eyepatch and magical snatch

For those of you who didn't/won't have the chance to see to Janice Darling in her paper-flesh at Rooftop Art Space, I thought I better include a few 'up close and personal' shots of the works.

 the killer stretch

 waking up nutritionally

the burn

 the positive approach

 exercises for special problems

the natural approach to weightloss

Big thanks again to all who came to the launch, and have been visiting during their lunch breaks and other such things. It has been such a great collection to work on, and now I am finding it hard to stop Jane Fonda-ing. 

xx

prepare the transit beam

Remember the end of Rocky Horror, where Riff Raff gets himself an epic silver tunic and an amazing top knot hair-do? Well. There you go.

a-shin-shan-shining

SWAPPED!

laser cat #672

 It is my bottomless well of making - I can't seem to help myself, but when preparing for a show, a laser cat seems to wheedle its way in there somehow, like a nervous tic perhaps.

I like this one. 

It seems like it's really concentrating hard on lasering. Go laser cat, go! 

SOLD

justin was testing his limits

Is anybody else thinking of that sound effect you get from those plastic toy pipes from back in the day, not dissimilar to a melody pop? Kinda like 'boooooooooooowup'?

No? Just me then? Ok.

x

What's it gonna be?

The past few days I've been working on some double-doily action - all I can say is thank goodness they sent me two. But now I'm faced with the dilemma - which one?!

There's some splicey colourful action happening here ... and details of my other one to come! (I can't be giving it all away at once now can I?) While I am loving all this colour work, something just isn't sitting right. Do you ever do creative things and wonder how they happened? I really don't feel that this style belongs to me, even though it is me, coz, like, I did it. Obviously. But it doesn't feel me. Me me me! Ok I'll stop.

Don't get too comfy - this one isn't finished, and the other one is still to come ...

It feels like such a strange dilemma though: on the one hand, this doily feels exciting and a little bit scary because it's out of my comfort zone. But on the other hand, it pisses me off - I feel like it's cheating somehow, because I don't do abstract art. But CLEARLY I do. Because there it is. My brain is VERY twirly right now. PLEASE HELP. 

x

derek just wanted to get a better look at his balls.

I do apologize - the scanner did some nasty shit to the colours in this painting, they are slightly less scary in real life. 

coloured cockies.

Good morning All!

Here is the next stage of my cockatoo drawings, though I am dubious - I don't know what I was thinking with those colours ... however, one must soldier on. I'll keep working on these suckers and maybe eventually they might look ok again. I now need to reattach their heads to something ...

Though, this one seems to have more than meets the eye - baaaahahahaha! Get it?! I clearly need to leave the house.

experiments in colour

Just been fiddling around with the tree in the back yard again (wow that sounds wrong). 

But if you turn it on its side, it kinda looks like an eagle or hawk or something! Either way, its been nice to do some meditative work lately, a little like colour by numbers, but less regimented.

sketchy ideas in the meantime

I'm having some thoughts that may develop into ideas, but in the meantime, some gouache-doodling is keeping me afloat. Aaah.

golden afternoon

Who am I kidding? It's fricken freezing out here. I woke up this morning and the whole street was shrouded in thick mist - couldn't even see the house over the road - true story! It was pretty awesome actually. Mmm ... missssst. Still can't get past that tree out the back - so mesmerising to draw! This piece goes with that series I seem to be developing, which you can see here (if you like).

x

Garden View

This morning I woke up with that feeling of nothing to do. I mean, don't get me wrong, there is heaps I could do, but I have nothing to do that needs to be done today. No jobs, no workplace to go to. It is most unsettling. I know I should then do the dishes, wash my linen, apply for grants and shows, do a yoga session ... but all I can seem to do is stare out the window.

There is this is the tree that sits in the 'no man's land' between my back yard and the next door neighbours. See, the neighbours own our house, and in an effort to create a sound barrier, fenced off about 3 x 10 metres of (our) yard. There is a gorgeous tree in the middle, with remnants of a tree house flaking away on it. For now I am just content drawing it, but come spring, I will definitely be climbing over that fence!

