Opening night went great, the Banjo Paterson festival exhibition is in full swing

We got the building ready, the art hung, the opening was a great success with 40 people coming through the door to help us celebrate and nibble lots of delicious food made by our talented team, imbibe some fermented grapes or unfermented fruit juice if preferred :)
Sorry about the quality of the photos, I got busy talking to our guests and not only missed the opening speech by our wondrous president but by the time I got my camera it was two hours into the opening and some visitors had left. We didn't start cleaning up until 11 pm though..... so something went right :)

CCC in the local paper

A little group of artists who give their time to make all 56 members of CCC look good. The CWD sent Jude Keogh to photograph us and Alexandra King to write a lovely piece to help promote our opening for the Banjo Paterson Festival.

Celebrating the magic of Banjo Paterson

WARNING!!!

THE FINAL POEM HAS A STRONG SWEAR WORD

 

The Man Speaker

Here I am behind the mic looking at you with total fright.

My sphincter is tightening so hard, I feel my balls may blow apart.

There’s more to life as you know of course

But at this very moment it’s all getting worse.

The more I speak the less you enjoy

This repeating of words that are simply a ploy.

Don’t be disheartened for there is an end

To all the speeches that bore you again, and again and again.

 

Is it cooked?

 

I once saw a sausage that rolled on its side

It was all pink and purple, and red besides.

I ate that poor sausage with such a delight

It jumped up and down at my very first bite.

Nice sausage it was with tomato sauce

But not long after I suffered the curse.

If you don’t cook poor sausage all the way through

You end up in hospital trying to poo.

 

The Death Scene

 

Return to the sky my beloved Marie

Return to the sky for now you are free.

“She’s dead”, cried the padre with some delight

“She’s dead poor people, so stop the fight”.

“She’s dead”, he said with the sign of the cross

“She’s dead, I say, but no great lose”.

Cry a River

The rivers, the rivers are all drying up

Without our rivers, we’re going to be fucked up.

It’s overpopulation that’s stuffing us up

Stop making people cause our rivers, are drying up.

Giovanni

our new logo and map

our marvellous president has designed a new logo for us, one that we can reproduce easily in any format, paint and elaborate on too
We have produced new flyers and some invites to the opening so if you could pick them up next you're at the barracks and spread the word around the area that would be super
I have re-designed the map too, in another attempt at making it clear where we are and how to get to us :)

Our Banjo Paterson Exhibition opening is in the local Life paper

Banjo preparations - part 2

All the chains ready for hanging, art coming in, D-ring being placed in our preferred position of 7.5 cm from top of frame to top of D -ring, lots of jobs done already and lots of volunteering artists coming in..... we're a good bunch :)

Our joyous Joy will be leading the curating, no little job as it's two galleries and two floors of corridors to hang; but she will have Judy Kich to bounce off and Liam Dunne to help with the physical part of it. There's a lot of ladder going up and down so it's a blessing that Liam volunteered and lucky him to be mentored by one of our most accomplished and knowledgeable artists, Joy Engelman.

Banjo Paterson Festival preparations 1

We have started to get ready by pruning, weeding, mulching and taking the decorations down from Gallery 2 and the stairwell. Modest beginnings but a good start none the less, more next weekend and through the week :)
Also found a crop of field mushrooms under the bushes, bonus!

Flix In The Stix coming

Hey y'all, the annual Fix in the Stix is coming Saturday 21 February starting at 6 pm. Phil, myself and others go every year and have a fantastic time. You get short films, comedy and music, there's food and drink there but we usually take our own picnic. Just thought to send the opportunity to all youse funsters without actually clogging your mailbox :) We have our tickets already.... and the quality looks even better this year,  http://www.flixinthestix.com.au/orange

watercolour class

Joy Engelman held another successful watercolour class at the Barracks, this time in Gallery 1.
From the happy faces and art produced it was another nurturing event from our talented and generous Joy.
If you get a chance to attend one of these, grab the opportunity as you will receive a surfeit of information and guidance from an artist who has had many years of experience and success.

The start of getting ready for Banjo Paterson Festival this weekend

Just sent out the call to arms for the Banjo Paterson Festival to youse all wonderful CCC members.
If I missed some, please let me know. Margie Moon's email address is just not working and Joy's bounced back too, but I tried another which hopefully will hit the target :)
You would have received the schedule and to do list in the email, as you see in this post.
The To Do List will be pinned to the board near the entrance so you can put your name against the jobs you'd like to do to help us all look good.
Bring your wonderful art for exhibition from Saturday 31 January and last day is 4 February. This gives us enough time to curate, make the labels and hang it all.
Need volunteers for the opening night organising too.....
Lets make this another amazing exhibition you creatives :)

Banjo Paterson Festival, approaches

I can see Joy Engelman, just for a lark,

painting The Man from Snowy River, and The Man from Ironbark.

Of course there’s Jola the linear beast, no doubt her work will be of the geese.

You’ve not heard of the geese that wondered the Doom

to the edge of the Snowy where they were stuffed with prune.

Cosmic Susie will venture into the unknown

and return with Banjo on a side salad with Cohen.

“T’is he”, she says, with lighting smile,

“Go walk the labyrinth, it’s only a quarter mile”.

Then there is Aida a gloomy femme

who paints nude women instead of men.

“Is she here or is she there”, said Banjo on a dare,

“I’d rather she clean out the cupboards with her breasts in the air”.

And what with her hands could Ms Frances do?

Probably depicting young Banjo all covered in poo.

It would be the hat, that everyone knows,

which Frances would build to protect poor Banjo’s toes.

Girls in frocks with bouquet and top

once pounce on young Banjo with their legs almost crossed.

“It’s the hat, the hat that brings us to cry.

For without the hat, young Banjo, would simply die”.

Giovanni