HIGH UP IN THE TREES

Hiding here in the floral archway until it is safe.

{Butchart's Garden held a surprise for the unsuspecting.}

Dear you,
 
Writing this to you with invisible ink. Clever that, no? The way my handwriting appears when you hold this postcard up to naked flame. And there was me thinking that this stuff of film and novel had no practical application. Surprised as you to discover it actually works. Hiding here in the floral archway until it is safe. Hoping that is not too long now. I’ve a desire to run about, to stretch the limbs, to un-kink my neck. I’ve no idea how actors can pretend to be a corpse when their character is required to play dead. I’m breathing so hard in trying to stay still that all the petals are dislodging and tumbling to the ground and my eyes are watering a lake.
 
Yours frozen and with persisting itch,
X

+ The hand-coloured set is a beautiful and new series of pencil works by Louise.

+ Louise and I will be bringing our Charms of the Gloaming to the Port Jackson Press Little Window of Opportunity late this October. More soon.

I climbed upon someone’s back and made for him a burdensome problem.

{The Niagara Heads-up.}

Dear you,
 
A treacherous path crossed counts for double in my books and a tail certainly helps things along when crossing those splendid falls. Cave of the Winds aptly named indeed and capable of shaking the steely nerves of the brave. Knees knocking together and head cocked back, I dared not to look down. At home in the treetops but not above waterfalls, I’m struck by the curious workings of my own primate brain. At one particularly hairy crossing, I climbed upon someone’s back and made for him a burdensome problem. Too scared of the dangerous terrain to care was I.
 
With a phrase ringing in my ear and the wind rattling my teeth, I’m looking for the familiar and coming up short.
 
Yours white-knuckled,
X

+ The above collage and its accompanying tale features in the zine Conveyed by the postal system. (Available online here. Or in person at  Milly Sleeping and Sticky (in Melbourne), and the MCA store (in Sydney).

+ Thank-you for your winged commiserations in regards to Agatha the budgie recently crossing over to the great wilderness in the sky. Agatha was a blousy bird who reminded us of a Wodehouse Aunt in bird form. She found love late in life with the arrival of Bertie to the outdoor aviary. For a period, we ran a grand bird hotel and were indeed superfluous where entertainment was concerned. Bertie, despondent without his companion, is now making friends with new addition, bright-eyed Zelda. Things are slowly moving on in the aviary.
+ The beautiful budgerigar by Louise on elsewhere

But then, we’ve no crystal ball.

{Speaking of yesterday.}

Dear you,
 
Well, you see, he was just there. Waiting at the stage door, like a mug. A white donkey with the painted markings of a more exotic by appearance though common by name Common zebra. Well, we couldn’t leave him there, waiting with expected grin soon to slide towards despondency, so we took him home with us. Seemed the only natural and good thing to do, given the circumstances. Of course, we hadn’t anticipated the having to paint him up in costume everyday side of things, but then, we’ve no crystal ball. How were we to know this fellow liked to wear his stage getup even when relaxing?
 
Going through the tar quickly,
X

+ Thank-you for your recent Tour de France metal model enthusiasm. They are tricky to paint but a great challenge so suited to the winter season. Next up, footy players marking the ball, and that long time coming Nighttime zine with Louise and Hila.

Better suited to the nimble-footed.

{Never far from the other.}

Dear you,
 
You know, I think we make the perfect pair. We may have a different outlook on the small things but we see eye-to-eye on the large stuff. On the issue of suitable manners when we enter society we will never agree, nor on the garden, either. There, we are the much spoken of chalk and cheese pairing so commonly seen.
 
Hankering for a vine swing, while my beloved lusts after a red rose arbour, this love pairing is a tricky balance and better suited to the nimble-footed,
X

+ The original photograph in today's post came to me from Alexandra, the clever bright spark. Thank-you, Alexandra, for the pieces you have sent me that still make their way into collage.
+ The above collage with its tale on reverse appears in my newest zine, Conveyed by the postal system. It is a 52 page beast for your enjoyment.

+ "If art is a mirror, dreams are the back of the head." Michael Chabon on Why I Hate Dreams.

+ Russia's Two Souls: Andrei Zvyagintsev's film Elena, by Gregory Freidin. (I saw it at last yesterday (having missed it at MIFF last year and the Russian film festival too) and it was a brilliant film.)

I darn her red sails as I would a pair of winter socks.

