here comes 2009!

My word, but where did 2008 go to?

The last year has been an amazing journey. Work has been great, a challenge, but a wonderful growing experience. I think I have talked more in the last year than in all the years previous to it. I feel like a totally different person. it is easier to talk to people, conversation is not half so difficult as it used to be. I have also been doing a lot of the Graphic Design for work (posters, adds, certificates etc), and that has been an interesting learning experience too.
And now I head into yet another level of learning as I figure out what being the Senior Guide means.
We just celebrated out 1st birthday on the 14th of January. and everything is rocking along on a summer high... expecting the 2nd year to be busier than the 1st. Should be fun.

On a more personal side I have been trying to start a sort of folio/blog style website for my art/design side of things. : Scrabooli Studio, which has been fun - if a little neglected over the last month or so. We shall see how it goes this year. I have lots of ideas for it but not the time to put into it. .. perhaps in winter - or when the school holidays come to an end.
Such is life!!

anyhow. best wishes for 2009.

What does peace look like?

To oppose war is to be putting your focus into war and thus is to continue being warlike. "marches for peace" "Anti-war rallys"" fight for peace" these are military terms [march, rally, fight..] and to use war terms in the name of peace is not putting the focus on peace is it? it is continuing to use the military vocabulary and mindset of war.

Peace is a wonderful idea. a concept. a way that we all want to be and live.
but WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE???

How will being in peace rather than at war effect our society as a whole? how will it change the culture as a whole?? How will it change the economy? trade? environmental attitudes? farming practices? fashion? the entertainment industry? computer games? technology?
What will all those millions of people currently employed by war do?- not just the soldiers but the those who make the weapons, tanks, army cars, stationary, uniforms, crockery, tents, helicopters, ships, nails, spare tires, paint, fencing wire, camouflage cloth, cotton for cloth, ammunition, ..... etc you get the picture.

The main problem we face is that our western society is very wrapped up in the economy and the economy is very wrapped up in war but it is not obvious enough at a day to day level. If you think about it.... to have our society at peace will change the very fabric of our lives and interactions, our employment, perhaps our living standard. So many things that so many take for granted will have to change or disappear.... and other things will take their place.

I find it difficult to see what it looks like... because all I am shown is a continuation of the same.

As a culture we tend to continue on a path and stagnate into an attitude until the new path is either thrown upon us or we KNOW what it looks like. So to find peace we need to know what it looks like....

I believe that protesting and marching and putting up big placards and having speeches against war and the problems of war is not going to have any effect at all on the government or the general society.

what will make a difference is a clear vision of peace. what does it look like? describe it, live it, demonstrate it, ... put up posters about it, hold celebrations about it, give speeches about it. Speak not of the problems of war, but the joys of peace.

each person must find their own path. and then have the courage to step out upon it. because to live a life of peace is to live a life outside of and often opposite from the general accepted norm of western society, and to be different is often to be scorned.
To have the courage and integrity to work towards peace., only buy things based in and created in peace, only do things based in peace. only work in jobs based in peace, .....

Peace & the world community

Just found this video on Youtube the other day:...



It is just a video of a guy doing a random geeky dance with other people in different spots all over the world. .. but it had 2 million views in the 1st few days and is up to nearly 3 1/2 million views now. I will admit that by the end of my 1st viewing my eyes were not totally dry.. and judjing from coments I have read it is not a unique result! So what is it about this video that seems to capture peoples attention and their heart?

Is it that at this time, in our hearts we are so needy for evidence of world community and peace? So needy that simple movie that places people from all over the world, from all cultures and ages on an equal footing, in one joined dance of celebration captures our imagination.

Nations are at odds with each other, wars are rife, exploitation of the poor is almost the norm... But judging from the reaction to this video I would make a guess that we the people want something else.

We want equality between all people... and a world community based on peace & joy.

Artists, branding and 'success'...

Dombrovskis, Piccaso, Corbusier, Tim Winton, Azimov,....

