America's NATIONAL PARKS - How amazing nature can be!

As Ryan and I journeyed through the United States over a couple months on the way up to Canada, we discovered so many wonderful places! I wanted to share these briefly with you as you may find them just as inspiring as I did.
First was Yosemite and Sequoa National Park...where we got our first taste of springtime snow..

 Then we went to Joshua Tree National Park where it was a lot warmer! Here we had to stop for a very rare desert tortoise, crossing the road. He needed a little help getting up the sandy embankment on the other side, so we gave him a little helping nudge then drove on thinking how lucky we were to have seen this little critter in the middle of the baron desert.

Then onto Old Paria and Grand Staircase National Monument. The layered colours of the earth here is what grabbed me. This is close by to the famed 'The Wave' which now features on many computer desktops!

Whilst cruising through Utah, I couldn't help myself and did something I've wanted to do for a long time - Go Skydiving over beautifully coloured sandy earth. Here's me waiting for my plane!

After this thrill of a lifetime...we headed on towards the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.

We picked up some great mugs whilst we were in Zion. Making a deliberate point to only buy mugs made from potters.

Another place we wanted to see was Mesa Verde National Park, where we went on a couple of tours through cave dwellings to get an inside perspective.

Of course we had to visit Mt. Rushmore to learn a little more of the history of America and see these great sculptures carved out of the side of a mountain...however, they forgot to note Ryan as the 5th President..

We visited a couple of underground caves such as Jewell Cave and Wind Cave, and they had the most beautiful crystals inside. Unfortunately it's never easy to get a good photo in the dark! My favourite National Park in America though, is the very first to be declared so - Yellowstone National Park. The colours of the earth and rings of colour in the geothermal pools were very influential for me and I hope to return there again some day! You'll see why with these images.

The last National Park we visited in America was Glacier National Park, where we then crossed over to Alberta, Canada. More on that later...

Salvation Mountain - California

During our travels through America, we came across some very interesting sights...
This grand tribute to God, has been evolving for decades by Leonard Knight and is located just a short way from Palm Springs in the desert of California.

Its 50 foot height and 150 foot breadth is made totally of local adobe clay and donated paint. Leonard, who is usually on site (even on the hottest days!) working on the project, is more than happy to give you a tour throughout the inside of the structure. To explore the outside, there is a yellow brick road to follow up and over the top. We felt as much on an adventure, as Dorothy did!

 It truly was a remarkable place, and you can't help but respect and appreciate this man's commitment of faith. Relying on donations and goodwill to feed himself and his helpers, and provide supplies for his life's work, Leonard is a testament to what you can achieve in one lifetime!

WATT'S TOWERS in LOS ANGELES, Calafornia

On March 21st, My partner Ryan and I set off for a great adventure! Our plan was to buy a car and travel through the United States for 3 months from Los Angeles up to Canada, for where we have a 2 year working visa.

So, we arrived in LA and thankfully had our good friend Melissa to stay with while we got ourselves organised and saw some sights. One of the places that I was particularly interested in seeing was the Watt's Towers. Built over a period of 33 years from 1921 - 1954, by an Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia. It is a collection of 17 interconnected structures, two of which stand more than 30 metres high.

With no real restrictions to property borders at the time, Rodia worked with every spare moment to construct this installation of sculptures around his house. He bent the metal rods on the nearby train tracks and cemented in shards of glass and broken pottery that were often given to him as junk. He worked from instinct and had no real plan of what it would eventually look like, other than the boat like sculpture at the front which is reminiscent of how he travelled to America.

It's been a long time since my last post - BUT I HAVE BEEN TRAVELLING AFTER ALL!

Sorry folks, it got a little hectic there for awhile at the beginning of the year with our plans to move to Canada in March and then continuously travelling for 4 months, so I haven't posted for some time now. Anyway, it's great to be back on the internet and now I can FILL YOU IN!

OASIS - An exhibition as part of the HERRING ISLAND SUMMER ARTS FESTIVAL. January 2010 - Ceramics Victoria Inc

Before I left for Canada in March, I was responsible for organising and curating the OASIS exhibition on Herring Island for Ceramics Victoria Inc. Although trying to coordinate this exhibition at such a crazy time of year was challenging, it was a lot of fun and a great success!

With the help of Jen Mizuik and Leah Jackson, the exhibition went up in the first week of January and was open to the public for 3 consecutive weekends including the Australia Day holiday. We had about 30 artists of all skill levels exhibit their ceramic work alongside each other. The 4 awards that were given out for the exhibition were the Sculpture Award of $500, the Top Shelf Award of $300, the New Members Award of $200 and the Northcote Pottery prize.

The exhibition turned out to be a great success generating a high number of visitors and sales. Turns out that January was in fact a great time to put on an exhibition!

MAKER'S MARKETS

Here's a look at some of the work I have been selling at Markets over these past couple of months. The ones that I have really enjoyed doing have been the Ivanhoe Maker's Market in the Banyule Arts Space on the 3rd Saturday of the Month, and also the Abbotsford Convent Maker's Market where Sunday 20th Dec was my first one.

The Indoor Maker's Market's have a great atmosphere where artists of all different styles meet to sell their work directly to the public. The outdoor ones have been subject to Melbourne's continually changing weather, but have been great fun on a fine day! I have had fantastic feedback and some great sales!

My most popular items I have found to sell are the Boxed Bowls, Brooches, Mini Circle Platters and the Sculptural Raku Bottles.

I also took part in the special annual event of the Mount Dandenong Village Festival on the 29th November. Having grown up in that area, it was an exciting thing for me to revisit home and be involved in - however it did pour down with rain on and off all day. Aah, the challenges of Markets!

BOTTLED EXHIBITION Nov 2009

BOTTLED - My final exhibition for the year has now closed at Pan Gallery, Brunswick.

It was another successful exhibition with many visitors and a lot of talk going around Melbourne about it. I found it to be a young and fresh show with only 18 exhibitors selected from around 60. I was very excited to be one of those 18! Also, I was showing with my friend Leah Jackson (pictured above) and several other ceramic folk I have gotten to know here in Melbourne, so that was fun.

My works ' Weeping Duo' which were a new development for this exhibition, were made using the technique I had learnt whilst in India at the beginning of the year. It involves a process of Raku Firing where I take the HOT pots out of the kiln at around 800-1000 degrees, and carefully position combustible materials against the hot surface of the clay body. It's quite an exciting process really, as it all has to be done very fast and with no mistake.

I was thrilled to be able to bring along my aunt Eileen and uncle Mike to my opening, as they were here visiting from England at the time. This was a rare opportunity to show them my exhibition work in situ. My aunt even admitted that this was her first art exhibition opening! Well, I'm happy that your first (and maybe only) exhibition opening was mine Aunty!