Fun Fun

Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous.  A long weekend with  perfect weather.

On Saturday I went for a drive to Evandale to see the Glover Prize .  This is an extraordinary landscape painting prize.  Always beautiful work, but a apparently a little contentious this year as the winning piece featured Port Arthur and Martin Bryant . Apparently very disturbing to some, not surprisingly.  It was interesting that much of the painting was a photograph of Port Arthur.  The whole thing looked very much like a Romantic work.  Quite beautiful, but disturbing.  My favourite kind of art.

Yesterday I did a workshop on creating sea-birds out of clay.  So much fun!  And lots of lovely people.  Here's what I came away with:

One of the people running the workshop said it looked a little like a Leunig bird.  I was quite flattered and am really revved up to make more of them.

And to end, today I am working from home.  Here's what I have to contend with to get anything done:

She keeps attacking my hand and chewing the end of the pen while I take notes.  Not helpful, Dusty, but lovely company.  I keep having to move the keyboard out of the way when she leaps up on the desk.  I've already had to go wireless with both mouse and keyboard because Dusty's sister, Cilla, kept chewing through the cables of the old ones.  Now all I need is a force field to keep Dusty off the desk.

Life could be a lot worse.

Road Trips

Well.  In the last couple of weeks I've been to Zeehan (twice!) and to Hobart.  This makes about 2000 km in total, but it's been worth the trip.

I'll take a brief side trip here to say I am currently drying home grown tomatoes.  And here they are:

Happy little vegetables in the dehydrator.  There are about four trays of them and lots more on the bush out in the garden waiting to be eaten.

So, I went to Zeehan yesterday for an International Women's Day event and to 'launch' the Material Girl exhibition.  On the way we stopped at a spot near Tullah, and this is the shabby view we got:

There are mountains and mountains and masses of forests.  It's beautiful.

So when we got to the hotel, I waddled out on to the veranda  to have a fag (yes I'm a nicotine addict) and this is what I saw:

Frankly not too shabby.  That's only a fraction of the vista taken over the top of the hotel.  It went on for miles and miles each side.  Gorgeous.

So now I'm back at home with my furry  children.  the '2012 Bendigo Bank Material Girl Exhibition' has been launched at an IWD event, and I think I talked a few arty types into entering, the car worked going both there and back (phew!)  and all is well.

We're all getting on with it

Here's a little pic from my studio:

It's little arty pieces against shadows of the sheers up against the wall of my studio.  I love the shadows from the curtain.  The colours are really rich.

I'm still technically unemployed, but working most of the time on organizing the Material Girl exhibition.  It's a challenge as I don't really know anyone in Tasmania so I'm making new contacts and trying to be sensible.  It's a fantastic opportunity.

Doing new things is always a challenge.  One can't help but second guess oneself.  I'm always assuming that I'm not doing it right and that an anvil will soon drop from above.

All I can do is my best.  Hope it works out.

And here's another thing I don't understand

My brother was beaten up on Friday night.  He was in his home and not harming anyone.  Someone came over and belted him.  I've heard garbled reasons for why this person might want to assault him.  None of which make any sense to me.

My family is in Darwin, which is a bit 'frontiersville'.  That's why I left 30 years ago.  But I still care deeply about my family.  When someone threatens my 84 year old mother, I get a little disturbed.

I have no idea what this is all about.  I know that my brother is very unhappy and I wish him well.  I've suggested that he come down here and stay for a while.  It would be good for him to get a way from where he is.

Bit of a worry, really.

Is always shocked by complete bastardry (Is that a word?)

Just heard back from the union about conversations with the ex-boss.  Apparently he owes me a week and a half of pay, but because I walked out, I owe him two weeks pay.

I would LOVE for him to pursue this, but he wont. I'd wrap him around the legislation any number of times.  But it isn't worth my while, or my energy to pursue any of this.

I'm just really glad that I'm not in that revolting environment anymore.

I'm having much more fun being a curator and looking for other proper arty work.

Getting on with it

Here's a nice little sight from my back door the other night:

It's lovely to be drawn back into nature and see beauty.

Life is progressing.  I have a new contract as the curator of a statewide exhibition of women's artwork and have been working on this for the last few days.  There isn't much in the way of pay, but it provides great experience and loads of new contacts.  Hopefully it will lead to more work in the industry.

I've also just gotten off the phone with Centrelink.  Because of the ex-boss' behaviour, they have decided to qualify me for payments immediately.  Normally there would be an eight week wait because I walked out of the job.  I think it's pretty funny that the ex-boss is the reason that I'm on benefits immediately.  He'd hate that.

In the past, I've had horrendous high blood pressure and have been on drugs for this for about the last six months without much improvement.  Yesterday, after two weeks away from the sweatshop, it was tested and found to be completely normal.  This was a pleasant surprise.  In fact, I'm feeling a little giddy today so might not even need the drugs.  What a relief.  It's amazing how circumstances can effect your health.

And I also want to say a big THANK YOU to all the marvellous friends who have helped me through the last couple of weeks.  You know who you are...

Snicker

Just got a call from the union and they've been onto the ex-boss asking for my employment records.  Apparently the response from the factory was that they believe I owe them money and they are going to take me to court.  So the union said 'OK, fine. We'll see you in court.'

So, long story short, the ex-boss is going to send my records to the union.  I'll also provide copies of all my pay slips and they'll do a cross check and we'll see where we go from there.

I think it's extremely unlikely that I'll end up in court.  The ex-boss is basically full of it.

Here's a little Billy Bragg as a fun ending: