Jam Factory Teapot Workshop.

I finally received a letter from the council saying my EOI was unsuccessful in reaching the next stage, so I am a little disappointed but they were happy to give a general review and it was not the lack of quality of the EOI, just that they had not particularly thought of a figurative sculpture in bronze as a public sculpture for that area. So back to the drawing board and get started on some other work.

I went to the Jam Factory Teapot Workshop this last weekend and saw some great potters work on Teapots. Amongst the demonstraters were Ann Linnemann throwing porcelain from Denmark, Bruce Nuske handbuilding, Robin Best slipcasting and Stephen Bowers decorating. It was a great weekend and was good to see how other artists work.

Invitation to unveiling of Mary MacKillop Sculpture

I would like to invite all friends and collegues to the unveiling of Mary MacKillop's statue.

It will be transported from Fundere Fine Art Foundry in West Footscray in early March and positioned in place the week of the unveiling. Things are finally starting to fall into place and I am starting to feel excited about the coming events at last,although there is still a month to go before it happens. I've been talking with the architect and the cathedral officials about what is going on and I have the job of making the covering for the day of the unveiling.

This photo is the last I took at the foundry and I haven't seen the actual plinth it sits on yet, but the grounds of Mary MacKillop Plaza have almost been completed.

Meanwhile I have put in an expression of interest for another large project in Norwood and would love to be able to be involved in producing another artwork for South Australia. I won't know until 28th February as to whether I have been short listed to 3 artists. Wish me luck.

I am also participating in a Teapot workshop at the Jam Factory this weekend.

Victoria's smoke filled landscape

Surrounding hills nearing Albury.

This is what Northern Victoria was like last Wednesday when we travelled from Adelaide to Albury, NSW . We travelled for hundreds of kilometres with smoke haze like this. I hate to think what it was like nearer to the bushfire sites.

The map was taken from Saturday's paper a week after the first fires and today the death toll stands at 201, the last being a firefighter who was killed when a burnt tree fell on him and he was on his last day of firefighting before he went back home.
It's so hard to grasp the enormity of the fires and what it has done to so many people and townships in Victoria.

As the sun set on the horison, in Albury the sun appeared as a huge red ball in the sky and it was grimly beautiful, a sight I haven't seen before.

We travelled 2760 km by car to catch up with my family at Albury, where the nearest fires was around Beechworth. We then travelled to the national capital, Canberra, to see the Degas exhibition at the National Art Gallery . I wasn't disappointed. To actually see the "Little 14 year old Dancer" was wonderful and worth all the travelling we had to do to get to see her. I spent some time just looking at her and it was so different to looking at photos of her. It was a magical experience to actually see the sculpture "in the flesh". We arrived back home Monday afternoon, travelling a total of 30 hours, by car.

Saturday's paper, a week after the fires started.

Shocking news from Victoria

We were blessed with no major fires in South Australia but the news from Victoria is dreadful.
bushfires have all but wiped out several small towns with Kinglake and Marysville amongst them. There are now 76 dead and more than 700 homes lost. 26 fires are still raging with 12 still out of control. ABC news on web tonight.

Rebecca Stevenson Qld Bronze medal in Keiren Aust National TrackTitles

Rebecca with her mother, Lynne who flew down from Queensland for the night.

Bec presented with her medal

Start for the finals

This is the board at the South Australian Superdrome track where the Australian National titles were held all this week in very hot weather.

So proud of you Rebecca, Congratulations for doing so well after only taking up the sport 2 years ago.

Queensland's Rebecca Stevenson won Bronze medal at National Track Championships

Photos are not in order of races

Australian Track Championships

Photos of Rebecca warming up and the presentation of medals

Rebecca well done!!

Well it's a stinker of a day, with swirling dust laden wind coming from the north. Hopefully the cooler weather will eventuate as they forcast later today, but for now it is scary to be so hot with high winds, as it is like the days when we have had bad bushfires with pink skies full of dust.
Rebecca did us proud when she partnered with Anna Meares and rode in the Open National team sprint. They qualified second and went on to ride for the gold and silver medals.
Anna is making her comeback after serious injury on the track last year and she picked Rebecca to ride with her although she is still 16.
They rode the finals and ended up with 2nd place and a silver medal but 1st place and the Australian championship jersy and gold medal was won by Anna's sister Kerrie Meares, and her partner Emily Rosemond all from Queensland. Congrats Kerrie and Emily.
Congrats Bec and Anna in coming second, well done.
We will be watching her race tonight, in the under 19 Keiren at the SA veledrome.
Back to work issues, I put in an "Expression of Interest" to Norwood Council for the sculpture to go on Osmond Terrace. Here's hoping I can make it to the next round.
I have also heard that the foundations have been poured for the plinth, and that they are now bankering the stonework for the plinth, so it's starting to get closer to the sculpture being finished.

Adelaide's heat wave continues

Just wanted to say that the weather here is quite extreme at the moment in South Australia.
Monday 36.6, Tuesday 43.2, Wednesday 45.7, Thursday 43.5, Friday 43.1, Saturday 40.3, and today the forcast is 40.0 degrees c and there isn't any relief in sight till next Saturday when it may drop back to 35 degrees c.SO you can see that we have been well over 100 degrees f sincc Tuesday as 100 degrees is 37.7? in centigrade scale.
We have young Rebecca Stevenson here in Adelaide with the Queensland State Track Cycling team to compete in the Australian National Track Cycling Championships. She is my late sister's granddaughter, so we will be going to watch the cycling at the veledrome, a few nights this coming week and cheer her on. Because of the heat the track will be guaranteed to be fast, but it will be extremely hot in the veledrome. Her original track bike was mine which she has now canibalized to give her a better bike, but it was nice to be able to give her my old track bike to get started on. All the best for this week Rebecca.