‘Birds of A Feather’

‘It’s Just a Jump To The Left’

Birds of A Feather’ is the title for my solo touring exhibition starting 24th August 2018 at Gallery Central Nhill.

The exhibition is something I been working towards for a number of years, I have explored and produced birds in my art in paint, mixed media, collage, charcoal and pencil.

I have abstracted birds, I have morphed birds into mythological avian bird women, throughout all the creations there was one clear message, it’s about my connection within myself to place.

In BOAF I utilise pencils as my medium to present the birds realistically, there is something raw, honest, and humble in pencils although opaque, there’s a symbolic transparency about them as a medium.

In my new work I still search to show my connection to place through birds as my metaphor, I am recording and recoding my sense of connection to place.

Birds are represented throughout history in all tribes and nations culturally and mythologically, birds are about lifting our spirits up from things that ground us, or pull our spirit down.

‘Kinship’ A Cultural Connection At Desert Edge Arts Gallery

From left to right Karen Wiseman, Aunty Nancy, & Jandamarra Cadd.

I haven’t journalled my journey in my new business for so long and when I look back at what we have experienced and achieved in a very short time, I am amazed and proud and feel like we have lived a lifetime in a short time.

Since opening in Feb, we have had the joy of experiencing some amazing art in the Galery space that I will introduce you to.

Kinship’ a Cultural Connection by Jandamarra Cadd, was our most recent and is an Australia wide touring exhibition that Desert Edge Arts Gallery was fortunate/blessed enough to have in the gallery space for the month of May. It was planned that ‘Kinship’ would be our official opening.

We planned and organised everything including the blessing and Welcome to country and smoking ceremony blessing by traditional owner and elder Aunty Nancy, who bestowed us the blessing of opening our space and the exhibition, and Jandamarra Cadd himself would also be present talking about “Kinship’.

Derek and I had invested a lot into the exhibition financially with courier and airfare, car hire and accommodation for Jandamarra, because we believed in the message of ‘Kinship’ , of Unity and walking Together as One Heart, One Voice, One Mob,  it fitted our vision for the art space, of unity and nurturing, so ‘Kinship” a cultural connection was a perfect message to open our business with.

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans! To recoup some of the large courier fee, it was decided that I would run a fundraiser. From the fundraiser I received a 50 dollar donation, I was encouraged by the donation yet deflated by the bookings with only 3. Anyway we soldiered ahead as if we were catering for our limit of 30 people.

The day before the grand opening, my husband came down ill, in a very short time he looked terrible, and I decided that I was taking him to the hospital. With Derek having cancer I needed to get him to the hospital just by the way he looked and he was complaining of tightness in his chest. Derek was admitted to hospital confirmed he was having/had a heart attack. Our best laid plans had not included this, wasn’t even on the radar. With Derek’s encouragement everything was to go ahead as planned.

On the day of the grand opening a few extra booked in which brought our total to 13. I was so disappointed in the numbers, and Jandamarra gently reminded me what he had told me the night before, although he is used to talking to crowds of up to 600 or more at his openings, he would give his floor talk even if it was 1 person, because that’s one more person that has heard the message,  One Heart, One Voice, One Mob, and he didn’t expect large crowds from our small rural community.

Today I took the exhibition ‘Kinship” down and its on its way to its next destination, the exhibition was enjoyed by so many and the message of unity has been spread a little further, it has created conversation within our community and beyond spreading the message of Love. And I month later my husband has had a triple bypass n Melbourne 400 kilometres away from home, had fluid on the lungs, a major infection, and is finally back at our hospital, still fighting infection, and building himself up, for the next step, coming home..

The latest exhibition “The Earth Sings’ by Julie Kent opens this Sunday 31st at 2pm with drinks and nibbles, hope to see you there.,

cheers

Kazz

Desert Edge Arts * Gallery * Picture Framing * Art Supplies * Progress

We are so excited as we continue to plod along with preparation of the shops for Desert Edge Arts Gallery-Picture Framing-Art Supplies

The 2 shops that will house Desert Edge Arts 87 & 89 Nelson Street will become the cohesive home that houses Desert Edge Arts Gallery. Gallery, Picture Framing, Art Supplies, as well as running weekly workshops in Karen’s Open Studio Space at Desert Edge Arts.

