Student Art Show - A Must See!

2 April 2013

First - I'm kind of out of sequence here.  Just ignore the dates.  And there are probably a few posts that may have been skipped - at least, the statistics indicate that.  Some days are busy and I don't post - others days, I catch up and maybe post two blogs.  So check the list and see if you missed something.  It might be exciting stuff you missed!

Okay - I came to Australia knowing that they have a very comprehensive art education program.  I met several visual arts educators at the National Art Education Association Convention in March 2012, and I attended two or three sessions where they presented student work as well as an overview of the visual art training these students receive.

Part of the normal procedure in Australia is that 12th grade students compile a portfolio of their artwork, which is reviewed and assessed by a committee of art specialists.  Certain works are selected to be exhibited in various museums throughout the country.  Some of the student work is used as their portfolio for college or university applications.  But part of the body of work is shown in museums, and it is a great honor to have one's work selected for exhibition.  In fact, some work is then selected to be exhibited in various education administration offices - the Minister of Education, the Director of Assessment, and such.  Additionally, special awards are sometimes given in recognition of great achievement or promise.  The entire process is to encourage and promote the visual arts in the public and private schools, as well as to encourage students to pursue careers in the visual arts. 


I went to the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) Art Show at the Adelaide College of the Arts.  This is a college of Fine and Performing Arts (post-secondary, or tertiary education - because sometimes college means high school here).  I met some 11th grade students who are hoping to attend this school, and were visiting the SACE show as a class field trip.  

I have to say I'm totally impressed with the body of work exhibited.  Many of the pieces show not only technical skill but also emotional maturity and integration of artistic expression in an abstract and conceptual way.  The work was incredible!  Some of the pieces were what one might expect from a high school senior.  But other work - wow!

So - first I have to apologize to the students 
and their teachers - I didn't copy down names, I only took a few photos.  So I'm not giving credit to all the incredibly talented students whose work is shared here.  And I do apologize.  I wouldn't be happy if someone showed my students' work and didn't mention their names.




 
Also, my apologies for the quality 
of the photos - digital images never quite do justice to the artwork, colors are distorted, and it never is quite the same as seeing the art in person.  

And please remember that you can click on the photo to enlarge it and see more detail, get a better idea of what the actual artwork looks like.

Also remember that these were created by high school students.  Seventeen and eighteen year olds.

Impressive, huh?

But I'm hoping this inspires all my art teacher friends and my various students - because if students can do this in Australia, well, we can do this anywhere, right?

And think about the conceptual maturity that it takes to create some of these more abstract pieces - this isn't easy.  It takes a practiced hand, an inner vision, and a willingness to fail to be able to create an abstraction of reality.  


Some of the pieces that moved me:  

-The pink dress made out of bras, for breast cancer awareness.  Because the student who made it has had her life touched, affected, by breast cancer.



-The student who painted a series of her younger sister, who is going through chemotherapy and therefore shaved her hair.  The student tried to portray her sister's vulnerability as well as her beauty.  
I think the student portrayed those aspects of herself, as well.

-A series of cardboard cars and trailers (caravans) from the 1950s, reminiscent of summer vacations and travel, both in Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.

 
 
 

































-The technical aspects of the student who painted a polyptych portraying the various aspects of tea - tea for two, sharing a cuppa, the intricacies of tea cups and saucers, an Andy-Warhol-like exploration of teabags.  Just the patience needed to create a painting of Blue Willow china is mind-boggling!



 









-The self-portrait that portrays all the angst of adolescence, the emotional and physical trauma of teenage years.
 

-The really exceptional sculpture comprised of circles, tied together within a metal frame, creating a landscape that is reminiscent of Aboriginal dot painting without being in the least bit derivative.
There was so much more to this exhibit, so much more talent than what I've shown in this little condensed blog.  Jewelry, posters, altered books.  Graphic design.  Package design.  Architectural design, from blue prints to models showing the finished structure.  Sculpture.  Mixed media presentations.  More fashion design.

I also had a wonderful time talking to the man sitting with the show, a former ceramics teacher and arts administrator.  I also chatted with a graphics design student, who is hoping to pursue further education.

I am so impressed with the quality of work produced, and by the visual arts education system in this country.

And I almost regret retiring!  Not quite, but I do miss my students.

