my creations
Thursday 28 July, 2005
Here are some things that I made recently-
This painting, earlier this week. My paintings never turn out as good in reality as they are in my head, I'm not really much of a painter, but I enjoy it all the same... I want to do a whole series of 'winter tree' paintings. This isn't too bad for a first effort...some of the branches are a bit blobbly...I'll keep trying until I get it right:
and I made these blocks for my lounge wall. My parents found huge amounts of tapa cloth in the attic of their house...so I've got lots to play with. I don't feel bad about chopping it up because it has holes in it anyway. I'm planning on covering my dining chair seats in it too and maybe making some cushions (sorry about the bad photo - took it last night by lamplight and F has taken the new camera to work to show his workmates today):
Today's project is finishing off transforming an A-line op-shop red woollen skirt from 'Nana' to 'Glama' (oh dear, very silly attempt at rhyming)...I'm doing free-form embroidery on it and sewing things on to it. I want it to have a punky. pirate-lady feel. So far it has a red skull embroidered on it and red rose patch stitched on...it just needs a few felt stars and it will be finished. Photos soon, I promise.
And here is something I made nearly seven months ago. I'm especially proud of this one. This one turned out even better than it was in my head:
Posted on 28 July, 2005 | 8:44pm | 1 comments |
new camera, new energy
Wednesday 27 July, 2005
So I finally got a digital camera! Very exciting. I love it and it does lots of natty things...I'm still learning how to operate it, working my way through the fat instruction manual. The digital medium is so freeing...I have my wee camera in my bag and when I'm out walking I can snap shots of bare black winter trees against white skies, of birds on telephone wires, of flowers in peoples' gardens, of cute typography on signs and not worry about 'wasting film' and how much the developing will cost.
I have so many creative projects on my 'to-do' list, sometimes (like yesterday) I get so wound up and crazed about not having time to do stuff. But today, I am feeling more mellow and it occurred to me on my walk this morning that it is a blessing to be spilling over with juicy creative ideas. It doesn't matter if I don't get to them. The joy of it is that I have a creative approach to my life and I'm always hunting for inspiration, always filing away ideas and notions...and this is happier than to be someone who is jaded, burned out and bored. In my imagination I am a bright and playful artist, even if in 'reality' I appear to be a harried at-home Mama.
I love photo self-portraits. They are usually at some weird angle and slightly blurred. Here is one I took last night. I had been sitting on the lounge floor surrounded by piles and piles of ripped up paper working on some collages and also an altered book I am making. I'd been working by dim lamplight and listening over and over to 'Mezzanine' by Massive Attack. I was feeling dusty and cheeky and hopeful. I definitely think my eyes are more alive when I have been immersed in creativity.
And here is a photo I took of a tiny violet in Willoughby's schoolyard with the macro feature on my camera. It was about as small as my little fingernail. Today I am loving small things.
"I prefer the time of insects, to the time of stars."
-Symborska
Time for tea from a little bone-china cup and a tiny pink-iced biscuit.
Posted on 27 July, 2005 | 5:19pm | 0 comments |
working through the chaos
Tuesday 26 July, 2005
Right now, Magnus is yelling. He's grumpy lately - mouth red and sore. Spongebob Squarepants is blaring on the television. The neighbour is yelling at her kids. There is rice under the table from last nights dinner. There is a bucket of nappies 'mellowing' in water. There is dinner to be cooked...I have been looking all day for a moment to blog. Now is not the moment - there is so much to do. And therefore, now must be the moment, otherwise the blog will be another thing bumped from today's to-do list. Can I write anything worthy of reading under these circumstances? Let's see...
I am trying to get better at working in the middle of chaos. (Paid work and creative work.) I am the sort of person who likes quiet, who likes order. I like the bench to be clean and the linen cupboard to be organised in tidy piles before I sit down to work. This is ironic - my house at the moment is cluttered and messy and disorderly. I am about as far Away from Zen as A is to Z.
Today I have achieved nothing.
Is that true?
