When An Art installation Becomes ALIVE...

Ladies and gentlemen, we are gearing up to host our next Famous Sundowner tomorrow evening. As per usual, the day will start with coffee and cake available all day. Our sausage sizzle will kick off around 5.30 followed by LIVE music commencing from around 6.30. The East End Gallery is bulging at the seams with gifts for all occasions and budgets. We have also had further artists as guests in the Gallery during the week, so we hope to welcome a new woodturner in the near future.

Stay tuned for more exciting news...

In the meantime, we have rejigged the art installation we have created from the items we collected during our latest Northern Jaunt. Primarily, the objects are from three tips - Marble Bar in the Pilbara, Yalgoo in the Murchison and Lawlers in the Northern Goldfields. We had spent several hours at each site. Marble Bar was a triumph, Yalgoo unexpected and Lawlers...we had to sift through a lot of actual junk to find the real treasure. The final piece of the second arrangement was a curved nail I found on the edge of the new Beverley Playspace, which is due to open very shortly.

We created the art installation in order to showcase the artifacts available to history hunters and fossicking folk with very little effort in places that are eminently accessible. However, the installation also began to play with my understanding of so much more than the pieces themselves. Their stories started to reveal themselves. Who were they? How did they live? What was important to them? 

The cut-throat razor. The comb. The kitchen grater. The miners' boot heels. The horseshoes. The trike handle. The bicycle wheel. The remains of a blacksmith's tool. The tobacco tins. The matchboxes. The corned beef. The sardines from Norway. The clothes washing detergent.The kitchen spoon and knife. The misshapen wagon wheel. The tractor grill. The bottles. The handmade nails. The bottle top. The various springs. The soft drink gas canisters.

All of these gave us clues by what was left behind. They practised personal hygiene. They coped with canned foods. They were smokers. They washed their clothes. The children had toys. There were horse-drawn buggies and bicycles as travel options. The blacksmith shops were vital services to the settlements. They drank carbonated water, along with beer, wine and spirits. They had decorative adornments on their bed frames. They added horseshoe-shaped heels to their leather boots. Bottle tops were glass.

There was no garbage collection. Rubbish was either jettisoned outside the tent/humpy/house or buried or burnt. In and around abandoned settlements, bottles and metal are everywhere. A metal detector is utterly unnecessary. The remnants are plain to see. And original tips are a goldmine waiting for fossicking enthusiasts to discover.

So, if you happen to be in Heavenly Beverley either this weekend or in the near future, drop into the East End Gallery to peruse our installation and also enjoy the work of over ninety artists.

We look forward to seeing you!

How To (Actively) Pursue Happiness...

2020 has been the weirdest of years. We began with devastating, history-defining fires after a prolonged drought, followed by flooding rains in some parts of this parched country. Then this sneaky little bastard named Coronavirus was introduced into our vocabulary and our lives. From March onwards, we were facing a terrifying unknown; a viral pandemic that had not been experienced worldwide since 1918. And that has been the status quo ever since. The numbers infected are mind-blowing; the deaths staggering. Everybody who has died was important to somebody else.

Our understanding of this beast is still scant. We don't have information about immunity; can we catch COVID 19 twice? Because this is a new disease, we are playing catch-up with the long-term effects. Is this a respiratory virus, a vascular virus, a systemic virus? Or a combination of all three? And how can the United States of America, considered a bonafide First World country be complacent about two hundred thousand people (200,000) dying? A former president launched The War on Terror after four thousand (4,000) people were murdered on 11 September 2001. Where is The War on Coronavirus?

There. I have had my rant on my soapbox. Throughout 2020, I have felt a myriad of different emotions other than happiness. I have been worried and fearful. I have been overwhelmed and angry. I have been accepting and submissive. All about the virus. Bollocks to all that. I am tired of this year controlling me. Time to unleash my inner idiot!

Happiness is an unusual commodity. From my personal experience, happiness doesn't often just magically appear. Happiness has to be sought. And for some of us, the hunt for sustained happiness in 2020 may have been a Bridge Too Far. Perhaps that is why we have seen some very un-happy people venting their collective spleens across the world.

Yesterday, I began pondering this idea of happiness. I laughed out loud at images of owls sleeping on their fronts. Apparently, this is a common owl trait. And obviously, at least one of my children is a reincarnated owl.

Today, I have noted that I will be going to jail for being a bad influence. Michael will be joining me as he is a worse influence. I have also shared a spelling gag, pinched from the irrepressible Suresh Rajan. I have giggled inanely at a question all of us have wanted to ask at some stage at a boring party - "What the hell is wrong with you?"

We watched Stella behaving like a complete knobhead careering around the furniture. We were soothed by Madam Cat's contented (for once) expression and the associated soft roar of her purring. Red the Pirate parrot has been cackling insanely. We are enjoying the bliss of a quiet day at home. This is what happiness is all about.

Happiness is not easily captured. Rather like the snitch in Quidditch, happiness may be lurking right next to us. As a confirmed lunatic with Major Depressive Disorder (why do I find the concept of disorder so delicious?!), I openly admit that have been times that I have become a humourless and very boring git. The good news is that once I recognise that I have become a humourless and very boring git, I start the process of clawing my way back to happiness. 

I have always much preferred laughing to crying. 