You know, if you want to see the images in more detail, you can give them a hearty click.

x

Cupcakes!

You may or may not know this about me, but I make cupcakes sometimes. And without wishing to toot my own horn too hard, they are pretty awesome. (Ok I totally toot my own horn.) Anyway, people are always asking me for the recipe, so HERE IT IS!!! My secret is revealed: these cupcakes are EASY!!!

This recipe requires NO sifting, NO egg separating, and NO other stupid stuff. Woot!
 

You can also make this one dairy free if you wish – just use nuttlex and soy milk (bonsoy is best for cooking) in place of butter and milk-milk (you know what I mean by milk-milk?). 

Only 5 ingredients! (yes that bluey white mountain is supposed to be self-raising flour, 

and the pinky white mountain is sugar.)

You will need:

120g softened butter

¾ cup caster sugar (regular white sugar is fine too)

1½ cups self-raising flour

½ cup of milk

2 eggs

Mini-muffin patty-pans and mini-muffin trays (if you have no muffin trays, don't fret - your cakes might come out a little flatter and less boing-y - they will still taste AWESOME.)

This recipe works just fine for regular sized cupcakes too – but they’re not as cute, and can become overwhelming to eat. (Isn’t it more fun to eat 5 little cakes than a few bigguns?)

What to do (here’s where it gets awesome):

1. Preheat your oven to 180˚C (I use a gas oven, you may need to adjust according to your oven’s power.)
2. Put all the ingredients in a bowl.
3. Beat said ingredients with electric beaters (wooden spoon, food processor –

    choose your weapon) until smooth and pale.

4. Put approx 1 teaspoon of mix into each patty-pan (if making mini size - if you are making regular size, a large desert spoon of mixture will do the trick) and bake for approx 20-30 minutes or until golden brown OR until a skewer comes out clean when poked in a cake.
5. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool. 

 

Just THROW it all in a bowl! It will make the cake mix happy!

(No, that isn't a vanilla bean in there, just a cartoon mouth.)

Do not add any ingredient that looks like the mouth in this picture, such as coffee beans, chocolates, sultanas. 

 Don't worry, the cake mix won't really get sad if you put the beaters in, this was just for dramatic effect.

Secret tips!!!

- I actually never really time my cakes! I know that is bad, but to be honest, they best way to tell is often through smell, and then by the way they look. If you are lying on the couch reading a magazine and you can smell some pretty sweet baking smells, then go and check out your cakes! If you have a terrible sense of smell, then please do not take this advice!

- If they look golden brown and slightly crispy, then they are probably ready! I always skewer one or two to make sure.

- Do NOT constantly open the oven to check on your cakes. They are FINE. If you are desparate to see what is happening, then perhaps look through the window of the oven door. I open the oven twice at most - if you open the oven too many times, cold air gets in and can KILL your cakes! Then you end up with these little rocks that are filled with raw cake mix in the centre (as I had a couple of weeks ago) and it is very sad. 

- Makes about 40 weenie cup cakes, or around 20 regular sized ones. I own one mini-muffin tray, and one regular sized one, so I bake a set of each - 24 minis to about 11 regular sized ones. They can cook together, but your mini cakes will take less time to cook, so be sure to keep an eye on them.

These cakes can be frozen for about month if you wish to ice them at a later date.

You wanna ice those suckers too? Ok! 

This cream cheese icing is really intended for carrot cakes. But it tastes soooooo good, I’ll pretty much slather it on anything. You can also just follow the ol’ classic icing sugar, butter and vanilla essence schtick, which works quite well too.

You will need:

Approx 30g softened butter

Approx 1 cup icing sugar

Approx 60g cream cheese or mascarpone

A few drops of vanilla essence or extract

What to do:

1. Combine (e.g. smooth and creamy). I usually use a bar mix, but a dessert spoon does a good job too.
2. If you manage to not eat the icing in situ, spread evenly over the cakes with a butter knife (it can be nice to try out some swirly motions with your knife) and if you're feeling feisty, why not decorate with some sprinkles, frosted flowers, smarties, etc. If you're feeling really wild, add a drop of food colouring to the the icing (not green - nobody wants to eat a green cupcake.)
   

