desert mob

finally scored a day off after a full on few weeks. early last tuesday jane announced to me that the exhibition we were supposed to be hanging in town on wednesday, was in my control. she wanted me to curate, and hang the work, and she'd be on hand to assist. we spent all day tuesday choosing what work to take and cataloguing it, and wrapping everything. there is so much to take into consideration in this environment, and paintings and wire sculptures do not travel well for a few hours in the back of a dusty troop carrier on dirt roads. by about 6pm tuesday, the biggest painting we were taking for the show, was still being worked on, and i hadnt catalogued or photographed it. we had no choice but to pack it up, and bring Marie with us into town to finish her painting in the gallery while we set up around her.

i threw a group of 5 small paintings up, mainly to get them off the ground and out of the way, they were unevenly spaced and not level. the gallery is through a door off to the side of a shop. a woman came in and was looking, came back with the gallery owner, and bought 2 of them. the gallery manager then carefully put red dots under them, as if thats how they were staying! not bad... i got everything else hung, re-arranged it all 20 times. Marie finally finished her painting at about 6 and we got it up, still wet.

as we were leaving town we stopped at the supermarket, walked from the carpark into the complex and were stopped immediatly by a security guard, who blocked marie from entering. he said she was hassling us for money. this is something that is a problem, but we both said she wasnt, she was with us. he didnt beleive us and claimed he saw her in there all the time asking for money. marie is in her 70's, and at best would get to town once ever 4 months, and spends most of the time in the community looking after her blind sister and grandson. the guard was really aggressive, the guy working with him was trying to get him to back down. he apologised to jane, but refused to look at marie. pure blatant racism. he follwed jane and marie and waited outside the supermarket and waited till they came out. he apologised more formally then, but mainly because he realised jane was going to take it futher. when jane complained to centre management the next day, they offered marie a $20 gift card for the centre. it was all pretty insulting, so in true jane style, she's getting a lawyer involved.

we were back in town friday for the opening of Desert Mob 2010 at Araluen art centre. its a huge exhibition, showcasing all the art centres across central australia. basil hall (custom printmaker) was there to also launch the woodblock panel project which he had organised to mark the 20th anniversary of the Desert Mob exhibition, got to meet him on the night, told me to get in touch if i wanted to work in darwin down the track! had the market day on saturday, where all the participating art centres had stalls in the car park and sold works, up to $300. we sold a lot, and the postcards i had ordered sold well. had a pretty good weekend, few familiar NAS faces, seeing gina, tammie and sia over the weekend. saw Dan Sultan live on sunday night outdoors at anzac oval, highlight of the trip. bloody amazing. headed back out to titjikala on monday, the road was pretty bad after the weekends rain. i was sitting in the back of the troopy, it was sliding everywhere over the road, was great fun. we got bogged once, someone drove past not long after and got us out thankfully.

after a few weeks of 30 degree days, the next week is supposed to be 13-15 degrees and raining non stop, changes so quickly....

only one week left now...

fireworks and hurricanes

dream days. been 30+ degrees the last few days and not cooling down a lot overnight. jane was in town overnight so i was left to my own devices at the centre today. had a satisfyingly productive few days since ive been back. before i left i had taken some decent photos of a few of the paintings and ordered some postcard prints of them, with the thought that travelling tourists are more likely to buy a $3 postcard than a $3000 painting, so at least its some income - we are making about 250% profit on each so cant hurt. and the paintings will still sell. they arrived on monday and look incredible. i finally got around to printing the screens i made up with the guys here a few weeks back. pretty basic set up. no clamps, so one person is holding the screen in place while the other pulls the print. registration is impossible so im just guessing, and its working so far. a few have lost interest, but warwick has really taken to it and stuck around and we have printed his screen and he has printed the other 3 guys screens as well. from what we have to work with, the prints are really impressive. he's now asking for more screens and extra colours etc so im glad one of them has got something out of it.

ive turned into a bit or a marketing nut lately. after the postcards, ive also made a poster/invitation for an exhibition we are having in town starting next wednesday, and hand printing a lino stamp to attach to some bags and aprons etc that we will take in to sell. all the women have been madly painting to get things finished. nothing like a approaching deadline to boost productivity. we've got the art centre's own exhibition as well as Desert Mob which is a big exhibiton and market where all the art centres from central Australia come together in Alice Springs, all happening in the next 2 weeks.

i walked back to the centre after lunch today, to find 10 tractors all lined up on display out the front. 7 weeks ago i might have found this odd but not a lot could phase me anymore out here. they were a bunch of men from coastal victoria that were in town for last weekends truck convention and had driven their tractors all the way out here from alice springs, and onward to chambers pillar and back again. i made the trip out to chambers pillar in a car a week ago and the road was bad enough, its rained a lot since, they were pretty insane. i sold them a few hundred dollars worth from the gallery, so all in all a good day.

ive been told that i cant mention a certain governing body that i have had issues with out here by name anymore because when you do a google search of their name, this blog comes up! im impressed... they've stuck a giant sign on the roadside when you first arrive in the community Welcome to Titjikala: many voices, one dream then some crap about idealistic desert living. its insulting and offensive to the people that live here, but they'll soon realise that and it will be torn down in the dark of night like every other unwanted sign. jane thought we could make some tongue in cheek 'ideal desert lifestyle' settings under the sign to photograph and email around.

who needs tv, really.