I have looked after a friend's child so she could attend a job interview. I have answered a pile of work emails. I have kept two small boys warm and fed and (kind of) happy. I have stayed with Willoughby at school until he felt happy...then visited him at lunchtime with a chocolate fish...then collected him afterwards with a big smile pasted on my tired face. Between babysitting and worrying about Willoughby, the day passed in a blink.
Yesterday I ignored the housework, the loud piercing call of the spring clean, the dust and the clutter and amidst the mess and the tired, itchy eyes I painted a picture and did some collages, cut out a skirt pattern, played with my new camera for a while. It was good to go to bed having created something other than the potato pakoras that I made for dinner.
One day I will have clean surfaces and order in every room. I will have hours to spend contemplating myself and doing as I please. And I will possibly feel lonely and miss my children and walk around an empty house longing for the mad activity of this decade. I try to hold this thought close to my chest to ward off frustration and 'overwhelment'.
But before I think about this stuff in any more depth - there are chickpeas to curry, washing to fold and train-tracks to build. My moment is over, the household calls.
Posted on 26 July, 2005 | 9:36pm | 0 comments |
a bit late for poetry day...
Sunday 24 July, 2005
Friday the 22nd was Montana National Poetry Day. Here is one of my all-time favourite poems in honour of poetry day and wonderful New Zealand poets...
You are not as damaged as you think
by Jane Blaikie
you are not as damaged
as you think. you do not
have to leave your current life
because it is irreparable. you do not
have to leave the long-haired man. you
do not have to go to the sea. it is not
essential to take the block course
on tidal variation, storm warning.
all you need is a nutcracker, my sweet,
a fine day and a rabbit on the lawn-
if you stay in the sunporch ñ
then venetians to manage the light.
really though, this is by the by.
more necessary is to let fall
that lexicon of shields. crack open
the nuts. scoop from a melon. lie back. eat.
Posted on 24 July, 2005 | 2:53pm | 0 comments |
find me, find me, find me
Wednesday 20 July, 2005
Six things: period pain, sick children, wet weather, school holidays, no sleep and way too much (paid) work due. Yigh. I'm in a murky place right now...hope to return to usual sparkly self sometime soon. I don't want to write about it at length coz it would sound like this: "poor me, grumbly grumbly mumble-fuck, sob sob sobby sob, ohhh boo hooo hooo, nobody loves me, poor old me, grumbly mumble blah blah blah..." And who wants to read that?
Posted on 20 July, 2005 | 2:47pm | 0 comments |
back
Tuesday 19 July, 2005
I'm back. Life is crazy. I'll write properly soon. New site design any day now. Love to everybody.
Posted on 19 July, 2005 | 2:45pm | 0 comments |
away
Friday 8 July, 2005
I'm taking the boys to Taupo for seven days. It'll be quiet around here. I plan to enjoy walking around that big, glacial lake, soak in the hot pools, play around with my mother's overlocker, and hopefully, make some amazing discoveries...
Posted on 08 July, 2005 | 5:04pm | 0 comments |
butterflies and bugs
Wednesday 6 July, 2005
Here are some pictures from the 5th birthday party:
The cake (that white lump in the middle is a candle shaped like a '5'):
One fat, happy bumble bee and one pensive, emaciated bumble bee (Felix's talented mother, Sarah, made his cute chubby outfit!):
and, finally, despite all the carefully selected, politically-correct, environmentally-friendly, educational toys that Willoughby received from his parents....this 'knight in shining armour' set from his friend Katrina was the big hit of the day...
Posted on 06 July, 2005 | 5:15pm | 0 comments |
more of me
Monday 4 July, 2005
False alarm re: new look and comments for the site (see yesterday). After some noodling last night, tech support guy (husband) now thinks we're another fortnight off the update.
Teaching my "Shaking things up" workshops last week, I remembered how a large part of the reason I wanted a website in the first place was to share images and words from my journals and to feature ideas for journal writing and other things to enhance the creative process. I seem to have wandered away from that a bit, so I'm going to try to get back there over the next wee while.
Above is a detail from a collage in my journal called "A garden of rare beauty".
