summer

Summer brings with it more time to focus on what I need to focus on. After the brew ha ha of the opening of Tumbalina's Empire I am now getting down to the business of drawing. I am feeling very strong about the work at the moment as if feels for once like something true to me. I am drawing portraits and I am really learning so much from doing them not only about peoples faces but about how much information I have gatherd as an artist over the years to be able to create something as technically finished as what I am doing now.

I hoe to do a series on Dementia as part of my Limbo in shellac series. I have started with Venla my mother and am hoping to draw some of the people in the home where she lives. Here is one I did yesterday....more to follow.

Ortega in Brighton

Sticking with my Arks and Spectors theme and returning to drawing because I love it so much here is Ortega in Brighton. Ortega is  a fabulous photograqher from Mexico and the pavillion is the one that burned down in Brighton.

Limbo

This image pretty much sums it all up. I feel like I am officially in limbo. The place neither for the living nor the dead. I am paintings arks and spectors. I want to destroy my work so it comes to life. Its a strange place to be. But makes me consider my drawings with a mind and eye to what can't be seen. What can't be known.

My studio today and Floating Tumbalina mark 2

H&O approach my fathers house

Welcome to the Empire! Why not stay awhile? Enjoy the view with a vodka cocktail and cuban cigar or two.

http://www.tumbalinasempire.com/

This amazing and staggeringly beautiful site was designed by the one and only Ms. Sugar Power. A true genius in my books and my sister in mind soul and blood.....and red satin slippers.

My web site will be opening very very soon

I have been on the construcion site of the Empire.
Tumbalina's Empire that is.
A place of excess and golden soldiers.
Please visit it and tell me of any comments you may have so that for the launch we can all wear glomesh handbags with confidence!
http://www.tumbalinasempire.com/

angels

I am always on the look out for great things to photograph. I collected some cicadas over the last few years and I have used their wings on these toys. I think the detail as amazing.

Tumbalina's Empire the Web site is almost ready to be launched which is very exciting. I am also building a Gallery Blog so that more of my work can be seen....

Ortega and Hokusai

I was going to call this Kappa Cockerel fishing my moonlight but decided  I would rather pay homage to the artists who inspired the work.

The virgin and the dragon

Now, lets get one thing sraight. I seriously have no idea of what to think of this drawing. As with Nature Boy I felt compelled to draw it but just look at it! I mean whats going on? It actually looks much better in real life but thats just my word against modern technologie...

down to business...

Here is the nerve centre of Tumbalina's Empire. As you can see its a fairly dodgy operation ....The drawing is a commision called The Virgin and the Dragon....Thaky you to the Virgin Mary Guadalupe and Hokusai. It's not much to look at right now but just you wait and see.....

what's going on?

My good friend Alan Brown  sent me a couple of posters recently from Japan. Not many know this but I am the self appointed Love Monkey of Beat Takeshi so you can imagine the squeals of delight  when I opened my present.The lady in the kimono is actually a fella and is the most amazing dancers and has appeared in Beat's films....

Details of Nature Boy

Nature Boy

There was a boy

A very strange, enchanted boy

They say he wandered very far, very far

Over land and sea



A little shy

And sad of eye

But very wise

Was he



And then one day

The magic day he passed my way

And while we spoke of many things

Fools and kings

This he said to me



"The greatest thing

You'll ever learn

Is just to love

And be loved

In return."

eden ahbez

Venla

This is a sketch I did of my mother over a year ago. Its quite hard to draw people you love so much.

Will you always be mine?

This is a drawing of my mother I have done from a photograph of her when she was 11years old in 1938. It was during the depression so there a strange sense of austerity about it. When I visited her yesterday she cried out to no one in particular"Will you always be mine?"
I have written it in Finish because thats where her grand father came from.

Yo siEmpre te amare....

I have two paper mache sculptures from Mexico. They are always together and I love them so....I need to learn Spanish....Thankyou to my Spanish friends for helping me out on this one unfortunately there is no fixing the original....Live and learn to love our faults I suppose.

Naughty Tumbalina

I always photograph my work as I draw to help me see what is working and what isn't. Tumbalina snuck into this one. She must be a bit excited because her empire is nearly built...

Spring time of the SS Hanamaru

I have beefed things up a bit and reworked it a little. This drawing is ridiculously difficult to photograph.

9x5 show at walker street

This will be my piece for the 9x5 show at walker st this year. I think the original is funnier but this one I believe has it's own charm and as they say in Malaysia "same same but different lah"

Daily Pallet

I thought it would be interesting(probably for me only) to see the evolution of my pallet over time...

What have I done lately?

