Ali George Artist

The excavator's words have stuck in my head, rent free. ' I have to make one hell of a mess before it can become beautiful. There is no beautiful end without the mess '. Or words to that effect. The retaining walls at the back of the house have to be finished before anything else can happen in the yard - and in between downpours, a few expletives and more rain, it has beena testing time for all involved in the construction.  I thought about his words - and the effort of making a quilt from scratch. The planning, drawing, testing, dyeing, playing, creating, starting again, creating and the final 'ah ha'. There is so much 'mess' before a quilt is resolved becomes a thing of meaning and beautiful in its own way. Blessed are the excavators.

  We've waited months, the new norm, for the access to the back yard and our shed to be put in.  The dog seems able to scale the cliff in two bounds - but I'm no longer able or willing to go over the edge. Two big retaining walls are being built across the back of the property and somehow they'll carve in a sloping access to the shed so I can finally get the pottery wheel unpacked and back into service. I've so missed working with clay and can't wait to see how much muscle memory there is left in my arms. Looking forward to some slab and hand built work, and progressing my Parliament of Owls.

I adore my Elna Press acquired about 10 years ago from a market for $20. I use it to press fabrics  and dyed textiles and very occasionally a pillow slip or two.  The only drawback was the cover on the pressing plate had seen better years. An eyesore in the new laundry - but where else to put it? I used to cover the lower plate with an old sheet when in use. So this morning's "job" (one task each day since we moved) was to make a new cover for the Elna Press. She deserved it. So I measured carefully, made a template and cut two from thick muslin. There'd be a master pattern ready for another time. Next, to source new foam underlay.  The IKEA mini ironing board. It's useless for ironing but hangs neatly in the wardrobe. What do you expect for $7? The underlay was a perfect fit.  Quite impressed, I commenced stitching the new cover Then the Morgan Freeman thing happened.  " It was at that moment,  Ali knew she had missed something big. "  Here I was, stari

Our friend, who also happens to be the local butcher, shot my quilt some years ago (2015/2016) before it headed off to the Taiwan International.  Shooting the quilt after it had been made of multiple, pristine white log cabin blocks may have seemed odd. It made perfect sense to me representing how we, as humans, contaminate the pristine and the pure - represented by the white, log cabin blocks. I stitched hand dyed scrim and bandage fabric across the areas of greatest damage and used red, silk thread for sutures.  In the conversion to book pages, I've used red thread and a range of different machine stitches to frame each "page".  

Fifteen minutes isn't much of a commitment yet I am surprised by how often I have to remind myself that "it's time". One morning I mopped up coffee rings on the back table, then when they had dried, drew back into the page with ink and pencil. Another morning the sun and my morning cup of tea created interesting shadow play. The key is fifteen minutes. The key is to turn up every day, be present, and simply create something. Anything. Draw. Stitch. Scratch. Sew. Tear. Paste. Print.  Anything. The best bit is, no one else has to see it and I get to record each day in the new home in quite a different way.

Spent the majority of today at the Ipswich Library at Orion / Springfield. Booked myself a quiet room for a few hours of serious research and the relaxed for a few more hours in a general area for those needing quiet time.  It gave me a chance to think about how I carve out time and need to hold on to time for planning and the "business side" of being a creative. I'm utilising some terrific resources through the Make Big Art group and really focussing on how to build a sustainable arts practice, build confidence in producing my art and eventually, I'll participate in the Greenhouse group and work with Lisa Call  to develop a deeper body of work. The library resources are simply fantastic with multiple areas to work, focus and participate - meeting rooms, learning spaces technology and old fashioned chairs in which to immerse oneself in a good read. My idea for a perfect day.

Sometimes what I need has to be hand drawn. It's incredibly slow and the trick is to maintain similar amount of whitespace between ever changing drawn elements. I take inspiration from a range of non-character based languages and symbols. Marks are made using Sakura Micron Pigma pens - in this case  003. Sometimes I use 005 but generally for small, detailed drawings with super fine lines, I work with the 003. This fabric will never be washed although the Pigma is permanent and won't budge.  Hand drawing gives me "noise free" fabric with the crisp, white background.