The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon

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Ross Langdon And 25 Years

Monday 31, October

It was hard to choose a few photos for a montage, there are just so many twists and turns and interests in Ross' life! Graduating, playing cricket (bowling to Steve Waugh), fishing and enjoying all the other counrty type activities (playing war in the dirt heap, swimming out too far at the beach, disappearing on great adventures - through bush and paddocks - across kilometers to vist the neighbours etc), receiving the ciztenship award, graduating again.... He celebrated with a party held in a hired shed - good move I reckon! Big bro Craig was the official photographer, and he has a few photos on his new blog (with partner Averill) prior to getting into the BBQ main man responsiblity. Happy Birthday Ross....:)

A Few Odds And Ends

Thursday 27, October

There were a couple of invites in my uni email box to exhibitions for postgrad students, so I will pass them on.

Stewarts show is from October 31st to November 4th and they are both at the Fine Arts Gallery in Sandy Bay, the union building.

Also in my email box was a link to a new uni site which is designed to help year 11 and 12 students work out what units to do so they can direct their career path for uni. They are asking for people to check it out and see if it is going to be a viable or helpful tool. I have my doubts, having seen my share of youths choose one direction then take an totally different one at the drop of a hat or wave of a dollar! Anyway, it is worth having a look at if your stressing about what units to do.

Also happening is the end of year arts ball, which this year is the art/con ball. It is going to be held in the uni bar on the 26th of November with a cover charge of $10 for students and $15 for ring-ins, and plenty of live music I hear.

New Skin For Translucent

Wednesday 26, October

Steve has been working on my blog for the last couple of days as a distraction from his exam study. I can't say I'm complaining about it - my blog has been given the new life it was needing! My blog was the result of dusk till dawn coding and creating session for Steve. He worked only a few feet away from me, covering the screen everytime I stirred in my sleep so that I wouldn't see what he was up to (but of course we women know that our third eye sees all...)! Anyway, Translucent was thus born in a flurry (of love?) and from then on grew daily with new demands on the code.

But this is the beauty of CSS coding. The look of the site is controlled by the stylesheets, coded in CSS, so to change the look of the site, you work on the styles. For example, the background colour was just a matter of change the colour code in one place and it affects every page. So my site hasn't been rebuilt, but the code has been revisited and tidied up (apparently the wee hours of the morn when a lot of code was originally done blurred the logical vision a bit).

So welcome to the new look blog, and I hope you enjoy the layout and appearance as much as I do! Several decisions were made for reasons of accessibility, for example the clearer text for easier reading and getting rid of the header which was just taking up space, so please let me know if there are any issues that you have found with the site!

Now what was it you were doing before the blog revamp Steve?

Silk Painting

Tuesday 25, October

I have been leafing through my journals from the last five years and I came across a project I did for a wilderness unit I did at uni. It was a fantastic unit, taking me all over Tasmania and looking at the cultural and environmental history. One of my responses was to turn to silk painting which I had been quite active with up to that point in time. The idea swelled from the fantastic circular map of St Valentines Peak made by Henry Hellyer whe he ventured into the then unsurveyed (by Europeans) area in 1827. The panoramic view is marked with enthusiam by his naming of areas with titles dripping with the hope for prosperous farming, names such as Surrey Hills and Old Park revealed his misinterpretation of the native grasses and plains as fertile. So my skirt idea was formed, with me as the summit, surrounded by the panoramic map of St Valentines Peak (which is in North west Tasmania).

Firstly I sewed the skirt, using a silk satin, then pinned it to a frame ready for painting. The silk dye I use is procion dye (Kraftcolour) which needs to be mixed with a fixative. It usually takes several layers of dye, drying with a hairdryer in between applications, to build up the depth of colour and patterning that I want. The skirt was then rolled in layers of newsprint paper (no newsprint on it course) and then steamed for 30 minutes to set the dye. Of course this is quite a scary time, as for this job I didn't have the purpose built steamer, but used a large steamer on the stove! Any excessive moisture that seeps through the paper to the silk will affect the dye, weakening the design with a watery effect. Anyway, it didn't and it worked. One problem I had was that the bulk of the blue at the bottom of the skirt was lost when I hemmed it, and on reflection I would not have hemmed it if I had realised how much it would affect the skirt. But that was my response to the trip to St Valentines Peak, and the haunting story of Henry Hellyer who later committed suicide when all his dreams of prosperity crumbled into the reality of farming land that was suited to native animals and flora, not hard hooves and crops.

