s t u d i o
L A P R I M I T I V E
arts zine
issue 44 november 2021
THE WOLF SUITE DAVID MCLEOD https://bigbreathproductions.com/ wolf-suite
Music and Medicine, Acrylic on canvas, H119 x W 99 cm. David McLeod.
S E I G A R seigar.wordpress.com
Art Quill Studio Marie-Therese Wisniowski
http://artquill.blogspot.com/
LEFT : Life Emerges Technique and Media: The artists signature MultiSperse Dye Sublimation (MSDS) technique, hand printed and silk -screened employing disperse dyes, native flora, low relief items, transparent, opaque and metallic pigment on synthetic substrate. Size: 13 cm wide x 23 cm high.
L
S T U D I O
P R I
M I T I V E JUNE 2022 at ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM 40 ANNIE ST. WICKHAM, NEWCASTLE NSW.
www.art-systems-wickham.com/
www.studiolaprimitive.net
A
slp studio la primitive CONTRIBUTORS
EL BURRO, H110 x W59 x D10cm., artist formulae composite construction.
Bobby-z Lambert 2010.
Rod Pattenden
Peter J Brown
Bobby-z Lambert
Eric Werkhoven
Gilbert Rossi
Robyn Werkhoven
Michelle Gearin
Helene Leane
Lorraine Fildes
Barbara Nanshe
Bernadette Meyers
Art Systems Wickham Gallery
David McLeod
Art Quill Studio
SEIGAR
Timeless Textiles
Brad Evans
Newcastle Potters Gallery
Reese North
Dungog by Design
Geoffrey Lennie
Sculpture on the Farm 2021
INDEX Editorial …………
Robyn Werkhoven
8
Studio La Primitive ……
E & R Werkhoven
9
Feature Artist ………..
Rod Pattenden
10 - 27
Poetry ………………..
Reese North
28 - 31
Feature Artist …………
Gilbert Rossi
32 - 61
Poetry …………………
Peter J Brown
62 - 63
Feature Artist ………...
Michelle Gearin
64 - 79
Poetry …………………
Eric Werkhoven
80 - 81
Feature Artist ………..
Bobby-z Lambert
82 - 99
Feature Artist …………..
Bernadette Meyers
100 - 115
Poetry …………………
Geoffrey Lennie
116 - 117
Feature Artist …………… SEIGAR
118 - 127
Poetry …………………
Brad Evans
128 - 133
Feature …………………
Lorraine Fildes
134 - 151
Feature …………………
David McLeod
152 -155
ART NEWS……………….
PRISM (detail), water colour on Italian cotton paper , Michelle Gearin 2020.
FRONT COVER:
Trephina Gorge - Pool, 2021, Oil on canvas,
H56 x W71 cm. Rod Pattenden.
156 - 183
EDITORIAL This month Sydney artist and photographer Bernadette Meyers Greetings to our November ARTS ZINE readers. This is the last issue for 2021, we will return in March 2022. We wish all our contributors and readers a merry festive season and a brighter, positive New Year.
includes an enchanting article Wildflower Essence. Lorraine
Fildes, our resident travel photographer and
writer features Sculptures in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.
The November Arts Zine features a selection of dynamic and intriguing
International Spanish photographer SEIGAR features images and
Australian contemporary artists, photographers and writers.
story Voguing in Tenerife.
Dr Rod Pattenden is an artist, art historian, and educational facilitator interested in the connection between spirituality and the arts. This article showcases his latest vibrant landscapes. Photographer Gilbert Rossi writes about his twenty years experience shooting
fashion and people related projects, including Sport and four Olympic Games.
Artist, teacher and performer David McLeod launches The Wolf Suite, an aural, visual and meditative project based
on
diaphragmatic breathing methods. Don’t miss out reading new works by resident poets Brad Evans, Reese North, Peter J Brown and Eric Werkhoven and we feature a work by Melbourne based poet Geoffrey Lennie.
Artist and writer Bobby-z Lambert writes about his life and art - exploring the human journey. The article features his book Thunder Ground - silver
ART NEWS and information on forthcoming art exhibitions.
miners of Potosi, including his remarkable paintings and sculptures of the
Submissions welcomed, we would love to have your words
Bolivian people.
and art works in future editions in 2022.
Newcastle artist Michelle Gearin writes about her world of art and presents her latest paintings - “My paintings are absolutely intuitive. They are often
Deadline for articles 15th FEBRUARY for MARCH issue 45, 2022.
images of emotional tension.”
Email: werkhovenr@bigpond.com
Regards - your editor Robyn Werkhoven The publisher will not accept responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. Copyright © 2021 Studio La Primitive. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced , in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher.
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Family, 2011, Acrylic on board
P R I M I T I V E
www.studiolaprimitive.net
S T U D I O
L A
H120 x W90 cm. E&R Werkhoven
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ROD PATTENDEN
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Rod Pattenden Dr Rod Pattenden is an artist, art historian, and educational facilitator interested in the connection between spirituality and the arts. He has written and lectured widely on these aspects of the arts and creativity in Australia and overseas. He currently lives in Newcastle, NSW. He was for many years the chairperson of the Blake Prize for Religious Art and a founding Director of InterPlay Australia.
He has written widely on the arts, contributing to key publications on the work of a number of leading Australian artists as curator developing a number of innovative exhibitions and installation projects. He has particular strengths in the areas of the visual arts,
performance skills, movement and exploring the processes of creativity. Rod has a BA Visual Arts (arts practice), M Phil (art history), M Theol (hons), PHD and a Dip Ed.
Page 10 : After the Fires, Oil in canvas, H46 x W122 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Right : Merimbula Hillside 4, Oil on canvas, H61 x W46 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021.
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Fire Reaches the Lake, Oil on canvas, H76 x W102 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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LOST AND FOUND IN COLOUR Rod Pattenden COVID lockdowns have their benefits. It has enabled me to return to an arts practice after many years of focusing my creative efforts elsewhere; in community development, writing and curating the work of others. It has proved to be a dive into colour and the delight it gives the eye, of being lost and found in forms that entice my sense of looking at nature. I am drinking it all up knowing its going to settle into a more characteristic style as I pare down what really interests and fascinates my imagination. At the moment I feel
like I am walking on water, sometimes afloat, other times sinking. It is the necessary condition of not knowing, that is so much a part of the creative process!
I did spend four years at art school in Sydney in my youth. The overriding style then was ‘splash and dribble’, an education that came with limited technical assistance from lecturers who were artists, but who couldn’t necessarily teach! It was survival of the fittest as actual tuition was light on. The most successful students in my year found fame in music rather than art, with bands like ‘Mental as Anything’. The discipline of art making was not on the curriculum and you could try out anything you liked. It was easy to get lost. At this stage I am hoping that life experience counts for something in choosing to pick up the brushes again, and that if I get lost it will be a pleasant place to reside! Issue 44 - November 2021
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In March last year I started painting in oils, taking those first steps where you don’t judge the results, but just keep doing it. Rather than feeding your self esteem there is something to be learnt from just turning up in the studio every day you can. It’s kind of like a spiritual discipline or life practice where you decide what’s most important and keep turning up for this promise of some insight and a little bit of transformation. I noticed that my day dreams began to change into fields of colour. As I closed my eyes at night to go to
sleep my eye lids were reflecting fields of colour, like mother of pearl inside a rough shell. This other side of my brain started to wake up and give me a sense of flow. Time in the studio was like being adrift in a boat on a changing tide. There was some kind of depth and resourcefulness. I was surprised at times where the ideas came from. Painting turned out to be good for my health. Given COVID restrictions I started scavenging through my friend’s photographs on social media and then painting them in ways that gave me a sense of landing, of having been there. Oceans, skies, vistas and still life, expanding my own imagination and learning to manipulate space with an eye on colour. What I like is the sense of reverie. That moment when you are so intent that you get lost in looking. Mind you I don’t get
this sense of being lost at all, but of being held in an intense moment of contemplation. It’s like the brain does a double thing, where at one end of the scale you are looking at a fine detail, while conscious that the universe is expanding, holding everything and nothing at that same time. It might be a sense of oneness perhaps, where the distance between your sense of self and the thing you observe collapses into one perception. It’s that drifting thing at the edge of ordered thought, back in the boat, on a changing tide.
