Preparation Inspiration Relaxation

It was great to farewell my WOW entry this week,
although watching the truckie hurl my three boxes
filled with my somewhat delicate costumes
onto the back of his open tray semi was a little spine tingling.

I have had a delicious week of setting my home and studio in order.
It all gets VERY out of control when I have deadlines with my work.

Eeeeek what a patient family I have! xxx

This coming week I will be attending  Clay Push in Gulgong for a week of inspiration.
Hanging with potters is a wonderful experience
and there will be potters from around the world for this convention .
A true gathering of the clan.
It will also be a time to meet up with some MUD COLONY members.
YAY!
Yes, look who I found today!

Fresh from Melbourne, Mrs Adriana! YAY!

And  my sister, Karin, after a 12 hour bus trip from Wilcannia.

I will feed and water them and off we will go
on a road trip to the sacred pottery site where we wallow in mud :)

What fun!

We will miss those who won't be able to make it
but I am sure there will be lots of other occasions in the future

My studio is all ready for my return
so that I can delve into my clay full of inspiration.

Cheers

Taking a trip across the sea

Well my WoW entry is now all ready for it's adventure.
Monday it will be picked up and shipped out.
I hope it is good enough to get through to the next judging.
I find when I work intensely on something it is very difficult to for me
to look at the result with fresh eyes.
As my wise old Mum would have said,
"look at what you've got and not at what you expected to have"
500+ hours later I am ready for anything ( particularly a break from the sewing machine!!!),
 I think I like it... but you never know if its what the judges will like or not.

Bon voyage my babies!

I have just finished this years Contextart Forum
I had booked into a jewellery class with the lovely Vicki Mason 
but unfortunately life didn't quite let me do much of it this time.
The great thing about Forum is that there is still so much to absorb
apart from the classes , even when things don't go quite go to plan.
I caught up, ever so briefly, with old friends like
Kath Wilkinson , Sandy Webster and Adele Outteridge
made new friends and met some great textile artists
AND found out about some really cool new materials...mmmmm!
So it was all worthwhile even though I didn't get to many of the classes :(

I bought this glorious hand spun wool from my friend Michelle Snowdon

and I plan to use it in my next project - a combined textile and ceramic work
that celebrates living in the Blue Mountains.

So now to get ready to go to Clay Push.
It will be so cool to have a week with some of the MUD COLONY mob,
thinking and talking mud ( and eating Marian's Texas BBQ brisket)
around the camp fire. Woo Hooo. Tell us what we can bring Marian :))

My sister will be coming too!
It will great to have some sis time, we have not had much time like this together.
It is all a bit special.
.

A Busy Life

YES!
I AM BACK IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING!

I have been very very very busy ...
way too busy to write about it ....until now.

I feel very fortunate to be an artist..........mostly.
It doesn't pay well but I love it.
Art gives me a great sense of my own space in my busy life.
It is a place to express sadness, love, confinement, frustration
and transform it into a positive form.

I am feeling like giving you a brief outline of how and why my life's creative path
has taken the road that it has.
So here is a little bit of my history.

I grew up with a mum who was a painter/artist/art teacher.
My dad loved to play the piano but he was not interested in art really.
When I was born my siblings were 17,15 and 13.
So they were almost like aunts and uncles in my early years and I looked at them in awe.
My sister, Karin, is an artist and I grew up watching her and my mum at the easel painting.
 

Karin doing a portrait of a family friend 

photo by my brother Mike

Both my brothers had a passion for photography
so mum created a bathroom that could transform into a darkroom for them.

My older brother, Mike, was always pretty adventurous, getting into canyoning,kayaking,archery and more as a young person so it is not surprising that he is now the author of an amazing set of books that required him to walk the Kimberley taking photos of the land and the art.
Wildrocks

Chris,the youngest of my three siblings,was and is a pianist, photographer
and an all round awesome person.
At one stage in his late teens / early 20's his passion for his music was such that he had a grand piano AND an upright piano in his (only modest sized) bedroom and had to crawl under the grand to get into his bed at night.
He also loved film making and there are some classic little films in the family archive
that he made as a 13year old.....haha so good.
He is and has been working for many years a wonderful photographer
and a much loved and sort after piano teacher.
http://www.chrisdonaldson.com.au/

It was a very creative environment!
With all those awesome siblings to follow....What was I going to do when I grew up?! 

Well one thing I knew was that I was going to be ME and different from them.
I didn't know how not to be creative, they had taught me well!

