For a friend…
Archives for category: Work in progress
Photos of the Crab claw windmills.
Well it’s been a long while between posts but here are some animations of the Fiddler Crab windmills I have been working on.
Neon flamingos in progress.
These currently look like butterfly wings but they are actually the beginning of neon blankets for a camel caravan.
Work on camels in progress…
A work in progress for a friend who just had a birthday…
Painting the base for the piece I have been working on about my sister’s wedding. I used bitumen paint through the doilies onto cardboard.
Making more crocodiles…
Fairfield Primary School are about to hold their annual Art 4 All weekend. Centered around an art exhibition, there is an opening night on the Saturday and market stalls on the Sunday.
I am going to be making some crocodiles and maybe some birds between 11 and 1 on Sunday 11th Sept. Come by and see the frenzie of cutting and gluing!
For more information see the school’s webpage.
Studies for new piece.
Heads to go with the winged bodies.
Hopefully there will be some finished dragons in the next day or so.
The crocodiles are ready and fighting, the clouds are puffier than ever… now for some dragons.
Working on a new project. Will have some photos of the finished creatures in the next few days.
Fitzroy land snail
Mesodontrachia fitzrotana
Am putting this project on hold for the moment. Really happy with these little endangered snails but rest of the project got a bit ugly!
The new gallery, Dear Patti Smith, located on level 2 of the Patterson building on Smith St, Fitzroy is preparing for the 2nd in a series of 3-day exhibiton events. I am having some issues with links, so for more info copy and paste: http://www.dearpattismith.com/index.php?/documentation/20113-day02marshelved/
Will get these integrated asap.
The exhibition:
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SHELVED
open march 3, 4 + 5, Â 12-6pm
opening function thursday march 3, 6 – 8pm
It’s on the shelf in the studio.  Occasionally it catches the eye from its place in the corner.
Its an object of intrigue that never grew or one of those dead-end tangents.
Perhaps it was part of the process or didn’t make the exhibition cut.
…yet it lingers…
‘Shelved’ is a collection of these works.
Anonymous and untitled – these works sit beside their fellow misfits
and beautiful dead-ends.  Collectively they allude to aspects of the artist process
and experience ordinarily undeserving of exhibition.
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With works by: Adam John Cullen, Ai Yamamoto, Anna Gilby, Anna White, Ben Shepard, Bill Sampson, Brandon Hocking, Candice Cranmer, Carmen Reid, Charles Anderson, Clare Rae, Cristo Crocker, David-Ashley Kerr, Fiona Williams, Giancarlo Belviso, Hamish Innes-Brown,iredale pedersen hook, Isabelle Legge, Jemma Clark, Jeremy Bakker, Jon Butt, Jonathan Leahey, Kelly Wells, Kieran Stewart, Kiron Robinson, Kirrily Hammond, Kirsty Fletcher, Lauren Brown, Little Wonder, Louise Harper, Louise Rippert, Marika Nilsen, Michael Roper + Dan Demant, Michael White, Openhaus, Paul Gurney, Paul Mares, Paul Meates, Pippa Makgill, Rachel Ang, Rob Miller, Ross Brewin, Rozalind Drummond, Sam Stewart, Sarah Deed, Stuart Bailey, Stuart McAdam, Tai Snaith, Tim Schork/ Mesne, Toby Horrocks, Todd Anderson-Kunert, Tom Morgan, Tom Nicholson, Will Eicholtz
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I have submitted my metal and cardboard ballerinas which have thwarted me on more than one occasion and have been sitting in the rainy day pile.
For those not so interested in art, but familiar with the Patterson building, come along and see what has been done with the space. It looks fantastic. Very different to this original photo I found in the State Library’s collection: old Pattterson furniture store (circa 1905).
These mice are actually finished and installed in the Brunswick Street Gallery, however I haven’t had a chance to photograph the finished exhitibition so thought I’d blog a few more ‘mice factory’ images. Plus they look so cute and naked all prone and in a line. As with the flying mice I really like these guys half finished and layed out like a taxidermy project. The 3 who look like they are wearing bright coloured underwear are the ballerinas (or ‘mouserinas’ as a a friend brilliantly dubbed them) and the others end up as garland dancers. Promise to blog finished photos soon.
