And we're off!

It's a crazy windy day in Hobart and we're gearing up to head to Devonport tomorrow. It's a 3 hour drive from here to the North West coast of Tassie so we're hoping the wind will settle before tomorrow. Chris is teaching at Don College for 2 days doing a short course for secondary school students on comics. It's part lecture and part workshop. He's preparing for it now and it looks like it will be a great day. I'm looking forward to some R&R at the hotel and then some family time on Tuesday night with my mum and gran. There's a cute cat fleece scarf that I want to make too! It's in this book by Aranzi Aronzo. They are super fab and have some nifty sewing projects to boot.

In other news, I've decided to retire from review writing for now. I've been working as an arts writer for over ten years and have some great mags under my belt but for the last year, I've been falling out of love with the reviewing process. While I enjoyed the writing, having to wrestle with gallery staff (over the most simple requests) on my days off was tiresome and time consuming. Sometimes I wondered if we were speaking the same language! Having less time to myself has also made me really think about how I want to spend it. There's a lot less pressure to make money from writing now (oh look, I wrote for a whole week and got paid $75!) and frankly, I'm a little bored with contemporary art and all the fancy-pants networking that goes with it. That's not to say I don't appreciate some of it still. Our lives are just taking us in new directions. I'm having so much fun learning how to sew. I'm starting to enjoy my time off and we're on the road to preparing to add to our little family. It's an exciting and really fulfilling time. Plus, it's nice to devote time to special things like catalogue essays and comics. In short, I'm not missing the reviews at all!

So, after Devonport our next big thing is the Young Writers Festival in Newcastle (October 1 - 5). We need to get our butts into gear and book our flights to Sydney, eek! I'm still in two minds about going to see Tori Amos in November as well. I haven't been keen on her new stuff but I adore everything before To Venus and Back. She's one of the last on my must-see list. Seen Tom Waits, the Eels, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Decisions, decisions!

By the way, if this was our kid I would totally pee my pants. He is awesome.



PS. Pucca gets to go to Catnip while we're away. Yep, that's a feline resort folks.

Tooth ache sewing class

So, having a wisdom tooth out equals lots of lovely time off work. I got my little fingers busy and made some stuff last week. First up is Kelvin the Abominable Reinman. He's a reindeer snowman hybrid and he's gonna count all your matches and only fly Qantas. Thanks to Chris for the name of Kelvin :)




Second is a window hang I made to give us some privacy from our neighbour's bathroom window. It's mostly cut from felt and spotty ribbons. Light can still get in through the pale calico so it does its job perfectly.



Peekaboo, it's a kitty!

Bake with me!

I'm a registered Cupcake Cook for the RSPCA's Cupcake Day on August 17th. This means I'll be baking seriously cute cupcakes to sell and raise money for this super cause. Anyone can sign up to bake and donate so visit the RSPCA site to help animals in need.

Our day at the Market

Here are some pics from our time at the Odd & Even Market. We had a great time selling comics, stationary sets, stickers and t-shirts. All designed by Chris! Yay! Also included here are some treasures I picked up along the way :)


The market view from our stall


Our stall


Our stuff


Tricky's stuff




Crochet cupcakes and pink mousey by Abby Badcock. I LOVE these!


Crafty exhibition catalogue & a cute card (with a My Little Pony on it) by Phat Flats

Come see us on Saturday!

Just another quick reminder about the Odd & Even Makers Market. It's at the Long Gallery in Salamanca this Saturday and runs from 10am - 3pm. There'll be some preview comics of A Diary of a Work in Progress - hot off the press! - and stickers available. If we have time to find some other random things, they'll be there too :) The market coincides with the awesome show - Crafty (see previous post). It'll be a cracking day (we're SO happy to be missing work for something fun!).

Hope to see you there!!

Crafty exhibition

If you're in Hobart next week, make sure you check this exhibition out. It's curated by handmade superstar, Catherine Badcock (aka Cat-Rabbit) and features the work of many artists we love. Keep an eye out for Ghostpatrol and Monique Germon especially. Good stuff indeed.

Happy Birthday Chris!

One of the many things our silly brains are obsessed with right now...

Keyboard Cat We Ruv U

Already immortalized in a web comic. Thanks Pranas :)

Odd and Even Makers Market

We'll be at the Odd and Even Makers Market on June 27th, 2009. It starts at 10am and finishes at 3pm. Chris is sharing a stall with Tricky Walsh and 6a ARI. He'll have special preview books of "A Diary of a Work in Progress", stickers and maybe some Cactopus tee-shirts and original artworks. Come see us in the Long Gallery in Salamanca!

Princess Pucca

Since Pucca features so much in Chris's blog, here are some pics of good ol' kitty lovin' (taken on Christmas morning 2008).

STATS
Full Name: Seraphina Puccaliet (yep, seriously)
Age: 2
Found: by the RSPCA under a house
Adopted by fellow krazy kats Chris and Briony: 2007
Favourite food: Raw chicken
Favourite toy: Little red ball
Secret power: Human manipulation

Patricia Piccinini

In a recent blog, Chris drew a comic about us going to see an exhibition by Patricia Piccinini. It was at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and was one of the best shows we've ever seen. She is a super successful artist in Australia and represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Most of her work explores the possible effects of technology and genetic modification. She creates incredibly realistic lifeforms that represent a new stage of evolution.

For some, her work is quite confronting but what we really loved about the TMAG show was how seamlessly she incorporated her work into the museum's own collection. Strange creatures peeked out from dioramas of native animals and made us really think about how some aspects of the natural world have the potential to evolve around the lifestyle we create. And to question whether this would be a good thing.