In this issue

1. Image of the Week

2. Introduction

3. Arty Bollocks

4. True treasures

5. Raahui- the Digital Edition

6. Feverish-Mind Links (to make your Sunday morning coffee go cold)

Image of the week

Introduction

Well, here we are again.

Back in lockdown Level 4, as the Delta variant breaks loose here in Aotearoa.

After the best part of a year without a single case of Covid-19, the delta variant broke through the border. But, of course, we always knew it would.

Last Tuesday, they found a single case in Auckland, our largest city and immediately put the whole country into Level Four lockdown (our highest level) at midnight. Auckland for a week, the rest of the country for three days. Now, with more cases coming to light in Wellington, our capital city, they have pushed it out until this coming Wednesday. And then?

Time will tell.

Since many of you here are not from/in this country, let me explain how things work here.

Level Four here means: stay at home. Nationwide.

Full. Stop.

We are permitted to go for walks in our neighbourhood, to shop (masked) at service stations, pharmacies and supermarkets. However, all other businesses are closed, except online services. (apparently, online alcohol delivery services have been making a roaring trade!)

Suddenly my little town here on the back end of Aotearoa has gone very quiet. There are few, if any, vehicles moving. Instead, the air is full of birdsong and the soft breathing of the air. I have the time to listen to the spaces between thoughts and raindrops.

And be creative.

I am grateful. I have a warm home, food, Disney+, and the chance to follow my own rhythms. Each morning I awake and watch first light flush the snowcapped peaks with pink. Then, in the afternoons, I sit out on my deck with a glass of chardonnay and watch the sun topple away behind the darkening, shadowing mountains.

It is enough.

More than enough.

Arty Stuff

On artist statements

Have you ever tried to write your own artist statement?

It isn't easy, yet it seems a requirement when exhibiting in an art show or dealer gallery. As if you need to explain what is on the wall. Is the statement for the audience, or is it mostly for the arterarti, so it gives your work gravitas?

I wonder.

I recently went to a group exhibition. I came to the work of a local artist who had crafted an extraordinary statement, which he had clearly laboured over for quite some time. After pondering his work, then his AS, and then back again, I concluded that he was lost in his own verbiage and self-delusion rather than clarifying where he stood and what he stood for. Perhaps the theme of his work was confusion. it definitely seemed as if he was writing it to and for himself.

I shook my head and moved on.

However...

For those who want to write theirs unclearly and in haste, may I suggest the Arty Bollocks Generator? Here is their mission statement:

O, and since you asked, you can read mine here and here.

You're welcome.

However, for clarity and brevity, this week's artist statement winner of the Breathtaking Brevity Award, a free .pdf of my book Raahui, goes to Marty G, a reader from Pennsylvania, with his permission, here it is:

Wow! Thank you!

Marty, I will get it across to you in the next couple of days.

The importance of true treasures

Unravelling the threads of the past

As some of you know, I have been following my own whakapapa (ancestry) for the last seven to eight years. Ancestry is vital for we Māori, as it helps us know who we are. And who we are is the sum of all who have come before us.

Cleaning out my shipping container a few weeks ago and jettisoning the detritus of my past has got me thinking about what is truly important and what is merely...stuff.

On the bookshelf in my lounge are a few treasures priceless to me. First, there is my great-great-grandfather's master mariner's almanack. Second, a schoolbook awarded to my great-great-grandmother for excellence in her time at the Pakia Native School. Finally, there is a portrait of my great-grandmother, sitting regally in an Auckland studio.

Alongside it, there is a dog-eared small book belong to my grandmother on my father's side.

When I opened it, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. It was a collection of thoughts, scribblings, underlinings and pressed flowers. A mish-mash, really.

The book abruptly fell open on this page (see above), containing a series of carefully pasted newspaper cuttings facing each other.

Why was this here, and what was it about?

What was the story I was reading?

Then it came to me.

He was her first love, this son of the proprietor of the Kohukohu Hotel. He had gone off to fight for King And Country. Perhaps she had waved him off. And he had died at Gallipoli.

Suddenly, Anzac Day, our national of remembrance for all our Aotearoa New Zealand war dead, especially those who fell in the catastrophic debacle in the Dardanelles, became personal for me.

I could only imagine her grief at hearing the awful news. How her dreams had been shattered, and she had to put her life back together and carry on, eventually marrying my grandfather.

And it occurs to me, when we remember our war dead each year, we should perhaps honour those left behind, usually women, forced to deal with the consequences of loss and grief.

Raahui

Background

As many of you know, during lockdown last year, I spent the time writing poetry and posting it to social media. As a result, a number of you asked me when I would make a book of them.

Long story short, due to the generosity of a lovely couple and a lot of love from a very talented team, I was able to produce a limited hand-signed edition of 300 copies.

These sold quickly, and I now have none left. The last ones leave on Monday. I hope to reprint these when I reach my next place to live and get settled again.

If you are kicking yourself for not jumping in, I have some good news. First, you can get an electronic copy.

Donna and her design crew have produced an electronic copy you can read on your devices. It is formatted to look fabulous on the very demanding Apple Retina screens. And it is affordable. Only $NZ20

Getting a copy is simple. Follow this link, order your copy and wait for me to send it to you asap.

The Digital Edition is a great option for you readers offshore who don't/didnt want to pony up ridiculous $$$ for freight (sometimes more than the sale price of the book itself- would you believe $NZ240 couriered to South Africa).

Feverish-Mind Links (to make your Sunday morning coffee go cold)

Trick #Shorts - THE ULTIMATE 'BORED IN THE HOUSE' TRICK SHOT! — www.youtube.com

Hey. When you gotta keep busy. Set up a trick shot, then videotape it!

Video Credit: TT: patrickhanson17

Go Subscribe to Patrick's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmDDzIkQZq4Bi0j9C2Zbx2g

9 Ways To Draw a Person — vimeo.com

By mixing abstraction, collage, drawing animation the author invites us into spontaneous and unsystematic research of potential of the animation and leads us into the world of irrepressible imagination.

Russian language version / Русскоязычная версия фильма: https://vimeo.c

Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling — www.magnumphotos.com

Magnum Learn is a new online learning platform for photography and visual storytelling, by Magnum Photos.

A Brief History Of Gasoline: How Standard Oil Got Away With It — jalopnik.com

The last installment of this series covered the rise of Standard Oil, the blueprint for every murderous modern corporation, but this week’s entry does not cover its fall.

Silence your lobster phone and melt into a Dalí-inspired dreamscape — aeon.co

Dreams of Dalí 6 minutes

Gallipoli: The scale of our war — www.tepapa.govt.nz

In total, 2,779 Kiwis lost their lives on Gallipoli, and many others were scarred for ever. takes you to the core of this defining event.

Bookends

Thanks

As always, if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it freely.

Have a blessed and peaceful week.

Mai te arohaa

TB