The time has flown , and I feel I have very little to show for the time. We have had two big exhibitions at ARC Yinnar where I am a very part-time ( 4 hours per week) gallery coordinator. When there are big exhibitions things take a lot more time than the four hours, but it is satisfying when the exhibition looks good. We had an exhibition of prints by twenty one different printmakers from the region and there was some fabulous work on display. We used all the spaces at ARC Yinnar.
My daughter Siena Galtry had pieces in the exhibition as well- it's the first time we have had pieces in an exhibition together. The pieces behind my daughter are her multi layered linocuts.
I made four pieces that have been mono-printed and stitched by machine, so I guess I did make some things this last month.
Since then we have been busy preparing the celebration of the existence of ARC for 40 years. It is an Artist Resource Collective and is still going strong after 40 years. This year we have had the opening of our new renovated spaces and we have had some wonderful exhibitions to celebrate the 40 years of arts practice that represents ARC. Some of the people involved were youngsters when it all started and it is wonderful to hear their stories of how the place was, and how it has evolved and to see their art as it has evolved over the years as well. It was an old butter factory, complete with massive milk vats and strange cool spaces, and it has been transformed into a multi purpose/functional arts space including two gallery spaces, print studio, ceramics studio, blacksmithing facility, community arts space, and private studio spaces, plus the Switchroom for musical/theatrette type performances and a retail space. Quite remarkable really, for a small country town and an incredible asset to the Latrobe Valley.
I am still working almost daily on my nardoo piece, which seems to be taking forever, but finally I have started the background stitching so the end is in sight( I have to get a move on as some of the writing is due soon- the curators, Sharon Peoples and Carol Cooke, are hoping to create a book which details the creative process of the artists involved) and the exhibition will be on at Craft ACT in July 2023.
Preparations are well under the way for 2023. I will be exhibiting at the Patchwork & Quilt Dagen in the Hague from 13-15 April. Really looking forward to being in the Netherlands again, but not for long as I head of Pour l'Amour du Fil in Nantes, where I shall also be teaching for 2 sessions. My youngest daughter is coming with me to help out and after that we head to Italy and spend a week in Rome. This last month I have participated in Nanowrimo to finally get some shape into the story of Hortense Hazard, which I wrote about some years ago when I still lived in Geelong. I have had it in the back of my mind since then to write it somehow but not strictly as a biography but as a composite of a couple of different genres- I think I have finally worked out a way to meld things together that really is more about a remarkable woman, who would have been forgotten but whose artwork still exists both as sculpture and a book she wrote in Italian. I reached the 50,000 words, but hope to do some research whilst in Rome at the atelier where she studied sculpture and which still exists. I am hoping to spend a bit of time in Italy before returning to the North and teaching in Belgium. Any suggestions for budget accommodation would be much appreciated. I am also thinking of visiting Fabriano especially to visit the paper museum and Fabriano factory.
Meanwhile I shall be teaching Linocutting at Amitie Textiles on the 21st of January. I love that shop- it's so lovely to have a cafe right there, and to teach within the shop space as they have such great stock plus have my favourite Aurifil threads. And at the end of March I am teaching at the Stitching retreat at Ulladulla.
I am also having an exhibition in February at Meeniyan Art Gallery in Meeniyan ( it is on the way to Wilson 's Promentory) with two other artists. it is a lovely little gallery and the little township has a lot to offer with Trulli ristorante and delicatessen adding a definite foodie flavour to the experience, plus there is also a very good bakery as well as some other interesting shops to visit.
Don't forget I still sell my linocut printed fabrics if you are interested and I am down to the last dozen copies of my book, Musing in Textile: France ( which is only available in Australia). It has been a journey selling books without a distributor and with the extortionate parcel prices to overseas which has meant I can only post within Australia. I really do wonder if I will make another such book- in a way I would love to but it has also been hard work not only in making the work but in selling the book as it is entirely self published and it was designed by my eldest daughter Celeste Galtry. We did all those videos for the dvd which is part of the book- but dvd is almost outmoded technology now. How things change in so little time.
