Where On Earth Have I Been?
Gah. Has it really been 3 months? What's happened? Which hole did I fall into?

Hmm, well there was a cancer scare (false alarm I'm relieved to say), there was the getting stuff done, then there was a large illustration contract, followed by having the inlaws stay for xmas. Then there were two road trips to Adelaide (a gig and then a wedding) - Adelaide is a day's drive BTW - and lastly another large illustration contract. So rest assured that whilst I've been away, it's been a full schedule. Perhaps I could be more organised on the blogging front while busy in future. Something for me to work on improving.
And while we're on the topic of needing improvement... from the last roundup;


Not So Good Stuff

• Pictures and prints for the market stall - haven't happened. Though I've produced plenty of pictures, all of them have been of the medical variety for contract. No use for a market stall.

• Market stall preparations - not all bad, but definitely delayed, as per above. I have though, scored a fine trestle table from eBay and have an RSS feed spying out for a suitable cane/bamboo room divider which I intend to paint white and hang pictures on as a backdrop to the stall. I'm now thinking that a stall will be more suitable for the next warm season. Part of a grander plan.

• Email friends - not done yet (grrrr). However this will be ideal to do when the big fun project is launched.

The Good Stuff

• The art collector lectures that were cancelled last year are back on and I'm in. Can't wait. They start next week.

• Modify blog header. This task is done. It should now be perfectly plain to tell when the blog is the current page.
  

• Creative commons. Investigated and pondered upon. Look out for the blog post this time next week which will explain what it is and my views on copyright in the world today.

• Art collectives. Researched. And blow me down there's one in Ballarat. And a cool one in Bendigo. And the Abbortsford Convent in Melbourne grabbed my interest too. It was enlightening and somewhat horrifying to learn that most places work 6 to 12 months ahead with their exhibition schedules. Yikes.
  

• Strategy session. OMG!!! So much awesome. More later.
  

• CD commission. Done, and now more required. Cool.
  

The Unexpectedly Great

• While the medical illustration contracts certainly took a great chunk of my time (annoying), and the client suddenly decided partway through that everything was to be done in Illustrator (really irritating), the wonderful unexpected result is that I now have a solid grasp on Illustrator. Nothing quite like learning on the job. So that's an extra feather to my cap. I think I'll slot it in next to the Photoshop feather!

• But that's not all!!! Thanks to me getting peeved with how long it takes me to write these posts, I decided to do something about it. Now I'm touch typing at a modest 22wpm (words only). Yay. Onward and upward.
  

The Awesome
Discovering the coolest project that covers a whole bunch of my interests that will tick the full gamut of artistic and online experimenting that I want to do and it was right under my nose. Right in my face actually. Thanks to hubby for pointing out what has been hiding in plain sight. The recipe series. Seasonal, vegetarian, fully illustrated. It's gonna keep me busy for a full year. Fine details still to be sorted, but there will be downloads, polls, prizes, videos, prints, loads of scrumptious meals and artwork and a complete book at the end. I'm excited.


So, The Get Done For February...

• Improve my touch typing to include numbers. Same speed.
  

• There's a bunch of recommended professional art organisations. Methinks I should join them up.
  

• Shadow Creatures. Or maybe Urban Creatures. In any case, a second installment on the Found Creatures. A suitable creative project for this month otherwise full of...
  

• Planning for the recipes. So many questions to find answers for... Printing. Dinner exhibitions. Videos. Publishing. Scheduling. Publicity. Classes? Ways to get you guys involved...

When Steph and I first arrived in Switzerland from Australia (3 years ago) we got the phone connected in the house, as well as mobile phones and internet etc. I put the new, Swiss simcard in my phone and was storing phone numbers. I decided to enter the phone number from our house and I asked Steph "What shall we call this place?". She looked at me quizzically and replied "Home?". "Yes, of course, "home"".

As the first album (Escape) was about escaping, this one's about what you do post-escape - when you arrive in the place you escape to. Home.


