  Cherrio!! Dublin. It was a lot of fun. Art was seen, the book of Kells was impressive but sadly covered in a very thick layer of tourists. I enjoyed surprisingly warm weather on this very green island. Not bad black stout either. Not bad at all!   Landing at Shiphol Airport in Amsterdam I recalled the fact that the airport is actually 3.8 metres below sea level. In fact 27% of the country is actually below sea level. Meaning a large number of the ten million dutch people would be living underwater without the smart maritime engineering and the many centuries of intense engagement with water. First time I have taken photographs of windmills and why not I say, as they are fabulous inventions originally used for pumping water from one place to another. This saying seems fitting - “god created the earth but the Dutch created the Netherlands. There was a very fast and furious visit to Berlin to catch up with a group of friends, all in the business of doing that stuff called culture. STEVE HEATHER https://soundcloud.com/steve-heather PER TELJER http://www.teljer.com/start/ CLAUDIA REIHARDT http://www.claudia-reinhardt.de/article/105/ ARILD H ERICSEN http://www.nkdale.no There was much merriment and I recall some beer, a roast chicken, some excellent graffiti in some bar toilets, church bells, Turkish food, munching on a large pretzel at the airport and not much else really. Then back to Amsterdam to collect my bags and see a few more old friends. Now it is time to fly across the Atlantic via Helsinki to a studio in Santa Monica, L.A. where I plan to continue my visual shenanigans via paint, fabric, film and whatnot…
   The FLAG WAIIVING show at Short St gallery was a lovely warm and busy night with a top notch crowd and then off I fluttered to the airport. This trip began with a short car trip (thanks Tomoko) Then there were 4 planes, 2 buses, 2 taxis, 8 escalators, 2 travelators/moving walkways… or whatever they are called, 2 elevators and a bit of wandering about in airports sucking on expensive coffee. Finally I relocated myself to Ireland at the excellent and rather remote CILL RIALAIG PROJECT in Ballinskellings, County Kerry. South West Ireland. Outside this renovated stone cottage is a fine view of the Atlantic Ocean to one direction and a great deal of green-ness in all other directions. This is one seriously excellent place for self motivated creative folk to work or maybe to consider working or to simply consider. The weather was grand with ample sunshine and a bit of mizzle (mist and drizzle rain combined) to give the location some typical ambience. I have an odd diet of honey flavoured with Jamison whiskey, soda bread, mandarins, canned herrings and coffee. I am sure the body will survive. I plan to watch sheep wander about bleating and film some rocks as I can relate to wandering about and bleating and I am rather envious of the stability of rocks.        Other rocks were visited way off the coast from Bolus Head - The Skellig Islands. One called Sceilg Mhichil where a dozen monks made beehive rock cells way back in the 7th century or thereabouts. One hell of a hermitage I must say! (excuse the blasphemy) To the east of this Monastic site is an equally impressive island called Sceilg Bheag which is covered with millions of garnets all nesting and fishing and doing sea bird business. This is the far, far west of Europe. The next stop if you head further west is NYC.     Bye to my little studio residency at Cill Rialaig. It was grand being there.  A series of 36 Antarctic mixed media works has been gifted to the Art Gallery of Western Australia which I do hope to see displayed sometime in the near future, hopefully one of these days when I am in Perth. KNOTS. 2009. 23 cm X 23 cm each. (Mawson station.) Wool, cotton, plastic thread, acrylic. Belgian Linen.
Other good news is that another Antarctic work - S.E.W.N. / CARDINAL POINTS has been acquired by the Kerry Stokes. In terms of this enormous and impressive collection S.E.W.N fits especially well as this major mixed media work engages equally with three aspects of the Stokes collection. Cartography, contemporary abstraction and Antarctica. SEWN / CARDINAL POINTS. 2006 (Antarctica) 2006. 210 cm x 350 cm Cotton, wool, plastic thread, acrylic, Belgian linen.  As one of the Suzanne Biederberg Gallery artists I will be showing a series of pearl shell works in Genoa. Italy. At the BIENNALE “ LE LATITUDINI DELL’ARTE” “Water and light” curated by Virginia Monteverde. 21st July - 31st August 2019. Venue - Palazzo Ducale, Sala del Munizioniere, Piazza Matteotti, Genova. If anyone is in this part of Europe please drop in.  I am some way west from Italy and it was time to hit a pub in Dublin for some live music and Guinness. It was also time to have a flick through the Book of Kells and wander about one very old and very famous library.   Comments are closed.
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