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Trephina Gorge - After the Rains, Oil on canvas, H51 x 6W1 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Life is pretty messy and making art is more so. It is a relief to find moments of intense visual interest that brings with it a sense of delight in being alive and human. I know, full well, that my eye has an appetite for things. Looking is most often shaped by desire for things to ameliorate my fears and anxieties. Looking with
reverie suspends such desire to just acknowledge the surplus of pleasure in looking with delight. The eye gets to experience richness without ownership. It’s cream cakes without the calories! Looking can bring nourishment and feed my imagination in a way that makes me human and generous. Delight, it seems to me has ethical dimensions. So, I am painting to expand my sense of pleasure in being alive. I hope others see it. Recently I have been painting directly from life, finding the process of drawing and deeply looking, part of the research into a sense of place. I love the black and white starkness of charcoal drawing. This is another world of focused mark making that reminds me that drawing has its own choreography of space. Recent opportunity to camp for a few days at Hat Head on the mid north coast, walking out to Nobby’s Head at
different times of the day, and finding old drawings done at Trephina Gorge, east of Alice Springs, have given me new opportunities to play with differing colour combinations and a sense of atmosphere. I am also stretching the scale of the works, seeing more space and a sense of vista to wrap around the eyes of the viewer
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After a small exhibition earlier this year I am already exploring a new body of work. I can sense this growing hunger for complexity and
layering, colour upon colour, where you see the miracle of two dimensions echoing into the eyes of the viewer as a real imagined field of possibilities. Next year I hope to have a larger show of my work, but in the mean time I have
set up a website to share my art work, my writings on art, and curatorial work. - Rod Pattenden © 2021.
https://www.rodpattenden.id.au
Merimbula Hillside 3, Charcoal on paper, H59.5 x W42 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Page 18: Trephina Gorge - Trees, 2021, Oil on canvas, H61 x W46 cm.
Above: Hat Head Sunset, Oil on canvas, H61 x W138 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021.
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Trephina Gorge - Tree, Oil on canvas, H51 x W61 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Trephina Gorge - Rocks, Oil on canvas, H56 x W71 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Fire, Oil on canvas, H91 x W183 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021.
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Wave, Oil on canvas, H91 x W183 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021.
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Newcastle - Nobbys Afternoon Oil on canvas, H76 x W76 cm . Rod Pattenden 2021.
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Newcastle - Nobbys Windy Day, Oil on canvas, H76 x W76 cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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https://www.rodpattenden.id.au
All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Rod Pattenden © 2021.
Page 26 : NewCastle - Nobbys Sunset, Oil on canvas, H76 x W76cm. Rod Pattenden 2021. Left : Kangaroo Valley - Sun Rock, Oil on canvas, H61 x W51cm. Rod Pattenden 2020.
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NIRVANA
R E
E
Between the silence of the bush
S
and the suction of the tide
E N O
R T
a flat rock platform appears. I walk here in the early evening where sunlit shells and periwinkles lie embedded in the sandy floor of a warm rock pool. A gentle breeze brushes the stillness
this moment.
H Reese North © 2021 Issue 44 - November 2021
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BLISS Through golden shade I taste the fragrance of a green Buddha – a butterfly with transparent wings floats above my garden. Reese North © 2021 Issue 44 - November 2021
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R
Does nothing ever last? --
E
not a lake alive with starlight
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or the silken skin of children,
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not the loving eyes of Mothers
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or the quickening of Spring -and now this Sage within me
N
even he begins to brown --
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my thoughts evaporate like water
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to silence
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so complete:
H
Aah
it is the infinite! Reese North © 2021 Issue 44 - November 2021
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MEDITATION The gift of innocence is an unburdened mind that sees the still moment – Flourish.
Reese North © 2021 Issue 44 - November 2021
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GILBERT ROSSI
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GILBERT ROSSI Italian photographer Gilbert Rossi lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Rossi has a background in graphic design and over twenty years experience shooting fashion and people related projects, including Sport and four Olympic Games. His photography of fashion, advertising and sport for magazines has featured in Vogue Italia, Harper's Bazaar, Cleo, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and Time magazine. “I work on many different projects that are related by the challenges they present, and keep me fired and inspired.” - Gilbert Rossi.
Page 32 : Found this stunning beauty working in a SUPRE store, Styled by me. Model -Tina Johnson (now modelling in New York).- Gilbert Rossi. Right : Gilbert Rossi, in his Balmain Studio. Photo by Kent Johnson.
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Fashion parade made with slow shutter to emphasize the elegant movement. - Gilbert Rossi.
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GILBERT ROSSI - INTERVIEW My family is Italian and moved to Sydney when my father was transferred. My early interest in Art, mainly drawing and painting, led me to study Art, then Graphic Design at the National Art School in East Sydney. It was a five year full time coarse that included Drawing, Life Drawing, Painting, Silk Screening, Pottery and Sculpture. In the latter years I specialised in Graphic Design. Photography was introduced in my final year, and it took hold of me. Having already started shooting some fellow classmates while I was at NAS, I started getting some photographic and design work, but eventually gravitating to only photography, finding it to be the medium with which I could best express myself. So in the years that followed, I was shooting more and more fashion, because of my love of women and the sheer theatre of fashion. As I was competing in road cycling, a love of shooting sport quickly developed, and I started selling prints to colleagues, as a way to fund my photography addiction. Then when an image of mine was spotted in a professional photo lab’s window display, I got my first image published in a magazine, and it was the cover of VOGUE Italia. So from there I started shooting for other Fashion & Beauty publications, here and in Europe & New York. Issue 44 - November 2021
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I have always preferred to freelance so I would be free to do things my own way. Eventually able to strike an uneasy balance between Advertising/commercial work with my own preferred projects. However this meant a life of ‘Feasting and Famine’ but as I recall, mainly famine. Although there wasn’t much feasting, I was doing exactly what I wanted, where and when I wanted. For me that freedom was life. So the many
struggles were just bumps in the road. That road took me all over the globe shooting a mix of Sport and Fashion. Keeping busy doing anything that fed my addiction to light and women. I gravitated to work with clients that allowed me to shoot things the way I felt they should, and this was the way European and New York clients functioned, hiring a Page 2 of 3 ARTZINE-GR 2 10/10/21, 10:11 pm photographer for his
mind’s eye. So I didn’t make much headway in Australia. Here photographers were seen as technicians, magazines expected you copy the examples they came up with. Leading to some interesting discussions, and a few times sparks flew. But I’m unable to function in any other way, of coarse sometimes a compromise was
needed, but I learnt how to steer the ship I was on to where my head and heart needed to go. This approach has so far worked, but it’s only been a few decades, so who knows, right? But I got better at juggling egos, and dodging bullshit. As long as I got to shoot the way I needed to, I could do without the “Kudos” everyone seemed to crave. The image was the most important thing for me.
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Another image from same fashion parade as on page 12 Fashion series - Gilbert Rossi.
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I guess my approach to work usually entails little planning, as I seem to find ideas and locations everywhere, and I prefer to see what I can come up with when ‘the gun goes off’. I might plan to shoot somewhere, then find a more exiting place or idea. When it rained, I made wet pictures, when the wind came out to play, I went with it. I don’t see the change in weather or other changes as a problem, just a
challenge that can yield different but still emotive images. I find turning a poor situation into memorable results, far more satisfying, and I’m fortunate to have had an incredible relationship with the universe with respect to weather and all manner of things that have made my life the rollercoaster it is. Over the past few decades, I have shot Fashion & Beauty for publications that include Vogue Italia, Harpers
Bazzar Italia, Cosmopolitan, Cleo, Sheila, and Pol Magazines. Advertising Campaigns via Ad agencies for Clairol, J&J, Volvo japan, Kodak, AMP, Park Royal and Radisson Hotels, and Air Lanka and Qantas Airlines. With Sport assignments for publications that include LIFE Magazine Seoul Olympics, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Inside Sport and Time Magazine-Americas Cup, Atlanta and Sydney Olympic Games. With
other documentary Assignments/Cover stories for Newsweek. At present I’m working on several projects for future exhibitions on COVID 19, and Urban Peoples. These projects and a book of my Memoirs are keeping me occupied. - Gilbert Rossi © 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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The watcher being watched. City Dwellers Series - Gilbert Rossi.
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P H O T O G
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G I L B E R
T R
O S S
Page 40 : A droplet
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Left: Lillies I Love.
caught by a leaf.
- Gilbert Rossi.
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F A S H I O N Issue 44 - November 2021
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Page 42 : Beauty image for KODAK testing their new film emulsion STS, then created this version by Polaroid transfer onto watercolour paper.
Above : Found this amazing location. so an amazing image was needed. Model - Gillian Cooper Wardrobe styling by me. - Gilbert Rossi.
