the maze

Ivan Rabuzin

 

 

atelier incurve

Ryosuke Terai

Yukari Ido

Tomoyuki Shinki

http://incurve.jp/

Reuben Smith

Another postcard from my collection, sent to J Turner in Port Pirie, South Australia but not postmarked.
The handwriting is a little unclear but here is the closest transcript I can get, spelling mistakes and all:
'You will no doubt be surprised to hear from me again. I had a look at the photos next door where this card took my eye. Old Reuben Smith does not look too bad on skates Eh? This place is dead slow tonight, no buiseness whatever, wish it was last Saturday night. The giantess is down this parts now. Hope we shall have fine weather for the show. Showed Vera and Laurel your photos today. They think it's most lovely. Hurry up and write back. I am anxiously waiting for letter'

Chris Knox

One of my favourite Chris Knox songs, and it really is only one of many. I've been a fan for a long time. I interviewed him for a fanzine way back in time using some sort of arcane recording system on my phone that made it hard to hear him. He was really great... funny, interesting and very generous towards someone who really didn't know what the hell they were doing. When I saw him in Sydney later he inadvertently got me very drunk on some sort of evil alcohol at a last-minute gig at someone's house. I don't even remember getting home. He's got charm and charisma to burn. I've been reading the stroke-recovery blog at his website and once again marveling at the force of nature that he is. Send all good thoughts his way, he deserves them.

Chris Knox

Amanda Marburg

Ah, Burgs...what a gal! We are both obsessed with football and barrack for Carlton. We usually go to games together. When she was in Italy for a residency I'd text her the score during games if she couldn't get to a computer. She is to blame for my addiction to Bega Stringers. And she's a really great painter. These images are all from her excellent show at Uplands earlier this year.


Uplands

She also shows at Rex Irwin You can see more recent work there.

Meyers Lexikon

When I lived in Sydney I was always curious about the house at the end of the street. It was one of those piece-of-pie houses made to fit on a wedge of land and I could glimpse a nice garden through the fence. I went to a garage sale there partly just to take a sticky beak. The mood was very somber though and as I looked at some beautiful old German encyclopedias the woman told me that her partner had died and she was selling some of his things. She sounded distracted, like she was still in shock. I always think of that day when I look at them and I hope I've given them a good home.

Joseph Parker

Images courtesy of Carl Hammer Gallery:

http://www.hammergallery.com/Artists/Parker/parker_joseph.htm

what's in a name?

Self taught/Outsider/Marginal/Visionary/Naive/Art Brut etc 

These terms are going to be my constant companions throughout my PhD. Some links I am filing under the basic 'Outsider Art' heading but they could well go under the more general 'People who write about art...' one.

Filing systems are so subjective and, ultimately, flawed. That's what I like about them.

Susan King

 

I first saw the work of Susan King at Peter Fay's house. He had been sent a CD of images and was super excited about them. When I got back to Melbourne I couldn't get the other-worldly Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck drawings out of my head.
Luckily my recent trip to Sydney coincided with the exhibition of Susan's work at Callan Park that Peter curated. The ABC did a piece about it on Sunday Arts. I'm not sure if that will be available online but here's a link:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/sundayarts/txt/s2727874.htm

These images have been downloaded from Susan's website. Go and explore...http://www.susanking.co.nz/


You can also buy her comic on ebay but get in quick, it's a limited edition.

Gladys Peto

Shoddy snapshots of an old book I loved as a child. This story 'The Mer-girls Magic' was my favourite. It told of a mermaid who charmed her way onto land but ended up being so mean and nasty that she was unceremoniously dropped back into the sea. The book is filled with stories of children being taken over by tree sprites, girls who find flowers spring up at their every step or cruising on a miniature ship after being shrunk down by an unknown gentleman sitting by the pond. It is not all that sweet or nice, there is something uneasy about the lives these children lead. I've always loved the illustrations but have never known who the artist was. Until now.

All the awkwardness of adolescence can be seen in this one pose...I need to know more about Gladys Peto so it looks like I may well be lost at this blog for a while:

http://gladyspeto.blogspot.com/

mirandaaaaaa

 

Let's go to Hanging Rock again soon, before it gets too deliriously hot to walk around.

little battler

Cats and blogs don't work, unless you're Jessica Lucas. But my cat's diabetes is getting worse, her arthritis is making her front legs shake, there is a possibility that she has dementia and the vet had me fearing the worst this week so I'm celebrating her fighting spirit - our crazy-making, co-dependent, dysfunctional life together continues. Which is a good thing.

Drašnice

From Brac I went to Makarska where my relatives had arranged for a taxi driver they knew to take me to Drašnice to see where my grandfather had lived. His house is in old Drašnice up in the foothills of the mountain. After the earthquake in 1962 everyone moved down to the water. My grandfather was long gone by then, growing grapes in Middle Swan in Perth.

Pucisca stone

A couple of years ago I went to Brac in Croatia. I wanted to see my great grandmother's house in Pucisca. The first photo is the view from the path behind my distant cousins house. He introduced me to a local artist who was building his house in the hillside just below this. It was almost Gaudi-like, the walls curving around organically. I was then taken to the stonemasons school. Brac stone is a dazzling white, it was like being in a room full of never-melting snow. It has softened and darkened in the photos. The students here leave regular high school to learn the centuries old trade of stonemasonry. Later that evening my relative told me that he ran into the man he introduced me to who was sitting with some old ladies in the town square. The artist asked who I was and when told I was a relative and my age the old ladies said emphatically "God has sent her to you!". There was talk of my being his future wife but unfortunately for the old ladies God had arranged for me to leave the next day.

Peanuts

I started collecting old postcards in primary school and used to have hundreds. I'll scan them in when I get the time. She's my first, a sad little Peanuts character.

windowsill plants

home

Nathan Gray and Olivia on the mantlepiece

Sedmikrásky on the windowsill

Guitar playing bottle opener on the speaker

Ieuan Weinman in the kitchen

Anonymous

Image courtesy of the Carl Hammer Gallery

S.L. Jones

 Images courtesy of the Carl Hammer Gallery