home for a bit

it's lovely, being home for a bit, curling up with my lovely Kubbi-dog and having some contemplation time.

the School of Nomad Arts is quietly blossoming, I have three solo exhibitions lined up for next year and just four workshops left to teach this year (all of which need serious prep...new class projects, fresh poems to read, materials to source).

Next year's dance card is already full, too.  Plenty of time to sleep in the grave.

If you happen to be in Sydney this month, find my work in 'Local Colour' at the UNSW Galleries in Paddington.

If you are wandering further afield, perhaps to France, you'll find my work in a new iteration of 'Earth Matters' for the Biennale du Textile Contemporain in Oloron-Sainte-Marie

in situ : in stall

the last time i curated an exhibition was 1986

a lifetime ago

when

my name was

Schwerdtfeger

and people took me seriously

because i had a title

"Visual Arts Development & Exhibitions officer, Arts Council of South Australia"

these days the Arts Council [as it was then] no longer exists, having been absorbed by the Regional Cultural Trusts

and my surname changed by marriage.

these days i am India Flint

of nowhere in particular.

two years ago i conceived the notion of an exhibition

"in situ"

about the sense of place, whether in the pristine wild or amid the clutter of the city, whether derived from the locality of our birth or a dwelling place of choice, whether acknowledged or suppressed pervades how we live and work. place is integral to human integrity and to our sense of being.

i invited eleven people i knew to participate.

and

over time 

it has gradually come together.

 ‘in situ’ comprises work by  Sandra Brownlee, Dorothy Caldwell, Helen Carnac, Imbi Davidson, Desiree Fitzgibbon, Roz Hawker, Nikki Jackson, Judy Keylock, Isobel McGarry, John Parkes and me; examining the experience of locality, exploring the intimacy of personally familiar places and the particular relationship each artist has with their environment. 

i will confess i struggled with including my own work. as curator, this is somewhat frowned upon. Directors of galleries certainly shouldn't do it, but in this case it is a sort of anchor point. at least, that's my excuse.

 

 so today i drove to work with my assistant

 

through a blue sky day, to grapple with the delight of empty space

and with arranging work to claim it.

much later i pootled home along the backroads

past stubble fields that looked like stitches

through Rathjens Gap, where one hundred years ago witches were reputed to fly

and where i suspect petroglyphs might still be found

if the sun were at the right angle

finding new puddles on the way

home to the studio

where it was time to burn a few boats

under the careful supervision of Tabitha

while Kubbi slept the sleep of the just

after which

i made a new drawing tool

one that does justice to the inkwell i found last year at McArdle Bay, Lopez Island

tomorrow it's back to the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery
to complete the install

ready for the opening on Friday May 22 @ 7pm

do swing by if you're in the region.







'If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are'      Wendell Berry

getting ready to be (t)here

'being (t)here' is a class i love to teach. each time is an adventure in itself

it's a class which is suited as much to a forest as to a riverside

or even an industrial wasteland

magic is everywhere, the delight is in the detail

and everything has a fascination if you look at it with your heart

this week i will be in Tasmania

(i love islands)

installing back country for Ten Days on the Island  (recently renamed the Tasmanian International Arts Festival) before class begins - it will have a new piece in it to replace the one acquired by the Tamworth Regional Gallery last month -

the only really tricky bit is editing which resources to take,

choosing a teacup for the ride

and trying to reorganise the sewing box/tool kit

which seems to have a mind of its own.

happily i can make do most of the time

so long as i have my trusty collection of readings with me

and a piece of string to hang them on.

the last piece of string stayed in Aotearoa

it was as long as the flight from New Orleans to Vancouver.

tomorrow i will make a string that will measure the distance from Adelaide to Hobart

while gazing out the window of the plane

i will confess i do love flying, though it's admittedly not the kindest mode of transport in terms of the environment

but

it would take a long time to get to Tasmania on my windsurfer

and my books would get wet. 

someone else has a mind of her own, too.
it seems Martha has taken Kubbi aside and given her The Word on suitcases
(in a few months time she won't fit in)



PS i'm not entirely sure, but i think some places remain open in being (t)here classes in Scotland and France later this year

looking and seeing

it's been a big week. 

