Exhibition deadline reached 😊

Raven World (Collage)

Another month has passed by. My deadline for works and amin for an exhibition reached. It is installed next week in the Hallway Gallery Wodonga Hyphen Library Gallery. A big thankyou to the panel and curatorial team for considering my application and taking on my idea of works reflecting the concept of Multiverse - somethings that’s not observable beyond our immediate world. 

My bio for the exhibition explains a bit more. 

Donna Caffrey is a local artist whose practice involves collage using paper, textiles and found images. The tactile, playful act of tearing, cutting and placement of papers underpins Donna’s love and connection to collage.

In this new body of work, Donna plays with the ideas of portals and the Multiverse, where all possibilities and probabilities become events somewhere. In this new series, Donna explores themes of portals and the Multiverse, envisioning a space where all possibilities and probabilities are events in different realms. Her work examines concepts of space, horizon, and distance, capturing moments often with humour and the idea of layered realities. 

...

PORTAL: A doorway, gate, or other entrance 

MULTIVERSE: A term that scientists use to describe the idea that beyond the observable universe, other universes may exist as well.

Hyphen is having a bit of a shin dig on 18 October 2024  from 6.00 pm at the ART BAR.  Not in the listing yet but you get the idea.  Hope to see some of you there.

Artist residencey - Refection - Goal setting

 

Small mixed media booklet. It is a work in progress that sits on my table. 

When the right scrap comes along I add to it.

  The sheet music opens out to reveal the words - BE THE REASON.

It is clear from my blog that I am all over the shop when it comes to what I like to create.  Focus and narrowing down is difficult.   I’m wondering whether I need to?   Do I have to give it all up?

On reflection, these days I am project driven and tend to work primarily in one/technique/style in that project.   When I throw in too many different mediums my project falters.   Having said that, I think that this relates more to solo shows than group shows.

In the Re-create Collective's exhibition From where I sit: Stories from within I worked across a couple of mediums.  Focal points in my installations Fine Dining and I don’t hold a hose were largely embroidered but had other elements.  For Fine Dining I learnt to reupholster chairs, located vintage items such as a tea service, table cloths and napkins in op shops (and my stash) and embroidered a wall hanging.   It was the wall hanging that had the message but the table and chair which provoked many memories and comments.   On the other hand, I don’t hold a hose comprised a deck chair and items that reflected the statement upon which the title of the work was based; a direct quote from our PM of the time.   The deck chair is heavily embroidered depicting fires in Australia in 2019/20120 and was the statement piece.  The other bits of the installation including a lei, a fancy cocktail and an embroidery were context.

My other works in the exhibition include a series interpreting a poem and a series inspired by lockdowns and limited travel.  In the former I created seven textile panels (30 cm X 30 cm) interpreting a poem Blue and Green by Australian poet Lesbia Harford.  I had been exploring thoughts of how to translate text to textile and looking at work of  colour field artist Helen Frankenthaler.   Arm chair travel is a number of whimsical collages (14 cm X 14 cm) made for the joy of it andgrouped together in salon style.

Even though each of these sets of works are in different mediums they were not discordant in the exhibition.  I’m thinking this is so as the quality of all the works in the exhibition was high, the ideas explored different and presented with information available for those who wished to read it. The Collective’s members works were all different but all held together well. And importantly, the layout and curation of the exhibition was fabulous thanks to the team at the Albury LibraryMuseum.  

This bit of navel gazing arises out of an online residency I’m undertaking with the Enso Circle.  It is structured to cover questions and issues which relate to our individual art practises.  Week one was goal setting for the 12 weeks of the residency.   And I need to decide what my focus will be (groan  - I have to make a choice!!!) 

I thought about what I wanted to explore/learn, and what outcome I want out of these 12 weeks.   And I want to make sure my continued learning supports and dovetails into my current long-term plans - though they may change again after this residency.   This is what I came up with as part of the what when I was considering the 5 W's (who, what, when, where and how)  :

·       Distal what I want to keep, let go of others and learn new techniques.

