Warm welcome to Oprah Winfrey

I am so glad to see you enjoyed the Aussie hospitality.

style & beauty

Audrey Hepburn is the epitome of classic 50's beauty. Her gamine looks in these black and white photographs really appeals to me. The images here were retrieved from Google images of Audrey Hepburn. Retrieved 9:07am Dec 8, 2010

Classic 50's beauty

iheartmadison: Dovima - 1950’s Model and Avedon Muse

iheartmadison: Dovima - 1950’s Model and Avedon Muse

Gourmet plating

Summer berries with vanilla mascarpone

Have you ever been to a function and the food is attractive and appetising, you feel that you would rather look at it than eat it? I did! I went to the Australian National Maritime museum volunteers christmas party 2010 at the Bayside gallery, Darling Harbour. The view was absolutely stunning, the people I sat with, Mr & Mrs Flavin, were charming and interesting, (who also happened to win one of the door prizes, courtesy of Captain Cook cruises), and that memorably and finally, the food was divine. I think that when it comes to the aesthetics of food presentation, it is the plating in regards to colour and plate that appeals to the eye and the nose is the key. It certainly was not disappointing to the tongue as well.

Fresh Water

I have always been conscious of how we jewellers and painters consume fresh water. It seems to be my concern to me that we are ethical in managing and disposing of finishing chemicals and solvents because it makes sense financially and ecologically. You might find this teachers resource useful.
(FRESH WATER (Image provided by treehugger.com all copyrights reserved))

Freshwater is not only the most valuable resource in the future but also right here and now. Australians today buy expensive and wasteful bottled water arguably more than any country in the world.
Find out more and see the Powerhouse museum exhibition or click on the above teacher's resource link.
You only have to visit any convenience stores springing up all over Sydney and see how many brands there are on offer but that's not my point. It stands to reason why green business should try to manage our fresh water supply while it is the rainy season (the wettest year since 1959).

Interim Approval to Teach

From now and until march 2011, I can continue teaching Design and technology or Visual arts on a casual basis. I am also willing to travel (except overseas), if need be.

Thanks to your support of the successful UNSW open day market, 'Awfully Nice'

Roseville Uniting Church workshop, 2010

Hello, I've just had a satisfying all day workshop teaching clay handworking techniques to different ages from years 5-16. I also had a few doing trash to treasure (jewellery). I must thank Gwynn, Warwick, Helen and Jackie for helping out plus the older kids who helped with materials distribution.

The clay workshop had over thirty kids and without these fantastic adult helpers, I'm sure i would not have been able to cope. Noone had pointed out the fact that I forgot to demonstrate the coil pot making technique. That was very embarassing. Also the fact that I only had a few about 8-9 in each class at the trash to treasure jewellery making was a bonus in the afternoon. Even the boys were very keen to keep making things to wear. I bet they really are going to wear those pieces and not give them to their Mums. It was such a pleasure to teach kids who want to be there and keen to learn. There were no issues at all. Each child actually did an average of 4 pieces each. We only had 20 mins solid work time. It never ceases amazes me how creative and imaginative these kids can be, every time.

My admiration to the organisers of the day as well. I think it went very smoothly. It was by far better than October last year's workshop. the attendance was twice the size of last year's.

About creativity

About creativity
The points below seem to define what art means or the definitions of aesthetic, leaning more towards art philosophy than about creativity to a person with an artist’s background like me. You ask what it is, or the motivations of creativity personally:
• I feel compelled psychologically and that not making art is detrimental to my sanity.
• It is what I do best so, it is both a pleasure for my ego (Freud) and its is the highest on my ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’.
• It is essential to how I operate and how I engage with other people around me.
• It is God’s mandate that I share my talents according to his will.
• I have used it as the force of good in educating young minds.
The above points are relevant to me only but creativity or art is defined by non-artists and scientists like anthropologists as the measure by which a civilization's mettle is tested in time, including the dot points below.
-legitimises an institution's and society’s nomothetic & idiographic frameworks ifor vocational purposes (Article: Culture and assessment: nomothetic and idiographic considerations from:Career Development Quarterly Article date:June 1, 2009 Author: Diemer, Matthew A.; Gore, Paul A., Jr..
-functional, pleases the eye and stimulates the mind all at once.
-expression (nothing to do with the Expressionist movement).
-representation 'memesis'-imitation (Plato).
-significant form, (Bell & Fry).
-frozen emotion (Tolstoy).
-pleases the divine nature of man, elevation of crude Phillistines into men of culture and refinement (Hegel)
-an organic whole and made from complex (early Weisz) disparate parts that would not have made sense if taken apart.
-too complicated to define (late Weisz).
-exercises the free play of the imagination (Kant).
-pure intuition (Croce)
-polemical in intention (Wittgenstein)
-intertextuality (Foucault)
-satisfies the imaginative need for social harmony (Parker) and 'group think' (Orwell).

About creativity

About creativity
The points below seem to define what art means or the definitions of aesthetic, leaning more towards art philosophy than about creativity to a person with an artist’s background like me. You ask what it is, or the motivations of creativity personally:
• I feel compelled psychologically and that not making art is detrimental to my sanity.
• It is what I do best so, it is both a pleasure for my ego (Freud) and its is the highest on my ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’.
• It is essential to how I operate and how I engage with other people around me.
• It is God’s mandate that I share my talents according to his will.
• I have used it as the force of good in educating young minds.
The above points are relevant to me only but creativity or art is defined by non-artists and scientists like anthropologists as the measure by which a civilization's mettle is tested in time, including the dot points below.
-legitimises an institution's and society’s nomothetic & idiographic frameworks ifor vocational purposes (Article: Culture and assessment: nomothetic and idiographic considerations from:Career Development Quarterly Article date:June 1, 2009 Author: Diemer, Matthew A.; Gore, Paul A., Jr..
-functional, pleases the eye and stimulates the mind all at once.
-expression (nothing to do with the Expressionist movement).
-representation 'memesis'-imitation (Plato).
-significant form, (Bell & Fry).
-frozen emotion (Tolstoy).
-pleases the divine nature of man, elevation of crude Phillistines into men of culture and refinement (Hegel)
-an organic whole and made from complex (early Weisz) disparate parts that would not have made sense if taken apart.
-too complicated to define (late Weisz).
-exercises the free play of the imagination (Kant).
-pure intuition (Croce)
-polemical in intention (Wittgenstein)
-intertextuality (Foucault)
-satisfies the imaginative need for social harmony (Parker) and 'group think' (Orwell).

Nostalgic images

Roseville workshop 2010

Hello, I've just had a satisfying all day workshop teaching clay handworking techniques to different ages from years 5-16. I also had a few doing trash to treasure (jewellery). I must thank Gwynn, Warwick, Helen and Jackie for helping out plus the older kids who helped with materials distribution.

The clay workshop had over thirty kids and without these fantastic adult helpers, I'm sure i would not have been able to cope. Noone had pointed out the fact that I forgot to demonstrate the coil pot making technique. That was very embarassing. Also the fact that I only had a few about 8-9 in each class at the trash to treasure jewellery making was a bonus in the afternoon. Even the boys were very keen to keep making things to wear. I bet they really are going to wear those pieces and not give them to their Mums. It was such a pleasure to teach kids who want to be there and keen to learn. There were no issues at all. Each child actually did an average of 4 pieces each. We only had 20 mins solid work time. It never ceases amazes me how creative and imaginative these kids can be, every time.

My admiration to the organisers of the day as well. I think it went very smoothly. It was by far better than October last year's workshop. the attendance was twice the size of last years.