Sydney’s biggest annual public arts festival, Art & About, promises three weeks of free, fun and engaging artworks and events from 1 – 25 October.

In its 8^th year, the City of Sydney produced festival brings innovative and stimulating art by established and emerging artists to the people of Sydney. 

2009 Highlights:

‘I ♥ Kings Cross’ is a collaborative knitting project which will see trees, poles, signs and other streetscape objects adorned with knitting created by the local community. Kings Cross will be celebrated in colour and stitch.

Laneways By George! Hidden Networks will transform laneways along George Street in the City Centre with an exciting collection of creative artworks. Interdisciplinary teams of artists were invited in a public call-out to respond to themes of collaboration, sustainability and urban transformation. Some of the ideas to be implemented for this year’s By George! include a canopy of birdcages and forgotten birdsongs, a prosthetic skin with heartbeat pulsing through a laneway, a pop up kitchen and nightclub, and a magical, ‘infinite’ forest.

Sydney Life is a free outdoor exhibition of photographic works blown up to bed sheet size and displayed along the central walkway of Hyde Park North. The $10,000 competition and exhibition is Australia’s premier outdoor public photographic installation.

Open Gallery this year will exhibit contemporary artworks on street banners by Indigenous artists including Adam Hill and Warwick Keen. The ten works are curated by Djon Mundine and the project is co-produced with the Campbelltown Arts Centre.

Live Green House – an interactive urban home offering sustainable solutions for both house and apartment dwellers will be installed in Taylor Square North to showcase sustainable living solutions, including renewable energy, product and design options. Experts will be on hand to discuss various elements in the House.

 The full program will be online in September: www.artandabout.com.au

Art & About is part of Crave Sydney, a new annual celebration of Sydney’s distinctive lifestyle, offering 31 days of authentic food, entertainment and outdoor experiences.

Ever wanted to fly? To soar through the clouds and see the ground rush by? Well we might be able to help with the next best thing.
This is a call out to all budding pilots with a sense of adventure. Come along and be part of the inaugural Paper Plane Academy. You will get the chance to design and make your very own flying machines, then test out your creations in the purpose built ‘Aerial Playground’ – an obstacle course in the sky.

So come along to the Academy for a hands-on opportunity to be inspired, create and have a lot of fun. Proudly bought to you by JONESCHIJOFF.
For more details and to register visit www.paperplaneacademy.com.au

Cost: FREE (pre-registration required)
Venue: Melbourne Museum (Vroom)
Date: Saturday 18th July
Times: 9am, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm

More illustration goodness from the super talented David Follett, skills to pay the bills!

 www.davidfollett.com 
 unclesilas.blogspot.com

The Packaging Council of Australia has extended the date of the 2009 Australian Packaging Awards, So if you havent entered yet, you still have time. Simply head to the website and follow the instructions

Click here to Enter

Australian Illustration collective Picture Pig have launched a blog and its well worth a looksee, so get your filthy snouts over to http://picturepig.blogspot.com/ and roll in some muddy goodness.

OINK!

Australia’s longest-running design festival Sydney Design 09 celebrates local and international design with a diverse program of more than 70 events running 1 to 16 August 2009.

The vibrant program features a range of exhibitions, local and international speakers, tours, markets and workshops designed to engage and inspire audiences across more than 35 venues in and around Sydney.

Highlights at the festival’s main precinct, the Powerhouse Museum, include international guest speaker UK designer Paul Cocksedge, Eat Green Design, Young Blood: Designers Market, Australian International Design Awards exhibition, late night event Play Late, the Design Underground Basement tours, and the new media installation Artefact H10515.

International guest speaker Paul Cockedge is one of the most innovative and creative minds working in design today. The London-based designer/inventor/artist launched four new lights, created in concert with Japan’s Yamagiwa for Italy’s Flos, at Salon del Mobile, Milan, earlier in the year. Cocksedge’s illustrated lecture on Monday 3 August will outline some of his extraordinary design ideas and his sources of inspiration.

