Feeling My Way In Cunnamulla

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"Feeling My Way" exhibition  at the Cunnamulla Fella Centre Art Gallery

I can't quite believe it's been 6 weeks since this:

I'm pretty sure I promised a report on the exhibition... somewhere I seem to have lost some weeks (I do in fact know where they've gone, and over the next little while, I might even get as far as telling you about some of the things I've been up to!) But, for today, a little step back in time to Cunnamulla.

My beloved came along (it was an eight hour drive, so the company was great for a start!) I have to say, at around three o'clock on the afternoon we were hanging it all, I was overcome with thankfulness to have him. His skill, care and attention to detail with tape measure, screwdriver and ladder made me fall in love with him just a little bit more (if that were, in fact, even possible!) It's a good lesson for those of us who are the 'creatives' - it's of tremendous value to have as your sidekick, someone who has a natural inclination to practicality and order. A 'thinker' as opposed to a 'feeler'; if you're a follower of Meyers Briggs Personality Profiling. Whilst I am perfectly capable of locating my practical brain, while I'm deep in creative brain mode, it's more of a stretch. I learned some very interesting things about myself out there!

But, enough about me already! The gallery space at the Cunnamulla Fella Centre is, as you can see, just beautiful. It's a fabulous facility; part of the centres museum - which is brilliant and well worth a look as well.

The staff - Carmel, Sally, Courtney and Mike were everything you'd ever hope for - friendly, helpful, kind and fun!

It was great to meet a few locals while we were there, and I was super excited that sales on opening night were beyond my wildest imaginings!

We had three nights in Cunnamulla, and the recount wouldn't be complete without a shout out to Pieta and Pitisi at the Club Boutique Hotel . Have you ever had a vase of fresh roses on the bedside table in your hotel room? That's just one of the things these girls do in order to make their guests feel welcome. It truly felt like coming home to our family at the end of a day. We discovered Pitisi has a great appreciation for tractors - and my art work - which enamoured her to both of us!

Thanks so much to everyone at Cunnamulla - we had a wonderful stay, and I couldn't be more thrilled with how my fist solo exhibition turned out. 

If you're out that way, you still have a couple of weeks to see it - it closes on the 24th May. While you're there, would you say hi to everyone for me?

Thanks.

Cunnamulla... I'll See You Soon!

In a month, I'll be off to Cunnamulla! A town in South West Queensland, which I have never visited, to hang an exhibition in the Cunnamulla Fella Centre Art Gallery. I'm a bit excited, a bit nervous and kind of busy.

Some of the pieces that will be getting loaded into the car:

Keeper of the Mystery 101cm x 76cm
Acrylic, tissue, oil stick, lace and pencil on canvas
© 2013 Tracey Hewitt

If you've been visiting here for a while, you'll know that the human face is not something I generally look to for subject matter. Keeper of the Mystery certainly didn't start out with any intention of a person appearing, yet, as it evolved, she insisted on making an appearance! (My family of practical males are bewildered when I suggest that an 'inanimate' object like a painting  might be telling me secrets, or what is to happen next...but, that's how it works sometimes). And, I have to tell you - she knows the answer to all those questions that we mere mortals struggle with. But, no matter how hard I look into her eyes and plead with her to share them with me - she doesn't. You see, she's not called the Keeper of the Mystery for nothing!

I've been having a great time with resin, as well. This lovely ring (I keep wondering if I can, in fact, bring myself to part with it? I LOVE this) has a bunch of tiny millefiori glass pieces set in it. How cool would this look with your jeans and favourite white shirt?

My awesome framer, Les Rigby, is currently weaving his magic with this piece, as well as a number of others. This is a concoction of woven felt strips that had all sorts of goodies applied which was then dry felted with a machine felting technique. Have to give a shout out to my sister here - that triangular piece in the top centre was in fact one of her earrings in 1986. ( If you hang onto something long enough....)

This one is in need of a name - any suggestions? Coming up with suitably engaging names for a number of works is just one of the things that will be keeping me busy over the next month. (Containing my excitement about the wedding of our middle son is another - but that's a story for another day!)

Do you know anyone in Cunnamulla? I'd love you to share with them that the exhibition "Feeling My Way" will open there at the Cunnamulla Fella Centre Art Gallery on Friday 5th April from 6pm; and I'd love to meet them!

Creating Texture - With Old Tomato Paste Tubes!

