Miscellaneous Collection by Gretchen Bernet-Ward
Two loaves of home-baked bread with garlic on top and grated cheese inside, eaten with chicken and corn soup. Entrée nibbles were baby beetroot leaves, sliced sausage and home-grown mandarin (tangerine) pieces. The mandarin tree is about 45 years old but still produces a juicy citrus crop each winter.
One of my earlier posts https://thoughtsbecomewords.com/2017/07/15/garden-notes-on-a-warm-winter-day/
♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward
Slow Clothing reflects author and refashion advocate Jane Milburn’s own unique style, independent of “fast fashion” trends. Upcycled from denim jeans, the dress Jane wore during her talk at a local BCC library had the potential to look strange but was distinctive and quite beguiling.
Jane, sustainability consultant and founder of Textile Beat, touched on several key elements during her talk––environmentally unfriendly fabrics and dyes; sweat shop labour; landfill; passive fashion; synthetic vs natural fibre; signature style and minimal wardrobe. Hot topics included recycle by exchange, shopping tips, Sew It Again mending and creating new from old. Jane tends to hoard fabric offcuts and used buttons, and has a passion for real cotton thread.
Rethinking clothing culture doesn’t mean wearing your clothes until they fall apart at the seams, it means mindful immersion, repairing and refashioning your garments.
An attentive audience, Jane encouraged us to make thoughtful, ethical, informed choices to reduce our clothing footprint on the world. Until recently, she regularly visited charity shops for secondhand garments but is currently resisting the temptation and working with what she’s got. “We believe secondhand is the new organic and mending is good for the soul. In return, we are liberated and satisfied.”
In her book Slow Clothing: finding meaning in what we wear Jane shares insights and upcycling advice. She has created templates like Upcycled Collar and History Skirt, guiding home sewing conversion of a beloved garment to reflect the changes in our lives.
To provide meaning and story to her own favourite pieces, Jane Milburn restyles and sews her clothing by hand. Currently testing t-shirt cotton drawstrings as an alternative to underwear elastic (elastic is made from synthetics) Jane stitches everything by hand.
Help! I can hear you say, nobody has hand-sewn an outfit since the mid-twentieth century––except maybe Vivienne Westwood––but don’t panic, Jane’s book provides testimonials, illustrations and clear instructions for eco-dyes and upside-down jumper skirts through to sewing on a button. Eco-fashionistas unite!
Although Slow Clothing is a multifaceted, easy-to-read book with positive chapter headings (Purpose, Authenticity, Creativity, Action, Autonomy, Reflection) amid the ingenious apparel, I am missing a frivolous note, perhaps a ball gown? On a serious mission, Jane has created a Slow Clothing Manifesto with ten tags to keep in mind when out shopping: think, natural, quality, local, few, care, make, revive, adapt, salvage.
Quotes from Jane embody the Slow Clothing philosophy “Slow Clothing brings wholeness through living simply, creatively and fairly” and “We buy thoughtfully, gain skills, and care for what we wear as an embodiment of ourselves.” Personally I am hoping to see people clutching their Slow Clothing Manifesto cards at an op shop near me.
The current trail Jane Milburn is blazing makes fascinating reading. Arts Queensland, meeting VIPs, War on Waste ABCTV, visiting 103-year-old Misao Jo in Osaka, hosting a Clothing Repair Café, conducting workshops and championing natural-fibre, Jane says “It has been personally satisfying to see the uptake of upcycling as a conscious practice with many young people interested in its potential for customising their clothes.”
Unfortunately I didn’t get to ask Jane Milburn how we go about combating the greed of designer labels. But the clear message is––help reduce landfill by upcycling your clothes to reflect your own unique style.
♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward
I just love the reality and happiness of this poem!
Family photo
Brush your teeth
Comb your hair
Dress up smart
To look the part
Gather together
Re-arrange
Bunch up tight
Now, move apart
Pick up the children
Brush off the dirt
Everyone still…
This won’t hurt.
Oh no,
Here comes a sneeze!
Look at the camera
‘Smiling please.’
Camera
Flash
Toilet dash
‘Dinner time!’
Adults chime.
Just one more
CLICK
“That’s a take!”
All the children celebrate.
Lolly bribes have worked a treat.
Now,
Let’s all go out to eat!
In her “Curious Affection” exhibition, world-renowned artist Patricia Piccinini and her DNA modified beings, credible and strangely familiar, invite us to find beauty in a transgenic social order not ruled by ideas of normality or perfection. I was hesitant about visiting this curious collection but enjoyed the experience.
INTRODUCTION: On a grand scale, the creations of Patricia Piccinini occupy the entire ground floor of Gallery Of Modern Art, Brisbane Australia, with a retrospective of her most recognisable works from the past 20 years. It is Piccinini’s most ambitious solo exhibition to date, running from March to August 2018, with a collection of wall art and immersive multisensory installations – including new works like Heartwood (featured above) and a large-scale inflatable sculpture Pneutopia (not shown) exclusively conceived for the Gallery which rises effortlessly through an opening to the floor above.
* SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND THESE IMAGES DISTURBING *
TAP OR HOVER OVER IMAGES TO READ MY PICTORIAL COMMENTS. Of course, this doesn’t convey lighting or sound effects! My photographs are by no means exhaustive, there were many more art works and hybrid creations going about their daily lives.
Our guide explained most models are made of silicone, fibreglass, polyurethane and human hair – for a deeper understanding, Patricia Piccinini has recorded video stories and GOMA blog shows the exhibition conception to completion.
CLOSING: Like most art, there is more to it than meets the eye. Patricia Piccinini’s works are complex. We are asked to think about our place in a world where advances in biotechnology, genetic engineering, organ harvesting and digital technologies are challenging the boundaries of humanity.
The more I learned about this exhibition, the more I understood the science, the pathos and the dangerous waters we may sail into one day, much the same as the internet was launched on a naïve world. With intelligence and compassion we may learn to create something new without destroying the old.
♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward
This guide to successful blogging certainly offers sound advice–
♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward
A snapshot of what’s happening in my world.
Reading…
Looking…
Thinking…
READING: Two of my favourite genres tend to clash––crime and quirky. Today’s quirky is “The Lucky Galah” by Tracy Sorensen. Oh, and just maybe there’s a crime.
Reviews: “Subtle, disarming and insightful” says author Rosalie Ham.
“A fresh and surprising novel – thoroughly Australian, joyful and magnificently original” says novelist Charlotte Wood.
Blurb says “A magnificent novel about fate, Australia and what it means to be human…it just happens to be narrated by a galah called Lucky…this is one rare bird.”
Title: “The Lucky Galah” by Tracy Sorensen
Category: Historical fiction / adult
Publication Date: 27-02-2018
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
Pages: 304
Author: http://squawkingalah.com.au/
Background: A galah is a small pink and grey Australian native cockatoo with quite a piercing squawk. If an Australian says “you’re a galah” it generally means you are silly. If “you’re a lucky galah” it means you’ve won something. In this novel, Lucky is an astute galah who receives transmissions from a satellite dish in Port Badminton, a remote coastal town in Western Australia, which beams messages between Apollo 11 and Houston, Texas. Lucky also picks up revealing transference from radar technician Evan Johnson and his wife Linda, and domestic dissonance from the town’s anomalous inhabitants.
Evocatively set in 1969 prior to the moon landing and “one small step…” Lucky’s view of the human world and its minutiae makes absorbing reading. I choked up, nodded wisely and laughed out loud throughout this book. An original plot, cleverly conceived characters, tightly written, 5-Star rating from me. GBW.
LOOKING: “Curious Affection” Gallery Of Modern Art Exhibition by Patricia Piccinini from 24 March to 5 August 2018––Confronting work regarding genetic engineering, DNA modification and organ harvesting with ‘warm’ overtones. Having read about this subject (and many will remember the real mouse which grew a human ear on its back) I was enticed into visiting GOMA on Brisbane’s South Bank on a fine winter’s day.
Sensory overload, yet not as creepy as I thought it would be, and like most art there is more to it than meets the eye. Patricia Piccinini’s works are complex. The guided tour, the perfect melding of lighting and sounds enhanced every display and took up a complete floor of the Gallery.
I can’t sufficiently convey the ambience nor startling ‘future’ creativity, but I’ve decided on a pictorial of my photographs in a future post. Stay tuned! GBW.
POSTSCRIPT: Here is my review https://thoughtsbecomewords.com/2018/07/22/curious-affection-hybrids-of-patricia-piccininis-biotechnology-art/
THINKING:
VIEWS LIKES AND FALSEHOODS
Bloggers are so darn nice, offering advice and encouraging aspiring writers to do their best.
Here are my thoughts on the flip side of those Views and Likes.
When I hit Publish, my post is sent out into the world.
It appears at the top of the WordPress Reader until the northern hemisphere wakes up and starts typing.
I amuse myself by waiting to see who will Like my efforts without actually visiting my blog site.
First up, unless I've been Liked by the fastest human reader in the universe, I get a tiny square to say "..." likes my post.
As you may have experienced, it's a spammer.
If not, I give a sardonic laugh when someone clicks Like without viewing.
Sure, people do it - but do people know the stats reflect this deception?
What I don't understand is why a reader/blogger bothers when it breeds an equally dismissive response.
I know, twice I have returned the favour.
Forget about using the old "time poor" excuse, please.
Or harbour the misapprehension that my blogger sense of self needs constant validation.
Be firm, rise above that Like of self-promotion.
My opinion is "Follow a blogger and genuinely read their posts".