·       Have a serious approach to studio practice - turn up every day

·       Look at other artists

·       Build up a resource folio

·       Aim for a small series of mixed media textile works in postcard, book, scroll and/or hanging format

No doubt something will change along the way 😊

May you stay creative,  well and  safe

Much metta 

Donna

Exhibition anxiety, worthyness and words

Green & Blue Series 

 

Life has been bus.  My colleagues and I (RE-create Collective) are at the pointy end of our exhibition From Where I Sit – Stories from within which will be launched at the Albury Library Museum on 25 June, 2020.

Super excited and over it all at the same time!

I have prepared a series of textile works and have been umming and ahing about whether to submit them. Exhibition anxierty.  Are they worthy? I have decided to offer them up for the exhibition and let the Albury Library Museum make the curatorial decision.   

The works are an interpretation of a poem by Lesbia Harford which I wanted to do for some time:

            Green and blue
            First-named of colours believe these two.
            They first of colours by men were seen
            This grass colour, tree colour,
            Sky colour, sea colour,
            Magic-named, mystic-souled, blue and green.
            Later came
            Small subtle colours like tongues of flame,
            Small jewel colours for treasure trove,
            Not fruit colour, flower colour,
            Cloud colour, shower colour,
            But purple, amethyst, violet and mauve.
            These remain,
            Two broad fair colours for our larger gain
            Stretched underfoot or spreading wide on high,
            Green beech colour, vine colour,
            Gum colour, pine colour,

            Blue of the noonday and the moonlit sky.

Why did I change my mind?   Because when I sit at my table and gaze out the window I see green and blue.  When I rest in my garden I see green and blue.   These colours are restful and calming and often observed whilst sitting and pondering. My artists statement will reflect this.

BEE happy - exhibition up

Still Life with Bee - Collage

Its finally up.  :-)   I will tweak a little bit today but it is now open. 

Eucalyprus Blossom detail - Textile Work

Cuckoo Bee Embroidery

Honeycomb - Collage

My exhibition essay (or artists statement) is up on the wall: 
BEE Happy – A mixed media art exhibition

Bees make me smile. A warm day you can hear them in the garden. They can be so loud. And yet almost invisible. And there are so many of them – both honey bees and the native bees.

My play with ideas about bees came about when I discovered that there was a stingless bee that could be kept in a hive and its honey judiciously collected. I lived in Sydney then where the climate suits that sort of bee.

Since moving to Albury in 2015 I have continued to think about bees. And noticed different bees in my garden.

Did you know our region has three identified species of blue banded bees?
There are about 1,700 different types of bee in Australia. They can be super tiny to quite large (for a bee).

Photo courtesy of www.aussiebee.com

Most native bees are solitary. The female makes a nest in a small opening in a tree or fibrous plant stem or makes a burrow. The bees live only one season and their eggs are sealed in the nest and the next generation of bees emerge when the weather is warm enough.

I am more mindful in my garden now. I am aware that the blue banded be may be in a burrow in certain areas and that reed bees may be in canes of old plants. I understand that a messy area of foliage and ground cover can be a home to many insects including bees. I now don’t feel bad that I love daisies and I have learnt that most bees love daisies too.

I discovered that some bees are buzz pollinators and others collect pollen on their chest and legs. Bees are hairy. It’s a feature that distinguishes them from wasps.

A few native bees collect pollen by eating it. They then return to the nest and regurgitate it.
Aussie Bee has an online site with a huge number of photos and lots of information. I have them to thank for informing and fostering my interest.

Donna Caffrey

Foraging for Pollen - Collage

Four Legs ... an exhibition

Whats is red?   WIP

I have been working on pieces for an exhibtion "Four legs..." in May this year.   I was chuffed to be invited to add a few works to this exhibition.

As my fellow exhibitors work with wool I wanted to incorporate felted wool into my stitched pieces.   

What is red?  is my first piece I have got close to finishing so I thought I would post a little bit about my process.

