This month we'll be attempting to get the offspring to cooperate long enough to get to Utopian Slumps to see the new group show Grow Wild. Not just because it has some of our absolute faves in there - the woody Dell Stewart, the squiggly Nathan Gray, the illustrative Neils Oetjen and the Queen of Craft Penelope Durston - but because we are intrigued by the statement "It's easy to forget the pleasure of the wild and the primal, especially given the place in the distant future we sometimes seem to have arrived at. The truly metamorphosing moments in life where we're confronted with wonder and sadness and need and desire are the times when the wild reappears in all its elemental glory". Top job peoples, we're already planning our uber hip opening outfits, just forgive us if they aint 'posset' free on the night.
Opens December 5 @
It's pieces like this Bruce Lee "one inch punch" figurine and the ghetto fabulous number from the Pimps Hoes and Johns collection above that so endear him to us - that and the fact that he is a self described tinkerer.
He created the Do-It-Yourself wooden figure for the brilliant NeighborWOOD show (held in Portland USA 2006), in which he crafted 50 figures and sent them out to a select group of artists worldwide to custom finish. A superbly simple idea which beautifully crafted results. Beck drooled wistfully over it for moths, wishing that the bloody thing would some day be available here in Australia for everyday peeps with itchy fingers, model paints and triple zero brushes to have a crack at. However, as she is want to do, she'd forgot all about it until Ramona started up her Christmas inspired wood craftin' frenzy. And so the longing began anew, but this time she was a little more pro-active - and after a wee bit of google research discovered that Bigshot Toyworks have managed to get it up as a retail product.