I won't burden you with the details

suffice it to say I was pleased to make it through

and still be smiling at the other end

today I had work to do

though it was hot

the help (in several forms) was ready to lend a paw

in the early evening there were a few welcome drops of rain

which settled the dust and made the whirled look even more beautiful 

so we took our eyes for a wee walk

looking and seeing

same town, new eyes

yesterday i had to take the trusty Augustus

down to Murray Bridge for a grease and oil change

i love that i can take backroads there

through familiar bits of wide brown land

some visitors have described our roads as brutal

frankly most times i'd rather putter along on the dirt than hoon along the freeway

(unless i'm in a pony car. that's a different matter. entirely.)

after we dropped Augustus at his day spa

Kubbi and i faced a day on foot in the great outdoors

(they don't offer loan vehicles if you have a furry friend) 

also, we needed to carry supplies (drinks and snacks)

because unlike the customs prevailing in Europe 

where dogs are welcome even in restaurants

Australian canine companions are discouraged from darkening the doorways of local businesses

no matter how pretty they are

so it was a chance for me to discover that town through 

a different set of eyes

and accompanied by a different set of feet.

there's an evil local weed called caltrop

which has horrible and vicious spikes and is unavoidable in several places.

 i had to carry the Kubblet across several infested areas to avoid having her paws stabbed

we walked to the big river

met some other pups

and there was a splendid romp

(which was too much fun to be part of to waste time messing with a camera)

sat in the shade under one of the bridges for which the town is named

and watched corellas pretending to be pigeons

and also showing off by performing acrobatics and hanging upside down

and then went back for another swim

wandering about aimlessly

making the odd drawing

playing with feathers and bark

and an enthusiastic pup

was rather fun

(though i had a pile of work waiting at home)

and now i had better get on with it

the middle day

today it rained

which was perfect

because there was a lot of sewing to be done

even the workshop assistant was completely trashed by the end of it all

the morning bundles were carefully laid out

on one of the presents from kowtow

so that the drips could be absorbed as pre-mordants

[for whatever is to happen to it next]

the day was cool

we even needed to light a fire in the house

but

in the late afternoon the sun came out

just in time for us to take a swim

in cool refreshing invigorating

Cable Bay

we swam and floated

and drifted in the waves

until our thumbs began to look like prunes

and then hauled ourselves out

at first reluctantly

and then with enthusiasm

as our tummies reminded us that it was getting on for dinner time.

i was permitted to help cook

beginning with the digging of fresh potatoes [bliss]

cutting broccoli sprigs, picking dill, calendula flowers

chard leaves, thyme

in fact the only things in dinner that were not grown here

were haloumi and coconut oil.

it was good, oh so good.

no photo, too focussed on eating it...

in which the river strengthens its spell

work from my residency by the river shows no sign of slackening

during the day i am a happy participant in Sandra Brownlee's class

working on Tactile Notebooks

my personal therapist sleeping next to me on the stoop

before and after class hours

[besides a spot of cooking]

i sort fragments, draw and write.

some of the drawing takes place in mud

i have been working on a short film together with Tracey McConnell-Wood

that is to say, Tracey is actually doing the real work [of filming]

and recording sound

while

i wander in and out of shot.

last night i stitched and dyed until late

so that this evening

we had something to unbundle by the water

the sky was absolutely fabulous

[and the dress that came out of the dyepot fits me]

this beautiful object is a steel drum

made by Jason Shearer here in Newburgh.
the dress was bundled around it in the dyepot

[if you'd like to buy a drum like that, please send a message with your contact details via the contact page on my website and i shall forward it to him]

a Good Day

i fed the piglet

[this will be the chorus of today's song, repeat every three lines]

the picture is blurry because milk makes Kowhai wriggle with delight

then i fed myself

washed down with

the picture shows the 'before'

it tastes good after the relevant buttons have been pressed

but is less attractive...

[then i fed the piglet again]

Sam would like the piglet to be fed...to HIM.

Felix was unimpressed.

Max didn't care

after a while i wandered off down a backroad

a little out of my own patch

signs were in the sky

and by the road

and when i stopped to have a look at something over a fence

a border collie shimmied silently along

gave me an appraising look

and came over for a cuddle

...bonus dog therapy!!

putting me in high good spirits

so

i went home again

and after yet more pig-feeding

made another book

taking advantage of the discount offer

at Milk + Moleskine books

available until March 31

and highly recommended!