Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Winter time woes

So I just wrote that last post trying to be all puppies and sunshine when the real truth is I'm more surly cats thunder clouds. I want to tell you how meh, I am feeling, but I don't want to be that guy at the party. (You know the guy. The one that is the major downer, probably has greasy hair and sniffs really loudly while telling you how hard his life sucks.) I really don't. But sometimes, thats just how I feel. This blog is like the diary I have been keeping for like 5 years. Thats just awesome. High five for me. And over the years its kind of changed, sometimes I come in and out, sometimes its just photos. I think before I had my website I was always directing people here so then I thought I had to put forward a "professional" like front. You know, keep the swearing to a minimum, talk about all the great stuff I was working on and keep the whining to a dull roar. Weeeeellll, the thing is, that gets boring real fast. It's not me. There are no shades of light and dark. When it just tries to be light it gets boring and the dark is busting at the seams and before you know it its burning down your lap top trying to get out. Which brings us to the present.

So sometimes I like to go back to the very beginning of this blog and read past entries. Kinda makes me feel better and kind of resets me. What just dawned on me was that the whole reason for starting this blog was to wade through and try and figure out my ideas for my first solo show. It was going to be a sounding board to try and find my way. And whaddya know, we are pretty much smack bang in the same place. History repeats itself. 

So I think thats what I am going to do. Go back to basics.

I have a solo show lined up for May 2016 at JamFactory in gallery 2. Thats right, I'm playin with the big boys now! I am so pumped. For the length of my career as a glass blower I have always wanted to exhibit in gallery two. It is my fav space. It is a self contained "u" shaped space that is just perfect for an installation. My initial idea is to create a show that is based on the greenhouse. (I am also aware that my first solo show was garden themed....) My working tittle is;

I DREAM A GREENHOUSE

I feel like this is my chance to show all my works I researched and created from my residency in Northlands, it's my chance to fill this little space up with all my garden-y loves. It is daunting. At the moment I have a heap of scrambly ideas running around my noggin but I feel like I'm starting to take a hold. So thats why I want to reactivate my blog again. This lil guy helped me out last time around and I'm hoping it can pull me through again. 


This is the story so far:
- "The leaf library"
- Green shed type of installation
- "Memory Keepers" - domes in like sargasso, eel green, olive with decals of family
- stag ferns (god help me how am i going to pull that one off?
- a call out for prop hire to incorporate viewers into the exhibition, we create a common shared memory of the garden

So sometimes, like now, when i stay up too late and all the little niggly things start to eat away at me (i have to remake x6 lights that got returned, i have to set my torch up but i don't know how, i lost my studio mate, i feel alone, it is ridiculously hard to be a glass blower in melbs) all that junk, i'm gonna cram it under the rug and focus on all the good junk. The good junk is what makes for a good life. The bad junk is what makes for a wasted life. 

I'm going to pour everything I have into this show for next year

And
it
is
going
to 
be
a
fucking
knockout
.

Adelaide, the land of celery dreams and glass blowin teams

Another day, another trip to Adelaide. I have been to Adelaide so much this year. It is both good and bad. Good that I get to see my family and mates and blow a shit load of glass. Bad in that I have to hit the ground running, generally stress myself out and have to blow a shit load of glass. Same, same but different see?
So deja vu, heres a bunch of lights I made.
Here's the little ray of sunshine that works her ass off for me and keeps me on track.
I did get to go and see a show opening which was super fun. It's at my fav pub, the wheaty and with some of my fave gals, the girls from gate 8.
But this is the most exciting thing.....celery! I finally got to spend some time working on my solo show next year. I' starting to get excited for it and almost ready to throw myself in head first. I've been doing a little dicking around and procrastinating but finally I am (almost) ready to commit! Darryl made me a couple of sweet leaf moulds to use and the celery stalk was one of them. I am so happy with how these stalks turned out. Pretty good for the first try right? Exhibition work is hard going. Especially if you are trying to make new works. It's just so freaking expensive to make glass. So to make something that a. potentially might not work out and b. doesn't turn an initial profit is really tricky. And now that grants are getting harder and harder to come by, it's even trickier. 
I think these guys turned out pretty good. (I love that my sister said to me, "why'd you put that picture of celery on instagram?" "uh, because I made them....out of glass!!" "ohhhh, i thought they were real!" hahahahahaha. Job done.
Now I gotta think about how i am going to display all these lil suckers. That is a show in itself.