long time passing

hello! hello! beautiful Blog.  I have found you again after being lost for over a month. I did not think I would ever connect again as my computing skills are limited and believed that I would have to start all over again. All I have to do is reconnect, read and think about what I will say next. 


I haven't made it to the creek bed to camp as yet, still researching and reading Derrida and have ordered his book, Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-portrait and Other Ruins. 
Lots more to write about but am exhausted so to bed and sleep and  tomorrow  (I hope) with fresh body and mind I will bring this Beaut Blog up to speed>  

a conversation with myself

I have just returned from a Masters Exhibition and I must admit I am a little intimidated. The show engaged a number of the senses: visually (this is a given) and the sense of smell....the work paid homage to the humble Hessian bag and women. Clever women who made homes from nothing but  Hessian bags, their imagination,  what ever they could glean from discards and the bush or scrub.
It reminded of my work of which I have already posted an image called Women's Work  in entry titled  Other Tent Dwellers

I will be setting up my Artists Camp in the first week of April to fine tune the arrangements before I go hard core and camp for extended periods.

the anabranch; the nuts and bolts

Anabranch: noun, chiefly Australian; a stream that leaves a
river and re-enters it further down along its course. from the 
online Oxford dictionary

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/anabranch

The Key to the Map

1. Exit of the anabranch

2.The anabranch travels from the river into next doors place

before crossing the boundary into our place

3. It arrives onto our place with steep high banks and

numerous stringy barks trees growing in the anabranch bed

4.When we first arrived on the property this was a large dam 

formed in the anabranch bed,  filled to the brim with irrigation

water.There was a  gaggle of domestic geese that

lived on the dam.

As there was a drought we decided to let the dam dry out.

Much to our dismay our two dogs attacked the geese 

as did the foxes, so we decided to give the remaining 

geese to people that had a functioning pond  

5. Farm rubbish tip and machine storage and my container

 with my art equipment

6. A beautiful stand of river red gums, some of the trees have 

scars from removal of bark  for coolamons by the first people the 

Australian Aborigines, who may have lived along the anabranch. 

Coolamons were large carrying vessels for domestic use 

7.The road that is our boundary

8.The dirt bridge that crosses the anabranch

9.The exit back into the Murray River

My first camp will be at  Number 3

other tent dwellers

 Before I start to plan an itinerary and detail the guidelines or show more maps or images for my expedition  I want to investigate the influences that have been simmering in the back of my mind for a long time.
I made this work for Murray Darling Palimpsest #6  titled Women's Work. The  house was hand stitched calico onto a steel frame, the door and windows are stitched into place so they can't be opened however the windows are made from netting this allows the viewer to look into the little house. I have hand  stitched phrases from a Country Women's Book on how one should choose a site for a home.

This work and a chapter  from Tim Winton's novel Cloudstreet are the first two references that  have given me the inspiration to camp in the anabranch.  

  

The chapter is titled "The Tent Lady" 

"On New Year's Day, 1949, people gathered to watch Oriel Lamb move her things out to the white tent beneath the mulberry tree at Cloudstreet. They crowded into the second floor rooms overlooking the yard, and found cracks in the scaly picket fence; they climbed trees in yards all around and perved through pointed gum leaves at the little woman carrying bedclothes and fruitboxes out through the bewildered half circle of her family. no one missed the sight of Quick Lamb helping his mother out with the jarrah bed and umps and bumps they made getting it in.

There wasn't a noise to be heard otherwise except Fish Lamb slapping away at the piano in the centre of the house; everyone looked on in wonder, missing nothing. she had a desk, Tilley lamp, chamberpot,books,mysterious boxes. People gathered at the fences. When she had it all in shape, Oriel Lamb tied off the door flap and went back into the house to organize her families dinner,and the crowd went away murmuring that surely this was a day to remember".  

Thank you Tim Winton
There are others but will discuss them at a later date

going backwards seems like a great place to start

My place near the Murray River

 My family and I have lived on Curlwaa Island  for three years,  I was reluctant to move here  at my last address I had a well used and love  comfortable studio. I have to confess that it was a converted Chook House, that had a high roof, cement floor, two windows that showed a view of the garage. The best bit was the refrigerated air conditioner that made working in the heat of summer a real pleasure. 
 I don't have a studio at Curlwaa but I do have the dried creek bed or billabong or the anabranch. I have always been impressed with this little strip of bush land that hugs the boundary of our place.
This is what conservationists call a wildlife corridor and yes we have plenty of wildlife, a plethora of birds, the odd snake or two, lizards of numerous of varieties, foxes,rabbits, feral cats,and as Curlwaa is famous for its ants, we have them by the millions. 


This special place on our property I will refer to as the anabranch  until recently had been dry as we have been in drought for many years (12 to 15 years)
Last week (4-2-2011) we had 108 mm of rain in 2 hours, this resulted in the anabranch holding water and the wildlife has increased to 3 species of frogs and a swam of staving mosquitoes.


My plan is to spend time camping in the anabranch by myself. This time will allow me to become very familiar with my surroundings and I intend to gather both physical objects and record my personal response.  The gathering of raw data and resulting art work will be supported by academic research and an exegeses that I will write over the two years.   
I will construct a set of guidelines that will allow me to operate, be comfortable and safe in the bush environment.        


Next entry will include photos and a detailed map
   

thanks to Fil and Kate for making this possible