POSTCARDS FROM THE SKY TALKS & POETRY

Postcards from the Sky has been running at the Belconnen Arts Centre since early February. Your last chance to see this art & text exhibition is this weekend but the good news is you could also catch the last talks and poetry readings. Be there Sunday at 2 pm for PS Cottier, Hazel Hall, Kathy Kituai, Chris Mansell (tbc), Melinda Smith. The topic is Living the Studio. They'll also share poetry related to the exhibition theme. 

The exhibition has been a fabulous success with visitors fully engaging with the poetry as well as the visual aspect of the diverse works. Above is Melinda Smith's Orion as a woman unhelped by White Ribbon (foreground). It was terrific to have Wollongong artist Michele Elliot (below) here for the opening — in the flesh after many weeks of online collaboration. Postcards from the Sky (main foyer) opened together with Gaia Hypothesis (main gallery) on February 8. Over 200 people attended including Canberra installation artist Cheryl Jobsz (seated left). Just behind her you can see someone using speech time to read Chris Mansell's suspended postcards where Sky has sent handwritten messages to humanity. The Living Studio continued throughout the exhibition with extra artists and writers joining in. More on that later.

Here I am with Michele Elliot and our Skylines collaboration

Over 200 people at the dual openings.

SKYLINES 8

In the day blackjay

just ahead In the night

Corvus somewhere

above So many stories

Perched on a shoulder

whispering in an ear

Fallen bird Soul from

the sky Who was your 

message for Will they 

see it in the stars

Lizz Murphy

skylines treetops

blue day heat

wing flutter

I’m flagging

Michele Elliot

SKYLINES 7

and a misshapen platform to land on

the lightest touch

  heart tremble


  Michele Elliot 

The moon wanes stars fade

I’m convinced I am on track

find my ankles swathed in stripped bark

resort to torchlight find my bearings

I have roamed westward pulled up before

ploughing into a broadening eucalypt

I right wheel and a Froglet

risks a leap across my path

and even tonight with

the new moon surprisingly golden

stars rampant in all directions

singing me from dark to dark

still I cannot read the sky


Lizz Murphy

 

SKYLINES 6

 

I ask the stars is there ever a right moment no good

asking the moon it just questions the tides The moths

are waking They leave the cool of cave take to the 

night skies travel the migratory route Lay their eggs

Die The pupae hatch navigate the same path gather 

in the billions cavern cavity crevice On the way they 

may divert block the light 

Lizz Murphy

I tell the moon the time is now

she rises in magnificent silence



I ask the tree for shelter

in her green shawl



Michele Elliot

SKYLINES 5

 

   sky sea soft steel
   stillness broken
   by whale breath

    Michele Elliot 

under the stars
a right whale breaches

in the moonlight
blossom clusters
the sky is whale skin

Lizz Murphy

 

SKYLINES 4

Handkerchiefs 
over noses mouths

above is umber
the sun a burn hole
moon a light stain
one breakthrough star

black-faced brown crows
line the bridge  men below
deal their hands

Lizz Murphy

 

who left this

leaf trick

disguise over eight

letters wait

a hand held still

inside a full house

Michele Elliot

Skylines is a collaboration between Michele Elliot and
Lizz Murphy which has grown out of the One Sky Many Stories exhibition 

at Belconnen Arts Centre ACT 2018.


 

SKYLINES 3

Remembering the moonlight   drawing on sea blanket

Michele Elliot

 

I travel

for the skies

draw stars

Lizz Murphy 

SKYLINES 2

out of weather grey   creeps night

                     Lizz Murphy 

out of night sky   awash blue

Michele Elliot 

 

ONE SKY — SKYLINES 1

Wollongong-based artist Michele Elliot said recently let's indulge in an online collaboration of words and images. Oh joy said I!

So why not on the theme of One Sky Many Stories for the Belconnen Arts Centre (BAC) — many thanks to Moni McInerny for inviting us to join in. Over the next few weeks we'll periodically post Skylines here, at Project 366 and on Instagram @michele_elliot_artist. It's a bit random — we're doing what we can when we  can and it's up for grabs who provides images or/and words at any time but there is a commitment to responding to one another's work somehow. Michele kicks it off beautifully:


 SKYLINES 

1.

 

Photo by Michele Elliot

 
 
skylines treetops
clouds scratch flag

Michele Elliot




 
scratch


a stellar creature
rubs its back
against the sky


Lizz Murphy