Ola Robertson Artworks: The Wasting Body

Ola Robertson The Wasting Body, 2022: 25x20x5cm Polyester thread 

Artist: Ola Robertson Artworks: The Wasting Body

Poet: George Gordon McCrae Title: Life’s a Cigar

Monique Van Nieuwland Artworks: Rift and Purple Shawl

Monique Van Nieuwland Rift and Purple Shawl

 Artist: Monique Van Nieuwland 

Artworks: Rift and Purple Shawl

Poet: Susan Hampton
Title: The Goddess of Hinges Copyright 2022.

Poem:

" The Goddess of Hinges

The morning sky solders itself to the landscape leadenly also I tread towards a rift very slight in the cumulous –  and timorous in my movements I know I’ve already crossed a threshold to a place without visible gates a sort of atrium where I notice portholes and passages, side-alleys where hooded figures are speaking wayside shrines where finally you may leave behind your photos and trinkets, your offerings to such gods as may be and before the weather turns wet the Goddess of Hinges appears— wraps me in a purple shawl, turns me back and says, ‘Not yet.’ "

Susan Wood Artworks: The Living Heart: Poems for Ernestine Hill

Susan Wood, The Living Heart: Poems for Ernestine Hill

Artist: Susan Wood

Artworks: The Living Heart: Poems for Ernestine Hill

Poet: Susan Wood
Title: The Living Heart: Poems for Ernestine Hill A suite of short poems

Poem:

After the sand,
a panorama.
Quartzite spear-heads, chipped stone treasures, she has a few of those. Vanquished,
she never noticed the silence.
She was running away.

The man in the shadow, a witness
He said
“life’s a lottery”.

A woman.
Always a wanderer, amused and curious. She could not tell her story.

Men
here and there.
Stories everywhere.
In the bush,
the traces of a woman. Shy,
sturdy,
a little wild.
Hoping for a future.

In that country,
in the great wide spaces, it was hot.
Out of sight, she travelled by instinct.
It was a difficult undertaking.
Spinifex,
beetles, wings and stings And there it is.
A good story
is treasured yet.

Deep in the heart
of the country,
hills of extraordinary form.

Nothing but stones, chalk white and terracotta
She dreams of comfort and culture

for just a night

She is every woman. Sometimes she sings, beautiful and expressive. Sometimes she cries

In the days of her youth, secrets,
desire.

No one will hear the story.
She will never tell

She roamed up and down.
She sat writing history. For one brief moment she was disturbed

An old story. Secrets, promise,
and the heart mostly ruins.

Susan Wood website 

Beverly Moxon Artworks: Gathering Moss Series

Beverly Moxon Gathering Moss Series, Photographer Fiona Bowring 

 

Beverly Moxon Gathering Moss Series, Photographer Fiona Bowring 

Beverly Moxon Gathering Moss Series, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Beverly Moxon Gathering Moss Series, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Beverly Moxon Gathering Moss Series, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Artist: Beverly Moxon

Artworks: Gathering Moss Series

Title: Reflections Poet: Beverly Moxon

Poem:

Stillness in the forest as dusk falls 

Reflections reveal and then conceal 

Memories awaken, stories retold 

Mossy circles, green and soft

Magic carpets

A portal to another time.

Beverly Moxon website

Josie Cosgrove Artworks: Deep Blue Eyes

 

Josie Cosgrove, Deep Blue Eyes, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Artist: Josie Cosgrove Artworks: Deep Blue Eyes

My mother-in-law Tonia lost her husband John a few years ago. They had a love that was deep and strong, and I was reminded of their connection when reading the romantic poem by Banjo Paterson, As Long As Your Eyes Are Blue.

Poet: A B Banjo Paterson
Title: As Long as your Eyes are Blue

Poem:

Wilt thou love me, sweet, when my hair is grey And my cheeks shall have lost their hue?
When the charms of youth shall have passed away, Will your love as of old prove true?

For the looks may change, and the heart may range, And the love be no longer fond;
Wilt thou love with truth in the years of youth
And away to the years beyond?

Oh, I love you, sweet, for your locks of brown And the blush on your cheek that lies –
But I love you most for the kindly heart
That I see in your sweet blue eyes.

For the eyes are signs of the soul within,
Of the heart that is leal and true,
And mine own sweetheart, I shall love you still, Just as long as your eyes are blue.

For the locks may bleach, and the cheeks of peach May be reft of their golden hue;
But mine own sweetheart, I shall love you still, Just as long as your eyes are blue.

Passages and Portals - Networks Australia exhibition

 

Deborah Faeyrglenn, Tree-Sisters, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Christine Appleby, The Evidence is Everywhere, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Karyn Fearnside, The Stamp of Rubber Magpie and New Roman Times, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Susan Hey, Pathways, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Foreground: Ola Robertson, The Wasting Body; Background: Valerie Kirk, Namadji – Rocks, Photographer Fiona Bowring 

Sandra Obst, Rhythms, Photographer Fiona Bowring

Passages and Portals - Part two

September 9

-

October 19 2022

Networks Australia is a group of practising visual artists, living and working in Australia. We work in all mediums including textiles, sculpture, photography, painting and drawing.

Our exhibition titled ‘Passages and Portals’ consists of artworks inspired by Australian poetry. Poems are often passages and portals, offering new ways of seeing our natural surroundings and life experiences. In this exhibition, each artist has interpreted an Australian poem visually.

The Networks artists have invited a group of local Grenfell poets to include their own poetry in the exhibition, addressing the themes of Passages and Portals. These poems will be displayed among the artworks in the gallery.

Grenfell Art Gallery