Last day

Today has been my last full day in the cottage ...and at the gorge. Tomorrow I head back to Brisvagas - a little earlier than planned. After going home for a day I am off to Emerald  in Central Queensland to join in the opening of the Streetscape project that I have been involved with (along with other artists Scott Maxwell and Maragret Worthington) for the the last 3 years.

I started the day with good intentions of packing but got distracted by the sky racing past the trees on the other side of the gorge. Two hours and lots of filming  and photographing later I returned the data projector I had used for the nightly projections, back to Ralf at Arts Alive - many thanks!

This evening I have written in 'the book'   - a ritual it seems for every resident on the eve of departure - so am feeling reflective, a little sad and also grateful for the experience of the last 4 weeks. Many thanks to the lovely Gina from the council for this opportunity to live, breath and focus on my own practice for such an extended time in such a profoundly beautiful place. I will leave you with one of the hundreds of photographs I have taken of the tree and the view acrosss the gorge. Cheers and thanks to you for joining me.
Catherine  Nov 2009

Deloraine Arts and Crafts Festival

Wonderful day on Saturday - weather was a Queensland heat temperature of 26 degrees and clear skies. The day itself was a grand adventure full of a memorable car trip, good company, great food and a wide range of quality art and craft work. The festival is the largest of its type and very well managed with venues, parking, and transport.
The focus this year was on glass and the high end work in this medium as well as original jewlery and wood furniture was supurb. Made some damage to the bank balance with purchases including a silver ring made from an antique spoon and I managed to find a hat that has been on my list forever. Lunch included home made rasberry icecream (and tart) and a boutique beer and steak sanga from the rotary club.

Yesterday spent the afternoon working with the last two people on their digital narratives. We walked around the basin and back through the zigzag track. The day was another glorious spring day and many people were out and about walking, swimming and swanning about.
Have still been getting good crowds to the evening shows - last one tonight.

32 people!

Had best night of viewing yet last night - 32 people and clear, crisp weather. Yoohoo!
Decided today, after waving to and photographing daily, I would join one of the boats passing my window. The shortr of the two offerings was a 50min short tour of the Esk rivers that lead into the Tamar and then onto Cataract Gorge. Trips like this are always valuable - after you have spent  some time getting a bit of background yourself - as they expand and extend the stories that you have already gathered. Loved seeing the gorge from another perspective.

I then went for a walk around town and the parks in particular for more photos. Just got back to the cottage before the afternoon settled into rain.... and then clear skys now at 7pm. Looking forward to tonight's video show. Am off tomorrow to the Deloraine Arts and Crafts festival - the largest one in the southern hemisphere. looking forward toward another excellent day.
:-)

Blue skys replaced by grey

Spent the day yesterday at Arts Alive, volunteering in the gallery for the current exhibition. It was a good time to sit and plan further my exhibition in February - now that I have a clearer concept of the work I am doing now and will finish off when I head off home.  Came back to the cottage to drizzle so canceled the nights video projection. 

Image below is  panorama shots form the shoreline looking back. Kings bridge and the gorge behind it is on the left.

Today was a little cloudy so spent the majority of the day working on photos and starting a couple of full sized works. Eventually my eyes had enough of the computer screen and went for a long walk aound the shoreline and then around town. Came home to more blue than grey so projections are all go for tonight. I now have four short stories looped together for display.

Seals and other living things

Went out early this morning. Its such a ever changing and lively place that it takes me up to an hour to walk the 15mins to the first basin!  Most of the time I am taking photos or video so...thats my excuse! Consequently I have met and chatted with a few people who usually do actually take 15mins to walk in.... except now they are chatting to me. I was talking with Christine today about halfway along the track about seals. When I left the cottage I heard a splash and next a hiss/blow noise. As we were discussing how unlikely this was - too early as they like the warmer summer water - when the seal came and chased food in the clearing where we were. The water wasn't quite warm enough for him to play on the surface and he was moving 20m between breaches so we still didn't see him but heard him lots. Good fun. Todays shot is of the trees at the edge of the clearing.

The rest of the day involved more meeting with people. Gina, Andrew and Chris from Parks & Recreation, who run the Cataract gorge residency program and then later with Ralf from Arts Alive to sort out some details about my exhibition in february 2010. Another productive day in paradise!

Now to get ready for tonights projections.

People

Today I had the privilege of meeting with the man who grew up in the cottage I am now living in. Geoff Flood kindly allowed me to video and interview him as he recounted his stories about the Gorge and living in Kings Cottage. This really brought home the unique part of being in a residency - having access to such wonderful characters and important stories. people have been very helful and supportive.

As I have been doing the projections over the last four nights, this theme of the importance of people  is one that seems to be enduring. I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting to people about my work and in return hearing their stories. Many are locals who have read the article in the paper or passed my poster in their daily walks and then made the effort to return. Some also are tourists who have heard about the projections from the  cruise boats who daily bring visitors up the gorge and past the cottage.

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This afternoon I finished another 'story' and burnt a new disc ( finished burning 5 mins before showtime!). This one involves the huge traffic on the water...boats, ducks, kyakers, more boats..

Projection and colours...again

Friday was offical first projection night - announced in the paper and all - so spent the morning and much of the afternoon reworking, and refining the two works i have ready for projection. Burnt the disc to discover that (who knows why?) the last 10 seconds was gone from one of the works. This was a problem so had to do more rework and re burn. All went well, and drew a good passing crowd. Including people taking photos of projected video and me taking photos of them....

 Made a sign this morning, that included the article from the paper, and put it up near where I am projecting. Have seen lots of people stop and read so maybe over the next ten days will get even more passing crowd.

After lunch went to the bridge and started to video from there, looking back into the gorge, a different perspective from what I get from here. Also took some photos which I have been playing with. Some good things happening - a not so good one here to give you an idea of what the better ones may look like.  Day off tomorrow so will catch you all again on Monday.