This is called In my Fathers House.
It is oil and wax medium on canvas and is 100cm x100cm. I am having some kind of nautical religious experience at the moment.....

What have I done lately?

detail

This is called the Springtime Episode of the SS Hana Maru. It's 100cm x 120cm and is done in Graphite shellac and crayon  on paper. It is quite difficult to photograph due to the variations in surface reflections....

Some oldies

I was digging through the cobwebs and came across some old work I did on Ghost Rider. They are photographs of photocopies of photographs so.....
I still think they are prettty funky  and I had a lot of fun painting them......I can't believe I said "Funky"

they are fairly large works and were all done in acrylics. I think they were used in the loft scene....

Warning!! Today's blog may offend it contains some very rude words. If you are under 21 or easily offended please turn away NOW!

Arse! Fuck! I am so sick of these cockheads who keep telling me my work has not been accepted this year! I know I  keep entering these half arsed money making schemes but I swear the judges must have their heads up their arseholes!
I might be turning into one of those really mental people who think their work is really amazing but in fact its CRAP!!! Yea thanks for telling me!
the drawing I entered was Fucking Stupendous!

Its HUGE(nearly 2 meters squared) Its red like blood and it is an angry COW! ITS CALLED
MEAT


FUCK! FUCK! whats wrong with it????
God I feel so much better now
Sorry about all the swearing..
Bum
I'll go and draw some rainbows and butterflys now thankyou very much
K

Dante's Goat

This is a much larger version of The watchful goat of Zion.

Ashton Grove

If you should per chance to find yourself in Melbourne Australia then wonder over to the exquisite funiture store by the name of Ashtongrove.
Nestled in at 336 Toorak Road Toorak. 
Upon arival you will meet my paintings there, having a little partey all of their own.
http://www.ashtongrove.co.nz/

carcass of a seraphim

Sometimes things just appear on my studio wall
and I have to grab them while I can.

Meet the Enigma

of the Watchful Goat of Zion

Gilbert and George

I never put the work of other artist on my blog mostly because I am completely consumed by my own obsessions. However these two are like Gods to me and I kow tow to their genius. I have always thought that their honesty ,candor and general Genius (yes I said it again) are beyond compare. I love them. Thank you to Vassili Killiman's Art Patrol.

A bit windy

I sometimes feel that I am constantly at the mercy of nature as far as my art goes. I am like one of those litmus paper things or something that people use to find out what is really going on beneath. Last night my extremely well ventilated studio became a wind tunnel for some kind of hurricane...I rescued my paintings just in time! Today working there was like nothing else. I had my super duper wind rejecting outfit on plus gloves and still the arctic breeze found its way into my neck and down my spine. I still managed to get some painting done though....so there. My paintings are taking a turn for the windy, my new goat just landed in Zion of all places? something about Bony M and the rivers of Babylon.....

Guarding the Hosts of Heaven

the watchful goat

Studio

I have braved the chilly wind and set up my studio in the very well ventilated studio and I have started painting again!
I have missed my good friend for the last few months and we are off to a resounding start with a small painting of a goat...no prizes there!
my fingers are frozen and Tubbsie is confused but my brain and soul feel better already.
Its this window period between blistering cold and blistering heat that I can work the paint around the canvas...ooooooooooH! Joy and Joyness here I go!

The well balanced goat of the very sexy Church of Finland

Finished!

MEAT

I have shown a smaller version of this on my blog before but this one is bigger than me....It is graphite and shellac on paper so photographing it is a challenge to say the least. She stands at about 170cm and seriously dominates the room. I have entered it in the Whyalla art prize. I am looking forward the the rejection letter which I am hoping will read "Your Meat has been rejected!"
Ouch!

Life of a drawing part six

I think I'm finally starting to get somewhere with this one. Not too far to go now. ....It might be called The well balanced goat of the very sexy Church of Finland...ho ho ho

Life of a drawing part five

I was rejected for the Blake Prize today but the letter made me laugh. Or I made myself laugh. The title of the work rejected was 'Don't dick with my soul and tell me your a friend of Jesus.....'.I think I will give all of my works funny names from now on so at least there can be some jocularity amids the desolation....OMMMM
Here I am working on the "Very sexy goat of the Church of Finland..."

protecting the Mings

life of a drawing part four

crayon goes on

an oldie but a goodie

strange religion

life of a drawing part three

I bit the bullet and got myself and my drawing into the paint area...brrrrrrr using shellac on my work is a big risk. i need to work quickly and trust my instinct. a drawing without risk is like sex without cake...make of that what you will.

life of a drawing part two

the first wife

Thank you to Auntie Mary and Cousin Jonathan for the background information on this photograph. I believe it was taken in the early seventies in Uncle Tom's back yard. I was sitting on Uncle Tom's knee at my Nana's house in Birmingham when we watched the moon landing. Who could forget Uncle Tom and his electric cat trap!

life of a drwing part one

This may be one of the worst photographs I have ever taken reason being it is in the corner of my teeny tiny Tumbalina studio where the light no see the day... I will do a piece on the life of a drawing and this is part one. Only because it is cold in the studio but warm in the computer room I may be the laziest artist on the planet...This church is inspired by the Anglican church where my parents were married it has a copper roof...it is the third goat I tried but I really like this one.....

greetings

whos that?

