pip stafford

Hi. Hello.

2012-01-09T16:01:00.000+11:00

It's quiet around here, I know.

If you came here looking for some of my work, you can find a brief (and possibly incomplete) history of my projects by clicking on "my art" over there in the tags list. Similarly by clicking "illustration" you can find some of my drawings.

I'm currently in the process of building a portfolio site which will feature a full catalogue of my previous and current works.

Until then I'm using two tumblrs to keep track of my interests and research:
http://iwilltakeyoueverywherebianca.tumblr.com (more a scrapbook of "things I like")
http://allmyworldisscaffolding.tumblr.com (research for my project of the same name)

If you want more information about a specific work, a design/illustration portfolio or some images please email me at pipstafford [at] gmail [dot] com.

I'll let you know when my (awesome) new website is running and I hope to have a more active blog-life in the near future. At the moment (post-Honours year, post-2011) I'm taking some time to sort out all those little projects I've not had time to deal with (website, deleting old blogs, filing my receipts from 2007 onwards) and I'm pretty excited about some of the things that are about to happen.

I've got some fantastic projects on the boil including Touchy Feely Artist Talks + Exhibition at Inflight Gallery in January (it's a kind of symposium on relational/participatory art and what that means), In Search of Space with Rahni Allan at Sawtooth ARI in March and a few days later, a work at DorkBot at Serial Space, Sydney.

So there ya go.

I'm over there

2011-08-15T07:59:00.000+10:00

If anyone is still actually reading this poor blog, you can find more of me over at my tumblr these days.
Too busy for two blogs right now.

Taxonomy Publishing is go!

2011-04-07T08:09:00.003+10:00

Styrene Butadiene Copolymer Issue One -

-// a5 thermal bound // 108 hand-cut pages // colotech cover // gocco on brown card sash // - $ 8.00 AUD + post.

taxonomylab.tumblr.com

Publishing and Distribution of beautiful printed and recorded media.

Hello.

2011-03-01T15:57:00.004+11:00

I was just accepted into Honours (to tack onto the end of my BFA).

Which means I'm going to be a student for the first time since 2004.
Hoorah!

[Image credit]

Hobart Art Walk

2011-02-22T09:04:00.004+11:00

In the spirit of catching-up-with-things-that-have-happened-in-my-life-while-I-was-MIA, I forgot to mention I was part of the Hobart Art Walk, while MONA FOMA was happening.

The always-fabulous Nicole O'Loughlin was the instigator for this event, where Hobart artists got to hang their work in shop fronts up and down the main drag of Elizabeth St. Fran and I shared the window at Basket & Green cafe, just across the road from my old studio, The Rat Palace. Fran was lovely enough to hang and then de-install my work in my absence - yay Fran!

I just remembered

2011-02-18T21:55:00.003+11:00

that I used to write and post poems on online literary noticeboards and chat rooms.
Under a pseudonym that I don't remember, pretending I was an adult, I loved the praise I would get for poems that were mostly heavily influenced by T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and Adrienne Rich.

I was 13, I guess, and the internet was still a baby.

***

This is me at nearly-28 with a new hair cut. I don't write poetry any more.

Jump Mentoring

2011-02-13T09:11:00.004+11:00

I'm absolutely stoked to announce that I've been selected (along with 48 other artists from across Australia) to participate in the Jump Mentorship for 2011. Jump is a national mentoring program for young and emerging artists. I've just been to Brisbane for 4 nights to participate in the induction and meet the other artists (and the awesome people from YAQ, Carriageworks and the Australia Council for the Arts).

My mentor is my wonderful friend (and new mama) Nancy Mauro Flude. Nancy's a media artist who returned to Tasmania from the Rotterdam to do her Phd at UTas. She couldn't make it to Brisbane with me because she was giving birth at the time, but I think that is fairly good excuse.

So far the program has been brilliant and, if your interested, you can follow my project at http://goingupproject.tumblr.com/ or find out more about the Jump program at http://www.jumpmentoring.com.au

p.s. If you've ever commented on my blog and wondered why it didn't appear or I didn't respond it's because I only just found a whole bunch of unpublished comments. They should all be there now.

S T O R Y

2011-01-26T15:36:00.002+11:00

Some limited edition prints and original drawings of mine can now be found at STORY.

STORY is the new online store of designer, artist and all-round lovely lady, Monique Germon.

Wild Geese - Mary Oliver

2011-01-22T22:44:00.000+11:00

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Goodness me, it's 2011

2011-01-16T16:34:00.003+11:00

I'm currently rolling around the country-side in a wooden truck and humpy, learning to be a puppeteer, getting bogged on steep hillsides, swatting mosquitos and sleeping in bunk beds.

(I'm doing this project).

