Arty Day

 

More from March this year.

First time  I was in the Indiana, Cottesloe, was 2013 when Grace and Sami, Ingo and I met for the first time in person. "The ‘iconic’ Indiana Teahouse on Cottesloe Beach is now part of a state heritage place, potentially complicating plans for its redevelopment."

 

We return each March when we are there because then it´s Sculpture by the Sea there - it´s for free, too. 

This time Ingo stayed home, but Grace, who lives nearby, picked me up and we met Sami on the spot, here are some  more impressions.

 It is only 22C/71F here, so... ahhhh pics from a real hot holi-day.

This is by Jimmy Rix, Sydney,  and the statement is: "Home ownership is a bridge too far - interest rate hikes, cost of living, owning or keeping a home for many Australians is now in the balance. The Great Australian Dream could be just that - only a dream evaporating into the clouds."

Same here - our condo´s price likely has doubled! We were lucky to have bought when it was cheap(er)! Rents rise, so many apartments look empty in our area. Reckon many are forced to move to the villages or the west part of town.

By Alessandra Rossi, WA. "The artist creates a sculptural ensemble that explores the intersection between painting and sculpture, with specific focus on the theme of Natura Morta (Still Life)."

 

 

Actually I only wanted to show you the ocean, but COADY is standing there - I´ve posted on him before. The artist is Dave from VIC(toria), it´s "a reference to Michelangelo´s marble carving of David.... With gender rules and traditional male stereotypes fading... (he´s) more a baby boomer than a millennial, a journey in time that has redefined notions of masculinity."

By Tom de Munk Kerkmeer, WA. "The artist honours his Mother who passed away in 2022 in the Netherlands. She was an artist/sculptor and loved bamboo. At the same time  the artist is dedicating this gateway to Mother Earth ... the artist expresses his hope that we will enter a sustainable relationship with our precious planet."

By Denise Pepper, WA. Statement: "I consider this work as a tribute to the role played by women artists throughout history, ensuring the equality and respect shown to women artists is visible."

 

Did you spot the sane person in this pic?

Here is a close-up:

I see many people "sun-bathing" at the beaches. Hello skin cancer.

The UV-Index is often 11-13 in summer (ours is 2 right now)...

The Australian sun is super-aggressive, I never go out without sunscreen-factor 50+ and my red hat, even when swimmung in the ocean....

More art to come.

 

Henry's 🦁  alter Perth-ego, the Black Swan 🐣:

 

 Not in the ocean, certainly, but in Swan River!

 

A bit of history again?

 

 "Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818 and taught himself to read and write. After he managed to escape from slavery, he wrote the famous autobiography "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave". He dedicated his life to campaigning for the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. And he was handsome too!"

Source, translated by DeepL.

Welcome To Cottesloe

 

To some seagulls are a pest  - to me they symbolize holiday....

This is Cottesloe.

Dear friend Grace picked me up and we met Monday-host and dear friend Sami for Sculpture by the Sea this March. 

This, as many events in the Perth-area is for free, you pay only if you want (we sure did, as likely everybody, I love this idea).

 

 Well, humans, animals, we´re all critters, don´t you think?

OK, these are sculptures, of course... 

 

 

What are you ashamed of? 

I remember a fellow student. Swimming lessons. "She" always went with her Mom to a single room to change into swimming clothes. Boy... girl, kinda both. Hope this person found a way to be happy.

With this I´d like to join...

 

 Eileen, of course.

 

Henry 🦁 sends my friend´s cat for a hello:

 

Max turns 19, if I am correct, soon. A skinny, sleepy Grandpa.

To family, to critters.

More sculptures on the way, of course! 

Weather is un-summerly still. Glad we had Perth this year. I dreamed tonight of all the holidays we were happy to take... in summerly weather.

Addendum, as Tom let us know today is Barber Shop Appreciation Day - and I had no idea of this genre, let me share this:

Isn´t that wonderful? Funny? Wonder if they have pocket-watches in there, attached to the chains?

My Dad was also a watch maker... and he´d loved this!

 

 

A Love Story

 

 

Mural-series taken on the way from Cottesloe to Perth, thanks to Grace and P.

It was on the way back from sculptures by the sea 2019 and P remembered all the murals and stopped 😘

A series?

A love-story?

See, this is a close-up from the beginning:

And years later...

The fun will not stop!

Never will it stop, the fun!