If you have heard of these artists and creators you will probably instantly identify them with a particular style or subject matter:

• Dombrovskis was a Tasmanian wilderness photographer,
  
• Piccaso was a cubist painter,
  
• Tim Winton writes about place and community,
  
• Le Corbusier was one of the 1st the architects to use concrete,
• Azimov was a Sci-fi writter....

Now think about these names: Myers, Billabong, nike, McDonalds, Teva, Coles, Mountain Design, .... etc
Each of these also brought to mind an image did it not? one that included the logo and the style and the contents of their stores....

It's got to do with the whole BRANDING thing. we love brands and logos and symbols.... an artist or creator who wants to be successful (as in well known) needs a brand - a way of doing things that fits within a recognisable template. So you have to have a recognisable style. one that is reasonably consistent. ... Because people like to know what to expect.
People like to put other people in boxes - it feels safer that way! If you keep breaking out of the box they want to put you in, they don't know what to do with you or how to relate to you and so you will be avoided.

Think of it another way: Homo sapients are a very social species who are also a little contradictory...
In general, we like to think of ourselves as individuals, but we also like to fit in to a social crowd. So unique artwork gets a higher price tag than mass produced stuff because it is unique, but people are more likely to buy unique one off / limited edition art or have their house designed or read a book if there is other things out there that are similar - that shair a brand-like identity.

So, a creative person who is just starting out and who wants to be 'successful' needs to find a style, a brand and stick to it - at least until they get a 'name', then they can experiment if they want to, but only if the experimentation is extensive. By that I mean a series, a set, a whole exhibitions worth. ... or several.

It also means that if an artist has a particularly 'new' and different style, it is going to be a very slow start while they wait for the brand to become known - while they wait for a few brave individuals start a trend and risk being different by buying weird stuff. After a while , when some point of critical mass is reached, the artists work will stop being weird, will become safe/different and maybe even popular. it is a funny old journey, to be sure!

I read somewhere that many of the 'great' creators (Picasso for example) were not going solo in a new style, but were part of a group of creators who were all exploring a similar style at the same time.... and the great ones were not necessarily the 1st, just the ones that became more popular. Maybe they outputted more work and so reached the critical mass point a little sooner, maybe their style was more constant, maybe they had better marketing skills....who knows?....

But it is an interesting thought.....

having a strong conviction....

I just watched "Spirit Bear" the movie based on the story of Simon Jackson's campaign to save the habitat of the spirit bear and the formation of the spirit bear youth coalition. . . such an amazing story.
It made me feel small - in that I have so many wild ideas and idealism and things I think should be made better.... But when have I actually done anything about them? So I've been to a few rallys.... so what?
After watching the movie I had a look at the SBYC website and had a read. There are some biography's of the other young people that are involved in the coalition. and their stories are equally precocious in the leadership and creation of groups of people who want a thing bad enough and have the dedication to actually go out and get it... whatever is in the way.
I get strong feelings and needs to do things too. and some of them even last a few days before the next thing comes to mind. Mostly what puts me off is a new idea coming in on top and pushing the last one out.... but sometimes it is because I do a bit of research and realise that lots of other folk are out there doing the same thing, so what is the use,... it would be just duplication. I seem to think I live in a village where you only need one blacksmith, one artist, one pub.... etc. and duplication is pointless.

Maybe repetition doesn't hurt? After all, most of the 'successful' artists out there are 'known' by their style or medium or subject matter.

Sometimes I really enjoy having such a flood of ideas, it is wonderful to be able to brain storm and just feel the ideas floating up. Other times I sorely wish that I could have just one great thing in my life. just one great idea or style or conviction or faith or whatever.... just one thing that I am strongly driven to explore and achieve in; be it social, environmental or personal.

Just one great passion.

Maybe I have to choose one? But then, what would I do with all the others? To choose one idea over another and make it one great passion is to relegate the others to obscurity for all time... that seems to be how I feel about it. And each idea is in some way a part of my heart and to let them die is to let a part of me die. ...

So I am stuck with having lots of ideas and flitting from one to another?... like a deranged butterfly, never stopping long enough to develop any real skills or momentum, only a vague overview. in the last 3 months I have started and deleted 2 blogs that I thought would be great. .. only to become board with them.

