of blog there's a pattern, a tradition if you like, of a 'give away' generally an artwork when reached a milestone of 100 posts. Well this is my number 100! Not for me to break tradition, rules perhaps, tradition definitely not! And the chance to be able to give someone something, for me, is an added bonus.

I live by three moto's;

1. 'Our judgments prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances' - Wayne W. Dyer

2. 'The greater danger for most of us lies not in the setting our aim to high & falling short; but in setting our aim to low, & achieving our mark' - Michelangelo And,

3. 'The very act of kindness can unprision you' - unknown (I'm not sure if I made this one up or I read it somewhere)

Living very passionately by the last moto and on reflection of all three, I decided to give a choice from three very different mediums...

All you need do, in the comment box note your name and which numbered piece you would like eg; Kim - No. 3 (All things Lead to One) I'll be drawing the name and announcing the new owner, at the end of the week Sunday 12th Dec, 2010.

No.1. 'Grounded' - porcelain dish

No. 2 'Spiral dish'

No.3 'All Things Lead to One'

what's on the go in the studio

This wet weather has created a stallmate for me in the studio, its most uninspiring to work in the shed when its cool, wet and windy! However it does give me a dam fine excuse to be inside out of the rain and catch up on the other things. I might just get the Christmas decorations out!

Here's a look at what's in the studio waiting for a bisque...

A collection of carved Pitchers; Unearthed series,

Commission Abbey Musuem Egyptian Dig pottery; beakers, plates and pots handcarved decoration, hieroglyphics on the beakers.

Above & below; souvenir magnets for the Sunshine Castle

ALaW - T

The A Letter a Week (ALaW) challenge continues and is fast coming to an end of the second alphabet. Being totally focused on preparations for my next exhibition and extremely wet weather, I am now seriously lagging behind, we're already into December and I haven't finished the November letters! eeek, starting to feel a little under pressure!

T - Carving

Seeing all the common techniques I am familiar with have been used, I'm starting to use the same techniques in previous letters in a different manner, thinking outside the norm if practically possible.

Here I'm carving the clay out around the letter to create a three dimensional 'T', much more challenging than the A and N, where A I carved directly around the outline and N carved within the outline resulting a negative letter.

Sanded and ready for bisque.

works in progress

Clamping, welding, banging and hammering, on overtime late into the evening, creativity on overload. But I've just gotta go with it while its flowing.

Another assembled piece I have just finished, and ready for my exhibition 'Deconstruction : Reconstruction'

Above a detailed photograph; ceramic tower fired to 1200* and (carved out) negative space, a golden look I was seeking light shinning through celophane paper. I seem to have a fetish for celophane paper...and have used it within some of my assemblages.

Clamped to help, this piece took abit of brain power to nut out the best way of welding it together. Below; finished piece, this side has a door knob the other has a padlock and two keys tied either end of a length of aged string (as I found it).

"Safe House"

Next exhibition makes the headlines

On the coveted front page of the Arts Section of Saturday's Sunshine Coast Daily in a headline article. My next Exhibition of mixed media assemblages, supported with contemporary images by Richard Stiller.

'Deconstruction: Reconstruction... a journey of intensity'

December 13 to January 25

Official opening Studio 4 Gallery, Marcoola on Saturday 18th Dec. 2010 from 5.30pm.

A BIG thank you to our PR consultant Publicity Jessica Jane Sammut

woodblock workshop

Artist Terry McKenna is currently exhibiting at Studio 4 Gallery - today he conducted an inspiring 'hands-on' woodblock workshop which I was fortunate to attend.

Terry (above); preparing ink for prining.

Benjamin with his print.

A detail of Benjamin's woodblock carving and his printed design.

Matchbox Show

Today I sent my entry into the Matchbox Show - a collection of small ceramic pieces encased within matchboxes.

The first Matchbox Show was at the 'Clay Energy Conference' in Gulgong earlier this year and it's long-term goal is to gather a collection of 5000 matchbox artworks to be exhibited at the International Ceramics Conference in Finland in 2014.

It's such a cool concept I decided to put something together...

I've used a scruffy old match box (to adorable to throw away) I acquired amongst my rusty finds, complete with three 'dead' matches.

