Ferry Me Away

Yesterday I took a ferry to Balmain to visit Hilary and Caroline, two of my tutors from drama school. Caroline is visiting her daughter who lives there and Hilary had relocated several years ago with her hubby and adorable daughter Matilda. So I could not visit Sydney without dropping by to say hello.

The ferry ride was brilliant, incredibly refreshing and offered yet more views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

It was so nice to see them both, I left drama school approximately 8 years ago and consider myself very lucky to have had a career, let alone the amount of creative enjoyment I have had to date. It was lovely to get the opportunity to in some way thank them for all the skills they taught me along with many other hugely inspirational tutors that I was lucky enough to have in my training.

Once I had returned to Sydney I had just enough time to pop into the Sydney Museum and see the Edwardian Summer exhibition which was charming.

I couldn't take pictures of the photos featured but the main bulk of the collection looks at Australian life between the Victorian era and the First World War through the lens of Sydney lawyer and society figure Arthur Allen. Many of the photos are of his young family enjoying the various forms of leisure activities on offer and exploring the ever developing Sydney.

It struck me how family orientated this man was and how nice it was that he appeared to plan so much around his kids and their friends, he documented almost every adventure they had together.

The exhibition featured typical Edwardian dress, furniture and toys.

A late Edwardian style swimming costume.

Try an Edwardian hat on?

"The Edwardian age saw elegance and opulence that we'll likely never see again."

-Jessica Janus

Culture Day: Part 3

After the Jeff Carter exhibition I popped into the actual library in the State Library -

walked to The Rocks, under the Harbour Bridge

and finally after a wander (in serious heat), a spot of Sushi I headed back to the Botanic Gardens for the ultimate in holiday luxury: 1 hour's reading about Ava Gardner in the park! 

Amazing!

the view from my shady bench of choice

"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working."

-Kenneth Grahame

Culture Day Part 2

I left the Art Gallery and headed to the State Library to see the Jeff Carter Photography exhibition: Beach, Bush & Battlers.

The Jeff Carter photographs in Beach, Bush + Battlers have been selected from his remarkable, historically significant archive of over 50,000 works celebrating the lives of everyday Australians in rural, outback, urban and coastal communities dating from the late 1940s through to today.

- from the SL website 

It was brilliant, there were so many beautiful and iconic images to devour.

From what I could learn Jeff and his wife Mare (Mary) spent their lives in a somewhat nomadic way travelling the country documenting the various lifestyles they came across, from beachniks to sheep farmers to tinkers, as they wrote articles and books.

You can see more here

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”

-Dorothea Lange

Culture Day Part 1

With Rich at work I headed off for another tourist day and my goodness did I pack it in.

I started with a visit to the Art Gallery NSW to see the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection, Art + Soul, curated by Senior Curator Hetti Perkins .

The exhibition opened with excerpts from a documentary Art + Soul that had aired here in October. In the clips you saw how the art was created, where and who by. It was incredibly impressive to say the least.

art + soul explores the diversity of Indigenous culture through three themes: ‘home and away’, ‘dreams and nightmares’ and ‘bitter and sweet’. Drawing on key works from the Gallery’s collection, it reveals the myriad contemporary artistic expressions that evidence the enduring heritage of Indigenous Australia, in all its diversity and complexity.

- from the AG, NSW website

I genuinely found the collection to be very moving, the craftmanship and imagery is unlike anything I had seen in detail before. The sense of texture created in so many of the pieces was similiar to that of optical illusions and everything was created painstakingly by hand. The deep sense of cultural history coupled with the very uncertain/displaced future that faces many members of this community....affected me.

Pay The Rent by Richard Bell

Broken heart by Ricky Maynard

"...the people who made this art never did so at the cost of their own identity, never at the cost of becoming mainstream. They hung on to their identity and tried to make it work in the 21st century.''

-Hetti Perkins

Christian Dior Couture = S-u-b-l-i-m-e

Don't really know what to say as I think the images say it so much better, in a nicer accent, tone and quality then I could ever articulate.

Prepare to gasp, deeply and repeatedly.

All images courtesy of style.com

All of a sudden my entire wardrobe just looks deeply...'meh'...I have to have a lie down now and stroke something comforting.

"It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet." 

~Kojiro Tomita

Gelato Heaven

After an early dinner Rich took me to taste the delights of Gelato.

We chose a 5 scoop platter and sampled;

Yoghurt & Berry - soo yoghurty good

Passion Fruit sorbet - palate cleansing goodness

Banana Bread - heavy but good

Giandua - like Guylian in an ice cream

Coconut Pandan - d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s

from left to right

"Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal."
- Voltaire