Creative platform and restaurant Eat Green Design, presented by the Powerhouse Museum in partnership with Cilla Maden of Collaborate, is set to challenge our perceptions of ‘sustainability’. Eat Green Design is a sustainable temporary exhibition, restaurant and ideas incubator, hosting diners, guest speakers, and the latest ‘green’ products from 1 – 12 August at the Museum.

Supporting emerging designers is a key element of Sydney Design 09 and the Powerhouse’s commitment to nurturing local design. The Young Blood: Designers Market brings the freshest design talent under one roof on Friday evening and Saturday, 14 and 15 August. Meet the makers themselves and find original pieces from fashion, furniture and jewellery to graphic, product, landscape and lighting design.

The Australian International Design Awards 09 exhibition will feature the most outstanding examples of the latest Australian design and innovation. This year’s selection covers a dynamic range of technology and design, including a battery-heated wetsuit, foldable commuter bike, sleep disorder testing device and a transportable sink.

The Museum will stay open late on Friday 7 August for Play Late, an evening of creative stimulation and socialising. Local designers will orchestrate the interactive rich program, which includes light projections inside and on the outside of the building, multi-media installations and guerrilla knitting.

Get up close to the riches of the embroidery collection and fashion accessories from around the world guided by Museum curators. A series of exclusive basement tours will give rare access to the Museum’s extensive fashion and design collections in storage.

Workshopped 09 will showcase new Australian design that is ‘creating a future; inspiring, enhancing or making a difference’. Co-produced with the Powerhouse Museum and held at Chifley Plaza, the exhibition gives designers the opportunity to take their work beyond prototype. Designers exhibiting this year include Tomek Archer, Charles Wilson, Gary Galego, David Knott and collaborators Ueno Fukutoshi and Akira Isogawa.

Engage with design hands-on as part of the festival’s Bespoke Workshop Series. The range of workshops for beginners and experienced include couture beading, silversmithing, glassblowing, letterpress design, shoemaking, fashion design, fashion drawing, electronic media arts, tapestry weaving and more.

The winner of the Design NSW: Travelling Scholarship, presented by the Powerhouse Museum and Arts NSW in partnership with the British Council, will also be announced during Sydney Design 09. Valued at $18,000, the scholarship will assist a NSW designer at the beginning of their career undertake a program of professional development overseas. An exhibition of the short-listed entries will be available to view on the Powerhouse Museum’s online design resource dhub.org.

Sydney Design’s many partners and supporters will also bring the festival to life across the city, presenting a great program of exhibitions, events, walks, talks and workshops.

Visit sydneydesign.com.au for the full program and to book tickets or a Festival Pass.

Sydney Design 09 Festival Pass ($16) includes:
• Unlimited visits to the Museum during Sydney Design 09
• Entry to Play Late, 7 August, 6pm
• Entry to Young Blood: Designers Market 14 & 15 August, 6-9pm & 10am–5pm

Sydney Design 09 Opening Night Pass ($69) includes:
• Invitation to Opening Night party, 31 July, 6pm
• Entry to talk by international designer Paul Cocksedge, 3 August, 6pm

Combine both passes and save with the Sydney Design 09 Opening Night Pass PLUS Festival Pass for $79.

This Sundays show @ UU presents London based artist Nom Kinnear King in an exhibition of her latest works Lucidia.
“Somethings old and somethings new, this exhibition of drawings and paintings by London based artist Nom, portray female characters teetering along between the real and imaginary, with red clown grins and pheasant moons.”

Opening Night Sunday 5th July from 6-9pm
@ Unpretentiously Underground
Studio 7A – 238 Brunswick st Fitzroy
Open Wed to Sat 11- 5

The Australian Film Television and Radio School has launched its brand new publication LUMINA – a Journal of Screen Arts and Business.

LUMINA offers a space for cultural reflection and analysis and was created to share the thoughts and ideas of people who want to have a dialogue about film and story – both the art and business of it.

LUMINA features articles, essays, interviews and reflections from the industry’s leading thinkers and practitioners. The first issue includes 5 controversial pieces on genre films under the heading ‘Genre is not a Dirty Word’, as well as contributions from David Stratton on the Origins of Horror and Vincent Sheehan on the necessity of producers to understand film distribution.

