Look, I told you we weren't lost. There's planet Earth over there!.

This was my wedding present to Jason and Shasha. I enlarged one of their wedding photos and started to alter it. I liked the timelessness of the backdrop, so my strange sense of humour kicked in and this is what I've called it.

 In a futile attempt to increase his intelligence, Jason resorted to sucking out Shasha's brain.
Of course, once my sense of humour got started it wouldn't stop. Anyway, these were just for fun, a warm up. It was fun working colour into classic black and white.
Here's one of the final pieces. She was just so beautiful that I had to go play there.

Shasha's last few moments as a miss.

A Line of Fish

The pictures say it all!

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The Wisdom of the Fishes

This is my latest altered book. It was originally a salmon recipe book rescued from the Opp shop. I love the shape of it. It inspired me to re-invent it as a collection of folk wisdom, albeit with a fishy twist.

Fabulous Amethyst

This is one of my indulgence pieces, a very beautiful pendant, strung from faceted amethyst. The clasp is a sterling silver magnet. All very classy. I'm surprised to find myself back into making jewellry, but it is so much fun and I have learned to trust where my muse takes me.

An Outbreak of Jewellry

Recent visits to the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival and the Gem and Bead show saw me tempted by all manner of gorgeous gemstones - amethyst, garnet, jasper, turquoise, smokey quartz. In the end I just couldn't help myself. It seems there is no limit to the amount of jewels one woman can enjoy.

Swiss Army Stilleto

This is one of my earlier, quirky pieces, done for an exhibition in 2007. The shoes are from the Opp shop, and the other bits were scrounged from my friends. It was such fun to do.

The Secret Code of Women

This was my other offering for the QBG exhibition in the state library. It was the first book I ever made with QBG, blank pages and rather an ordinary black and white cover. It sat around for ages, never quite inspiring me to use it as a journal. But prompted by the call for books, I redesigned the cover and here it is. Unfortunately they had so many books that they could only take one of mine.

Journal for a Mermaid

It's been soooo long between posts, I was wondering if I am able to actually keep a blog alive. I've been creating heaps, just not taking the time to put it out there. And you know, time slips past and the time lag becomes embarassingly long. The only answer is to start again, somewhere, anywhere. So in no particular order, I am tossing it out again, as the whim takes me.

This beautiful journal is going on display at the State Library as part of an exhibition by the Queensland Bookbinder's Guild. Its a bit of a shame that all the books will be behind glass, as the lovely driftwood, glass and shells in the box are really meant to be touched and smelt and invoke memories of salt and sea.

And yes, I did go back to Mona Lisa's in West End and surprise them with an art block featuring one of their altered business cards. They loved it and wanted me to sell some in their shop! an offer I declined.

Altered Business Cards

I found the business card for Mona Lisas over in West End and just had to mess around with it. So I've taken the card, mounted it on a block of wood, then extended the picture and added some collage bits. The feet are wooden beads which have just been glued on. Now I'm feeling a bit guilty about "borrowing" their cards. Maybe I'll donate one of the pieces to them. Just not sure how to start the conversation though.

Altered Photos

I've been having so much fun altering things. This is a picture of a lotus flower taken in the Adelaide botanical gardens. I soaked the photo in water then scratched back the emulsion layer. When it was dry, I painted the background with acrylic paint. Some were converted into postcards, and yes, despite being a bit floppy, they made it through the mail.

EMERGENCY PRAYER KIT

I found an old Moroccan travel poster, and somehow this box just evolved from that.
I had a lot of fun mixing up the religious trinkets - an old set of rosary beads added to a set of buddha images, creating a buddha rosary. I especially enjoyed the blueness of this box.

ALTERED BOXES

It's not that I havent been busy. It's just that I haven't been posting.
I'm following through on my passion for altering thingsb- boxes, cards, photos, jewellry.
This baby box is one of those pieces that disturbes most people. Heck I even felt like a murderer when I dismembered the doll in the first place.

Dear Old Melbourne

We went to visit friends and family in Melbourne last week, and of course catch up with Dali's Liquid Desire exhibition at the Victorian art gallery. Dali was fantastic and Melbourne put on its usual wide range of weather all on one day. Sadly the street art has been severly overtagged. Those that cant do art "dissing" those that can.

We found the current Pompeii exhibition at the Museum of Melbourne to be very poignant, especially the room with casts of the bodies of people and animals huddled together in a vain attempt to escape the toxic ash and fumes from the volcano. It was one of those reminders of the sheer power of Mother Gaia and how precarious our grip on life can be.



There were so many great Dali images in the publicity brochure, I just had to go play with one in my visual journal.

Fabulous Easton Pearson at GOMA

Caught up with the fashion exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art this weekend. It was just amazing, one of the best presented exhibitions I have ever seen. I was particularly taken by the display out in the entrance foyer, where you get a peep into the inspirations and influences of their work, with pictures of some of the materials being produced in Asia. The dresses are so, so beautiful and the urge to reach out and touch the material is almost irresistable.

They even have a children's activity, where you can trace a stencil of women's apparel onto a copy of some of their material designs and dress up a paper doll and leave it on display. The kids had done some really beaut dolls and I am taken with the idea of the designers themselves sneaking in at night and saying "never thought of that combination. We'll have that."

In fact, I just had to sit down and have a go myself. I must have been the only adult doing the activity, because a teacher came to sit and talk with me. He was bringing in a class next week and was just checking it all out. He was thinking of sending the boys off to do some bat related activity, but I suggested all the kids should have a chance to play with the dolls. And to keep it real, I suggested he should do one himself. So there we were, cutting and pasting and dressing dolls. After that, a lot of other grown ups came and joined in as well.

Coffee at Glorias

Sometimes you just have one of those days. I actually took this one in to my favourite Gloria Jeans cafe and gave it to them.

Red Riding Hood

Don't Think of a Red Fish

She Was Not Amused

Red Fish Day

Picked up a glorious card from The China Project at the QLD Gallery of Modern Art. It is by Ah Xian, from the Metaphysica series. In fact I grabbed a few to pass on to friends because it is such a striking image. Of course, the exhibition has come and gone and the cards are still on my table. Then my lovely friend Chrissy brought me another pile because she thought it was the kind of image I would like to play with. Well it was and I did. Sometimes I wonder what planet my sense of humour came from.