house mate

He came into the house on the 42 degree day and since then, turns up in different spots. I don't mind when he is on the walls, but the thought that I might accidentally touch him while picking up a book is a little disturbing.

conversations with cats - through the sapphire sky

Check out this post over on through the sapphire sky about the cat painters of the Edo period:

Using cat paintings to rat proof - cat painters in Edo

lone cockatoo

like a Christmas tree angel on top of the Norfolk Island Pine tree next door

I think he might have been an avery-escapee as he was on his own- you usually see Sulfur-crested Cockatoos in flocks- or he might be from the gang that hang out just south of the Cooks River temporarily separated. He was getting harassed by the local Magpies and Noisy Minors.

"A conference of cats"

It's not been a good day

Not much progress has been made on the chapter that is almost finished and I am in terrible hormonal mood which is sinking into a blue funk as I face the reality that I probably wont be going to Japan or Europe this year.

Siting at my messy desk I notice a zine that has been living on the left hand side of my computer for some time now. It has a price sticker on it which makes me think that I bought in the flesh from Sticky (as opposed to online) on my way home from Nagoya which included a long stop in Melbourne. My desk is like that, things land there and stay there.

Anyway I was procrastinating so I read it for the first time- I often buy zines quickly on the feel and look of them.

Called "Raining in my room" it was a charming read. I realise now that I shared a table with the writer Emma at the Wollongong zine fair couple of years ago. She is one half of Take Care distro. (Flaps doesn't currently stocks with them) (if your interested in zines it's worth checking out her blog, scroll down for distro information and some posts from her about zine making, also good list of links)

Its a zine about suburbia and memory, and the last section is about the stray cats that hang out in the closed off road at the end of Shirlow St, Marrickville - it turns out that they are many peoples secret pleasure.

Emma I hope you don't mind me posting part of your zine here:

My favourite line: "The streets are dark and catless."

now I can move this zine to the pile on the bookshelf..

I saw a sign in the sky

Sufijan Stevens last night at the Opera house was probably the best concert I have ever seen. Sun Ra transfigured, blues, cacophony, mystical love. I don't really want to describe the details, I need to hold them in still. He mostly played form The Age of Adz and All delighted people. At the end balloons where released from the roof. I just wanted to carry home some of that delightful magic. Below due to Haico's shutter timing, I am accidentally doing the dance moves from Vesuvius.

MONA moonrise

So much to write about the MONA opening- a weekend full of beauty, horror and doubt. But the 1st chapter is getting very close to first draft stage so I am going to push on and try and give you the odd thought bubble later.

Here are some pictures form the concert on the first night. An almost full moonrise during The Cruel Sea. I have to say they played a little flat that night, and the sinking temperature was the thing keeping me up front in the crowd rather than scamming more booze down the back. But they where better the next night.

The Wire that played before The Cruel Sea: they where fan-tas-tic! I was too busy dancing to take pictures.

one year

of this blog.

I started with a story about mess, or the lack of it and posted photos as a comparison during the clean up. 'Mess' has been a fairly consisted tag, appearing times 7 times, as many times as 'art' and 'ginger cats'.

On the day which was the one year from the day that I arrived in Japan, the anniversary of my first Fuji sighting, I was cleaning up my studio as I was going to have visitors. By the way I consider the photo above of one corner of my studio, while not 'clean' it's certainly 'ordered'- for me! by comparison!
Somehow that process of cleaning finally brought me home, or perhaps it was sense of the floating freedom of 2010 had finally come to an end. It could also have been because I was preparing the various channels of "Feeders" for viewing, I had a chance to reflect on all the work I had done recently and to see myself as a artist rather than PhD student. For whatever reason my old-self drew down my floating-self and I finally felt 'back'.

For the last 3months I have been avoiding being in my studio- and it had a lot to do with appalling mess I had created there while making many props and editing two multiple channel video works. But I think it was also about accepting that I am home and I need to get back onto working on driving my writing and studio forward.

As I took this photo to I wondered how I ever had room for my cat on this desk. The sign in the corner says "This is not the life my mother wanted for me" and comes from this work.

I haven't always posted as much as I wanted or intended to- there are plenty of half finished posts. I'm not even sure who I am writing for. Although I know Sarah and Caren are reading it because they often comments- your tops ladies!

unexpected visitor

My parents came round for lunch and while I was listen to a long story my father was telling me, my mother ducked outside to wander around our yard and check the growth of the plants.

"Do you know that you have a chicken in your yard?" !! It was scratching around our tumble-weed.

I knocked on various houses asking people if they where missing a young white chicken. They all said no and when I got back he had gone.

heat and humidity

 

Every morning a new stand of fungi appears in our garden. Haico has done a lot of work on the garden this year which has included bringing in enriched soil and bark mulch resulting in a large diversity of mushrooms appearing.

Mid week chilled cucumber soup

Back at work.

Cucumber seedlings given to me by my neighbour. I'll be saving seeds off this beauty.