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There are several things afoot this month. The Art Supplies shop at Toukley is making some new display frames for my drawings. I am keeping to the style of the ones I already have. Silver aluminum about 40 x 50 cm. They will be used to get the drawings of the shells into a gallery around here. The architectural drawings are supposed to become a body of work that will become an exhibit about Budgewoi. Having a few problems deciding why some things work or do not work and that has slowed the process. The individual drawings suck up immense amounts of my energy and afterwards I am not good for much for a few days. I do not want them to be marked with the idea that they are a great struggle though. They are a process I find very beautiful and fulfilling as I have said in here before.

The new Grim City 2 series of drawings has started but is in a bit of creative block. This group is much more complex and seems to be taxing my ability to maintain the visualization process throughout the whole drawing. The first one is probably about half way to being finished but I have moved on to the next. Or I will when I feel up to tackling it.

The last time the garden was trimmed and shrubs lopped seemed like a good time to make some cuttings for the women who run the local library to sell at their market in the first weekend in October. I can never remember what organization they are. Country Women’s Association? I do not know. They run the Halekulani library for us and I get books and chat a lot when I am in there. I have a couple of nice crochet (sp) blankets I bought from them. This time I am offering them about a dozen cuttings with four mulberry and the rest from a magenta bougainvillea. The cuttings have all seemed to grow really well. They have another at Easter and I will have a few bromeliads, some tilandsia, maybe some mondo grass or something. Just a few things they can add to their store and which will let them know I appreciate their efforts and the use of the books. They work very hard to keep it all together.

I want the chicken on a stick painting to be part of a group of them. I was dreaming of finding a chicken to photograph so I could work from it when lo-and-behold there, under the bridge here, was a big red chicken running about loose. If only I could have figured out how to catch it. I will go back and see if it is still about. Maybe take a handful of grain and a net.

There was a murder by the bridge here a few months back. Looks like it was a friend of mine. He and his girl used to come to hang out at my place. She was only a kid and would come in with her little baby when he was at work (or was he looking for work…whatever) and hang out until she felt safer. I was very fond of them both. Maybe I am wrong. They were great kids just setting out on their first rental, new baby and all that!

Someone suggested Mick committed suicide. I am unsure which Mick but dreading the possibility that it was my mate of twelve years. He had a really bad case of depression and bi-polar illness. Another acquaintance suicided a month or so back. I am feeling  as though the air has some darkness and weight about it.There has been like the constant patter of light rain as people I know have fallen over the years. Hence the Grim City series. It is about them and us. Our struggles and those who fell. Jeez, downer. Sorry.

My niece, Lisa, is worried about her little boy who has been to the neurologist for strange lumps about his skull. I am worried although I probably shouldn’t be. Peter seems to have been a little odd lately. Hard to contact and all. Although it could be me. I am losing some of my people skills being isolated so much.

You will not believe the drawn out drama I have had with Fishpond.com.au. I will write that up a bit later as another entry.

The image at the top of the story is that of the Budgewoi Crew outside of Munchies the little hamburger joint. I was shooting the image to work a drawing from and they were pretty keen to get aboard so I included them and I like the final images a lot. Strange thing about the image. I think Rob may have raced his slot-cars here many years ago and I may have even come with him. Dad might even have been there. Robbie became very enthusiastic over anything he got into and always ended up among the specialists. Slot cars were no different. He had a monster car that cost a fortune and he was right into the science of getting the wheels to stick and corner etc. I love these images. They hold the essence of that unwritten suburban history and nostalgia. I could rant about this but I am trying to sum it up. Maybe another time. Look at the image. The old slot car sign. The hamburger shop down stairs. The guys hanging out. The beautiful graffiti. (I will write a piece about graffiti soon) This Munchies transcends the day I took the photograph and reaches both back and forwards in time. I cannot think how to do it justice when I draw it.