Visual Arts Teaching – Textbook and Curriculum Resource

Last year I was contacted by Lynda Kuntyj and asked to contribute to a resource textbook to help support the new Western Australian Visual Arts Curriculum for Primary/Secondary students.

I am very interested in promoting the visual arts and in teaching/tutoring, having a degree in art education. After speaking to Lynda, who is obviously passionate about teaching, I contributed some of my images, working arts practice methodology and tutorial text.

Impact Publishing released this book early this year and you can find out more about this book here. There is a pdf file with sample pages from this book that you can download – this includes 2 of the pages with some of the information that I contributed.

This is one of the textbooks from of a series of three. They all look quite helpful as resources for art teachers and students even though it is the WA syllabus the information looks like it would be useful generally.

Birds @ Bellingen NSW

We spent some time in Bellingen NSW yesterday.
A lovely warm winter’s day – and I managed to photograph just a few of the local birds. Think I have identified them correctly but any corrections welcome!

This Lewin’s Honeyeater – Meliphaga lewinii – was one of many flitting around feeding on nectar from a Eucalypt flowers. It has a strong repetitive call.

Catching the corner of my eye was this flash of yellow from the brilliantly coloured breast of this Eastern Yellow Robin – Eopsaltria australis. It has the prettiest call.

Continuously on the move and very hard to photograph was this Grey Fantail – Rhipidura fuliginosa. It’s call is a bit more shrill. It was a challenge as it constantly was moving and despite trying I was unable to capture it actually ‘fanning’ it’s tail. All a bit blurry I’m afraid.

Kookaburras – Dacelo novaeguineae – were laughing in the distance.

…and Welcome Swallows Hirundo neoxena were swinging on the wires…

Old tree…and memories

There is an old tree – part of a long ago area of mangroves – that stubbornly is still clinging on. It is on the way into Yamba from the highway at a place called Oyster Channel.

I remember this place from my childhood – the much awaited last section of road on the long drive to visiting my grandparents. Every holidays my dad got, we as a family went to visit them from our home in Sydney. For my father it was always a home coming – to his beloved Clarence River and his favourite pastime – fishing. For us it was swimming, the beach, ‘the pictures’, walks to the shops, reading, general lazy days, wandering days around town and a sense of freedom.

Of course there was always nearly every day – the fishing and the getting of the bait for fishing – yabbying in low tide on the mud flats in stingray holes with yabby pumps and worming and pippying on the beach. As you can see in the photo below we started fishing young!

Going fishing often began with the 4am rise time – just so that we could make sure that we got ‘our spot’. I still have visions of my short, quite round grandma, demanding of anyone who happened to have the audacity to get to her best fishing spot before her, ‘get off my rock’. She was not keen on going out much but she loved fishing and would set out with grim determination and a basket of sandwiches and freshly baked ‘grandma’s cake’ for everyone, to make sure she got ‘her spot’. We caught lots of fish and had lots of fun but there were some parts that were less than impressive – the 4 am starts and lets not forget to mention the large buzzing and ravenous scotch grey mosquitoes that also seemed to inhabit in huge numbers ‘the best spots’ – obviously just knowing the humans with the warm blood would be here in ‘their spot’!

Oyster Channel and Romiaka were one of the best winter ‘blackfish spots’ with memories of fishing with green weed on the ends of bobbing floats waiting for the fish to grab the line and take the float under water.

Both my grandparents are no longer here but the memory of this roadway into town with its low lying roads that in flood times cut the town off (and still does) and the final bridge into town still evokes memories of happy family times. Their house was in River Street opposite the old Public School which has now been moved out of town to make way for the Bowling Club extensions. Their house is still standing – well over 100yrs old but like the old tree still hanging on – just. Yamba is not the same as in my childhood. It is no longer the quiet backwater of my childhood and I suspect the next owner of my grandparents old house will be the last before this prime position is ‘redeveloped’.

We probably won’t go fishing there again but there are the memories and this tree – battered and worn but still there hanging on – just.