Sometimes, I do weird things. 

It's kind of fun, and keeps the people around me shaking their heads...

Today, it's been reclaimed tomato paste tubes. (Yes, I cut it open and washed it carefully first - after we ate the spaghetti bolognese, which was awesome, by the way...)

The inside of the paste tube is the loveliest, soft, buttery gold colour, and it's easy to bend, fold and generally manipulate. Here, it's got some painted vliesofix and a chiffon scarf ironed over it, which gives it that orange-y colour in patches. Keeping it company is a piece of copper shim, with many holes poked through it with my trusty - and very blunt - awl. Don't worry, I keep an old awl just for nasty, tough jobs like this. There does exist another pointier, sharper, better looking awl for the tasks awls were really designed to carry out. 

The copper shim becomes a kind of 'claw' to set the glass bubble in, and after a bit of free machine embroidery (plus three broken machine needles and countless broken top threads), the end result looks like this:

This little lumpy treasure is destined, along with some other lumpy treasures, to be the focal point on a canvas that's been evolving in the studio.

If you promise to eat all your vegetables, I might even show it to you when it's finished. (Yes, Carmel* - that means you!)

*Carmel is my Mum - who is awesome - and also happens to be the worst vegetable eater in the history of the universe!

Monoprint Musings

Monoprints!

 I adore them. There's a lovely energy about them, and the marks and quality of line have something special going on.

But, I'm having a battle inside my own head (please tell me you do that, too....).

With a solo exhibition coming up, the self imposed pressure to have a wonderful body of fully realised, great pieces is becoming large. And, somewhere along the way, clarity and certainty have abandoned ship. I adore these prints, and have a strong urge to frame them as is. No more messing with them. Yet, is that "acceptable"? (Acceptable to whom? is a good follow up question.... Myself? Potential collectors? Potential critics?) The answer, I'm finding, is elusive.

Or, is just a little more attention an improvement, a detraction, or still not enough?

One thing that is certain... even more attention - at least of this kind - is definitely NOT the answer (I apologise. I would really like to sneak the above image from under my arm and just show you the quickest peek - it doesn't make my heart sing. At. All.)

So... nothing more than these delicious lines and marks?

Or, just a little more?

I'd really love to know what you think - my cowboy art critics are all busy with cows and cultivators, and the "inner critic" ate razor blades for breakfast! 

Perhaps the underlying issue is that while I love these as is, or with just a touch of colour, they were easy. Drop-dead, do-it-with-your-eyes-closed easy. Well, maybe not with your eyes closed. That might end in much more black gesso on the carpet, which is never a good thing (or, for that matter, an easy thing to clean up!) The question is possibly more along the lines of "If it's easy, is it art? Is it valid?" Which led me to remember a chapter I read in Danielle la Porte's book The Fire Starter Sessions... which started with the question "What would your life be like if you did only what was easy?" and went on to discuss Quality Easy as opposed to Cheap easy. 

"The path of least resistance isn't about short-cuts  cutting corners, or being clever. And  it's certainly not about making mediocrity acceptable. It's about optimising the truth.It's about casting your seeds on the most fertile soil for your best chances of success."

Definitely more rumination required.

Tea Bags, Doiley's and Linen Napkins

Lillian's Legacy 101cm x 76cm 

Acrylic, tissue, damask, tea bags, silk, oil pastel and paper collage.

© 2012  Tracey Hewitt

For the longest time, I have had these panels tucked away safely - waiting for the wonderful day when I might finally know exactly what to do with them. (It's embarrassing to even mention how long...)

I am very lucky to have had a Nana who kept special things - like boxes and boxes of hand embroidered doiley's and damask napkins, which she enjoyed giving to me to 'do something with'. One of the napkins made their way into a natural dye bath. 

And waited. 

One of the doiley's was used to take rubbing's on used tea bags. 

They waited.

Until one day, some silk strips from the natural dyeing episode came to join them, and they were fused and seed stitched together.

As a pair of 'panels' they waited....for many years.

Lillian's Legacy - detail

Every so often, they'd get pulled out, caressed, admired, promised something special would be done with them, and carefully put away.

To wait some more.

Finally, their wait is over. I've been wrestling a bit with work for the next exhibition. I'm not sure where my muse had been on holidays...but when she came back, this was what she brought with her. Quite a bit more subtle and restrained than my usual works - yet it feels good. There's much more to explore here - I'll keep you posted!