I heard someone say the other day that to be successful you have to do what you love. But there are so many things I enjoy doing that it is hard to find what it is that I love most...

Coming up with ideas maybe? A professional brainstormer. . . .
Now that would be interesting. $500 for a day of brainstorming, any topic or field.
any takers?!!

Flying high

An article written for Southern Exposure:

On a typical day you can find me flying through the trees, guiding groups on Tasmania's newest eco-adventure - a canopy tour with nearly 3/4 km of flying foxes. My office is the treetops, work is really more like play with a bit of responsibility and meeting, teaching, guiding and sometimes coaching so many different people a day through what can be quite a confronting experience (fear of heights wise) is a joy. When I am not rostered on tours you can usually find me at home on the computer being paid to self-educate myself in graphic design skills while producing posters, certificate layouts, map & information pamphlets and so on for work.
I am loving it all, but the journey to this point in my life has been full of speed bumps, 'wrong turns' and a a great deal of self-discovery as I stumbled about trying to work out what I wanted to do when I "grew up".

I met the 1st stumbling block when I was in grade 6. I discovered the word for a house designer: Architect. I was caught, hook, line, & t-square. That was it. I was going to be an architect! Every subject I did at school from then on was geared towards this goal. About this time I also started having eye trouble, developing a lazy left eye. In effect, I have seen double ever since. No depth perception and the optometrist compounded this problem by giving me bifocals.
Playing sport was a nightmare - I could never figure out which of the 4 balls coming my way was the real one! "4-eyes" in truth, I hated sport, was teased by the other kids because I was so clumsy and was even berated by the PE teachers for being a "butterfingers". I became a bookworm and concentrated on getting good marks in the more academic subjects.

By the time I finished school I had trouble communicating with people, was painfully introverted, Was convinced that I was a physical failure and still wanted to be an architect.

I was only 17 when I finished school so my mother persuaded me to go to Scotland for a gap-year to work as a housekeeper at an Outdoor centre managed an aunt and uncle. The older staff became my role-models, especially the female instructors/guides. They were so fit and strong and confident - I wanted to be like that too. On days off they took me hill-walking, rock climbing and canoeing... and I loved it and found I was actually fairly good at it. I stayed for a 2nd year and decided that while I was still young I should work outdoors, it would be better for my eyes anyway as lots of close-work really stuffs them up(and I wanted to be fit, strong and confident!). While still in Scotland I applied for a place on the BA(outdoor education) course in Bendigo, Victoria. I got in, came back to Australia and the next 3 years were truly hard work; not academically, but socially. By the time I graduated I was a little less introverted (had managed to persuade myself to go to the pub with my class-mates once or twice) and could cope with leading groups if I did a lot of planning and nothing went too far out of that plan. I wasn't a very flexible leader.

The next year saw me attempt to 'get into' the outdoor education industry. But the school children confused me (I had not spent time socially with that age-group when I was their age) and I didn't have a drivers licence. The drivers licence proved to be too scary - it's not easy to learn to drive while seeing double. So I went back to university. Did a Grad dip in Environmental studies. Finished that and still didn't have a licence. it is amazing how hard it is to get a job in the outdoor and environment fields without one.

By then I had pretty much given up on being a confident outdoorsy person and thought I would go back to my 1st love. Architecture. Having done one degree, I couldn't afford to go to Uni again. So I thought I'd start at a different level. Cert. IV Building design and drafting at TAFE. Hated it. Well, the design part and the CAD part was fantastic, but the wading through building codes was awful. I worked as a draftsperson for a year. still hated it.
Battling depression, feeling like I had completely lost my way and was useless at everything, I ran away to the mainland and went fruit picking. I bought a good digital camera and a laptop and rediscovered a love of photography. Constantly travelling and meeting new people I forced myself to learn how to be relaxed socially and became more confident. By the end of the year I had decided that I very much preferred practical work and that I would like to be involved in graphical design type stuff but not full time .... maybe as my own business. I decided that to move forward I absolutely had to have a drivers licence.
So I came home to Tasmania, Went to work the local apple packing shed, worked on my graphics skills at home, did a bookkeeping course and with the help of friends and family, finally passed the driving test.

