Old Man Crow’s new song for the Full Moon!

Old Man Crow just finished his new song for the Full Moon!
see more of Rhett Brewer’s beautiful paintings on his website

Raggedy Blue Moon Heart

a raggedy blue moon heart getting ready to be filled with rose petals, rosemary, lavender and lemon verbena
Raggedy Blue Moon Heart Mo20
H 15cm x W 13cm
indigo dyed Blue Moon from Glennis Shibori Girl stitched with indigo dyed linen thread to indigo dyed linen from Ulrike Bogdan, antique parchment stars, grape vine tendrils painted white
made with love and hope for my friend Julie who is in hospital with complications from the chemotherapy
PS Yay! next day, Julie’s home from hospital recovering well from the respiratory tract infection. The radiotherapy has helped a lot with the bone pain and she has had her first round of chemo.
Thanks for all the good vibes
Fingers crossed.

Love is the Answer & the next day a beautiful Amulet of Hope from Marti

Barry Smith made this beautiful talisman for I dream of a world where love is the answer
The ripples of love continue to grow as we slow down in the face of this global pandemic, the air is so clean here in Sydney with hardly any traffic on the roads and everyone is being so courteous & kind to each other, this time out is giving our beautiful broken world time to heal and time for us humans to recalibrate and find new ways of working towards cleaning up the mess we’ve made!
This morning Marti sent these photos and words from New Mexico
“With all of the caring, kindnesses, creativity that is being shown all around the world during this time of crisis, I woke up this morning and knew I had to do something beyond staying at home.  One of my favorite raggedy cloths was dyed last year with a few leaves from the trees out in our front yard, Chinese Pistache. Along with those leaves, some red and yellow onion skins were also added to  the copper dye pot.  I found a small yellow Spanish broom dyed strip of cloth so I wrote the word LOVE with an indelible ink pen and stitched it to this cloth, Cut out a portion to make tabs.
At mornings’ light, I tied it to one of the trees out in front.  It is very, very windy here this morning and I like the notion that the wind, dancing with my little cloth, will carry my message of love, not only to the people in my neighborhood but across  the airwaves, reaching out to all…
Stay safe,
Love,
Marti

PS March 30th Marti made an amulet filled with love and the hope of spring:

“There is a collective sense of the need to make amulets and talismans. This morning I too felt a strong pull to make one and I had the perfect cloth to do so; the  square that I had cut out to make my cloth of Love yesterday to hang in one of the  trees in our front yard.
Laid out the cloth on the kitchen  table and placed sprigs of dried rosemary and lavender from our garden  plus salt in the center of the cloth as well as red chile powder from Chimayo.  Chimayo is a holy place for many here in New Mexico, pilgrimages are made to the church because there is a room that has dirt said to have healing powers.  Pilgrims come with their tiny bottles and containers and fill them with the holy dirt.
“The finishing blessing was a round green bead from a necklace that my granddaughter Rowie had made for me when she was 4 yrs old.  The amulet is on my dresser, next to one of my candles.  When I lit the candle to do my daily blessing ritual this morning, I held the amulet in my hands for a few minutes, and gave protection blessings to you and Rod, to my family, to other friends, and to everyone in the world.  May we all be safe, may we all find levels of comfort and serenity, may gardeners be considered essential for in my world, they are and most of all, may we love and help each other as best we can.”
Marti

namaste

drawing the details

Eucalyptus mannifera Mo2020
H 42cm x W 29cm
5H graphite on Canson 220 gsm drawing paper
I have watched this beautiful tree grow for nearly 30 years

gift giving in the Age of Coronavirus

wondering what to give a very good friend for his birthday today
thought about a box of fancy handmade chocolates from the local chocolaterie
or perhaps a yummy Italian cake from the patisserie down the road
but then the light bulb came on
what’s the rarest thing to find in these strange days?
he was on a conference call working from home so I had to leave it on the doorstep with a text message
he just rang back to thank us for the generous gift & that he would think about us every time he uses it
I said that really wasn’t necessary…

Nirin 22nd Biennale of Sydney

Karla Dickens powerful ‘Dickensian Circus’ in the foyer of the AGNSW for
Nirin: the 22nd Biennale of Sydney curated by Brook Andrew
above 4 photos from the Biennale of Sydney’s facebook page

Ibrahim Mahama ‘A Grain of Wheat’ at Artspace
Ibrahim Mahama ‘No Friend but the Mountains 2012-2020′ installation at Cockatoo Island
photo from the Biennale’s facebook page
Tony Albert ‘Brothers (The Prodigal Son)‘ at the National Art School
Lucienne Rickard ‘Extinction Studies’ at the National Art School
photo from the NAS facebook page
was hoping to see the offerings at Cockatoo Island and the MCA today but the government is closing down all non essential venues as of midday & encouraging people to stay home as much as possible
John McDonald has written a good review
and so has Felicity Fenner

“Earth laughs in flowers”

Monstera deliciosa
“Earth laughs in flowers”
photos taken by Old Man Crow in one of our favourite gardens