Digital Prints

Sunday 23, October

I was just checking out the Bellbryd blogs on my feedreader and came across the International Digital Miniature Print Portfolio on-line Exhibition. The exhibition page is a bit slow to load, but it is worth having a look at what people are up to as far as digital art goes.

Leek And Bacon Soup

Sunday 23, October

This is a favourite for a rushed dinner when I don't really feel like cooking much! Believe it or not it is a very filling meal, especially with a piece of crusty bread to dip in.

• Leek and Bacon Soup
• 30g butter
• 3 leeks
• 2 sticks celery
• 2 rashers bacon
• 1 cup red lentils
• 5 cups water, with 2 chicken stock cubes dissolved in it
• 1/2 cup cream
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsely

Gently fry the leeks, bacon and celery in the butter with a lid on until they are tender. Add washed lentils and stock. Increase the heat to bring it to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes until the lentils are tender. I use a stab mixer to blend the soup in the saucepan, but you can do this in a blender. Add cream (but I often use milk) and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring gently back to the heat, then stir in the parsley and serve.

Anne LeFevre

Friday 21, October

My good friend Anne sent me a couple of photos of some paintings she has been working on the the last few years. She works from photos, carefully creating an impression in paint that reads warmth and life into the image. This painting is from the Channel area in Tasmania.

The Friendly Desk

Friday 21, October

A recent resuffle of my desk and room has left me with some much envied real estate around my computer. This is a good thing by all gathering of wisdom in the field of creative production and physical safety. It all comes down to how you use the space around your computer. I have been known to be the paper stacking villan with no concern for eye respite and calming influences, but as you can see by my not very unsual or well taken photo, I have made some attempt to change my evil ways and provide for my well being. It is, you see, apparently important to have something from the natural world - plant, flowers etc., to look at as your eyes become tired and sore from the computer screen. Not surprising since your staring at a light source. Also the lovely string of beads (actually they are seed pods and eucalypt seed cases) that my mum brought back from central Australia are adding a touch of inspiration of the creative kind (and the tactile), as is the banksia seed case and the silk scarf (used to do a bit of silk painting, it makes a good dust cover). So there it is, a simple picture of nature trying to find a place in my computer box world. The rose smells good too - there - thats the senses taken care of - now all I have to do is write the exegesis ('Exegesis comes from Greek, from exegeisthai, "to explain, to interpret," from ex-, "out of" + hegeisthai, "to lead, to guide." Thus an exegesis is, at root, "a leading or guiding out of" a complexity.').

Louisa Romeo Exhibition

Wednesday 19, October

Tomorrow is opening night for Louisa Romeo and Sarah Maher's exhibition, "Manifest". They have joined forces to present their work from the last year. Louisa writes about her work... "My current prints comprise of beasts that roam the landscape in their own unique way. These creatures initially wore masks that were interchangeable depending on moods and behaviour the wearer wanted to adopt. They are now developing into sub humans where the mask is no longer an object that can be removed but they merge into the torso to become a unique hybrid that is evolving. Their masculine and athletic bodies represent the early images of Greek gods where they dominated the land and others. These hybrids also have become gods themselves that dominate, destruct and and tower above the landscape. Like the human race. I am wanting to create links between these hybrids an humanity. They represent us and how we relate to one another and the landscape that surrounds us." I have just finished making a feature page on the Hunter Island Press website, so if your interested there more images of her prints there.

