juliemiaowl: Flying Wolves & Resolutions

Hello Possums,

New Years Resolution #1: Try to blog more often!

Work has been taking over art time so this year I'm going to try and get some balance in my life.

Yesterday I spent a day in the studio printing and experimenting and it was GREAT!

I've recently become part of a project called the Bimblebox 153 Birds .

153 Printmakers are making a print each of one the 153 birds that have been spotted in the Bimblebox Nature Refuge in Central Western Queensland. A man you may have heard of, Clive Palmer, would like to bulldoze and turn this Refuge into a coal mine.

What a jerk.

Anyway, YAY for environmentalist work!!!
If you're a printmaker please get involved! Check out the link above for more details.

The bird species i've been allocated is the Pheasant Coucal.

He's very pretty with magnificent chestnut and golden-y looking tail feathers and makes a call similar to that of a frog, or a human gulping. He also puts on a new top shirt of dark chestnut feathers when it's time to court the ladies and malts it off when he's done.

A gentleman perhaps?

I found these two jaunty little specimens in the Brisbane Museum.
Female & Male (ready for action!)....

Inking table with feather used in etching.

Here's an image of the etching plate.

I scratched the image onto the plate using a needlepoint.

Etching plate

The feathers in the background of the image were added by rubbing ink onto the feather itself and making multiple impressions onto a plastic plate. This was then printed onto a piece of Japanese washi paper the same size as the etching plate and collaged on during the final printing.

What do you think?

Only one gets sent away. It's going to be tough choosing but I think the darker one is the winner.

In other news....

Last week I made a very quick trip up to the Sunshine Coast to visit my little sister.

I was lucky enough to get to Brisbane to check out a very VERY exciting exhibition of Cai Guo-Qiang's work "Falling Back to Earth" on at GOMA at the moment.

Try and get there peeps, this is an AMAZING show.