Monday, October 27, 2014

Voulez-Vous



I want to start using photobooth again because a curator has displayed interest in these types of works, and I used to really enjoy making them so it would be fun to explore again a few years down the track. I am completely obsessed with this new outfit. The colour combination is just so perfect. The skirt is Dress Up and the top is from Alpha 60. The blue is like a dusty denim coloured blue (even though the top is linen) which goes so nicely against the flame red of the skirt.

My blog has been lacking of late. I think because I'm feeling very inhibited with my writing at the moment. I'm used to writing very personally on here without the worry that many people would be reading it. I haven't felt like doing that lately. Maybe I've lost a kind of braveness or brashness that I used to have. It's probably not permanent.



Instead, I can just talk about things that I have bought lately... As well as the above blue and red outfit, I also bought the most beautiful Alpha 60 red and white pinstriped dress which actually looks pink from a distance. I absolutely love it and it is the perfect summer dress. You can kind of change it up a bit by tying the shoulder ties in different ways. The weather has been so perfect lately (most of the time) and it makes me feel very happy to be able to leave the house without a jacket in toe. Summer and Spring dressing is my bag, Winter dressing is not. I think it's harder to have a consistent look when you have to have so many layers for warmth. Plus, the best piece of an outfit is often covered by a sub-par jacket. Or it is in my case!

I also bought the above Christian Dior 1960s enamel and 12k gold sunglasses. They were an investment, and I am considering them being on the cover of my book. They are so special, and my mind goes crazy thinking of all the glamorous people and places they must have seen, the people who may have worn them. They feel very happy and light - like they only experienced the romance, mystique and good of the 1960s. I literally love them and will keep them forever.

These, from the same collection, are originally were what started my love affair:


However, as you can see from the Ebay listing I linked to, they are out of my price range. This is another instance where I need a wardrobe sponsor. Someone to buy me all the garments and accessories I want without wanting anything in return except to see me enjoying and wearing my expertly picked outfits. I shared the link with my Mum saying "for my birthday!" ha. Maybe not.

As well as lusting over clothes and sunglasses I've also been listening to Taylor Swift's new album, pottering around my room and taking it a bit easy. Perhaps a bit too easy. I've been really slack with writing back to text messages and emails and didn't achieve a lot work-wise this weekend. I just felt like disappearing from technological communication a bit.

I did go a few places on the weekend, however - including the Magic Johnston 2 year birthday party thing in Collingwood - briefly - and resisted jumping on board a party bus after recalling when I did actually go on a party bus when I was 18 and felt nauseous and felt peer pressured to drink UDL mixed vodka drinks out of cans which are the most disgusting beverages in existence. On Saturday a friend and I made an appearance at some garage sales and then All Day Donuts where we got an Iced Vovo donut and I got very very sticky fingers!

Saturday afternoon I popped into Lady Petrova to see how the fabric prints I was commissioned for her turned out in real life!


I think you can probably tell the prints that I designed! I will post more about these when they're available for purchase - at the moment the samples are in store and available for try-ons and pre-order :D

Sunday was a much lazier day. I had a big sleep in (which is very rare for me!) and then managed to be talked into going to like this weird dog fair thing with my family and our dog Soda. It was pretty funny. There were miniature ponies and other farmyard animals are well as a plethora of cute dogs that made me smile. Including our own dog when he tried to be very tough in front of a miniature pony.

I then managed to talk my sister into driving me to a Vintage designer sale in Prahran on the condition that I bought her gelati at N2 on Brunswick street. The sale was very disappointing and I didn't buy a single thing - which is so crazy for me. I went to the sale wanting to get some nice pieces to use in my book but I felt everything was really overpriced and nothing was that special. I don't know - bad vibes! My sister is smart and talked me out of paying high prices for things that weren't at all remarkable. I was disappointed that I didn't find anything but actually glad that I didn't spend too much money on average quality things I could find in Savers if I 'apply myself' ha ha.

Then onto gelati - which was an experience in itself. It was like a nightclub in there. So stressful! I got a Kinder Surprise gelati which was pretty nice and soothed the sore throat I was harboring as well and lessened the disappointment that I didn't get any fun things at the sale. Wasn't meant to be! I learned that people really, really like gelati. Even at like odd times of the afternoon. My sister's gelati had a donut on it. Here's what they looked like:



Anywayyyy. So that's pretty much the extent of my weekend. I popped into Savers quickly this morning and bought the most amazing book. Here's a centrefold from it:


Tuesday, October 21, 2014

No regrets coyote

I had a great day today. I went to Tarrawarra which is an Art Gallery in Healesville with a friend and it was the most glorious weather and everything was green and clear. I bought a whole lot of food and we had a picnic on the grass next to the lake. Then, we had wine at the restaurant and took the scenic drive back home. Not bad for a Tuesday.

