Many as One ii

There will be a second draw for the Christchurch earthquake fund this week, a project that's more-or-less taking shape as we go along. . . 

Please click on the MANY AS ONE tab on the top bar of this page - you will find a growing 'stockroom' of drawings, miniature paintings, hand-crafted jewelry and art objects that will be looking for homes over the coming weeks. In time, the collection will hopefully grow to include items with initials other than CB on them (variety is a spice of life).

This week, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Sydney-based multi-media artist,  Lisa Roberts. Lisa has generously donated her hand-engraved perspex piece titled  Coccoliths, carbon sequesters to this Christchurch fund; she lived in the city some years ago and has retained strong connections to New Zealand. 

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Coccoliths, carbon sequesters - Lisa Roberts (Australia)

Engraved Perspex, 120mm x 65mm

Lisa and I have a number of things in common, amongst these a passion for Antarctica and a peculiar fondness for tiny wee sea creatures. (One day, a poem will take shape in which the words coccolithophor and foraminifera vie for supremacy in the same stanza.). For a rare glimpse into the balletic antics of krill and the intricacies of krill sex, click here and be entranced by Lisa's exquisitely lyrical - and scientifically accurate - animated drawings. 

re; MANY AS ONE, I've been wondering about how best to proceed from here. 


Here's the plan. . . Each artwork will be given a number. At the end of each week, these numbers (written onto black paper) will be placed in the hat along with the names of  donators to the fund (written on white). A friend will draw one of each colour to determine that week's 'match'. (To reiterate what I said in last Monday's post. . . no contribution to this fund could be considered too small. Everyone who donates (button to the right ---- >>>) stands an equal chance of having their name pulled from the hat each week.) The intention is to keep this draw running at least till the end of April, at which point I'll be heading North West for a couple of weeks (more about this sweet development later ; )). . . 

Meantime, here is one of the small ink drawings currently in the 'stockroom' (the details of which can be found here) -

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Thanks again +++ Lisa - and to all of you for being a part of this. 

Paper Stack

I am happy to announce that last week's Paper Stack* will be soon be on its way to Pasadena in the US. 

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*Did you know? 

A sea stack is a column of rock standing in the sea, remaining after the erosion of coastline cliffs. Sea stacks are generally comprised of countless generations of - amongst other things - coccolithophors and calcareous foraminifera (see, here they are again. . . these words  belong in the same sentence?). 

Tuesday Poem - Krill Watching

Lisa Roberts is a Sydney-based dancer and animator with whom I hope to work on a series of Antarctica-based collaborations next year (together with geologist/musician Rupert Summerson from Canberra).  

Earlier this year, Lisa, Rupert and I spent an afternoon in the krill nursery at the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart, Tasmania. So much has happened between then and now that it sometimes feels as though a hundred years have passed, when in fact it's 'only' been four months. 

Yesterday, Lisa sent me a link to her most recent animation titled Krill Watching. I immediately thought, 'This is a poem; it's witty, tender, lyrical, balletic, playful and profound... ' I asked her if I could post her her krill piece as my Tuesday Poem this week - and here it is.  

If you would like be transported, enchanted and uplifted, I would encourage you to visit Lisa's website where you can explore her sensitively drawn image-scapes.  

Thank you, Lisa. 

Krill, drawing - Tasmania 2010 - CB

For more Tuesday Poems, please click here.

Tasmanian Devils & full-breasted women

I didn't come face-to-face with any Tasmanian Devils whilst in Hobart, but I did come across this group of lissom mermaids. . .

Four aspects of the same woman?

On a late evening walk around picturesque Battery Point, this mysterious image caught my attention - tar calligraphy? I'm absolutely certain it wasn't there the morning before.

The things roads get up to when the rest of the world is sleeping?

I wish I knew how to animate these kinds of 'found' gestures. Imagine these lines choreographed into a 3D dance. Lisa Roberts would know just what to do. . . I especially love this piece, her lyrical observation of Southern Ocean krill (with a spoken commentary by biologist and krill expert, Steve Nicholls) and this one that illustrates their life cycle. . .

The day following the Antarctic Visions conference, three of us took a taxi out to the Antarctic Division (about twenty minutes drive from the centre of Hobart) and spent the day in conversation with various scientists there, and too, drawing Euphausia superba in the krill nursery - what ephemeral, balletic little creatures they are. Exciting research is being done on krill's relationship with whales - theirs is an intricate and vital dance - and we'll be looking for ways to visually represent an important new piece of data on this subject. This collaboration is likely to include dance, animation, painting, poetry and music. (Geologist Rupert Summerson brought his shakuhachi along to play to them!)

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This is all a bit disjointed, perhaps because I'm sitting cross-legged on the hard floor of Auckland airport (beside the only power outlet I could find in the domestic departure lounge). I ought to be in Christchurch but last night's flight from Melbourne was delayed, first by mechanical problems, then - when one of the aircraft's air conditioning units failed - by our having to take a longer, coastal route South. About half an hour away from Christchurch we were told we'd have to turn back to Auckland because heavy fog in Chch made landing there impossible. That was at about 2.45AM. It must have been about 3.45AM when we landed and 4.45AM by the time we'd all been herded into buses and off to a hotel in town to sleep what was left of the night away.

The first Auck-Chch flight I've been able to get onto leaves here at 8.00PM this evening, so guess where I've been all day? Actually, it's been fine; peaceful even. I've savoured (a good number of the) 100 Poems from the Japanese, surrendered again to the place and characters of Penelope's potent Island and been transported into new landscapes by Gretchen Legler's stirring essays, All the Powerful Invisible Things. (Gretchen was a co-presenter at the conference. I intend to write more about her book once I have absorbed more of it...)

Essential things, places of pause.