reasons to be cheerful - footpath gardens

The neighbours might complain and the council threaten to remove them, but I like footpath gardens. They have a nostalgia for when people actually knew their neighbours, when homes weren't restricted by their front gates.
It seems like a nice street to live in.

anxiety #172 - a crimson lake pencil...

...or more to the point, where is my Crimson Lake pencil?
I came across a sweet pencil brooch by Neil Thomas and it made me think about my favourite Derwent colour, Crimson Lake.
It's an important day in a young design student's life when they get a set of Derwent pencils. A gleaming row of pure colouring potential. You realise that finishing assignments will be so much easier. How could you have been living without Deep Cadmium? Wouldn't pictures now have a greater depth when rendered with Kingfisher Blue, and Burnt Yellow Ochre?
But the colour for me was definitely Crimson Lake, a deep red, leaning slightly toward purple. It's strong and powerful, yet warm and luxurious. I imagine that similar to Alain de Botton's views on why people are attracted to different styles of architecture, we have favourite colours because psychologically they represent characteristics and strengths we want to possess. They remind us of everything we could be. My Crimson Lake pencil was quick to become one of the shortest in the box.
There are a few gaps in the Derwent box these days. Things go missing during moves and assignment all nighters, but the only pencil I ever need is the number 20. When I realised it was gone I searched through innumerable pencil cases and tins, but it seemed hopeless. I'm sure it's living in some drawer, or at the bottom of a shoe box in the shed, it'll turn up when I least expect it.
In the meantime, if you see a spare Crimson Lake, could you send it my way? I know it's only a pencil, but life's felt a a shade more dull since it went missing.

N.B. I apologise if this post is, as one detractor called it, "dicky". Sadly, it's just how I am...

marrickvillains rolling

sweetest bikes in the inner west...

anxiety #358 - public transport woes

I caught a crowded bus the other day, and when the person I was sharing a seat with got up, I scooched over to the window seat. The seat was disconcertingly warm and I immediately started to worry. I knew that inevitably when I stood up someone else would scooch over to the window seat. At that moment my greatest fear became the possibility that the person who took my seat would think it was my butt that made the seat so warm. Sure, it would have been a stranger who would probably not give it a second thought, but I couldn't handle my posterior being wrongly accused.

I missed my stop...

at home

A moai in the garden.

I don't remember it being as cold and misty on the Marrickville isles as it looks in the picture.

Girls Against Gold - installed work

(left) wallpaper one
925 silver, American walnut, stainless steel


(right) wallpaper two
925 silver






wallpaper three
925 silver, western red cedar, stainless steel






(left) woodblock one
925 silver, American cherry

(right) woodblock two, three, four
925 silver







(top) wallpaper four
925 silver, stainless steel

(bottom) wallpaper five
925 silver, Wenge, stainless steel



These are the pieces I made for girls against gold, inspired by mid century modern wallpapers and prints.



Catalogue artist statement:

I never knew true love until I found mid-century modern design. After World War II products not usually used in construction and decoration took housing in a new direction and economic growth brought style to the suburbs. A new kind of dream home was affordable and accessible. I am inspired by both the spirit of innovation and the aesthetics of mid-century design. The graphic qualities of wallpapers, fabric patterns and sculpture from the fifties and sixties are the basis for a series of brooches, made from sterling silver and a variety of timbers.