Red: the colour of courage

Help Ever Hurt Never flaming heart from the House of Blues in New Orleans 1999
Hep Ever Hurt Never stitched into the Stole of Bandaged Hearts Mo 2011
thinking about the colour of kindness
“As we stagger forward, I think about the colour of kindness, realising that its colours and shades are not painted onto a person. They’re worn in.”
Markus Zusack “When Dogs Cry” (p45)

Acey is considering the colours of the chakras
Red is her first one
a powerful colour
the bass note that strengthens our spines, giving us courage and the fire of passion

Mike Worrall  The Portal of Intoxication
I love how this painting so perfectly describes the magic power of red

here’s a few red things I’ve made over the years
Heartline book Mo 2006
Book of Spells Mo 2008
Firebird Book Mo 2008
Firebird Talisman Mo 2015
red highlights were hand painted in the limited edition of The illustrated lyrics of Old Man Crow Mo 2016

 

Selling Art – Heart & Soul

This post has been sitting in the draft folder for 2 years, it’s time is now…
Artists (aka makers, craftsmen & women, poets, musicians et al) are the filters for the world, we let the world in through our eyes and hearts and give back what falls out of our hands…
it’s the work that comes from the deep dreams…
the day to day of living…
the sorrows…
the joys…
the fears…
the anger…
the wonder…
the excitement…
the pain…
it’s in the process of recognizing & transforming that a life can become art
the world needs these pieces of the artist’s heart and soul…
& we give it to them…
because letting it go just makes room for more…
& really no art is made without lots of dark rich blood flowing through it, and it quite often needs a few tears of frustration and even anger & a lot of sweat and stripped back to the bare bones honesty to yourself… to get to the truth… ’cause that’s what this artist’s life is all about… finding your truth, no one else’s otherwise it’s not the real thing & it won’t speak true.
Saying all that though it also needs objectivity…
a plan can help with making art, whilst doing the degree in Visual Arts 30 years ago, the glass department was into autonomous learning but keeping an objective eye on the work by using a scientific way of looking at things-
Aim
Method
Materials
Conclusion
when I was in second year  the teachers said my work wasn’t objective enough & I simply could not get my head around that, art making is a subjective experience after all!
A friend who was doing a doctorate in semantics helped me understand…
She asked, “What are you making?”
I said, “Glass dragons”
she said, “Tell me what you know about dragons.”
So I talked at length about the history of dragons in myths from all around the world & the various lizard dragons that live on earth now and in prehistoric times.
Then she asked, “How does what you know about dragons relate to the dragons you are casting in glass?”
& in that moment a light bulb came on in my head, suddenly I was able to view my art objectively, taking the me as maker/dreamer out of the work and seeing how it relates in the context of other similar work in the world.
am I an artist? or just a crafty old hippie, really it’s just a mind game… I can only make the work and hope for the best in these last few weeks before we let the Crow Show fly…
75 books are signed numbered, wrapped & ready to go… must take some photos and do a little video of Old Man Crow looking through the book…
Brass Key, Back Door detail Mo16

a true heart

a true heart (detail in Sweet Mary-Anne)
This morning Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth wrote such an inspiring post about the meaning of leaning, dancing in the space between what was and what is. She speaks true to her heart, generously sharing so much of her deep knowledge of cloth, weave and stitch, questioning her processes deeply with an astute and curious mind.
Today I leaned on her deep thoughts, gaining a huge insight into my own process & untied a knot that had wound tight around pricing for the Crow Show, it’s all undone and freed up with knowing if it’s not flying out for love, then what’s it all for?
singin’ “We all need someone we can lean on…”

working into the heart of the matter

Today’s Full Moon in Capricorn made me roll up my sleeves and get back to to work, looking hard at each page making sure “The illustrated lyrics of Old Man Crow” will be ready to go to the printer next month and adding a dash of red to each song with a “ooo” Series 7 Winsor & Newton sable and gouache
starting each day making a heart talisman bookmark
dried rose petals wrapped in raw red silk,
red felt cut out with a no 11 scalpel blade, stitched with Gütermann upholstery thread
knotted waxed linen thread
another heart is finished
5 talisman hearts done, 95 to go for the limited edition
the key book is also calling
continuing the exploration, looking at patterns of lace found in nature
and it’s tax time… the forms arrived in the mail yesterday so it’s time to start crunching the numbers
the gardening keeps our feet on the ground, a roof over the head and food in the bellies
there’s something almost satisfying about looking at all the ins and outs of the business and seeing how we have spent the year but it is a very different head space
the other good news is we met our landlady for the first time ever on Tuesday, she’s our vintage with a wicked sense of humour, a kindred spirit & feeling like we’ll be here in this beautiful old lady of a house for a good while yet, phew!