Suddenly, there was so much more I could do, and all the years of random work and training could be put to use. I saw an ad in the paper looking for guides for a new venture up here in the north. applied. Got an interview. Got the job. was amazed at how confident I felt. I got off the 'P'-plates 2 days before I started work in early December last year.

But in truth, it wasn't the skills I had or the new drivers licence that got me the job (though I am sure they helped), It was the confidence I had in myself that I could do it and the confidence socially to go into an hour long interview with 2 strangers and come out having asked them more questions than they asked me, the confidence to take the time to think about the questions they asked and not stutter out the 1st drivel or prepared answer that came to mind.

From Painfully introverted and shy to confident leading groups of total strangers.... it's been a long hard 12 years. But it has been worth it.

In short, Confidence in yourself and your skills will take you a long way. Don't be afraid to face your fears and try something new, learn something new and know that if you give something your very best shot, you can't help but learn something - even if it is that you hate it - you'd much rather be doing something else. That, and knowing that failing the 1st time doesn't mean you are not able to do it, just that it may take a little longer and a bit more effort to push yourself where you want to go ......12 years maybe!

Dona Nobis Pacem

Fly a globe for peace. make your choice.

Time........

Where does it go to?
Where does it come from or that matter?

This year seems to be going past so fast. so very very fast.
It is nearly winter, we are still running tours. Actually, it is busier than we expected it to be...
which is a good thing. .. bodes well for next summer.

Autumn was absolutely glorious. The colours out at Hollybank were fantastic. .... all those European trees. ... and the toadstool rings - one was fully 7 or 8 meters across. ..

anyway, things to do and not a lot to say....

Scrapbooking!!!!!

My goodness! I have just 'discovered' the whole 'scrapbooking' craft movement.... and wow! it is HUGE. How did that one stay under the radar?

Personally, I have a trunk, and in there is such a mix of random odds and ends... old toy cars, photos, diaries, loose pages with old poems,.. books with addresses in them of friends long ago moved and lost, stuffed bears, smoothed out tin coverings from chocolate money given at new years when I was 7 or 8, letters, cards, certificates, merit badges from guides and scouts..... etc. you get the idea.

What I would be interested to find out is if there is a pattern in who is more likely to be a collector of memories? is it random? genetic? one person in a family who is 'designated memorabilia person'? or is it people who have lost of extended family around? or no family?

Whatever it is, its interesting that memorabilia is such a strong cultural force in our lives. museums, memorial serveses, remembrance days, birthdays, anniversaries. .... etc. we like to remember and be nostalgic over the past, to tell the stories from our childhood, re-watch favorite films, savor the music of out youth, and to laugh at old jokes from the past with lifelong friends.....

This scrapbooking is a new form of story telling. almost a journal, almost a photo album, but more, trying to capture not just the words and images, but the atmosphere of a moment in time as well.

I might have to give it a go!!

Canopy tour vidio fun

Had a bit of fun last week and put this little movie together. The resolution is a bit dodgy because I was using a little point and shoot and then had to compress it right down to upload it via dile-up.........

Way up high

The first week of tours has gone really well. we have been going non-stop with about 3 times as many guests as we had been expecting and everyone that has been in one of my 'pods' has been wonderful..

Spending time up to 25 meters up a tree and then zooming onto the next 'cloud station'...... just hanging out with the birds and flying over the river...... what better office could anyone ever wish for.

It has not all been plain sailing, but between the lot of us (guides, reception, management and trainers) we have bounced through the first and hardest week on Australia's (maybe the world's?) first, longest and only continuous wire canopy tour. !!!

may the adventure continue....
..especially now I am over the stage-fright and am eating properly again!!

Happy new year

Look out 2008... here we come.
I really have neglected this blog for a while now. probably not a bad thing.
Nothing has really changed. I now have my FULL drivers license - so you had all better take my old optometrist's advise and start catching the bus now!!

