If you are wandering Sydney in the month of March I have some works on show at the Gallery Lane Cove with some other great artists.  The works on show are from my dreams series which I produced at uni and it's been great getting them out again after a long hiatus (hiding away in my studio). I really enjoyed making these works as they are very personal and taken from imagery of my everyday life at the time.  Each one contains little memories of my time at uni and what was happening then. Below are the works that are on show!

Meanwhile I am still knee deep in baby duties and desperately trying to sort out my studio so I can start some new works.  I can never seem to make anything when my work space is a mess - clogs up my brain!

This is a little belated but wanted to share anyway! Last August Janet De Boer from Textile Fibre Forum Magazine asked to do an article on the embroidery group show I organised at the Brunswick Street Gallery called 'Needle Work Needle Play'. The article was published in the November magazine (in the midst of my baby haze - hence forgetting to share it). Janet kindly sent me a few extra copies and I have 3 to giveaway to the first people who send me an email or leave a comment before 31st January. 

I am slowly returning to some time and head space where I can think about art stuff again! After going on a break last November and having a little girl Edith there has been little time to think about much else but baby stuff. However I have been visiting an awesome book store in Melbourne called Brunswick Bound on Sydney road and they have a fantastic selection of art books which is going to send me broke but check out these awesome books I found there!  The first is 'Black Antoinette - The work of Olaf Hajek', my new favourite artist. I love his use of colour and particularly love the Black Antoinette series - beautiful. You can find out more about his work here.

Next is a memoir of Grace Coddington model turned art director of Vogue America - whom I loved in the 'September Issue' she has a fantastic visual eyeand her life has been really interesting to read about so far.

Image Source

Lastly is 'The Nightingale and the Rose' by Oscar Wilde illustrated by one of my favourites Del Kathryn Barton. I am yet to pick up this layby but very excited to look inside.  I love Del's work!

Hopefully these books might inspire some of you out there.  Would love to hear what everyone else is reading/inspiring them.

There has been little going on here lately so I think it is time to head on maternity leave and taking a bit of time off from the art and blog sphere for a while as I await the imminent birth of my second child! Thanks to everyone for their support this year with my projects, buying my work and coming along to exhibitions I really appreciate it.

The one thing I have done lately is enter the above picture in Little Evil Stuff's 'Draw a Creep' competition where you had to design a creepy doll to be made and I ended up winning one of the runner up prizes - yay!

I look forward to keeping up with what everyone is doing in their own work on your blogs while I am awake in the middle of the night with a baby that won't sleep!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all - hope to return to artwork sometime next year when things have settled so stay tuned.

Carly
x

I am having a major obsession with small worlds at the moment and thought I would do a post about what has been inspiring me. It started with reading my daughter the Brambly Hedge books which I had grow up with as a kid. I love the idea of these little homes inside the trees with little tunnels and all sorts of things going on!

Which led me to my next nostalgic childhood memory of little things creating their world out of their surroundings which was a Disney animation called the Grasshopper and the Ants.  I managed to track down the animation on youtube after only remembering a scene where ants were getting ready for winter! Apparently it is based on one of  Aesop's Fables and has been adapted for film and television many times including the very first by one of my favourites  George Méliès in 1897.

Which lastly led me to finally watch Arrietty which is  based on the book The Borrowers, (planning and screenplay was done by Miyazaki). For those who haven't seen it - it is about a little (really little) girl Arrietty who lives under a house with her family and they borrow things from within the house they live under to build their tiny little home. 

After going on this journey I am pledging to myself to finally finish the dolls house I started for Audrey 4 years ago and everything in it has to be borrowed from my home, garden or out and about!

I'm very excited to now own an original piece of MaricorMaricar artwork which I bought as a little memento for myself from the group show. They are such talented ladies!

Installation images from the Needle Work Needle Play exhibition taken by my husband Andrew Altree-Williams. Thanks to everyone who came and saw the show, wrote about it and supported us. For those who couldn't make it to Melbourne I have included a selection of photo's from the exhibition so you can see what it looked like however there are many more to be found here on Flickr.

Once again all images are copyright of the artists and please if you want to use any of the images be sure to credit it back to the artist. 

I'm experimenting with transferring my blog to my website. Here is the first test!