Guarding the Lamb

Protecting the unicorn

Living Legend

This is a textured wall hanging I made for my mother as she is blind and suffers from severe dementia. She loves to use her hands to see the world. I hope it brings her some pleasure. She turned 82 today.

Here I am with a living national treasure Mr. Ian Richter. He is my friend. We are at the Brunswick Street Gallery in front of four of my pictures(the ones in gold frames) We couldn't get in on the opening night as it was too overcrowded and I can't handle massess of people. On the whole the show was pretty good if not a bit overwhelming due to the sheer number of works there.

Tumbalina is dreaming of her empire

Pics fom my studio

I really like my studio right now. Its like being inside my brain only on the outside which is not as gruesome as it sounds.

Brunswick Street Gallery

This is one of my works which will be on show at the Small Works Exhibition. The official opening is on Friday 26 of June.

Mount Eyer Art Prize

This work has been shortlisted for the Mount Eyer Art Prize through the Rex Livingston Gallery. Thank you to the organisers. It is called The Kid Returns. It is a one off digital print of a drawing done in graphite,crayon and shellac on paper.The frame is silver leaf.

William Blake Dreaming he is a Kangaroo

OH NO!

I think my blog has gone LOCO!

Latest

Here I am in my fabulous shoe box studio with my latest project. I am thinking of calling it

IF WILLIAM BLAKE WERE A KANGAROO

APW SHOW

Windows Live Hotmail
Ten of my pictures will be on show amongs the thousands. They are so far from home without frames or a warm scarf. If anyone out there is in the neighbourhood can you please swing by and give them a bowl of warm milk and a tim tam? Thankyou

I met a very dead possum today

I introduced it to my painting Major Goat. They are now married......Love is still love even in this autumn time.

studio without you

when we argue my life is full of shadows. my studio is an empty shell. the shadows just scare me

Sometimes Nothing Happens

Sometimes, as much as you want to or try to, attempts at getting work done is like slapping your head against a tofu wall. Life continues to interrupt me and it is really starting to piss me off! Right now we are moving again back to our original tobacco house as things are always greener in the pasture next door. Then there is the tyranny of distance. Trying to get your work from here to there. Vivian the cat continues with his incessant lecturing on the pros and cons of feather toys versus real birds! I swear if I don't get some work done soon I may pop! My head is filling up with so much thinking stuff that who knows what may happen.

Brunswick Street Gallery Works on Paper

YAY!! This little treasure will be shown at the works on paper at the Brunswick Street Gallery opening next week.............Goat Luck!

Ghost of the White Bamboo Horse

I might have to write a story to go with my new picture.

More smashing fun from God's golden Army

God's Golden Army

God's Golden Army

I have been working on a submission for a children's book for the last couple of weeks and I can't publish what I have done so far as I am not allowed to, However I have taken up my joy of photography again and have been producing some snaps. They are from a series I like to call The little forest animals and God's golden army.

Earth Hour

SHHHHHH! itr thow dartkth IU cont swee ny jeyboads to I m s BIt monfuthed witht mow!

ant oim a vit scarrrred ov ja bigh monshta woths ishj shitting in da cohnah.....

Monkey King

Things are worse than I thought. Whilst chewing their bacon in the forest my two stupid unicorns have been captured by the Monkey king. He has cast a spell on them and turned them into two skeleton brides who he claims he has now married. I feel I have crystal daggers piercing my heart right now.

I know that feeling Mr. Micky

Ground control to Major Goat

Come in Major Goat.

Towers angels and rabbits

Meat McFeast

Hi my name is McFeast...What's yours?

Cheeky Little Red

I wanted to call it 'Don't dick with my soul then tell me your a friend of Jesus.' But I thought that a bit harsh so I am having a go at winemakers and communists all at once instead. It is called 'Cheeky Little Red.' It is a drawing and I have used graphite shellac and crayons on paper. It is 135cm by 157cm...... Its nearly as tall as me God bless it's little cotton socks!

