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Music
Recently, on my 65th birthday, I decided that it was time for me to begin learning the piano. Living on my own and quite a distance from my nearest neighbours is a big help.
It means that I can practise pretty much whenever I want, and while I may be lacking in skill I make up for in motivation.

A bonus for me is that I have quite a lot of written music in the house. I find it an inspiration just to look at it even if I am years away from being able to play much of it.

I love the look of music and above have posted one of my favourites. It is some Bach. There is something about the arrangement of notes that thrills me. What it sounds like I don’t know, unless I resort to a CD. (click on the image to make it bigger.)

The second photo is one I made perhaps 20 years ago. I even called it Zoo Music.

At the same time as Zoo Music, I was obsessed with the idea of photographing mathematical calculations in particular those of Albert Einstein who died in 1955. In a biography I saw some of the pages that contained his last calculations. They looked so interesting, purely from a visual point of view, even though I am reasonable at maths I couldn’t follow them in the least. The papers were, I think, in an archive at Princeton Unversity, and I remember at the time being keen to go to Princeton to make a photo. Unfortunately it is a long way away and I didn’t make it.

The closest that I got to Einstein was to visit Lawrence, Kansas, where until the late 90’s his brain resided. It was then sent to Princeton.


Stick Insect.

About 20 years ago I took this photo of a stick insect. I sold the only print that I made to the Auckland Art Gallery and since then I have not been able to find the negative, thereby making it a very rare image. To my knowledge it has never been reproduced.

The Auckland Art Gallery is possibly unique among New Zealand public galleries in that it has its collection on-line. Here is a link to the opening page, although it does require you to click a box saying that you accept the conditions of browsing through it.


When I took this photo I was particularly interested in camouflage.




When in Wellington, I went to a very convivial post-opening party, at the Southern Cross Hotel.
I noticed these candles sitting on a shelf over a big fireplace. I left the party, walked back to my accomodation, picked up my camphone which foolishly I hadn’t taken with me in the first place, walked back to the bar, and took this little picture. (incidentally, click on image above and it will come up bigger).

Meanwhile, it got me thinking about the similarities between this candle photo and one that I took of an et al sculpture, shown here at the Govett-Brewster, in New Plymouth, a couple of years ago.

I can see how there are certain visual similarities between the two subjects. I must have been photographing the et al, primarily because of the shapes within it.


Weta

On returning home I was welcomed by this weta clinging to my backdoor. For overseas
visitors to my site, these are native cricket-like insects that have, in the absence of land mammals here in New Zealand, taken over the ecological niche usually occupied by rats & mice. Flightless, they prefer to forage at night.

This weta is welcome, because its presence is a sign to me that the biodiversity of this 1/4 acre is improving.

Neil Dawson‘s Ferns 1998

In Civic Square, outside the Wellington City Gallery. I was there along with
several hundred others over the weekend because Telecom Prospect 2007, opened on Saturday evening. Of the 43 artists in the show (not me) 35 were in attendance.

Here is the City Gallery itself. Originally it was a library. The library
is now in the blue building on the left.

I will write something about the Prospect exhibition. I’m thinking about what I want to say, and how I’m going to say it.

Shop Window
in High St, Auckland today. The ease of my camphone is enabling me to
takes snaps of anything that might catch my eye, in a very unobtrusive way too. There is considerable freedom there.
I recognise this photo as a template that I frequently return to.

Japanese Weather today.

The apartment in which I’m staying in Auckland has a 42 inch plasma television set. One station the television receives is NHK, a Japanese no-ads broadcast.

Watching Japanese television here in Ponsonby is an intriguing experience even though I don’t understand a word of what is being said. I could watch it for hours.

I particularly like the weather maps, and here is a snap of one. It’s slightly soft partly because the image on the screen was not particularly sharp.

Must get back to TV now.

Sculpture-Hamish McKay Gallery.
Here is a sculpture that I exhibited at Hamish’s about 10 years ago. The blue was the paint left over from my Herald Island house which was the colour of the Tongan Royal Family. The previous owner had been part of that family, Queen Salote used to visit in her black Cadillac but not while I lived there.

Since then I have used this blue a couple of times since. Most recently on my New Plymouth house although I have changed it slightly, now I use Resene Tranquil. My house and studio is now entirely painted in Tranquil, there are no other colours at all apart from the white ceilings. Certainly there are no window frames picked out.

Studio View.
A section of my studio. The toy crane in the foreground I bought at least 10 years ago. Many times I’ve tried to photograph it. The green object behind is a section of poenamu, commonly in New Zealand, called greenstone, although found around the world and generally called jade. Notice the whitish crust that stones of pounamu often have. I bought this piece from an eldery man here in New Plymouth, with the aim of one day making some of my own jewellery. So far the only jewellery that I have made has been been from Fimo.

The two dark objects on either side of the pounamu are ventifacts. Old rocks shaped by the wind. There is a field of these in Taranaki although taking of the rocks is strictly forbidden. Both of these ventifacts were bought from collectors. Again, I have these with the aim of photographing them but so far no luck.

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