Thursday, August 29, 2013

raymon

After almost two years, fingers crossed, prayers to above, Raymon is over the hurdle of cancer.  Although the cancer was diagnosed as in remission over a year ago the ongoing effects of the radiation has been a problem.  When they extracted his back teeth for the radiation, they broke a piece of bone off and didn't extract it.  After many months of pain and the inability to open his mouth properly they re operated to remove it.  He had about 5 days a week for 6 weeks in the hyperbarick (not sure of spelling, its where divers go when they get the bends) before operation and another two after, its all now finished.  Other than the fact he cannot eat normal food, inability to swallow and no taste he is looking healthy.  While in hospital a nurse who had same cancer and lost her ability to eat told him, her taste came back after 3 years, so he has that to look forward to.  There are lots worse off than him, it was our scare and we are only too grateful that he came through it all.  Now he is getting his life back on track, his marriage has broken down but is still very good friends with his wife.  Onwards and upwards Raymon, we love you.


Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Exciting news

We put in an offer for our dream block in Donnybrook and it has been accepted now our home in Kiara Perth is on the market for sale, open day on Sunday.
 Half view of the block of land
Image from Storybook homes.  At the moment our plans are to build our new home something like this.
We found it so difficult to find a project home that looked like a country home until we found Storybook homes a kit set style home, which we both loved.  I will keep you up to date with our plans and progress when we start later this year.
Exciting aye!
Jacky

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Van Gogh, Dali & Beyond

In Perth  we are very privileged to have a collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York. As far as I am aware this show only comes to Perth, yay, for once Perth gets something the Eastern States don't get, we miss out on so many shows over here in the West.  I missed the last one, so made an effort to go to this one yesterday.  I want to share some of the ones that impressed me most.
 This oil by Salvador Dali was my favourite I think.  There is so much going on in this one masterpiece.  The clarity in the colours is amazing.  I hired the audio headset at $8, so glad that I did, I learnt so much more than what was written next to each one.  What I can remember of this one is, the head looking down in the blue box is Dali wiht blood running from his nose.  The womans face on the top represents a vessel which he thinks symbolises women and the rest I cannot remember, lot of violence.
 I am afraid I didn't get all the artists names, but this one tells a story of Tristan and Isolde and you needed to view it as a whole to appreciate the 25 paintings in sepia tones.
 This one was fascinating, hundreds of coils molded onto the canvas, black underpainting with a buff colour on top.  There where 3 next to each other, very large and very textural.
 This sculpture was made from junkyard finds titled Goats skull and bottle, it depicts the sense of mortality in the turbulence after the 2nd world war in Europe.  Isn't that cool.
 Love the sense of playfullness in this canvas, can you see the telephone in the horses mouth, a wheel for one of his legs with a fender over his raised front leg, and the old radiator.  Some of the art had glass on which made photographing a bit of a challenge.
 this one the artist had started a portrait of his wife and it lay unfinished for many years, when he came back to it this is what he ended up doing, much better than a portrait with her looking out through veils of lovely colours.
 Diego Rivera 1914 titled Young man in grey sweater.  What I want to know is how did he get all those lovely straight lines, no repositional tape in 1914, did he use a peice of straight paper as a mask, love it.
 Amedea Modiglianni, Anna Zborowska, 1917.  He would have been commissioned to do this portrait and in this period it didn't matter what the woman looked like the artist had to make the portrait look beautiful.  Modiglianni followed the African style of making the face oval.
 Selfie by Fried Karlos after separating from her husband, in a move to show her independence she cut off all her hair which he had always loved and dressed in mens clothes, you go Frieda.
 Francis Bacon, 1953.  With his mouth open in mid scream, he reveals the animalistic violence that lurks in man and the mood of anxiety after the 2nd world war.  This figure is a portrait of a pope transformed into a ghostly presence, and replaced his throne with cage like lines.  Sorry a lot of reflection on this phot you can even see me taking the photo, the background was mainly black and white with the lines in yellow it was very dramatic.
 Andy Warhols painting of Elvis from blazing saddles, he duplicated the figures to give a blur of movement, another pretty cool peice of art.
Wasn't much information on this canvas, but very impressive looking upwards to a man in white pants, great detail.
If you live in Western Australia you don't want to miss this exhibition, and hire the audio you learn so much more.
Have a great weekend I will be doing the Kalamunda Market and will be down the hill a bit, come say hello if you are visiting, I would love to see you.