North Side Outsider Art

For the last six months or so, Mum and I have been driving past a wall on the way to my brother's house.  Now, it had some great artwork on it by an artist going by the name of Lister.

I just Googled his name and came up with Anthony Lister from New York who has been here in Australia doing some outsider art around Brisbane; and not getting very far with it.  On his official site I have found more of his art which was removed from Fortitude Valley here in Brisbane; and when I've brought up the photos of the wall mural I took on Christmas Day, I compared the style to the work on his site and found so many similarities.

The last piece of work ( http://365project.org/loey5150/365/2010-08-13) called Mural, was demolished when a building was pulled down.  Fortunately, my Mum took a photo of it and showed me.  We both thought it looked wicked.  And this new work looks even better!  Let's hope it stays longer than the wall did.

K-Mart Wishing Tree Donation

Each year, I've been giving to the K-Mart Wishing Tree at Woodridge Central Plaza.  It's to support the Salvation Army and to give people who are less fortunate a Christmas that they normally wouldn't have.  I began giving to it about four years ago; just buying small things really and taking them in about a week before Christmas Eve.

This year, I thought to do something different.  I was low on cash and had bee knitting a lot in front of the television - working on my blanket for next year - when I thought to knit a scarf and beanie for somebody for when the weather gets cold.  And what do you know?  This Christmas hasn't been exactly textbook Australian Summer... boiling hot and all, has it?  Well, over the last month or so, I pulled down one of my tried and true beanie patterns I had grabbed off the net and used it.  But no matter what needles I used (sizes 4 or 8), the beanie came out the same size... so I had a short scarf with two small beanies.  Now,I had planned to give these to teenagers; and had to quickly change my age groups to babies.  Not a problem!  The scarf is green and the beanies are green and creme; lovely colours that really could suit a boy or a girl.

When I arrived at K-Mart, the lady at the doors saw what I had made and was amazed that I had gone to the trouble.  She took them off me and found a bag; then commented on how soft they were.  I said that I had bought the wool right there in K-Mart and thought that something hand-made would be just the thing; nobody makes things anymore, everything being so material and fake.  She smiled and said that it was wonderful I took the time to work on something that will mean so much to somebody I'll most probably never meet. 

So, whoever you are out there.  When you receive the beanies and scarf for you little one, I do hope you enjoy them.  They didn't take long to make, but I love to knit and enjoyed making them instead of knitting my blanket; as it was something for you to use in your baby's life.

Christmas Capers.

Well, it's that time of the year again where we run ourselves broke looking for the one or two pressies to give our loved ones.  This year, I stuck with nice, basic presents for everyone; things they needed and also things I needed also.  However, over the next few weeks, I'm not going away on holidays - as planned.  Seeing it's been so wet and the usual storms are coming thick'n'fast, I thought it would be safer - not to mention dryer - to stick around home and get into my paintings and collage.  So, over the next few weeks, through Christmas and New Years, I'll be putting up photos of my work as I'm working on it.

Otherwise, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very arty New Year.  I hope you all keep yourself busy at this time of the year with whatever projects you've gotten into and keep yourself safe too.

The Logan Art Gallery Christmas Party 2010

This year, we were off to the Gold Coast Art Gallery.  This meant we took off an hour later in the day and had a more relaxing trip because it wasn't all that far from Logan City.  

The Gold Coast Art Gallery is set on a large piece of land with plenty of parking and is close to Q1 and Broadbeach.  The exhibitions were amazing.  The first one we looked at was of graduating art students.  They had some wonderful work and I loved quite a bit of the jewelry, even if it was out of my price range.  Then, I spotted a large metal dragonfly which I really wanted to get a photo of; so I got permission.  it was until later that I found out it was a Christopher Trotter work.  Isn't it lovely? 

Outside this large gallery is a Sculpture walk which is famous.  And fortunately, the weather was good to us on this day; as it wasn't raining but it was sunny enough for us to walk around.  I found a lot of the sculptures very original in their appearance; and I had a few favourites.  I did like the bottle covered in thongs and shoes; and how people were trying to pull them off too.  And the Sculpture walk went right along the spit to the end of a parkland area where it overlooked some water/river and you could see the tallest building on the Gold Coast across the way.  

This one's called 'The Elements'

If that wasn't enough, we were shuffled off - by bus - to Jupiter's Casino for an all you could eat, buffet lunch.  We had worked up an appetite for it and so many of us went back for seconds and thirds; but I only had my lunch of a very refreshing salad and a very sweet and delicious dessert with hot chocolate.  After our lunches we were given our presents of a drink thermos.  When I opened my envelope, I found that we were all given tickets to the Australian Army Band's 'Merry Melodys' night on 14th, December.  I was given the ticket of one of my married friends as they were going to be in Tasmania at that time.  So, I'll see if Mum wants to go - or my Aunty Helen.

After we got our goodies, I took a wander around Jupiters and got a lovely photo of the staff putting up the tree in the lobby.  I also bought about 11 postcards for $5.00; and have sent off 6 so far.  Then, I sussed out the gift shop and found out why nobody buys the souvenirs from there... too darn expensive!

Well, we dozed on the way home and got our annual photo taken.  For anyone who's friends with me on Facebook, you can find my album of this on there; otherwise, I'll upload more photos as the new year comes in.