me myself and I

Not much time for procrastinating on the internet what with a Masters project due and with bubs to balance too. But here is a quick post with a couple of my latest images

Jai Felix Keet

The waiting is over
I have met
Our little Alien
Our little one
The Bump
The Parasite
Our little angel

baby journal 39+5 weeks pregnant

i get the
feeling
that
you are
that
i am
that
we are
going to meet
very soon

baby journal

As part of my attempted commitment to stay in touch with my art over the last period of my pregnancy and the early stages of the baby, I decided to do something that I find very difficult at the best of times: stick to a routine. Well, to be precise I decided to write and take a photo every day in relation to the changes happening in my mind and body around the baby. I have a journal and from 35 weeks pregnant and for the first weeks of the babies life this is my aim. It doesn't take long to do, some times it's just a line of quick thought and a quick snap.

Here is the image and the line from 37 weeks and two days pregnant

I fluctuate between feeling ready
and
feeling overwhelmed
the idea of the birth
and breast feeding
and
nappies
and sleeplessness
is all so much

Grandma and I

Thanks to some scans of some old negatives by Andy here is an image of my Grandma when she was about 19, and myself with her, at 28.

excuses

Why I have not posted for a long time
excuse 1 - moved house
excuse 2 - been in Melbourne
excuse 3 - been writing an essay from the lectures I attended in Melbourne
excuse 4 - moved house again
excuse 5 - pregnant and nesting (only 3 weeks till due date now)
excuse 6 - new owners of two bengal kittens known now as the little devils
excuse 7 - internet only just up in new house
excuse 8 - i am good at doing things that I am not meant to be doing

Above however is the latest husband and wife image. An image I started working on some time ago and have just redone. I would love to know what you think, if you still pop in here that is as I haven't been too regular at posting have I!

Alien

I'm off to Melbourne this weekend for two weeks of lectures for my MFA. We are also and at the same time, moving house, again. I've attached some completely unrelated words and an image. The image I took, and will likely never be used for anything, but I do like it anyway. The words, are by my all time favorite band - Lamb- , both for their music and their lyrics. These words are, I am assuming, about being pregnant. They are perfect.

"alien"

this was a body
now it's a home
for you my little alien
i feel you moving
it's oh so strange
do you like the music?

and i'm a happy home
what's it like in there?
yeah i'm a happy home
i hope it's cosy in there

if home's where the heart is
that's where you are
my heart is right there
so long i've waited
to be quite so occupied
mysterious being by you

self

Anyone would think I am self obsessed. I see that many of the photos on this blog are now of me. For some reason I have some kind of distance from them though, I'm not sure why. I just don't feel as though they are purely just about me and me alone. There is something bigger that I am trying to get to. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly that is though. Here are two more images, a self portrait and an indirect self portrait.

OJ

Well, all my promises last time of posting the image that I was taking up to Auckland has turned out to be lies.

Only because, I've left it there to get reprinted, as I felt the quality wasn't quite right. So you will get to see it, but not right now. Instead you can see this one -

This is my husband and I. I joked that it is what our baby is going to look like. Ha ha ha ... very scary! Let's hope not!

Self portraits

Time is flying, as usual. Here is a self portrait taken a few weeks ago, at about 19 weeks pregnant. It's quite a lot different than a lot of the other self portraits that I have been working on recently! I'm off to get one printed quite large now, it's a tad weird, just the way I like it. I'm going to be installing it for a group critique this weekend in Auckland as part of my MFA. It'll be very interesting to hear their interpretations of it. I'll be taking a photo of it while it is on the wall, and will post it here too.

While I'm writting, I'll put a little pip in for one of the latest blogs that is dealing with art photography in a NZ context - photography matters

images that almost work

Thanks for those of you who tried to help me on my last plee for inspiring artists. I agree with Microphen that work is much nicer in a book or real life rather than on a screen. I do find it interesting that I find it hard to find work that really inspires me when I get told that my work reminds some people of other photographers.

Anyway, here are three images that almost but didn't work. None the less the are still interesting.

more excuses

well here I find myself without internet again, as the mobile broadband we had was anything but fast, and rather expensive. So now to post I need to go to the library, not such a bad thing, as New Plymouth has a fantastic library. But it's still not quite as easy as posting from home.

As part of my MFA I have been looking at artists that produce work that may be inspiring to me. My tutors have given me a list, and though some of them were interesting none of them grabbed me and made me love their work. One of the ones that was rather interesting though is Catherine Opie

However if any of you bloggers have some good suggestions of artists whose work may inspire me, please do let me know! I am on the hunt!

playing without care

I've been playing around, without really caring about how the images may finish up, and whether or not they are actualy something I may use later on. It's quite fun, and refreshing to do this.