Just look at that Head!

Loser but a winner

I was chosen for the Archangel prize finals so I'm a winner.

I didn't win so I'm a loser.

Two of my paintings were picked for the finals so I'm a winner.

It took me four hours to get there as I live in the country so some may se me as a loser.

Both of my paintings were perchased even though two thirds wen't so I might be a winner.

In the great scheme of things I reckon since I have a chihuahua I am a winner.

Very Big Goat

This drawing is very big. It is about 150cm by 200cm. That's one big goat. People bathe in goats milk because of the high aha content and I don't mean "aha! there's a goat in my soup." I'm a bit worried that my sense of humour is becoming very stupid....

I have nothing to say

Drawing a monster drawing all day. A monster drawing. Now I am pooped and I think my it is S$!%.....I cant swear on this blog anymore because I'm afraid little chillens will see it and be scared by my words. Big drawings are very tireing. That a lot of tires. I have changed the colour of the blog because I think the yellow was really getting me down.

May your past be a momentous occasion.

I really hate yellow but I dislike inappropriate purple more.

I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow I really hate yellow, but not as much as I dislike inappropriate purple.

Rabbits Who Discover

Instead of "She Who Discovers" I wish the competition was called "Rabbit with suspected mixamatosa who is about to be crushed by a falling building in Tokyo"....Ah well I always a bad reader of titles. Never Mind...BoooooHooooo

Nearly on fia

We were very lucky. Our town is called Myrtleford and as you can see from this map the eford of Myrtleford got burned out. Only a Myrt left.I am now officially very very very respectul of Mother Nature....

Archangel Prize

This is pretty cool. I have been selected as a finalist for the Archangel Prize which opens on Friday the 13th at St. Michael's Grammar School in St. Kilda. This is one of my two paintings that will be in the show, it is called One for the Master.

She Who Discovers

I have been selected as a finalist for the She Who Discovers show at theWalker St Gallery.....Yay.

Winter Encounter

URUTORAMAN!

Seeing as none of my pictures will upload to Blogger I am reduced to using pictures from Tokyo.
Here I am with URUTORAMAN...or Ultra Man (in English.) The reason the picture is blurred is it was the night before we bought a new camera and the one we had was chucking a tanti!
sTUPID CAMERA.

hot art

It is very hot again around 38 to 40 depending on where you are in the neighborhood. My paintings are melting and I got a headache because I was standing and painting in the heat and forgot it was so hot and nearly fell over!.....The Wodonga Council has taken two more paintings I hope they will be ok. At least they have each other and they will be inside away from the heat.....My eyeballs are drying up in this heat....

She Who Discovers

This year the Walker St Gallery's anual SHE competition is She Who Discovers. Last year it was she who Explores and I was rejected because my drawings were a little bit too mental and I can't say I blame them. The two previous years I was in the show so I'm hoping to crawl my way back into their good(art)books.....My theme is She who discovers.....(Wait for it!).....Her other self!!!! Yay. Using animals as a metaphor for the soul. Yikes!
I'm a bit scary but the powers that be have informed me that this is the year of introspection and self remembering......I hope it doesn't hurt too much. Its also the Year of the Cow...MOOOOO!

Reasons to love Tokyo part three

Schnitzel

I think that's how you spell it.....As in Veal Schnitzel...
Veal comes from young cows and they are separated from their mothers and taken to the abattoir. Its a very traumatic time for all and the mothers and their offspring cry for each other all night. Before they are separated they play so freely in the paddocks with their friends and mums that it makes you realise, playfulness is not owned by humans.
Veal schnitzel when prepared well is absolutely delicious. This is the conundrum we live with.

Reasons to love Tokyo number two

Who needs reasons? Isn't this good enough?

Reasons to Love Tokyo Part One

NO to drugs and NO to white elephants!

I like goats

And cows and sheep and rabbits. I am painting and drawing them all at the moment. I love drawing them because they have such noble and dignified stares. And then we eat them. Thats the thing. When I look at these animals and really think about them and get to know them, because you do when you draw them I am humbled by their gracefulness. It makes me truly be thankful everytime I eat one of them.......or their cheese, butter etc etc. I love goat curry.....

Im Big in Wangaratta!

Here is a picture of me that was used for the article in the WANGARATTA CHRONICLE!!!!! The picture features myself(thats me with the orangy red hair and stilton cheese expression on my face and behind me is a drawing of a cow what I have called Rib Eye......I showed it at the annual YAKANDANDA art show where someone very nice bought it so now I can afford more pencils to do more drawings which I have done......The other picture is of myself, again you can identify me by the very bright hair with my familiar Tubbs. The painting, titled: The little rabbit who swam in the ocean and drowned, was for the 9x5 Show at the WALKER ST Gallery  where it is on show still....I think even though someone has also bought that too! Which is great because it is good to have paint when you paint......

oshiri pan pan!

