Superheroes & Schlemiels: Jews and Comic Art

This Will Eisner looks great, I wonder if it is an original featured in the exhibition, I hope so.

03 May – 30 August 2009
Jewish Museum of Australia
26 Alma Rd, St Kilda Victoria 3182

The exhibition features reproduction and original works by Joe Shuster and
Jerry Siegel (Superman), Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (Fantastic Four and X-Men), Will Eisner (The Spirit and A Contract With God), Harvey Kurtzman (MAD) and Art Spiegelman (Maus).

Also included are original never-before-seen works by local Australian Jewish comic artists: Nicki Greenberg, Bernard Caleo, Andrew Weldon, David Blumenstein and John Kron.

Kid's Program ($5 Museum entry, plus $5 for materials):
Sun 7th June - Andrew Weldon
Sun 5 July - Sarah Howell
Sun 2 August - Mitch Vane

http://www.jewishmuseum.com.au/exhibitions.htm

King Island - Lets Get It Strait

I arrive on King Island the morning of Tuesday 14th and promptly collapse with a cold; fever, aches, the lot, but only seriously for a few days. Luckily I'm not working alone, Emma Porteus and Gavin Clarke, the dancers working to produce the Lets Get It Strait performances on both islands look after me, though Gavin is also sick.

After a few days talking with Emma and Gavin I start to get a proper picture of where the project is going and tailor the work I do with the students towards visualising the whole performance so their understanding goes beyond the movements they are learning with Emma and Gavin.

The results were designs for: costumes, sculptures/props, lighting, and maps of the outdoor performance space.

I once again did a window display as a reminder to the students of the work we had done, this time I drew cartoons of: students performing different parts of the show, fish, and one of Emma and Gavin saying "Dance Rocks!"

In the above images you can see the entrance to Stockyard park where the performance will take place in March; a drawing by Prep student Ingrid showing herself dancing like seaweed and like a snake; and a map by Tom showing Stockyard park and all the logistics that will go into making the show happen.

Flinders Island - Lets Get It Strait

And so I leave Alice Springs 11am monday 6th and arrive on Flinders Island 9am Tuesday 7th.

I'm on Flinders Island working for Tasdance at the Flinders Island District School, a school of about 90 students from grades K - 10.

The Tasdance project is a community contemporary dance performance called Lets Get It Strait and is to take place as part of 2009 Ten Days on the Island. My initial brief was to work with students in all grades to generate stories and imagery that the choreographers could take inspiration from.

As a way of leaving something behind as a reminder about the project I created this window display(half finished in this photo) by reproducing select images created by the students. The original landscapes I used here are by students from the prep class.

Zine Cloud the Book - IT ROCKS!

I finally got to see the Zine Cloud book! After about a week of people telling me how good it looked I was handed a copy while attending the 1.Five.O exhibition opening at the Academy Gallery, Launceston. I quickly took these photos.

Nicole, the graphic designer, is amazing.

Zine Cloud @ TLWW

The Zine Cloud collection will be on display throughout Tasmanian Living Writers week (15 - 24 August) at the following branches of the State Library: Launceston, Burnie, Kingston, Glenorchy, Rosny, and Hobart, as well as at the Tasmanian Book Fair at the IXL Atrium, Hunter St, Hobart on Sunday 24 August.

The display will consist of 1 x set of the 4 individual posters, 1 x larger collated poster, 4 copies of the zine publication that collects highlights of the individual zines.

For more info and pdfs of selected images go to the Tasmanian Living Writers Week website and click on the Zine Cloud link.

Poster designed by Nicole Robson.

Zine Cloud

23 – 27 June I co-ordinated 4 teams of zine creators and art teachers to deliver a statewide (Tasmania) program of workshops called Zine Cloud, the results of which will be available during the 2008 Tasmanian Living Writers' Week, 15 August - 7 September.

In a week we produced over 60 zine publications.

I had the pleasure of being one of the South Eastern team's artists along with Nicole Robson and Felicity Copeland-Brown.

Other artist teams where:
North West: Pat Grant, Karlee Foster, and Michelle Best
North: Jo Waite, Ingrid Reynolds, and Lisa Drinkwater
South:Leigh Rigozzi, Sarah Badcock, and Peter Young.

The resounding feedback from everyone, artists, teachers, and students alike, has been that the week was intense but highly rewarding. We were all kind of buzzing for about a week afterwards.

The Zine Cloud project is a partnership between arts@work and the Tasmanian Department of Education.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in this project, it was amazing!

Photo of North West team's zine creations was taken by Karlee Foster.