in brisbane june 19-22

Kurilpa Bridge
Ron Mueck exhibition at GoMA
Chapel Hill
Leading Library Teams workshop at the Mercure Hotel
Airtrain

... and I put the finishing touches to my Brisbane poem on the plane on the way home. now i have to send it out in the world.

not before time

i've finally organised myself to add photos to my flickr space.

townsville!

miniature roses in my back garden

the Saint on Castle Hill, viewed from Queen's Gardens
- replaced a question mark
- created by Uni pranksters nearly fifty years ago
- I like it, like I like Arthur Stace's Eternity

and 'image' that was all around Maryborough
[The Legend of the Saint, on Q150 digital stories]

tranquil tropical gardens

where's your poetry wall?

http://bit.ly/b6pqPn
Rebecca's young poets have created ephemeral poetry on their green fence. Love that a whole lot, Bec.
I will have to dig out a photo of the green chalk board at our place in Maryborough, and will have to get one at our new Townsville place.
Is yours a chalkboard? Or black ink poems on the walls and doors (ala QWC Metro Arts - if I'm remembering correctly Kate?) Or post-it notes on the wall? Framed poems? Projected on the wall? Projected on the side of a building?
Has anyone got a poem on their table?
I created a story lamp once, and made poetry jeans (slide 9/14), inspired by Joanna's storylamp, but I'd like a poetry table!
My new desk at work has light coloured timber... hmmm

Send in your wall photos and celebrate poetry month - wherever you are in the world

mall sprite

mary poppins tsb art

Poppins art at cnr Kent Street & Cherry Tree Lane, and at cnr Kent & Adelaide Streets - Mary Heritage and Admiral Ten Boom.

happy mothers' day

we walked on the beach at Gataker's Bay today, and were pleasantly surprised by the work of an unknown artist. Nothing says 'I love you' like a coral, seaweed and sand artwork. Sweet.

love libraries

I would love to have the Cubic Structural Evolution Project in a public library - it's touring regional Queensland galleries now. Kids are having such fun with the 300 kilos of white lego. Here's the batbear sitting on the rubble. He's a class mascot from a local school, touring around with a child each night. He certainly had fun at the Project.

Shoe store workers could learn a lot from libraries. Today I went to buy some black shoes and only found one pair in my size. To her credit the shop assistant did call the store in the next town to see if they had any of the others in (but they didn't). Now if that was a library we would be working hard to find that elusive product to suit the client's need. This is the new line too, and I was told that they only ever get one box in of that size - librarians would have ordered enough to cover anticipated demand and would have had them moving in and out. And why don't they have email alerts set up to let me know when that elusive one box comes instore? So, I did get one pair of gorgeous black shoes today (but not in the style I desired more) and I wore them to work in the afternoon. Halfway happy.

Send good fortune my way on Wednesday - two great things will happen for me that day. Here's wishing you a Wild, Wonderful Wednesday too.

for poetry enthusiasts

want to be there.
one day poem pavilion: http://people.artcenter.edu/~jsong5/thesis/index.html.

Read!

want one!

[this on brookadelphia's etsy via Librarian Avengers]

gold coast fun

I'm back from a fabulous week at the coast. I had a place in the mountains but I ventured out to Beechmont Markets, Natural Arch, a gemstone cafe with the most delicious sausage rolls ever, the Australian Outback Spectacular (and it was), Nerang Library and Surfers Paradise. In Surfers I got lost in Infinity and revisited the forty year old Wax Museum (ghoulish!).
On the bookshelf where I was staying I discovered an old Paper Wasp zine filled with inspirational haiku.

This Nerang Library is six years old, so bright and fresh with attractive signage and lots of light. It's part of the Gold Coast City Council, and they're trialling this blog for young people for three months: blurbit. Go, energise them. And I found a Discworld picture book I didn't know existed! Where's my cow? Postmodern and discy. Very helpful librarians there too. And you know I loved the signage out front. I picked up the new quarterly magazine from State Library of Queensland there. You can subscribe by going to What's On.

I was excited to see painted TSBs in Surfers. Here are two. First in Elkhorn Avenue and the mermaids in Ferny Avenue near the Wax Museum. And a very Sesame Street moment with the number 33. It's nice to be home.

TSBs on Web 2.0

View 500 images on flickr: Brisbane's Traffic Signal Boxes

TSB

The flowers TSB* in Brougham Street. The Perfection TSB in the City.
Go there and see.

* Traffic Signal Box

street art

How lovely to have books delivered in the mail. This one is a must for anyone who loves what artists have done to those harsh traffic signal boxes in Brisbane. It's Brisbane Traffic Art.1 and it features 200 of the altered TSBs with artists' statements and they're listed by suburb alphabetically. I like best the paintings that incorporate some aspect of the local community, like trouts on a box in Trout Road, and kids' faces on a box near a school. I look around my city and see grey traffic signal boxes - not so engaging.I took this butterfly pic. a while back near Fairfield Road. The book was compiled by Queensland Urban Ecology, the people who organise the artists to do all this stunning work. And they invite anyone to apply to paint a box, you don't have to be a professional artist. In fact, their TSB work is a great career move for many.Buy the book, take the tour, and enjoy! Check them out online here.