Air NZ ‘nothing to hide’ advertising…made me smile

I love the new Air NZ ‘nothing to hide’ advertisements – very clever. It is a good example of positive quirky advertising that makes you smile and actually remember the product.

This series of videos also include a safety one – now I would remember this one – even with the blind and irrational complete panic that grips me everytime I have to fly.

This is a video of the Air NZ staff background to the video – looks like they had a lot of fun!

Stavros Flatley – to brighten your day!

Thought I’d post this – even though it has been around for a while. I must say it is great entertainment and certainly made me giggle!

Ringtail Possum Nest

We have been busy trying to get our trees under control in our suburban block. It has been a very long time since we tackled this and the trees have got to the stage where we needed to bring them down to a level where we can get some sunlight into the house/yard. There are 4 lilly pillies on the fenceline and two of these are quite large about 6-7metres high. My birdwing butterfly vine had also wound itself up on of these trees so we decided to take it down to a reasonable level and take the vine off this tree just leaving it on the fence. The first smaller branch covered in the vine came down to a flurry of frantic activity from above. Out from the high enclosed space flew three ringtail possums. They had apparently made their nest in the vine which was way up to the top of the tree.this is the best view I could get of the ‘nest’.

We had no idea they were living there! Although I did photograph a ringtail possum a while back. Consequently the tree is still there but not sure about the possums – think we might need to make a possum nesting boxes to keep these ones safe – especially from a very large and nasty neighbourhood cat!

Here is the largest of the three ringtail possums – the other two disappeared back into the nest – I must say he/she was not looking impressed!

The Big Ride for the Big Issue – Jerseys

Just a quick update on the girls doing ‘The Big Ride’ for The Big Issue. Anne and Jo completed a fundraising ride on May 23rd – you can find their blog about this event here. Here is a photo of the participants wearing their new jersey’s with my Australian Floral Emblems design on them! Very impressive!

On 31st May, Anne – who is also a singer – held a fundraising gig – and here she is in the new jersey! My jerseys should arrive in the post this coming week – can’t wait to see them. Also great to see the amount raised by Jo and Anne to buy new equipment for The Big Issue office in Melbourne has almost reached their goal of $10,000 – great work!

School bullying – Kate Miller-Heidke – Caught in the Crowd

Kate Miller-Heidke – Caught in the Crowd – is a song about school bullying from the perspective of the onlooker. I have always thought it is important in addressing the issues involved in school bullying that it includes not only the victim and the perpetrator, but also the onlookers. By standing by and watching and not helping, the onlooker is also participating in the bullying itself. Kate Miller-Heidke has been recognised for this song and the important issues in educating students about school bullying that it is able to highlight.

A webpage has bee created to talk about this important issue – http://www.myspace.com/caughtinthecrowd.

Schools were asked to make videos and the winner was from Upper Coomera State College,
Queensland.

NSW North Coast ‘Weather Incident’

Early last week a weather forecaster talked about a ‘weather incident’ heading to South East Queensland and Northern NSW. Translated (with hindsight) this meant torrential rains, gale force winds, floods, trees down, roads washed away, electricity, phone and in some places water cut off.

Fortunately where we live is not affected by flooding and we managed to keep electricity and phone connected – although I was sure on Thursday night we would lose electricity with several episodes of power flicking.

The sun came out on Friday only to be replaced by storms, gale winds and rain until late last night. the sun has been coming through for most of today.

…Just a few images of the flooding in Lismore taken yesterday about lunchtime…

The Big Ride for the Big Issue – Updated Information

For those with a sense of having seen this before – you have! Unfortunately the link wasn’t working to Jo and Anne’s website/blog about their fund raising efforts and events so I am re-posting the information – here is the working link now! The Big Ride for the Big Issue

They have two events coming up – one a fund raising ride from Melbourne to Yea on the 23rd May – there is additional information on how people may support this event and the fund raising on the bottom of the poster (click posters to enlarge). The second event is a jazz fund raising gig on 31st May in Fitzroy.