Shop 87 has these beautiful wings that come out from the front door and bring to my mind that they are like arms reaching out to hug you. These beautiful shop front windows will make awesome displays to the street scape of Nhill and be very visible to the community from the super market across the road, always a hive of activity and for the traffic that pass’s by the front door on the Western Highway, one of Victoria’s busiest highways.

So even before you enter the shop itself, these beautiful windows offering 3 metres of wall display space each and being a bit over a metre wide, will be a beautiful addition to the street scape of Nhill.

We have been busy plugging up pin holes in the walls of these L shaped windows as they have been used as notice boards for quite some time. Being the size that they are, we intend to have a professional hanging system in the windows as well.

The last of the prep for the walls in ready for painting has now been done in preparation for the beautiful contemporary colour scheme we have chosen for the gallery walls. A lot of research went into the choice of the gallery walls colour so that all artworks displayed in the gallery will always be the Hero.

We have a good starting point in shelving for the art supplies that are coming into the store, but will need to add more to this to house all the Art supplies that are coming into the space. Desert Edge Arts aim to house the largest supply of art materials in the Wimmera, but to begin with we have a decent selection of a wide variety of materials and this will continue to grow we are excited to be bringing this business of Gallery, Picture Framing and Art Supply’s to our community in Nhill.

The flooring we are still debating between carpet or leaving as boards, for a bit of a rustic feel, or the more sensible carpet tiles would be the quickest solution and perhaps also the most cost effective, and reduce noise and keep the room warmer in winter.

We are also finding out the history of the shop its origins being it was originally  the shop front of one of the original garages in Nhill this could also mean the floor boards have more history on them than we want, and be the decider between rustic or carpet tiles.

Gail Harradine Watjobaluk/Jupagalk Artist

‘Tchingal & Waa (Crow) Story by Gail Harradine

Gails artworks are an expression of identity as a Watjobaluk/Jupagalk woman, and how her art links her back to her ancestors, her spiritual connection with  land , family,and the totems, all incorporated within her contemporary art.

Gail latest exhibition at Desert Edge Arts Gallery opened with an informative and enlightening talk as she explained the symbolism within the layers of her works Starting with Tchingal & Waa (Crow)  which incorporates her great great grandfathers totem the mussel shell a symbol that is present in a lot of Gail’s work, the shield symbol respecting  her clan honouring the traditional custodians of her country. The emu feather as a link to the river story’s, and crow belongs to the Giant Emu story of creation of the river.

 Wattle-bird with Emu Egg Yolk ( from Giant Emu Story) Giant Emu Story the dreaming story of the creation times,travelling through stories of Ancestor Beings from creation times, the creatures all things coming into being actions that transformed into landscape the rivers, lakes  billa-bongs, hills, mountain ridges, valleys, sand hills and plains, these places that hold the stories of her Ancestors dreamings.

Exhibition opened today Dec 7th at Desert Edge Arts and runs through till the end of Jan 2015. For people who cant get into the Gallery artworks are online for sale through the Gallery Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/desertedgearts?hc_location=timeline

A New Journey As Desert Edge Arts Finds A New Home

Introducing the new home of Desert Edge Arts . I have secured 2 shops side by side that are connected internally and  will house my Gallery space, the new Gallery space doubles the amount I previously had. I will sell Art Supplies,  Picture Framing , and a beautiful light filled room for art workshops and my studio. Through my blog I will take you on my journey as I renovate, repair, clean, paint, clean, did I mention Clean lol there is a lot of cleaning to bring these 2 spaces to Glory housing the new home of Desert Edge Arts.

Shop 89 was an Ice-Cream Parlour hence the sign-age, 89 will become my workshop/studio space this beautiful room is over 40 feet long, I know I’m showing my age working in feet a little exercise for anyone who wants to convert it and about 25 feet wide with a kitchen and toilet. 89 needs some attention before it opens its doors to do its job.

Apart from the cosmetics of cleaning 89 and painting it, and removing unwanted botch y cupboards 89 has sat idle and unloved for 2 years, so  white ants moved through a section of the skirting board and part of the floor so some repairs are needed. The first day I received the keys I removed sticky signs from the right hand window.

Paint is peeling of the ceiling as well as the walls and some ugly notice boards removed from the wall yesterday revealed some vintage art sign-age, and still so many more stickers of walls and window before a paint brush can go near the walls or ceiling lots of preparation.

