CrumpArt » ZOMG! We're on holiday!

G is for Golden Orb

August 17th, 2007 by Crumpet

Our first assignment this semester was to make an edition of 20* 20×20cm prints for a swap. They could be any medium, and I was originally going to use lithography, but it seems I’m learning, as I ended up choosing the medium that best suited my idea instead.

Before we get to the actual print, I made a folio book to house all the prints from the swap. Check out Bling Folio!

Less bling, more shmick here…

And finally, the finished print.

I wanted to play with ideas of truth, specifically the line of thought that a photograph shows something real. I coupled this with the “theories of the universe” diagrams I used in my work last semester and my notion of using spider webs as a metaphor for the universe.

I photographed the Golden Orb spiders at Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory during my break. They’re so incredible â€” the webs are huge and beautiful, and while the size of the spiders was a little intimidating, I never really felt scared or threatened by them. They’re just amazing.

*Actually, it’s officially an edition of 18 with two Artist’s Proofs.

Posted in ZOMG! We're on holiday!, Book making, Art | | 2 Comments

A Spot of Reading

July 23rd, 2007 by Crumpet

I’ve been slightly missing in action of late. Apart from the fact that we were actually missing in action for a while, I’ve been pretty busy with other stuff too. We arrived back in Melbourne at 7:20am last Tuesday morning (we went from 30Âº Celcius heat to one of the coldest days ever in Melbourne in a very long time â€” when we arrived it was 8ÂºC and it just got colder…), dropped our bags off, and I headed straight into uni for my first class of the semester. Wednesday I was back at school, Thursday I worked all day, Friday was another school day, Saturday we started stocktake at work (although I should have been at the Sheep and Wool Fair in Bendigo… le sigh… next year…). Yesterday and today I had another two full days of stocktake, then I’m back to school tomorrow and Wednesday, finishing up the stocktake at work on Thursday, I’m back in classes on Friday, then I’m working all day again Saturday.

I tried really hard to resist buying Harry Potter, but in the end, after contemplating a schedule that full, I caved. And I’m very glad I did. In fact, I did quite a lot of reading over the holidays. More than I’ve done all year. Here’s the reading list, minus The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which I pulled off my sister’s shelf in Darwin and read in an afternoon.

Now I’m onto reading for school, and tackling the 600+ blog RSS feeds waiting for me…

Posted in ZOMG! We're on holiday!, Random | | 3 Comments

Bird in bush, not in hand.

July 14th, 2007 by Crumpet

Apparently going on holiday is one of the most stressful things you can do.

This is the first real holiday that Mr Crumpet and I have been on in our 8.5 years together. We’ve had a few weekends away and such, but this is the first time we’ve been on a proper, lengthy holiday. And stressed is probably a good descriptor for it.

I’m not going to say what happened, but we made an honest, simple mistake at one point, which has resulted in us owing someone quite a lot. There was stress. And many tears. We were forced to think about money, and we realised that even without the stupid mistake, we’d be struggling to pay for rent and bills and food when we get back to Melbourne. We spent all our money on airfares from Melbourne to Darwin to Wadeye and back â€” roughly $1500 between us â€” and have had a little bit of money to eat, hire a car for a few days and see some things. We started out camping in our tent on my parent’s lot at a caravan park, and now we’re staying in my sister’s apartment, so at least we haven’t had to pay for accommodation. At the start of this week, I didn’t know how I was going to survive the rest of the holiday happily, but we pulled ourselves together and made a decision to put the mistake behind us enjoy ourselves while we’re here.

I start back at uni on Tuesday, a few hours after our plane lands in Melbourne. Mr Crumpet was going to take the rest of the week off, but he’s going to start work again on the Wednesday (as I’ve mentioned before, neither of us get paid if we don’t work â€” we’re not full or part-time employees). Because I’m back at school, there are only two days I’m available to work when I get back if I want to be paid any money in the next three weeks (damn pay schedule…), and Saturday the 21st of July is one of those… so as much as it pains me to do it, I’m going to have to pull out of going to the Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo. I’d really, really, really love to go, but I just can’t justify it in any way.

The next few weeks are going to be horribly hard. I’m seriously considering putting a Paypal donate button on the blog for a while when I get home. Hopefully we’ll get through rent and bills and stuff okay, and that we can get into the accountant to have our tax returns done as soon as possible. Cross your fingers that I get more than $2.54 back this time around.

And just so that this post isn’t all doom, gloom and birds of prey, here’s something that makes me smile every time I think about it.

Posted in ZOMG! We're on holiday! | | 1 Comments

7/07/07

July 7th, 2007 by Crumpet

Today my sister Emma is marrying her partner Dominic in front of around 70 friends and family from around Australia (and a few from overseas) and about 1500-2000 Aboriginal people from here in Wadeye. I almost wish the newspapers were here.

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The first house.

July 5th, 2007 by Crumpet

We went for a walk this morning, and saw a house not far from the airstrip being bulldozed. When I mentioned this to my sister tonight, she told me that it was the first house ever built in Wadeye, and she wished she had a picture of it â€” one of the Aboriginal teachers at the school used to live there, and it was in such bad condition that she was worried the walls would fall in on her children.

Thankfully we took the camera.

Posted in ZOMG! We're on holiday!, photography | | 0 Comments

Some important advice.

July 5th, 2007 by Crumpet

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Darwin —> Wadeye

July 4th, 2007 by Crumpet

We arrived in Darwin at 1:30am on Tuesday. There’s nothing like trying to sleep in a small seat with no pillow (damn these budget airlines! …this was the first time I haven’t flown Qantas to Darwin in quite a while) for four and a half hours at night time. The 6′4″ Mr Crumpet had his knees jammed right up against the seat in front. At least I got some sleep â€” I don’t think he got any at all. And there were no stops â€” four and a half hours is pretty much the minimum for flight time from Melbourne to Darwin â€” and it was a good flight. Nice take off and landing.

Oddly enough, although I’m afraid of heights and falling, and hate rollercoasters/rides with a fiery passion, I’m a pretty good flier. I don’t get scared, I don’t get sick, and I enjoy looking out the window.

Those are handy things when you have to get in the small planes.

We left for Wadeye this morning at 8am and arrived at 9. Again, excellent flight. I think I’ve flown with the same pilot before, and he’s good. Plus he didn’t mind us being complete geeks and taking photos from the plane.

We’re staying here until Sunday, and are in a house that’s just been vacated. It’s a fairly nice and new one, and has the basic furniture and large appliances but no plates/cutlery/glasses/tv/etc.. Thankfully we bought our own bedlinen, pillows, towels and some food, and my sister is in the house next door, so we’ve borrowed some things we needed. Oddly enough, we do seem to have a satellite internet connection. Hooray!