Other contributors to the first issue of LUMINA include Baz Luhrmann, Warwick Thornton, David Court and Jan Chapman.

To order a copy of LUMINA – visit your favourite bookstore and request a copy.

NITV presents Culture Warriors, a nine part series demonstrating the incredible range of contemporary Indigenous art practices and the world-renowned artists that create them, in an exclusive premiere on Sunday 12 July @ 7.30pm.

Culture Warriors, hosted and curated by celebrated Indigenous artist and curator Brenda Croft, features the work of twenty seven world-renowned Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from every state and territory of Australia.

This polished program demonstrates the incredible range of contemporary Indigenous art practices including painting on bark and canvas, sculpture, textiles, weaving, new media, photo media, print making and installation. It also features insightful interviews with the artists and a unique look into the fascinating world of Indigenous arts and culture.

After huge success at the National Gallery of Australia the remarkable exhibition of Culture Warriors will open to American audiences in Washington this September.

Culture Warriors draws inspiration from the 40th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum and pays specific tribute to a core group of artists whose careers span the four decades since the Referendum: Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Phillip Gudthaykudthay, John Mawurndjul, Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek AO and Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr

NITV is broadcast free to air in various metropolitan and regional areas nationally, as well as via Channel 180 on Foxtel, Austar and Optus. Please refer to the website for full tune in details – www.nitv.org.au

What is your name and where are you located
Raewyn Haughton, located in Melbourne Australia

Where did you learn your craft?
I studied applied design, graphic art and communication design. I tried to incorporate as much illustration in my design pieces as I could get away with during those design courses.

Tell us about the appeal of hand to pencil/pen and paper?
I love to draw, especially after being behind a computer screen all day at work. Paper smells nicer and doesn’t burn my eyes like the screen does. My favourite medium is a blue biro. I love that such a common pen can produce surprisingly successful results in shading while not being considered a proper art tool. Also in general I feel like I have created something special when I hand draw pictures which are one offs as oppose to when I create something solely from the computer which is easily reproducible and not so organically created.

From some of your early drawings there is sense of a retro gamer/samurai influence, what were some of your hobbies at this time?
Well I did replay Zelda Ocarina of Time a few years ago on the N64 during a break between courses over summer. I know for sure that some of my thoughts from that translated into my drawings because I love Zelda and nintendo 64 in general. I am not sure about the samurai influence, that may just come from my fascination with Asian food packing.

What part if any do film and music play in the creative process for you and can you name some of your favourite bands/filmmakers?
I love awkward and disturbing films so I am greatly inspired by John Waters and his filthy films like Pink Flamingoes and Desperate Living. I also love Todd Solondz films which fit into that category. Music is not a huge part of my life, I don’t listen to it anymore but I like it in films when it’s accompanied by visuals.

Whose work do you relate to most? Who inspires you?
Jeff Koons inspires me the most, I love his ‘puppy’ covered in flowers, that encourage me to buy a Chia Pet I think. I love his interest in food and fun times, his pieces are friendly and they don’t stress me out like most other art. In terms of Illustrators I relate to Kozyndan the most because their work is very heavy in line like mine and they draw busy cluttered scenes which is what I like to do also.

Do you enjoy collaboration work?
I love it, I have painted a couple of Murals with my friend Celeste Kininmonth who is great at painting, which is good because I am not. You have a really great sense of colour in your work, tell us how you go about choosing your palette. I like to use colour schemes from things like food packaging or shop signage, all the hard work is already done for you then since its already been considered professionally for another application. I will find a photo or a package and select a few colours from that to use. It’s awesome when you find a colour scheme from say a photo of a fishing tackle shop then get to apply it to a illustration of scarecrows having sex with clowns.

If you weren’t an artist/designer what would you be doing?
I actually don’t mind doing repetitive tasks so I would probably be doing data entry or packing in a factory. I‘d like a job where I could be left alone in my head, however sad that may seem.

Can you let us in on any trade secrets?
If you like to use a brush and ink, use a Pentel brush pen instead, they’re amazing, like drawing with a pen but it’s a paint brush that never needs redipping so you can draw uninterrupted lines. You can’t buy them in Australia though, only online.

related links

http://www.raewynhaughton.com/