Naomi Pelletier's blog

Beginnings

Ford Maddox Brown The last of England 1855

I have a few phrases that have travelled with me, mainly I think because they keep proving  to be true. So I’ll start with the first; 

The best place to start is the beginning.

  I have always loved the worlds that we can find that are outside or inside our own. The places we can go while sitting still; a book, painting, film, a conversation. 

I first saw this painting for the first time when I was a child, my grandmother used to take me into town on the train. We would go to a show or a gallery, we would have cucumber sandwiches at David Jones. 

I loved the grandeur of the permanent wing, the rich oil soaked trimmings and high ceilings. The paintings of far off places the size of my bedroom wall. At this point Paris was far away and I couldn’t have imagined the Louvre. My 12 year old eyes would have stopped working. 

The longing in the pale blue eyes of the women in The Last of England held me, her red scarf held up by some mysterious wind. Her child’s hand held tight, cocooned amongst a sea of gray. My own grandmother came from England with a young baby in toe and bound for her Australian husband. These stories would always fill me with wonder and imaginings.

As an adult I used to walk down to the gallery and take my sketch book. I’d snuggle into a seat and draw. I particularly liked the Asia section with it’s dim lighting and musty scent.

I think looking at it now that it foreshadowed where I was to go, as I spent many years living and working in Asia. 

Asia is where I felt the freedom of overtaking four cars, with on coming traffic, while holding onto the back of a scooter. The freedom of jumping onto moving ferries and also where I met my husband, a traveling French pilot with a backpack and laptop.

Now I live in the tropical north of Australia, I teach and make stuff and search for beautiful things. Always looking for that traveling we do while standing still. 

 

Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte considers language and perception

‘Draw It With Your Eyes Closed,’ Edited by Paper Monument - NYTimes.com

via www.nytimes.com

The book, Draw it with your eyes closed: the Art of the Art Assignment, is 'a unique and wide-ranging anthology featuring essays, drawings, and assignments from over 100 contributors', this is definitely on my Christmas list.

I haven't taught art in the last year as I have been part time and teaching film but I look forward to teaching a class next year. In my wanderings around the web, I have had that thought in the back of my head. There are some great resources out there, in the last few years especially so on blogs and pinterest. However it is difficult to find a book dedicated to those processes that start the creativity in a class room. The book is apparently in-part inspired by Paul Thek the artist and teacher. His drawing starters, such as; 'redesign the human genitals so that they might be more equitable'  I mightn't use for the year 9's. You can find the book on Amazon or buy it from the company that created it Paper Monument. Here are some starters to use whilst your awaiting delivery;

“Take an 18 x 24 inch piece of paper and make a drawing using nothing but your car.”
“Design a monstrance.”
“Make a paper doll of yourself.”
“Make a sculpture / installation where everything needed to make it is included.”
“Design something to put over a child’s bed.”
“Make a tool to work on a problem that is currently unknown.”
“Redesign a rainbow.”
“Design something to sell on a street corner.”
“Defenestrate objects. Photo them in midair.”

16 metres of trampoline fun

Who doesn't want to run free for at least 16 metres in a Russian forest on a trampoline? I recently came across this piece of awesomeness on Colossal and  it set my mind adrift. Sailing on an ocean of stretchy fabric. Bouching and seeing for a moment the world a little differently, while also giving your calves and thighs a serious workout. I would love for this to be my way of getting to work. As a child I remember imagining a future in which everyone walked on moving platforms but this is way cooler. It was built by a design firm Salto as part of the 2012 Archstoyanie festival in Russia.

Beard science

Be Kind

Kindness is underrated. We could always use more of it. We tend to worship visionaries and creative people (like Steve Jobs and Pablo Picasso) and elevate them to the status of gods, even though they were often assholes (like Steve Jobs and Pablo Picasso). Stop praising the jerks. It reinforces bad behaviour (all the parents in the house know this).

via http://www.marcjohns.com/

 

I have been looking at this guys illustrations for the past year and it surprises me that I am yet to remark on them. This particular drawing caught my eye. Perhaps because it's Christmas time, a holiday I always enjoy or that I have been grappling with return to work syndrome, that I have been thinking about being kinder of late. 

A teaching environment can be a brutal one and often all your energy is exhausted in being the person that a teacher should be. Kind, patient, supportive, being a bit wise at times always helps, so when it gets to the end of the day your kindness quota can feel somewhat depleted. The adminstrative part of a teachers job is also ever expanding and is a little heartless and often out of synch with what we are trying to achieve. It's extremely difficult to be zen about issues that matter so much. 

I spent a year with my new son, gazing at him, marvelling at first steps and the like. Returning to work was, well, a bit of a shock. The teaching was great but I've always ironically taken issue with being told what to do, particularly when I have difficulty in making sense of the logic. So I found myself getting increasingly annoyed and my mood being, well somewhat unkind. Unkind to myself, my husband and at times a random stranger in the supermarket. 

Grumpy isn't that awesome and often needs a paradigm shift of thought to help you out of it. I find at times my pithy sense of humour, which is certainly leaning toward the sarcastic, can get me in trouble. I also often find myself surrounded by lovely people who are phenomenally different to myself, which can also mean that the sarcasm can often be misconstrued.