Oh Johnny San we are going to spank your bottom pan pan! for going out with an older woman......said the nice drunk millionaire type man who owns nearly all the eateries in the area.....This is also the place where we sat down and watched some Yakuza guys try to pull ear hairs out of each others ears.....the yaki tori was great....so was the sake! Johnny took this picture as autumn was on the way...note the plastic autumn leaves in the background.....

Doggie Heaven

Picture me in Tokyo with the two things I love more than Life.....puppy dogs and colours.....I had a kind of episode there and then in Meguro or where ever it was.....
There will be more about the show in Wodonga but first the puppy's.....Oh Lerd! They are so cute!
Soon there Will be pictures of my latest work but first we must digest TOKYO.....
I'm going again in April....
I think I have to dance now
ciao!

Johnny and me in Tokyo

Boy was that fantastic...Johnny ate so much sushi and tonkastu he tuned into a Bandai figurine.....But seriously two weeks in Tokyo now has me painting all kinds of crazy little white animals in all kinds of iffy scenarios. When we returned from Tokyo where we made a point of eating every five minutes we got back to sunny Myrtleford and had to move house as the nasty evil warlock who bought the farm next door became a massive turd and started to smell really bad so we moved into town......Then I got sick and had to go to hospital for an operation but now I'm really really good which is great. Then I had to prepare another solo show in Wodonga because the nice people there heard about my show in Melbourne and invited me....Very big Yay! So I sold more work....(pictures to follow)

more egg on my face

I think this might be one of my best so far....What do you think?

Happy as a Benedict Egg

I'm as happy as a Benedict Egg because I sold Two! that's right 2!! paintings before the show even officially opened and 8 that's right bloody buggery8! on the night....Now some people might not think that is so great but on a freezing cold night in Dandenong the fact that anyone even bothered coming to the show let alone parted with their cash is pretty good. I have now covered my costs and can prepare for my next paintings without too much angst(anxiety)....The show is open until the 26th so if your feeling generous come and make yourself a well rounded human being...(there are those who believe art can do that!)

Setting up the show

Like a well oiled machine the two of us arrived at the Walker St Gallery on Wednesday morning prepared for a big day. But it took next to no time to unload the little suckers and hook them string them number them and place them.....Turkish delight for morning tea as Dandenong is a culinary jungle. There is a Turkish coffee shop/supermarket across the road from the gallery and this little piggie was ready to eat! With my cold abating and the show looking good I felt another wight lifted from my shoulders....The opening is next Thursday night and now My worries are how many casks of wine to buy.....

To be continues...

Doesn't Johnny look stunning doing all the work there?

all packed up

Despite catching a disgusting cold from some where (probably a snotty child) I have managed to figure out how to get 30 paintings into the Toyota Camry station wagon.....Something about origami and yoga. I tried to put the invitation on my blog but it is a pdf and I cant figure out how to get the blogger to read it.... I will take a picture of it maybe. Yes that may seem antiquated but so am I. Todays blog contains the picture called the Last Day. It is the last painting I did for the show. Soon when all this madnesss is over I will start painting again. The frames look amazing thanks to Mr Alan Fleming who managed to pump them out in a week even though he was so busy. I will get him something very special besides the bottle of scotch. And Johnny is still a trooper making me chicken soup and driving my paintings around. I am surrounded by legends...

I keep forgetting to mention how I am rejected from art competitions nearly every week. This week it was the Frankstone art show..YAY Last week it was the Geelong show...Yay... Next in line is the big Adelaide one...Yay

I am collecting my rejection letters and hope to use them for a collage one day....Yay which i will enter in a competition on the condition that it must be rejected...Yay

whores will have their trinkets

Yes I realise I was supposed to be writing about my lead up to the exhibition but as luck would have it I was ordered by the protective commissioner(its a long story) to go NOW and empty my parents house so that it could be let out to tenants. That's right, that's just what you need to be doing one month before your first show in Melbourne, the art capital of the universe.....I have been back a week and I have to say I feel somewhat traumatised not to mention slightly overwhelmed. Its not something you should have to do unless you are ready and especially not when you are preparing for a show...So I'm off to the doctor tomorrow to make sure I'm not about to collapse from some kind of stress related event. I'm back into it though at this end and have sent out my invites and will be doing press stuff this week. Its probably pushing things a bit time wise but what can you do? Whores will have their trinkets. The paintings are still not framed which will start to freak me out mid week if its still not happening but I will cross that mine field when I get to it. Thank God for Johnny he is a legend and wares his head scarf with aplomb.

