Top Arts 2013

Every year for the last (I don't know how many years!) 10 years or so my mum, Darren and I have gone to the Top Arts exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Miss 2 has come along for the last three years. Top Arts (previously Top CATs) is the exhibition of the best creations by students in Arts or Studio Arts who have just completed the Victorian Certificate of Education, so very talented year 12 students.

Top Arts 2013 was held in the Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square. In the foyer was an area where children could draw, so we spent a bit of time there to start with and at the end.

The gallery was a different gallery to previous years and felt smaller. There were 43 art works and I'm going to share my favourites with you.

Girl with a pearl earring is part of a series of four photos referencing other works of art, this one referencing Vermeer's painting. The other pieces were also modern photos referencing Da Vinci's The Mona Lisa, van Eyck's The Arnolfini marriage and Wood's American Gothic, but Girl with a pearl earring was my favourite.

Girl with a pearl earring by Tess Saunders.

Can I keep it? by Glen Clancey.

Quest was very cute - a series of nine (from memory) sketches of a girl's journey to find inspiration. I didn't take a photo of the whole series.

Quest by Kyoko Bowden.

Darren's favourite was Alfred Evans' series of prints and associated sketches and notes.

Threat, Depth and Depletion by Alfred Evans.

Thalassophobia: Phobias is interesting because it is lingerie made of seaweed and mussels and human hair. Vaguely gross.

Thalassophobia: Phobias by Valona Flamuri.

Dysphoric by Marco Fink.

Waiting (l'Attente) was a movie about a sad old man and I watched it several times because Miss 2 thought that it was fantastic.

Waiting (l'Attente) by Rex Kane-Hart.

Amulet by Oliver Reade.

Urban huntress is a dress made of red ties. I didn't realise this there, but am impressed with the idea in retrospect.

Urban huntress by Remy Wong.

One of the disappointments was that there is usually a voting area to vote for your favourite art work. But this year there wasn't anywhere to vote. I would have voted for Devolution. This was a series of lino cuts, gradually getting more complicated. Love it!

Devloution by Julia Bergin.

Julia's lino cut.

The exhibition is on until 7 July and it's free, so do go along if you're in Melbourne.

Weekly Recipe: Dumpling Soup

Good Friday.

We are at the beginning of a four day weekend in celebration of Easter and had an egg hunt for the toddlers in my parents' group, followed by a pot luck dinner where everyone brought something to share. This recipe is not what I brought along (that was a trout dip, a lentil dip, a loaf of herb bread and some gingerbread Easter eggs), but rather a meal that I made earlier this week.

It's an easy recipe to modify based on what ingredients I have in the fridge or pantry. For this one, I started by soaking a handful of dried Chinese mushrooms in some boiling water for about half an hour. Then I chopped an onion, two garlic cloves and a piece of ginger and cooked them with a little peanut oil in a saucepan until the onion was soft.

 

I drained the mushrooms and added them to stock to make a couple of litres, then poured the stock into the onion. I added in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and brought the liquid to the boil.

Then I threw in chopped vegetables (the mushrooms, cauliflower and asparagus)...

... and some frozen prawn dumplings. I boiled the whole until the dumplings were cooked (maybe 10 minutes).

At the last minute, I decided that there needed to be more substance, so I threw in some dried vermicelli noodles and continued boiling for a couple of minutes to soften them.

You should probably remove the ginger before serving, but I never do and some lucky person gets to bite into it (!).

Happy Easter!

Toddler Play: Making A Cubby House

The best toddler activities are generally the cheapest. In this one, the girls and I dragged chairs from the dining room and blankets from the bedroom out to make a cubby house.

Miss 2 and Miss 2.5 were super excited to have their own house to play in and happily rang the non-existent door bell to enter.

They invited me to afternoon tea!

The Fox and the Hound

The Madeit front page has a different theme every day. A couple of weeks ago, the front pages were book titles ('50 Shades of Grey', 'About A Boy', 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', 'The Lord Of The Rings' and 'The Owl And The Pussycat'). This week is a film theme - so far we've had '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'The Princess Bride' (love that movie!), more to come over the week.

In the spirit of films, I've chosen features inspired by 'The Fox and the Hound', the first film that my mother took me to at the cinema. Click on the images to go to the listings.

Handmade by Plushka

Angelwing Jewellery

edward and lilly

Annelise Norman

The Crafty Little Fox

Sparrowhawk Designs

Neptune and the whimsical Duchess

Oiolin's Craft & Magic

nomuu

Lilypad Designs

Ruby & Olive

dear mrs morris

Blossom Couture

A Scarlett Store

Pretty Little Thing

reread

Weekly Recipe: Dyed Eggs For Easter

Not your traditional recipe today, but the instructions for dying eggs for Easter. My chickens are on strike because of the hot weather, so we had to use store bought eggs. Boo. We used hard boiled eggs because of the toddler element, but blown eggs can also be dyed.

When the eggs were cooled, the girls and I decorated them with crayon.

Then I mixed together half a cup of water, a tablespoon of vinegar and 20 drops of food colouring (no blue colouring, because that ended up poured into my carpet a month or so ago *curse*). Half of the eggs went into the dye intact, whilst the girls crushed the shells of the other half. We let them sit in the dye for about three hours, turning the eggs occasionally to get even dye.

The solid eggs had a beautiful strong colour.

When we peeled the shell off the cracked eggs, they had a lovely marbled finish, which would have been even stronger if we'd left them in the dye overnight.

Have a great Easter break!

Art Meets Science On Etsy

Monday to Wednesday, I am a molecular viologist working at a pharmaceutical company. Thursday to Sunday, I am a crafter (and I'm always supermum!). To bring the two parts of my life together, I've been working on some microbial notice boards, a couple of which I previewed earlier this month. Turns out that mixing art and science is actually pretty common. Here are some other geeky artists on Etsy.

U Plus Me Equals Chemistry by Fluid Ink Fine Letterpress of Australia.

Anatomical Lungs Cufflinks by Anatomy Art.

Double Helix Counted Cross Stitch Pattern by Charlotte Alexander.

Pelvis Brass Brooch by Your Organ Grinder.

Wallet Coffee Molecule by Sharlzndollz.