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Mathew Harding’s Steel Sculpture at Sculptures by The Sea made for a great image with model Ela Markstein. Makeup by Jo Borg, my wardrobe styling. - Gilbert Rossi. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Found this amazing shadow of staircase spreading it’s wings all over this awesome purple wall. Model - OLEKSANDRA BERESORSKA Wardrobe styling by Gilbert Rossi.
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I met Camile Thomas walking down the street in Rozelle, then while driving around Sydney looking for an inspiring location, found this awesome wall. - Gilbert Rossi. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Model Jack Tyeman. I wanted Jack to wait there and give me an intense strong look, and as he was wondering why he was just standing there, and feeling
awkward, the wave I was counting on hit and framed him. Just what I envisaged. - Gilbert Rossi.
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T R A
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Traffic Lights a Series at, and of the Lights. Page 48: Even as I drive, they tell me what I must shoot. Left: Go. - Gilbert Rossi.
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Traffic Lights a Series at, and of the Lights.
Page 50: Watching those black boxes as they watch us. Left: Like Moths to a flame, even the shadow people are to be found at the lights. - Gilbert Rossi.
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C I T
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Page 52 : Darth Vader can now walk amongst us unnoticed thanks to COVID19 . Photograph by Gilbert Rossi. Above : This New World has it’s silent soldiers watching. COVID Series. - Gilbert Rossi.
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Page 54: GRAFFITI window to urban subconscious. Left : They come out at dusk, but I was waiting. City Dwellers Series. - Gilbert Rossi.
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S P O R T Issue 44 - November 2021
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Page 56 : Ghost Surfer at Bronte Beach. 800mm lens and early morning light.
Above : On assignment for LIFE MAGAZINE ,at my first Olympic Games Seoul 1988. - Gilbert Rossi.
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Kieren Perkins winning the 1500 m freestyle Olympic Gold at
Atlanta
1996, I was on assessment for TIME MAGAZINE and this was to be Time’s cover, before the Bomb that went off became the cover story. The story for me was how I managed to get the eye contact. - Gilbert Rossi.
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Close up of swimmer from above. The texture of water has always been a magnet for me. - Gilbert Rossi.
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G I L B E R
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https://www.instagram.com/ gilbertrossiphoto/?hl=en
Page 60: Left : “This image of a Diver was selected for inclusion in the ACMP collection, and is one of my favs.” Right : Para Olympic Wheelchair Marathon on Anzac Bridge Sydney. “I was going for the heat haze and the melting effect.” - Gilbert Rossi.
All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Gilbert Rossi © 2021.
Above : Gilbert Rossi at the Swimming, Commonwealth Games Melbourne 2006.
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P E T E R
Eagle Scavenging Warned in time of our approaching car he takes to the air in easy flight,
body beating with the strength of a star, pulsing in the endless night. The eagle rises from the pulped red
J
monitor, smashed to pieces on the metal road, crossing curious, then mangled, bleeding dead, like a weighty chain-mailed toad.
B R O W N
The eagle rises, black and orange, Autumn storm of muscled skin Into the sky so stirred up strange which welcomes him and takes him in.
He ascends in merry majesty up into the autumnal sky,
black and orange, up from the tragedy of the reptile doomed to die, Into clouds so still and furious, whirling on winds that will take him home,
to his eyrie where his curious kids will command that he bring them some Reptile smashed on the human pathway, they won’t even ask him why;
what could he say about it anyway, except that it was doomed to die?
Peter J Brown © 2021 Issue 44 - November 2021
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Spotted Quoll It sits – this he or she – stuffed on a shelf, alive in death as if it were still it’s still sure self.
A furtive thing which once would have sent biologists shuddering – a marsupial cat! – must now relent it’s hold on our Great Southern Land. His fangs are bared like needles, his nose as pink as if it wheedles scent from air in eucalypt where all is fresh and sends in sprout rejoicing the sprinting flesh. His eyes are dark and full nocturnal, vivid the dark to him and vernal the buds where once it roamed along the coast where ocean thunder boomed. He’s thin as a whippet, a yard long with a tail that lashed as he sang a feral hunting song.
This one fronts my window, nearly extinct and borrowed as a display, so that my peace is furrowed with thoughts of the teeming Earth before Cook came and gave our nation birth. This was the time of Darwin, the savage carnal sea, the whales that burst and ravage sense of time from now unto Eternity. He’s spotted white on russet brown, child of some ancient maternity, loaned for a day from down in town to demand of us solemnity though we wear the cap and gown of knowing here and now from nowhere, life from dust breathed forth by Care, and though we thirst for trust.
Peter J Brown © 2021 Issue 44 - November 2021
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MICHELLE GEARIN
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MICHELLE GEARIN Artist Michelle Gearin currently lives and work in Newcastle, NSW.
Her studio is at The Creator Incubator, a lively
creative hub that houses thirty seven innovative resident artists, designers, makers, thinkers. Gearin has received many awards and been a finalist in major art prizes. In 2010 she was the recipient of the Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship Recipient (Painting Category).
In 2011 BA Fine Art Honours, University of Newcastle, NSW.
MATRIARCH Michelle Gearin Opening Friday 26th November at 6pm. 2021. At The Creator Incubator Gallery 15a/50 Clyde St, Hamilton, Newcastle, NSW. N229
Page 64 : One Foot in Another World, oil on canvas, Michelle Gearin 2021. Right : Naked House Fire, oil on canvas, Michelle Gearin 2020.
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Head in the Sunlight, oil on canvas, Michelle Gearin 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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MICHELLE GEARIN - INTERVIEW When did your artistic passion begin? I guess it began in primary school, I had a warm and supportive art teacher, Sybil Orr, she told me my sense of colour was unique and beautiful. That gave me the confidence to express in art what I couldn’t in another language. Have you always wanted to be an artist? Absolutely yes. Being an artist just always seemed to portray freedom to me. My parents had artist friends, and I would just watch the way they talked about things, they didn’t fuck around with boring conversation, it seemed passionate and real and so rich. Describe your work. It’s really hard for me to describe my work as I work without a plan. My paintings are absolutely intuitive. They are often images of emotional tension. What is the philosophy behind your work?
When I paint, I need a level of trust in myself, it’s a struggle. My paintings sometimes solve internal thoughts, which is quite magic. The work transforms and images appear and disappear, the narrative plays out often without my conscious input, like in a dream. Why do you choose this material/ medium to work with? I use oils as they force me to be patient and look and consider. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Do you have a set method/ routine of working? I work in my studio at the Creator Incubator around 5 days a week. I start with a image, a figure or a landscape, then I just paint whatever I'm feeling at that time. Because I spend many weeks and months on a work, its can have many different images buried beneath. How important is drawing as an element to your artwork? Drawing and painting is not really separate to me. Even though my paintings have lots of buried stories underneath, you can still see evidence of them. Like drawing, there is a timeline from the first mark to the last. What inspires your work/ creations? Awe mostly, indescribable things. What have been the major influences on your work? Music, I couldn’t work without it. What are some of your favourite artworks and artists? Paula Rego’s Red Monkey series is still my all time favourite work. Goya’s black paintings is a close second. I love thousands of artists work, too many to list! Any particular style or period that appeals? Any particular style or period that appeals? So much brilliant painting was being done around the turn of the 20th century, The Fauves (of course!), Spiritualist art and mysticism. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Mother and Child Oil on canvas Michelle Gearin 2021.
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What are the challenges in becoming an exhibiting artist? The biggest challenge for me is talking about the individual works, they mean something different to the viewer. I don't want my feelings on the work to limit its story. Name your greatest achievement, exhibitions? I started painting again mid last year after a ten year break. My career as an artist was starting to take off and I had just finished a 2 year painting scholarship travelling through Europe. When i had my second son in 2011, it just tipped me into full time parenting and I became very scared of painting again. I believe my biggest achievement is picking up the brush again. Jumping back into the deep end! How has the COVID 19 Virus affected your art practice? It’s been very difficult having to home school on the days id usually be in at the studio, but i make up for it with night painting times. Also, financially it’s been shit of course, my part time work stopped and that pays for my studio space. What are you working on at present? I've been working hard for 16 months towards a solo show in late November at the creator incubator gallery. What do you hope viewers of your art works will feel and take with them? I hope the just feel. I hope my paintings make people curious. Your future aspirations with your art? I have big plans! MONA of course, yep, that’s where I want my work to live. Forthcoming exhibitions? My first solo show in ten years. ‘Matriarch’ at the Creator Incubator opening late November.