Yep,  I am still thinking out loud about process.   I tend to work intuitively which is why process is such a hard this for me to understand.   I struggle to plan in detail.  I am inspired by colour and form.  I find a mass of tangled thread stimulating.  Trying to sample or work a number of pieces in a planned theme leaves me cold.   The idea forms and morphs over time in my subconcious.  I have now recognized that it's then that I can start conscientously working on the idea.

Well I didn't really have any ideas tio begin with.

First I got carrried away and tried felting some wool.   Yes, I forgot I wasn't a felter!   But  I ended up with a lovely red circle which I looked at for quite a while.  And, I had lots of thoughts about what I could do with it.  Cue - start thinking out loud and deciding what to do.

Well it looks like a flower.  Stitch into it.

Did that.  Well that looks a bit dull.  What will I do with it.

I know, I will make more flowers .  Nah.  Bad idea - note to self - remember I am not a felter!

I will add text to it.   Maybe a saying?

Look at stitched shape again.   Love the scalet red colour and the explosive flower shape.

What about adding flower names around it?   Like the look of that.   White stitching on black felt makes the red pop.

What next.   More text.  Not more flowers though.   What does red mean?    Thats an idea.  Google stuff about red: phrases, poems, meanings.   Jot some of them done on the nearest bit of paper.  Decide on what is associated with the colour red.

Think about them.   Is the order important.   How selective will I be?  I took out some negative concepts and the words lost their pizzaz.

Add to all this - what do I call the work?    I have to confess most times the title will be settled before the work is completed.   I then work to the title.   Surely this forms part of process?   Not sure when the name happened in the work though.  Save that the word red was always going to be in it.  :-)

MORE ON PROCESS

small wall plaque with some of the mediums I work with:  paper, fabric,
 contemporary clay, threads, beads and a small piece of tyvek.

I have been working on tidying my studio space and trying to toss what is not needed.  I find that  really hard thing to do as I like to work in mixed media.  (But I have way too much fabric which needs a new home and am patting myself on the back for actually moving some of it on).   A tidy space is easier to work in... and I need to work on being tidier

I have had a play with some tyvek and thinking how it fits with my creative practice.  Do I need to go there?   It has some possibilities as it adds texture.  But I am trying to keep in mind that I need to focus what I do rather than expand it.  How do I refine my art practice ?  Does continued play in new mediums add or detract to this experience?   To quote a good friend of mine:  I can but I don't have to... use that fabric,  pursue that medium, try a new technique.  (Thanks Wendy)  As I understand process ,it allows me to explore, make mistakes, make discoveries and grow.

peacock carpenter bee

And I have started to collect images for one of my three major projects I have in mind in the coming year.  I have a solo mixed media exhibition happening in August 2019: BEE happy.   At the moment I am exploring Australian native bees and contemplating where I go next.   Some drawing I think.  It will help get their shapes in my hands and head.  Hoping not to over think it and enjoy the whole journey.   I find the final push to complete the works is the hardest.

Grandmother's Garden and return to stitching

I have had a burst of soft sculpting and created some grannies and aunties for my exhibition Grandmother's Garden.  It was fun but exhausting.

 Grandmother’s Garden included an installation of hanging pieced hexagons.  The installation is a play on the quilting pattern of the same name.  It is a tessellating pattern which builds upon itself.   I have used old embroidered table cloths, tray cloths and napkins.

The earliest hexagon template that quilt researchers have found was made in England in 1770. Hexagon became one of the most popular patterns in England by 1830.    The pattern at that stage was know as honeycomb or hexagon.

Hexagon patterns bloomed in the United States in the 1930s under the name Grandmother's Flower Garden.  Many pieced quilts used fabric remnants or repurposed cloth to create a very distinct pattern.

I ran a couple of workshops during the exhibition and we paper pieced small bowls - we used old table linen and it came up a treat!

Its been a while since I put a needle into cloth with a decorative purpose in mind.  But glad to say I managed to lay out a fabric collage of sorts and started stitching.   Thinking they may become small bags.   Or just a piece of embellished fabric.   But trying to stitch sustainably and looking to my stash rather than buy new fabric and threads.   More later.

