Show Me The Treasure

Life is Sweet

It seems every corner in Mexico Cityhas its vendor of sweets, soft drinks and varieties of small crisp potato or plaintain snacks. There is a charming riot of colour, a Willy Wonkerish feeling of sweet invention. On the other hand, the bus that goes by with the public health announcement that one in every three children in Mexico will become diabetic is not so sweet at all.

It seems every corner in Mexico Cityhas its vendor of sweets, soft drinks and varieties of small crisp potato or plaintain snacks. There ...

at 17:00

Elegantly elatable caged air

The Gran Hotel Cuidad de Mexico was once a department store. With its finely wrought Elevador, the second in the city, and its Tiffany stained glass ceiling, it is quintessentially fancy Victoriana. The feeling of an overly large boudoir gains some traction with those red velvet sofas in the Lobby. The floral filigree metal detail and pretty ceiling must have incited some serious spending as the 20th century set off for somewhere lofty.

The Gran Hotel Cuidad de Mexico was once a department store. With its finely wrought Elevador, the second in the city, and its Tiffany...

at 08:58

Mexico City -Temple Mayor's Early Steampunk

The Museo de Templo Mayor, improbably, or not so improbably, sits right on the edge of Mexico City's main plaza. Nothing like conquerers to expunge and willfully forget the indigenous culture. This piece from the Museo of the Temple Mayor seems to have forseen such a possibilty and, speaks daggers about the new guys in town. And it also is the bona fide first instance of steam punk ever .

The Museo de Templo Mayor, improbably, or not so improbably, sits right on the edge of Mexico City's main plaza. Nothing like conquer...

at 12:51

Tea, Set and Match, Way Past the Paleo

The time for diets, sugar-free, dairy don't shows, gluten goners, caffeine can'ters, is not Easter at my home. A few days of prep, pastry and fillings made for empanadas, the saffron aioli and just picked parsley put to work in chicken sandwich fillings, lemon curd set and whipped cream peaked into soft clouds ready for that double layer, meringue topped pound cake, the lemon hero of the day, alfojores jammed together with coconut spread, a silky ricotta cake pretending to be humble, points of watermelon standing to attention, the smoked trout pate basking in a terrine once owned by Elizabeth David, savoury potato foccacio plated, and coupe of chocolate eggs, a hutch of chocolate bunnies and cups and cups and cups. Full cream tea ahead!

The time for diets, sugar-free, dairy don't shows, gluten goners, caffeine can'ters, is not Easter at my home. A few days of pre...

at 19:50

Gloves Gone West ? Apply Here.

This tribute to lost glovers everywhere sits on top of a traffic box, just outside the Australian Museum. The code I think is unrelated but I've taken the liberty to reconvene it as an anagram of West, but this is side story. The gloves, a subject dear to me, are plaster partners of each other, frayed, thumb-worn, fake of course but with that charming feel of wabi-sabi.

Fashion is so fickle.

This tribute to lost glovers everywhere sits on top of a traffic box, just outside the Australian Museum. The code I think is unrelated ...

at 08:32

Matching Dark Undertones

Autumn's generous rewards, seven spikes of dark, perfumed blooms from one of the Oncidiums and elegantly soft,s sculpted grey stratacumulous ( you have to imagine these off stage). The perfume is a kind of exacting puzzle, notes of musk, a hint of something nearly jasmine-esque, a note of intoxicating mead, that creates an uncertainty that makes you go back and inhale again, to bed it down into olfactory memory and to try sniff out further taxonomies of scent.

Autumn's generous rewards, seven spikes of dark, perfumed blooms from one of the Oncidiums and elegantly soft,s sculpted grey stratac...

at 18:10

Fall into Grace - The Noritake Take

Completely leaving behind its past life as an ashtray this elegant Noritake piece has quietly, secretly fielded a fallen gum flower, with its operculum. The flower has gone out in styles, suggesting saffron's great sabor, but framed here by the five compositae, I've gone back quite a few times to check, and admire, this after-arrangement.

Completely leaving behind its past life as an ashtray this elegant Noritake piece has quietly, secretly fielded a fallen gum flower, ...

at 21:05

The Self-Caught Flower

The magnolia proves itself an old hand at most things, here we see its resolutely tough tepals catching the fall of its own stamens. Starting off their career in a world with no bees, the magnolia may have some handy lessons for us in the sadly bee-less world tha, if we were collectively wise, we would, right now, be at pains to avoid

The magnolia proves itself an old hand at most things, here we see its resolutely tough tepals catching the fall of its own stamens. Start...

at 13:58

Hardy Moments In the Mountains

It certainly is Ollie. Or is it? This down-scale character appears to be one half of the pair of Laurel and Hardy, or at least a cross-sectional slice, or silhouette of the homberged ant-hero, the one-man upper-shipper to Stan Laurel's sweet fall guy.. There is an apt agreement between the rampant art deco-ismo of the Blue Mountains and the graphic quote of Mr Hardy.