We are still in for it all!

My sweetheart, time never stops...

And since this is not Germany...

Mind you. The artist looks like a sadly lost Perth-celebrity! 

Sorry, I have to sneak this in:

(OK, I was born maybe 4 years later, but cute pic of Ingo at the ocean, no?)

Henry 🦁

Ocean, lake, we love water!

 

This is for Sami´s COLOURFULWORLD Monday Murals.

 

 

 

Let´s Give It

My days now so far started... black.

It´s not only the cold, icky weather. I sit in a warm home.

My new teamleader is Ukrainian, very active in helping, has many a big sponsor here (well, two, but that´s a start, right!) - he gives his best, near to no sleep, active, active, active and then he has to take care of me as well (I found two other colleagues to give me work and help on the way).

 

Come weekend he´ll take off to Kiev again, with goods to help and bring back refugees.

Me, the only woman in the German team (that I know of) I hence  "have to" listen to all the ugly details of the war.

 

I mean. He really goes into the war zone. He braves up. 

Not only the pictures in the news, I get the full "blast".

I understand he needs to get it out.

But, wee... it´s tough.

He has my very deepest respect. I think he is my "little" Brother´s age, mid 40´s.

 

It makes one feel so humble and thankful. 

So angry and mad, too.

 

So, as signs today I need something that represents hope.

 

 Wish I could give a bit to the people who suffer so badly now, so unnecessarily badly.

 

This is for Tom´s Signs2.

 

Henry 🦁 

 

 

We need to look forward to light, to peace, to freedom 🌻💙💛

I don´t see it, though. 

 

Comfort food needed - look here, if you like.

 

 

Good Bye Sculptures

I say good bye now to sculpture by the sea 2019 - but not to Cottesloe (or Freo or Perth for that matter) yet!

Though NZ artist Phil Price´s statement is a bit strange this was one of my favorite pieces.
As you can see it´s not a tiny sculpture, it´s not only 7m in height, no, it also moves, have a look!



(The guy in the shirt passing by makes me laugh every time :-)...)

The Ipomoea is often considered a noxious weed, but is also beautiful. In the "right" conditions it can grow rather huge.
This is the seedling in its first throws of life, it´s lifting it´s turning, bobbling head as if to observe the world (and yes, you really got the feeling, a wonderful piece of art to me).

The artist continues it´s like being from the future, a familiar stranger, a place where science and nature collided, creating a mutation that seduces with beauty.

He asks if it´s about colonising our world or if we are looking to trade our natural world for the artificial.

Well. I think it´s both, considering all the AI we already live with!

Thank you big again, P, for giving me this treat of the leaflet and both of you, Grace, for taking me there!

I hope for a next time, I hope they continue having this wonderful event!

Just Laze?

Actually this was none of my favorites at sculpture by the sea, but, please, look to the right!
Recon it´s a man lazing there :-)
I love that.

I´d seeked shade cause despite it was a cloudy day the Australian sun... oh, weeee, at least to European skins it´s not good.
But to have the luxury life to not run after the art but just lie there... it made me a tad jealous (with a smile, though).

I think the artwork might be "Structural Orb" by Jarrod Taylor from WA, but I´m not sure as there is no pic but a drawing in the leaflet.

If it is it is about the tipping point of society´s economic balance. That we´re at the edge of collapse.
Hm.
If I say "relax like the mate down there"...

Hmmm. Probably neither is good.
We do need people to point out that we need to live with nature, but, by golly.

I don´t have a car anymore, I recycle plastic, paper, plastic and glass bottles, glass and compost, batteries.
We re-use egg-cartons and paper bags for the market, have our backpacks for shopping.
When I still worked and went with collegues for lunch I had a private, re-usable container for the second half of the meal, too...

Do I need to be "told off" like that.

Yes, I admit, we fly to Perth every two years.
Not good for the environment.

But!
When I see or saw how my customer, instead of using video-conference flies from Wolfsburg to Ingolstadt all the time... hello?

I do believe we do "enough", what do you think?

Let´s Fly... Into A New Life?

"Bird in Flight" at sculpture by the sea is a funny mixture to me.

The artist´s name is Sollai Cartwright from, tadaaa... VIC | Germany.
How does that go together?
Does the artist live by free will in Germany at times?

