The Mall is allliiivvveee, to the sound of muuusic

Two strange ballet creatures turned up in the Mall yesterday afternoon...


The red one snuck into the picture when I was taking a photo of a girl called Emerald.She was convinced by her friends to have her photo taken next to the sign. I heart this photo so much.

Livesites provided much excellent entertainment. There was a juggler who had an amazing glass orb that he moved with his hand like it was water. Then there was a magician called Andrew who spoke with an Indian accent even though he was born in Nelsons Bay.

I set up my canvas outside and started work on my first Landscape trial.

This is my landscape test for the exhibition. Since canvas is almost the same cost as paper these days and learning how to make my own frames then stretch them... I'm doing my tests Grande size because it is (I think) the only way to learn how to paint BIG ;)


These beautiful prints are by Simone Sheridan. She is the current Guest Artist on the wall at Emerald Arts.



This is not actually the way it's supposed to be put, it's 90 degrees right when displayed properly, but I wanted to show you her face. Lovely.


So far I have only painted the water part. I mixed the colours that I see when I'm swimming laps at the Ocean Baths. Next step is to gloss it to the McWoah with shiny something or other...


Maybe put sandy cliffs on there... and maybe some shards of light

Photoshop is interesting

This is an image I am working on for my Digital class at Tafe. I took the photo while doing landscape studies for painting... cos three hours was sooo not enough time to paint every view I wanted to... so I cheated a bit

Anyway, this is only the start of my idea for this. But I thought I would post it here anyway, because it is so different to anything I have made before and I'm kind of proud of it.


Good news too, I have my first actual student for Emerald Arts. We start classes on Tuesday. I am so excited and have so many lesson plans and projects and YAY!

So much stuff to do, but I'm thinking I might take it kind of easy tonight since Tafe totally fried my brain. Just going to read a book for a bit then go to sleep so I am good for painting and sculpture tomorrow.

Oh Em Gee

Having just discovered the awesomeness that is WikiHow, I give you my favourite parts from their entry on "How to Act Like a Tortured Artist":

It helps if you have a piano in your house so you can play sad-sounding music. This will add to your mystery.

Listen to a lot of funeral organ music, especially while driving in your car. Your car must be black, and you shouldn't drive any flashy sports cars.

IF ever you are out in public, complain about society.

It helps if you are thin and pale; adding to the image of frailty.

Read Poe, Plath, Rimbaud, the play Hamlet, and any other dreary literature you come across.

http://www.wikihow.com/Act-Like-a-Tortured-Artist

Post-Weekend ramble

Well it's Monday again, which means it's my weekend day so it must be time for another ramble about stuff I've been doing and stuff that is coming up ;)

I received lots of amazing things in the mail for Emerald Arts, which deserves (and shall have) a post all of it's very own, but it includes Mixtape zine and bird cages, goldfish necklaces and stories about music and owls.

I went to King Edward park to learn how to paint landscapes (another post again) and attended my Grandpa's 80th birthday at the Newcastle Club at which I made a speech that wasn't too bad at all. Dinner was canapes and champagne, because my family dines in style, but I am a little wheat freak, which means that Mum organised for me to have a meal in one of the little private dining rooms which Ten and Lachy crashed. There is no better food on earth than there, to be completely honest. I had salmon with prawns on top and Ten had Oysters Kilpatrick. Lachy had an enourmous steak that he finished before I was done removing prawns from skewer. That kid inhales food, but he is 6 ft 5 sooo...

Saturday was Ten's school reunion, technically 12 years since he finished, but no one organised that one. The picture above is us at that. I probably look so happy because I spent most of the night carefully dismantling the table decorations.

Don't look at me like that, I had to. They were made up of a bunch of balloons secured to the table by a complicated knotting system surrounding two black books. Upon closer inspection the books had been hand covered in black paper so that the table title (eg "English" or "Science") could be written on the spine. Then the book nerd inside had to know which books we had on our table, so I carefully slid the smaller book on top out, to find it was a novel by Ailsa of Home and Away fame(an Australian soap opera for those of you playing at home).

Of course, once I had managed to find out which books were hiding in plain sight on our table, I had to find out what the others were, so I waited until everyone else was good and drunk, dancing to late nineties classics on the dancefloor, then I went from table to table, stealing the smaller books on top, and brought them back to ours... mostly to the delight of my fellow "Science" table-ers... but they didn't like the Danielle Steele one. Particular favourites were "Ice Station" by Mathew Riley (I may have spelt that incorrectly) and "Queen of the Damned" by Anne Rice, which was such a massively awesome find, very exciting.

Best part was, one of the organisers had been watching my antics. She told me I could take Queen home since they were just old books that no one wanted anyway. Their trash, my trashy literary treasure I guess. YAY!