I have a new job as a treetop canopy tour guide with the new Hollybank treetop adventure in the north of Tasmania... Fly high from the 14th of January - which is when it opens. We continue Our training next week after a break over Christmas. We have been up on the first part of the tour and it is going to be a total hoot (please excuse any bird related puns - I just can't help myself!). The feeling of flying up there through the tree tops... Up there at bird level........ Seeing the forest from such a different angle and in such a different way is amazing.... totally amazing. The longest run is about 370 meters.... that one is scary but very exhilarating.
As you can see, the cloud stations are quite high. the view is amazing and feeling the slight movement of the tree makes you feel right at home and immersed in the forest.

this is me

just for fun. this is me. about a year ago admittedly. But I haven't changed much since then. longer hair....

have just finished reading the tipping point. what an amazing book. if your at all interested in how cultural shifts happen and how fads fade in and out. just read it. it will totally change the way you see the world.

oh yes. and it is a self-portrait! the camera is at the end of my arm - very hard to do ;-)

The Great Global Warming Swindle?

CO2 is causing climate change right? More CO2 = a warmer climate?
Well... according to this documentary, that premise is completely wrong... aparently CO2 is affected by the climate, not the other way round.

Some of the ideas presented that I found interesting:

• The climate is affected by Sun-spot activity...
• The world climate was warmer in medieval times than it is now...
• And colder in Victorian times...
• The oceans of the world produce vastly more CO2 than we do, and they also absorb CO2 when they are cooler...
• The temperature rise and drop of the oceans lag about 800 years behind the general climate of the world.
• The "we are producing too much CO2" idea has become a political avalanche, and disagreeing with the mainstream view will make you a target for ridicule.
  

see the complete documentary online
the video is just over an hour long and takes a little while to get round to telling the details. but it is full of rather interesting information. worth a look.

Personally, I am becoming convinced. But the big question now is:

If CO2 is relatively harmless....
What about all those other pollutants that we are outputting?
And what about the limited supplies of crude oil?

An example of phi in the body

it is rather hard to measure accurately from knuckle to knuckle but I did the best I could and the results are pretty close to phi.

I have to admit that even after reading about it, and then spouting off about it a while back, I really didn't believe that it would work.

seems it does!! Three of my right hand fingers have birth defects.. the ratio even works with them!!

Noisy Auras

After all that initial inspiration: "I'm going to start a blog" "It will be great fun" "I can say and discuss all sorts of interesting things" .....
A month on and I have blipped of the map of blog world...

actually I have not been anywhere near the internet because my brother came to stay prior to moving interstate this coming weekend. The internet connection is near the room he is using. And he takes up so much mental/energy space that I have just not wanted to be in that end of the house.
I think he has a large noisy aura- all the time. Ever noticed how some people just seem to take up more space - even if they are sitting quietly up the corner and are not even all that big physically - and that you may not feel comfortable intruding on that space? My theory is that some people either have large, noisy or messy auras, or that somehow those peoples auras are just not 'meshing' with mine, making it uncomfortable when the 2 overlap.
My mothers is different again. if she is reading or working on her art or something I barely notice her; but if she is sitting quietly thinking.... she has an extremely noisy and hard to be around aura.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

He who accepts evil

"He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating
with it" - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), US civil rights
leader

The Golden Section and phi ( φ )

Oh what a world of wonder I discovered today.
I was reading one of my fathers old Shoreditch text books about patterns and design and re-discovered the golden section and phi/φ

In the Fibonacci series : 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 ... , Not only is each number the sum of the 2 previous, but the relationship between each number and the one previous boils down to the ratio of 1:1.618... and 1.618 is the number phi/φ. That ratio can be found practically everywhere, in the shapes of flowers and pine cones, in the way plants grow, and in the shapes of animal and human bodies. For example, the length of your finger bones are in ratio to each other:eg. tip=3 middle=5 base=8.