Louisa also decided to raffle a print during the exhibiiton, which is a great idea as the cost of getting an exhibition together can leave the purse empty for important things like paper to print on! The exhibition runs from Octber 20th (opening 6pm) to the 26th at the Fine Arts Gallery in the union building, Sandy Bay Campus, University of Tasmania.

Windgrove - Peter Adams

Monday 17, October

Peter Adams lives in one of the most stunning parts of Tasmania - Roaring Beach. It is remote, yet not isolated from services with Nubeena only twenty minutes drive away. The landscape is superb, the coastal flora symbolic of coastal regions as they should be with little disturbance througout Australia, and Peter captures it on film with his artistic eye. Renowned for his sculpture, the environment he lives in is a constant source of inspiration. His blog/journal is very insightful.

Tom, Dick, Harry And Linden

Monday 17, October

The sun shone, the bees swarmed out in force and the mowers hummed in unison down the street. The growth on everything green has been phenominal for Tasmania this year. The shifts between the hot, warm sun and cool rain has promoted the burst of buds and stems far beyond any expectations. Usually I look at my spring growth and miss the Queensland climate where there is two growth spurts in the garden that leaves any planting I do here far behind. The native shrubs I planted to disguise my front yard from the onslaught of toxic road fumes took five years to establish here, but in Queensland it would have taken two.

But this spring is different. The lawn reaches shaggy lengths in a week, flowers are full and large, growth long and lush. I hope we continue to get the rain, just enough to keep the growth happening, and the sunshine, but not too harsh, and then all will be peaches in the garden of Tasmania. I can dream, can't I?

A Few Happenings

Saturday 15, October

There is always a mass of exhibitions and events at the end of the year, so here are a few I have noticed.

Printmaking Summer School. The Australian Print Workshop, 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria is offering summer classes in January. It caught my eye as Raymond Arnold is working with Warren Cooke to offer a master class titled "Etching and The Landscape". Other classes on offer include traditional Japanese woodblock printing, monoprint, book making and inspiration from natural history. Its the first time I've seen the Australian Print Workshop site, and it makes an interesting view.

Die Laughing Collective are having an exhibiton titled "the Rat Palace" at Entrepot (School of Art entrance) in January. The opening is January 20th at 6 pm, but I can't find an end date for the exhibition. It seems to be a recurring problem for the uni exhibition invites with so many leaving out the end date. Hey guys - we NEED to know this!

"Digitalus" is an exhibition of works by Digital Imaging Students at the University of Tasmania. They are occupying the first floor atrium of the School of Art in Hunter Street, Hobart with an opening on the 21st of October at 5.30pm. And again, no end date sorry! Nice invite though...

Signed Off

Thursday 13, October

Yesterday it happened in a mad flurry - my supervisors signed me off! This may seem like a small feat, but after three months of negotiations and rearranging of the wording in my project outline, I feel like a huge boulder has been lifted from my shoulders. Ahhhh, now I can get on with it all!

Funny thing though, we had our phone line chopped through by workmen down the road - took out 700 connections! Anyway, it was a surprisingly calm household with no phone ringing, no internet work beckoning and an entirley different social dynamic between us all. Makes you wonder about how much the modern technology affects the basis of out daily lives and future generations.

Outback Plus The Hutchins Prize

Tuesday 11, October

Perhaps it was destined to be - I have made a shift in the mountain photo blog to include some of the fantastic outback photos that come my way through my families visits to the red centre. I am destined to get there myself, oneday, as it seems not only to be a powerful magnet for the family, but also a undeniable source of creative energy. Maybe its the landscape - so surreal and in contrast with the coastal regions of Australia, or maybe its history, of people and culture. Anyway, I hope they are enjoyed by those who view them!

