Sunday, May 02, 2010

Some afternoons

wonderful poets gather and poems and journeys are shared. The Word Tree, yesterday, was one of those afternoons - the open section featured readers such as Michelle Leber, Patricia Sykes, Lyndon Walker and new-comer Elly Lamb. Then Marian Spires took us on her Vincent trip - both literally through his landscape, but also through her own, internal landscape - her self-doubt, her fear entering a discourse that was already well-established and, above all else, her growing determination that this was work she had to do.

She finished her journey by reading poems from the various viewpoints of Vincent's women - beginning with his mother and ending with Sister Epiphanie who had been on of the sisters in the Asylum in which Vincent spent a year. The poems are terrific!

Great afternoon, great company - and so lovely to share these journeys.

Afterwards Marian and her friend, Liz came back and admired my newly acquired and newly framed Lyrebird print which I wickedly spent a lot of money on in the West. It's my second print from printmaker Narelle Oliver. You can see my print if you follow the Narelle Oliver link. It has one Superb Lyrebird with his tail thrown over his head, in preparation to dancing. You use the mouse to scroll across the page (it's on page 2). It's even more beautiful in the flesh, of course. And the Belgrave framers did an excellent job.

I love prints. My mother's late partner was an artist, who primarily made prints - all sorts from paper prints, mono prints, linoprints, woodcuts and etchings. There's such a foundation of craft in the print - but there's also room for that accidental grace that happens with art. I've watched a lot of prints being made - and made some myself and I love the process.

Narelle's lyrebird has taken the place of a rather faded mounted poster of Tidal River in our kitchen. I've smiled each time I've walked up the stairs. You can see the print here. It was very important for me to get this print because the girly and I saw five young male lyrebirds dancing in Sherbrook Forest a couple of years ago. It's the experience of a lifetime - and many birdwatchers don't ever see it. We stood there while each of them jumped up on the old log they'd made their stage and we hardly breathed while they went through their performance. It included all the noises - car door alarms, dogs barking, whip birds and bell birds while they rattled their tail feathers over their heads and stamped their feet. When it was over, the bird would hop down and strut around for a while while another jumped up and took his place. Sensational.

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