Autumn in Adelaide

3 April 2013


The sunrise is a bit later, sunset a 
bit earlier, mornings and evenings chillier - autumn has arrived in South Australia, and we can feel the changing weather in Adelaide.  It's still a beautiful city, with gorgeous architecture and crazy public art hidden in little nooks and crannies around the city.  


But it definitely isn't summer any more!

The air has that definite cool quality that signals autumn is here.  Mornings require jackets, maybe even a jacket and sweater.

The sky begins each morning covered in grey clouds, pretending rain will fall at some point sooner rather than later.  

The weather, like most of Australia, has a sense of humor and is just teasing us - the sun burns off the clouds and fog, and the sky turns the gorgeous blue we've come to expect.  And while the sky is only painted onto this building, much of the time it matches the real sky up above.

Our motel/backpackers is located in the northwest corner of Adelaide - if we walk down the street heading east, the street changes names (from Hindley to Rundle) and becomes a pedestrian mall.

It's a wonderful walk on a clear autumn day - people are out and walking, musicians are performing, there are various statues and vendors and everything is bathed in warm sunshine.  People slowly shed their sweaters and jackets, and enjoy this last sunshine.   

 

Even the fruit seems to change with the seasons - fewer berries of early summer, more and more apples, peaches, pears, plums, the fruits of autumn.  Pomegranates, figs, dates, nectarines, bananas.  The colors get darker, the fruits denser.  Winter is coming, and the produce will become more geared toward cold weather.  

There are all kinds of old buildings along Rundle Mall - a favorite is this old government building featuring the national seal of Australia, complete with emu and kangaroo!





And the sculpture - Roy René, born Harry von der Sluys, originally from Adelaide, and Australia's best known comedian.  (Yeah, I know, I've never heard of him either.)  A little girl on a slide - and if we want to get metaphorical about it, we could see her sliding out of childhood, summer, and into her teen years, autumn.
































 Two giant reflecting spheres, almost like a mirror snowman - just in the middle of the mall.  Just because.



And I have to admit that the pig checking out the trash can is one of my favorites!  There's an entire family of bronze pigs, but this one checking the litter is the best!  The others are just milling around, waiting for food - this pig is going out and searching for his own meal!

 





And of course there's the requisite fountain for children to play in - we had fun watching toddlers try to fall in and parents frantically trying to keep them out.

Even the colors of the flowers for sale have changed to autumnal reds, oranges, golds, and yellows.

Autumn is in the air, in the produce, in the flowers.  We see it everywhere.

Except the trees.  We're waiting for the leaves to turn colors.  Haven't seen that yet, and might miss it.  We leave for Darwin on Sunday.

So we're enjoying our last week in Adelaide. 

Koala Mint

2 April 2013

I know, koalas eat eucalyptus leaves.  Not mint.

This is a pokie.  Short for poker machine.  Meaning a slot machine, actually - not specifically poker, just a slot machine.

Richard and I occasionally play slot machines.  Cheap, penny slot machines.  Each one has a theme, there are some with free games and special features, and we both have our favorites.

My all time favorite pokie machine is Koala Mint.

Yeah, I know - how silly can you get?

This machine is hysterical!  Hilarious!  It makes me laugh and giggle!  It also pays me fairly regularly.  And it is such a fun machine!

There are kangaroos.  Duck-billed platypuses.  (Platypusi?)  Maybe the soft-furred possum, which is much cuter than the American possum.  

And of course, the star of the pokie game, the koala!

If the koala is in the first column, I win - and he turns his head, blinks, and eats eucalyptus leaves.  Really.

If I get a few koalas in a row, they ALL turn, blink, eat - and of course, I win more pennies.

If there are koalas in the first and last column - wow!  Bells go off, lights flash, the koalas all stand up and start running in place!  Then another little koala comes running into the screen from the left, runs to the middle, jumps up to pull a shade down over the screen - they are too cute!  And then, the free games begin!!!!

The machine spins automatically, there are the normal wins, and the mint part begins - if one of the symbols is a coin, it spins, shows a number, and that multiplies the bet (yeah, all 20 cents of my bet) and I win that number.

There are various other rules, other ways to win - but those cute little koalas just crack me up every time!  They are just too cute and funny!  (Well, and they paid me $45 the first time I played.)