Rabbits on Exhibtion - Tempetuous Nature

Last night the exhibition Tempestuous Nature was officially opened at Creators Artspace, Lincoln Causeway, Wodonga.  

I was invited to join the exhibition by fibre artists Cathy Upton and Leanne O'Toole.  Cathy has on display results of eco dying on silk, cotton and wool cotton mixes.  Leanne's works are in the form of bags - cloth, felted and both.  Also on display were two felted wearable art dresses on which Cathy and Leanne had collaborated. One of the dresses was a winner at the Wool Fashion Awards in 2014.  Their work is amazing and I was really chuffed to be asked to contribute work - but rabbits?   Well it worked. 

Henrietta is the bunny that started this journey.    Leanne had seen Henrietta and thought that rabbits would fit the eclectic mix of fibre art.in the exhibition.

Henrietta is a true mixed media creation.  I wanted to try clay over cloth which is how her face came about.  Her ears are florists wire and papier-mâché made from tissue that came with a new pair of shows. Henrietta’s little jacket was a failed felting experiment.  The felt came up a treat in its new guise.  Pants were made from a scrap left over from some long forgotten project.  

Bunnies in the buff posing with One of Leanne O'Toole's Cloth bags
and two of Cathy Upton's eco-dyed scarves

 Bunnies in the Buff

These little fellows are made from a test scrap of cotton fabric that Cathy eco dyed.    I just loved the colour and the bunnies have such an exuberant feel about them that I couldn’t clothe them.   

I just gave them simple  embroidered faces and lovely fluffy tails made from unspun sheep wool.

 The Border Mail gave us a nice write up.  You can find it here.

In making my bunnies I have tried to imbibe them with something of a tempestuous nature.  If you look you may find that they are have elements that are emotional, passionate, intense, impassioned, fiery, unrestrained, temperamental, volatile, excitable, mercurial or unpredictable.

I have endeavoured to stick to the principle of not buying anything in making the bunnies. Remembering where lots of the bits came from has added to the fun I have had in making bunnies for this exhibition.

 

As adults, we often eschew childhood toys and forget the joy they gave us.   These bunnies are toys for adults and can be hung on the wall or sit on a shelf.  I  will post more photos over the next couple of weeks.  I hope my bunnies give you as much pleasure as they do me.

Cactus Country

A visit to Cactus Country -  friends' gardens hidden on a farming property at Strathmerton (on the Victorian side of the Murray River).

Click here for  a u tube for a bit of a look see as Jim talks about how he came to have acres of cactus.

The garden had more than enough flowers and lovely spiky plants to make our visit memorable. There is lots of inspiration for some textural embroidery and painting.    And an upcoming exhibition of art for the garden or comprising fibres from it in January 2018.  😍  

Also exciting - I will have an exhibition of garden art and some workshops in the garden in January 2018.

Here are some flower photos to wet your appetite:

Working towards exhibion, visits to Melbourne and Sydney

Part of Grandmother's Garden Installation for exhibtion in mid 2018

What have been up to since last post?   Not really hands on in the creation stakes.   Spent time in Melbourne keeping appointments and dodging rain.

I did get to op shop though and was pleased as punch as I picked up a lovely vintage tea pot, sugar bowl and milk jug which will complement the Grandmother's Garden installation I am working on. I am recylcling old and vintage embroideries  and playing with the hexagon shap which us the basis for the quilt pattern Grandmother's Garden.   In doing so I am remembering special times with my own grandmother who always set a "proper" table with embroidered table cloths and napkins.

And I picked up a couple of books on drawing fantasy figures.   Thinking they will have some inspiration for sculpting faces and different body forms.   One of the books set out its drawings based on the skeleton – much the same as the life drawing classed I had been going to.  Sadly the classes have missed out as they are on a Sunday and I seem to have been away from home for about the last five!!

And this last weekend I went to Sydney and caught up with an exhibiting group I am part of to finalise plans for our joint exhibition in 2018.    The deadline for finalising works to photograph is 1^st of May – only a month away!    There will be a bit of panic between now and then as I have looked at my calendar and a lot of time has been blocked out already.   But I am a long way along and  when I review what I have done much closer to completion than I thought.

