I should read these quotes before I start my day instead of while I'm winding down! I had my stitch group this morning an came home to find that the house photography has been scheduled for the website and print. On Thursday. The cleaning team comes on Friday. I have no idea what they will do on Friday, perhaps clean up from the photographers being here? Tried to change it to Friday afternoon and they can't do it. SOOOOoooooo, today I hit Home Depot an bought some plants to fill in a really ugly bed of (formerly) succulents that has taken over. I yanked them all out, easy since they don't need anything as permanent as ROOTS here in Fl. And I dug holes and stuck in two new things that were $19 worth of something like aloe but big enough to stand up to the Jolly Green Giant of a plant that is 3' high and reaches out to grab your leg if you get too close. These cute little succulents were a tray I bought before the Key West wedding 2 years ago, I ripped out the living plants from the centerpieces and brought them home. Little did I know they would grow to that size. So, I also threw out some really raunchy orchid plants that bloomed and bloomed for years but now look pretty snail-eaten. Sure looks better out there but I am beat! I HATE garden work, hate hate hate it! Would rather clean fish. Tomorrow I tackle clearing the kitchen counters and nagging TY to pick up his shoes and old newspapers.
Meanwhile we have plans tonight to see a movie and I am just beat, know I will watch it through my eyelids and get black and blues from TY trying to elbow-attack me when I snore. So let's get on with some really cool art so I can stop feeling sorry for myself.
I've always had a love affair with Australia though I've never been there. It probably stems from a college boyfriend who I could just listen to for hours, but I wasn't at a place where I wanted to leave the country and raise 'walla-babies' so he went back alone. Long distance relationships are doomed from the get-go so that was that! No I haven't been in touch because by now he is (probably) a toothless bent over old man, cause I am certainly no longer a spring chicken either. Sigh. But in his place I have a new friend in Australia, Lajla, who found me through the muse blog. Today she sent me some pictures of Aboriginal sculptures, using fibers and anything else they can get their hands on! I absolutely love these, but don't have any information about them, so I am just showing you things I love- if you want to know more about them, try google images. So, here we go:
A simple wrapped fabric and yarn pair of ducks- love the eyes!
A fabulous emu (?) using feathers
This human figure was made from an old blanket
Here they used screening and wire
Wool and twine and yarns
So, I got interested and immediately found more examples without having to dig too deep:
A gorgeous bear out of either asphalt or rubber recycled scraps
Porcupine
Crayfish made with wrapped rope and wax
another primitive wrapped bird
detail
and the iconic platypus
and even more iconic kangaroo
As you can see, the animals vary in sophistication from crude and childlike to quite accomplished use of materials and observations. Hope you love them like I do, and again, thanks to Lijla for knowing I would! So in honor of my Aussie friends-
We don't get to see roaming kangaroos here in Florida, let alone battling ones.
A squirrel is kind of anticlimactic after that, eh? But this one is special. And it will settle all my cat-lovin' pals that these two species can work together- the cat finds the sunflowers, the squirrel cracks them open. Then they both leave the mess and go looking for birds. Or whatevah.
2 comments :
The aborigine sculptures are completely charming.
Best squirrel yet!
do you know about the blog "It's Crow Time"? She is an artist and also regularly showcases a lot of other Australian creators... good stuff. It's one of my favorite blogs.
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