Don't get me wrong. I am not advocating that we are continuously happy. We're not. However, happiness can be a fabulous pressure valve that can be released to lighten our mood. Next time you see a bunch of owls sleeping on their stomachs with their legs sticking out, feel the warm blanket of happiness. Even for a second...

Jan with Seanne at last December's Sundowner, dancing like nobody was looking...

Hot day, ice in the wading pool - with John Kaye...

What the hell are you doing?!

Pip at the excellent Southern Cross dog park...

Stella at full flight at Cossack...

Ooh, I love a bit of cross stitch!

This would be me...

No explanation necessary...

Just remember to point the demon child's head backwards!

For one of those days...

Who hasn't did the victim of groaking/growking?

Good morning!

Try not to smile at this image of a baby owl sleeping...!

An Astonishing Eight Days @ the East End Gallery

Sunday evening at Station House after a particularly busy period at the East End Gallery. So much so that I am sitting, rather like a stunned mullet, in front of my laptop. I dare not lean back and let my head tip forwards as I may very well slip into the unconsciousness of Cloud Cuckoo Land, and I'd really like to stay up just a bit later and watch "Grantchester" on the telly.

Last week, we spent anticipating our Open Gallery (celebrating Michael's birthday) on Saturday and the aftermath on Sunday. The previous Thursday and Friday had been building in intensity with more guests in the Gallery than we had experienced before. The weekend geared into overdrive. Michael, the Birthday Boy (his birthday was actually 4 September) thoroughly enjoyed basking in the limelight. We were also lucky enough to have a number of the vintage cars that were being shown on Sunday in York taking time out on Saturday afternoon to come to Beverley. 

For me, Saturday culminated in a meal at the Freemasons' Tavern followed by bed. For Michael, mischief was calling him. Lawrence Jones, another boy in a man suit, was totally unsuited to the task of supervising Michael. As the evening progressed, they were joined by local Ron, who took the role of the final Stooge. The three of them partied on in the Gallery until the early hours of the morning...

Sometime about one o'clock, I was rudely woken by a heavy and incoherent lump collapsing on the bed next to me. Shortly afterwards, Lawrence came to the door to request the keys to lock up the Gallery. Apparently, Michael had decided that bed was a more attractive option than sitting up any further with the other Boys and had lurched his way home. Eventually Michael prised off his boots and fell back into a deep and snory sleep until daybreak.

He was not a happy camper in the morning. He'd lost his glasses. He wasn't feeling terribly well. He soaked his head in the shower, which perked him up enough to go to breakfast with Lawrence. As I walked to the Gallery, I found his glasses on the bench outside U Beauty and Hair...Fortunately, he was wearing his spare pair as he carefully made his way to the Red Vault Cafe with Lawrence.

That was the high point of his day. Breakfast was a huge mistake for him. Michael's gut tended to be dodgy at the best of times...Last Sunday morning was anything but that.

And so, he retired miserably back to bed. I was too busy with guests to notice the time, except when I realised I was busting to go to the loo. Eventually, at a quarter to five, Michael made a very subdued entry into the Gallery. He looked so dejected that I couldn't be cranky at him.

Our three days away from the Gallery disappeared far too rapidly. Monday and Tuesday were spent at home catching up on housework. Wednesday was paying bills and shopping. Thursday was once more upon us. Back in the Gallery.

Do not get me wrong. We are revelling in our change of fortunes since COVID restrictions were lifted in Western Australia. Every weekend, city slickers are heading for the country. York was jammed last weekend with the Motor Show. The overflow who wanted to escape the Madding Crowd ended up in Beverley. Suddenly, two Wheatbelt towns were both jumping.

The Beverley Caravan Park, surely the best-kept secret in the Wheatbelt has been fully booked for the last two weeks. The long weekend is approaching with more guaranteed escapees from the Big Smoke.

A fortnight after that is the Beverley Heroic, a weekend event celebrating the bicycle with rides, vintage bikes, a BBQ and very un-serious prizegiving. Plus "Cocky's Crossing" a musical comedy production at Beverley's Platform Theatre for four performances and Beverley Off Road Motor Sports Association (BORMSA) Khanacross and Driver Training day. October is rounded off in Heavenly Beverley with our annual Rose Show.

Our beloved Gallery has provided us with the means to pay off some of our shire rates. The building insurance is still hanging over our heads, but at least we have been able to breathe again.

More artwork has come in. New pottery by Jan Cross (Gone Potty). Delightful small and affordable paintings by Shirley Gillis. Incredible sketches by Murray Cook and a provocatively edgy piece called "#Me Too", also by Murray. And I thought he was just a ceramic sculptor...

This coming Saturday is another of our Famous Sundowners -

Coffee and cake throughout the day

Sausage sizzle from 5.30pm

LIVE music from 6.30pm

Please bring a plate and bottle to share if you are attending. This is a chance to let our hair down and enjoy the Gallery's art and artists, great music, easy conversation, singing along and dancing like we only do when nobody's watching.. . Until we send the last revellers on their way. 

And hopefully, Michael's resulting hangover will not be as devastating as last time!

On Saturday 12 September, we enjoyed the vintage cars en-route to the York Motor Show

And our Open Gallery to celebrate Michael's 65th birthday -

And a Sneak Preview of our Beverley Musos...

Gallery images September 2020 -

And coming events in October 2020!

BORMSA Khanacross -

Blooms from last year's Rose Show