A Waltz through the Hills, and other places

I delivered my ATCs today - thinking I would meet the deadline - but that was last week. Duh! Very kindly, Dale accepted them. They made up a total of 300 ATCs, so people going to the Melbourne Convention have a treat in store. Thank you Dale.

In the afternoon I went with Kevin to pick up some computer stuff. We went first to Shenton Park, then to Sawyers Valley. My father used to live there, but we haven't done anything more than pass through for maybe 20 years. We made a slight detour to look at the house. Very difficult to see anything from the gate because the trees Dad planted have grown so big, but it didn't look as if much had changed. The orchard looked the same.

On the way back we stopped in Mundaring to visit the Arts Centre there. Today there was an interesting exhibition: the Shire of Mundaring Acquisition Exhibition. In my opinion the best pieces were sculptures. The Shire had acquired the one I particularly liked at a ridiculously low price. However, as Kevin pointed out, we could never have had it here - it was about 2 metres tall and the same wide. A 2D piece to be positioned on a large blank wall, which we don't have.

There were some nice photographs, some ceramics, a geometrical installation which did nothing for me, a couple of mixed media pieces and one textile piece. The rest were all paintings of varying quality, mostly not so good. The textile piece was a large 3D plant-like piece. I have seen this artist's work before - shame on me that I have forgotten her name.

In another room of the gallery was a small exhibition of previously acquired sculptures, including two by Hans Arkeveld whose work I have always liked. I really liked one piece which was suspended from the ceiling. Called "The Sentinel", it was a hollow fish shape with the ribs and a fearsomely toothed head shaped from polished wood. The fins were of painted, stiffened fabric. Inside was a prone cyborg like figure, supposedly operating hand and foot pedals to propel the fish. Like those very deep water fish that have a sort of antenna with a light, this one's head had a wire with a miniature camera.

We drove home past the Mundaring Weir. The hotel had hundreds of plastic chairs set out for a David Helfgott concert. We thought we might visit the C.Y O'Connor museum, but it doesn't seem to be readily accessible to the casual visitor. Back then through Kalamunda and Lesmurdie to the Roe Highway and home. Not sure how many kilometres we covered but we spent nearly 3 and a half hours in the car. Will look at it as training for the US trip.