When I was about 10 years old mum was teaching at a school in Sydney.
The pottery teacher gave me some clay and I made a little pig with flowers on its back
because I was inspired by that ancient sculpture of the hippo covered with waterlilies
that looks as though it had just come up out of the water.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/100000444
 
So it was at that moment that I decided that pottery was going to be for me.

I started classes with Margaret Tuckson in 1975 on Saturday mornings and left school 1976 to work with her on more days as I couldn't get the art and chemistry combination I was wanting for the HSC.
She encouraged me to get some more teaching from other potters to expand my practise and so I spent a year at Brookvale TAFE and then applied for East Sydney Tech in 1978 and submitted this pot along with some other wood fired pieces.

However after being accepted I had to pull out as my first son was on the way.

A growing family slowed my ceramic work down.
While I was having my next two boys and we were renovating our house
I began making lead light windows.
When the windows were in place it led to a fair bit of interest
and commission work for stained glass windows followed over the next 10 years.

As time would have it big changes happened in our family
and I found myself as a single parent needing a secure wage.
So I did a B.A. in Performing Arts with the aim to become Art/Drama/English teacher.

Set design was a joy for me and it satisfied the inner artist in me.
Yes, that is me with the pony tail and genie pants...hahaha...in a production of Kaspar.



I made those wire animals you can see at the back on the posts too.
Inspired by Picasso's Monkey and Goat sculptures.

 

An interest in mask and costume developed during my degree.

I created these masks with moving mouths
as part of my graduation year for a production of Antigone.

This lovely Frenchman, Claude Tessier, was introduced to me through friends
and he generously taught me his mask making technique.

 

 Here is Claude in one of his crocodile masks.

 

Now, you would be forgiven for thinking that mask and costume were miles from pottery
but I sculpt my masks in clay and the finished form is in muslin and tissue paper,
so it's all connected really.
Claude uses a cardboard to sculpt with but for me it is always a return to clay.

After uni I worked as a high school teacher and did a bit of stilt walking on the weekends.

I was introduced to stilt walking by my dear friend Deb Lisyak.
I had the joy of making several pieces of costume for her company Flair L'Gair.
I thank her not only for teaching me to stilt walk but also for her approach to costume making.
She had great integrity and a very high standard of workmanship in everything she made and everything that she commissioned to be made for her company.
Great times!

As time went by I met my now husband.
He also had a son who was 5 years old when we met, so cute!
My three boys were 12,14 and 16 by then
and a couple of years later we had a daughter.....awwwww.....
So you see motherhood is a BIG part of my life.... my kids and my family are my inspiration!

As life would have it over the following years I needed to be a mother and a carer
as my parents became elderly and one of my sons became unwell.
Life was too full and I was not able to return to my work as a teacher.

Art has become my life but it is along side and entwined into my family life.
I am very lucky.

I am now a doting grandmother with a studio space that allows me to return to my beloved pottery,
make costumes to appease my frustrated inner thespian and also room to make mixed media constructions to satisfy the recycler in me.

I have just finished a piece of work to enter into this years WOW
and I am very much looking forward to spending the rest of the year potting.

So that is me....at least for now. 

P.S.
So why does a white Australian woman have a name like Sadhana?
Well I got into yoga at school when I was about 14 in the mid '70's
and became a swami by the time I was 19, Swami Sadhanamurti Saraswati!
Yep ... shaved head...orange robes the whole thing.
But things change and I decided it wasn't for me by the time I was 27 and left it all behind.
However my name stays with me...I never felt connected to my birth name anyhow.

So there you have it in a rather full nut shell.
Happy creating!





This blog post will be added to the Mud Colony Blog share site for all who love clay.

Wet, Wearables and Wishings

                                          Over the last few weeks it has been SOoooo wet here !
                                                                    It is a fungi paradise.

 

I am thinking about making some pots inspired by all the fungi.

                                        This little fellow, below , came up in the carport like this

                                                              

and developed into this...wonderful!     

  

                                             Our paving was completed this week
                                         and I can now get to and from the studio
                                         without the fear of slipping over.


                                                     So it has gone from this..................

 

To this..............

 

and grass will be laid on the earth above

 once the weeds have been removed

I have been doing some experimental dyeing this week with 

MX fibre reactive dyes

While I do much prefer using natural dye stuffs 

these MX fibre reactive dyes do produce some wonderful colours

                                                   

                                                      Aside from all of the above ...

