The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon

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Sort Of Rum Balls

Thursday 30, December

Each year its a bit of a tug of war between choosing some traditional recipes for the feast or something a bit more on the healthy side of the line. I'm not sure that this is an entirely healthy option (I'll keep an eye out for the red tick), but at least it goes part of the way!

• Rum Balls
• 9 weetbix (or similar)
• 1 tin condensed milk
• 2 1/2 tablespoons coffee essence
• 1/4 cup rum (optional)
• 1 cup dried fruit and nuts
• 3/4 cup coconut
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• extra cocnut
• extra cocoa

Crush the weetbix up and heat the tin of condensed milk. I usually just open the lid and sit the tin in some simmering water for a couple of minutes, just to warm it up a bit. Chop up the fruit and nuts, and the choice is personal of course! I have a passion for ginger so that goes in, even if it is only a portion of the mix that gets the good bits! So then it is just a matter to mixing it all together and forming it into balls about the size of a walnut and rolling in either the coconut or cocoa. Yummy! But don't eat too many or you'll get...

Christmas Belly

Tuesday 28, December

OK - so I ate too much. In fact I ate too much before the 'big eat' day too, so it must be time to trim and tone the extra bits into oblivian and beyond! Sounds a bit like something from a Star Trek episode so maybe its time for some space age measures to tackle the task. Enter Pilates. These extensions on the old familiar theme of sit-ups and leg lifts seem to target the forgotton muscles and those hard to get to (let alone see) places. Thanks to the Ladies Home Journal site I now have my personal instructor in the form of an animated routine. Thanks ladies, its great!

Christmas Cheer

Friday 24, December

I can't resist putting up a Christmas picture, and Alley knows just how to get into the holiday mood. Sleep, oh wonderful sleep! Preparation is done, or at least as done as is achievable, and the day is set to unfold as the traditions of Australia dictate. But if course our multicultural society has plenty of variations on the theme, as it should be in a country that was settled by a multitude of nations. And of course ackowledgement of the aboriginal people of this country, survivors of adversity. Whatever the day means to you, I hope it is a good experience and a mark of the year to come!

Reminiscence

Thursday 23, December

Originally from Queensland, I have lived most of my life in rural areas, and especially coastal regions. Its doubtful that the surfie bit will ever really leave me, despite now living in the city (if you could call Hobart a city, a big country town fits better). So now as I look out the window, the forests of eucalypts, whistling walls of cassuarinas and defiant stance of the banksias have been replaced by shuttered, swathed and barricaded houses as they battle the harsh angle of the afternoon sun. A recent browse on the web dug up a site of a friend of the 17 years I spent living on the Tasman Peninsula. Peter Rigozzi is a furniture maker who has managed to balance the work and locality dance evenly on the palm of his hand. His love of the Tasmanian timber has him crafting superb pieces of furniture. His son Leigh Rigozzi has also just graduated from an honours year and seems to have created a niche for himself in the art world. Talent oozes from the Rigozzi household.

Flying Carpets And Beginnings

Tuesday 21, December

Today I began a new project, not that I have recovered from the last - but because I think the road to recovery is to indulge in dabbling in the printroom. So I guess the new project must be 'recovery' hahahaha. Actually I'm going through my journals from the last four years and revisiting some of the ideas and images I didn't have time to see to their completion or full extent of exploration. I think this will be a gentle way to wind down from the honours year pressure. Another is to read. Imprint, the quarterly journal of the Print Council of Australia, had a article about the Flying Carpet Project. This non-profit project extends the sense of female cohesion as a strength beyond the immediate boundaries of our daily lives. An interesting concept, and if it ever floats by I will be absorbed in its fabric.

Competitions

Saturday 18, December

One of the paths to public exposure for art has been the competition platform. In a way it is an unseemly sort of event with no cohesion in a thematic sense between the work, but then it also provides a fabulous variety for the viewer. The extreme lucky dip perhaps. Recently I received an email for an international competition, the Lessedra World Art Print Annual, and it has proved to be a fantastic site to browse through some very high quality work. It is my latest occupational hazard as I can spend far too much time clicking on names and checking out the prints! Well worth a look if your into printmaking though.

And today is my youngest daughters birthday - 11!!, Happy Birthday Abi!!

Sally Fenton

Thursday 16, December

The final student heading to the Hatched exhibition in Perth, 2005, is Sally Fenton. She excelled in her honours year, but has a solid record of achievment and well deserved recognition of her work. Her contempory style also echoes the natural environment in many of her pieces. The screen in this photo is the piece she had in the Plimsoll gallery for our honours exhibition, and fails to show the subtle beauty and care she took to sew the fabric together. Small collections of pebbles and shells shaped and softened by the roll of ocean waves are gathered in each square forming a quilted translucent screen. The gentle fabric and rippled stitching reflect the ebb of waves rolling off the beach, enhanced by the soft swing of the screen suggesting the repetition of gently rolling waves. We're all looking forward to the event at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Forming A Printmakers Web

Wednesday 15, December

Recently I decided to seek out other printmakers devoting time and energy to the 'blog' and I found the inspiring Marja-Leena Rathje blog. Her work is lovely, the drypoint image 'Veils Suite: The Crowd' stirring up some thoughts of current world circumstances. Being situated on the other side of world also means her perception of place is so interesting for the Australian reader.