Tissue boxes, metcard, postcards and chrissie cards made into mice.
The smallest mouse I have made yet. He is fixed to the top of a cardboard spinning top.
COGS, COGS, COGS…
I think I have made 100 cogs that interlink in various groups for the new show. The smallest are about the size of a 50 cent piece and the largest are the size of a hand. I am hoping to attach them directly to the wall and have the spin in a chain.
Here are some of the pieces I am making for my new solo show.
The show is title ‘cardboard mouse and the summer spin-sters‘ and I am making millions (maybe ?) of mice in wheels that spin and cogs that turn with flowers everywhere and generally an atmosphere of summer-time fun! The show is at the Brunswick Street Gallery and opens Friday 4th February, 2011 and runs until the 17th Feb.
I made these rats because I loved the look of the winged mice lying on their backs with their innards on display.
These guys are best when they are also on their backs with their tails hanging over the edge. They have wavy, mulit-coloured gizzards (hanging below their bellies in these photos) which wriggle when you turn the key.
A bit more detail…
I like these winged mice sprawled on their backs. I would leave them like this but it seems a bit wrong given that you can’t see the tops of the wings or make them fly in this position. Think I will make some clock-work rats based on these guys. Bigger, though, and all filled cogs and wheels and stringy bits of guts that work and squirm when you turn a key.
Bodies of the winged mice assembled with tails and front paws. Next things to be added will be the heads and the all important wings.
Heads for the flying mice squadron.
Took the mice for a test spin on the weekend.
I am working towards my first solo show in September at Red Gallery, North Fitzroy.
It is looking like the works will focus on my cats and some imaginary mice who torment them. I’ve started with small lucky Maneki Neko:
(This is a flickr photo – I have managed to turn my flickr page into Korean text. When I get it back to english I’ll post the reference.)
Okay – back into english.
See Paul McAleer’s flickr page for the original image.
These cats are a little less lucky as their paws have to be moved manually. I have not fit them with a battery pack and a perpetual motion machine.
This work has been short-listed in the upcoming Togart 10 Contemporary Art Award.
The exhibition will be held in Darwin for 5 weeks from early September. The venue is about to be announced.
Photos of my dream feet shoes in progress.
The soles pattern is from my birkenstocks which were the only shoes I wore until my family started on their current shoe-shop preoccupation.
These are photos of a recent piece in progress.
Three elephants carry a cross on their backs with with the help of a tiny little bird.
Finally, photos of the final work are here.
I have been working on these pieces for a while.
Not really finished yet.
Photos are not great and have put project on the back-burner.
The bodies of the dancers are made from broken blades found along the sides of major streets. They are fixed together with wire and solder.
Brightly coloured alco-pop (and beer) packaging has been used for the tutus. The graphics are already designed to grab people’s attention and stand-out in the drinks fridge. The printed face has been used on the underside of the skirts where the multiple layers confuse and intensify the gaudy colours. It is all excitement and froth as the dancers kick their legs, jump and turn.
The brown top layer makes the ballerinas appear demure and graceful just like all good ballerinas should be.
I share a house with a lot of fish and a turtle called Spencer.
A while ago Spencer was run over after she’d escaped from the pond. It was summer, it was hot and our turtle was looking for love. Luckily she was found and taken to the vet who wired togther her shell. Spencer then had to spend 8 months recovering in a hospital tank in our lounge room. This gave me plenty of time to model her.
These fish are a little larger than the metcard ones. Not so constrained by the size of the cardboard. Am still working on how to exhibit the mobiles.
A work in progress photographed at Lee Point Beach, Darwin.
Thought I might have a go at a couple of stencils for the Melbourne stencil festival.
So I started with an old piece:
And cut some layers. (I used my current favourite beer packaging for each of the stencils – maybe not the best idea I have ever had.)
And because really the part I like most is cutting out, I decided to try 2 stencils:
And decided I needed a mega-sized met card top layer:
And, well the results are mixed. Decided not to enter them in the festival. Will have another go when I get some spare time. Did quite a bit of air-brushing at school and so feel determined to master this… later.
Kirsty loves cardboard 