                                                  I  continue with the ever growing
                                               and highly secretive WOW garment
                                               which I am sorry to say I can only hint at
                                 (even though I would love to share the process with you)
                                        but I would be disqualified from the competition
                                  if any images were published before the show in September.
                            However I can say it is growing steadily and I cant wait for it to be done.

                                            I am longing for some clay between my fingers.

                             In the mean time I will check out what my friends at Mud Colony
                                      are up to in an attempt and ease my clay deprivation.

Victor Greenaway demonstation day

 

                                   Victor Greenaway is one of our extraordinary Australian potters.
                                                He lives much of the year in Tuscany, Italy
                                                 where he makes his ceramics and paints.
                                     He and his partner conduct art tours and retreats in their region.

                                     Last Sunday Victor generously shared his expertise
                                    in working in porcelain at the first CSG gathering
                                    for 2013 ay Dense Park in Epping, Sydney.

                                        and it certainly gave me a thirst to work in this media.

                              His style is unique and although it was wonderful to watch,
                              many techniques in the demonstration I wouldn't repeat in
                               my own work, as it is directly associated with his personal
                              mark making.
                               However watching him work the clay was delicious
                               and his tips on using porcelain and its possibilities had me
                               wishing I could pick up a lump of his clay and have a go.

                             Thanks to the CSG and Victor for a lovely day it was very inspiring.

                                                This blog is part of the Mud Colony 
                          so  click on the link to have a look and see what other potters are doing.

Stitch stitch stitch.....and then there was porcelain

                                     I am focused on my WOW entry at the moment.
                                     Yes, once again I am surrounded by a collection
                                     of found materials and objects which are being
                                     put together with the aid of my trusty sewing machine
                                     an iron and a vat of glue.
                                    It is an usual piece this year and I am allowing it to evolve
                                     rather than being too ridged with my design process.

                                      My usual process is to have a brain wave idea
                                      and I just set to and make it.
                                      Not this year ... the idea is still forming
                                      and I am now well into making the piece.
                                      It will either be brilliant or a total flop....who knows
                                      but it is fun in the making and great to be working on a gut level
                                      instead of from an intellectual level for a change.

                                       NEWS FLASH!

                                       Just 10 min ago I found my TEXTILE magazine in the post.
                                       This months looks different to the one shown in the link above.
                                       It features a lovely photo by fellow WOW
                                       designer  Paul Hagger - with a detail of a work by Sharyn Hall.
                                       Look for a green cover.

                                       I was delighted to find an lovely article on my SHE SHELLS.
                                       You can find this mag in most good newsagents in Australia
                                       and in some O/S.
                                       I am in fine company with the work of Susan Holmes,
                                       Svenja and Paul Haggers works.
                                       YAY for us! 
                                       Thank you to Janet DeBoer for her ongoing support.

 

                                   There is one mistake in the article,
                                   it states that this was my 4th entry
                                   but it was actually my 5th.

                                   AND THEN....

                                  I am off to a Victor Greenaway demonstration on Sunday
                                  all being well.

                                 If you are in Sydney and interested
                                 better phone quickly to get a place.
                                 Looks like a beaut!

                                   I will now post this blog entry on the MUD COLONY site
                                                so check what is happening over there too.
                                                                

Use it till you lose it

                                              I have been battling with my arms...
                                                   Elbows, wrists and thumbs
                                                           for some years now.
                                               I am sure many of you fellow artists
                                               have experienced the same condition.

                                                     Very frustrating as an artist
                                             with itchy fingers to be slowed down :(
                                                               But I have had to.
                               Tennis elbow and arthritis don't sound like much of an issue
                                      but when it comes to making, it is quite difficult.
                                                        No strength and plenty of OUCH!
                                                                        BOO!

                                               So the treatment has been stretches
                                                and gentle weight bearing exercises
                                                                      for 6 weeks.
                                                Today I started the first of a series of 4
                                                             sugar water injections.
                                                   These will happen every 2 weeks now
                                                                over the next 8 weeks.
                                                          They go into the tendon in the elbow.
                                                      As tendons don't have much blood flow,
                                     the theory is to trick the body into healing the tendon.

                                                             After these 4 injections
                                                there may be a further series of injections
                                                    of my own blood into the same spot.

                                           The good news is that I can get back to work.
                                                      As long as I use my arm brace.