Anyway, that is all on the side. φ, or rather the ratio 1: 1.618 has, since ancient Greece, been considered the most aesthetically pleasing ratio to the human eye, and shapes made using the ratio are considered the most beautiful.
If you make a rectangle that has side lengths of 1 & 1.618, then you have made the rectangle shape that is most aesthetically pleasing to the human eye.
If you then add a perfect square onto the long side.... the new, larger, rectangle has the same side ratios. - that is, the ratio of short side to long side is still 1:1.618.
If you then continue to add squares to the long sides, going out in a spiral...
you end up with a diagram (the Golden section) that has the 'center' of the spiral near to the 1/3 1/3 grid position that is more commonly used by artists (these days) to adjust where they place the focal point of their work.
You can overlay this diagram on your art work and find out if you have put the focal point in the most ideal spot (for an image that is most aesthetically pleasing).

Had a wonderful time with this today, putting it over a number of my photographs. With mixed results...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_%28letter%29

If I could find a way

If I could find a way
Through my self-inflicted bonds to express myself,
My beliefs as they truly are.
If I could find a way
To tell others that my beliefs
Are not quite what they presume.
If I could be sure
That others would accept with out question or judgment
And let me be
To find my path
Then I would be free.
If I could have the courage to tell what I feel
It wouldn't change what others see of me
But it would change what I see of me.

Janice Elanor Sheen
Written July 1999.

Does selling art work on the internet de-value it?

My mother mentioned today that a friend of hers who is a marketing manager claims that selling prints of digital images or photographs devalues the work in the eyes of professional 'walk in through the door' art galleries.
Any ideas out there??

I was under the impression that when it comes to prints, it is not so much the quality or desirability of the image, or where else it has been sold, as how unique it is. That is, how many copies of it there are. What is the print run? I have seen limited editions range in size from 3 to 500. with retail the price tag ranging from over 1000 euro down to about 50-ish.
So, if a print has been sold multiple times over the internet, rather than as part of a limited print run.... that would lower it's value...
if it is a limited print run, and some have been sold over the internet.. why would that de-value it? surly the internet is really just more competition and it is selling cheap on the net that would devalue it.

Why is the world of commerce so confusing?

Toadstools in the garden - and changes in seeing

Went for a walk in the garden with my camera yesterday and 'found' the toadstool ring under the Silver Birch tree. I have seen it there since it started developing in early autumn but never seen it with a camera in hand.

It is quite amazing how my mind can switch tracks so totally... and see in a completely different way when I have a camera in hand. Without the camera the toadstools are red, spotty, poisonous and a mess. With the camera in hand, suddenly they are full of potential. beautiful in their own right and not so poisonous that I can't wash it off later... So I went wild.

This image is the best one so far - if the sun comes out again today I am going to have another session, I just can't resist!

war and peace

I discovered 'the onion' the other day, advertising themselves as 'America's finest news source'... much of it seems to be aimed as being deliberately controversial or stretching a story very obviously to fit a personal opinion, but that could just be my impression since I only read 2 or 3 articles in full. That doesn't mean that they are fiction though. and Some are quite interesting points of view.
One that particularly caught my attention was this one:

God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

NEW YORK-Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.

It was written on the 26th September 2001. So you could make a good guess as what the general topic was influenced by. .. the whole sept. 11 tragedy and the resulting fiasco and international mess that has happened since. The political mud slinging and kindergarten sand-box war tactics......etc... and where does the idea of making war on a concept (terror) rather than a country get off? Confuses me totally and I do not plan to go into that any further.

Basically, the article makes the point that in every major world religion there is a core concept. - love your neighbor, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. do not kill. (And yet practically every country or nation or group that has gone to war has done so in the name of their favorite deity. The self-same deities that 'told' their people 'do not kill'. talk about a contradiction....)
I saw a list of the various relevant verses and scriptures from 5 or 6 of the major 'holy books' of the world a few months ago. I think my mother e-mailed them to me. for some reason I've lost them. Would love to find them again..
anyway. it's a simple enough concept isn't it?? how is it that we get in such a mess. is it greed? or fear of others who are different? or belief that there is only one way to heaven and 'my/our' way is it? or fear that if we don't 'do the right thing' - according to what our 'elders' tell us- then we will miss out on the prize? the good life or the better life after the end of this one? Or perhaps it is simply that each generation learns from the parents and fails to make their own choice to go a different way, a way of unconditional love, peace and acceptance.