End of day 2 and the second window is now free of sticky advertising 

 Shop 87 has a beautiful big open frontage of glass display windows that capture the light. 87 will house a beautiful New Gallery for Nhill, a fantastic assortment of art supplies.The front windows are going to be fantastic for display, being quite roomy and the way they wrap the entrance the shop front is highly visible from the supermarket across the road, the post office on the corner and the Shire buildings opposite. 87 is also only one shop away from the busiest take away food outlet in-town.  87 used to be a clothing store and we will remove all the unnecessary fittings making it a beautiful large light filled Gallery space with art supplies as well.

Today we removed the change rooms that we don’t want, removing these from the space gives the gallery an extra 13 feet of hanging space.

Removing some of the other fittings of the walls also freed up another 8 feet of wall space. We have been mindful to preserve the materials as we have removed them so there is the potential for them to be up-cycled else where in the shop or by some-one else. We are just going about it like the tortoise slow and steady and we will get there. We anticipate we will be open and trading mid Feb. We plan to have our Official Opening when ‘Kinship’ the Australia wide touring exhibition by Jandamarra Cadd comes into the Gallery in April 2015

Hanging a New Exhibition @ Desert Edge Arts Gallery

Today I put my Gallery owner/curator cap on as a new exhibition comes into Desert Edge Arts Gallery. Since opening my gallery this is the first photographic exhibition that the Gallery has had. Meander Catch’s photographic exhibition specializes in original photographic images with a particular interest in interpretive themes – emotions portrayed visually. These images are framed using up-cycled materials and embellishments to enhance the emotion and power portrayed within the photograph. All frames are original, one of a kind works.
Based in the Wimmera, MeanderCatch also has an extensive collection of native bird photographs, particularly birds of prey, along with land and waterscapes celebrating the diversity of local flora, fauna, forests and waterways.
Trish Wilde hails from Horsham and together with Amanda Larcombe relocated from Ballarat to Warracknabeal, they explore the surrounding countryside, cameras in hand, opportunistically capturing or creating images – hence the name MeanderCatch

Currently calling out for artists to exhibit in 2015

inbox Desert Edge Arts Gallery at Facebook https://www.facebook.com/desertedgearts

or email karenwiseman8@gmail.com

or call 0447 826 062

Armadillo

This work emits joy to me as part of todays quite time with my art I did this collage, I find the process meditative to do outside my normal painting, drawing and mixed media works. I was asked at my most recent exhibition at Desert Edge Arts Gallery Nhill Victoria by a visitor, “What do you prefer to do? which process/medium do you love the most? I love them all I replied. He insisted with another question, ‘you must prefer one over the other”? Do you have children I asked, How many children do you have? Puzzled he replied 4, I asked Which one do you love the most? He heartedly laughed I love them all the same’. Well I love all the process that I explore the same, I go through stages where a particular medium will be my choice to create a particular thing because I feel that the particular medium will respond the way I want, I am a figurative Mixed Media Artist.

The narrative within this work holds the key to the subconsciousness’s  waking dreams. So the first thing that strikes me in this collage is that Armadillo so I look for the symbolism of the Armadillo.

Armadillo’s medicine includes – understanding your personal boundaries, respecting the boundaries of others, carrying your protection with you at all times, understanding your vulnerabilities, empathy, discrimination, medicine shield safety, being grounded.

To defend itself, the armadillo will roll itself into a ball, becoming completely armoured against attack. This teaches us how to consciously define our own emotional and physical boundaries.

Armadillo wears its armour on its back, its medicine is this part of its body. Its boundaries of safety are a part of its whole being. Adjust your rhythms and senses to know what is safe and what is not. Armadillo teaches you how to protect yourself and when to let your defences down, to let others in to your space.

The Cheetah has a place in this story to
Cheetah’s medicine includes – speed and focus, brotherhood, elusiveness, ability to focus intently on something for a short period of time, swiftness, self-esteem, accelerating time, keenness of sight

Different to other felines, who stalk, then swiftly jump on their prey for the kill, cheetahs, the fastest animals alive, run down their prey.

The lesson to be learned here, the inspiration, is to fulfil our goals with speed and focus. When we feel stuck, cheetah energy can help us spring into motion. If we are moving with great speed but with little direction, cheetah medicine can help us to keep our eyes on our goals, to focus, and to find the most direct way of achieving them.

