Author: RJ

Inspiring words from theorist, artist, poet and author Ruskin, who once said “…give me some mud off a city crossing,…ochre out of a gravel pit..a little whitening and some coal dust and I will paint you a luminous picture if you give me time to gradate my mud and subdue my dust…” This is a journal about grass roots in inspiration, the act of making things and the heritage behind experience. It is about contibutions from the worlds of art, textiles, architecture, design, fashion, literature that surround us.

The author of this blog is an artist in the fields of textiles. Her background and work encompass drawing, painting, print-making, fashion, interiors and illustration.Blog on art, design, architecture, textiles, fashion.

24 Jan

the Annotated Wind in the Willows

the Annotated Wind in the Willows

“To that extent is a specimen of the most scandalous escapism: it paints a happiness under incompatible conditions—the sort of freedom we can have …

 
By RJ
Filed under: drawings, illustrated
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21 Jan

Mari Kanstad Johnsen-full Norwegian character

Mari Kanstad Johnsen-full Norwegian character

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to you all – albeit mid January!  …taking a brief break from a long list of studio tasks to …

 
By RJ
Filed under: art, drawings, illustrated, nature
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19 Jan

Gestern haben wir eine Kneipentour gemacht.

Gestern haben wir eine Kneipentour gemacht.

The shadows dance and light bursts intermittently through various tints of old glass. It all hints at the warm glow of hearts within made merry on mead (or something along that vein).

 
By RJ
Filed under: built, world
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26 Jun

Costly Grace

Costly Grace

Reading Dietrich Bonheoffer’s The Cost of Discipleship and I am struck with the magnitude of horror that was experienced by so many thinkers and artists during WWII; and the subsequent outpouring within their work. Bonheoffer’s writings and poetry offer a great insight.

 
By RJ
Filed under: world
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18 Jun

Tina Kalivas multiculture’s aesthete

Tina Kalivas multiculture’s aesthete

Tina Kalivas an ethnic rock chick of Australian fashion. Her inspirations are often drawn from ethnic textiles, different cultures and music – at once very raw and playful,…

 
By RJ
Filed under: garment
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14 Jun

Dion Lee at the Sydney Opera House

Dion Lee at the Sydney Opera House

This young Australian designer, yet again, created quite a stir at May’s RAFW in his SS2010/11 showing; this time on the atrium steps of the iconic Sydney Opera House.

 
By RJ
Filed under: garment
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09 Jun

Milford Sound

Milford Sound

A recent discussion with both a former coastguard and an army parachutist (who jumps regularly for recreation) had me thinking about the sky, and flying through it. If I could chose a spot to fly over in the near future it would have to be Milford Sound in New Zealand’s South Island.

 
By RJ
Filed under: nature, photography, world
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16 May

Kantha: Embroidered Quilts of Bengal

Kantha: Embroidered Quilts of Bengal

There is the quality of life springing from these works, which are created using myriad tiny coloured stitches that play upon a plain ground cloth; which is typically white.

 
By RJ
Filed under: textile
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28 Apr

Connecting to internals; Whitney Biennial 2010

Connecting to internals; Whitney Biennial 2010

The drawing crawls across the wall, as the visualisation builds, the linework is slightly schizophrenic; here focusing and ruminating for a while; there lacing loosely over unknown matter. And all the while the paper accommodates as required.

 
By RJ
Filed under: art, drawings, textile
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12 Apr

Bargello textiles: reductionism

Bargello textiles: reductionism

Simplicity of form in this fragment, …references a paring down of motifs to their geometric basics. That idea has proliferated in textile patterning not just since the 1920′s (Bauhaus and Art Deco), but certainly from the ‘Biedermeier’ era…

 
By RJ
Filed under: textile, world
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