Julie Le Brun Hatched

Tuesday 14, December

Julie is a sculpture student and is also selected to represent the Tasmanian University in the Hatched exhibition in Perth next year. Her effort was huge this year, in scale and output. Concentrating on the sensations of the ocean, Julie created four large installations. The one shown here (sorry Julie, haven't got the title!) was on display in the Plimsoll Gallery for our Launch honours exhibition. The atmosphere was cool and had a distinct feeling of being underwater. The dense layer of salt on the base of the installation had a crunching sound underfoot, and enveloped your feet in the same way sand does. The choice of plastic bags brought home a message of environmental degradation for me, and so the impression of being under a ceiling of drifting plastic was as sad as it was impressive.

Combining Techniques

Sunday 12, December

It has been my burning ambition to combine etching and lithograph together. This may seem a simple task, and while I have had some success stories, I don't think that different techniques always sit comfortably together easily. Milan Milojevic has been combining traditional techniques with digital images for a period of time. He has frequently worked the digital from a traditional print. This allows the image to take on a distint printmakers feel, while having the sophistication and polish of the digital image. I guess the success he has had with his prints speaks for itself in declaring the combination a successful venture.

Weaning And Growing

Friday 10, December

The fantastic environment of the printmaking room at the Tasmanian University is proving a beast to wean myself from. Just the views alone are worth being there for, added to that is the range of equipment and general atmosphere - work that is. My first task now that the 'schools out' tune is officially over, is transform my garage and workspace adjacent to the garage into a studio. This is a task that many would relish, but I have been failing to leap into it with the abandon I had hoped would grab me. This might be because these areas are currently home to a vast arrangement of boxes and bags containing who knows what from when (?) poked into every nook and cranny. It will take some very determined hours to sort through them all and distribute them in a fashion that allows me to claim my workspace. The other part that is holding me up is the financial backing to get the equipment I need, but hopefully this will resolve with time, luck and maybe even some paid work. Yes its the illusive goal. Ok, I'll start tomorrow, right after I write that job application.

Finding The Right Wall

Tuesday 7, December

Russ Wheeler has come to the rescue for me again and is hanging some of my prints on his gallery wall. As an art framer he does a fabulous job, but more than that he really cares about the poeple he is working with. He has a strong sense of what suits his gallery space and is keen to hang work that is a bit off the mainstream track (thats me apparently). So if you want to see 'Recidivist' and 'The Tank: Category A' live, then his shop is at 102 Bathurst Street, Hobart, Tasmania, phone number 0362346961. OK Russ, now you have to frame them up!

Safe Printmaking

Monday 6, December

The issue of health has been of serious discussion for years in the printmaking business. So many of the processes use chemicals that are without doubt extremely bad for a printmakers health in the long term. The studio at the Tasmanian University has moved towards using non-toxic methods to a degree and continues to explore new ideas. There is vegetable oil for cleaning up the ink and a non-toxic etch solution for copper. It is hard to move completely away from the chemical drawcard of efficiency and effectiveness for some jobs though. Screenprint is a relatively safe option for example, until you have to clean the photo emulsion from your screen, or even use the emulsion for that matter. So I guess in the end it is a matter of diversifying and balancing the exposure. The groundswell of interest in developing non-toxic methods is, however, carving a new history in printmaking, and the printsafe exhibition is an excellent example of overcoming the chemical burden.

Facelift

Sunday 5, December

Sorry for the gap in blog entries, but as you can see Translucent has undergone the surgeons knife to remove a few warts and wrinkles, and I think it was worthwhile sitting anxiously in the waiting room while Steven did his stuff. Thanks Steve - she looks great!

Last year I participated in a print exchange with the University of Lousiana and the honours students teamed up with a few lecturers to exchange their work with the University of Miami. This was a fabulous exercise for all uni's involved and created an organisational headache for Leonie Oakes who had brainstormed the idea. The Miami prints are up on their uni website and show how diverse printmaking can really be. The banksia print on the right was my contribution to the exchange and is a combination of etching and lithograph.

Photos And Snaps

Thursday 2, December

It has been a busy couple of weeks for my old camera, trying to get a few 'archive' type pictures of my artwork for a portfolio. It seems that not only are photos the result of careful execution, but also vastly influenced by the quality of the film and modern technology. Yes, in the last gasps of the financial burden that honours is I bought a cheap chickenfeed film. I can hear the 'what do you expect' echoes even from behind the computer screen! Dull lifeless snaps are the result. Luckily I took a few with a reasonable film earlier, and the little digital has been fabulous. It is without doubt though, after viewing some photos of a friends from a swishy new camera, that upgrading my tired 20 year old beast is fast becoming a major priority for 2005. First I need a job though.. and second there is the choice between digital and SLR. Personally I still love the SLR, and especially having a manual control as well as the choice of automatic. I'm sure I have plenty of time to research the options!