Last sunday there was a national election in Uruguay.  For weeks political parties and supporters had been vigorously campaigning with public rallies in key spots, lots of noise and flag waving particularly on weekends and evenings.  In addition to a 48 hour media blackout before voting day, (welcome but it didn’t have much effect on the noise and printed leaflets pollution) another feature was the ban on liquor sales from the evening before until after the close of polls.  Which was probably a good thing – things  were lively enough (but very orderly) without that complication.  I don’t know how all restaurants handled this but where we had lunch on sunday, when we asked about having wine, were were told we could buy a bottle but it could not be on the table and would have to stay out of sight in the bar,  and it would come served in coffee cups… which we found interesting and quite acceptable.  So this is us just finishing off our meal; we did not stay for coffee and dessert as there was some fresh icecream waiting at home… ;-p  Interestingly there was only a fraction of the usual number of sunday lunchers there, and I later heard a news report that most people voted as early as possible and then spent the rest of the day with family (sunday custom) at home having an asado/BBQ – and the weather was perfect for that.  The result?  no party gained the 50%+1 votes and so there has to be a runoff election at the end of november – all has been pretty quiet this week with behind the scenes alliances being formed, strategies planned and so on between the two front runners who will face off – but very soon the noise, colour and movement will accelerate again – wonderful news for the printers and admen who have been working overtime these past few months…Whoever said an election was good for the economy seems to have made a reasonable claim.

A couple of years back we were in Egypt, and while spending time in and around Cairo with my friend Jenny Bowker, we enjoyed a camping trip out through the Black Desert into the White Desert SW of Cairo.  Most of the party slept out on the sands enjoying the constant gentle cool breeze after a delicious dinner and campfire cameraderie to close off  an interesting day.  By bed time we’d all had glimpses of at least one of these shy creatures who kept mostly to the shadows around our campsite, but even by the time we went to bed their tracks showed  they had ventured into the quieter corners of the campsite, and were on the lookout for food.  We heard several of them squabbling out in the dark over bones and left overs they’d snatched  from the bits and pieces the beduoin driver/guide/cooks  had put out their way after we’d finished our dinner.  Lying wide awake just before dawn, I watched one of them warily tip-toeing around a neaby sleeping body( Esterita)  but outside sudden-flung arm’s reach … and then !flash! Mike captured this guy on, um, digits.  Inside a tent, he ‘d quietly managed to reach his camera and get this lovely shot of the desert fox, feneeq. 

As the sun came up and we began moving around there were an amazing number of tracks cross crossing the whole camp site.  Knowing the German WWII commander in the north afrrican desert, Erwin Rommel, had been nicknamed ‘The Desert Rat’  by the British, I googled some bios to find a photo but his ears were very normal looking – so the nickname must have referred to his stealthy cunning, because he was legendary in tank and strategic deesert warfare all across that arena. 

This experience is just one of the things I think about each time I approach my ‘Tracks’ series to start a new work.

A new Timetracks work, stage 1 – lame arcs stitched with gold machining to almost-black .  About 1.25m showing.

Stage 2 –  removed some/lots of the gold – see bits on the floor

Stage 3 –  some gold mesh arcs added  –  a little subtlety.

Stage 4 – added a layer of black netting with little gold sparkles

Stage 5 –  added black nylon organza layer; lots more gold stitching.

Stage 6 – wood burning tool begun- at least 10 more hours needed

Up on my board at the moment are snippets and samples of what I am thinking about right now.  I have two works ready for burning, outside, when the weather warms up a bit, andpart of one of them shows in the pic: 

And this afternoon I plan to start a totally new work, some of the explorations for this are also in the photo on this post.  I am applying a bit of pressure on my self for some new work – I have just been accepted for showing at a gallery, www.galerialoscaracoles.com along at Jose Ignacio on the Atlantinc coast of Uruguay, during the coming summer season, dec-jan next.  I’ll post details of exact dates and gallery hours a bit later when they are finalised, but for the moment, I am delighted to let you know of this opportunity to have my work seen by totally different people.  The owners of the gallery, Sebastian Muele  and Miguel Zerebny, are passionate about contemporary art in general and have an appreciation of mixed media textile arts – which is how my work will be billed; and I think  is a very good descriptor for my current direction.

Sebastian (left, ) my friend Virginia and Miguel (holding Timetracks 3), are pictured during the lovely meeting we had last week, selecting some of the works to be shown  – and yes that is also one on the wall up behind them.  Working with them is already a pleasure.

I didn’t crop any of this pic because I wanted you to get a sense of scale.  This magnificent building facade is one in downtown Brisbane – and like an idiot, although I was walking, it was at speed with a couple of long legged guys so I didn’t stop to cross the road and see what the building was – there’s no huge sign up on the front – but someone  in Brisbane may let me know.  It doesn’t concern me too much though – because it is the magnificent pattern,  like isobars or isoheights;  iso- whatevers are lines that join points having equal value of some kind – altitude, degress of temperature, etc etc.  I think this is truly magnificent and feel I would have a lot in common with the architect who designed this spendid decoration for an otherwise  unremarkable building.  Perhaps it was a revamp, facelift or something …  I sometimes post ‘archtectual oddities’ but while this is architectural, it’s definitely not odd.