the shadows

Every year photography magazine Capture Mag seeks submissions from photographers which then becomes The Annual.  I submitted some work and as I got them together I realised there's a lack of faces and how dark all my work is!  Which also makes me think how it's the opposite of wedding photography...

 

These images are from the following series - #currentmood, thisplace., This Wild Song and onefourfour.

Good luck to all the photographers that have entered, can't wait to see what gets selected for the mag!

onefourfour exhibition

A HUGE thank you to everyone who came to the onefourfour exhibition last weekend!  It was was a fantastic turnout, we had a great time!  And I'm thrilled for the artists who sold some of their beautiful work!  It was a busy week getting the show ready, and I couldn't have done it without Erika from The Art Room, but it was all totally worth it :)

winter reshoot for onefourfour

I'm getting all my onefourfour pieces ready for our show and have decided to reshoot a couple that I'm not happy with.  Today the kids and I went exploring in the bush and while they played dragons and pretended to chop down trees, I found the perfect trees for me to use as a backdrop.  Today I reshot August's theme of WINTER, very apt as it was 11c!

The last time we were out the bush exploring/trying to take photos a certain someone accidentally dropped my remote in the creek so I employed Mr. 7 to press the shutter for me.  Having kids definitely comes in handy sometimes!  Not always though...  I had another place picked out where the trees had been burnt (controlled clearing from summer) and the blue gum leaves had grown back, it looks so beautiful.  Buuuuut as soon as I picked my spot someone needed to go to the toilet, then someone wanted to go 'mining' at a different creek, so that didn't really work out.  Funnily enough that spot was where my remote was lost last time and I had the worst shooting day, I just couldn't get a composition and didn't shoot anything actually!  Maybe I'm not meant to use that location for a photo....  Anyhoo this is what I made today.

onefourfour exhibition

We're very excited to be exhibiting the complete one hundred and forty four works from last years onefourfour!  A huge thank you to Erika from The Art Room for hosting the pop up exhibition.

There will be free drawing sessions held on the Sunday as well!  Please come say hi, I'll be there both days :)

onefourfour: november

I didn't really have a clear idea for November's theme of UNDERNEATH, probably because my head is so full preparing for my solo show...   I just happened to walk past this wall in my house when the light was amazing (afternoon natural light my favourite) and my son was already playing with the hood that had come off my jacket.  Lucky for me he's always happy to help me create and I got a few shots before he lost interest.  Ooh shiny! 

I really love the mood in this and the low rim light is perfect, I definitely want to shoot like this more often.  Makes me happy.

onefourfour interview

One of the many parts of onefourfour that I love is interviewing the artists to learn more about their practice, and this month I had to interview myself!  Kinda awkward.  And really, really hard to answer my own questions!!  If you'd like a squiz it is here.

onefourfour: October

Our theme for October was COLOUR.  I really love the work everyone made for this theme, you can see them all on the onefourfour blog here!

onefourfour: FEAR

Our onefourfour theme for September was FEAR!  This is my final piece.

I had the idea of using the water like a cocoon, capturing it just before it hit, creating a feeling of anxiety.  The visual in my head was a dark photograph, exposing for the highlights.  And when I finally got to go shoot it?  It was the sunniest day you ever did see!

I had a friend throw creek water on me, and another pressing the shutter.  It probably would've looked better if I was facing the camera but to be honest I couldn't keep a straight face I was laughing so much!  It was so fun, I love doing things like this for photos.  But it was the sound of the water leaving the bucket WHOOSH, bracing myself for the moment of impact EEEK, then the unavoidable THWACK as the water hit my face that cracked me up.  Oh and it was chilly too (UNDERSTATEMENT).

Post kids I have my photos completely planned in my head, then when I go and shoot it usually comes together pretty well or it takes a happy turn.  This wasn't one of these times.  I was so disappointed (another understatement) when I downloaded these files as it didn't reflect what I had seen in my head.  And to be honest it had been a while since I had a big old FAIL (haven't been shooting enough obviously).  I was trying to edit it into what I wanted it to be but then I had wise Jason Lau's voice pop into my head saying 'you can't turn a photograph into something it's not'.  Or thereabouts.  Anyhoo, good advice.  And so this is what my photograph became.

