Eastern Suburbs Art Group

Full house tonight and three of my friends turned up (John, Paul, and Mic). We had limericks, opera, and folk songs, haiku, and sonnets and everything else in-between. Jordan (see pic above) read a long rhyming poem. We chatted about rhyme a bit during the break and both agreed that the restriction that rhyme puts on you can be liberating. Caroline (above pic) read out some of her haikus that have been published in the 'Poets at Petersham Bowlo' Anthology. Short and interesting works of high entertainment value. Above pic shows Reggie, John's friend. I didn't take a photo of John singing it was so extraordinary. Another good singer was Marcus who moved the room with his lyrical meditation on being robbed in New York. We had to cut short the second reading session because there had been so many performers, a second session was unnecessary. It's never happened before, said Ann, one of the convenors.

This space was a new experience for me and though I wasn’t there in person I did get a cache of photos highlighting what happened on the opening. One of my works ‘Wind chimes’ was hung a bit high (see image below) which is suboptimal as it contains a sonnet that really has to be read in order for the artwork to be properly experienced. Apart from this it was a good location near the drinks table. Some people (see photos below) found the work and must’ve commented on it. Great to have so many shots to select from. The woman in the green-and-tan jacket in the above image seems to have singled out ‘Wind chimes’ for special mention. The woman with black hair next to the wall in the image above also seems to have found ‘Wind chimes’ interesting. I found some works more promising than others. There seems to have been a good deal of work with a pedestrian artistic vision but the paramontage-like works below – the ones with text as well as images – naturally caught my eye. They look sort of li...

We had actually planned to meet at Camperdown Memorial Rest park but the rain put the kybosh on that, so sought a more comfortable refuge in the cafe next to the Dendy where we spent hours talking and colouring in. Above: the feet beneath the table. Due to privacy concerns faces of people aren't included, sorry. I wanted to show some evidence of what happened today however, with the suggestion of Suzanna Kertesz who thought of this.  Above: after some colouring in done by Natasha who is a moderator with Artists Supporting Artists International and came independently of ADHD Sydney though both have Facebook groups. ASAI is a group run by Kath Harding, who is (also) a Sydney resident. Suzanna wisely brought along colouring books and Textas she got just before arriving at the cafe. It was vey thoughtful of her and people took advantage of her foresight. As you can see from the inventive use of the medium shown below. This colourful scarab beetle was completed by one of the attendees a...

PaPB usually runs a soiree on the third Thursday of the month but in Jan they went all out and added a meeting. I picked up Mic and went along to read out a recent poem. The theme for the evening was 'New Year New Work' and the item I chose had been made in the final months of 2023. John Hallam (see pic above) as usual read out a moving work that referred to Ukraine but also to Gaza. It was a good night with a reasonable turnout even this close to the New Year. I was a bit hungry so popped up and bought some delicious food for a change. 

Solidarity yesterday when I went along to see Bruno Valente's and Simon Kahn's work at this one-day show. I'd never seen such a large number of canvases by these two artists before, though the three of us had exhibited together in August. Kahn's works (above) are in this show made of glitter. The technique is nothing short of miraculous, the barriers between one colour on the canvas and the next are super sharp givng the works a sort of machine-made look. Valente offers something different and if you liek surrealism his works are ideal for you. These are really thought-provoking canvases that bend the edges of the possible and make your head fill with thoughts. Which is a good thing; art SHOULD make you think. I stayed for a couple of hours chatting then caught the bus home.

I had a strange encounter on 4 Jan when APAC Insider emailed me with notification of a prize win. I had seen emails from them earlier and had noticed activity on this blog through the back-end where the interface shows visits. The following image came with the email. I replied accepting the award then told the man behind the email address that I'd take the basic package, immediately getting on Facebook to spred the word. I was sincerely pleased but an online friend immediately commented that it was a scam. I got back to the staffer and said I wanted to pull out and he made some excuses adding that the blogpost I had linked to, and that my friend told me about, was from 2016. He noted that there was a "free' option for award recipients to choose if they wanted. He then said that he would go ahead to pull the award unless I had anything else to add. At this point I didn't know what to think but I asked about which other local community art groups had been considered when...

I had a scare today when I caught the intercity to Goulburn because having not slept enough the night before I fell asleep during the journey. Lucky for me a friend called several times finally waking me up when the train had already been parked alongside Goulburn Statino for about ten minutes. I scrambled out with my bags and met up with Michael Garside who runs Gallery 59. The trip back on another train (see above) was less fraught because I didn't have to barrel on like I barrelled off before! Michael at his gallery discussed plans for my third solo show, to open on 8 March running for two weeks. When I got home I thought up the name for the show, I'd had a few ideas but seeing the space and seeing the works in the space I had a better notion of what to expect. I settled on "Gold 4WD" which is the title of one of the works. If anyone knows a person in Canberra or surrounds who likes good art please let them know about this show. Michael is a painter himself and he ...