Getting ready - a commission.

Some of my earliest memories of living here in Fremantle include taking our lads as toddlers down to Bather's Beach, a small beach on the edge of Fishing Boat Harbour .  This is a short walk from Arthurs Head, the J Shed where Jenny Dawson, ceramic artist, Photographer Peter Zuvela and Greg James, Scuptor have studios.  Just as close are Freo's Cappucino Strip and the cafe's, bars and businesses in town.  The arrival of Notre Dame University has gentrified the once tatty working class corner of town nearby, given employment to some friends, and educated their offspring.  How would you like to go to a Uni where you can loll on a beach within two minutes of attending a lecture?  There used to be a MacDonalds on the beach too, and many happy hours have been passed and happy meals consumed by WA families here.
Twenty years ago Joan Campbell who is remembered as a 'pioneering potter' of WA had her studio in the old Kerosene Store, right on Bather's Beach facing the Indian Ocean.  Joan instigated the installation of a large wooden jetty formed from the old timbers of Busselton Jetty if I am to understand correctly, as homage to the history of the area and on which people climb, lol, and lie under the glow of the sun or the moon, according to their whim.  Joan screen printed, artwork, text and maps illustrating the place in former times, onto tiles which were installed into a horizontal beam.  As you can see, the tiles have suffered in the two decades, from the very harsh climate or from vandalism.

I have been asked, by Fremantle Council's Public Art Coordinator, to replicate the tiles, as faithfully as I can.  This week, I have done a fair bit of ground work in testing mesh sizes of silkscreens for the job.  The true test will be after lacquering the prints, applying them to test tiles and firing them.  Then I will know which mesh type gives the best print with the china paint.  The green ones here are Riso Screens which use a thermal printer to process, and the pink ones are Stencil Pro which can use sunlight to expose the image onto the mesh.  So there is a bit of local history, culture and some print on clay info to boot for you.  I will post again as the work progresses.  

Australia day, Darl!

It is hard to beat the lethargy in 41C here in Fremantle, we are enduring a heatwave but that is no excuse for not blogging.  Procrastination and busyiness took hold of me again and I have now firmly kicked their asses ... I hope.  I was updating my status on Facebook just now when it dawned on me, darn this should be on my blog.  So .. here it is .. and a promise of more blogging and bleating from here on, but perhaps not always on clay, insights of our homelife may creep plus it is too darn hot to get any work done at this time of year.

'We saw the Fremantle Australia Day skyshow from the beach at Arthur's Head Fremantle, just past the J Shed (a three minutes walk from my Freo studio) see Joel's blog http://freoview.wordpress.com/tag/greg-james/. Greg James THE man who puts all that iconic bronze sculpture around Fremantle let us park outside his studio door for '20 mins' which became much more when I met, nearly tripped over them in the dark actually, my pals Jenny Dawson (potter) and Peter Zuvela (photographer and much more) of the J Shed.  
We had a long chat in the darkness after the brilliant skyshow. Henry, Oscar and Gaelan had sat on the steps with the water lapping at our feet, surrounded by people quietly enjoying the fireworks zooming from a pontoon only about 100m out in the bay. It was like having our own personal fireworks show right over our heads. Fantastic!!'  Now, I could include a photo of the beach or the fireworks here, but I feel sure my (legions of) readers have seen such like before.  On selecting an image to share with you I realised my son's new ipod syncs it's photos to my laptop so here is Gaelan getting to grips with his specs made from drinking straws and tubes, much more fun don't you think??  The art in the background is by Mitjili Napurulla - a similar piece is in the Art Gallery of WA.  My what good taste I have.