Magic is Free

We made our own magic wands using materials from around the house and it was very satisfying.

I drew star outlines, using cookie cutters as the template, on plain cardboard (it was the backing from a notebook).

The kids painted the card with watercolour, then when it was dry they added some oil pastel scribbles.

Sprinkling confetti is like hitting a saucepan with a spoon: parents loathe it and kids adore it.

The stars are a bit wonky, but if we wanted perfect we might have chosen plastic ones from the shop.

Finally: some spotty washi tape, reinforced by a spot of glue, to hold the star to the sticks that we had we collected at the park.

Sim Sala Bim!

Kyoto Art and Design Scene: A Glimpse

One of the joys of Kyoto — and indeed Japan — is that the locals apparently approach all aspects of life artfully.

So even though my experience of Kyoto art and design was largely restricted to toddler-accessible locations, it was still possible to enjoy many examples of visual creativity around the city. (In addition, I escaped on a bicycle during nap time one sunny afternoon, armed with a Kyoto Art Map, which can be found at galleries and cafes around town).

Here are a few glimpses of art that I saw, with a slight emphasis on contemporary work. Having visited many temples and traditional gardens on my last visit to Kyoto, ten years ago, I decided to focus my attention this time upon a more modern version of Japan.

Having said that, it’s not really possible to untangle the old from the new!

Following the images are a few of my suggestions for an art and design experience in the inspiring city of Kyoto.

At top: a chunky dragon figure dominates a footpath display or shrine. Above: a simple line drawing on an A-frame advertises hot drinks.

Bold animal paintings by Akase Mifusa are displayed in windows above a row of retail stores, creating an outdoor gallery of sorts.

I love the sticker on the electrical pole: conceptual art on the street, perhaps?

A sweet, kokeshi-style painted doll in a junk shop window.

An exhibition at the Dohjidai Gallery of Art, which is at the centre of a creative hub in Kyoto.

A display of obi/kimono ties, yet another visual treat.

A contemporary take on the beckoning cat called maneki neko. (Unfortunately I don’t have a record of who created these beauties, I admired them through the window of the gallery).

Marvellous use of natural materials and pared-down style at Sfera, a rarefied design department store in which I was the only browser. Weird! But wonderful.

An old fashioned dying technique called chu-sen is used to create modern textiles in the shop, Nijiyura, pictured above.

Colours and textures from nature are regularly a feature of artful displays around the city.

Listed below are some names and locations that I discovered while exploring Kyoto, and this is without even venturing towards some of the bigger arts institutions:

• Gallery Morning Kyoto is a small gallery space featuring solo exhibitions that seem to be by emerging artists. I was happily surprised, when I visited, to be introduced to the artist whose work I was admiring.
• Gallery Kei masters a sublime combination of traditional Japanese materials and modern display sensibility. Mindblowingly beautiful (for more images, see images by Rios).
• Tomohito Matsubara is a jewellery artist who can capture the essence of a cherry-blossom in a precious metal.
• Hori Nobuko creates whimsical worlds in pastel colours, and Ayaka Ogawa is also an artist specialising in cute characters. They were both showing work in the building that houses Cafe Independants.
• An exhibition by Komorik of air plants and other dried flora was very lovely.
• If you’re looking to buy art and design books and products, the super-cool store called Angers is the place to go.
• Cafe Independants is an underground cafe/bar for-and-by creative types. It’s in a building with galleries and artists (some mentioned above), and well worth a visit, even if you can’t get down the stairs because you are pushing a double-stroller. But the entrance to the cafe is artistic, too; see below.

Kyoto has long been a hub for artisans, so it’s no surprise that it has a thriving art scene today. To connect with it, I highly recommend you get hold of a Kyoto Art Map… or simply roam the streets and keep your eyes open!

Poignant and Powerful: Lullaby Blankets

Who would have thought that a mother’s lullaby might contain heartbreaking stories of famine, trauma… and also hope. When illustrated in the form of  blankets, such tender lullabies create a moving display of human resiliance.

Then again, it’s not surprising that mums around the world are soothing their children with words that mean something to them. (If I were to write a sleepy-time song for my children, it would surely contain a few hints about what it important to me, such as not waking up before 7am).

It’s just that my concerns seem so petty when compared to some of the lyrics displayed as part of the Lullaby Blanket project, undertaken here in Hobart.

Led by community artist, Jackie McDonald, asylum seeker women used a variety of new and traditional textile skills to create these beautiful blankets. They were on display at the Moonah Taste of the World Festival recently; there’s an audio documentary about the project here.

Examples of the lyrics, translated into English, include:

Baby Boy, Baby Boy

Hello Baby, Please Be Quiet

When Your Hunger is Very Painful

Just Lie Down and Sleep

Better Just Lie Down and Sleep

(From South Sudan, see image below. Blanket made by Mary Poni and Celina Khamis)

In light of this week’s anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, it is particularly heartbreaking to consider these words to a child:

Who Makes My Child Cry

You Like to Be Treated Well

You Will Be Treated Well

I will Always Treat You Well

(From Rwanda, see image below, blanket made by Epiphanie Uwamariya and Sylvia Muhayimana)

And in Iraq, mothers are crooning to their babies that “you are safe to sleep.” (See below, blanket created by Amal Abovelkashi).