a gallery for the side lines

Just made a gallery in the title bar next to the home button
where you can see the side lines that happen in between the crow drawings
Just click on the links for
Gallery
2011
2012
2013
2014
Last Century
Photography
The Bandaged Hearts
Crow Sketch Mo 2012

Jude the queen of cloth conjurors

Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth is the queen of cloth conjurors & a very generous spirit! I was so lucky to buy her 3 Leftover Hearts Mended which arrived on the doorstep last week along with this beautiful card bound in her black & white magic thread & the Spiral Heart of Truth.
 Jude has realized the heart “that”s burnt & broken” in Old Man Crow’s song “Truth” !
My old glass engraving teacher Anne Dybka said when you are learning a new skill it’s best to have some fine examples around to inspire as you make your way. Jude’s work feels so good, she marries the layers of cloth with beautiful stitching making for deep magic. She has gathered an incredibly talented circle of cloth conjurors to her Spirit Cloth blog and gives so much of her huge heart there and in her online courses. Inspired by watching the videos of her  sure handed  gentling of the cloth, I took up the challenge of making a nightdress out of this amazing gift of vintage lace, threads and cloth from Margaret Johnson who sent me the bundle of Hopeful materials last year for Hopeful Lunacy & the Flame Tree.
A friend helped me get the bobbin winder working on the old hand cranked Singer to sew the basic seams
Margaret’s totem animal is a case moth & on the second day this little moth was helping!
I am amazed by the delicacy of the lace insert
enjoyed trying to make a perfect buttonhole and had a lot of fun knotting the cord and making the tassle
here’s the finished nightdress… perfect for cloth conjuring at 2 am and taking photos of the moon in the middle of the night!
the ragged edged flounce is a good place to experiment with lace ideas and develop needle lace techniques
Margaret sent some of her hand spun thread which made a lovely edge to the gathered seam
this emu feather did not want to be trapped behind the silk organza  so it’s allowed to be free
 caught Ariel napping earlier under the wonderful vintage embroidered pillow case called The Cyclist’s Rest
me showing off my new nightdress and here’s Old Man Crow channeling the spirit of Hunter S Thompson
so now it’s time to go into town for the last day of our holidays & have a look at some art (Anish Kapoor at the MCA) will get back to work tomorrow on the next crow drawing and our gardens will have grown like mad after two weeks off!!

Old Man Crow’s hat pin

started this one as a buttonhole for Old Man Crow to wear to the wedding next weekend but it turned into a hat pin!
(thanks to the fabulous crow feather Marg Johnson sent up from Victoria)
as I was working on it I realized the buttonhole should be the man’s bandaged heart that is still sewn into it’s card next to the bed and he’s never worn it!

bandaged heart no 98 – The King of Hearts

Old Man Crow and the Stole of Bandaged Hearts at the Sando

The Stole of Bandaged Hearts
travelled to the gig with the trusty Les Paul

and was greeted with lots of grins and good vibes
Willem (aka Young Man Crow) wearing Bandaged Heart no. 123, our most encouraging & supportive friend Richard wearing Bandaged Heart no. 2 & Old Man Crow carrying the Stole on vocals & guitar, Nick Hope is bass, Willem van Ekert  drums… the night was a buzz
and the music lives on! here’s a pic from 1978 ’round when I first met Roderick & Nick
“They were built out of music
And so not built at all
And therefore built forever.”
Oscar Wilde

A discussion has beeen going on over at Jude Hill’s Spirit Cloth blog about what we would make without an audience… well these two guys have been making music with & without an audience for a long time now and y’know I love hearing the songs in process when Roderick is writing the words and nailing down the melody but they come alive at the gigs, the Les Paul needs to have the amp turned up to really sing & the bass and drums getting everyone’s feet  up and dancing, well there’s really nothing like it! Every gig is different and Rod has shown me that you have to put all your heart and soul into every single night up there on stage, these guys will keep playing ’til their hands stop moving, the music is their life & I love them for it !

The Stole of Bandaged Hearts is finished!

I just finished The Stole of Bandaged Hearts this morning, Old Man Crow will wear it to the gig at the Sandringham Hotel tomorrow night!

The Stole of Bandaged Hearts by Mo 2011

Help Ever Hurt Never embroidered on red silk gifted from Margaret Johnson & backed with bamboo felt

 not all 144 hearts are here as some of them needed to be with their people

the ladders to hold the hearts are made of waxed linen thread

detail of linen thread and knots

The Ghost Hearts

Making all the bandaged hearts leaves heart shaped spaces in the felt

These spaces gave me a way to make all the ghost hearts to honour the people who have died but live on in our hearts. I am stitching around the edge of the heart space left by each ghost heart’s wife or partner or whatever then cut it free & keep stitching and binding until the ghost heart can hold it’s own space and then tie it in place…