Otherwise the Like gesture is hollow.
♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward
One post with three acts READING, LOOKING, THINKING an idea started by Book Jotter, innovative blogger Paula Bardell-Hedley. Her invitation to participate offers a slight change from ‘Thinking’ to ‘Doing’ if that suits your purpose but I’m sticking with the first format. I can love, like or loathe in three short bursts! GBW.
Postscript: Every Saturday I change my Home page Photo Of The Week.
No x-ray goggles needed because Wayne C. Booth discovered “An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised” which exposes the motives and integrity of such a person. Character issues like faulty memory, deception, deliberate omission or a cheating self-deluded spouse are revealed over time.
A variety of genres use the unreliable narrator device but it’s usually attached to drama and crime situations where the protagonist cannot be trusted. The trick is when the writer withholds information which only certain characters can know, and vice-versa. The reader is lead along the wrong path, not exactly kept in the dark but not being told the full (or accurate) story by the narrator.
It’s easy to get into the whole first-person debate, and I wonder if the unreliable narrator is over-done. Sure, you don’t jump in and out of characters heads but the trend is more towards different characters with different chapters so they could all be potentially unreliable narrators. Like Agatha Christie’s penultimate “Murder on the Orient Express” or a game of Chinese Whispers, would the outcome of the story be entirely different to reader expectation? Would that be satisfactory? In my experience, I would have to say “no” it’s rather a cheap way out.
Two examples spring to mind, they are Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” and “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins which I didn’t enjoy. My reason for discontent was because Rachel Watson is an unreliable narrator due to heavy drinking (a literary crutch second only to mental illness) and the other characters overlap with half-truths and lies which muddy the waters to the extent of annoyance. And lo, I thought the resolution lacked power.
Search “unreliable narrator” and you will see many definitions e.g. Study Academy.com and examples like J D Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” and titles like “The Wasp Factory” by Iain Banks, “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, “The Three” by Sarah Lotz and “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk. My thoughts are echoed by Sarah Pinborough of The Guardian Top 10 Unreliable Narrators.
It’s similar to reading a book which is raw and experimental and you find out it is the debut novel of an Honours student who wrote it for a Master’s thesis and was lucky enough to have it published. Kinda good, kinda not.
“The Last Time I Lied” a thriller by Riley Sager is narrated by the main character, Emma Davis, who is an unreliable narrator but readers like her even though they don’t trust her. The tale is told in the present with flashbacks. So, is this story hinging the plot on a memory flaw, selective truth or something else? Naturally enough the answer can only be in the final reveal; that pause for reflection, that moment when the main character ties up loose ends.
In real life we are mostly unreliable narrators, just ask a policeman jotting down eyewitness statements, however that doesn’t always translate to an enthralling novel.
♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward
Artwork: tarmunggie-woman
Artist: Cheryl Moggs
The 2018 National NAIDOC Poster was designed by Cheryl Moggs, a Bigambul woman from Goondiwindi, Queensland. Cheryl drew on the history, courage and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to educate others. The artwork (tarmunggie – woman) has three overlaying images, connecting dreamtime, culture and knowledge.
Theme: NAIDOC Week 2018 celebrates the invaluable contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have made – and continue to make – to our communities, our families, our rich history and to our nation.
“This artwork portrays the courage and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. From the ripples of fresh water and salt water, across the travel pathways and song lines of our traditional lands and skies”.
Background: NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
Origin: NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself. Find out more about the origins and timeline history of NAIDOC Week. Find out the history of the Australian Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag under Australian Flags.
Awards: Each year there is a different focus city for the National NAIDOC Awards Ceremony.
This year the focus city of Sydney will start NAIDOC Week with the 2018 National NAIDOC Awards announced at a black tie ceremony and ball. National NAIDOC Poster Competition and the NAIDOC Awards recipients are selected by the National NAIDOC Committee.
Website: naidoc.org.au
Facebook: facebook.com/@NAIDOC
Twitter: #NAIDOC2018 #BecauseOfHerWeCan
To learn more about NAIDOC Week activities in your area, contact your nearest Regional Office.
♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward
My emotions overcame me when I read this piece…read for yourself…
My routine was much as usual on the morning of Wednesday 14th June 2017: I arose early for work, fed the chickens, settled myself at the kitchen table for my first cuppa of the day and switched the TV on to watch BBC News.
For several seconds I stared vacantly at the screen, unable to comprehend the shocking nature of the images I was seeing. There was a man sobbing incoherently to a reporter and then emergency services vehicles were shown illuminating huddles of grim-faced onlookers in their flickering lights. It began to make sense when the picture jumped to a high-rise block of flats of the sort you find in cities throughout the UK, except this one had taken on the appearance of an immense Chinese lantern burning uncontrollably over a sleeping city.
This was Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey Brutalist-style construct in North Kensington…
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Thoughts Become Words 