Sunday (yesterday) was my first Sunday off in a long long time. Between setting up Emerald Arts and going to the markets, Sundays with Ten are a very rare things. So we did some washing and the grocery shopping, then watched Kitchen Nightmares and had delicious snacks. Oh and we made tacos for dinner. It was great. Probably doesn't sound very exciting, but things have been so hectic lately so it was lovely and very destressing to party then have a chill out day together :)

Anyway, off to catch up on my RSS feeds and search the interwebs for pictures of seaweed.

-Emmeline

PS. read this article by Marcus Westbury (our fearless Renew Newcastle leader), it discusses how artists are likely to weather all this stressy financial crisis stuff.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/creative-buds-can-bloom-in-a-recession/2009/03/15/1237054645131.html

Things I have made this week

I'm not sure if it's because Ten found my feather necklace the other day or that feathers are really cool... I just can't stop painting them.

I use acrylic paints and poscas for this one. It's now up for sale at Emerald Arts and much credit goes to tafe for getting me to paint something that didn't end up having paper cranes glued to it. Brancin' out, yeeaah.

I also made a little bird cage necklace out of some lovely bird egg blue leather and a red cage.

And also, a goldfish, also on the necklace wall at EA.

Then on Wednesday night I made my bff Tenski smoked salmon sushi. So tasty when it's fresh mmm.

My first attempt at making an Artist's Trading Card (ATC) was a gnome with a red hat.

The second was a mushroom. Can't wait to get back into the studio (sat-tomorrow) to finish them. Today I clambered all over King Edward Park taking photos and making sketches for my landscape. Will do some practice watercolours then too.

Spent most of this afternoon mailing the lesson Program for the kids classes to all and sundry. Have decided that stressing never got anybody anywhere and that the only way to make these classes a success is to put my marketing hat on and get the word out there.

Wish me luck ;)

-Emmeline

Interesting info from the Copyright Agency Limited (Aust.)

Just got this email in my inbox, it's about artist's receiving royaltys on works sold on (or sold again you might say) which is very groundbreaking and exciting and possibly very hard to enact... but here you go:

Over 2,500 artists and arts professionals signed the CARR petition urging Minister for the Arts, Peter Garrett, to introduce a fairer resale royalty scheme for Australian artists.



Thanks to your support, a Parliamentary Committee tasked with considering the Resale Royalty Bill tabled in parliament last year has urged Minister for the Arts, Peter Garrett, to obtain further legal advice on expanding the scheme to pay royalties on all resales after the legislation comes into effect on 1 July 2009.



The scheme would entitle artists to a 5% share of the resale value of their artworks when they are resold on the commercial market. However as it stands, the Minister’s proposed scheme would only pay royalties on works that are purchased and then resold after the legislation is introduced – meaning that artists of existing works could wait decades for the royalties, due to the long periods between resales.



The Government has accepted the Committee’s recommendation and is now working with the arts community to review the model. CARR is hoping necessary amendments will be put in place to ensure that when the scheme comes into effect in July it works for all artists.



We’ll update you when the Government reaches their final decision.



To find out more about the proposed resale royalty scheme, visit the Government fact sheet on www.arts.gov.au/artists/resale_royalty



Regards,



Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) on behalf of the Coalition for an Australian Resale Royalty (CARR)

Kid's classes at Emerald Arts

Ten and I have spent the last few days getting the Lesson Program written up, proofed, arranged, printed... now I'm strategising ways to get it out there with my friends Nay and Suse via The Facebook. I'm crossing my fingers that it will be ok to get things started mid-term, that parents won't just get the flyer and file it away till the start of the next term... because if that does happen, there will not be an Emerald Arts to have lessons in, it's seriously do or die time. I haven't mentioned it on here yet, but Ten and I found out a couple of weeks ago that we have to move house. We got a notice from the real estate that the lease is terminated for "non disclosed" reasons. Which basically means they don't give us a reason and we have no recourse if we want to argue it, sucks being a renter. I'm behind on rent, because there just is not the through traffic in the mall and not enough no people at Emerald Arts. Switched from having my own stall to sharing at the markets, which also means less funds because people stand in front of the stall all day waiting for coffee not reading the giant signs which say "keep this clear for strollers and wheelchairs". geez.

So yeah, we're trying to find somewhere new to live, I'm working the markets and the shop and not having any time off, we're both ragged and it's make or break time with the business. I'm on the crest of a wave, the opening was amazing, I just need to pull it together (or keep it together rather) and make the classes happen. If only that could be done with positive thinking.

Bleurgh. Sorry, that was a bit of a rant, made me feel better though. I'm not stressy, I promise, just strategising and laying it all out there so I get moving.

Here's the lesson Program. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions Dear Reader I would love to hear them.

Lesson Program

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Education Brochures & Catalogs emerald arts classes

To Market to Market...

