Dawn Whitehand: Visual Artist
Abstract Art
More On Handmade Paper
A little while ago I posted about some handmade paper I had made in the studio using equipment that was at hand – showing that you don’t really have to spent lots of dollars to be creative. You can view that post here.
I used recylced paper for that initial experiment and being pretty pleased with the results, decided to be a bit more daring with my next foray into making paper.
A few months ago some tree trimming was carried out by the council along the front of our property – due to trees growing into power lines and the bushfire danger in Australia. As I live on a ten acre property, and we try to grow our own vegetables we asked that the mulch be left with us for our garden. As a result I was left with a huge mound of eucalyptus mulch – perfect for making paper!
I used eucalyptus leaves, bark and twigs for the paper, and when using plant materials caustic coda is used to boil the fibres into pulp – that was a bit scary, but as long as gloves and goggles are used everything is fine.
Boiling the eucalyptus pulp
The eucalyptus pulp
I boiled the pulp for about two hours, and then rinsed and rinsed – the caustic soda must all be rinsed away before any attempt to make paper is made.
I still had some recycled paper pulp left from the last project, so I made some sheets of paper using pure eucalyptus, and some using a mixture of paper and eucalyptus.
100 % eucalyptus paper
Freshly made paper – eucalyptus and recycled paper pulp
Overall, I was again happy with the results. Though I could have boiled the eucalyptus longer if I wanted smoother paper, the sculptural results of this paper was very exciting, and I intend to experiment more with this idea.
NaPoWriMo 2013: Five Favorites
There are just a few hours left in NaPoWriMo 2013 -- that is, National Poetry Writing Month, which asks participants to write a poem every day in April -- and hundreds of resident WordPress poets are pressing "Publish" on their final stanzas and sighing with relief and satisfaction.
We've loved reading all the verse that floated across our Readers this month, whether from brand-new bloggers committed to the 30-day challenge, long-time poets, or non-poet bloggers who were inspired to try something new.
Handmade Gift Cards
Did you know that as well as making sculpture and jewellery and functional tableware I also make blank gift cards?
The cards I make feature images of my artwork, images of ephemeral artworks or original hand drawn images – not pictures of them, the actual drawings.
All gift cards are blank so that they are ideal to compliment any gift on any occasion for any gender – as well as being a unique gift within themselves.
All cards come with an envelope in a protective plastic sleeve, and are frameable once the gift giving is over.
The following images are some cards that feature in my Etsy Shop, where you can buy online, and over the next week or so I will be adding more cards in time for Mothers Day.
New Sculptural Artwork
This is the latest artwork to emerge from the studio: Pod.
It features three wheelthrown, manipulated, burnished and sawdust fired ceramic forms, woven into a pod-like structure made from willow, eucalyptus, bark and jute.
I love combining natural materials with ceramics,as they compliment each other so well.
A short statement about Pod:
Pod explores the natural environment, and via its interweaving construction the interconnection of human relationships and what they mean in the twenty-first century. The sculpture is made of small seed pod symbols made of clay fired in a pit dug into the ground and eucalyptus bark and small branches embracing the pods signifying the interwoven environment in which we live.
Dimensions: 66 x 16 x 9cm Price: $420.00 (any sales enquiries can be directed to my email address)
I hope you like Pod 
Pod
Pod: detail
My “OTHER” Blog
This image is today’s pages from my poetry and drawing journal. These poems and drawings are published on my ‘other’ blog entitled A Poem and a Drawing a Day – I am up to day 179, 18th January… even though today is the 2nd February. This is because while in Italy I fell behind in my writings and postings for a variety of reasons – inconsistent internet access, busy days and BECAUSE I WAS IN ITALY!!
So, since getting back home I have been trying to remedy this by posting two poems and drawings a day – a harrowing task! It means writing two poems as soon as I wake in the morning and then doing fast responsive follow up drawings over a morning cuppa.
Slowly but surely I am catching up…
You can check out my ‘other’ blog here… I hope you enjoy it
journal entry
A Poem & Drawing a Day Project – Just Reached 100 Days!!
