International Day of Peace

weathergrams in the garden from Fiona Dempster and Barry Smith for the International Day of Peace 2017-2019
Barry’s Peace Bowl
Fiona and Barry give so much love and hope for our beautiful broken world
yesterday we attended the school student’s Climate Strike in The Domain, our friend Richard Whitfield caught this photo, there is great hope for our beautiful broken world but we all have a lot of work to do!

Peace from Fiona Dempster and Barry Smith

Fiona Dempster and Barry Smith send Peace into the world every year for the International Day of Peace
Their generosity of spirit inspires hope for our beautiful broken world
old and new weathergrams at the front door
and out the back
with deep gratitude
Peace & Love guide the way!

Wild Peace

Fiona Dempster sent three of her hand printed Imagine Peace weathergrams with such impeccable timing! One of our favourite gardening customers has been put through hell this year, the new upstairs neighbour has been so awful she decided to move, found a place just up the road, bought it & put her lovely home of 31 years up for auction on Saturday but in a strange twist of fate the awful neighbour bought it… way too hard a deal so we invited this brave woman and her gorgeous cat to stay at our place until the bathroom is renovated in the new place, we need to Imagine Peace!
and Deb Lacativa sent these two strands of her “dirty” thread! I have lusted after some of this magic thread all year since watching Hazel, Liz and Grace make such “wild peace” with it! look forward to having a go as soon as I finish Once in a Blue Moon
magic is afoot, love really is the answer

International Day of Peace

I dream of a world where love is the answer
mending our beautiful broken world stitch by stitch
with deep gratitude to this magic circle of makers
Liz Ackert
Fiona Dempster
Barry Smith
Dee Mallon
Jude Hill
Judy Martin
Hazel Monte
Els Sneider
Dana Webb
Susi Bancroft
Wendy Watson
Bronwyn Berman
Martine Bos
Beth Brennan
Nancy Erisman
Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord
Grace Forrest-Maestas
Louise Watson
Michelle Slater
Margarita Sampson
Jane Bodnaruk
Susan Hemann
Roz Hawker
India Flint
Yvette Dopheide
Patricia Spangler
Kathy Dorfer
Glenda Jones
Arlee Barr
Ulrike Bogdan
Olga Cironis
Doris Perlhuhn
Saskia van Herwaarden
Carol Cantrell
Jana Cironis
Christina Haggart
Marti Weisbrich
Tina Zaffiro
Kristin McNamara Freeman
Rene Walkin
Margaret Johnson
Donna Hinchcliff
Eliene St. Romain
Cathy & Sarah Wright
Glenda Chamberlain
Jane Stapleford
Judy Lemezis
Jane Milliken
Linda Summers
Penny Vickery
Dotti Dauter
Maggie Brown
Nanette Gilbert
Aileen Jordan
Gabrielle Bates
Shona Wilson
Joy Banks
Sharon Peoples
SharmonDavidson
photographs courtesy of Madeleine Tuckfield-Carrano Artsite Gallery
namaste

mending our beautiful broken world with Love and Peace

Liz Ackert sent a Peace Leaf made by Barry Smith wrapped in her hand dyed cochineal cloth along with peaceful words hand printed by Fiona Dempster, her finely stitched Take Heart safety pin and stitched my mending words into the blue for our beautiful broken world !

Peace Leaves by Barry Smith

Barry Smith made 210 Peace Leaves for the International Day of Peace on September 21st
here’s links to his blog detailing how they were made
The Power of Leaves
Peace Stash
Finding Fragments of Time for Peace
 Gently Unfolding
Hammering Out Peace
Only 209 to Go

& a link to Liz Ackert’s poetic response to receiving  Barry’s  Peace Leaves
Ripples of Peace
circling our beautiful broken world with love and peace in these troubled times

Manly Artists’ Book Award 2017

“A Tentative Conversation” Mo16
accordion book
260cm W x 17cm H
grape vine tendrils, graphite, ink, gouache, thread, watercolour paper, Japanese Abaca paper
Artist’s Statement: making an opening for listening
was selected for the Manly Artists’ Book Award 2017, this was my third try at this show, “An illuminated Book of Cats” didn’t make the grade in 2011 & in 2015 “The Spirit Book of the Spirit Books” and “Out of the Blue” didn’t get in either but this one did!
It was a dark and stormy night for the opening… the traffic was appalling, took us two hours to get there (a 45 minute drive when it’s not raining in peak hour) so we arrived just as the awards were being announced. There was some very good work in the show but sadly mine was displayed inside out with the “gates” closed on a low plinth that was too small for the work… I rearranged the piece as best I could considering the position and then Roderick could see it was time to get me out of there before I imploded. He’s such a champion, kept his cool driving there and back again in pouring rain and had me laughing by the time we got home, some gigs are certainly better than others!
On a lighter note Liz Ackert is stitching “imagine peace” onto safety pins and sending them out into the world
her stitching is so exquisitely fine on beautiful old indigo dyed linen, here it is on Grace of Windthread’s “x-roads cloth” with The Pale Rook’s “Fish Bones”Ariel is looking fabulous this morning, his eyes are bright, his coat is shining, he’s eating with gusto, purring madly & running up and down the stairs. He’s still on the non steroidal anti inflammatory pain medication and the blood in his pee is still happening intermittently but he will be with us for a good while yet, he’s such a magic cat!

The Peace Duck by Michael Leunig

“The Peace Duck” by Michael Leunig

“Peace Is Every Step” by Fiona Dempster

The talented and generous Australian calligrapher, printmaker and book artist Fiona Dempster of Paper Ponderings celebrated her 800th post with a give away of this beautiful accordion book “Peace is Every Step”
and I was the lucky recipient!
“Peace is Every Step” by Fiona Dempster
Fiona’s Artist Statement: “Books, paper, words and language are my constants. I love the way words create meaning and enable messages to be shared. The notion of books still thrills me – the worlds that lie within, the potential for discovery, and the joy of holding a book in my hands.

I work slowly, often meditatively. It takes time to prepare, cut and fold paper for a book; to measure, mark and draw lines for writing; to stitch multiple pages. I enjoy the peacefulness of sitting quietly as I do these tasks. My work is quiet.”

Thank you Fiona!
Namaste

A Peace Leaf

Peace Leaf by Mo 2013
autumn leaf, ink, gold leaf, wax, vintage Silkworm thread, myrrh and clay beads from Africa, turquoise and glass beads
This Peace Leaf is for Fiona Dempster & Barry Smith’s Peace Tree which is part of their Flags for Peace Project for this year’s International Day of Peace on September 21st when  I will be attending The Picnic Day at the site of The Native Institute in Blacktown, hope to see you there!