The ceramic content consists of daggy old looking nails, screws and a washer - made in porcelain fired to 1300* reduction

Titled - 'Box of Tricks'

ALaW - R S

R - Sgrafitto - with brushed on red slip

R is transfered onto the leatherhard clay tile in usual manner. Sgrafitto is generally a technique of scraping back into clay covered with slip, as seen with 'J' . I'm challenging logic with this one, letting go of rules and exploring, which some potters may ask "why?" I guess at this stage of the alphabet it's all about experiementing and I say why not! So instead of applying the slip I've just scraped into the clay body direct then brushed the red slip inside the R imprint and painted the border.

S - Imprint - with organic matter

A bit of fun, not sure what the end result will look like, fortunately I can rescue this if need be after the bisque firing. S transfered with a light pencil imprint as a guide, then wax emulsion applied to outline the letter and the border to act as a resist from the pressed in organic matter and to create a negative space with the letter, hopefully! In theory > the organic matter is pressed imprinting the clay and will burn away in the firing resulting inverted spots and the letter S will be revealed by the smooth surface.

Below is a close up for a clearer view - Quinoa grain is used and burnished in with my Tigers Eye polished stone for securing and reassuring a definite imprint.

In flower

Ya gotta love the jacaranda's this time of year...

in full flight,

...and the lilac carpet!

Wheels in Motion

Progress on 'Wheels in Motion' - I've been accumulating found objects and pieces associated with the wheel or circles since my first session of assembling back in September.

Yesterday I had a day of placement and welding. Within the piece there are segments that are 3D in nature, so I am nutting them out first and welding them together before I start to weld them into place.

Within these 3D segments I want to incorporate some form of movement using old wheelbarrow and pram wheels - in the image above both pram wheels move, and the image below gives you a visual of the 3D effect that's being created.

It's starting to look a little like the internal parts of a watch or a clock, on a grander scale, the piece measures 1.1mtr.

New works for exhibition

I'm currently working on some new assemblages for an Exhibition at Studio 4 Gallery - Dec. 13th - Jan 25th, 2010.

My welding has being going great guns since my first lesson with my 'slowdownstopthinking' piece (still in the making and experiencing some exciting developments!).

The image below is a piece that I have been working on over the last several months, as mentioned in my previous posts the nature of my assemblages are a direct result of 'emotion' - rather than logic and controlled thought. I am the instrument as to which it is concieved, and governed by a process that has no sense of time. A true gift into the understanding of patience!

I'm over the moon that this particular piece has presented itself ready and representing as the image for the exhibition.

'House of the Holy : Enlightened Ones'

Medium - Steel and Stoneware Clay

H 320mm x W 340mm x D 70mm

And some whimsical miniature totemic assemblages...

a close up...

Miniature Totemic cubes

Medium - Hardwood, steel, found objects & Stoneware Clay
Various heights - H 120mm to H240mm

ALaW - NOPQ

NOPQ - Techniques...

N - Carving - negative

O - Resist - with shellac & red slip

P - Imprint - with a needle tool

Q - Underglaze - washed back

Beach dreaming...

What a gorgeous day and the opportunity of hitting the beach, via delivering my Beach themed miniature sculptures to Studio 4 Gallery - so fitting and too hard to refuse!

Literally only minutes from the gallery and short stroll on the boardwall, beyond all the shrubbery and sand dunes lies this beautiful sandy beach...

A true beachcomber from way back forms the inspiration for my miniatures titled 'Beach Dreaming'. Living close to the beach and from my beachcombing days my collection consists of many fragments of shells, fish bone, crabshell, corals etc...

'Beach Dreaming' - Stoneware clay and driftwood

ALaw techniques for NOPQ

I've just about got to the pointy end of the stick for the most common techniques, so now time to deviate and explore...

N - Carving negative

I used the carving technique with 'A' and created a positive, this time trying for a negative at the leatherhard stage I carved the clay inside the letter rather than on the outer.

O - Resist with shellac & red slip

With the letter 'I' shellac and sponged back into the clay with water created a raised 3 dimensional letter. Here with 'O' shellac is used to resist the red porcelain slip. Theorically what I am trying to achieve is, in the bisque firing the shellac will burn out resulting an O and border clean of slip.

P - dots

No guessing where this idea came from... getting to the pointy end of the techniques! Very simple really and I like the look.

Q - underglaze washed back

One would ask! Why apply black underglaze to wipe back with a wet sponge on a white bodied porcelain when wanting to create a pure white ground as the final result? I asked myself the same question half way through. Q - proven to be the most challenging one in this set of letters I won't know my verdict until the final firing...