- Michelle Gearin © 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Sleeping In A Volcano Oil on canvas Michelle Gearin 2021.
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G A L L E R Y
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Page 72 : Foot, oil on mounted paper, Michelle Gearin 2020.
Above : Untitled, oil on paper, Michelle Gearin 2020. Issue 44 - November 2021
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PRISM Watercolour on Italian cotton paper Michelle Gearin 2020.
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PRISM Detail Watercolour on Italian cotton paper Michelle Gearin 2020.
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PRISM (detail) Watercolour on Italian cotton paper Michelle Gearin 2020.
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PRISM (detail) Watercolour on Italian cotton paper Michelle Gearin 2020.
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PRISM (detail) Watercolour on Italian cotton paper Michelle Gearin 2020.
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Snake Cloud, oil on canvas, Michelle Gearin 2020.
All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Michelle Gearin © 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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The River Revisited Steeped in this long tradition, not to lose facts from fiction. As if a monstrous tune is following the deep malice of our ever increasing expansion. Unable to switch off as yet, for fear of being robbed. I haven’t been at the river for a long time and miss the simplicity. It is only a matter of time to turn a man into a Buddha, and not of stone. We are in a transitional state, to have to read all through the back log annals. Suppose it would amass our knowledge to fill our head within the constructs of this labyrinth, mapped out. To find a compliant person, destined to reach through time immemorial the origin of the species.
A break through, a pretence to keep on searching for the heart that beats so fantastically. A requisition for the trail not to end abruptly.
Eric Werkhoven © 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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What is in a Word Closing in, but in many instances not getting nearer. To have to rush here and then there, to get my ideas and motion, in some regimented order. Focus on being a dancer, with accumulative skills to identify and simulate world order, and embrace. In over lapping episodes, room for gestation, and making these groups inseparably connected. In theory and philosophy within a massive conglomerate totality. Where the words may strike a certain note,
to find let’s say the sound of your name particularly enchanting.
- Eric Werkhoven © 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021
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BOBBY-Z LAMBERT Issue 44 - November 2021
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BOBBY-Z LAMBERT Tasmanian artist Bobby –Z Lambert presently lives and works in the historic Ghost town of Silverton, NSW. Lambert has experienced the world as - oilman, fisherman, mountaineer, miner, artist and writer.
Bobby-Z says “Tasmania is my spiritual home…it called me there from a young age. The mountains and forests…the air, the primordial energy called out to my soul and I answered in my twenties. He was born in Penang, Malaysia 1969. ‘My father worked as an oil field superintendent and we travelled, the family travelled the globe. As a child I grew up moving constantly through different physical and cultural landscapes”. “I started painting at the age of twenty seven, after being told in a dream to “paint portraits” so loud the voice actually woke me up. I decided to take that dream seriously and began immediately to teach myself how to paint forging out my own style through reading and pragmatic experiment.” Lambert’s art expresses his social, political and humanitarian trepidation.
“I’ve been exploring the human journey and landscape with my art since 1997, works in sculpture and paintings, with oil, acrylic and encaustic media.”
Lambert has exhibited regularly in Thailand and Tasmania. Professor Adrian Franklin a social anthropologist included Lambert’s art in his book Collecting The 20th Century. Issue 44 - November 2021
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T H U
N D E R G R
O U N D
EMILIANO H103 x W93cm. Synthetic polymer on canvas Bobby-z Lambert 2011.
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THUNDER GROUND “Instinct paints my pictures and guides me to my next subject. It’s the voice that says it’s not here, it’s over there.” Lambert was lured across the world to the Inca silver miners of the Bolivian Andes, Cerro Rico, the “mountain of riches” in 2010. He produced a series of dynamic narrative paintings and sculptures, a tribute to the miners of Potosi. During his time there he worked shifts in the perilous mines and carved a work in homage to the miners. The sculpture hangs on the front wall of the Miners Museum. Lambert has published the book Thunder Ground - silver miners of Potosi. Thunder Ground is an artist’s journey into the hearts of Bolivia’s silver miners. Hundreds of generations of Bolivian miners have risked their lives to extract the riches of Cerro Rico, a mountain whose peak, like the Tower of Babel, dominates the sky above the highest city in the world, Potosi. Cerro Rico’s inestimable wealth made the Inca palaces glisten, it paid for Spain’s conquests around the world. Aboard Spanish galleons the silver of Cerro Rico beckoned Blackbeard and his quintessential Caribbean pirates. It made Europe rich. And Europe never looked back. But from the beginning down to the present day the miners of Cerro Rico have always been terribly poor and frighteningly at risk. Now, after almost 500 years, the works of Bobby-z Lambert reverse history to pay artistic tribute to the world of these remarkable men. The Forward to Thunder Ground is written by George Gittoes a celebrated Australian artist, an internationally acclaimed film producer, director and writer. Gittoes’ work has consistently expressed his social, political and humanitarian concern. Excerpts from Gittoes forward - “Bobby-z is one of those rare writers, like Hemingway, who can transport the reader to feel they are wearing his skin.” Bobby's art is not much different to mine - we are brothers in the brush. Bobby-z understands the dark road I am on, his Bolivian mines are out of my night vision world. ‘Miner in the Dark’ is a perfect metaphor to describe the task of an artist. Bobby-z brings the shiny stuff up out of the dark, but it is not nuggets or chunks of silver from narrow tunnels beneath the earth but what glitters inside the hearts of people.!
- George Gittoes 2011.
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Left photographs : Miners affix “Without the miners” to the façade of Potosi’s Del Alpa Wappa Museum, high on the flank of Cerro Rico. The relief sculpture is made from welded iron, W1.8 x H2 m. At an altitude
approximate height of 4300m. this is one
of the highest placed sculptures on the earth. The words at the bottom of the sculpture - “Without the miners, there is no Potosi” … Many Bolivians make a pilgrimage up the Cerro just to see this work donated by the artist. Before leaving Potosi, Lambert took a last look down the mine. “I returned to get a taste of mining with hammer and steal determined to blast out some silver no matter how small, for memories sake and at least the knowledge of just how hard it is. “In my studio sits a piece of rock my friends and I drilled by hand then blew out of the Cerro. It’s only 1 per cent silver but a hundred and ten per cent love, jokes and sharing with the incredible miners of Potosi.” Bobby-z Lambert 2012.
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ENRICO Painting H130 x W 105cm. Modelling paste and oil paint.
Bobby-z Lambert 2011.
Cerro Rico (Rich Hill), like a beacon, calls all men. To some it gives riches, to others soup and bread, to most an early grave. From far-off
villages boys like Enrique also come to work the mountain. Enrique sells rocks at the entrance to the mines. He bus them from miners,
but
sometimes he and his friends will crawl deep into the mountain to seek out the most colourful ones as they know this is what the gringos will buy.
- Excerpt from Thunder Ground.
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S A N B O N I T O San Bonito, H69 x W103cm., Synthetic polymer on canvas. Bobby-z Lambert 2011. “The churche’s beauty never leaves you. But it also has a dark side. The slaves who worked the mines in the 1700s were kept here and a love-lost Catholic priest jumped to his death from the bell-tower. Like many things in Potosi, the building has a pervasive, even insidious quality and if you stare long enough you’ll hear its spirits call
your name”.
- Excerpt from Thunder Ground. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Quechan Angel Painting H119 x W102cm. Oil on canvas. Bobby-z Lambert 2010.
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CELESTINA Painting H163 x W163cm. Synthetic polymer and oil on canvas Bobby-z Lambert 2011.
“Celestina,
Who has hammered in the dirt for sixty years. Carries in her skin the story of a nation And smiles like the very soul of her people.” - Excerpt from Thunder Ground.
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MADONNA OF THE MINERS Painting H133 x W105cm. Oil on cavas. Artist made composite frame. Bobby-z Lambert 2010.
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E L T I O Issue 44 - November 2021
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CONTRACT WITH EL TIO Painting H109 x W136cm. Modelling paste and oil paint on canvas. Bobby-z Lambert 2010. “For the Bolivian miners, mining underground is a highly ritualised and supernatural activity, a mixture of long held shamanistic beliefs mixed with Christian ritual. Perhaps
the best example is the underworld deity the miners call their Uncle, El Tio. You find at least one statue of him in every underground mine in Bolivia, usually built by or with help of a shaman. He is a mixture the Christian Devil and Supay the indigenous deity of the underground. The miners believe that by offering El Tio gifts ( most commonly coca leaves, alcohol
and cigarettes) they will be led to richer veins of precious minerals.”