Sometimes we must carefully consider all aspects of a plan to reach a goal. At other times, it may be necessary to be flexible and adaptable in rehashing plans. However, sometimes the most important thing to do is to act with both speed and focus. The goal is almost reached, but continually putting something off, or lack of clarity keeps one from accomplishing it. It is at times like this that cheetah medicine is extremely valuable.

There is more wisdom to be taken from the cheetah’s actions – there are those who want to accomplish their goals but who may take on too many goals at one time. Though the cheetah is able to reach speeds of up to 63miles per hour, it can only maintain this incredible speed for a short period of time. Afterwards, it must rest for around 15 minutes.

The cheetah period of rest teaches us that intense activity should always be followed by a time of rest, relaxation, and contemplation.

And there is that girl full of joy and the bride and groom they have a part in this narrative as well  I wonder what that is? do you have any ideas? I would love to hear them, does any one have a clue as to why the smiling girl has a hand in her pocket? Why is the groom throwing water at the bride? I would love to hear your thoughts 🙂

Peek Inside my Studio

I have Often thought about sharing what’s going on in my art world, as an artist, gallery owner, teacher, and mentor, so I thought I would start with my current project. At the moment I am doing a 21 day journalling in collage online with Dante Jericho  Dante Jericho holds a BA in Holistic Theology from the American Holistic Theology Institute in Birmingham, AL.  She is an Usui Reiki Master/Practitioner and owned and operated the Options Reiki and Wellness Center in Huntsville, AL where she practiced Reiki, facilitated workshops and managed additional massage therapists in the Center.  As a public speaker, Dante has been sought by such organizations as the UAH Nursing Symposium and Church of Religious Science for her programs on holistic healing and the mystical path.
She has taught creative writing classes to both adults and children for over 15 years as well as having facilitated numerous writing groups, her focus on creative prompts and stream of consciousness writings.  Writing, she feels, is one of the most succinct paths to the soul.  Over the years Dante has incorporated collage into her writing work, further expanding her healing arena.
Collage is her main love, in which she is both artist and instructor/facilitator in the practice of Contemplative Collage, a process in which students create collages which they then “read” in much the same way as one would read a dream.  She has taught Contemplative Collage in the South and Southwest, including at the Huntsville Art League, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, ABQ Open Space, as teaching online to an international community.  She also maintains a weekly Contemplative Collage forum in which she demonstrates the power of collage as a creative tool in everyday life.
As a collage artist, her work has been shown in public and online.  Her worked has been displayed locally at the historic Tybie Davis Satin Gallery in Santa Fe, Second Street Brewery, Java Joe’s Coffee House and The Screen, at the Santa University of Art and Design.  Her most recent exhibit is presently on display at the Om Blessings Gallery in Santa Fe New Mexico.Dante is the author of Sacred Changes, Sacred Choices: Meditations from the I Ching.  Over the years, her essays and poetry have been published in travel, wellness and other anthologies.   She is currently working on her second book, KeyStrokes, a memoir about recovering her life, and her art, following emergency open heart surgery and three subsequent strokes. You can keep abreast of when Dante’s online courses are on via her Facebook page Contemplative Collage https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeCollage

its an interesting process expanding what I already do as a mixed media artist, this process is not just about creating the work Intuitively but also learning how to read the hidden story of the work. I teach Intuitive collage and I like to continue to expand the process of what I do. I think as artists we are always learning, as we explore and play, and if were not then we become stagnant. I like to explore and play with different mediums and collage is one of many but not the only one that I use to express myself as an artist.

I titled this work ‘On the Edge’ the sublime symbols within the work are very revealing for me, as they are for anyone that does this process.  Looking at the symbolism of the totem animals in the collage I see, Cheetah symbolism research shows it means (You have a great capacity for empathy and know exactly how to respond to the hurt, pain and suffering of others. You are fearless in the art of tough love and will tell it exactly as it is but have a way of saying these things so that the “punch” is removed from the delivery. You also respond quickly and instantly to all opportunities as well as dangers in your life. You have a tendency to be solitary and are very choosy as to who you trust and bond with. The Crow  The power of this bird as totem and spirit guide is to provide insight and means of supporting intentions. In short, crow symbolism is all about individuality. It’s about being bold, ballsy, and brash. If the crow is your totem. This is very much the shortened version of the symbolism of these animals, but I think you can see where its going and how the parts within the image start to make up the story. Each day I will aim to present a new collage and a bit of what else is going on in my artistic journey. Welcome to my studio