At Home Far Away -
The idea being a 3-fold meaning: I'm at home when I'm in a place far away from where I am at this moment, or, I'm at home in a place which is far away from where you (the listener) is, or I'm really happiest when I'm lost in my thoughts, ideas and dreams.

If I was going to take a photograph of it, I would have a close-up of someone wearing mirror sunglasses, with a background of snow-covered mountains, and a reflection in the sunglasses of a sandy beach - but that's kinda too literal and obvious.

People take their countries with them when they move. Europeans couldn't paint Australian plants, animals or landscapes for at least a generation. As we get older we get more and more out if touch with the outside world as the inner world fills up with memories, habits impressions. of an increasingly distant time... ok I'm rambling now, but if there were some way of showing the giant discrepancy between what is around someone and what is in their head, certain things would be massively magnified whilst other normally huge things are rendered small and insignificant by comparison.
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So that was the brief, and the background.

What did I come up with? 7 different sketches to try and show in pictures what people carry with them when they go away from home.


The idea here is that as everyone journeys through life, (the flying) they both take and are directed by their past (the balloons).

And the reaction? "I love the one with the people in various phases of being carried away by their balloons - brilliant!!" And later after all the idea sketches made it over to Switzerland (thankyou to whoever invented email), "The idea I love the most is the one with the balloons dragging people around - but the balloons to me seem more like people's dreams, desires, destinies, which take them far and wide, and which also, depending on their size take them 'up in the clouds', with their feet off the ground."

It's very cool. It's too Swiss though, with the title it's gonna look like I love living in Switzerland. It would work for the inside cover, but can you do an Aussie one for the outside?


Ta da!

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Then it all changed.
The title for the album (and the theme) shifted. The CD is now called, "Notes From Land". The feeling theme moved to the feeling of being in the wrong place, of being wrenched away. So the balloons had to be changed to birds and the people to bloody fish. Of course! Thankyou to whoever invented Photoshop!

So the result is that these two custom paintings representing people's dreams, desires and destinies, which take them far and wide, need an appreciative home of their own. Sound like you?

The facts: two lovely mixed media paintings (gouche, ink, pencil, collage) on 290gsm canvas paper. Each image is sized 355 x 155mm on an A3 sheet. Finished with matte varnish for artwork protection. Available now in the WhereFishSing official art store. Available separately, or get a discount for the pair! Go on...

 

About the Creative Cauldron series of posts

Imagine life is a sweet shop. You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything that you want. Why? Because you've only got so much to spend. You can afford lots and lots of little things or a much smaller number of big things. Your choice. What do you want? How will you spend your time in the sweet store of life?

Not many people get brought up with the belief that they can really truly go after anything they really truly want. If you are someone who has figured this out, then maybe like me, it came as a revelation.

This painting is that feeling of the world opening up and being full of possibilities. That sense of wondering, do I dare? Could I really? How would it take off? I could have that life??? Oh yes!!! And the dreaming/thinking/feeling/imagining through all the sweet and delicious scenarios. Do you know this feeling? Do you know someone who is taking stock of their life, or inspired to try a new direction? Would this help keep them motivated?

The writing in the clouds reads, 'Did anyone tell you? You can be anything you want.'

Another great find from the mysterious old box that I discovered when re-setting up my studio. Available now to inspire somebody else to follow their dreams. In the Official Art Store, of course.

'Imagination Animals'. Creatures that don't exist in the real world, but maybe somewhere could or could have existed. Humorous, fanciful, cheeky, mysterious.

Like chalk-ghosts of drawings left behind on a rockface.

Hey, have I mentioned these have lots of texture? Really. You can see the patina of the rock surface and run your fingers over where the creatures have been scratched into the rock...

The last two paintings in this series of 12 have finally been completed - and they're selling already!

These are little canvases, just 6"x6" (15cm x 15cm), ready to hang. No framing required. And the series is designed - both in size and price - so that multiple pictures can be mixed and matched on a wall. They are ideal to add a touch of colour, as no matter how small your wall is, they will fit!


Available right now in the Official Art Store.