- Excerpt from Thunder Underground.
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COMPADRES DAY H90 x W110cm. Oil on canvas Bobby-z Lambert 2010. “This painting is of two miners emerging, wearing their ribbons of celebration, behind them the spirits of the underworld.”
- Excerpt from Thunder Ground.
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D I C E O F D E S T I N Y
DICE OF DESTINY, 11 cm. cube, fired terracotta and oil paint. Bobby-z Lambert 2011. Issue 44 - November 2021
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TIME LOCK, Relief
H124 x W208 x D5cm. , artist formulae composite. Bobby-z Lambert 2010.
“With this sculpture I wanted to give a sense that it knows something we don’t, as if it were the secret to time travel carved in some ancient chamber deep in the mine.”
- Excerpt from Thunder Ground. Issue 44 - November 2021
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S U P A Y SUPAY, H110 x W85 x D110cm., artist formulae composite construction. Bobby-z Lambert. “Supay, ancient Huari, to whom all minerals belong, keep us safe and into our veins run your silver.” -
Excerpt from Thunder Ground. Issue 44 - November 2021
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D
E V
DEVIL CAT
I
H31 x W31cm.
L
Bobby-z Lambert 2010.
Oil on canvas
“This red cat is my interpretation
C
A
of one of the spirit creatures of the underworld.”
- Excerpt from Thunder Ground.
T
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Open studio by appointment at the historic Ghost town of Silverton.
People can directly message me on: https://www.instagram.com/ bobbyzlambertstudio/?hl=en
Or email: bobbyzlambert@yahoo.com
All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Bobby-Z Lambert© 2021.
JORGE, H41 x W 39cm., oil bars on canvas.
Bobby-z Lambert 2010. Issue 44 - November 2021
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Wildflower Essence BERNADETTE MEYERS
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Wildflower Essence My intention with these photographs is not to make portraits of flowers or describe their botanical qualities. It is to attempt to describe the intrinsic nature of their character. To express their unspoken language in images. My artist friend, Akiane Kramarik, said, “We cannot teach a flower how to grow; we can only learn from it.” And there is so much we can learn from nature, including flowers, if we slow down and spend the time to listen deeply. In the Victorian Era, people developed a complex flower language. When they displayed or gifted flowers, the intended meaning was understood. This is also true of other cultures and periods in time. Many of these meanings are still in use now and contribute to the personalities we perceive in flowers. These traditions are lovely and fascinating but not commonly recognised for Australian
native flora. In a way, that is good. It allows us an opportunity to receive fresh insight from the actual flowers in the wild. When I take photographs in nature, it is a type of meditation. I spend many hours quietly contemplating through the lens. Slowly turning the focus ring as if it were a kaleidoscope, revealing new wonders moment by moment. Issue 44 - November 2021 101
I like to dream right into the bloom and be carried into the flower world. Far away from the noise, busyness and responsibilities of life. It’s also essential to return repeatedly to the same subjects. Perhaps at various times of
day, with different lighting or in another place or season. These are intimate encounters with the flowers, taken using close up adapters on the lens to focus on the flower and exclude all distractions. Nothing else vies for attention. They are not studio portraits using the latest gear; many are taken with old lenses and in less than ideal conditions. Anyone who has photographed flowers knows that the slightest breeze makes it quite challenging. But I’ve found that even on days with high wind and harsh light, you can find a means to represent the individuality and beauty of the plants. Those circumstances are part of the context. Each species has its own character traits, and even within the species, individual flowers have unique personalities. The descriptions for each are entirely subjective and, from my personal experience. They are intuitive and have no basis in science. That’s part of the joy of creating art.
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P R O T E A Protea - She is the stately Queen of the Australian bush. Resolute, gracious and elegant. Understated in her royal gown. Issue 44 - November 2021 103
White Flannel Flower
Soft, gentle and comforting with their rounded leaves and velvety petals.
They are open and inviting, looking upward and outward. Issue 44 - November 2021 104
D A R W I N
I A Darwinia Quite prim and proper with its delicate pink stamens neatly arrayed in perfect posture. Issue 44 - November 2021 105
Pink Eucalyptus Blossom
Sweet, light-hearted and happy little blossoms that age with grace and beauty as they advance through the stages of life. Issue 44 - November 2021 106
BANKSIA
Banksia - Joyful and entertaining, always the life of the party. Issue 44 - November 2021 107
Pink Flannel Flower
Pink Flannel Flower Playful and child-like, the tiny pink flannel flowers are unaffected by their rarity and desirability.
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G E R A L D O N
W A X
Geraldton Wax Measured, reliable and leisurely, an uncomplicated personality that is easy to keep company with.
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P I N
K G R
Pink Grevillea -
E
in soft-hued silk, she is filled with
V
Peaceful and reflective, dressed gratitude.
I
L L E
A Issue 44 - November 2021 110
B O T T L E B R
Bottle Brush -
U
the bottle brush is a
S
finds joy in family
Fiery and exciting, social flower who and friends.
H Issue 44 - November 2021 111
Red Eucalyptus
Blossom Red Eucalyptus Blossom Optimistic and bursting with hope, red
eucalyptus flowers are like fireworks that brighten the lives of all who see them.
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W H I T
E G R
E V E L
L E A White Grevillea Quiet and unpretentious, the milky grevillea is nurturing with her gentle curves. Issue 44 - November 2021 113
W
A R A T A H Waratah - The regal King of the bush, he is large, powerful and benevolent. Issue 44 - November 2021 114
W
A T T L E Wattle - Carefree with a sunny disposition, wattle blossoms elevate the mood and dream adventurously.
www.breeze.pics All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Bernadette Meyers © 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021 115
THE LANDLORD OF POVERTY STREET (a song) In Average Street, a landlord - kneels beside his bed
God’s chosen entrepreneur
And prays to God in Heaven to deliver his weekly bread He prays for his tenants’ welfare on knees devoutly bent
With borrowed, divine dollars, he bought a terrace of nine
In pious supplication he prays, his tenants will pay the rent
In Poverty Street in Miseryville, the block ‘tween Howl and Whine
The tenants will pay the rent, the rent
Knocked around and requiring repair a little will need to be spent
The tenants will pay the rent
But at the going rental rate – that's thirty-two per cent
He prays to God in Heaven That his tenants will pay the rent
Thirty-two per cent, per cent That’s thirty-two per cent
He felt a spiritual calling to house a nation’s poor
From a Ford to a BMW
To ease the pain of suffering, to strike at evil’s core
Mister thirty-two per cent
In saintly fiscal communion with God’s banker, as it were The Holy Ghost anointed him God’s chosen entrepreneur
Time passed by and his tenants repaid Heaven’s merciful loan And the property willed by Our Saviour, now the landlord’s own
God’s chosen entrepreneur
God’s earthly work completed, via hallowed Bank and Church
God’s chosen entrepreneur
Now another wealthy landlord – to wield a landlord’s birch
The Holy Ghost anointed him Issue 44 - November 2021 116
Yes, he wields a landlord's birch, oh yes He wields a landlord’s birch
Geoffrey Lennie
God’s earthly work completed now He wields a landlord’s birch
Geoffrey Lennie is a Melbourne based poet, know for his realist,
In Affluent Street, a landlord – on knees devoutly bent
socialist and humanitarian poetry.
Offers thanks to God above for his thirty-two per cent
Past publications:
He prays for the hungry everywhere, but mostly in Poverty Street
Propaganda, Beehive Press 1994.
Where, his tenants having paid the rent, can barely afford to eat.
Visions From the Valley Poetry from the Hunter Valley,
Mister thirty-two per cent
1960 - 2000.
Mister thirty-two per cent
He prays to God his tenants survive To pay the next week’s rent
- Geoffrey Lennie © 2021.
