Return to the the Flying Teapot

You can find a page here, where I recorded a visit in 2006 by Ev and myself to the Flying Teapot in Ballan, west of Melbourne on the road to Ballarat.

Google maps said this week that the Flying Teapot was closed or moved. It could not, as you will discern from that link above, have moved. Helen and I went to see if it was open or not. It has been replaced, says the sign at the gate, by the drearily named (missing the point of the wondrous gardens) "Steptoe's Opshop".

We took more photos today, near dusk, without distraction by red hat ladies. There has been a bit of deterioration. It is to be hoped that it will be kept as close as possible to the original creative work... recognising that weather has produced some very interesting changes. Some embedded items have become more evident and the matrix around them has shrunk or faded, or their rust etc has travelled.

We saw more today with perhaps more time, also more because as we have more experience than I had in 2006 of mosaic work, our eyes saw more. And because our attention was not drawn to ladies in red hats and purple tights.

It remains a work of amazing imagination and originality, a thing of great beauty. Here 'tis as was today, a delight to behold and great stimulus to new work for us. Remember that you can see these photos enlarged as a collection by clicking on any one.

stop playing and get serious!

Mosaic and paintings

I don't think the writing will flow easily, however, until I get the painting going well again. I have some large items to paint, one to finish. We have been to another mosaic-ing day with Dora. See the report on Dora and Marcus's home page. This was a great way to clear the brain a week after getting off the plane! And we have now a considerable accumulation of tiles and the rest of the necessaries to get more mosaics done on our own. I must work now to produce a painting for SeeChange.

Mosaic in place!

Well, we went to Dora's workshop and you can find photos of the wonderful event here: happy crowd, day-long industry, great food, anxieties about what it would look like before we grouted, the fun of messy grouting after exacting work on the tiles, elation at products. Thank you Dora, Marcus, Thor and Billie, for the privilege and delight.

I have my mosaic element of coffee table in place, glued to the table, the dark grout and the intensity of the colours mean that the painting will have to be strong and dark. I have sketched in something that may work, including with the light from the lighthouse on Point Perpendicular illuminating god. Integral Energy will be chuffed, I am sure.

can I do this with mosaic?

Helen and I go a mosaicing workshop with Dora http://madcowstudio.com/ tomorrow.

We may do pavers for Helen's garden, but I hanker to do something a bit different. I have another old coffee table to paint and want to try to put mosaic on PART only of the top.

In the charcoal sketch (on cardboard, sitting on the table) of Jervis Bay (see colour photo of actuality) God (female, naked, dark-skinned, recumbent in clouds over Governor Head) is reaching down (over Bowen Island) after the manner of the 'Creation of Adam' Sistine Chapel item.

God is saying to the dolphins "Hey beauties, they may give this place a funny name and argue over how to pronounce it but it really has no name: no labels, no control, just enjoy. As for that species on two legs, I give up on getting them to love each other, but I bet they'll fall in love with you if they can stop admiring their own shadows and look around."

And the dog says "Woof woof" and God says "Oh, someone throw the dog a bone. Yes, Dog, you are loved too."

This is only implausible as the title of a painting if you reject the notions [a] that it is actually a coffee table and [b] that God is a woman.

Please go with my absurdism: two visits to hospital this week, more next week, the absurd seems real.