It certainly is Ollie. Or is it? This down-scale character appears to be one half of the pair of Laurel and Hardy, or at least a cross-se...

at 08:59

Megalong - Late Afternoon

Late afternoon, the view proceeds to define the passage of moments, and here diverts itself from the business of marking time, to demonstrate theories of light.

Late afternoon, the view proceeds to define the passage of moments, and here diverts itself from the business of marking time, to demons...

at 13:44

Stone Walling - The Hole's the Thing

Leura Garden's dry stone wall might be a metropolis for spiders, a substrate for the pietraphile or as we see below, a tiny temple for a tape. The arcs of stone are reminiscent of both roof tiles in Japanese pathways, and geologic process. With walls this complex and profound who needs roofs? For the answer see below.

Leura Garden's dry stone wall might be a metropolis for spiders, a substrate for the pietraphile or as we see below, a tiny temple ...

at 08:35

The Perfect Dish - Elizabeth David's Terrine

Unwrapping a Christmas gift from my friend Barbara Fisher, that frisson of anticipation, will it be a box of fine soap or some elegant bon mot, I was caught off guard by this unexpected and perfect gift. Without its impeccable provenance this vintage oval terrine would likely be a kitchen favourite but here is history, of both Elizabeth D and my friend, who bought it in the auction of ED's kitchen in 1994. I first meet David, in print of course, in her Bread Book, a serious indulgence as a student but a wonder for the scholar of bread. I am contemplating my first dish a la David, duck rilletes? Potted shrimp? Trout terrine? Mushroom pate?

Unwrapping a Christmas gift from my friend Barbara Fisher, that frisson of anticipation, will it be a box of fine soap or some elegant bon...

at 21:09

Tidings - Christmas's In's and Out's

Last year, I hit upon the somewhat recessive, but space efficient concept of decorating the fireplace for yule tide flippancy . The painted fire, a peon to consumerism that was installed, lasted, with some augmenting of gaffer tape for 2014. At the end, it flagged, there were jokes about the fire going out, and the two bar heater. So, the tide had turned, out with the old flames and let the incoming tide be Tidal, and waving, rather than drowning. So, the Christmas tidings , bucolic beachiness and blue sky, fictitious waves, some twitterage via the e-bird and a deluge of gifts, these a tide that went out promptly Christmas Day. The beachiness remains, the bucket and spade always infra dig.

Last year, I hit upon the somewhat recessive, but space efficient concept of decorating the fireplace for yule tide flippancy . The pai...

at 08:50

Green Clocks and Spider Calenders

Like a green clock , this spider orchid shimmies its way centre stage for the first week of December. There is something beakish in the buds, but opened they fool nicely with the aranas to make another green day.

Like a green clock , this spider orchid shimmies its way centre stage for the first week of December. There is something beakish in the b...

at 08:59

On the Floral Trail

Forget fashion's forarys into prints and go direct to the flower. These two, taking quite different tactics in the art of self propogation were demuring along the bush path from Middle Head to Chowder Bay.At these prices of course they cant last.

Forget fashion's forarys into prints and go direct to the flower. These two, taking quite different tactics in the art of self pr...

at 08:34

Guavamos!

Obscured by guava leaves, guava flowers, a fine froth of antipetalous stamen, something like apple blossom with guavitude, are lovely finds on the first Tuesday of December. The leaf pattern's reticulate loveliness is unexpected extra.

Obscured by guava leaves, guava flowers, a fine froth of antipetalous stamen, something like apple blossom with guavitude, are lovely find...

at 21:22

Powerful Owl Service

A fuss from the noisy miners drew my gaze to a tree on the edge of the park next to Balmoral Beach. Too wit, an owl, something red, messy and deceased in its claws, was ignoring the miners' protestations, to stare down the spectators with its one good eye. It seems out of sync with time of day, maybe even with a slightly hunted aspect, but that is the ambiguity of nature's predators. The head, strangely small for such a large birdy, gives the odd idea that the whole thing is a collage of feathers, claws and beak. Fortune favors the observant.