 

These can be eaten straight away, refrigerated for about a week, or frozen for about 14 years. If icing isn’t your thing, these cakes taste amazing with cream and jam, or even on their own, fresh from the oven. Oooh yeah!

 

And then, YUMMY!!!

xx

getting my gouache on

Here's a little mock-up of an invite I made for a cards smackdown at my new abode. Seems quite appropriate really, seeing as it actually SNOWED today. I was most disturbed. And also very excited. I have never lived anywhere where it snowed before. Unfortunately the snowing experience was not nearly as pretty as my winter wonderland snowflakes. More like soggy petals. There was some exciting sleet and hail to go with it - sleet seems so British, don't you think? I thought it only ever sleeted in Britain. Is sleeted even a word? Anyway, it sleeted all over the shop today.

I have been completely addicted to gouache lately, which is quite nice. Don't you worry though, I have some collage-y goodness well in the works! In the meantime, here is another preview of my baking type paintings. It is rather silly. Can you tell that I don't drink melk, I mean milk (Freudian slip there?) ... hmmm. 

Man, I could go some melk right now. 

xx

cook-up

I thought I'd slip in a sneak-preview of what's coming ... this is one of my most favourite kitchen items EVER, or at least 1 of. It comes from a set of 4 measuring cups of gorgeous-geesey-goodness. These little fellas (or chickies ... what's a man goose look like anyway? And what is he called?) are original 1950s/60s cups, made from that indestructible plastic that just doesn't break (no matter how hard you seem to accidentally fling it onto a the lino.)

I bought these cups years ago from the chapel st bazaar (when it still was reasonably affordable) - before I even moved out of home. I may have a domesticity addiction. I'm not ashamed. 


If you do not own novelty measuring cups, then I strongly suggest you start scouring bazaars, markets and online to secure yourself some. Because what's the fun of baking if you don't have comical yet functional tools?

xx

gold blossom

I have for you another work from my 2nd year at art school, probably my most freeing time of art-making. A time where I felt no restraint, worry or anxiety about what I made - I was too busy making it to worry about what it might mean, whether it would help pay my bills or whether anybody thought it was any good. I never stopped drawing - I drew on whatever was closest (such as the paper table cloths and napkins at the nearby cafe, price tags picked up off the floor from the shop where I worked, empty medicine boxes ... you name it). Finding my work from this time definitely pulls on my heart strings - it was a time of true romance, and it's inspired me to dive back in. Sometimes it's good to get lost in making.

x

suckerpunch

I made this work during my 2nd year of art school and it has always stuck in my mind - luckily, I managed to find it amongst all the crazy yesterday! I had a thing for red stripes. Still do as a matter of fact. Click on the image for a larger size - this one cleans up gooood.

golden girl

She's so fine.

tiny selections

Apologies for my sporadic posting lately - I am quite confident that my brain has turned to complete mush in the last two weeks - what with jet lag, house hunting, car hunting and now driving our new car to our new house in the country! Ooooo-wee! It's a massive time for change, but my horoscope seems down with it, so away we go!

In the mean time, amongst still living out of my suitcase and mystery taped up boxes (can't wait to see what's in them after 4 months!) tiny little works keep materialising from my workbooks. Hopefully they are small pockets of joy to keep the blog going while I set up my new studio (SO EXCITED!). 

x

don't think, just paste.

Well, as my trip is winding down, so is my will do do anything but bask in the sunshine. Spring is well and truly here in Berlin, and the prospect of sitting at my pathetic excuse for a table is quite dire. It's picnics all around, though I am now faced with a massive pile of collage material. So I have been having a few fun little sessions of random "grab a head, grab a body and stick it before you change your mind!" - sort of a speed-exquisite-corpse. Brings the productivity levels right up! Now ... to get it all home without blowing my baggage limit. Ew.

SWAPPED!