I've been reasonably busy otherwise, just odd jobs and working on my book at intervals - I need to be more stringent with making myself sit down and do it at specific times rather than picking it up and putting down a little randomly... I just get distracted by nice weather and opportunities to laze about in the sun laughing.

I haven't felt like blogging lately, a phase which I know will pass - I suppose I am writing a lot elsewhere and this space takes a back seat. Once a week (ish) seems to be working pretty well for me at the moment.

Here are some pictures which are completely out of order...

Studio desk on Saturday
New issue of Filmme Fatales by my friend Brodie Lancaster! Plus she bought me blow-up '60s coat hangers!
Amazingly creepy book from Savers about facepainting
Grumpy in the studio on Saturday
Tarrawarra relaxing
Presents that my sister bought me back from New York!
Studio desk last Tuesday
Flowers from Madeline at Extraordinary Routines in my studio last Tuesday
Waiting for the train
Media preview of the Romance was born exhibition at the NGV on Friday!






The Romance was born exhibition is phenomenal! I was so happy to have a first look and I also got to meet Anna and Luke! They visited my exhibition at Daine Singer the other week and I was completely stoked. Tomorrow I have work as usual but I feel much more refreshed after a day in the sunshine today... I think that's all for now.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Missin' every mile that friend of mine






 


Last night I was walking to my friend's house and as I crossed the road a taxi slowed down next to me and a man riding as the passenger looked out of the window at me and said "would you like to get married?". If I wasn't taken so much by surprise I would have said something laced with sarcasm like "to you, or in general?" but instead I just said "no..." and the taxi sped up off into the distance. It was a very odd encounter as it was such a calmly and sincerely delivered line despite by definition his actions being catcalling - essentially. It was strange that I didn't feel humiliated or angry. He was alone in the taxi, not being egged on by a bunch of "mates" laughing and whistling. He seemed sad and lost and for the first time ever I felt a pang of sympathy for a male counterpart who has approached me on the street simply based on some sort of projected fantasy they've conjured up just by looking at me. It was very curious.

I hung out at my friend Georgia's apartment on Saturday night with my other friend Georgie. I enjoy their company immensely and we had pizza and wine and beer and discussed the motivations of the actions of every single person we know, as usual. I've really been enjoying my weekends lately. I never really used to separate them from weekdays but now that things are a bit quieter the weekend's have largely been able to be work free and it's wonderful. I look forward to going out for dinner or drinks with people. I have brilliant friends. This year I have completely changed in the face of socialising and I am so much happier for it. When I used to want to stay home I now want to go out. It's remarkable.

I went to Savers this afternoon (for a change) and bought a few things including the above record albums and the 1967 Vogue magazine. My exhibition ended yesterday and it seems right that it's over. I breathed a sigh of relief. I'm not going to have another exhibition now until well into next year. I am going to focus on my book mainly for the time being, and on making work for myself - that is, just experimenting, having fun and not working towards any particular deadlines or bodies of work.

I am completely obsessed with a singer who I just discovered named Barbara Keith. It 's completely soul destroyingly beautiful and it's completely up my Joni Mitchell loving alley.


My favourite song off the album isn't even anywhere on Youtube (It's called 'The Road I Took to You') but my closely following second favourite is:



This album came to me just at the right time.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Really long time no see

Ah I don't know how to start this post as it's been too long since my last one. I guess I've just needed to retreat for a bit since my opening. I suppose I can just go from my most recent activity which is today, where I was at home writing the introduction to my book. I've enjoyed it. I just sent it to my editors so I'm looking forward to seeing what they say.

I had a lovely Friday, after work Pamela played a gig then I went out for drinks and dinner. It has been warm and sunny and I'm beginning to be able to wear more of the clothes I want to wear without socks or stockings or jackets and that makes me happy. I was talking about being in limbo with someone and I feel like that's where I am. I'm between many things right now and I am finding it confusing. For the first time I'm not even sure that writing it out will help, or, maybe I'm avoiding writing it out because I don't want to figure out or decide if I'm either here nor there. It's obviously a cliche but I wish you could free frame or slow down different portions of your life while others move forward at regular pace. Freeze frame feelings, slow down a sunset so you could enjoy it longer, freeze frame periods of elation while you go about your day to day life regularly. It would be ideal but as usual I spend far too much time lamenting over the impossible and avoiding altogether the grittiness and decisions that reality forces upon us. I like to see how long I can go avoiding it, sticking my hand out the sunroof catching the wind and getting ever so slightly sunburned on the tips of my shoulders. Spring is definitely a purgatory season. New things are reaching yet you still feel inexplicably attached to the old.

I made a playlist for the first time in ages because I'm clearly incapable of articulating these feelings!




Shell purse postcard
New patch
'Sad Girl', 2014, acrylic, paint and collage on found fabric.
More new postcards, books and swapcards
Detail of my amazing new Tsumori Chisato skirt
Equally amazing new Opening Ceremony dress
Drawing for Rookie
Erasers!
Disco ball
There's a cactus in that shot glass