Ill-gotten gains, part 2

I think I've said before that our house is FULL. We have enough Stuff of all descriptions, and I'm constantly turfing things out of cupboards and trying to get the Stuff in manageable proportions. So if I want to buy something memorable or a little treat just for me, I usually make it either consumable (chocolates, fabric) or something I can hang on the walls. Which are not yet full, because of the beach house. So my ill-gotten quilting gains went towards a memory of my trip to New Zealand.



This is a lithographic print by Jacqueline Aust - the picture is terrible because it's hard to photograph something under glass but her website is here and there is some way cool stuff (the one I have is called "Suspended"). It used to bother me that my favourites were prints, as if I wasn't serious enough -or too cheap- for the oil paintings, but then I started saying "my interest is primarily in works on paper" and it all came good!!! Amazing what a bit of bullshit will do. It is true though. This is my 40th birthday present - an Elizabeth Nyumi limited edition print that I still love.



And here is a momento of a previous visit to Wellington - Tony Rush and Kiddy Kart.



Can you tell I shop when I'm overseas? This one is from Christchurch in 2006 when I was there for the Post Office Agents Association bi-annual conference (don't laugh, I was a presenter, poor buggers). It's a lino block "Tane Mahuta and the Tui" by Alice Strange. I think what I most like about prints is the technique - lithographic or woodblock or lino cut, it's all quite fascinating. Maybe when I retire I'll take up a new hobby! Because I need that, with all my spare time.



The print stuff has been going on for quite a long time - we have quite a few from Gigs Wena, who used to sell at the local craft market when we lived up in PNG in the 1990s (if you click through to his photo he hasn't changed a bit - he had those dreads then too! Why mess with perfection). He did our wedding portrait (which is another story in itself) and we also have lots of little pictures when he went through a dainty phase. Actually many of our family and friends may also have received a Gigs as presents from PNG - after we'd given everyone carved turtles and a kundu drum we moved onto pictures. Here is some cuscus - possums - from Gigs, although it appears his style has evolved since then.



So that's a wee tour around our walls. Not worth anything or ever likely to be, but a story behind every one, and a good way for a dodgy part-time artist to support some proper ones.