{Rarely have I been caught unawares.}

Dear you,
 
To be prepared at all times, that is my personal code strictly applied. I’ve heard it is also the code of a group of cubs and scouts, I think they called themselves, but as I’ve yet to met either a cub or a scout I can not vouch for this as being true. Daily, I check upon my tiny green sea craft, ensuring she is sea worthy. I darn her red sails as I would a pair of winter socks and have below deck sufficient quantities of jam should any emergency present itself at my door one dark and stormy night.
 
Becoming increasingly fanatical with this constant tending and holding this fixed state readiness, I should not be surprised if one day I let it all slip off like a blanket in the night.
 
Ready, always, ready,
X

+ Original postcard awaiting collaged addition kindly sent to me sometime last year; I believe it was, by the clever and bright Frips. Or was it you, dear Kristi? I recall that you both sent me a vertical image of similar glorious appearance and now I can't be certain which was from whom. Thank-you both, regardless.
+ This postcard collage features in my new zine Conveyed by the postal system which soon will be listed in our online store.

+ A perfect rendering of that feeling... Thank-you Jessica. I am most flattered.

Pining for the spontaneity of old times.

{Good company awaits.}

Dear you,
 
The monthly meetings drag on and on and I wonder how ever it is I can reverse the process, wind back to a time before our hook-ups became regimented affairs. Pining for the spontaneity of old times, when we had our afternoons spare. Rostering a good time seems to fly in the face of all I believe I still hold dear.
 
Shaking things up with a spot of what we call Droppings Practice in Sydney this clear day.
 
Look out down below! Got you!
X

+ The beautiful assembly line: Louise and I are busily working on a trio of new zines in readiness for this Sunday's fair (of which the above postcard travel features in Conveyed by the postal system). Come along, gentle readers.

Page Parlour
as part of The Emerging Writers' Festival 2012
at The Atrium, Federation Square, 191 Flinders Street (VIC)

Sunday June 3rd
12 noon – 5 pm

Half-time jellied oranges.

{Nothing changed since last I was here.}

Dear you,
 
After much searching, I’ve found the perfect after-hours roller-skating rink for our tournaments in Sweden. The third door by the back stairs of the town hall has a broken lock that to all appearances looks locked but in fact is not. As with many things, appearance of the thing deemed everything. I’m relying on you to spread the word to our racing comrades, but perhaps tell Ernesto last; he’s no good at secret keeping.
 
Need now only to find a means of providing the half-time jellied oranges and to purchase a pair of speed skates.
 
Until the first Wednesday of the month,
X


{I enjoy your company, They had constructed their own grden from what they had, Testing the laws of hazard (ii), The Retreat. Four of sixteen iPhone skins currently in our store.}

+ Our Society6 store has FREE SHIPPING THROUGH TO SUNDAY ON ALL ORDERS WORLDWIDE. Cause for celebration!

+ Checking Dancing Bear proofs in the bright sunlight. New things are afoot and soon will be revealed.

I plant a wet kiss upon your cheek.

{And the bellowing echoed so that I thought my head would split open wide.}

Dear you,

I am pretty certain that when Gene Kelly sang about those raindrops that kept falling on his head in some sort of "is not this enchanting?" way that he did not mean the sort of drops that run down the back of one's neck and all the way down the spine. Raindrops sound more romantic than the reality, or at least that is what I think as several drops catch me in that moment when one must close the umbrella and step indoors. That is when those raindrops as large as can be aim for your dry exterior. With engineered precision, they hit. Drip! Drip! Got you!

I don't begrudge the down pour, I just prefer it when experienced from the snugness of indoors, and if that indoors is to be shared with a thousand fold sea lions then so be it, say I, so be it.

With hair that curls in the rain and a less than sunny disposition, I plant a wet kiss upon your cheek,
X

+ I have, at long last, joined the Instagram ranks. I am posting photos of those creatures I encounter on footpath or under the water. And tiny men too.

Le Rocher Blues...

{Recalling an earlier sadness.}

Dear you,
 
Today, if ever was there a day, seems one to keep the words of Nikolai Gogol in mind. “The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes”, he wrote and I agree with him wholeheartedly. Here, this clear crisp day in Monaco, this I ask you to keep in mind as scenes new and familiar dance before the eyes. Whimsy and the unexpected can be seductive that way.
 
