I am blessed with a large and nutty family.
Blessed
Nutty
Absolutely.
My Dad’s side is peculiar and wonderful in its own magnificent way, and the double-whammy is my Mum’s side, who gather once a year for a big themed reunion and daggy but splendid concert where we all roll around delighted by our collective sillyness and wit.
It is [...]

It starts off gently.  Just a little rising in the chest every so often.  A little wistfulness for dirty hands and freedom of fingers and mind.  A little panic that it has been so long now (two weeks) that I will have forgotten the movements and flicks that make things work.
It grows gradually - through [...]

Every project to me has a dialogue - words exchanged between me and it - thoughts gathered in progression.
This is why hand-made things mean so much more to me.  There is energy, care, and  tenderness about them that goes beyond the physical.  I don’t think I could ever throw a hand-made card away, and I [...]

Me - today
The Giacobellos are bunkered down in a lovely little holding pattern at the moment. Two weeks of school holidays is just long enough for us all to rest, frolic, bake, go to the library, watch less TV, get more sunshine, have more cuddles.
School holidays means having a holiday from artist mode and giving [...]

At the opening of Life Lines, someone asked me if it was difficult to let go of artworks when they are sold.
I said - ‘not at all’, and when the experience is a good one, that is the absolute truth.  You know they are going off to someone who loves them, and that they will [...]

Sitting at the table with the remnants of poached eggs for breakfast and a pile of chocolate just out of view.
Still kind of shocked that we didn’t realise it was out 9 year anniversary the other day until mid-afternoon.
Happy that my disasterous too-small jumper is now going steadily along in 4th time lucky incarnation and [...]

There is something so terribly uncool about standing on a box in the middle of a crowd and saying ‘I am confused today’. There is something uncool about admitting that one is not completely in control.  There is something uncool about questioning the path and the direction of ones own choosing.
There is something so totally, [...]

I’m having one of those weeks where it is hard to tell whether reality is sinking in, or I’m just feeling sorry for myself…
I have always read articles where someone mentions that (insert aged friend/relative) used to paint, and there are all these fantastic paintings hidden away under the house….
Used to?  I think. Why don’t [...]

This, I am happy with.  This is good, and comfortable, and  interesting, and was easy and finished, and sewn and done.

This, my third time lucky, is driving me a bit crazy.
I bought this Alpaca yarn a few years ago with a special and exciting project in mind.  Got part way through and realised it was [...]

Work in progress (Detail)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be Australian.  How we define ourselves, what is innate and unique, and what we bring to the world’s banquet.
I’m still thinking, and watching, and learning, but I think we do have our own definable qualities, and I get very, very upset [...]