Issue 44 - November 2021 117
S E I G A R
Voguing in Tenerife
Issue 44 - November 2021 118
Voguing in Tenerife SEIGAR On the 31st of August 2021, I picked up an ex-student, Dani García, in my car. I was one of his teachers at the high school,
and I can tell he had always been a special guy with fresh ideas, charisma, and talent. We both live in the north of Tenerife, so we headed towards the south of the island, where he usually meets his family to train and spend some time with. Dani had accepted my proposal to take some photos of his dancing family. In the car, he explained to me everything he could about the history of the ballroom scene, the voguing movement, and so on. With profound respect and humbleness, he tried that I had an idea about what he does with his group. It's more complex than it may seem, but what I got clear is that they feel total admiration for this scene and its pioneers. There is a feeling of appreciation for the ballroom scene, and though they follow this culture, they are conscious of the changes in society since the beginnings of this until now, and the responsibilities that convey to be part of this movement. That is why to have good advice and counselling, they establish contacts with different mentors from the scene. Their idea of belonging to this scene is cautious and prudent. There is also a great sense of esteem for the veterans, and the time they have spent in it. Experience is valued in this group. Everyone is welcomed and accepted. They feel free to grow and know themselves better, as oppose to what happens in society, differences are embraced, and this empowers them. They encourage themselves to improve their dancing skills. They also care for each other. This photo-narrative shows a meeting of this group from the Tenerife Vogue dancers as a hint of their training, relation, and interactions. Issue 44 - November 2021 119
Issue 44 - November 2021 120
Voguing Dancers:
Dani García (@dani_jgg16) Mario García (@emegm._) José Flores (@an0ther_we1rd0) Gabriel García (@gabri5ggg) Aridane Cabrera (@aridane.cg) Sobeida Gómez (@sobeidasg)
Issue 44 - November 2021 121
J O
S E
F L O R
E S
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Issue 44 - November 2021 123
S O B E I D
A G O M E Z
Issue 44 - November 2021 124
G A B
R I E L G A R C I A Issue 44 - November 2021 125
Issue 44 - November 2021 126
SEIGAR - BIOGRAPHY Seigar is a passionate travel, street, social-documentary, conceptual, and pop visual artist based in Tenerife, Spain. He feels obsessed with the pop culture that he shows in his works. He is a fetishist for reflections, saturated colors, curious finds, and religious icons. He has explored photography, video art, and collage. He also writes for some media. His main inspirations are traveling and people. His aim as an artist is to tell tales with his camera, creating a continuous storyline
from his trips, encounters, and experiences. His most ambitious projects so far are his Plastic People, a study on anthropology and sociology that focuses on the humanization of the mannequins he finds in the shop windows all over the world, and his Tales of a City, an ongoing urban photo-narrative project taken in London. He is a philologist and works as a secondary school teacher. He is a self-taught visual artist, though he has done a two years course in advanced photography and one in cinema and television. He has participated in several exhibitions and his works have been featured in many publications. He has collaborated with different media such as VICE and WAG1. He writes for Dodho, The Cultural and Intra Mag about pop culture. Lately, he has experimented deeply with video forms. His last interest is documenting identity. Recently, he received the Rafael Ramos García International Photography Award. He also shares art and culture in his blog: Pop Sonality.
Webpage: seigar.wordpress.com Instagram: instagram.com/jseigar Galleries: flickr.com/photos/theblueheartbeat/albums Blog: popsonality.blogspot.com
Issue 44 - November 2021 127
B R A D
on looking into a fresh, spring night light fades, and while in lockdown I hear of you - unable to speak. In a bite of fancy, I dream of flying of getting to you in time, pretending that those paralytic planes dotting the black belt tarmac are not simply
E V A N S
sick pieces of chess. light gone, I shut the back door, step out into a tiny garden and on looking into a fresh, spring night
I look for signs for any hint of you.
--
Brad Evans © 2021
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fragged observations on a Monday evening, mid-June into an evening of still, slight summer air I stepped out in flits of almost gloom a lone haunting in post-dusk of quick glimpse pipistrelle. In fresh jasmine stillness lies a blessing: a flush, scattered fugitive in the dividing hedge. The following morning that followed the shroud of night
they lay there death-white as casualties on the cobbles. I picked the bee-raped flowers up tenderly by their stiff shafts lay them in a bowl of glass let them fill our room.
--
Brad Evans © 2021
Issue 44 - November 2021 129
weapons of choice through great sacrifices
only when my brother and I
our parents gave us the gift of childhood
clearly crossed the boundaries.
totally free of responsibility
I remember vividly
where, at leisurely pace,
one occasion when my mother
my brother and I and our fertile imaginations could plot such sublime mischief on an unpredictable scale and into depths our parents could barely fathom;
blew a worn fuse, reaching into a kitchen drawer she laid the wooden spoon onto me
that is until they reached their critical climax,
so hard it broke
and with that, of course, came the consequences…
and went back upstairs to the kitchen’s arsenal
for my mother,
I heard the drawer open and a cacophony of sounds
it was the wooden spoons
echoing down the stairwell
for my father,
as knives and other utensils
it was the leather belt
were furiously shuffled and scattered until, finding another fine one
neither of them were sadists -
we started on round 2
they would view their displeasure
Issue 44 - November 2021 130
she was working
of all the wooden spoons
on the 3rd spoon when my brother
we could find
came in and pleaded with her
and threw them into the bush.
to stop. For some reason she saw reason
We savoured our victory
lowered the spoon
At least until the next time she started cooking up
and left me there with my tears, bruises and welts
a fine and saucy dish
and my brother in the rumpus room.
that required much stirring.
That day, my brother and I formed a pact and vowed, we would take it to the next level We patiently waited until she was at work before we ransacked her arsenal,
cleaned out the kitchen drawers
-- Brad Evans © 2021
Issue 44 - November 2021 131
B R A D
view from a ladder Wanting a return to living room light I thread each screw through electric wire I glance past my wife below me and chance a slim,
E V A N S
peripheral figure as he fades-in effortlessly, steps with purpose and speed
through the doorway into the kitchen and then fades o u t .
--
Brad Evans © 2021
Issue 44 - November 2021 132
is there an event on? (a dream fragment) at first the day ended ordinary
An elderly lady came up to me
but the light didn't fade quickly
& asked me for an eye test
it just went on
and I told her, with a note of apology, that I don't do that sort of thing. I then noticed she was in a
must've been late spring / early summer
nurse's uniform & I said well,
and it started with me finding 2 people
you work as a nurse, surely you
somewhere in the house
must know where to go for an eye
might've been the hallway
test & then she said yeah, that's
looking through as if they were
right. As if she suddenly remembered.
in a museum & I thought what are they doing here but they
In the kitchen, a teenager was
seemed alright & then
making a sandwich while his family watched
I found 2
& I sat down next to one bloke
guys in the living room, one of them
& said to him - is
took out a camera & started filming
there an event on?'
his friend, yet everybody seemed passive
He looked back and said
like good zombies, and I
No, I just had to get away from it!
had things to
From what? I asked.
get on with & reached
And he indicated that whatever it was, couldn't
under the coffee table to fetch something.
be discussed openly. Telepathically he informed me that one of the milder symptoms
Eventually the house began to fill up quietly with people - moving very slowly through, looking at stuff, pictures on the wall.
appeared to be diahorrhea.
--
Brad Evans © 2021
Issue 44 - November 2021 133
Sculptures in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney
LORRAINE FILDES Issue 44 - November 2021 134
Sculptures in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney Lorraine Fildes Along with all the trees and flowers and stunning harbour vistas, there is a plethora of statues and sculptures scattered throughout the Botanic Garden. They range from marble statues imported from Rome, Italy, in the late 19th Century to modern abstract metal sculptures of the 21st Century. For this article I have included sculptures that
have been added to the Garden since 1940. You will be surprised to find a marble statue among this group - Venus Italica. It was actually purchased in Melbourne in 1890 by the Art Gallery of New South Wales but not given to the Botanic Garden until 1958. (The Royal Botanic Garden is one garden hence singular – it has a number of different gardens within its boundaries.)
Page 134 : Wurrungwuri by Chris Booth
Issue 44 - November 2021 135
Wurrungwuri by Chris Booth This sculpture consists of two parts, one made of 260 sandstone blocks in wave formation and cascading towards Sydney
Harbour. The other part is a monolith built from 16,000 threaded quartz pebbles and decorated with a pattern from a rare Aboriginal shield – the “Sydney shield” – after obtaining permission from Aboriginal elder Allen Madden on behalf of the Gadigal people. The sculpture encourages native flora and fauna to take up residence - inside the woven quartz monolith are boxes in which small bats can roost. This sculpture was opened in March 2011. Issue 44 - November 2021 136
YuraBirong carved by Glen Timbery and Vic Simms This 200 year old Forest Red Gum tree trunk was carved by Glen Timbery and Vic Simms in 2011. Below are
images of the carved trunk itself and an
enlargement of the memorial plaque that sits near the carved trunk.
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K E L D M
O S E
H O L M Issue 44 - November 2021 138
Mirroring 1995 by Keld Moseholm
Mirroring 1995 by Danish artist Keld Moseholm was the 2010 winning sculpture from Bondi’s annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. The sculpture was installed near the Main Pond in the
Garden early in 2011.
