CrumpArt

September 30, 2008

Going, going, gone.

Filed under: art, food, printmaking — Tags: , , , , , , — Crumpet @ 3:21 pm

Money Man at the ready.

I’ve been meaning to make this post for over a month and a half, and was finally spurred into action because of another post I want to make… and because of a couple of details, I should make this one first.

Way back in August, the RMIT Printmaking Auction happened. We organise this auction every year as a fundraiser for our graduate exhibition (opening on November 25 this year at the RMIT First Site gallery) and it’s always a wonderful and successful night. This year was no exception and it also had the added benefit of cupcakes.

Strawberry Highrise.

Vegan cupcakes. 180 or so of them. Lovingly baked by me. My long awaited Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World book took its sweet time getting to me, and arrived the day before the auction. And as such, I got busy making tiny vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter and coffee/kahlua flavoured mouthfuls of joy. Actually, I didn’t read the coffee cupcake recipe properly before I bought the ingredients, and upon realising it was actually a fancy oozy filled cupcake (not good for short timeframes or travelling), I embraced my inner punk chef and made up my own cupcake version.

Note to everyone: if you don’t own an oven thermometer, go and buy one now. I don’t know how I ever lived without one. Also, this book is seriously awesome. Buy it, even if you’re not vegan or vegetarian. Brilliant, brilliant recipes.

Coffee and Kahlua

The cupcakes were demolished by the crowd in about half an hour, along with enormous amounts of delicious looking savoury food that had been slaved over all day by several other students. I say delicious looking, as I only actually got to eat one sandwich and some cupcakes. It was a busy, busy night, and I had to take over the photography from Mr C, who’d apparently had the worst day at work ever and couldn’t cope with having another job foisted on him (and I’m not being sarcastic at all there, he really, truly had the worst day at work ever — I’m still kind of surprised that he even made it to the auction.)

The Room

Anyway, it was a wonderful night. Not being drunk this time around, I managed to stick to my bidding limit and happily let everyone else purchase the work. We auctioned off about 70 pieces donated by students and established artists. Everything sold and we made bucketloads of money to go towards our graduate show, catalogue and anything extra that needs doing for the students in printmaking.

Bidding FTW

Thanks to everyone involved in the organisation, and to everyone else who came along and made it a great night. See you all next year.

And special big thanks go out to Andy and Joel, who once again did a brilliant job at auctioneering.

Andy

Sold

September 23, 2008

Dogs in the Park

Filed under: animation, music, pups — Tags: , , , , , , , — Crumpet @ 5:20 pm


Dogs in the Park from Leonie Connellan on Vimeo.

I made this video back in 2006 — it was for my Hybrid Media class it’s the first stop-motion/animation type thing I ever did. It’s a little jittery, but I love Henry’s tail wagglings. The music is Dogs in the Park by The Happies, a brilliant band I used to stalk follow on mp3.com back in it’s heyday. Their website doesn’t seem to work anymore, but you can find them on Eden’s Watchtower Records and MySpace. The whole album Meet the Happies, which this track is from, can be downloaded for free from Reverbnation.

(Sorry, it’s a pretty big file and takes a little while to download. If the video is jumpy, that’s why. I’ll see what I can do about replacing it with a smaller file. In the meantime, be patient.)

September 21, 2008

Gone.

Filed under: pups — Tags: — Crumpet @ 1:32 pm

Digging.

Henry died just past midnight this morning. We’d taken him to the Emergency Vet and after giving him some medication to help calm the seizure, we talked to the vet about his prognosis. We decided the best course of action would be to euthanise him.

Henry was the most beautiful dog. Everyone loved him. He came from the Lort Smith Animal Hospital when he was eight weeks old. Stella needed a brother or sister and he was the best birthday present Paul has ever received. We took Stella with us, and after walking past and having her reject all the other dogs, the staff there told us about Henry and brought him out. He’d been found as a tiny pup on the streets of North Melbourne with a German Shepherd, who we assumed was his mother. His coat was German Shepherd colouring, he was tan and white on his chest like a Kelpie, and he had a little terrier shaped head with a quizzical look and floppy ears. He was so small, and he had big pale rings around his eyes like glasses. They got smaller as his head grew bigger, but he still looked adorable. The two dogs hit it off immediately. They played and played and played while we filled out all the paperwork. Somebody else had taken Henry, but had to return him to the Animal Hospital a day or so earlier as they were unwell and couldn’t care for him properly. We were so thankful that we’d been given the chance to adopt such a beautiful boy.

Back when he was still small, he used to squeeze into the outside toilet at our Caulfield house and steal the rolls of toilet paper. We’d often come home to a proud as punch Henry sitting in the paper-strewn yard.

At Caulfield, both puppies would sleep inside in the living room, and in the mornings when Paul got up early and opened the doors, Henry would sneak down to our bedroom and, quiet as he could, crawl up onto the futon and snuggle into my tummy. Stella would always jump and lick boisterously, and get sent outside as a result, but not Henry.

Sometimes when he was confused by something, he would cock his head, and if he was still confused, he would cock it further. It was the most adorable thing in the world. Especially when he cocked his head while sitting with his front paws crossed over one another. He didn’t grow up to be as big as we expected, but his legs were always too long for his body.

We would laugh at little children in the street who were scared of his underbite.

We would laugh with delight in the street when he sang along in perfect tune with the ambulance sirens.

I’ve had a very rough year. And now I have no Henry to cuddle and lick away my tears and comfort me when I’m feeling sad that he’s gone.

Stella is on the couch with us now. She’s quiet and curled up and lets out a big sigh every so often. We all miss him so much.

We dug a grave in the yard this morning, in his favourite place to lie in the sun. We buried him with some of his towels — he would always want to sit on a towel, even on the grass. I put in a top that Vetti gave me a while back — it had blown off the line one day and was in tatters by the time I found it. Henry and Stella had quite a bit of fun that day. We put in a big slice of fresh bread loaded with Nuttelex and Vegemite and cheese. He loved cheese, and knew the sound of the food processor meant that we were grating it for nachos. His other favourite sound was the microwave beep, because that meant his dinner was ready, and dinner was his absolute favourite thing in the world. He would do a tapdance of impatience as we scooped it into his bowl, and if we were feeling scampish, we could actually make him let out a high-pitched bark of exasperation.

I put in some fresh cut jasmine from our front yard so he would smell good and a little folded crane. We laid some calico over him before filling in the grave.

Grave.

Goodbye Henry. We will never forget you.

My beautiful boy.

September 20, 2008

Helpless.

Filed under: pups — Tags: , , , , , — Crumpet @ 10:51 pm

My favourite Henry pose.

I got home from work almost two hours ago and discovered Henry having a seizure. Paul is out a long way away with the car and Henry is still not any better. I don’t know if it’s worse when I’m with him or not. I don’t know how long it had been going on when I found him. I don’t know what causing it. I don’t know how to make him better.

September 19, 2008

Small Pie Collider

Filed under: geekery — Crumpet @ 10:53 pm

So fun. :) Thanks Vetti.


via videosift.com

Is there nothing pie can’t do?

Mann Love

Filed under: Random — Crumpet @ 12:29 am

Just saw this keynote speech from Merlin Mann on the Fulltime Casual blog. It’s good stuff, and has inspired me to make any artist statement I write fit into a Tweet.

Live TV by Ustream

And now it’s time for Lights Out!

September 17, 2008

Alice’s Adventures in Testingland

Filed under: animation, art, printmaking — Crumpet @ 9:32 am

Here’s a little sneak peak at what I’m working on…


Alice’s Adventures in Testingland from Leonie Connellan on Vimeo.

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress