We have been busy making art;

Hello

Its been a while things have been hectic lots of sculpting, building and not much blogging (sorry about that!)
One child off into the world of university and three to go.....
The beautiful garden in Warrnambool is going along with the addition of an amazing front fence (pictures to follow).
The studio has been the biggest mover and shaker over the summer with walls going up, render rendered and wire applied waiting for the render to finish the building.

 

 

 

ok that's it for a minute until I get to the photo's and show you some more recent work and come up with some deep and meaningful ponderings

cheers

chris

artists one and all......

im writing this from the floor of the staffroom during my lunchtime, i was just thinking of a conversation we had at home the other morning, If you are a sculptor that does not sculpt but say teachers or works are you still a sculptor?

Jon is of the opinion that unless you are doing it you are not real...im not sure..i like writing, hell i love it, i find it theraputic..but i teach that's what i do and so can i not be a writer, i dont know its all to hard...i think you are an artist if you make art...anytime you are an artist i will give you that...you can all be artists................

Proof, discipline and a baby artist

well this is four days of sweltering heat and everything is looking very dry indeed, i am again writing its nice therapy but it does lead me to thinking about the passion of the artist...Jon sculpts in some form on most days ever if he is not sculpting he is working on the park so where does he get his drive from?

As we have seen i cant seem to keep up anything on an everyday basis, having a routine helps but that is not always possible around a full time job, four kids and a park....

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My magnolia flowered but i never took a picture of the complete flower, it was too fast and i was too slow.....it smelt like citrus and was beautiful. The stalk remains as proof but its not the same....

 

 

 

There is evidence of the passion of the Jon all over the park......proof

 

 

the above pic has a fox track across the park, its shows its been there, i haven't seen it but its left proof, maybe that's what Jon's up to building a catalogue of proof....he was her, large scale bits of graffiti

and Molly is into it toooooooo

 

 

Carron, Protector, Watcher of the Park

I offer you Carron, the park sentinel and protector, watching over us all and maintaining the high standards that such a individual can aspire to. Created from elements of the past, Carron has seen many a story pass him by, he has wielded, welded and yeilded but still he stands ready to defend and take care of the Lyons Sculpture Park.

Potential: Back yourself

Potentially: what could be. what is possible

I think i have spotted the missing link i think,  why so many teachers are married to artist...because that's what they have all in common, they see the potential...........

 

Children grown, regardless of whether you are prepared for them too or have taught them enough to  b ready for the real world. We see their potential , what they will be....

 

The park is growing and it too has potential we want it be as space for people to come and learn and enjoy ......it has potential ......

we all have potential 

Our view is sometimes obscured by the walls we put up ourselves, we limit our own potential my our self belief.....we need to back ourselves..................build ourselves and believe in dreams and the potential within.....................

A Giant Canvas for the Games we Play

It was back to the world for me today, summer holidays over and the real world call us back to it. I returned home to find a motor home parked in the drive ways and a Chinese family bouncing around the drive way obviously so excited after having spent some four hours in the park.
The gentleman was apparently amazed at the lifestyle we lead and in particular the freedom that Jon enjoys as an artist.

 


Even in developing the park there is absolute freedom for me in the gardening endeavors, and it's a privilege.

  

I can watch gardens grow and develop over the course of the year, have new ideas about them and change directions.

The sculpture park is turning into one giant canvas where we are free to play which ever game we like and develop it where we see fit, it is exciting...

Of course there is a bit of help from mother nature, she provides a fair pallet to work from........

.

Shangri La; Artists and Inspiration

We have four children, currently they are in the kitchen fighting about how many lychees represents a can and how many they can or should have. Molly is singing the dark side song from Sweeney Todd...

No for the cynical it's not just a poor excuse to put Johnny Depp into my blog, cause clearly you don't need a reason! The musical has become a funny little cult amongst the music students at the school where i teach, they love it blood and all. 

