Eastern Suburbs Art Group

A special small space in the heart of the CBD, Macchiarto is tied to a cafe on the corner of Pitt and Livverpool streets. So close to Chinatown. Near the World Square development. The food is awesome, I had a version of shakushaka I have never had before. Actually and surprisingly the Mexican ambassador attended the function. It was a warm and close collection of people. The art is amazing, I bought two paintings. Torres talks about street art in respect of her work, and I guess so but the thing that really got me was the cartoon quality and the colours. Top is 'Children of the Sun Rabbit' bottom is 'Children of the Sun Fox' - these ones I purchased. Torres often uses this sort of ace-shaped opening to partially obscure a face, you can see in the bottom painting (above). I think it looks like hair. For her part Torres has long hair. So perhaps there is some form of self expression in the use of this shape. The shakushaka was called Flamenco Shaka. I sometimes make shaku...

While I am definitely drawn to this type of atmospheric landscape or dreamscape - and especially these ones as they are so nicely done - it is not precisely my favourite type of art. I went to the show with Virginia but we stood outside most of the time because I feared for my ankle, which I broke two months before. A crowd in a small room, I thought, not really a good idea. As it was I almost fell over in the street, which sloped in parts. Yianni came a bit later and we chatted in the warm spring air. A good night, the people milling around on the pavement, talking and sipping beer or red wine. I went home and cooked chicken and carrot for dinner, then work.

Today the first challenging day of a 3-day conference in Mascot. There are still some things to understand about the sales stack the consultants Connekt Coaching inroduced surprisingly during a meditation session. To be honest this was the first time I had entered into such a physical and mental state. Because it was so new I really don't know if it worked. Material covered in the conference was often new but there were some aspects of the curriculum I felt I already knew. It was good to get a refresher. I couldn't afford a one-on-one training program but the presence of other people was sometimes obtrusive. Organisers broke tasks down into manageable chunks so that it was easy to move through the program.  Sometimes it felt like I was looking at early abstract paintings. At other times it felt like being in an episode on 'I Dream of Genie'. You know, butcher's paper and diagrams. All very analogue, which is actually part of the day I most enjoyed. One element that ...

Natasha had paintings in a show at Breakfast Point. I brought the photogrtapher Henry. Mark and his partner Stephanie came by ferry. We shot a group phoito for the MindBodySpirit Festival flyer.  Henry also made individual profile photos for use elsewhere. Photo credit to Stepahnie (see below).

An event can bring back memories but I can go to the blog and find things. I remember about 10 years ago, maybe more, an old girlfriend contacted me. I was living in Queensland at the time. I had gone back to writing poetry. Just prior to this I stopped pitching stories to magazines, for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons were good. Well, all of the reasons were good. It was the end of the year when I drove to Brisbane to meet this girl.  Just note that the seasons are a bit different in the north. Well she had been staying with a friend she said. The apartment was on the river. On the wall a painting by Wm Robinson. We sat on the balcony with the muddy river slow nearby like Lethe. This montage I had completely forgotten about. It was made not long before meeting the woman in Brisbane. Oh ok it was some months before. At around the time I made this I had just finished a long poem on relationships. My daughter came out to see me. We went to the zoo, the Irwin zoo it was not f...

Actually it's sort of disappointing when you arrive at the Fever site (see pic below). The toilets are there. There is a kiosk where you can get a warm cappuccino. And the grubby white dome where the action takes place inside. But once you put on the VR headsets and start the adventure it's quite fun. For my family not so much as they didn't offer the right language selection. There's a green eyed cat. A woman dressed like Indiana Jones. You go into a pyramid. You sit on top of the pyramid. Then you're on a boat. A kind of barge actually. You move around by sort of walking as best you can (careful not to fall over) from one blue cordon to the next. Follow arrows. And whisper. If you talk too loudly the staff come and corrrect you. Silence essential so you don't bother people nearby.

I had some notice but in the end only took a few items. A few jackets. The jackets are not too small or damaged, but they are not what I currently want to wear. The organiser took a green leather jaacket I brought. I didn't find anything to swap it with. There were some short sleeved shirts but they were a bit too colourful for my taste. Natually most of the clothes at the swap were for women and I was the only man attending. In my art practice (for what it's worth) is also do repurposing. The collage process has some shortcomings buit I am working on resolving the problems. Mostly they have to do with fading. Magazine paper is not designed to be exposed to the light for 10 years, unlike a jacket.