A fuss from the noisy miners drew my gaze to a tree on the edge of the park next to Balmoral Beach. Too wit, an owl, something red, messy ...

at 16:13

Making Up Stories for Matrices

Yesterday, strolling to the beach, all at once I came upon a box of golden paperbacks, with a help yourself note.Not one to look a gift horse in the eyes, I pocketed an an old Penguin. on which I will report anon, and for more immediate fun the 1938 school classic, Raven's Progressive Matrices, and duly progressed through them at the beach. Maths being a story told only by number and operation, the less obvious ones give, albeit brief, moments of mental traction, the pleasure of filling in the story. This maybe a case of raising Ravens.

Yesterday, strolling to the beach, all at once I came upon a box of golden paperbacks, with a help yourself note.Not one to look a gift...

at 15:41

Cycadic Motion

Like an aggregated botanical exclamation point, the cycad is emphatically exuberant in putting its best fronds forward. These graphically elegant set are no slouches on speed either, from yesterday to today, the remind that fronds waits for no time. Viola.

Like an aggregated botanical exclamation point, the cycad is emphatically exuberant in putting its best fronds forward. These graphically ...

at 08:45

Thinking Tools for Hour Glass Days

Like Wordsworth's sister, all at once we came across a host of fluoro digging tools.
What would be par for the beach if seen in a single pair, this quiet riot of spades and buckets inveigles a disquiet, a singular sense of whimsy whooped up, an idea that this mise en scene is not so much an invitation to play but an invitation to think: Why? Perhaps it's the first of a sculpture in the sand series, a base camp to look at the dispersion of toys over time on sand, an invitation to construct a sand glass?

Like Wordsworth's sister, all at once we came across a host of fluoro digging tools. What would be par for the beach if seen in a si...

at 21:38

Resolution of the Chicken and the Egg

Falling, or might I say stalking, smack dabbers between those two hoary competitors, the chicken and the egg, the bird and its orbital origin, this one member of a small flock of similarly headless aves, suggest, in the no nonsense stride towards the sand, that maybe we are all a little parochial in our perspective. Sculptures by the Sea, maybe here is skulkers by the see.

Falling, or might I say stalking, smack dabbers between those two hoary competitors, the chicken and the egg, the bird and its orbital ori...

at 13:26

Come in Spinner

Like a visual merry-go round, a reverse of spinning out, this was base camp and summit for one of a set four coast totems from Caterwilliamson and Linda Matthews in Sculpture by the Sea (2104). Bravo, these just might be my favourites for their clever rearrangement of the horizontal plane, spun out into near meaninglessness, then coalesced into a reflected circular and upright image. The naming of t his process, anamorphisis - which makes complete sense once you take it down to its Greek constituents.

Like a visual merry-go round, a reverse of spinning out, this was base camp and summit for one of a set four coast totems from Caterwillia...

at 08:40

Un-Selfie-ing in Lisbon

Perhaps the Cacau Cru mean to pivot on the ambiguity of whether their character is painting himself in or out of the picture but I like to think that this may be discreet advice on the perils of the selfie, a call for modest self-effacement and a certain level of anonymity.

Perhaps the Cacau Cru mean to pivot on the ambiguity of whether their character is painting himself in or out of the picture but I lik...

at 18:38

Return to Keirle Park or The Dissolution of Memory

This an overlooked aside from the Keirle Park series, those once a week sketches in the car, cataloguing the to's and fro's, the oval walkers and dog ball throwers, the skater set, tennis players, aspiring football teams and slouchy sets of teens who smoked in cockie circles in the furthest corner, all playing second fiddle to the day's slide over into twilight, twilights' slip into the night. Here, that blur of lightened sky, brighter strokes that give the nod to sunset, the feeling you're in a car, going past, or is it the trees that travel?

This an overlooked aside from the Keirle Park series, those once a week sketches in the car, cataloguing the to's and fro's, the ...

at 16:17

Fog Lights Inaction

Saturday doubled up on fog, waking to foghorns, that forlorn long bovine wail that echoes around Sydney Harbour and the foreshores is one of the better variations of Spring. Like in Camelot the morning fog disappears. Usually. Saturday afternoon saw the fog pawing its way back, grey and misty, sneaking over Middle Head and giving a Mona Lisa moment to the Baths at Balmoral. A string of barely glowing incandescent bulbs suggest that day was done for.

Saturday doubled up on fog, waking to foghorns, that forlorn long bovine wail that echoes around Sydney Harbour and the foreshores is one ...

at 08:35

Swept Sticklers for the Deck

Time has turned the deck here into something of a chameleon, an exercise in patience, and repetition, this small pile bought down courtesy of this week's wild wind, was swept into a neat post card of kindle. Why this should be pleasing? The sense of time played out in twigs, the tonal graduation? Perhaps its being an artifact of the act of sweeping itself, a meditation on rhythm, the sussuration of straw on wood.

Time has turned the deck here into something of a chameleon, an exercise in patience, and repetition, this small pile bought down courtesy...

at 19:08

Postcards from the West Wind

While Tuesday's whirligig wind bought down a whole suit of sticks, it also snipped off these green tips from the parperbark and jacarandah trees, were a kind of message, though I am not sure what, though Marshall McLuhan's 'the medium is the message' seems to fit.

While Tuesday's whirligig wind bought down a whole suit of sticks, it also snipped off these green tips from the parperbark and jaca...

at 07:58

Spilt Drinks - An Opportune Media

In the sort of calibrated beloved of spin doctors, in the Years of Spilt Drinks, I decided to redefine what was a spill to only those drinks that made it onto the floor, thus taking the pressure off small visitors and small residents who were prone to knock over glasses of juice and water. A small spill at the Power House in Brisbane's New Farm provided a substrate to move into a triffid-esque figure, part rock-roll type, bird-footed with some extra feelers and a fine head of water. The waxy table top and lighting must be given credit, but where is the water guitar when you need it Nigel Kimber?

In the sort of calibrated beloved of spin doctors, in the Years of Spilt Drinks, I decided to redefine what was a spill to only those d...

at 08:01

Models of Discretion

This orchid falls somewhere between being showy and inconspicuous, a state of balance perfectly suitable.

at 20:19

Red Hats To The Rescue

These three women, tribal in their statement red hats, blue/purple outfits and red shoes, might be an installation of the best kind, a self-organizing fluid, a tribal collective of collectors, nearly antique art savants, friends of a feather, I saw them drift into the Queensland Gallery of Art, and thought aha! the Qld art club's answer to The Triplets of Belleville.Then there is lot near profile of the crowd that has leaked gloriously from the concentrate of prussian blue on the wall. If this is a club, I would like to apply.

These three women, tribal in their statement red hats, blue/purple outfits and red shoes, might be an installation of the best kind, a se...

at 08:22

Teepees of LEDs Spells Incandescent

Five teepees of little movies playing on LEDs create a glade of pleasant nearly strangeness in south side of Hyde Park. Like coming across fragments of dreams out for a night picnic, some murrmuring quiet stories, another a character in search of adventure, it's hard to pick a favourite, but then favourites always were over-rated.

Five teepees of little movies playing on LEDs create a glade of pleasant nearly strangeness in south side of Hyde Park. Like coming acro...

at 15:51

Wollongong Here I Come !

The kind folk at the Wollongong Writers Festival have invited me to join them, though I understand that many of my readers in the Ukraine ( hello up there) and United States will find this a bit of a challenge to get there by 12 October 2014 please consider yourself invited.

12 October 2014 Rocket Readings1:30 pm - 3:30 pm Corner Kembla and Burelli streets WollongongWollongong Art GalleryEvent Organized By: South Coast Writers Centre and Linda Godfrey

Event Details

Rocket Readings is proud to be part of the Wollongong Writers Festival. Join us for a lively afternoon of contemporary poetry readings with featured poets, Carol Jenkins and Joel Ephraims, plus an open mic section. Three minute limit. Hosted by Linda Godfrey.

You can find out more about this Festival at http://www.wollongongwritersfestival.com/

The kind folk at the Wollongong Writers Festival have invited me to join them, though I understand that many of my readers in the ...

at 12:20

Champ Chimp Trumps - Cards Up for New Farm

Signal boxes are being singled out everywhere as substrates for art installations. This card sharp chimp hails from New Farm, Brisbane's funky south of the city groovy collage of old queenslanders with their wrap around verandahs, the one below movie-set perfect with the vintage Holden ute out front and not a lick of paint for a century I'd say, but still tich in cross-hatched shade up to bull-dozed blocks mushroomining with cheek by cheek apartments. Mornings out for a run I saw chickens hanging out next to a cafe, and bush turkeys and got swooped out by a pied magpie. Perfect!

Signal boxes are being singled out everywhere as substrates for art installations. This card sharp chimp hails from New Farm, Brisban...

at 10:38

What a Spool Believes

This dervish-esque installation at the Queensland Art Gallery looks nearly better in a photo, the blurring giving it a greater sense of volume, though one misses out on the pleasant machine hum and faint zephyr produced by the spinning. I think this is the perfect opportunity to create a sound track, Rose Royce's Car Wash - and surely its a bit rich not to think that her name had been made up for go with the song. The other candidate would be a slight variation of What a Fool Believes .
I am working on a project to retitle Art works, and thereby re-conceive them, which may in all silliness be create a bona vide new art object. More later.