In an effort to pull myself out of the grumpy hole, which is really quite difficult when you find yourself in it. I have been attempting to just shifted myself slightly. My morning drive to drop my son at daycare is right near the beach. Finding ourselves with a spare 10 mintues, I have been making the effort to scoop up the 12kgs that is my one year old and walk across the park just far enough so that we can see the ocean and breath in some salty air. It is only brief, just a few minutes before my boy starts to wriggle and wonder what we are doing but it's enough to make me feel connected to something bigger than the petty little world I can sometime find myself looped in.

It is a moment just for us where we stop. This is a feeling that is rare in a life that seems to be moving at a neck breaking pace in a direction that I am uncertain of. So I'd like to wear this little illustration as a talsiman of sorts, to remind myself to stop and look at the ocean once in a while and be kind to myself, my family and random people in the supermarket.

Knitted Bean Bag

Who doesn't need a little nest to cuddle up in once in a while. My son is mad about pillows he drags them round the house and hurls his body on top of them throwing giggles through the air as he does so. I know he would love these cuddly Knitted Bean Bags.

Foam Clouds in the streets of Singapore

 

A recent fire in  Singapore, of a warehouse resulted in about 70 barrels (200 litres each) of detergent-based concentrate creating a fairly magical display of thick white foam in the streets. Twitters provided a number of images to marvel at.

 

 

 

 

Blurp book publishing

If your a first time mum like me, you most likely have a veritable mountain of photo's trapped in your iphone or computer struggling to get out. In an attempt to save them and create some Christmas gifts of my son's first year, I looked around for somewhere to get a good quality book published at a reasonable price. As mentioned I have a lot of photos but wasn't looking to do a print run of a 100. I had heard of snapfish and used Kmart to print calendars for my Granma but was really after something of higher quality that I could have more control over. Luckily I stumbled upon Blurp an online publishing company. There are numerous pathways you can take to publish a book with them, I just downloaded their software which is pretty easy to navigate. I wrote a little story, Dr Seuss style to go with the images and I have finally uploaded it for printing today. It will be several weeks before I receive the books. Whereas you can just pop into a Kmart and whip a little memory book up but I really don't mind waiting for quality. Fingers crossed that's what they are! I will post samples when they arrive. 

MAIL ART

After my lengthy rant about the many and varied pleasures of the Handwritten letter. I thought I would compile a little selection of mail art to further expound the joys of the posted letter.

 

Hand Written Letter Project Second Edition Book

 

The Handwritten letter project is a experiment of sorts that 'promises nothing other than handwritten ephemera', now that is right up my alley. That feeling of heavy pen in hand gliding across dense 120 gsm paper, fill me with longing and remembrance. Now all I hear is the chattering click of the keyboard, the bright hum of the screen. Oh I do remember a time when the only contact I had with a computer was playing 'Where in the world is Carmen Miranda?'.

My brother in subsequent years had a commodore 64 and I have a distinctly sparkling memory of when he turned it's screen into a glowing green birthday message, the words Happy Birthday emblazoned across the screen. The sparkle has worn off somewhat and although I have a deep love of my Mac Book and iphone bordering on the obsessive, apparently now labelled 'nomophobia', I am deeply cynical about my technology obsessed world and I miss getting letters in the mail.

When email came into my life things quite frankly got briefer and more bland. Emails are notes, not letters and are often a way of removing yourself from your recipient, not connecting with them. Work email can get especially tricky and be an easy way to be rude and distant. After all it is a lot harder to look someone in the eyes and say, 'You need to work 3 hours overtime on Saturday, colon parentheses. ' Just like it is easier to defriend a Facebook friend rather than say to them, 'I never want to see or hear from you again.' What was it that Holden Caulfield say's  in Catcher in the Rye:

'I'd rather push a guy out the window or chop his head off with an ax than sock him in the jaw. I hate fist fights. I don't mind getting hit so much--although I'm not crazy about it, naturally--but what scares me most in a fist fight is the guy's face. I can't stand looking at the other guy's face, is my trouble.'

Yes it's the other guys face that is taken out of the equation. The other guys face that reminds you that it's a person that your communicating with. Of course that is also removed from a letter but the difference of course is that email is being used to replace conversation. Letters are about long winded prose, they are another layer on a longing gaze, not 'could you pop to the shops and grab some milk on your way home.'

 I don't want to say that you can't receive a beautiful love letter via email, its just we often don't. The tactile nature of a handwritten letter is also not something to be underrated, nor is the idea that your letter has taken a journey to get to you, has passed through strangers hands, possibly suffered hardships and still reached you. 

 Apart from the impersonal nature of email, you also miss out on the joys of snail mail. After all there is nothing more delightful than receiving a little letter in your mail box. When I was 13 I had a pen pal from England and I would spend hours designing the envelop. Swirling the letters of the address on the cover of my giant hand made parcel. A letter can include so many tactile joys. A ticket stub, a sticker, words wrapped in words that flow like water. Dripping in assonance and steeped in alliteration. In an email we call these things attachments and they usually come in the form of 'The 20 funniest dog moments' or 'The man with his penis pierced 8 times'.

Perhaps you'd like to start your own Handwritten Project and write a letter to someone you've been thinking about. Just remember that the words need to travel so consider them carefully.