The Chinese Whispers Collaborators Gathering

Shelley Fitzgibbons' book - each artist got only a snippet of the words "Chinese Whispers". Isn't it great?

You might remember that for all of last year, and early this year, I was involved in a book collaboration - Chinese Whispers. Twelve artists, twelve books, and twelve individual 'whispers'. All we had to go on was the page from the previous artist, and try to guess at the 'theme' for each book. 

It was great fun - but excruciating, because we couldn't share with each other, and I couldn't share here, with you, either!

Jen Conde's Book was constructed with a Turkish Map Fold - intricate and wonderful!

So, it's exciting to finally be able to give you all a tiny glimpse into the things we worked on...

Kim Burling's Book - a series of CD covers - innovative!

Kristin Mountjoy's lettergrams on the left, Peta Lloyd's book pages in centre front and Nanette Balchin's book in centre back. All delightful. 

My book - coptic bound Cowboys and Indians.

Another shot of Peta's pages, all opened out....

And, this really is a tiny glimpse! We had a fabulous weekend together, catching up, sharing books - we even found time to make a set of Artists Trading Cards each!

"W" is for Whispers!

And, of course....laughed and had a lot of fun!

This group of artists has become a special kind of family for me, some of us met for the first time - after having worked on one another's books for over a year - just recently when we got together to unveil our completed books, and reveal the mysteries of our themes. To find yourself amongst such encouraging, enthusiastic and accepting souls is a wonderful gift! Thank you to all of the Chinese Whispers Collaborators -  I've learned, grown and stretched with, and because of you all. And, a particularly special thank you to Peta, who herds us all in the right direction and keeps things humming along - with gentle reminders and awe inspiring organization!

The most exciting part is that it's not over! We are nutting out the details of our next collaborative effort - "Two Tin Cans and a Piece Of String". You can expect to see more of that here next year, when we once again begin to fill one another's mailboxes with colourful parcels full of energy and artistic explorations! 

"Worthy...Of Love and Belonging"

Worthy... of Love and Belonging
hand felted panels on paper
© 2011 Tracey Hewitt

A while back, I was commissioned to create a piece of work for our local doctor and his wife, as a gift from his staff, in honour of their 30 years of service to our little community. It was a special opportunity to pour a little of my own heart into a piece that, as well as honouring his dedication to this community, felt like a personal thank you note. Doctor Bruce - as he is fondly called (technically he is Dr A.B.Chater) - has delivered babies, counselled troubled souls, mended broken bones, stitched open wounds, fished metal fragments out of eyes, removed injured or diseased toe and fingernails, dealt with 
anaphylactic shock, torn ligaments, bad backs and more - and that's just for my immediate family! He's a very busy man.

Yet, when the tricky things happen - and, for some reason, they have happened often around here over the years - he's there with a smile and a reassuring voice, and immense skill, to put the pieces back together again (A bit like all the King's horses and all the King's men really!)

So, "Worthy... of Love and Belonging" came into being. A series of hand felted panels, embellished with turquoise chips, beads, hand stitching and even some recycled, re purposed beer bottle caps attached; mounted onto watercolour paper.

Here's an excerpt from the artists statement that went with the piece:

The felt panels – to me – represent diversity. The diversity of characters in the patients you care for; of the illnesses and accidents you minister to; and of the medical services you offer at Theodore Medical. All three categories broad, extensive and varied. The panel concept started in my mind as felt banners, or pennants – like the sports pennants of our schooldays - representing achievements. There are no doubt nowhere near enough here to honour all your achievements, but hopefully the whole is greater than the sum of its parts!

The turquoise band represents the Dawson River. An integral part of your lives, and the life of our whole community, and - like the Dawson - it binds the elements together. I chose turquoise gemstone chips as a reference to the belief of many ancient cultures that turquoise holds great powers for healing.

You’ll notice the repetition of some elements four times on some of the panels – recognizing your four sons who call Theodore home.

Worthy...of Love and Belonging was mounted on white matt board and framed in a simple white frame. (which isn't in these photos, because I am far from having mastered the art of  photographing art work under glass. I'm sure there must be a way....have you got any tips for me?) 

Thanks to the staff at Theodore Medical for giving me the opportunity - and having the faith in me - to create this piece. I loved every minute of it!