Yours not always as I may appear at first glance,
X

+ All things Winged with Louise
+ It's a Fine Little World with Elizabeth and Steffie
+ Elsewhere it is springtime, 1843 with Mette
+ Carousel Collage with Joseph Cornell

Of curious dreams...

{Of curious dreams.}

Dear you,
 
The autumn finds me preparing to hibernate. Summer tucked away, I am early to bed and early to rise, making most of the light by day and chill by night. I am skimming through The Handy Book of Object Lessons by J. Walker as my tea simmers and bubbles on the hotplate, and learning all manner of things. The first types of soup, why, they contained the hippopotamus. True, I kid you not. The hippo was chief ingredient in the soup pot of 6000 BC. My soups, they begin with browned onions and garlic. To my pot, I’ll add thyme, parsley, savoury lovage, and the bay leaf too. My cabin it be good friend to spice. To peeled spud too. Little will not for a fine soup make. Watch out! Look sharp!

Yours pyjama clad already,
X
 
+ The Handy Book of Object Lessons: From a Teacher's Note Book (First and Second Series, London, Jarrold and Sons, 1873) features particulars about the chameleon, the wolf, the cuckoo, and the silkworm. It features from the vegetable kingdom, the mahogany tree, the sugar cane, and the cork tree, and from the mineral kingdom, one can learn of gold, iron, silver, and tin. Part IV brings with it delicious miscellany, and here one can learn of the looking glass, the feet of animals, their tails, too, it follows, the thermometer, dew, the diving bell, bones, pins, and the china tea cup. Of the formation and use of mountains you can learn. Of the structure of the ear as well. The terrain covered is broad, and all contained in one small now tattered well-used book that I picked up for $2 last Saturday en route to local café haunt.

+ Gewurzhaus in Carlton has some very nice herbs and spices.

Holding the moon, almost...

Dear you,
 
Holding the moon, almost. Holding it in a parenthesis made by my inward curving horns. Holding it thus, for a little while at least, just to please you, to make the corners of your mouth kick up into the beginnings of a smile.
 
Yours performing simple theatrics at the foot of Shakespeare,
X
 
+ The fine bovid here today is a Blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) described thusly in my trusted source book: "The clumsy appearance of the Blue wildebeest, the lugubrious expression given by its black face and tufty beard, its rocking-horse gait and its constant snort and grunts have earned it a reputation as a "clown". Nevertheless, it is a most successful species."

Until astonishment fades...

Dear you,
 
Feeling truly master of all I survey as the sun sinks low on horizon and I hear only bird cry in the distance. I plan to stay on here, living in this realm idyllic, or at any rate, until astonishment fades.
 
Geographical coordinates in order harmonious,
X

+ Today's postcard from the land where New South Wales meets someplace in Romania comes adorned with a Grey wolf (Canis lupus). Perhaps of the Grey wolf you did not know that the male pack leader signifies his rank by carrying his tail higher than the others do. Pairs, my romantics among you, remain together for life. There, carry forth those facts into your day.

This gallery is no longer closed for installation.

{Closer.}

As of yesterday, Saturday the 4th of February, our show By This Unwinking Night, is open. This is somewhat hard to believe. We’ve been so long getting it ready that to sit back and find it is done, why, it’s hard to switch into new gear. Working towards this exhibition has been little short of wonderful. It has been wonderful to be focused upon one big body of work. It has been wonderful to see a wall of 443 postcard collages ranging in year from 2006 through to 2012 hang in neat grid some 12 metres in length and now on a wall. It is hard now to fathom how such a grid was planned out on two drawing boards side by side in the lounge room. Yes, seeing it all done, it can be seen why we left a New Year’s Eve party well before midnight, and spent our days and nights working. You cannot often shut yourself away and just work: it remains a privilege.

So, friends, today I will take you back to Thursday the 2nd of February when we were still with small hammer in hand and a laser level tickled our necks.

By This Unwinking Night
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Saturday 4th of February – Sunday 1st of April, 2012
 
Currently showing at
Latrobe Regional Gallery
138 Commercial Road, Morwell (Victoria)
(The gallery is right next to the train station, travellers among you. It is also open everyday of the week.)
 
+ The middle of an Unwinking Night, Louise's Sunday post features a glimpse at her beautiful birds in flight. Near to my head there swoops a Common cuckoo, a Pink-footed shearwater and a Red-tailed Minla. Duck!