Whilst in Sydney I was taken to Designers on Show exhibtion.   It showcased and sold work of  Australian artists and designers in all mediums and included fine art, jewelry, homewares such printed designs on linen, hand made one of a kind hats, bespoke shoes and knitted items.  I could go on.  But instead I will go again next year.  It was inspiring.  I purchased a couple of cards of works by Jane Stapelford and one of her peg people.

I have been reading up on Olmec, Maya and Aztec civilizations and got information and a couple of sketches into my visual diary.    It has been fun and I have started a collection of ideas for a body of work.  

I am intrigued by the saying “as drunk as 400 rabbits”.   A group of Aztec gods called the Centzo Totochtin (also known as 400 rabbits) were associated the agave plant from which an alcoholic drink called maguey was made.  They partied hard it seems!  It was belived that the rabbit first discovered maguey by nibbling on an agave leaf.  Maguey was a ritual drink in Aztec times and the population at large were not permitted to drink it.    If you are interested you can find a little more information here .

My mind is humming with the thought of cartwheeling and leaping rabbits and how to make them😊

Reasons to write and draw in a journal

I write just about every morning and record my thoughts.  It’s a habit I kept after reading and completing the exercises contained in The Artists Way by Julia Cameron.   I haven't quite got this discipline with the blog and when life is full, as it has been the last few months, the blog loses out ☹.

Sometimes my pages are meaningless… verbal blah about family, garden and domestic chores.   But I keep writing.  There have been occasions I write about the fact that I don’t know what to write about for 2 pages.   But by keeping writing the subconscious bubbles and ideas rise to the surface.

A very recent example  of this relates to a discussion with a Garden and Cafe venue I have been having about mounting an outdoor show .

The garden is are broken up into subcontinental regions such as Africa, the Americas etc and I had got caught up in trying to do something which would reflect the whole of the gardens.  My ideas were becoming too broad and my research for inspiration too far reaching!   The solution came out of the blue when writing one morning.  So obvious – stick to one region!   I had got so caught up with the idea of capturing the whole the gardens I couldn't get past that point.

I have an interest in pre-Columbian history so the Americas became the obvious choice.   Since then I have narrowed the theme down to Mesoamerica: early settlement in the Mexican basin and south to the areas which encapsulate Columbia and Peru.

Ceramic figure of seated woman (AD50- 200) – trace of red pigment 

Serendipity also played a part in this choice.   I am an op shopper and if given the chance will not pass up the opportunity to visit and op shop.  Very recently I came across (and away) with a publication called El Dorado Columbian Gold.  This book accompanied an exhibition of a selection of ancient gold objects from the Museo Del Oro, Bogota, Colombia in the major galleries in each of the States of Australia in 1978.    It is full of amazing photos and very good text.    This complements  other books in my library which focus on textiles, architecture and sculpture in the region. 

An anthropomorphic Tairona bat pectoral (AD900-1600) . Photograph: Museo del Oro, Colombia

Now I am chock full of ideas that can be interpreted in both assemblage, contemporary clays and metal work embroidery.  Bliss.

Next step is to go one further with recording and start getting ideas from a text format to sketches.   The hardest part for me.   This is, I think, because I have been mulling ideas over in my head for quite a while and just want to get on with it and get my hands dirty or stab some cloth.   But I have learnt that my design and execution is almost always better when I do this step.

I'll keep you posted.

More Repurposing

Well not really repurposing but redirection.

I have a grab bag collection of threads and button given to me or so irrestable that I had to buy them. Remember I have a penchant for op shops.

Sealable and celephane bags of lovelies end up in an enormous tangle. But I have learnt to live with the fact that I am inspired by the mass (should really write "mess") of tangled colour that calls out to and inspires me.

Recently I have been making brooches.  They will end up for sale at the Tryp(s)tich exhibtion by the Wagga Wagga group in October.

Flyer for Exhibtion

Woven Brooch

Dorset Button Brooch