heading east.

i had no idea anyone was actually reading this untill i got emails asking when the next was coming. so here goes...

the art centre is closed at weekends so having an entire weekend with nothing that necessarily had to be done was a novelty that i havent had for a while. sleeping till midday, then taking a chair out into the sun for 4 or 5 hrs reading and drawing, working on some book covers that havent and wont ever be written. more to come... followed by a long walk off into the desert at sunset. was tough... really tough.....

i've been spending this week going through the catalogue system that the art centre uses, and updating missing or incorrect information and photographing and making entries for un-catalogued works. may sound like a boring job but it has been great to go though and get a chance to see every single work and put certain artists stories together by looking through their entire avaliable collection. it gives a totally different perspective when you have to re-catalogue a deceased artists work, becuase they can no longer have their first name or photograph associated with the record of their work. their entries are labelled 'kumunara',(think i got that right), then surname, which is an informal greeting so that they can be acknowledged without having to say their name out loud, and their photo gets removed from authenticity certificates etc.

maryvale cattle station is right out the front of where i'm staying, they've been mustering the cattle in the last few days, there's been a helicopter around in the evenings. last few nights though all i can hear are cow noises, occasionally one sounds like its being strangled. hard to sleep when there is several hundred cattle only a few hundred meters from your front door.

we've had an auditor in going through all the books at the art centre for the last week. jane drove us up to a place called gunya today thats 5 min or so out of the community up on a hill where there are these massive tents set up on wooden platforms. they had been set up as a tourist venture where people were being charged $1500 a night! they operated for a few years apparently but now sit abandoned with no one taking responsibility for them, their maintenance or hiring them out. all of the hot water systems and fittings have been stolen. they are pretty nice but i cant imagine anyone being stupid enough to pay that kind of money for the night. they are out of the way enough that i might try sneak a night in up there, incredible views.

im still amazed at the sky here. different blues throughout the day and every night there is just the most amazing hour long light and colour show as the sunset goes through its motions. its different every day depending on the cloud cover. the sky just generally feels bigger than in the city. the weather is equally as fascinating. the temperature is ok during the day but just drops rapidly 15 degrees or so after about 5pm. yesterday was really cold, but today was totally different, sun had a different feel and was hot and windy. even the last hour there's been intense dry wind and a dust storm followed by a torrential downpour now its cold, clear and still.

im craving everything i cant or dont have.
and have totally lost track of days and time....