Tifaifai- A New Book

 The working title at present, but I am just in the process of signing a contract with Editions de Saxe to create a book about all the new Tifaifa's I created for the new on-line course which I first ran earlier this year. Of course this means it will be published in french like most of my books. This will be my sixth book and one of these days I intend to write fiction which was my dream as a young woman. I decided to add one more project to the book which of course now has to be made yesterday rather than tomorrow and I am totally bereft of any ideas and it is too cold and wet to dye fabric today which is usually something that triggers creativity.

My morning walks have dwindled a bit as well, thoough I have recommenced as it is both good for body and soul. The little bushland reserve where I walk has a dazzling variety of fungi springing up out of the undergrowth and I am besotted by fungi and have been since childhood, I could spend hours there but it is a bit chilly at the moment , and a cold climate is not one of my favourite things.

I wish I knew more about fungi, and I am sure I have spotted some edible mushrooms- but I am not 100% sure so better to leave it. But they are really otherworldly with their delicate pleats on their undersides.

I have also become the Gallery Co-ordinator at ARC Yinnar- a pretty township about 10 minutes from Morwell where they have converted an old butter factory into an artists co-op with studios and  a dedicated large gallery space, a small gallery and retail space for members to sell their creations. The co-op encompasses a wide range of artistic practices including ceramics, printmaking, scultpure, painting and drawing, some textiles, and music. It is only a part time position- very part time- but I am excited to be involved in this long standing co-op. My first exhibition to oversee is an Open Call for Entry with the Theme Close to Home. Anyone can enter an art piece- the entry fee is $12.50 for a non member or $10 for a member. The deadline is 12 June. Email me if you would like an entry form. The exhibition runs for a month and of course your work can be for sale. The gallery opens on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The main gallery is booked out for the rest of the year but I do have the thinking cap on for a dedicated group textile event for 2022.

I will be having an exhibition in the small gallery in October this year- it is a cosy space not without possibilities and I will be making work inspired by my morning walks and also creating a chap book ( I hope)- I have been playing with ideas for this, but for now I have to concentrate on the tifaifai book.

In thinking about creating a chap book I did a workshop with Amy Bodossian last weekend as part of the Latrobe Literary Festival. There were only four of us in the workshop- lucky us- it was so much fun. I highly recommend her workshop ( she is doing a workshop in Melbourne- Brunswick running  from June 10 on Thursday evenings there is a link on her website). I also came out with quite a lot of writing given it was a one day workshop and what a delight she is when delivering her own work. Lots of food for thought , it was the first time I had ever done a poetry workshop, and some new poets to explore to boot.

On Sunday we did a water colour workshop out at ARC Yinnar as part of the family health exhibition that is on there at present, with PolyannaR. We had a lot of fun with that as well, lots of laughter and a few water colour images made. Polyanna's background is large scale black and white photographs and she has made one of the longest photographs around. Polyanna is also opening a small gallery in Morwell in Commercial Road and the opening will be in June with an exhibition of her works.

Been doing lots of reading about walking and writing by all new writers to me but who seem to be touching on writing and ideas i have been engaged in for the longest time . The first book ,"Wanderers" by Kerri Andrews ( reviewed here ) which is about women walkers over the centuries who wrote about walking. It is fascinating reading and I am in awe of the miles that these women covered on a daily basis and one wonders what foot wear they had available to them and what shape their feet were in  after some of their longer walking tours. I am enjoying it immensely and must admit  I also obtained a book by Nan Sheperd "The Living Mountain" ( written about here) which i also enjoyed a lot and was awed by her ability to walk so much at altitude and to write about it in such a compelling way. She walked the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland all her life.

And then completely by accident I stumbled across the work of  Kate Zambreno and I am completely absorbed. I am reading "Heroines"- loosely the lives of Vivienne Eliot, Zelda Fitzgerald, Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf and other literary women who were considered minor (( except Virginia Woolf of course)  in comparison to their more famous husbands/lovers ,who discarded them either to mental asylums or poverty where they died at relatively young ages. Entwined in these stories is her own quest to write and to find her way into a writing career. She expresses what I have felt for so many years ( I adore the writing of Jean Rhys and have read all of her books) that the patriarchy continues to control  and did control the canon of writing in such a heavy booted way that it is almost criminal. I know in my uni years I felt that DH Lawrence was a mysoginist ( I read most of what he had to write and also biographies  etc) and tried to prove it in an essay I wrote in English lit- it was not well received and I went on to study Australian History instead. It also loosely ties into the women writers who walked- whose writing about walking was not received in the same way as the writing about walking by men- and their writing is so different. I can't wait to read "Drifts" her most recent book. In fact I am having to wrest myself away from reading to do some of my own writing...but but...I love a well written book.