The handiwork on the blankets is lovely, and the objects themselves are worthy of heirloom status. But it’s the sentiments contained within that are so powerful and affecting. They highlight the obvious truth that mothers around the globe, including those fleeing violence or hardship, all want the same things for their babies.

(At top: Nepalese blanket from Bhutan by Indira Sharma. Second from top: Sinhalese blanket from Sri Lanka by Mirmelee Manamperumudalige)

Great Walls

During a quick visit to Melbourne recently, I noticed some great walls. Worn, postered, stencilled, stickered, painted, decorated.

Above and below: street art around Northcote; all sorts.

Below: remnants of the recent Día de Muertos festival — complete with gorgeous Frida doll — at Gleaners Inc in Brunswick, a charming shop run by a charming woman named Liz. It’s full of retro and arty clutter, my favourite!

Below: layers and layers of posters outside the wonderful Obus, looking as though it is part of the shop design.

More fabulous sticky art around Northcote, above and below. It encourages you to keep your eyes open as you wander the streets.

Below: a stripey display of MT tape and a pretty collection on a shelf at Save Yourself in Sparta Place, Brunswick. This place offered sweet service as well as cool products. (EG non-toxic nail polish brand, Kester Black; check out their inspiration page)

And a shabby, peeling, beautiful wall in Joe’s Shoe Store (which is now a bar, but methinks the wall decor is courtesy of the original shoe-making Joe).

Walls might not seem like a notable thing but let’s face it: if we have to look at them every day, they might as well be arresting, thought provoking and attractive.

Coffin Chasers

Stunning weather to go and see some art at MONA today. But the art is all underground. And a lot of it is confronting, mind-bending and preoccupied with death. (Fantastic activity to do with the kids and a visiting aunt. Really!)

Then it’s a case of chase or be chased… by the chickens on the lawns outside  that is.

Is it just the same with the human preoccupation with death? Is that why we make endless TV shows about it, read true crime trash, slow down to perve at the car wreck? Trying to catch death, somehow, so it can’t catch us…

This is the week of the year when fascination with death and dead people is socially sanctioned and indeed, celebrated in many parts. I’ve never done Halloween but I can understand the appeal. I’m interested in the leftovers of people who have gone before… the remains that can be seen in old photographs. Ghostly faces, frozen moments and smiles from long ago.

On the one hand I’m fascinated by the time distance between us and I wonder about the lives of the people who stare at me from old photos. On the other hand I marvel at our similarities across time. People don’t change so very much (check this out for a lovely example, and the smart alec in the centre photo, below).

If I were really interested in death and the chasing of it, I would travel to Manitou Springs, in Colorado USA, where yesterday the Emma Crawford Festival culminated in the 18th Annual Coffin Race and Parade. It’s part of a “spooktacular” calendar of events based around the creepy story of poor Emma’s remains being washed down the hill by stormy weather, 30 odd years after her death. The festival website features some suitably spooky photos of Emma Crawford herself.

Even if it’s true that each photograph captures a tiny piece of your soul forever, as some cultures supposedly believe, we should pose for as many as we can to leave a trace of ourselves behind. Because as sure as that cheeky chicken is going to steal some of your picnic lunch, death is going to catch up with us all sooner or later.

Hands On Art

Child art is often as good as any abstract art in a gallery, I reckon (no offence to any abstract artists who may be reading) and I’ve been looking forward to framing work created by my own kids. But anticipating the outcome sort of misses the point of children doing artistic activities, doesn’t it?

For kids, the value of making art is in creative play, exploration and discovery. It’s about the process.

We’ve been trying out some new art-based activities lately. Collecting natural materials to use as brushes….

…and painting al fresco…

…which resulted in more paint on our clothes than on the paper!

There’s been lots of play dough (or “fray dough” as it is known here).

And yesterday we attended thINK, a drawing festival arranged by Bradfield Dumpleton, who is an arts educator and illustrator.

We chatted to Jane Brown, who worked with Bradfield to make it all happen, while the kids scrawled all over the paper table cloth and got a grip on the different kinds of drawing implements. Jane explained that the festival was as much about creating connections as creating art.

The idea was to get imagination juices flowing by exploring lines, links and the workings of the human brain.

The gallery of drawings completed by (mostly school-aged) participants was cool and inspiring. Better still was the opportunity for our little guys to get their hands dirty and have a go themselves.

The Art of the Travel Journal

How do you record your journey?

I have only ever been a sporadic diarist during day-to-day life, but I’m fairly strict while travelling. Each of my travel journals has a different personality, influenced by the choice of notebook, the type of trip and naturally, the destination.

