We are Home!

We arrived back late last night and now I have to go off and take care of my father and partner's dogs for a night- I would so much rather stay home...

Did quickly drop in and see a small amount of Wellington Symposium goings on and did see Katherine Morrison's wonderful, simple, powerful work at Pataka and was lucky to have afternooon tea with Clare Plug where she showed me her fantastic Antarctica photos and inspirations and her even more evocative interpretations of her experience which will be shown at the Hawkes' Bay Museum and Art Gallery in Napier in beginning in May sometime.It was a treat to see how the artist had worked with the material/inspiration which is at once so alien and yet also familiar with stories of racing for the South Pole and bravery and death.I am hoping I can see the exhibition fully installed- with not only Clare's work but educative , interpretative material as well, particularly the fragility of the environment as Clare encountered it. I also was lucky to see some of Clare Smith's new work , which I liked a lot ,some of which will be shown in the Climate Change exhibition which will be shown at Minerva Gallery, Wellington in late June.

Ok and we were tourists the rest of the time.... we visited the thermal area near Waio-o-tapu where the Lady Knox geyser dutifully frothed into life after been given the soap to break surface tension to allow the pressure to shoot out the cold water- there is a about an hour and a half walk around the thermal area itself- lots of steam and rotten egg smells, some wonderful colours, particularly at the Champagne pool and some of the smaller sulphur eruptions.Then onto Bay of Islands, a quick stop at the Hundertwasser public toilets in Kawakawa ( which unfortunately were not all that well cared for, and exuded their own kind of odour) and a two day wind down which included a day boating/sailing to see dolphins. More tomorrow.

Am I inspired??? yes and no- have a lot of work to do, did buy some pure wool to work with for stitching, not quite sure what that will bring on, but it demanded to be taken home. Did do a small amount of work on the travellers blanket- but when you are the driver and tourist guide for two teens with varying degrees of interest into the wonders of the physical environment you do tend to be a bit tired at the end of the day! Ok got to get dressed and go to my fathers house about an hour from here! Oh and I will answer the questions about the mono-print in my next post.