Willoughby's fourth day of school today...Magnus and I went into the city, attended a free lecture at the Public Library about Modern American Poetry, had lunch with some lovely colleagues, found some funky grey woollen pants in a sale, fingered art materials in Whitcoulls, but then decided to be good and use up what I've got before I buy more, found a pile of fantastic retro fabric featuring birds and blossoms in an op shop and sat in a patch of warm sunlight on a shiny red park bench to breastfeed Magnus. Bliss bliss bliss...I think I like this school thing.
Posted on 04 July, 2005 | 5:01pm | 0 comments |
drew by drew
Sunday 3 July, 2005
Recently I posted a self-portrait created on this super-cute site. I got some emails from friends saying "It DOES look like you! Weird!" Well, you ain't seen nothing yet! Check this out for an uncanny likeness...
Here is my darling friend, Drew:
and here is the self-portrait he emailed me last week:
Isn't that remarkable? (Big thanks to Sarah for the donation of the perfect photograph.)
There are some changes afoot on stripy sock studio. If you try to check in and find the site is down, don't worry, we'll be back soon with a fresh look and new ideas. My tech-support guy (husband) is very close to working out how we can have comments too. I can't wait for this monologue to be more of a dialogue! See you soon.
Posted on 03 July, 2005 | 5:00pm | 0 comments |
ain't no baby
Friday 1 July, 2005
He turned five on Thursday. He ain't no baby now.
What a week! We've had school visits, kindy graduation, birthday festivities, the first day at school...and alongside all of that I was teaching my 'inspiration' workshops, having dinner one night with a bunch of writers...trying to seem "of the world", witty and erudite...instead of the domestic polar bear that I am, lately. Of course the wine went to my head too fast and I ended up talking too loud and too much and then regretting it.
I'm simultaneously energised and exhausted. Happy that Willoughby seems to like school and sad that his babyhood/toddlerhood years are over. He'll get so worldy, so fast now.
Today is the 'butterflies and bugs' party. He has an adorable bumble bee costume to wear. The banana cakes are cooking and will be fashioned into a butterfly after breakfast. At 11 am seven children will show up, trash our house then leave three hours later, all fizzed up and clutching their 'goodie bags' in their sticky paws. Yigh. I know it'll be chaotic and funny and a great time. I'm happy to be doing it and I'll also be glad when its over, the floor is vacumed and we can wind down from this crazy week with a bottle of wine and an art house DVD tonight.
A wee tribute to Willoughby, five year old:
Willoughby is compassionate, gentle, quirky. He has a wacky sense of humour and he likes to hide behind the sofa and in cardboard boxes. He eats enthusiastically and sleeps deeply and believes all the wacked out stories that I tell him and the pseudo-science answers I give to his complicated questions. He tells me he loves me at least once a day. He likes to draw bones and brains and hearts. I love him as my child but I also like him as a person.
He is tugging at my sleeve now saying, "get off the computer, Mum, its hard work living in a box. I need your help." Little does he know how much he helps me.
Happy birthday, big boy.
Posted on 01 July, 2005 | 4:59pm | 0 comments |
me dancing 80s style in a bar in Tokyo
Thursday 30 June, 2005
What do you think? Does it look realistic? Does it look like me? You too, can waste entire minutes creating a self-portrait of yourself in Paris, Tokyo, Rome, or NYC here. ('Hetty' is my nick name, by the way.) I like how bright-eyed and clear-skinned I look as my cyber-self. I must remember to re-visit this site when I'm feeling old and jaded.
Me and Willo just raided the vege garden and even though my garden is more weeds than vegetables at the moment and even though it is the dead of winter, we picked: a small cabbage, parsley, dill, rosemary, spring onions, baby leeks, lettuce, rocket, rhubarb and lemons. Not bad for the end of June, huh?
All of the portrait making and vegetable picking is procrastination...I have to teach three "inspiration workshops" this week and should be sorting my notes and tea-staining pieces of paper for a guerilla art exercise...but the truth is, it's hard to focus on inspiring others with two chidlers around my feet, demanding water, food, stories and nappy changes. I have a feeling the inspiration for my inspiration workshops will come after childrens' bedtime tonight.
Anyway, can't talk now. I'm off to do another self-portait of myself drinking espresso in Roma. Ciao!
Posted on 30 June, 2005 | 4:58pm | 0 comments |