This dervish-esque installation at the Queensland Art Gallery looks nearly better in a photo, the blurring giving it a greater sense of vo...

at 16:33

Wall Masquerading as an anti-hero

This might be a comment on the faceless-ness of crime, an aside on the surveillance state, a deft pun on the stolidity of the superhero paradigm [ha, just tricking, this last option is a complete phoney] or simply a way to get some three-d into street art thingy. This bandit in mixed media is lurking in the lane behind Central Park, where the walls really do have eyes.

This might be a comment on the faceless-ness of crime, an aside on the surveillance state, a deft pun on the stolidity of the superhero pa...

at 08:06

Lead Time - Going Nowhere Slowly

Looking around this morning for a missing cable, in my house jacks and cables are prone to wander, I realised I was experiencing lead time, that gap where you start doing something but go nowhere while you're searching for the wherewithal. Much of this is about placement, was it too optimistic to leave ones recording paraphernalia en plein air and expect it to remain there? This snail, a good example of the well placed paste up, found in arrested motion across the road from the excellent White Rabbit Gallery in Chippendale, is more likely to become a palimpsest of weathering than to budge. Perhaps the ink will run, but he does look stoutly waterproof.

Looking around this morning for a missing cable, in my house jacks and cables are prone to wander, I realised I was experiencing lead tim...

at 14:53

Cossie Drama Hits the Rails - Missives to Aqua Alpine Part 4

Readers may remember that they last time we heard of the Aqua Alpine Cossie Drama Saga was when Lady Murasaki wrote demanding the return of two of her characters.

Since then the following missive has arrived from a hybrid character, Ojii-San Tank Engine , who also sent this selfie.

Dear General Mai Hem,

The consequences of the action of your departed archer are of no relation to I. Last I heard the LOTR costume department was giving him a hard time - 'no, no, even with a life devoted to archery, your shoes suck!'. I pity the man. He even attempted to persuade them with information on the whereabouts of two characters from a previous set who are still MIA> They didn't have any of it, muttering to each other how easy it was to get a Jenga piece actor these days,

Ojii-San Tank Engine

It might not be rocket science but I think Oji-San Tank E might be a a non de plume, with a sly reference to Stephenson's famous tanka series of poems in praise of steam.

Also see Parts One and Two

Readers may remember that they last time we heard of the Aqua Alpine Cossie Drama Saga was when Lady Murasaki wrote demanding the return...

at 08:18

Sighting of a Green Thought

Leura Cascades, plashes in with special lighting effects seemingly an actualistation of Marvel's 'green thought in a green shade'. The crepuscular divisions of sun light, that here have gone someway towards splitting themselves into their constituent wavelengths brings along with it those two arcs of green and green/blue. There is no going past light.

Leura Cascades, plashes in with special lighting effects seemingly an actualistation of Marvel's 'green thought in a green shade...

at 18:46

Stella and The Coffee - Katoomba by Starlight

A weekend of rumbling around the Blue Mountains, walking to cascades and falls, studying fems, including my favourite Gleichenia needs good coffee. In the dark days good coffee in Katoomba was like a rumour no-one really believed it existed. Enter the small representative of the constellation of Cassiopeia in Lurline Street, lovely coffee, good toast, morning sunshine ( or should I say starlight?) and pleasant coffee fiends to make it all happen with good cheer. Plus things to sketch!

A weekend of rumbling around the Blue Mountains, walking to cascades and falls, studying fems, including my favourite Gleichenia needs go...

at 21:14

Budging the Bars - Jailbirds and Bards

A return to old haunts, to fossick and rake over the small treasures of locale turns up a nice suite of odds and ends, this cryptic image of Mr Budgie, smuggled onto bars, might be a clever comment on who is watching, placed as is it behind both the Newtown Court House and Police Station. Yard and Jail birds apply within.

A return to old haunts, to fossick and rake over the small treasures of locale turns up a nice suite of odds and ends, this cryptic image...

at 13:19

Aha, This May Explain Why Some Mail Doesn't Make It

This looks like a set up I know, but last week the Postie left this tenuous connection between post box and post, one might say it was a post-hoc or even an ad-hoc arrangement. Is it a message that I need smaller parcels or a bigger letter box? A vote of confidence in the honesty of all passers-by? Hang-Mail, Indigestible Literature ? A foot hold doing its best?.This story, non-fiction had least had an ending.

This looks like a set up I know, but last week the Postie left this tenuous connection between post box and post, one might say it was a p...

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