More Geology
Here are some rocks that are in the Southland
Museum. All of the samples have been
found in Southland.
I took this photograph a couple of years ago
when spent 4 months living in Invercargill as the William
Hodges Fellow.
Pumpkin Again
Following the previous post,
here is another photograph of a pumpkin.
Let me explain how this image came about.
A pumpkin had been purchased with the intention
of making soup. However, in the artist’s residence where
I was staying there was a blue plinth. I like plinths.
This residence is in Invercargill, at the bottom of the
South Island of New Zealand and this was a couple of years
ago.
I had placed the grey crown pumpkin on the plinth
because I was enjoying its shape and colour.
However, I had purchased some inflatable toys, ones
that when blown up, projected spikes all over.
One of these toys, in a moment of over exuberance on my
part perhaps, had exploded, and as a result had a tear
along one side.
A couple of friends where there with me at the time,
we were enjoying ourselves. I looked up, only to see Buzz, one of the guests,
wearing the rubber balloon on his head like a helmet and looking hilarious.
As the evening progressed, I found that the helmet had been
transferred to the pumpkin and there it stayed.
Invercargill 2
Another photo from my time in Invercargill.
Even though I lived near this swan it took me a
couple of months to really notice it.
It is about three stories up, perhaps two.
Are We In Progress?
In my studio here in New Plymouth, there are entities sitting, lying, and generally lounging around patiently waiting for me to get on and finish featuring them in The Final Photo. All of them have had me take pictures of them before but time drags on.
Here are a few. I used to think that these plastic bottles, dug out of an Invercargill rubbish dump a couple of years ago, were Clowns, but I now believe that they are Spacemen. Had most helpful e’s from blog friends re the background to these bottles.
The penguins were part of a set, 6 or 7 I think. One or two have gone feral since they arrived here in New Plymouth. I bought them at Auckland Museum when I was wandering about in a preoccupied daze about 3 months ago, concentrating mainly on my notes that I had been working on, I was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards and while not necessarily expecting to win my category I did want to have something gracious to say whatever the outcome. Extemporaneous speechifying does not come easily to me. I have to work on it.
Back in the StudioFor more than a year I have been running two studios, my main one here in New Plymouth and a satellite one in Alexandra in Central Otago. The South Island one came about as the result of having a residency there but it has now ended. Before the year in Alexandra I was 4 months in Invercargill so it has been a fair while.
In hindsight I underestimated just how difficult this was going to be, especially as I had a book being produced in Auckland in the middle of the year. Strategically this was less than ideal.
Exacerbating the problem was that while in Invercargill I made the decision to switch from using a PC to using a Mac. Right now here in New Plymouth, they are both set up side by side awaiting the arrival of a technician who will extract everything of value to me from the hard drive of the PC and transfer it to the Mac. It has been a change well worth making, but again I might have underestimated just what there was to learn and to choose a time when I had a book underway was probably not a great idea!
Now I look forward to regaining my strength. At present I am having difficulty seeing new photos, it’s been like that for about 3 months but there is no panic, it is a time of removing a lot of overburden to put it in mining terms.
Invercargill Revisited
This week I spent a couple of days in Invercargill, primarily to go whitebaiting but also to catch up with some of the valued friends I have who live who live there.
As usuaI when I’m in Invercargill, I stayed in this house, they are most generous hosts, in fact, last year they staged a birthday party for me.