If so there must be a lot of flying indeed.
The material is from... Italy, white carrara and red marble, sandstone :-)

It´s the encapsulation (yes, I had to look this one up) of the spirit of land and sky. It seems to dream like above the earthly plane. It´s of tumultuous joy, well that sounds good.

Yet I still feel it was good to do not have the leaflet yet when seeing it - and only a sign "please do not touch the artwork".
Would you´ve thought of a bird?

Let´s fly. Or swim. D-Day memorial started yesterday.
The Queen spoke, Trump recited (...) openly.
And for once Merkel "quietly" and off stage said something good and true.
That on D-Day Germany was finally freed of the Nazis.
Why off-stage??? This was important!!! To the rest of the world, too. Stupid!

Oh, and. 05:50 am I sent out an application. No hopes whatsoever (it all sounds too good) but fingers crossed might help?

Addendum... they wanna see me next week.
I´m super nervous already.
But.... they wanna give my vita to "their customer"... No more external please...

Addendum... they just called me. It would be Wolfsburg again. I don´t know what to do.
Will see next Wed, when we meet...

Where Am I?

I had to laugh in astonish- and bemusement when reading the leaflet on this artwork at sculpture by the sea.

It´s really called "Orientierungshilfe" as in "aid to orientation", landmark.

Why I had to laugh?
I have no sense of orientation.
In Germany you have (too) many signs, but in Australia we got lost so often!

In Australia people assume you at least are a tad capable of finding your own way.
Be it climbing the Flinders Ranges or finding the way with your 4WD down in Litchfield National Park where I really feared to crash the car.

Find your own way, but don´t get lost!

You find help though, like this:

But why "Orientierungshilfe"?
The artist is Wendelin Pressl from Austria, hence!

He knows about those landmarks when hiking in Australia and says his work "comments on the idea of national borders and appropriation".
Yes, he studied in Vienna, too.
Sadly no mentioning of why he participated in this way.

But for the always lost one it just fits, no? ;-)

Art. "In the eye of the beholder" one of the artists said.
Art to me is also memories, ideas.
By golly, those Flinders Ranges really gave me the rest!!!!
I think I even cried at one point and when we arrived at the tent over 8 hours later Ingo cooked something with pepper, but I was so exhausted I fell asleep before I could eat!
(To be fair, my arm was freshly healing from a break and inflammation and climbing down was immensly difficult).

Today I can laugh about it, but back then... so not!
The landmarks aren´t close to each other, either! Find your own way, be clever enough! :-)

Cairn - And Laugh

This at sculpture by the sea is Alessandra Rossi´s Cairn, the artist is from... Italy and WA!!!
(Italy and Australia and Ingo... always a funny combo)

It´s about abstraction and simplification, of light and colors, of "exposing the hidden and the imaginary".... I didn´t get "#1, #2, #3, though, I could count on here?

I have to laugh about this one!
I really didn´t like it but... we´d talked about an artwork in Freo and I said I´m afraid I get lost.

Hmmm. Grace and P had a seemingly private talk, so I kept myself busy with this, respect, right?

Oh, my goodness, are they discussing about abandoning the lost one right there? (Joke)
Or was it probably really some serious family-stuff? You never know! (No joke)

Neither would be good and I got more and more worried over time, too!
Heck, thanks for digital cameras - to have all this on expensive real film, oh, my (I took a lot more).

We went to see the artwork later together, pics are to come :-)

Some people, like Ingo, will never ever understand how horrible it is to have no sense of direction and yes, I have a mouth and can and did ask my ways through.
Yet, this was so nice - and yummy, too, as said, more to come.

BTW... Happy 25th, Ingo :-)

Time...

This is an interesting one once you read the statement, which hence I dare to copy 1:1.

This is by R.M (Ron) Gomboc from WA, Time and Motion...

"Like every journey, time and motion each have beginnings. Our existence revolves around the anxiety and uncertainty of expectations and the unknown."

Wee. pretty much my life at the moment.

All the ups and downs, the circles... I wonder how and why the artist created this. It´s not a happy one, it´s reality for too many, I reckon.
But it´s a journey, right, we´ll move on.
(As "someone", the one who presented me with this leaflet, in the background to the left does already and hence adds a light note with a smile to this)

It´s COLOR

sculpture by the sea once more, sadly no note in the leaflet, yet a beautiful bird, no?

I just wonder...

Maybe there was a sign later, explaining the artwork, then please let me know.
Otherwise just enjoy the cheerful bird :-)