Anzac Day Jon Dixon

Art can come from any source it would seem. Who would have thought that a musical about such a gross subject could be so entertaining?

the war effort, Jon Dixon

When Jon is sculpting it is often odd things that start a sculpture and the end result may have no relationship to the idea that started it, i tend to to do the same thing in reading following trails in books starting with one and reading a reference from it to determine the next...








I enjoy waiting to see what will come next, we are cocooned here in the protection of our little shangri la , meanwhile in other parts of the country there are horrendous fires and flood..

people cacoon, jon dixon

I can't really imagine not having sculpture as a part of our world now, there is always something new coming into our lives its a combinations of excitement, creativity and sometimes frustration ... i wonder if that's how Sweeney Todd started out?

Owls artists and a view into the soul mark ii

(Ok I am gonna write this again cause i stuffed it up, what this tells you about me is that i am not really computer savy and i dont know what the blogger button is doing so in removing one post i deleted the one i wanted to keep so sorry for all those people i bombarded with a now defunct link. )
What i started to say......

The intrepid Beau Dixon (Cat designer and all round Renaissance Man) this morning found a owl pellet and after washing it away the fluff was able to see just what the owl had been eating.....this got me to thinking about the amount artists give away when they display their art...

The Lyons Sculpture Park is an electric collection of Jon's work which has taken over ten years, now on visiting one might have trouble putting the collection into some kind of story and of course you can't. They all have a story and a train of thought to their development but we choose not to share how they come about in general, wanting the viewer to determine what it might mean to themselves....

This decision isn't without peril as everyone has their own baggage and some will not sit well with all people.

My point is that when artists, painters, sculptor, cartoonists and writers put their work out their i think they are being very brave as there is no way they can avoid sharing part of themselves through that art.....

Ausralia Day and Trees

Happy Australia Day, what ever that may mean to you! For me i fear its a mixed blessing as i love the country i live in would loath to have to leave it but recent the dark history by which we came to live here.
Our sculpture park affords us lots of freedom, in the studio there is paint and clay and a plethora of artistic materials for the kids to have a crack at and even the house yeilds to out whims with the Tardis coming along nicely.

We have an amazing abundance of wildlife, that are free to roam around the park and to enjoy for those wanting to share it. It is still the bush and of course the wildlife comes first...
We dont want to change the bush to suit the needs of the park rather work around it and let the sculpture enhance the bush ..sometimes the bush seems to take ownership of the sculptures and start to absorb them....

someone once wrote that something to the effect that : I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree, oh hang on those knowledgeable people (Wikipedia)  tell me it was someone call Joyce Kilmer , in 1913..now that's endurance.. anyway i expect he is right but i am sure can still spruce our trees up a bit (no pun intended) !

There are some big tree's at the bottom of the park, hard to compete with in terms of beauty.
The trees will still be here long after we are all gone regardless of how we got here or what we choose to celebrate, have a great day and have a sausage for me!

Gobsmacked, Summer and Ritual

gobsmacked! Jon Dixon

This is the last Friday of my holidays, its as the above picture suggests is gob-smacking, it's all over, i am not complaining i love teaching and look foward to the challenge of new classes. It seems funny that on returning to the staff room on Wednesday and seeing my desk i felt excited.
Work becomes a ritual and as i mentioned previously the modern world is all too short of ritual.

Ritual stones Jon Dixon

 I am really enjoying writing this blog, i noticed a fiends blog has a update schedule for Sundays, it made me wonder how often i can get to this once work resumes. i have never been great at routine and sticking to things except study and work.

Cacoon Jon Dixon

It seems easy to end  up cocooned in our work life,  while all sorts of tragedy and drama can unfold in our personal life work remains stable and you can rock up and pretend all is well.
 Last week i watched a friend's small child throw a massive wobble at our house, screaming as his father picked him up and took him to the car, i found it amusing, after four children of my own i have had my fair share of tantrums, stay at home mum have a real task while fathers escape off along to the cocoon of work.

People Cacoon jon dixon

I think writing of the blog is therapeutic, it makes me consider Jon's sculptures in a different light and there is of course a long history of art as therapy, so perhaps im just self medicating!

