Work for our group exhibition is due in eight days so I am hastily trying to finish things...and start some others that, let’s be honest here, I should have started months ago . Nothing like the last minute is there! Speaking of the last minute I have very recently learnt the hard way that it is a mistake to rely on getting your last minute. Someone else might come along and stick something in it!
Anyway, enough griping- this exhibition’s theme is ‘Boom’ which was selected to reflect that we are living in a boom state. I am interested in the cycle of ‘boom and bust’ , previous booms and their ephemeral nature. Towns that emerge and disappear again ...the desert reasserting its timeless self. My Grandmother was born in January in a tent in Boogardie near Mt Magnet - a town that no longer exists. She was the youngest of seven. Whenever I think I have it hard I think of her mother bringing up 7 kids in a tent in the desert in January. This painting is not of my grandmother though I used a photo of her at 18 for the clothing, but it is, I hope, reflecting something of her time and this place.
This small piece is to be collaged into a suitcase with some appropriate goldfields detritus, now that I am in my suitcase phase.
For those interested the exhibition opens on Friday the 24th of February 6.00 to 8.00 at the Oats Factory, Oats street, Carlisle. www.theoatsfactory.com.au