                                                              Well that's a relief !
                                 I was thinking I would be a nervous wreck before too long
                                           if I could get into the studio in a serious way.


                                                     Construction site update....YAY!
                                                                      Happy dance!

                                                     Below - is where the paving will go.

                                                                  This will be grass.
   

                                                            here is the wall Linda Starr
                                     
 
                                                        Below will be the alternative firing spot
                                                                ... pitt... raku.... sawdust

All rather EXCITING!!!

            This is part of a blog share with other potters that you may like to join Mud Colony

A little bit of digging.

                                   We have a little bit of landscaping happening this week.

                                             The plan is to have the space between
                                               my studio (on the left of the picture)
                                and the verandah (my unofficial outdoor studio) on the right,
                                         paved in such a way that we can drive a car in.
                              I will also be able to set up tables for workshop and /or art classes.
                                                           ALL VERY EXCITING!

Let the work begin!

                                                 
                          I have spent the last three months abstaining from studio work.
                                                                        Why?
                                         Well I have a bodgy elbow at the moment
                                and it makes working with my hands quite difficult.
                                    So it has been all about x-rays and ultra sounds,
                                       exercise and being a little careful with it for a time.

                                                                       Also....

                                   After our family exhibition in Sydney last October
                                        there was a lot of family life to catch up with.

                                      My lovely in-laws are in the process of moving
                                      and I have been accepting bags of STUFF from them
                                         that they kindly thought might be helpful in my work.
                                  So I would bring them home and throw them into the studio
                                                                      (out of the way)
                                                   Yes, thrown in on top of all the STUFF
                                                      that came home from the exhibition
                                               and that  STUFF was piled up on top
                                              of all the raw material STUFF (grasses and clay)
                                            that I collected in outback NSW last year...
                                                 which was in and around boxes of STUFF
                                           that came from my mums house when she died.
                                                                            OH MY !
                                     What A LOT of very interesting and useful STUFFFFFF!
                                           How could I find anything or have space to work?...
                                                              Where could it go?

                                          Broom and garbage bin at my side I set to work!

                                           My mum was an artist and the hundreds of drawings
                                      that she left behind when she died at 87 have been a
                                         huge responsibility in deciding when and how to move on.
                                                      The family had taken what they wanted
                                           and still there were boxes and boxes of drawings!
                                                                  OUT THEY WENT!

                                                          Well when I "drop off my perch"
                                              I hope my family will feel free to just keep what they want
                                                           and not hesitate to chuck the STUFF.
                                                           In the mean time I have decided
                                                        to try to keep throwing out STUFF.
                                          So that there is as little as possible to worry about.

                                            Out!.... went costumes and forgotten half done projects.

                                            Out!... went these spare cup cakes
                                                        from the 'Tea Party' 2011 costume.

                                            Out!...went  'Opera Diva'  #1 and #2
                                                      ( I have kept #3)
                                                            
                                                             It has been a huge relief.

                                 
                                                        

                                                         In the textile side of my studio
                                          all my "BITS" draws have been put in order

                                                          Grasses have been strung up
                                                        for basketry and paper making

                                                          and it is now possible to walk in!

                                                      In the ceramic room of the studio

                                       
                                            My pottery tools have been washed and set in order.
                                            Towels and aprons are washed and ready to use.
                                                     I am still re organising the space a little and
                                                           I am hoping that it will sorted
                                              and ready to start teaching by March or April.
                                              We have some landscaping about to start
                                       which will create an outdoor teaching space
                                       and sculpture garden for open studio exhibition spaces.

                                                                  2013 is looking BIG!
                                              I hope to start my WOW costume next week
                                                and will only have 2 months to complete it.

                                           I am going to the Victor Greenaway demonstration
                                          in porcelain throwing at the CSG in a couple of weeks.

                                         Will do a jewellery workshop with my daughter
                                                          at Context Forum in April
                                                      Our first workshop together! YAY!
                                       I will also have work on display in their exhibition.

                                     Then off to Gulgong for Clay Push with my sister in May
                                            
                                              and another little pottery jaunt to Melbourne in June.

                                                    
                                                     ........and that is just the first part of the year!

                                                         My first born will be married in August


                                                There may even be a trip to WOW in September
                                               IF...I manage to be wow enough with my costume
                                                       and make it through the selection process.

                                         So that is me for now LET THE WORK BEGIN!

                                  the Mud Colony blog share is up and running again
                                             from this week so don't forget
                                      to check what all those busy clay workers are up to.