Lost Aussie on the loose

Hearts To Go

I'm jumping on a jet plane tomorrow and heading down to Phoenix, AZ to visit with my friend Sylvia Luna. She's having a rather special birthday bash and I'm happy dancing at the thought of being able to celebrate with her - as well as a number of other kewl art girls that I will be delighted to see again!

So today, apart from finishing off a piece of art as a birthday gift I also whipped a quick little fabric art heart that will find it's way into the hands of someone else 'special' while I am down there - made use of some of those yummy ribbons I found in town the other day!

Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday weekend and see you when I get back....
Ciao for now

Out and About On Long Island

Seems to me that the blog of late has been mostly composed of photgraphic art...not that that is a bad thing, but rest assured I AM making mixed media stuff behind the scenes..just nothing to show or tell right now...so you will have to content yourselves with more of my Camera walkabout nonsense!

The lovely pink bloom is something that was derived from my belated seed growing session in April.  One of the few things that managed to survive my absence during that month.  I couldn't resist snapping and sharing!

And...today I headed out with Mr O to the North Fork of Long Island for a bit of a spin.  He had to attend to some business for a few hours and since it was sunny and bright I decided to tag along and SEE what I could see while he was busy.  The best finds included some pictures I managed to snap in an old Antique store in Jamesport (that unfortunately is closing down). The end of the island is like a whole other world (aside from the Hampton's hoipoloi)..lots of lovely farm stores, nurseries and vineyards....and definitely nicer to visit when the Summer critters are not about.

A New York Photo Walk

Today DH and I participated in the first ever "World Wide Photo Walk" - an event hosted by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.

A Photo Walk is a social photography event where photographers get together, usually in an interesting downtown area or trendy section of town, to walk around, snap some pictures, and generally have a good time with other friendly and like minds.

At 4pm today we met up with about 50 other camera toting creatures at the Fountain at Columbus Circle and headed off on a pre-determined trail through Central Park.  For some 2 hours we meandered through the park and trails, snapping here and there, chatting lots and generally having a good time.

Now we are all invited to submit the best of our pics into a competition and it will be interesting to see what comes out of the day's shooting!

Since we have to post our pictures to a (private) Flickr group that is not open to the general public, I thought I would share a few of the fun snaps of the day with you here on the blog!...

As you can probably guess...I was having lots of fun and managed to capture a few eyecatching things along the way...

Etsy Update

In between watching the Aussie men do their diving thing at the Olympics and the amazing guy who won GOLD for his pole vault, I managed to post a few updates to the ETSY store, to include three new encaustic pieces.

I need to enjoy the time I have to work with the Wax this week as there is a looming deadline to produce some mixed media inkjet work that I hope to have on display at the NY Photo Expo in October!

For some reason, my ARTful life has catapulted into a whole new universe and now I am scrambling to take it all in and keep up...but I think that's a good thing!

A Little More Wow

I was in the City on Tuesday to meet friends for dinner and stopped off beforehand at the sister store of Tinsel Traders to buy some ribbon..could not resist all the wonderful colours and textures they had on offer.  Sad to say that the Garment District is slowly disappearing due to re-zoning and lots of lovely old shops are closing their doors...I can only wonder what Tim Gunn would say - in this case - more like - why can't we make it work?
The past few days I have been working on some more encaustic pieces.  I will be putting a few of them up for sale in the Etsy store next week, so stay tuned for that one!

And, as if my barrel of luck was not overflowing last week, yesterday I received notification that I have had two pieces of work accepted into yet ANOTHER show, this one is in San Diego, Urban Legends and Country Tales - Art in digital style.
AND apparently they want to use one of my images as part of their Promo material....so wooohooo on that score!

Before I close this post I must mention that Seth Apter over at the Altered Page has his NEW Season of PULSE on the go.  If you have not checked it out, you should....lots of lovely insight into the minds of some now 90+ artists and I am gratified to have been part of Seth's project since the beginning.

