Bottled History

​This beaut little film about a master miniature ship-in-a-bottle builder is not something that I would usually post but the precision & patience is something I can relate to in my own artwork.

Ray Gascoigne has been around boats his whole life, as a shipwright, a merchant sailor, and now as a ship builder on the smallest dry dock there is: a bottle. This short film by Smith Journal and Melbourne-based production studio Commoner picks through the wood chips to tell the story of a craft honed over 60 years, and the man behind it. A step-by-step account of the process was featured in Smith Journal volume six. More info about the project here: http://bit.ly/YUU07v Presented by Smith Journal (smithjournal.com.au) A film by Commoner (vimeo.com/commonerfilms) Music by Ben Yardley

Craig Loxley

Blackheath artist Craig Loxley creates exquisite miniature artworks which require an intimate viewing. His works can be seen at the moment in Bullaburra on the highway in the little shop which has all sorts of interesting objects for sale. Loxley is a graduate of the National Art School in Sydney & works from his studio in Blackheath. 

Reading...

Is there a word that describes ​an addiction to art books? Here's what is inspiring me at the moment.

Mmmmm Bacon

Maxx & I went to view the Francis Bacon 'Five Decades' exhibition yesterday at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. If I wasn't already feeling unhinged before I walked amongst the grotesque paintings, I certainly was afterward. Whether the distorted figures, mouths agape screaming rustled the nerves of many a viewer like myself, I don't know. Perhaps they dredged up fleeting memories of horror movies I've seen over the years; like the frothing sinister head of Jack Nicholson peering through an axed doorway in 'The Shining' or the chained and detained figures of the 'Saw' movie franchise.
I gotta stop watching horror films! The portraits Bacon executed (mostly of his lovers), must have been unflattering to the sitter but could be pardoned in their deeply complex emotional states which saw the artist's fame rise over several decades.
 
'Francis Bacon is a towering figure of 20th-century art. His paintings are gutsy, controversial and unforgettable. With painful beauty Bacon lays bare the struggles of the human condition.'

Earlier in the day when we had only just arrived at the gallery, we ran into a friend who works with the staff on reception; Chris informed us that moments before we arrived, a tourist in a group had sat on an art installation in the Australian art galleries section for a photo opportunity and the entire sculpture collapsed! I just hope the Gallery posts the CCTV footage on Youtube for us all to laugh at.