The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon

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I'm A Bit Spoilt

Saturday 29, July

It was a big couple of days. My press finally arrived - in pieces! I hadn't actually anticipated this, for some reason unknown to the logical thought processes that are usually associated with the moving of large, heavy and finely tuned pieces of machinery. Why not send it all bolted together? - well it would be too big and prone to damage of course! Anyway, it arrived, and this morning it emerged from it's crates and cardboard with nials, tape and steel straps preventing a hasty appearance. Then to the instructions. When I remembered to read them that is - and oh how much easier it would have been not to have to lift the steel bed several times onto the press!

Steve managed to keep his cool and Little Boy managed to resist lifting his leg on the new legs entering his domain, so cheers for the hand and yes you do have a key to the print room! Thanks to Arts Tasmania for the loan which makes my studio development at home possible.

Another big event yesterday was the collection of all the pots I have made over the last five weeks! They were fired in the Tafe kilns and thankfully the glaze covers up all the odd bits... It was a great experience to get into the clay again and have the results so quickly. We really experimented with all sorts of approaches to pottery - I tried screenprinting on the slabs, turning, pinch pot (of course) and then the glazing. I think I will have to do some more - I have only just begun really! I have been told that once it gets a grip on you you can't let it go... but really I am experimenting with ideas that tie in with my masters project (or is that a post justification?).

Judy McCaig

Wednesday 26, July

A parcel arrived from England the other day and inside was a delightful miniture print by Judy McCaig. It is hard to imagine that you can get such a lot of detail onto a plate that is only about 1cm x 3cm, but there it is! She is a master of miniture in my book, with lovely atmosphere and intrigue. Of course I have to try my hand at mini prints now - can't ever let anything go by! What's life for after all? You can see a few of Judy's prints online as well. Thanks Ross - very nice!

My Press Is Coming!

Tuesday 25, July

Way back in May last year I applied for a loan from Arts Tasmania to buy an etching press. And it is on it's way to Tassie today! I'm like an excited kid waiting for the phone call to tell me when the transport company arrives to collect the crate and let me know when they will be traversing the Bass Strait. Please ring Please ring - is that the phone? The press I have bought is from Melbourne Etching Supplies, and is the Direct Drive M288.02 23HD press. It will be so good to be able to work at home on smaller prints...it's coming it's coming!

Writers Week Collaboration

Monday 24, July

Hunter Island Press is doing a collaborative project with the Eastern Shore Writers as part of the Tasmanian Living Writers Week. We are putting together a book with prints in response to snippets of writing workshopped by the writers. It's a fun project and the prints that are being produced are a sure indicator of the richness of the written word. I think it works because the text we chose from are all brief and highly descriptive, and nonsensical! I guess thats why the exhibition, which will be at Fullers Bookshop from Friday the 11th of August to Sunday the 20th of August, is called "Nonsense". There will be a copy of the book there, and the individual prints on show as well. The bookshop is located at 140 Collins Street, Hobart.

The plate I etched for the project is actually a bit bigger than the size we needed for the pages of the book. So here is the full size image!

Resistance Is Useless

Monday 24, July

I have to concede defeat on the hand coded blog at last. It has become a huge ungainly giant running at minimum efficency and it is time to acknowledge this and move into the more effective of a wordpress webiste. This cuts down the amount of data that it takes to post, so my hosting account will hold up to the punishment I deal out. Its a blogging tool made for the job. I will surely miss my play in code, but perhaps it will shift me into doing some of those website projects I keep putting off! So all will be different oneday...

It's A Crane Thing

Friday 21, July

I noticed recently that Ross mentioned a peculiar interest in cranes at the moment. They seem to pop up everwhere in photos of buildings - which of course makes perfect sense as they are so essential for the construction of these higher than me structures. So in my wandering to art school there is a sort of crane thingy which is part of the wharf bridge thingy, and as it was looking particularly attractive in the morning light with its form reflecting in the water, I thought I would take a snap to show my appreciation of these mechanical beasts!

Prints And Annual Celebration

Tuesday 18, July

People approach research and investigation into ideas from all sorts of angles. One of my means to and end is to do a whole bunch of small prints which kind of release all the process of thoughts hopefully leading to a final print. As much as it would probably be a lot easier to read a book, write a bit, take buckets of photos, walk - sit - run, and any other means to focus creative energy, the prints really help me to clear my head. And of course I still do all of the above! But perhaps not in a single minded way. Actually its easy with the lithograph stones to follow this process as the small stone I use to grind the larger stone becomes the one I do the small ideas print on. I figure it's a good way to utilise all that energy I used in grinding the stones in the first place!

Tomorrow marks the passing of another year... Despite being a year older I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful supportive family and friends who have been around for most of my life. All is ok in the house of birthdays!

Brain Dump

Friday 14, July

There's too much hanging about in my head at the moment so here's a brain dump. For starters I have had this pricure of my brother in his first band sitting in the graphics file for a couple of weeks waiting to be brought to light. They were fun days! The band was called Argus and Marcus played the drums - after years of him practising in the room next to me he got togther with a few mates and they used to play in local pubs. I remember being the dancing ice breaker - having to be the first on the floor so that everyone else felt ok about heading out. Funny that! He was in another band with Mungo Coats, who seems to have found a niche that keeps him enjoying the Sunshine Coast lifestyle (I remember his house - he built a recording studio as part of it - mud brick by memory). Marcus later moved to mixing other peoples music at live venues, then on to quoting and installing huge sound system for functions, like Expo in Brisbane. I think his drums are still around, packed away, but never forgotton.