Somewhere in the (Judao/Christian) Bible there is a verse that states "...and the sins of the fathers are placed upon the children, even unto the 7th generation..." What if we could pass beyond those 'sins', simply by making another choice?

Are we so willing to sacrifice the peace, the joy, the happiness and the fullness of community and life in THIS life? And not only our own happiness but that of others as well. ...? for the simple lack of making our own choice. war,fear,hate,greed. these are our inheritance. We can make no choice and keep them .... or .... make a new choice, and gift that new world to our children.

Someday

Someday.
it can be such a wistful sounding word... so full of promise and yet, regret also.

Someday I will be able to make custard without lumps.
Someday soon the sun will shine and I will have a day off at the same time.
Someday there will be peace between all nations.

Texture of thought, patterns of life, Colours of the world.

It seems that the hardest part of setting up a blog is choosing the title. My short list for this blog was cut down from about 25 different ideas:

• A random life
• Sunlight and Rain
• Texture of thought, Patterns of life, Colours of the World
• Art, Apples and life
• Dancing through life

The longest won out but had to be shortened due to the limit on the title length by blogger.com

Perhaps I will use the other titles some other time. Someplace else. ...

But let it be known. ... In my heart the true title for this blog is the full

Texture of thought, Patterns of life, Colours of the World
(and yes, despite the fact that I am usually a poor speller - being more inclined to the artistic/spatial/textural type of memory - that IS how we spell colour in Australia!!)

Despite the earlier posts in this blog.. this is actually the first post under this new name and URL. The previous posts are transfered from an older journal/blog so that I can keep them all together in one place and you don't have to go scratching around the net looking for lots of bits!!

So, what is this all about for me? After all, everyone has their own reason for publishing their thoughts on the soapbox of blogging...
I have kept a personal journal for many years.. full of the usual musings, sorrows, joys, political rantings, social commentary, personal ravings, confusions, poetry, stories, dreams, sketches and art ideas. In 2005 I went digital, with the paper version mainly full of the sketches, art ideas and movie tickets pasted in. Some of the digital made it into the online journal/blog that has been transfered here. I originally intended it to become a book ... "52 letters from the road"... but... once it was up on the web it was published! so what was the point of turning it into a book.
I found that I liked the idea of sharing my thoughts (some of them anyway).
It has taken a while to build up enough momentum to start another one. But here we are! At the start of a new journey ... and the continuation of an old one

And all the colours of the world,
All the patterns of life,
All the textures of thought,
Are written in the sky and in our hearts.
Waiting to be found. ...

The lull between the Cherries and the Apples

am back home in Tassi.. have been since before Christmas. Picked cherries - peaceful and not hard work. . . and taste great!! Am waiting for the apple season to start. after that?!?! who knows what I will be up to.

After speed on tweed I traveled with Lauren down to Canberra through the middle of New South Wales. it was all so green - a wet spring. absolutely amazing. Canberra was the oddest nicest city I have seen for a long while. so much parkland that it feels like a country town most of the time.

The National Art gallery is awful tho' . this big vast cold undecorated block of gray concrete with bad signs and directions and only one NICE way to get to the entrance. if you come at the building from any other direction [the car park, the gardens etc] it is just plain ugly and no signs to say how to get in!! Sorry about that blather. I was so looking forward to seeing the national art gallery. but the result was just a major disappointment.

The national Library now... that was just beautiful...!! All those stained glass windows....

after Canberra we traveled down to the coast and all the way down into Victoria and up to Bendigo. took about 2 weeks over it. was nice to see Bendigo again. hadn't changed much.

after that Lauren went back to Tasmania and I found fork near Melbourne on a tree nursery. had a fantastic time.

and thats me up to date.

have been filling my waiting time with digital artwork and gardening and catching up with friends.