this has nothing to do with the show

It's been a couple of days since my last entry as I have been working to make some money. Since I last wrote I have had Antonella write a short blurb about me for the invitations and Invites. There will be a longer version for the Press and so on and so forth. I am still working on the guest list as it is one of those things that you put off doing as it is so very dull. I have finished a couple more paintings and stared one new one. The painting in this blog today is not one that will be in the show as it is part of a new work about how humans meet nature. The title is Storm Water....

sink face strikes again

So what I'm up to at the moment is writing in my blog all the things I am doing each day to prepare for my BIG SOLO EXHIBITION IN AUGUST ...First off I went to see my mother and gave her some chocolate for breakfast..then I had my back seen to and did some back make strong exercises so that I can actually walk and stand at the exhibition....then I was feeling so full of my own powa that I mulched the ground around my new plants....Then I signed my name on some of my paintings and hid them in a way so that the white dog who visits during the night will not pee on them....worked on an alter that I am making for my friend's birthday and then I collected some more names fore my guest list.....
I looked at the paintings I will do on Wednesday as I can't paint tomorrow as I have to teach...Arsebuiscuits!

the day the sky fell up one

There is something a bit weird going on with my blog....When I'm not looking it types in Hindi but when I look it type it in English....

Anyway getting to the point is that I am having a solo show in August and I thought to keep a track of all that I am doing and going through in the lead up to it. I thought it might be my first step in articulating what I do as I am not very good at that and would rather make a joke about my plight rather than have a bloody good look at myself...God I feel so self indugent and gahsitly boring already.

Sunday June 15

Today I lay in bed for quite some time loking at all my paintings(our house is very small and there is nowhere else to keep them) I really enjoy watching the morning sun slide across the surfaces and ignite the colours that have been sleeping all night. I am drawn to the colours and texture of the paint as it moves around the canvas. That's what I can't stop looking at. Seriously I could just look at colours all day and I often do....

Then I added some more names to my mailing list......

I renamed all of the pictures I took of my work yesterday so that all the paintings have titles.

I'm not that happy with the pictures but I hope it will give the gallery a bit of an idea about what the show will look like.

I watered my new plants that i planted yesterday

Sink Face

LOVE TOO MUCH

My mother said:

Don't LOVE too Much

You will get you r heart broken

She said it yesterday and she is a bit MENTAL

so

Sometimes I am so juvenile...brrrt

Myrtleford Water Treatment Facility

the things you see

The things you see when you havn't got a gun.......

Chase

Keetos

Vivian

Which path to take and poignant moments at a business dinner in a Thai restaurant in Tokyo

People have often turned to me with one ear close to their shoulder in a 'caring' stance and inquired, "Why don't you paint something nice like flowers or Australian landscapes. People buy landscapes. Or sailing boats. People like the sea and sand."
Yes I know they do. But I can't paint to be something for some reason that I don't really feel a part of. I'm not a gum tree and I am not a skiff. I have started these drawings from the gargantuan photograh collection which I have inherited from my father. I find myself staring into the pictures for hours with a magnifying glass looking. Just looking. Sometimes I fine strange figures which shouldn't be there and I scare myself thinking they are lost or hungry ghosts. But I can't bare to stay away from them. There are picures of my mother in a leopard skin bikini which she made herself standing on the beach of Pataya. My Dad kept that picture next to his chair and would say to me with a tear in is giggle "I keep that there to remind my of why I put up with her" By this stage my mother was fairly bonkers with the old dementia there. One of my favourites is of him draped in a large towel in a bathroom in Rome pretending to be Cesar. There is a great one of him in an airoplane seat laughing whilst I (very very small at the time) pinched his nose. Happy times. Pictures of my brother in his new Sydney Grammar uniform. About to be sent away to boarding school with a look of desolation which never left him. He hated boarding school. He was ony eight years old. Then there are picures of me looking seriously at everything.Pictures of me just looking. Pictures of weddings and parties of people I vaguely remember and ones I know not at all. Pictures by my father of strangers standing or crossing streets. Waiting at bus stops. He was looking too. And now I find myself drawing these people. These pictures come from a time before digital manipulations and croppings. Thats what I love about doing these drawings. I draw stright on with black ink. If I make a mistake it becomes part of the drawing. If I try to fix it up it usually ends up looking strange. Better to celebrate the mistakes and revel in their beauty.....
May your memories be as clear as the pictures of a camera!
click
Kaye

my blog looks loke a pizza , com

Lost in the ennichi market my happy night mare

Emerald and Sapphires in your mind

Madame Kaye Freeman brings you
For your visual pleasure
The Sapphire Ocean the Emerald Sea



I explored backwards into the emerald sea, all the places where we had been. Oceans, gardens, cities, lookouts, temples, ghosts, fairgrounds, markets and more.
Now they are all a blend in the sapphire brine.
For nothing on Gods earth will bring you back to me.

