SOLD!

I have just arrived home from another drive to Sydney for the last day of the exhibition. I had such a pleasant surprise to find out that my table sold!!! Very exciting and not bad considering it was one of four pieces that sold…

Anyway, I’m back to watching an old school friend, Leon Ford, play a Scotsman on ABC 🙂

Mos-Oz Sydney Exhibition

I took Molly up to Sydney the other day for the opening of my first “real” exhibition. We had a great day in the end and I’m glad we went. I figure it’s all these little adventures that I have with my children that I will reminisce about some day. I think most of it probably went over her head, but she travelled wonderfully! We went to IKEA (of course!) and to the stained glass shop (of course!) and to a playground overlooking the bay. Sydney is just stunning… Molly instantly made friends with some older school girls. Actually she had them wrapped around her little finger! 😉 It was sweet to see that side of her that is separate from me: easily making friends, the ability to stand her own ground (actually she might even be a bit too confident!!!;) ), just the Molly that I don’t always see because I’m her Mum and so therefore…

It was a fairly mad rush up and down, but great to see the other work. I realised how far I still have to go, obviously since I am self taught and fairly new to the medium, but it was very inspiring to see just how creative and original some people’s styles are. Definitely a learning experience which is always good.

We arrived back very late and I stayed up till 4am doing my portfolio for an interview to sell my work at The Old Bus Depot Markets the following morning. Was succesful, so it was worth it.

San Francisco Mosaic Murals

I recently put up some pictures of my kids and some of my mosaic on Flickr, primarily for the benefit of friends and family living OS. I started looking at a few public groups and came across one user in San Francisco doing painted and mosaic murals. Well there’s two of my passions in one outfit!!! It was really exciting to see some of my old haunts get brightened up by some awesome murals.

Hoff St. Mural by Josef Norris

I visited SF last year with my family and did notice so much mosaic, more than I remembered from when I lived there. How inspiring! This is the type of thing that we Canberrans are devoid of. It makes me realise how conservative this town is and so in need of some public art. I long to change it, and it is those thoughts that I now have milling around in my head. Where to start…?

The War Memorial

A little while ago I decided to photograph the mosaic in my hometown of Canberra, Australia and showcase them on this blog. We seem to be fairly appreciative of this medium as it is certainly around.

Probably the most impressive mosaic and certainly the place to start for this ongoing collection is inside the War Memorial, one of my favourite buildings in Canberra and it being a very good example of an art deco building. The interior of the Hall of Memory is covered with mosaic, top to bottom. There is not an inch that has not been mosaiced. I was really very moved by it, and certainly put in my place! There are over six million pieces of tesserae, and around 80 different colours, all smalti.

The murals were designed by an Australian artist (also a mosaic artist) called Napier Waller who also fought in WWI. I believe the art was in commemoration to those who fought in that war and subsequently also in WWII. As you can see all the figures are dressed in WWII uniforms.

I think what really moved me so much was the fact that war widows actually pieced all this together down in Victoria (using the reverse method). They were under the direction of Waller and there were apparently several Italian mosaic artists who installed it. It’s an amazing feat really. The whole installation was finished in 1958.

There are 2 mythical creatures depicted above two of the murals. One of which is a sea centaur, representing an hospital ship named AHS Centaur that was sunk by a Japanese torpedo up near Brisbane, many Australian lives lost. The other being a gargoyle, with a sardonic smile, watching the mass devastation of all things (particualrly buildings) old and historical.

The idea behind the Dome was really interesting. It is divided into seven segments, representing Australia’s seven pointed star. You can’t see it in this picture but there are hands reaching up symbolising the earth giving up the spirits of those who lost their lives to “heaven” depicted by the sun, the symbol of eternal life. There are also pictures of black swans who always come home to die. Everything tied in, and there’s so much thought behind it all. It’s really very beautiful.

Detail

One of the side murals

Needless to say, it’s beautiful and well worth the visit for some amazing art and architecture, and of course the history and memory of all Australian soldiers and peacekeepers.