Two figures are seen to be engaging in a tug-of-war. The Mirroring 1995 sculpture is cast in bronze and graphite and is on a base of granite.
Keld Moseholm’s Artist's Statement: “There is a relationship between reality and unreality symbolised by the imaginary mirror.”
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B R O
N W Y N O L
I V E
R Issue 44 - November 2021 140
BRONWYN OLIVER
These two beautiful copper wire sculptures were commissioned by the Botanic Garden from Bronwyn Oliver in 1999. These large scaled seed-like sculptures are nestled respectively beneath a palm and a magnolia tree adjacent to the site of the First
Farm in Sydney Cove. The sculptures are intended to symbolise an elemental form washed up by the tide, blown by the wind, eroded by water and laden with the potential for vigour and transformation. The artist Bronwyn Oliver employed the seed form as a sign of new beginnings, laden with the potential for growth and transformation.
Page 140 : Palm, Bronwyn Oliver. Left : Magnolia, Bronwyn Oliver.
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A Folly for Mrs Macquarie By
Fiona Hall
Sitting high on the path above the Opera House gates, this sculpture by Fiona Hall was installed in the year 2001. Along with Mrs Macquarie’s Chair just a little further along the path, the site is thought to have been a place that Governor Macquarie’s wife Elizabeth passed the time overlooking the harbour and waiting for ships to arrive from
home. The sculpture depicts the family crest, bones of animals who once roamed the area and Norfolk Pine fronds.
Issue 44 - November 2021 142
Earth Mother by Helen Leete (1993) This sculpture is inspired by the forms
and
landscape
textures and
of
natural
the rock
formations. It is made from a
complex mixture of sand and earth, built up in layers which imitate the way rock formations are laid down, consolidated and carved by the elements. Earth Mother is a visual metaphor for the spiritual and physical connections
between
humans
and the earth.
HELEN LEETE Issue 44 - November 2021 143
Slit-drum from Ambrym in Vanuatu This slit-drum from the island of Ambrym in Vanuatu was presented by the Australian Friends of Vanuatu in July 1992. It is made of Intsia bijuga (Pacific teak). Known on Ambrym as ‘atingting’. Slit-drums were traditionally used for beating dance rhythms; transmitting messages or summoning villagers to meetings.
The slit drum is fabricated from a single tree trunk in ‘totem’ style with a carved head above the main body (drum). The main body is hollowed out internally through a narrow vertical slit to produce a drum sound when beaten.
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In 2020 conservation work needed to be carried out on the drum. The lower part of the trunk was originally inserted in the ground and this had led to rotting and disintegration and also there were large cracks in the head and shoulder areas. Treatment: In 2020 conservation work needed to be carried In 2020 conservation work needed to be carried out on the drum. The lower part of the trunk was originally inserted in the ground and this had led to rotting and disintegration and also there were large cracks in the head and shoulder areas. Treatment: 1.
As much rotten material as possible was removed from the base and the area was then sprayed with a commercial biocide solution.
2.
Plaster casts were taken of the barrel of the Drum to produce supportive brackets .
3.
1.The installation site was excavated and a concrete slab was poured. The drum was attached to the slab with metal rods.
4.
1.Brackets were attached to the steel frame to hold the Drum upright and in place. Issue 44 - November 2021 145
The Satyr by Frank (Guy) Lynch Lynch modelled the head of The Satyr on his younger brother, Joe Lynch, and the lower half after a neighbourhood goat. In Greek mythology, the Satyrs were half human and half goat deities of the woods and mountains. Sculpted in clay and cast in plaster, the plaster cast
was then painted bronze and exhibited to general acclaim in the Anthony Hordern Gallery in 1924. The Satyr created a sensation, being hailed as a masterpiece and damned as 'a pagan work'. It was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1926. Lynch died in 1967 and in 1977, his widow paid for the work to be cast in bronze and had permission from the Art Gallery and the Botanic Garden for it to be placed in the Botanic Garden near the Opera House Gate. Issue 44 - November 2021 146
Mare and Foal by Arthur J. le Duc
Bronze mare (La Reyna) and her foal by the French artist, Arthur J. le Duc, was purchased in 1891, and donated to the Garden in 1958. Arthur Le Duc is best known for his large-scale animal sculptures. He won silver medals for sculpture in Paris exhibitions in 1889 and 1900. Horses were his favourite subject
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Venus Italica
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This statue is a Marble replica of the Venus Italica by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. Venus
Italica is believed to be a 1st Century
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B.C. copy of a work by Cleomenes of Athens.
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Venus Italica was purchased in Melbourne in
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transferred to the Gardens in 1958.
1890 by the Art Gallery of NSW and then
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I Wish
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by Arthur Fleischman I Wish is a pink concrete sculpture of the head of a girl mounted on a sandstone plinth. It was
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created
by
Czechoslovakian
born
Arthur
Fleischman in 1946 and stands at the site of where the first Wishing Tree had been planted. The sculpture was done in memory of the Wishing Tree. A Wollemi pine now replaces the Wishing Tree. (the Wishing Tree was a Norfolk Island pine but by 1945 due to to "old age and decay" it had to be removed.)
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WINGED HORSES Issue 44 - November 2021 150
Winged Horses carved by L. Bicego This Art Deco style seat is dedicated to the memory of Australian poet Henry Kendall. The winged horses were carved by L. Bicego, 1939 and installed in the Garden in 1940.
All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Lorraine Fildes © 2021.
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THE WOLF SUITE
DAVID MCLEOD Issue 44 - November 2021 152
DAVID MCLEOD LAUNCHES THE WOLF SUITE.
Its sometimes not easy to pigeonhole an artist, and that’s certainly the case with David McLeod. In March, Arts zine featured an article on artist, teacher, musician and breath coach David McLeod and how his breathing practice has informed and fed into his latest body of work: paintings, music and journal drawings. Part of that work, an aural, visual and meditative project
called “The Wolf Suite”, couldn’t be released at the time of the article. Hurdles jumped, David has recently completed a soft release in CD format. “I wanted to release it in CD format first, mainly because there is an art component. The paintings were such an integral part of the project’s process and growth that I thought it would be
nicer to honour the tactile element by releasing it in hard copy. Like holding a postcard that evokes remembrance, I imagined holding the Wolf Suite and what it might evoke in relation to the audio content within it. I will release digitally at some point, but for now this feels right. ”
Page 152 : Clouds on me but not in Me, Acrylic on circular canvas 50cm. Diameter, David McLeod.
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On disc one, David acknowledges and narrates the age -old story of the two wolves. The next tracks involve some great information about the vagus nerve and the autonomic nervous system, and the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing. This is followed by a guided imagery exercise for diaphragmatic breathing, which can involve the cover art work or not. Disc two is a compilation of
music designed to accompany self-directed meditation, or just peaceful listening, without any narration. The Wolf Suite has already received high praise from practitioners in the education space, as well as private use at home. You can read some testimonials on David ’s new website:
bigbreathproductions.com. There, you can also read more about The Wolf Suite, David’s practice, his unique combination of experiences, and his artwork. Having experienced The Wolf Suite myself, I am happy to say that one of the testimonials on the website is mine. I found it created a wonderfully peaceful ambience to accompany my painting
and drawing, and the breathing techniques David imparts have been helping me in a time of healing. I believe you’ll find it to be a haven in a chaotic world.- Robyn Werkhoven. To read about and purchase a copy of The Wolf Suite, please head to:
https://bigbreathproductions.com/wolf-suite Issue 44 - November 2021 154
To read about and purchase a copy of The Wolf Suite, please head to:
https://bigbreathproductions.com/wolf-suite All Rights Reserved on article and photographs David McLeod © 2021.
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NEWS Issue 44 - November 2021 156
NEWS Issue 44 - November 2021 157
WHISPERING PILLARS SUSAN RYMAN OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 7 2021
ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM GALLERY 40 ANNIE ST. WICKHAM, NEWCASTLE NSW.
www.art-systems-wickham.com/ Left : Whispering Pillar - COVID Crosses, Coloured pencil on rag paper - hand varnished. Susan Ryman 2021. Page 159 : Whispering Pillar- Urban Goddess - coloured pencil on rag paper - hand varnished Susan Ryman 2021
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Whispering Pillars
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A stage has been created for each work in Whispering Pillars, where refuse is
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lack of concord for so many exquisite earthly complexities.