So that's my machine of choice. Koala Mint.

The only way it could get any cuter and funnier would be if it had little blue penguins!

And Perth Back to Adelaide

31 March to 2 April 2013

You'd think a 2,659 kilometer journey in one direction would be a repeat of the same journey in the opposite direction.

Actually, it isn't!  (Surprised me, too.)

We were on the same side of the train, which meant we were on the opposite side of the route.  Just for starters.

Also, we left at a different time of day than we had arrived - so we saw things during daylight that we had previously passed during the night.  So we saw some totally new places.

And, while we saw the same kinds of animals, each animal encounter is in an entirely different way, in a different places.  So seeing the animals was totally different.

Plus, we had a different crew - and they have a different spiel that they give.  I have some new facts:

- Our train was 29 cars long.

- That's a length of nearly 700 meters - almost 3/4 of a kilometer!

- We had three cars that are crew cars, with approximately 200 crew members.

- We had only one car that was the Red Day/Nighter seats - that's where we were.  Everyone else was in the posh Gold or Platinum cabins.

We even recognized fellow passengers from the Adelaide to Perth train trip, and talked about our time in Perth, what we did, where we stayed, where we went - all that stuff.  (And yes, Crazy Lady was on the train, but very fortunately for us was not sitting directly in back of us!  Whew!  However, Bushy, the late-to-the-train sheep shearing guy, was nowhere to be seen.  He may have missed the train.)

So no, we weren't bored at all!

Yes, it's a long journey.  Not exactly tiring, because there's plenty of time to sleep.  There isn't a lot of room to move around, but we had a stop each day so there was time to get out and walk a bit.

We left about 1 PM on Sunday, so we arrived in Kalgoorlie at 9 PM, and left about 1 AM.  (Kalgoorlie is about the same no matter what time you're there!)  

This meant we went through prime kangaroo country in the morning - and saw kangaroo after kangaroo after kangaroo!  It was thrilling to see mobs of 'roos jumping along, practically racing the train!  Others would stop and watch us go by - and several roos apparently hopped the fence, because they were extremely close to the train and really did look into the windows as we sped by.  There were small grey wallabies, bigger dusty brown kangaroos, medium sized light brown or grey-brown kangaroos, and the occasional Big Red, the largest kangaroo - they get up to nearly 6 feet tall (or 2 meters, depending on how you measure) and even sitting by the side of the train track they are imposing figures!

I started out keeping track of the number of kangaroos I saw, but lost count at about 20 or so.  And that was early in the morning - I'd guestimate we saw at least 75 to 100 that morning!!!  Absolutely amazing!!!  Some of the photos are supposed to have some kangaroos in there, but, well, when we're speeding one way and they're going the other way, they don't always show up in photos.

 

Then there were the camels - four huge dust-colored camels - who were maybe a meter or two from the tracks!!!!  Seriously, it felt like we'd bump their tails or noses, we were that close!  They filled the window as we zoomed by!  We were in the café car as we went by, and when I spotted them I yelled "Camels!" and everyone jumped up and looked out our side - and the train manager said we were very lucky to see them, they're rarely seen, especially that close!  Woohooo, camels!!!!  (And yes, there are an estimated one million camels out there in the Nullarbor.) 

 Of course, there was the requisite dingo trotting by later in the day, looking over his shoulder as we went by, meeting my eye and almost smiling in that doggy way they have.  He looked younger and better nourished than the dingo I saw on the way out to Perth - which, even though that means he's probably killing baby 'roos, still made me feel happier for him.  I'm a sucker for animals in the wild, even predators.

And I braved another train shower - at least we were on the straight part of the rails, and 

I didn't fall into the wall again.  Oh, another interesting fact - this train line has the single longest section of 100% straight no-turns rail in the world - something like 480 kilometers of absolutely straight track!

We rolled into Adelaide about 7 AM today, 2 April; collected our luggage; and took a taxi back to our motel/backpackers.  We're even in our same room, with all 5 beds.  It's comfortable, it's inexpensive, and it's in a great location.

 

And Adelaide looks familiar!  We have our old haunts to visit, new places to discover, and of course another festival to attend!  Because Adelaide is the City of Festivals!