The Hutchins Art Prize is happening on the local art scene, and its a big event. As a works on paper competition, it attracts a huge following, and the current prize of $11,000 is not to be sneezed at. They are switching to a biennial format as of 2007, and I wonder if this is in response to the large amount of interest the competition generates, and all the associated admin work, or to do with what seems to be a shift in the expectation of events to be biennial rather than annual. The Tasmanian Living Artist Week, for example, is shifting to biennial, with a literature focus on the alternating year. Perhaps this is a good thing for all, giving more time for the artist to work, possibly a higher prize contribution (as suggested by the Hutchins admin) and allowing people to work up interest in the idea of the exhibition, rather than it coming around rapidly on an annual basis. Just a thought. Anyway, The Hutchins finalists are online, and it is an excellent collection of work to scroll through.

Happy Birthday Sue

Sunday 9, October

Hope you get breakfast, lunch and dinner all served up with big smiles! Have a good b'day...

Kevin Parratt

Saturday 8, October

I recently had a comment on my website from Australian artist Kevin Parratt. His site has some great descriptive pages about etching and a selection of tools that made me feel extremely inadequate! His work in etching is highly detailed and shows an intimate understanding of the process of repeated etching and marking to build depth into the image. It was a timely reminder of my lecturer Raymond Arnold's dedication to the process, and belief that without it your work won't achieve the maturity of a well etched piece. He seems to be developing the site at present, and has painting and drawing work there - well worth a look - beautiful work, and some Aussie landscape too!

Starch - Ian Bonde

Friday 7, October

Wandering past the Entrepot gallery has been interesting this week as Ian Bonde has been setting up his installation. "Starch" is ready to view as of today, with an opening on the 14th at 5.30pm at the gallery in Hunter Street, Hobart. Ian Bonde has been a very active artist in the Tasmanian community with his large installation work, but also keeps his hands busy with smaller pieces. Incidentally, the Claiming Ground book (on the Arts@Work site) looks like a good buy for anyone interested in the development of public art in Tasmania over the last 25 years. Now there's an idea...

Milan Online

Thursday 6, October

The Port Jackson Gallery have the current Milan Milojevic exhibition online. It is worth going through for a look as he is very innovative in the field of digital print, which he works through his woodblock prints. The online exhibition has quite small images which don't really do justice to the extent of detail in the work, but it is still a huge step forward to have an exhibition viewable online. How many of us can actually get to the Port Jackson Gallery? Lucky you if you can!

Photoshop Tutorials

Wednesday 5, October

I have been on the computer all day and eventually got the favourites list out. So here are a few of the photoshop tutorial pages I have saved!

• I Design This
• Photoshop Lover
• CBT Cafe
• Design And Publishing
• MIke's Sketch Pad
• Good Tutorials
• GrafX Design

There is often a lot of ads associated with the sites, but there are also some great tutorials, and oneday I will even get time to spend hours polishing my photoshop skills!

Embossing With Lino

Monday 3, October

I played out a little experiment last week with embossing. I haven't done much by way of the embossed image, but most of the work I have done or seen has been either directly using an object, such as a leaf, to leave an impression, or by using a solar plate which is quite costly. Lino was new to me, so it was fun to give it a go! The cuts need to be quite deep and with a gentle slope in to prevent the paper tearing, and the pressure through the press is quite high. Although you can't see much on this image, the lino cut leaf overlays a lithograph. The emboss gives the image a textural 3d effect which can add all sorts of interest such as the way light will play on the surface. Of course mine is just an experiment, and not to be mistaken for a highly polished piece of art! A good method to try out though.

Claustrophobia

Saturday 1, October

I don't know if it was spring fever, the start of a new month or just plain claustrophobia, but I turned my bedroom/office/lounge into a more spacious place to be by removing the lounge element and coming to terms with sorting out the office stuff. I'm hoping this move will help to promote some healthy development in the inspiration department - having cleared out all the grotty cobwebs and dust!

Meanwhile I have been spending most of my computer time working on the Hunter Island Press site. Steve has been doing a great job of working through all the issues and aiming for a site that has the ability to grow with the organisation. It looks like the community studio will be up and running next year as negotiations are under way for a site which has two historic sandstone buildings that are in need of some TLC. Fingers crossed that all goes well and printmakers in or visiting Tasmania will have somewhere to call home!