Sunshine and Other Things

No New York photowalk this weekend as I've had a few other things to do.

The summery sunshine and window without continual thunderstorms meant that Mr O and I attacked a bunch of projects at home this weekend...or more accurately he scaled the roof and painted the chimney while I supervised from the comfort of garden level and attacked the weeds and bushes.

I've taken a few moments in the last few days to head out to the Hamptons and had a great girlie 'sleepover' with a girlfriend that I have known since the 80-somethings when she and I worked at Guy's Hospital in London together.  It's incredible to think that we have known each other for some 25 years and even though we are seldom in the same space on the planet these days, still keep in touch.....and can yabber on like it was just yesterday that we last saw each other.
I'm lucky to have quite a few friends like that!

Exhibition Exhilaration

In the past two days I've received two wonderful pieces of news...

I have had artwork accepted into not one, but two different gallery exhibitions here in New York.

The first is at the MOCA Inaugural Exhibition of International Digital Art to be held at their Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, Sept 2nd - Sept 18th, 2008.
In addition to the bricks and mortar show they also have an online gallery of all the entries which you can see here.

The second wowza moment was being accepted into the Art Leagues 52nd Exhibition of Long Island Artists with one of my new encaustic pieces being chosen for the show.
Their show runs from Sept 13th to Oct 12th, 2008.

I am sure you can imagine how hog darned tickled pink I am feeling right now!!! :-))))

Working To A Deadline

I've spent a lot of days over the last few weeks getting several pieces of art ready to submit for exhibition.

This piece unfortunately did NOT make the cut.  Not because it was refused, but simply because I could not get it QUITE RIGHT!  and therefore it became good for blog fodder only.

I daresay I will re-work her in the days to come and she will make a magnificent print in the end, but as far as deadlines go, it missed the boat!

A Little More Photo Journaling

DH and I were up bright and early today to make a 10am business meeting in the City.  Hard yakka getting up at 8am on a Sunday (nevermind any other day of the week!)

Business done, we headed down to J&R to scope out some new hardware and a few other computery things on the Geek wish list! The store is handily located right next to City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge so of course that was a 'must do trek' - to obtain the obligatory photos of the Oh So Famous New York Icon.  We walked about half way across and would have done more if we had not been dressed in our "Sunday Best"...just a little too tidy for all that sweaty stuff!

I usually take my trusty Nikon D80 on our photo outings but in a blonde moment I'd forgotten to re-charge the battery and had to content myself with using my old Canon Rebel XT. 

For a change of pace I set the capture to Camera RAW and have since spent a few interesting hours post processing the pics.

So, to finish, here are a few other snaps that were caught after lunch, which of course had to be on the "other'" side of the city up around 86th St.

From one extreme to the other...heck, we will be moving around the city and feeling like locals in no time at all!

Walking On The Moon....

....De do do do, de da da da
Is all I want to say to you...

..Yep, last night we got to see the final concert at MSG given by the POLICE!  And what a fabulous show it was!  I don't think I have ever felt a building rock so hard and still be left  standing at the end of the night.  It was quite awesome.
Hard to believe that these guys are 50+ and still pounding out songs and sounds with the same vengeance that they did in their early days, and apart from a few gray hairs here and there you would not know the difference!
Way to go boys!

And tonight, just for a little contrast, we cozied up on the couch to watch the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics - yes I know most of the world watched it at least 12 hrs earlier, but it didn't really seem to matter.
What a stunning exhibition of creativity and art in motion.  I can't imagine the director, Zhang Yimou ever having to go to far to find a job ever again!
For me the ceremony was awe inspiring, heartwarming and stunningly beautiful and elegant  At each juncture I kept imagining the complicated dances and set moves to be computer driven or use robotics to manage the performance, yet it was simply the sheer power of the people that drove it and made it so special.

My heartfelt good wishes go out to ALL the athletes competing over the next few weeks.  I wish you good, honest and solid competition and hope that politics can stay firmly in the back seat, where the Olympians of the 'not so modern age' intended!