A good days's work on Friday

Given our commitment to 'work-work', community and family it has been a bit hard lately to spend much time in the studio on Friday. Today has been great - a morning of community, office and home admin and visitors has been followed by an afternoon of creation. I finished building another heavy duty workbench over at the shed that is quickly becoming our 'public' studio; and I finished my piece for the next COMA exhibition.

The next COMA exhibition is titled: Maleny Image 9 - introduced; it is to coincide with Weed Week; and will be held in the local Maleny Library for the period 29 August-12 September. The theme is weeds - artists can create both 2 and 3D pieces but all have to be able to hang on the wall and be 10X12 inches in size.

Barry Smith © Foldformed flowers and leaves

After some research by Fiona, we are going to focus on an agressive creeping weed called Ageratina riparia (also known as Mistflower and creeping crofton weed). My 3D work is loosely based on the weed's form.

Barry Smith © Beauty that creeps and smothers

I wanted to give a sense of both the beauty and aggressiveness of this creeping weed - hence the delicate form yet dangerous look of the flowers.

Barry Smith © Anodised aluminium leaves

Barry Smith © Anodised aluminium flowers

Barry Smith © Foldformed leaves and flowers

The leaves are beaten-foldformed from a green anodised aluminium canister; and the flowers from a couple of different coloured anodised aluminium cake tins.

Communities revisited

Fiona and I have been away for the last 3 days doing 'work-work' in the NT - we left at lunch time Sunday and got home at lunchtime today. We returned to the communities of Umbakumba and Pirlangimpi to present community members with the reports on the research we had carried out in April-May. We did 6 flights in 3 days - 2 large, 2 small and 2 very small aircraft. The presentations to the communities went well and we feel we have delivered documents that the people can use to tell their story to government and others on some issues.

We spent a day in each community - so a lot of work but just enough time to catch a couple of images to remind us of the time we shared with the people in these places.

Barry Smith © Little Lagoon - Umbakumba

Barry Smith © Leaves, flowers and peacefulness

Barry Smith © Colourful reminders - leaves and memorial flowers

For me Little Lagoon in the photo above is one of those special locations at the heart of Umbakumba; and the flowers amongst the leaves at the local Umbakumba cemetery talk to me of the peacefulness of this resting place set in the bush.

Barry Smith © Irene Mungatopi at work - Munupi Art Centre

Barry Smith © Pandanus and cycads after the burn-off

Barry Smith © Vivid new life after the burn-off

Barry Smith © New life amidst the ashes.

The Munupi Art Centre in Pirlangimpi is both a creative place for artists such as talented Irene Mungatopi (who was also one  of our research assistants) and a gathering place for many people in this community of artists; and after the annual bush clearing burn-off fires there is such new life in the ancient cycads around Pirlangimpi. Irene gave me permission to photograph her at work.

Leaves for Open Studio

Fiona and I have committed ourselves to participating in a collective Open Studio event that will take place on 21-22 August and 27-28 August. The work I have been doing for Clovelly Estate is part of the promotion for this event.

However, we are also revamping the shed into our public working studio; and of course need to continue to develop work to have on display as well as have pieces we can work on as or if people visit our studio (601 MVR).

As well as working on light catcher assemblages, I have been doing work on bowls as I indicated in the post for Friday; and am doing a stash of leaves.

Barry Smith © Yet more leaves - brass 

Barry Smith © Leaves in brass

The leaves above were made from the heap of metal I cut from and old jardiniere; and I annealed a week or so ago when I had my big cutting and dismantling day.

Simply silver on Friday

Today has been very full. We have about 20 people descending on our place tomorrow afternoon for a meeting of families afternoon tea. Fiona's brother (Al)  and partner (Loraine) recently became engaged; and this has requires Loraine's folk meeting Al's folk and the epicentre is our place. So today a lot of effort went into getting stuff cooked and ready (and tidying and cleaning ) - so not a lot of time for art.

Barry Smith © Words of reflection

Still I managed to polish a couple of simple silver-plate bowls I have cold formed (beaten); and stamped the 7  inspirational words above.  The bowls are made from old silver-plated drink coasters that an artist friend Edith-Ann gave me.

Barry Smith © Mediation bowl in the maker's dirty hand

In the past I have made refection-meditation bowls (usually simple punched bowls); and inspirational words (usually as part of pieces I call in the balance or finding the balance in our daily lives). In these simple silver bowls I wanted to bring together the palm meditation bowl with inspirational words. The owner of such a combo could choose a word at random each day and make that the focus of reflection-meditation.

Barry Smith © Simple silver meditation bowl and words

Barry Smith © Simple silver meditation bowls and words

I think the combination works - they look simple and classic. One of the bowls above is first punched into a form and then beaten (the lower bowl that has the fold in it); whereas the other is simply beaten. I think I will make a series of these simple silver  bowls and words for our Open Studio in August.

Moonset and sunrise

On a couple of days a week Fiona heads off to gym for circuit training while it is still dark. I continue to walk on these mornings; and given it is winter here I have experienced some great clear mornings with moonsets and great soft sunrise colours. Thought I might share a few of the images.

Barry Smith © Lunar eclipse

Barry Smith © Moonset at sunrise

Barry Smith © Moonset - later with more light

Barry Smith © Soft colours of sunrise 1

Barry Smith © Soft colours of sunrise 2

So there are benefits in early morning rambles. None of the photos have been altered - just nature's amazing colour palette.

Barry Smith © Sunrise - refections of the city

And the photo above is the refection of the sun on the high-rise buildings in Brisbane's CBD which is about 80klms away from our back deck as the crow flies.