Remind Me

This is the painting I did for this years 9x5 show at the Walker St Gallery.
It's called 'remind me'. I don't know why its called that. It's not a very nice painting but I think it speaks for its self. I really enjoyed painting it and I think that it might be my first steps back to my life when it still belonged to me.

big colours

I'm trying to paint but spring has overwhelmed me. Its all so big and the colours are terrifyingly vibrant. Feck.

Big Wank

Look at that rainbow there going right into the studio/ tobacco shed. Oh it makes me feel so special. It must be a sign!!! Never mind my cynicism, this rainbow was actually truly amazing. It was a double bunga and kept getting better and better as the world turned Italian Pink. In real life they are truly heaven sent but other than that they are a big wank. I find any reproductions of rainbows to be truly nauseating and as for people ( I use that term loosely) who paint them on their cars/vans well just give me a bucket. Having said that I also find the use of rainbows in names especially clowns names to be criminal. What about groups who hijack the word to describe their organisations or gender preferences? Now I know that will truly piss many people off but as far as I'm concerned the minute one of us tries to identify or represent ourselves with rainbows then all it does is bring down the rainbow. It doesn't actually raise anybody UP....Leave the rainbow alone I say and just let it quietly shine its rare and wondrous beauty upon us in this loudmouth "God I'm so special my breath smells like rainbows" world.

What does mauve mean to you?

Who invented mauve? Unlike pink it has no real friends and yet it still carries the burden of girliness. No one like girliness because everyone thinks very little of young or small femininity . More that they are afraid of their own big lady on the inside trying to get out. And yet Mauve is a proud colour who has every right to stand proud next to greeny yellow or yellowy green or strange yet comforting blue, some call it ultramarine but its not my favourite, a little too obvious if you ask me.....like old lady's hair in Cronulla in 1973.........But that's good too.

Skin a Rabbit!

This is a little painting I did last year for the Walker St. Gallery 9x5 show. It was a challenge to work on such a small scale but the texture of the paint on the ply board they sent me was loverly. It was painted one afternoon when Dougal my Burmese Blue brought home a squeeeeeling little bunny rabit. Dougal stood ouside my window and showed me his skill at playing volleybal with the carcass. I was listening to a Kylie Minouge CD I had bought that morning at the monthly Myrtleford flea market for $2. This painting was originally called "Skin a baby rabbbit. Throw it in the air." But I got side tracked and wrote "Where has the love gone" on the back of the painting because thats the song that was playing at the time. It later became a part of a small alter like instalattion called "OH Kiwpie!" but I'm still tinkering with that one.

Here are a few little things I prepared earlier....six years earlier

I painted these pictures in the year following the death of my brother Tony. I was living in Sydney and finishing up on Moulin Rouge which I worked on as a props and set painter. I was approached to take up a job in Tokyo working at the new Tokyo Disney Sea painting Disney things which didn't appeal to me but living in Tokyo for a year did. My Father said that is was very important for me to go because it was where I grew up and it would be healing for me to go to recover from Tony's death. One month to the day of his death a close male friend committed suicide. He had been helping me move some stuff in the morning and we had agreed to go snorkeling in the afternoon. He said he had some bills to pay and we agreed to meet at his parent's house in Epping in the afternoon. I got there but there was no one home. I waited and left a message on his mobile. I waited a bit more and left another message. In the end I gave up and went to stay at my parent's house. That night I somehow knew I would never see my friend again. I distinctly remember the sound of a huge metal door slamming deep inside me when his mother rang to tell me the next morning what had happened. I'm sorry but what a turd! So I packed my bags and off I went to Tokyo. My Dad was right it did heal me. And I can't wait to go back again. I have always been fascinated by Noh masks and Japanese children's masks. I have quite an extensive collection of plastic masks. Whilst working a Disney it occurred to me how insidious the defeat of Japan was by the U.S.A. There is an incredibly rich folk and animation culture full of bizarre myths and legends. It worried me to see so many children obsessed with Micky Mouse and Aladdin and Cinderella when there are so many (more fabulous) Japanese versions. But the mighty Disney empire is not something to be toyed with! I am also drawn to the use of colour and design of Japanese art and textiles. I never set out to make paintings with any particular meaning, my main interest is the use of colour and the relationships of shapes within a composition.