Big Huggy Jon Dixon

I hope reading it might bring a smile to someone else or Jon's sculptures might either way is good. The comedian Adam Hills suggested that we can be either inflaters or deflaters, make people feel good build them up or let them down, so this is my inflating effort.

oh and about the cat:

Cat Beau and Jon Dixon

Sculpture, kismet and vlad the impaler

I have been reading, well to be honest have nearly finished this book about poor old Vlad, history has not been so kind to Vlad, throughout the book Vlad talks of his Kismet, his destiny...

Wiki the free encyclopedia who does not give address information but tell me this about kismet and just about everything else:

Kismet

Kismet is a word meaning fate or destiny, a predetermined course of events. Of Arabic origin, the word spread to Persian and Turkish where, as kismet (kəsmet), it commonly means "luck". Currently found in a number of languages, including Bulgarian, Macedonian, Albanian, and Serbian, the word is normally used across the Muslim cultural sphere. The first recorded use of the word in English was by Edward Backhouse Eastwick who used the word, spelled kismat, in his 1849 novel Dry Leaves from Young Egypt.

So does that mean we are all here to do something profound; not of course like Vlad there are just not enough poles around and its not environmentally friendly! 

I am a teacher and when i was a kid i used to bring home all the unused stencils and unfinished work and pretend to mark them, took ages but i was content...
(Do you remember stencils? they were warm from the machine and smelled like methylated spirits, we used to smell them, breathing  it deep into our lungs, but i am Tasmanian perhaps its a Tasmanian thing...) 

Jon has always been a sculptor, even before he called himself that, collecting odd things and needing to keep them cause they looked good. putting things together, visually aware of everything around him. Perhaps his kismet is to sculpt

 

Perhaps some of us are going to do great thing, the odd few that just have to stand out from the rest !

Oh and the cats coming along nicely, thanks for asking. 

The cat: a tale

An Evening blog, unusual but there was some late night evening art escapade so i thought i would dabble...its the tale of a cat.

Beau drew a cat

he loved the cat
molly transferred and copied the cat

and Beau Erin traced the cat

and now they are making the cat in steel

 

Its getting there

 

your are gonna have to wait for the end of the tail...tale........

Viewer Positioning (an apology for the snot)

Yesterdays blog had my sculptor husband scratching his head, and not overly happy with me, his comment was that "i don't take mistresses or throw sculptures on a rubbish heap like that, i think they are all beautiful and there are men in there as well" Or something like that, so i am here to appologise, explain and commiserate can.
Artists, sculptors, painters and writers all make there work and then send it out there into the world in search of its true destiny, what many do not relise and are shocked to find out it would appear its that this is where they loose control of their work......the reading of it.
Take the pile of sculptures in Jon's sculpture....now i looked at it as his casts off, fallen out of love and left to age and grey over the seasons, a recent park visitor saw them of a reflection of too much hostility between men and women..., another accused him of hating woman. Jon tells me that that it is now one sculpture but does not elaborate on what it means (rather than the snot simile which upsets him,(sorry!))
Now my snot simile was flippant , a throw away line written in the heat of the moment, i watch him work and that's how i see things. I just as he cannot control how someone reads my work, if they don't get my jokes or they thing that references to snog abhorrent...so be it, theses are mere reflections of how i see my life around the park... oh and someone did say don't let the truth get in the way of a good story, so watch out for exaggerators!
So are we all clear? how you see a work of art is up to you.....now when you come and visit the sculpture park you won't find any interpretive signs explaining the concepts behind the park, now nice safe brass name tags because we want you to attribute your own thoughts to the works, some visitors love this and some visitors  can't cope (there the ones scurrying away without talking, their senses overwhelmed!). Effectively Jon has been upset by his reading of my blog, his interpretation of my interpretation of his art...I am sure there is irony in there somewhere!

So do i need a disclaimer on the start of every blog? These are the mindless waffling of the artists wife and do not reflect the thoughts of the artist....? mmmmm hope not!

Sculpture sculpture sculpture