Altering Ken's Paper

An artist friend Ken Munsie creates great sculptures using eroded timber, rusty iron and hand made paper.  He uses great stacks of textured paper in his pieces - one of the things that identifies his pieces as "a Munsie". You can check them out here for yourself. Ken makes all his own paper from recycled offcuts, card etc - he often has a vat of pulp soaking (and stinking?) away.

On occasions Fiona makes some handmade paper for printing purposes but thought why would she do this when we could source it from Ken - so Fiona 'commissioned' Ken to produce 50 or so A4 sheets for her. A few days ago we dropped over to Ken's studio to pick the paper up. The stacks of paper looked so good I couldn't resist photographing them with the trusty iPhone (and Ken's permission). So I thought I'd share some of the shots below.

Barry Smith© Ken's paper stacks

Barry Smith© Ken's paper stacks

Barry Smith© Ken's paper stacks

And one thing I know from experience is that layers and texture make good subjects for altering with an app or two. So you can see how the photos above can turn out with a little manipulation on the iPhone.

Barry Smith© Ken's paper  - slightly altered?

Barry Smith© Ken's paper  - very 'green'?

Barry Smith© Ken's paper  - layers?

And on the way out of Ken's I saw this flower; and had to photograph it and do an alteration job on it.

Barry Smith© Ken's flower 

Barry Smith© Ken's flower - altered

Friday's effort

I behaved my self yesterday and got into my 'work-work', so fI elt that later yesterday afternoon and today I could get into some of the pieces I am working on for Clovelly Estate. Flow needs a couple of finishing touches but is but done - few bolts still to do.

I have had a rusted barbed wire leaf 'curing' (rusting even more) in the open air; and I had made a 'post' of worn and eroded fence palings quite some months ago. It was now time to finish these pieces.

Barry Smith © Reclining Leaf 

Barry Smith © Reclining Leaf

As you can see from the photo above the leaf has now got a rusted 3mm rusted iron platform - so it is now officially Reclining Leaf. The piece is about 1500mm long by 450mm wide.

Barry Smith © Connections and Layers

Barry Smith © Connections and Layers at last light

And the paling post  now has a 'square spiral' of rusted 2mm iron sheets that move from the bottom to top of the post - 4 sides; and a engraved pathways following the spiral from the extreme bottom corner to extreme top corner. This 'post' has so many materials and layers that are connected to the history of different people and places, I think it needs to be called something like Connections and Layers. But I am open to suggestions. The 'post' is about 1300mm high and 200mm square.

New Light Catcher

On Monday afternoon I could not settle into 'work-work' - it was cold, raining, grey and we are starting a new piece of analysis work as well as finishing off our reports. So what is one to do in such situations  - head for the studio (aka garage) and create something.

At the moment Fiona and I have a number of exhibitions and projects on the go art-wise so it is usually possible to do something towards one of these. In October we have an exhibition in Melbourne (Handheld Gallery) called Light and Lines. I am going to exhibit about 10-12 light catchers. I have made this many but am not happy with a couple so am doing a couple of extras to give myself choice.

Barry Smith © Soldered Light 

Anyway the above light catcher called Soldered Light is the result of a 'misspent' afternoon in the studio.

Barry Smith © SL - yet to be polished

You can see from the photo above that before polishing the components can have quite a bit of 'character' but that does not always interest the public.

Barry Smith © Crystal to refract light

Barry Smith © Soldered Light

The polished end results can emphasise the brass and the age-patina. At this stage I call it Soldered Light to reference the fact that I have used three old copper soldering irons and the flame section of a blow lamp that was used to heat such soldering irons. The crystal is from a vintage chandelier - a droplet crystal - should send sparkles of sunlight in all directions.

Collecting and recycling

When I'm out 'shopping' for bits for my creation stash I always have an eye not only on individual items but also those things I can pull apart and/or cut up. I indicated in an earlier post that I did quite a bit of cutting up and dismantling on the weekend.

Barry Smith ©A clutter of stove tops

I thought I might just share how much stuff you can get out of some of the old brass gear that is sold through junk shops. Amongst other things I look for old solid fuel camping stoves as they are generally brass and/or copper and have good solid bodies and interesting external and internal bits. The photos below show just how much I got out of four stoves in various states of wholeness and repair.

Barry Smith © Begin with 4 old single burner stoves

Barry Smith © Outlet stems 

Barry Smith © Pressure pump cylinders

Barry Smith © 4 dissected stoves become a treasure trove

I know I will get four strong brass bowls, some brass leaves and bits for Bazola Jewellery out of the flat metal in the stash. What will come from all the interesting tubes, burner heads, rusty stands and pumps depends on a bit of creative inspiration. It all looks pretty grim but all of it will polish up beautifully.

Feathers in metal

Fiona is a feather person - on our walks we have to pause and pick up stray feathers shed by our local birds. Fiona uses them in a variety of ways but particularly mono prints on hand made paper.

Anyway over the weekend amongst other things I had committed myself to making a stash of leaves our of some of the recycled brass I annealed on Friday. At the end of my beating session on Saturday, I thought I'd have a go a prototype of a fold-formed feather. It turned out OK; but was told by the mistress of feathers (in the nicest possible and supportive way) that it was a bit out of proportion and looked a bit liked a cross between a leaf and a feather.

So two more prototypes later I think I have cracked it - a piece of brass that looks feather-like - photo below. The feather pictured below is about 150mm long.

Barry Smith© Feather in brass

The first and second examples are below; as is the image of all three together. Close inspection will indicate that I improved the shape and the shaft of the feather. The shaft is better resolved on the third prototype.

Barry Smith © Feather - prototype 1

Barry Smith © Prototype 2

Barry Smith © A flight of feathers?

And by the way, Fiona claimed the third prototype as her own .

Barry Smith © Fiona's feather

Feathers could become one of my new things.