I can't help but follow that with a mention of Ross - family genetics showing up are they? Anyway, he is still over in Europe, although I'm not too sure which part at the moment - Scotland perhaps, touring with brother Craig, Averill and friend Toby. Checking up on family history perhaps, or just taking in the beautiful scenery of the highlands. Check out Ross' own website for some fabulous photos from his trip - bearing in mind that he has an architects eye!

I'm heading back up to Queensland for a few days next month. This is good news as I can get to go the Marks and Motifs exhibition of work from the Print Council of Australia. Yippeeee! Mostly I am currently just working flat out trying to be happy with work and finalising prints for my exhibition in November at Ballan and Pannan Gallery with Melissan Loughnan Art Management in Melbourne. Hence the quieter moments on my blog - which is due for a major alteration shortly, but that'll be another brain dump!

Young Archies Award

Tuesday 11, July

The walls of the art school are covered with bright and cheery faces. Its the Young Archies Award exhibition - as in an archibald style competition for school age children. It great! There is work from all ages and quite a diverse range of schools are involved. If you get a chance, it is on show until July 28th and if you go to the front entrance of the art school there is usually someone there to show the way to the artwork.

The work above is by students from Rosny College in year 11 and 12. The first is by Matt Hutchings with a self portrait, then Sarah Newcombe's (or is it Newlands?) creative work and the last of the three is by Hilton Owen.

Plimsoll Exhibition

Sunday 9, July

Pippa Dickson and Neils Neilson Ellmoos are currently taking up the space at the Plimsoll Gallery with their examination exhibitions. Neils work explores the interaction between digital video, large drawing and sculpture. I love his descriptive title for a start - and what it promises it delivers with his exhibtion carefully laid out with each element responding to the other. It is a PHD examination, so it is the culmination of three full years study, depending on how the student structures the study commitment. Neils has a strong presence of mechanics and industry.

Pippa Dickson has worked in furniture design to explore the emotion in transit. Her exhibition consists of lengths of superbly constructed benches with seductive curves as if they are stretching to see the bus (or whatever) pull into the stop. The Plimsoll Gallery is located in the street level access area of the Tasmanian School of Art - Hunter Street, Hobart.

Damon Bird

Saturday 8, July

Damon has his masters examination exhibtion up at the Fine Arts gallery in Sandy Bay at the moment. Its stunning!

Damon's work is in response to the interconnected nature of growing up in the Great Western Tiers in Tasmania. The show consists of 90 collograph prints of exception forsight and skill stretching from floor to ceiling. It is well worth seeing, but unfortunately the examination exhibitions are very short lived, so hopefully there will be a show somewhere else for an extended period in the not too distant future.

Exhibition Odds

Saturday 8, July

Who's got an exhibition at the moment? Well Selwyn Stein has some work on show at the Henry Jones Art Hotel. In the bar in fact. It is a really lovely location for thr work. The hotel is located in the cafe strip of Hunter street, Sulivans Cove, and it is a really warm friendly bar atmosphere.

Eloise Murphy is showing her work at Nourish Cafe, 129 Elizabeth street Hobart, from Wednesday July the 12th. This is also her opening night with an intro to the show at 6pm.

Some Bits

Saturday 8, July

Firstly I can't believe the week went by and I haven't had a blog! What happened? Well really I have just been trying to make use of the empy uni p[rintmaking room while everyone is on holiday! It is soo good to be ablt to continue our access tothe facility during the break, and in reality it is the most efficient time to work. I have had my litho stone on the press for a weeek or so, rather than shifting it about from storage to press everytime I need to work on it. So I guess it's just been great to have a steady work flow.

Pottery

Sunday 2, July

Pottery class is fun! Each week we only get a couple of hours to do our worst to the clay, but incrementally it is coming together. This week I will try to screen some glaze onto the greenware, and evenually the answer to the question of how much it is a part of my master plan will be answered! But it is fun, and in the end that's got to be what it's all about. A couple of the pots above have lino cut marks pressed into the clay with the use of an old rolling pin. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all comes out at the other end of the process!

Self-Portrait 3

Sunday 2, July

The self-portrait project over at crackskullbob draws to a close on July the 8th, so I am aiming to meet the mark of 4 attempts before the bell chimes. There has been some highly motivated people out there doing some work with a huge range of techniques and approaches, and in quantity! I haven't picked up a paint brush for a long time, and have never really been serious about painting, so this was a good moment to dabble without being too attached to the result!

Damon Bird Sneek Preview

Saturday 1, July

It's Damon's turn to present his work for his masters examination work at the Fine Arts Gallery in Sandy Bay. I'm looking forward to this one. Damon plans to fill the room with his dark, moody prints to surround the viewer and immerse them into the night bush scene, with an occasional dash of colour. He has become a master of carborundum to produce a rich, deep velvet black in his work. The exhibition opens at 5.30pm on Wednesday the 5th of July at the Union Building, Sandy Bay campus of the University of Tasmania.