Here's a couple of outtakes;

onefourfour: 2015

I'm very excited to be continuing my onefourfour project in 2015!!  I'll be presenting another 12 brilliant Australian artists, you can check out the 2015 artists on the blog http://onefourfour.blogspot.com.au/

I LOVE this project.  It's so fun and it's so awesome discovering art as it appears in my emails each month.  So great.  Get on board!

onefourfour: July

Our onefourfour theme for July was REPETITION.  I chose to photograph the ocean.  There's just something about the repetition of those waves rolling in...

onefourfour: June

Our onefourfour theme for June was PLACE. 

Not surprisingly I returned to my spiritual home - the bush near where I grew up.  But I did want to photograph it a bit differently than I have before.  Shooting through leaves is something I do often but this time I have made the landscape more distorted and darker, I didn't want a straight sunny landscape photo.  Anyhoo I hope you like it!  onefourfour.blogspot.com

onefourfour: May

Our theme for May was SPACE! 

This time I thought I'd try something different, a very literal and straight photograph.  I photographed the full moon on the 15th of May - I only remember because it was my son's birthday!  You can check out all the other wonderful submissions at onefourfour.blogspot.com

onefourfour: April

Our onefourfour theme for April was FORM and this is my piece.  I put on as many dresses as possible, was pretty hot under there.  Plus I forgot my remote so lucky Erika was there to press the shutter!  Check out the other eleven awesome works at http://onefourfour.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/april-form.html

I've realised that my three projects (onefourfour, This Wild Song, and my upcoming show thisplace.  about motherhood) seem to be overlapping with themes of camoflague throughout...

onefourfour: March

For the onefourfour project we work to a different theme every month, and March's theme was COLLAGE. 

It took me a little while to come up with an idea for this theme as it was so broad, so I started where I always do - thinking about where I was at in my life at that point.  And it so happened that I was feeling pretty jaded with the arts industry and questioning my arts practice.

I had splurged and bought the Art Collector magazine, I didn't even finish reading the mag and started cutting out the pretty pictures to make a collage instead.  Once I removed the colour images I realised I preferred what was left behind.  I found my favourite page where you could see glimpses of the rest of the magazine and turned it into a mask that I could tie on my head for the photo.

I shot this in the afternoon using window light.  I set up the camera, put my dots on then realised I had 10 minutes before I had to pick my son up from school!  I tied the magazine to my head and wrapped the string around my hair to keep it in place.  I knew exactly how I wanted it to look so I used the remote to take a lot of photos, and continually moved my head to ensure I photographed the magazine at the right angle.

I love how it turned out and it looks beautiful printed on cotton rag paper.  My idea for onefourfour came about from wanting to push my practice further and develop ideas that have been floating around my head for a long time, and it's working!  I love this project and I love promoting female Australian artists, there are so many talented women and I hope you enjoy the works that are being created for onefourfour.  Good times.

http://onefourfour.blogspot.com.au/

onefourfour exhibition as part of Art in Public Places

We're very excited to have been invited to participate in Art in Public Places where onefourfour will be exhibiting its first three months of work to the themes of LIGHT, SURFACE and COLLAGE!

OPENING SATURDAY 5th APRIL 1-3PM
Exhibition dates: 3 - 27 April

Location: Narelle Byrne Gallery, 2/13 Cole Street Williamstown
Hours: Thursday to Sunday 11am-4pm

onefourfour project: January theme

This piece is in response to the first theme of the onefourfour project which is LIGHT.  I've had this idea floating around in my head for over year so it's feels great to actually manifest it!  It turned out differently to how I first envisioned it and when I first looked at the shots I wasn't sure I'd be able to pull it together, but I'm happy with it in the end.

onefourfour was created and curated by me, and the idea behind it was to encourage artists to experiment with new mediums and keep creating regularly to allow our practices to grow.  Here's how it works;

Twelve Australian female artists have been invited to participate in onefourfour which sees them create one work a month for one year.   Every artist is assigned a month to choose a theme that all the artists work to, and the results are posted on the onefourfour blog at the end of each month.  The only restriction is that the work is to be 6 x 6".  This small canvas size was chosen so it's a quick and fun exercise and doesn't become a daunting task to create a piece every month.

An interview with one of the artists will also be featured on the blog every month so you can learn more about them, their arts practice, and their processes.

http://onefourfour.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/onefourfourproject

onefourfour

I'm super excited to be curaating my first project and it's a big one!  It's called onefourfour and I've invited twelve artists to create art to twelve themes over twelve months.  The project will begin in January and the art works will be posted on the onefourfour blog. 

In the meantime I'll be revealing the participating artists over on the onefourfour facebook page...