Recycled bags for sale at the Markets yesterday. They're made from boxing straps (I think that's what ther're called). They're gorgeous and massively cheap. I bought a giant one for my mum for christmas... which Cas subsequently stole, which means it must be stylin.



My lovely fairy friend. Very soon we're going to have facepainting at Emerald Arts on Saturdays, will keep the kids entertained... and me probably :P


The Fairy's colour palette, so keeping this image to use in my Digital subject at TAFE.


Don't you just love flowers?


Oh orchids, how I heart thee...


More flowers, but these ones are felt. Made by Jade of "Cowboys and Cupcakes". You can find more of her work at the ebay shop:



http://stores.ebay.com.au/cowboysandcupcakes

Bears made from Llama fur.



Who says Gluten Free cakes aren't tasty eh? A new stall has just opened up and I can tell you from gluttenous experience, they are so tasty.

My corner of the stall I share with my friends. This photo was taken at about noon, the journal walked soon after. The little one in the bottom right of the photo. When I was packing up I couldn't find it anywhere, searched high and low, but unfortunately somebody has definitely nicked it.

I'm hoping that it was just a little kid who liked the pictures and that their parents will make them send it back to me (I'm pretty sure my contact details were in the front cover). If not, if it was stolen on purpose, I don't really understand why. It's just notes and quotes and ideas mostly, of much sentimental value to me, but not much use to anybody else.

I want it back. Sad face.

-Emmeline

ACTION EM!

I had to post this photo because it was just too funny. Self-portrait with dust mask and safety goggles. Definitely going to have to get a pair that don't send my glasses askew :P Friday is always a very full on day because painting and sculpture are (when I do them anyway) so physical. I always end up covered in dust and very tired/happy.

My Fish, who I today christened "Rex Hunt" after a popular Australian fishing personality, is coming along quite nicely. I brought it home to show Ten because, while it might not look like much, I am SO damn proud of it.

Made my first frame for a canvas painting today. Sooo awesome. We're going to King Edward Park (my Dog's second home) next friday to do sketches and preliminary paintings, then making our entries for the Landscape Competition OMG YAY!

I've got so many ideas for what I want to do but NO idea how to execute them, so will be mining the interwebs for instructional videos.

At lunch in the FrontRoom Gallery some of the Diploma students held a sticker making meet. The stickers were then stuck along the wall. I was very naughty and took one of mine home because I loved it so much. The exhibition is called "Juxtapose This" and is all about media mashups and making stuff, so the sticker gathering was an excellent way of getting the message across.

I haven't explained that very well at all, must find the official write up and put that here.... :P

So now I'm home, all squeaky clean after washing off all the very fine dust that the belt sander (they let me use POWER TOOLS!) put on me. Finally stopped coughing after my friends made me double over with laughter while working thus inhaling timber dust... but that's my fault for being a dork not theirs.

Totally loving Tafe and the shop and being so ridiculously busy. I feel like I function so much better when I have a whole lot of things on the go at once, and I finally have my health steady enough to cope with such a crazy timetable. So long as I don't accidentally have wheat or catch some freaky flu (touch wood) I'm grinning ;)

Going to see Birds of Tokyo tonight with the boys (Ten, Benny, Rich etc). I only listened to the album for the first time on Wednesday, but I think they're excellent and I can't WAIT to have a drink.

MWAH!

-Emmeline

nekkid people day :)

I found these nude drawings across the road from school when I ran out at lunch to buy the paper (had to find out what was happening with the cricket players). They're not perfect, but the colour really stopped me in my tracks. I'm so accustomed to seeing nudes in neutral or flesh tones.

Good grief, it feels like forever since I have written on this thing. It's kind of hectic running Emerald Arts and going to Tafe and having a market stall, but I'm managing it all at the moment. Last Monday was my first day off in about a fortnight. Slept in till midday, bought a silly magazine (Famous) to read about the Oscars (as if Jen or Angelina gave a crap about each other, I'm sure all that was just a media beat up), had an afternoon nap then caught up on my RSS feeds.

Right now, I'm listening to the Watchmen Soundtrack... jeff Buckley so beats Leonard Cohen on Hallelujah.... and waiting for Tenski to get home so we can go late night shopping (if he's not too tired) cos I need to get wood to build my very first canvas tomorrow OHMYGODYAY!@

We focused on drawing hands in today's class. This was my first sketch. It's funny, I've always avoided them because I just found them far too tricky, but having had the construction explained to me properly I loved it. Still quite hard to do, but not impossible. Going to pester my friends to be hand models every chance I get. Fair warning ;)

This afternoon we went to Centennial Park for Extended Gestural Drawing with our teacher Pete. I had a ball sketching this copse of trees in charcoal then fine pens... will spray them with fixative then scan them tomorrow for ya'll, as soon as I figure out what to put over the scanner glass to protect it.