2017

Looking forward

A quick interview with Milly Sleeping about the things we make (and the animals we know) in the (still) bright and giddy new year.

MS: True or false, Louise draws all the animals and Gracia creates the collage?
GH: More true than false. Yes, Louise is at home with a 2B Staedtler pencil and a brush for colour wash, whilst I prefer a small pair of scissors, and my brush is for dipping in the glue jar. Our digital collages are a fusion of both, though they are created in similar layered vein to those created through fine cut and paste.

You've been creating and making for some time now?
True that, too. We’ve been making artists’ books together since 1999. Upon last count, we’ve released 87 titles (unique state artists’ books, and limited editions of 10, 25, and 50). How we work together has slowly changed to accommodate our ideas and we have distinct roles. However whilst these roles are distinct, they are above all flexible. Ultimately, whatever the work needs is how the roles are shaped. Our collaboration is as organic as it is fastidious, and it is founded in harmony.

You currently have work on display in an exhibition at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, entitled Birds: Flight paths in Australian art?
True. Indeed we do. Until the 12th of February, 2017, you can see our artists’ book, Prattle, scoop, trembling: a flutter of Australian birds on the gallery wall. In this piece, Louise’s drawings are created in response to the collage pieces. Hence, an Australian king-parrot (Alisterus scapularis) seen resting upon a man’s knee in a cabinet card composition, in the drawing appears within splendid foliage of red berries. In addition to this piece, we also have a print, Underneath Soane’s ‘star-fish’ ceiling, the library at No. 12 proved anything but quiet (2016), and Louise’s artists’ book, A Flight of Twelve Southern Hemisphere Birds (2013).

You have, full-time, two cats and one dog (but perhaps a few others on the books)?
True. We have Olive (11-year-old black and white cat), Lenni (2-year-old Siamese cat), and Lottie (3-year-old Jack Russell terrier with the pins of an Italian greyhound). We also shelter Misha (11-year-old tabby), and care, with a neighbour, for Frank (9-year-old ginger tom), both of whom were abandoned. And two kittens we’ve nicknamed Trouble and Squeak come over to play in our back garden. A back garden that is also home to an elderly singing canary, and visiting bird (rainbow lorikeets, doves, and sparrows) and possum (brush and ringtail) life.

One of you used to dance and sort of still does?  
True. Many moons ago now I donned a leotard and undertook classical ballet training through until late Secondary School years. Now I get to sit still and see a lot of dance, and later write about it for Fjord Review. And if hand weights in first position count, Barre Body classes for the head and the heart.

One of you is a very competent/confident home DIY-er?  
True. Louise is brilliant with a spot of maintenance and property upkeep. Replacing washers, unblocking sinks, sawing branches, patching gutters, minor rewiring, replacing floorboards…. hovering the roof, polishing the chimneys, you name it. Must be that Art School resourcefulness coming into play.

You are both really looking forward to 2017?
True. True. Absolutely. Again. Here’s to a year with more of the good and challenging bits! For you, us, everyone.

And to help make it so, in something of a growing tradition, from all of us here to all of you there, chime and chirrup, sniff and purr along with the menagerie. From Olive, Lenni, Lottie, Misha, Frank, a singing canary named Tim, visiting Rainbow lorikeets, and the possums, Ring and Brush, too, a safe and happy 2017 one and all.

Earlier, with Milly Sleeping (157 Elgin Street, Carlton),
Tiny Tap, 2016
Ornament, 2015
Nice Work, 2013
To Good Year's End, 2012
Hidden Gems & Rough Diamonds, 2012
Nice Work, 2012
I Feel Fine and Borrow, 2009

Come along,
At 1 pm on Sunday the 5th of February, 2017, as part of Birds: Flight paths in Australian art, at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, we’ll be talking about our artists’ book, Prattle, scoop, trembling: a flutter of Australian birds and other works

Image credit: Beloved Percy (4th of January, 2016)