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transformed into surreal dancing ghosts. These rhythmic harbingers mark our long-term
Unlikely and often ignored motifs in contemporary Australian life including frail minutiae, people, moments, things hiding in the shadows and, conversely, seemingly banal objects, all find their way into new worlds. Colour-saturated light and layers of textured contours are used to form strange and sumptuous yet dislocated new worlds. Here the mythical and mundane mix. Depictions of moth-eaten tapestry, ancient mosaics, fruit bursting with ripeness, fish, feathers, industry roads spanned by powerlines and domestic rubbish all dance out of
context with each other under brooding skies. Even the history of the humble bread tag with its recent transformation from plastic to cardboard takes its place in the mortal dance
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under moonlit arches.
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combining simple coloured pencils and the methodologies of traditional natural history
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stabilizes the surface and prolongs the life of the work while luring the viewer into the
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Over the last 40 years my practice has been dedicated to developing a unique approach illustration.
The work is produced in multiple layers and sealed with varnish, which
immediacy of the image itself. Inescapable life experience, an awkward eye for the unlikely, reference to my burgeoning collection of specimens and interest in the changing perceptions of the history of human endeavour all feed this intensely personal visual form, which mirrors our world, for better or worse. - Susan Ryman © 2021. Issue 44 - November 2021 159
SCULPTURE ON THE FARM 2021
Sowelu Two by Jen Mallinson
Kelpie by Jimmy Rix
https://www.sculptureonthefarm.com/ Issue 44 - November 2021 160
Sculpture on the Farm 2021 Prize Winners
2021 Sculpture on the Farm Acquisitive Prize for the Dungog Common – Sowelu Two by Jen Mallinson 2021 Sculpture on the Farm Acquisitive Prize for the Dungog Shire – Kelpie by Jimmy Rix
RUPIO Prize for Metallurgical Excellence – Allusive Object (in red) - Braddon Snape. Prize for Timber work – Pleaching by Patricia Wilson Adams Prize for Kinetic work – Elma VI by Mimi Kind Prize for Stone Work – SuperNature by Scott Ingram
Prize for Innovation – Allusive Object by Braddon Snape Prize for Indoor work – Held by Felicity Cavanough Local Dungog Shire Artist Prize – Awakening of Og by Kylie Adele
Allusive Object (in red) - Braddon Snape.
https://www.sculptureonthefarm.com/ Issue 44 - November 2021 161
STUDIO LA PRIMITIVE ARTS ZINE - PREVIOUS ISSUES Arts Zine was established in 2013 by artists Eric and Robyn Werkhoven. Now with a fast growing audience, nationally and internationally. Their mailing list includes many galleries, art collectors and art lovers. The Zine is free, with no advertising from sponsors. It is just something they wanted to do for the Arts, which has been their lifelong passion. Featuring artist’s interviews, exhibitions, art news, poetry and essays. In 2017 it was selected by the NSW State Library to be preserved as a digital publication of lasting cultural value for long-term access by the Australian community. CLICK ON COVER TO VIEW ISSUE.
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Click on cover to view the issue.
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Click on cover to view the issue.
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Click on cover to view the issue.
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Click on cover to view the issue.
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S T U D I O
P R I M I T I V E
www.studiolaprimitive.net
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Woman & Beast, aqua pencil / pen on board, 10x10cm. Robyn Werkhoven 2020. Issue 44 - November 2021 167
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POETRY & SCULPTURE The publication includes a collection of poems written over recent years, penetrating and profound observations on life. And a selection of Eric’s dynamic and prolific sculptures.
Enquiries contact: E: werkhovenr@bigpond.com
Page 212 : Left - Front cover, The Fall, Autoclaved aerated
cement / cement / lacquer, H32 x W46 x B38cm. Eric Werkhoven 2013. Page 212 : African Woman, H x W x B cm.. Autoclaved aerated cement / cement.
Right : Eric Werkhoven at Studio La Primitive
Photograph by Robyn Werkhoven. Issue 44 - November 2021 169
ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM P
R I N T A S T
I C 40 ANNIE ST. WICKHAM, NEWCASTLE NSW.
www.art-systems-wickham.com/
Phone: 0431 853 600
Director: Colin Lawson Issue 44 - November 2021 170
ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM CALENDAR 2021 OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 7 WHISPERING PILLARS - SUSAN RYMAN
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L NOVEMBER 12 – 21 PRINTASTIC - NEWCASTLE PRINT WORKSHOP
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NOVEMBER 26 – DECEMBER 5
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EMERGENT JOUNEY
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ROSE MCALLISTER & HELENA NEWCOMBE
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DECEMBER 10 - 19 YOU'LL FEST 2021 - ANNUAL XMAS SHOW
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40 ANNIE ST. WICKHAM, NEWCASTLE NSW.
www.art-systems-wickham.com/ Issue 44 - November 2021 171
Gallery Gift Shop at Home An online store featuring a variety of wearable artworks - bracelets, scarves and earrings as well as homewares.
https://timelesstextiles.com.au/product-category/gallery-gift-shop/
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2021 Til 5 December Ain’t the Archies group exhibition
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2022
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2 Feb - 13 Mar 2022
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Journeys the Silk Road and beyond: Judy Hooworth 23 Aug - 02 Oct 2022 United Tribes… gathering: Susan Doherty
C A L E N D A R Dungaree Deviations (Jim Arendt), By Marie Bergstedt.
GALLERY WILL RE-OPEN FROM 3 NOVEMBER - 90 Hunter St. Newcastle, NSW.
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Where our minds take us.
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Nov 19 – Dec 5
ENVIRONS
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Oct 29 – Nov 14
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Debra Ansell Judith Hill Anne Gazzard
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Gwendolin Lewis
Janet Graham Catherine Kavanagh Di Gravio
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Dec 10 - 19 Xmas Takeaway 2021
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E N D
57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW
Hours: Fri Sat Sun 11am - 5pm
www.newcastlepotters.org
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E N V I R O N S JUDITH HILL
ANNE GAZZARD
57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW
Hours: Fri Sat Sun 11am - 5pm
www.newcastlepotters.org Issue 44 - November 2021 175
Gwendolin Lewis ENVIRONS Oct 29 – Nov 14 2021 Back to Back Gallery
www.newcastlepotters.org Issue 44 - November 2021 176
Rose McAllister
NOVEMBER 26 – DECEMBER 5 2021 EMERGENT JOUNEY ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM GALLERY
www.art-systems-wickham.com/ Issue 44 - November 2021 177
Barbara Nanshe Studio
https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/ Shop 1-3 The City Arcade, 120 Hunter Street, Newcastle, NSW 2300 Issue 44 - November 2021 178
Barbara Nanshe Studio Online Shop
https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/ Shop 1-3 The City Arcade, 120 Hunter Street, Newcastle, NSW 2300 Issue 44 - November 2021 179
GALLERY ON DOWLING Helene Leane
Jeanne Harrison Catchment, Chichester, H90 x W 120cm. Acrylic. Helene Leane.
120 Dowling St. Dungog NSW.
www.heleneleane.com Issue 44 - November 2021 180
DUNGOG BY DESIGN GALLERY 224 Dowling St Dungog, NSW.
https://www.facebook.com/ DungogbyDesign
Still Life by Bec Potter.
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Rhino Images - Art and the Rhinoceros Lorraine Fildes and Robert Fildes. Art and the Rhinoceros - There are over three hundred Rhino images in this book.
Whether in the ancient past or in the present the rhinos are always represented as huge, powerful and solitary animals. The book includes paintings, drawings, woodcuts, etchings, rock carvings and sculptures of the rhino all depicting the power of the animal. These images of the rhino range from early civilisations such as in China, Roman Empire, Indus civilisation in Pakistan/ India area and from Southern Africa down to current day images of paintings and sculptures produced by modern day
artists. The text indicates where you may find these wonderful images as well as the websites of the artists concerned, the caves where the rhino images have been found and the places where posters use the rhino image. There are very few of these magnificent wild animals left in the world, so unless they are protected and managed, artistic images will soon be the only viewing option.
Rhino Images – Art and the Rhinoceros, First Edition, 2017, is available for download at The Rhino Resource Centre web site. Direct Link :
http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=refs&CODE=ref_detail&id=1518479271
Page 183 : White Rhino crash at Whipsnade Zoo, England. Image: Robert Fildes © 2019. Issue 44 - November 2021 184
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T PACHAMAMA, H39 x W30 x D18cm., unglazed terracotta, Bobby-z Lambert 2010.