Here are a couple of these playings, I have some others but they'd need to be photographed with a digital camera so you could see them, however, my digital is away being repaired as we speak. So you'll just have to wait.

the morning after

After a weekend of new people, new stimulation and new encouragement, I am excited about some experimentation, and playing around. Auckland it self was much less inspiring as I have always had a fearful aversion to stop start traffic and people whose dress style can only be described as overtly poncy. However I DID make it from where I was staying to where the tutorials were without too much concern, and I didn't ever get lost without being able to find myself again pretty easily. However I was somewhat confused as how to get from page 2 on the map book to page 48, especially when it was only a five minute drive, maybe I should invest in a slightly bigger map.

Anyway, here is another pairing that I played with earlier this year.

I'm back!

I am in a new house (third move in as many months) and we have finally got the Internet up and running. Although it is rather slow, not much faster than dial up really, so posting images will be interesting, but none the less, will be done. This weekend I go up to Auckland for the first of the tutorials for my MFA. It is quite exciting, I am looking forward to being in an education and critiquing environment once more. I await the sleepless nights. And also on that note, I am pregnant, so yet another reason for sleepless nights. I won't bore you with the details though, but I'm sure I won't be able to resist self portraits of a growing belly.

My new work is looking at culture, symbolism and self identity especially in a NZ context. Below is one of my colour pairings that I am playing around with. Hopefully there will be many more posts in the near future, now that I have no excuse anymore, so do drop in regularly! Feedback is welcome!

The lack of images on this blog, and hence the lack of posts is something of a bad habit. However I have excuses! For those of you who are unsure of my practises I don't use a digital camera for my art, I most commonly use a medium format camera, and sometimes a large format. This is a much slower process than snapping away on digital, and also a much more beautiful process. I cannot see myself being convinced of otherwise anytime in the near future. I have rolls of film sitting around waiting patiently for development. However I have been waiting for a number to build up before I send them off (it saves on courier). This is all a bit boring though, but don't fear, there will be some exciting work appearing here shortly! Currently it's running around in my head only (and on film I suppose too).

Watch this space!

We are ticking along nicely into the new year now. It still gives me a bit of a fright to see 2008 printed as our year though. Already some big events have happened in New Zealand, Sir Edmond Hillary passing on was a shock, but if someone was to leave this earth satisfied with his journey here, that is one man that could be! We were also here on the coast of New Plymouth last weekend to see the two Australian kayakers come to shore, that is a great feat, and it was awesome to see the last of their journey and be there to applaud them.

As for me, this is looking like an exciting year. I am to begin studying for my Masters of Fine Arts through RMIT in Melbourne. I will be doing it via distance which means I can do it from our new (as yet non existent) home here on the coast of Taranaki. Through my MFA, I intend to explore the notion of self-identity & self-representation, in particular interest are the symbols we choose to portray ourselves with.

It is fantastic to be in a small city that has resource such as a high quality museum, gallery and library. The council here has invested a good amount of resources into the culture here as can be seen with the work of the Len Lye foundation, the aforementioned amenities, and other great assets such as Pukekura park which is currently alight with music and lights for the annual festival of lights, and the coastal walkway.

I'm ticking along well with my work, but will wait to show you some of my recent pieces, here though is a bit of a tongue in cheek image for you to think over.

death

Death is a strange thing. It will happen to us all one day, that is a certainty. As aware of this dim fact as we may be, it still is a strange phenomenon. That life as we know it can leave the body of whom we are so familiar with, is very difficult to comprehend. I speak of this as it is on my mind today. I woke up this morning to find Tweedle had died in the night, I wasn't expecting it as I had looked after him for a week successfully, and thought if he was to die, it would have happened sooner. Also today is the day of a friends funeral. I won't be able to make it, partly because we hadn't been too close over the last few years, but I saw only a couple of months ago, and he is my facebook friend. Facebook drives me crazy, and I don't really visit it much, however I popped into Scott’s page to see what had been said. His fiancée had written to him only a few days before he died, to say how much she loved him, and since his death has continued to write to him speaking of her loss and sadness. Hundreds of other posts have been put on by many of his friends also. Scott was only 29, and died unexpectantly.

Death is a concept that often comes up in my work, sometimes directly other times a bit more indirectly. Either way I am fascinated by the fact that it is to happen to us all at a date we have no idea of, and that it leaves an emptly shell of a body behind, the soul, gone somewhere else.

tweedle

Here is a snapshot taken of the newest addition to our whanau. I have taken other images that include 'tweedle' too, I will post those in the near future. Tweedle is a baby whiteeye that was found by my sister in the carpark on the kaimais, he is so young that he needs to be feed runny food off a spoon every 15 minutes or so. Hopefuly he will grow out of this shortly as it is quite tiring. In he mean time, he is a good subject.