These are a few of them:

I’ve tended to fill them with scrawled text rather than images. A few sketches can be found here and there (see below), and I’ve become more organised within my notebooks, but overall my priority has been in recording impressions of new places using words.

However, there are some very talented travelling artists who demonstrate how it’s possible to create memory-evoking images on the pages of a travel (or daily) journal.

Stephanie Ledoux‘s pages depicting people and small details from her time in Vanuatu are an inspiration (website in French). In the absence of such lovely painting skills as Stephanie’s, I can still aspire to the layering and layout effects that she has created in her journal.

That’s one of the people from my journals, below, a woman from a foreign magazine.

Robin Poteet is a watercolour artist whose “sketchbook” from her journey in Umbria and Tuscany, Italy, is sumptuous. Indeed, you don’t need many words if you can so effectively capture your experiences using brush and paint.

My own sketches are quite a bit simpler, see below.

The method of construction and the inclusion of found and collected articles from the journey also plays a part in the creation of a journal. Nicola Tingey‘s example of a travel art journal shows how interesting tickets and maps can be when making a record of your trip. For those who prefer some structure to begin with, there are excellent resources available such as “Useful Books” on etsy. These attractive travel journals feature plenty of spaces to tuck tiny keepsakes and paper mementoes.

(I think that’s meant to be a travelling self-portrait, below).

There are many inspiring examples of travel art journals out there on the internet. And there’s a book called “An Illustrated Journey”, by Danny Gregory, which features lovely work by Lisa Cheney Jorgensen and 40 other artists on the road.

I’m keen to spend more time on my journal for the next trip, but I suspect I’ll get the best results if I try to encourage the involvement of the small artists in the family, too.

Now that’s an artistic and physical challenge.

Love and Clutter

With a name like “Love and Clutter” — which I recognised as the name of a book by one of my favourite Melbourne icons, artist Mirka Mora — this shop was destined to catch my attention. I gather from my limited time there that it was just my kind of place.

Sadly, it closed a few weeks ago. We barely got to know one another.

(Mixed media piece, above, by Christina Romeo).

Even after it had shut its doors for good, this shop had style. Hobart, and especially its town centre, has only a few retail gems so this is a real loss.

Note to self: treasure and give patronage, when possible, to the special places before they all shut down and leave the streets soul-free.

Here and There

Iraq could easily become a sort of “concept” in our minds, a war-torn wreck that only exists on the news. But Iraq is a real place where people, including women like me with families, are going about their lives right now.

I have long been fascinated by the idea that life goes on in other places, even though I’m not there to observe it. I think it began when my childhood best friend and I were told that we would not attend the same schools. We were both very sad at first, and that’s when I regularly began to think about and try to visualise what was happening elsewhere. My friend is at school, doing whatever he is doing, and I am here at the same time.

It was simultaneously comforting and weird. A discovery that time and space exist outside of me and my immediate experience.

So what is happening in places far away from me now? Can I imagine what is happening somewhere very distant, and far outside my experience, like Iraq?

The artwork at the top, Iraqi Woman by Elizabeth Ashburn, which I encountered at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery the other day, illustrates both a cultural context and daily reality for a woman in Iraq. I tried to create a small Iraqi experience by making the broad bean dish pictured above (called Timan Bagalah) which is apparently a daily staple in Baghdad and which was very popular in my house. And I made some biscuits based on Hadgi Badah (or Haji Badah), with cardamom and rose to try and capture a pleasant side of Iraq; these were devoured by my sweet-loving fellers.

It was all just a reminder: Iraq is far away but it is happening now.

Sky Up High

Anything in the sky is “moon” and the concept of “up eye up eye up eye” is very appealing to my two little guys lately. We’ve had fluffy clouds, clear blues, bright sunshine and they’re discovering new words to describe these delights.

There is a lot of language happening in our house now. Learning, creating, evolving. Playing with words was a shared interest that my husband and I identified when we first met (and it continues… he texted me a new word today: “irrelephant,” which sounds like a sad, forgotten creature).

Now we have the pleasure of seeing our children enjoying wordplay too. Of course, they’re just learning and that’s why they feel so free to have fun.

Tricky-to-say phrases are sort of telescoped into short words. So a bunny rabbit is a badit. A face washer is a fasher. Some words are attempts that have stuck, such as “woollet” for water, and others seem to have come out of nowhere, like “koo” for drink. Words are repeated and sung as in “jump jump jump!” and “go go go!” (I particularly enjoy the response to a sneeze, which is a sing song repetition of “achoo achoo achoo!”).

It is such a joy to understand them and begin to know what their interests are. While drawing big green circles with a crayon, one of the boys started roaring and saying “soars” (dinosaurs).

And the other, while gazing out the window at the sky, suddenly cried “bird!”.

(I intended to show you the beautiful collage illustrations in this book called What the Sky Knows and I got sidetracked… The book was written by Nike Bourke and the pictures were created by Stella Danalis).