Some call it red but it is so much more than that. I painted with alizaren crimson for quite some time and it works really well as a glaze or a wash but when used as a compositional distraction or a balancing implement is is better to use plane old crimson, or red. The trouble with red is that most people associate it with blood and there fore if a woman is using it its all about yer periods. Yea you just keep thinking that. But let it be known that that's just very very dumb.

When I was a child I did not like yellow. I thought it artificial and overly familiar. It was pretending to be a friend and came in cardboard boxes from America. I continued with that train of thought well into my late twenties and then something changed. A bit like my appreciation of bamboo shoots and coriander I suppose. I began to see the danger in yellow and its abyss of possibilities. The terrifying happiness it promises. Now I hold it close to my heart. Much like a lovable enemy. I doubt that I could paint without it.

I cannot paint in green. I am overwhelmed by it's power. When I look at nature she uses it with such abandon and gusto I would be too ashamed to even try. Moss gardens in Nikko and bamboo forests fill me with swamp fantasies.

Just say NO!

Welcome to our new studio. It used to be a tobacco sorting shed and is full of many unpleasant memories for many people. Now that the Gods of cigarettes have pulled out of Myrtleford I thought it was time to make a bad thing good. Johnny got the airless out and painted the corner white. Its cold but its big and bright and we love it. No longer a place of horror but a place of joy.....Except Tubbs got stuck into a carcass and got e-coli and a perforated bowel but shes OK now.....phew and pew!

PS. I bought my 1001 dalmations hat off an old lady in Myrtleford for $3....I lOve it!

oh Keiwpi

The river is filling up and the sky is falling down. What became of the beaded necklace what should have come to me?

I think that pink is a very misunderstood colour and has also been a victim of some unpleasant prejudices. It has nasty connotations for many people because they assassiate it with little girls who they obviously don't value. Pink is a proud colour and also a very dangeraous colour generally because it can be assossiated with internal organs which you don't normally get a look at unless there has been a fairly unpleasant incident. Some misguided people assossiate it with being gay but that too would be fairly wrong. Gayness is usuallly repreaented by rainbows. Basically it is veiwd by red neck idiot inbreds who fear their own femininity. I love pink for all its faults, marshmellownesss and taudriness. I love it even more when it makes friends with moss or yellow green and they decide to ge married and sleep together. I just love it . I could look at pink and green all day. Call me dull but if you are doing anything more facinating then goood on ya.

Mcarther Cook Art Awards

We regret to inform you that your application has been unsuccessful.
But gee, thanks so much for having a go.
Yours sincerely
Mcarther Cook Art Awards

I and I are the love monkey of Beat Takeshi

oil on canvas
70cmx100cm

I am the love monkey of Beat Takeshi

51cm x 61cm

oil on cvanvas

Whispering in Pink

Magenta is a troublesome colour which I fell in love with in my late teens. Slash early twenties. It still can draw my eye when it is in it's purest forms but executed crudely it pains my heart and huts my eyes. Beware of magenta she is not what she seems and wears many disguises.

what kind of Gabriel is this?

farewell my puppy

your last breath tasted like two minute noodles

your first breath tasted like ambrosia soup

when there was no air

peppermint messages for the annunciation

I lied I lied I lied about green. Although it still overwhelms me I only dare use it when I'm feeling particularly venting of spleenish.

i still see you in all the water

what became of my feather floaties?

the chihuahua messenger

tell me of your niceties....That sounds a bit like show me your undies....No I don't like it...hmmmm....How about Diaphanous Breath.....Maybe not... The Diaphonous is good but not the breath.....How about Diapheniety's Kiss.. Ah that might work.

i will tell you of my horror.....No I think I will call this one Waltzing my Matilda......Yes I like thats much better.....Who needs more horror in this horror obsessed climate..

Angel of Queen Street
Oil on canvas

Centennial Park Walk
Oil on canvas

Central Golf Man
Oil on canvas

Spirula Spirula

The following series of paintings I did in the couple of years following art school. I have fond memories of them and it's good to see that although some people told me my art was not worthy to be brought into this world these little paintings have a pride and dignity which comes from being executed in small dark corners. Away from the big shiny Gallery lights of Paddington or Surrey Hills. I was trying to read Joseph Campbell and often went snorkeling off the rocks of Sydney. But more often than not the water was too cold for I am a true wimp and not the outdoorsy type.

Central Tooth Hospital
Oil on canvas

Domain Art Critic
Oil on canvas

Infanta of West Melbourne Municipal Swimming Pool
Oil on canvas