Back on the 24th July I got this crazy idea to start a new wordpress blog documenting myself writing a poem a day, and creating a fast and responsive drawing to the poem…. a drawing which could possibly be further developed at a later stage, perhaps in a larger format.
Today is Day 100!
And it had been a very interesting experience. While I enjoy recording my thoughts, writing a ‘poem’ every day takes a fair amount of dedication and discipline, and then a drawing on top of that…
It has also been enriching, however. Purging can be very therapeutic I have discovered! So purging on a writing AND drawing level is doubly therapeutic!
Below is a slideshow of some of the more recent drawing inspired by the poems of the past 100 days. Under the slideshow is a photo gallery of the same images – so view whichever format you prefer. Enjoy
Macro Photography – capturing details of the ceramic surface.
While giving the computer a clean up today I came across some old images of ceramics and macro shots of the ceramic surface I had taken back in 2004 during my University Honours year, and thought I would share them.
The images are not great quality as I did not have a very good camera back then, and I didn’t know that much about photography – but you get the general idea.
Having rediscovered these images has rekindled my interest in the underlying concept of capturing the surface of ceramic in a macro image. Ceramic surfaces can be so amazingly textural, so when I go to Italy at the end of November I am planning to buy a macro lens duty free, so as to begin a new exploration into the ceramic surface. Mind you, I think I will find lots of textured archaeological surfaces to photograph in Italy as well!
The following slideshow showcases images of some ceramic works I made in 2004, they are wheelthrown pieces made of two clays marbled together. I then took some close up images, trying to capture the detail of the surface. As mentioned earlier, they are not great quality, but it a direction I will now explore further, now that I have a better knowledge of photography AND a better camera!
So, look forward to some interesting macro photography posts during December while I am in Italy!
Poetry and Drawing Diary Entries
Today I ran out of (nice) visual diaries…. MASSIVE DILEMMA!!
I like to write my poems and create my instantly inspired drawings using journals that are textured and handmade and …well…nice! It inspires me! As opposed to the journals I use to sketch out art/exhibition/installation ideas.
So, it has been quite a mind f%u&c$k* (just mixing it up & being polite – I don’t really know why).
Tomorrow though I am going into town (I live regionally) so can buy a few journals - if I can find them. The last time I went to my favourite ’hippy’ shop they were out and would not be getting some in soon…. what!! If you’ve been watching Big Brother I feel like Layla without here hair rollers!!
Anyway, today’s poetry effort, therefore, has been entered into my work diary on the days of 24-25th September - obliviously nothing going on those days!! Sheessh!!
You can check out this dismal – yet wonderful (?) entry on my poetry blog : http://apoemandadrawingaday.wordpress.com/
Weekly Photo Challenge: Near and Far
As I am currently living in Bentleigh, and not my home, I don’t have access to all my camera lenses, so for this weeks challenge I’ve dug up some images from a couple of years ago that I took while undertaking an artist residency in Beaufort, Victoria.
At this time large parts of Victoria were under drought conditions, and many of our waterways were extremely low, if not dried up.
The aim of this residency was to draw attention to the environmental impacts of climate change by creating an installation on one of the many regional lakes in the area. I chose Lake Beaufort, one of many rural lakes, which was extremely low at the time. In fact at this time Lake Wendouree, Lake Learmonth nd Lake Burrumbeat were completely dry.
During the first few days of the residency I contructed some large abstracted bird forms from recycled clay on the shore line of the lake – which was actually exposed lake bed. After the forms had dried they were moved into the water and allowed to disintergrate. The process was documented photographically, as is the practice for ephemeral installations. Many of the photos I took using the near and far method in order to highlight the exposed lake bed.
An exhibition of selected photographs from the residency was later exhibited at the Ararat Regional Art Gallery.
The bouy in the foreground was once in the water, it now sits marooned on the dry lake bed. The length of the chain indicates how deep the water was at this point. The clay sculptures can be seen in the distance on the waterline.
The clay birds can be seen in the far distance on the waterline. The foreground is dry lake bed.
Late afternoon View of the dry lakebed. Debris that was once beneath the water is now exposed. Clay sculptures in the distance.
The clay sculptures are now in the water.
Footprints
This work by Dawn Whitehand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