Needless to say blogging will be sporadic. Though it's been sporadic all year - 2010 was a busy, busy year.

I got married to a very lovely man. We adopted a cat, who, on death-row, charmed his way into our lives. I worked for a community cultural development organisation. I didn't sleep enough.

I skated and skated and skated. I cried over roller derby and found amazing happiness within it too. I helped get our team to our first bouts. We lost a skater to suicide and dedicated our first bout on home turf to her. I now wear her skates and hope some of her determination on the track rubs off on me.

I ran in my first and probably only fun run. I learned that my knees can only take so much high-impact exercise. Skating wins.

I made art, I had a solo show and was included in a number of group shows. I collaborated. Made things that I'm really proud of and other things I wish I'd worked harder on. I had my first exhibition of drawings. Everyone raved over it. Not one of them sold.

I videoed a food fight with the idea that I wouldn't get covered in custard. I was wrong.

There was an incredible amount of conflict and mis-communication in my life. I became incredibly anxious and took myself off to therapy (again). I feel better now. I learned how to resolve things and be honest in a kinder way. I also learned how to walk away.

I worked in a bar. I hated it.

I left my day job to be an artist full-time. My best buddy helped me get my first design jobs and I've not looked back. I've been super, super broke, but time in my sunny studio wins out over extra cash.

I've learned to eat better and drink more water. I've been sick more times than I care to think about. I found that I like drinking cider.

I went to Newcastle with Amy and visited Emma in Melbourne. Andrew walked solo down the midlands highway. I worried. We bought a car.

Some of my favourite people had babies, all equally lovely and delicious. My second nephew was born and I helped my sister with him in hospital after a traumatic c-section. I didn't get to spend enough time with either of my nephews, something I want to remedy in 2011.

I had to re-learn how to relax. How to take naps, read books for pleasure and wander aimlessly. I'm still learning.

I met some amazing people. I had wonderful times and times where I felt cheated and broken.
I'm breathing deeper and taking my time. I'm learning when to say 'no'.

Hello 2011.

.

2010-11-17T09:26:00.003+11:00

Little boxes on the hillside

2010-11-16T18:27:00.002+11:00

We are sick

2010-11-01T21:28:00.002+11:00

I had plans for the blog this week. Plans! Sigh.

Yesterday he mopped my vomit off the toilet floor and today I made his snotty self moussaka.
That's how we roll round these here parts.

BRB

Dot Dash #7

2010-10-25T08:28:00.004+11:00

That's me. My derby alter-ago is Dot Dash. She's me, but tougher.

My league, the baby that's taken over my life for the past 18 months, Convict City Rollers, had our first bout against Van Diemen Rollers last night. We lost. But we put up a good fight and we feel like we won. I am very, very proud and happy.

(Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjrn/)

TINY PEEKS - A Day in the Life

2010-10-12T10:04:00.004+11:00

This comic is part of Tiny Peeks at Hand Held Gallery, Melbourne and in the chap book of the same name (A Silent Army production).

(Click to view)

Generalised Anxiety Disorder

2010-09-23T21:26:00.007+10:00

Picture by Natalie Dee

Things that help: quiet in small doses, my studio, my lovely husband, my cat, my dear friends who know how to distract me, hug me, get me drunk when necessary and make really good cups of tea, drawing as much as possible, being at home, enough sleep, good food, avoiding toxic people, jogging and roller derby.

It's all going to be okay.

In which I basically list things I've been doing.

2010-09-13T17:08:00.004+10:00

Well, wow, in the last couple of weeks I've been involved with a whole bunch of great stuff, including, the show in the last post, at Skittle Alley; Sound to Light, in which I collaborated with Scot Cotterell for fun nerdy times and Things We Made at Cube Art and Design, with Fran Burgess, which also coincided with Gabbee Stolp's amazing show, Come to Dust. Phew.

I've also been doing some freelance design work for nice clients like Monash Uni, SYN FM and my friend Emma's dad. Which makes me think I really need to get that portfolio site off the boil and on to the plate. Ahem.

AND! I'm in this awesome show in Melbourne:
Tiny Peeks at Hand Held Gallery. With a metric shit ton of awesome people.

I'm also heading up to This is Not Art where I'm sitting on a panel for Critical Animals and hosting Staple Manor for the National Young Writers Festival. I'm really excited.

I'm slack (and perpetually broke) so I've never been to TiNA before and all I hear is exciting things about it. I'm also hoping to skate while I'm there, because I'm hoping to get selected for the Convict City team for our first ever Hobart bout. Excitement does, indeed, abound.

My "new" life is lovely. I'm poor, but happy, as predicted. My bar job is mostly easy and I get to work with nice people. It's stress-free and I get to leave it behind when I take off my apron and walk out the door. What a relief.

I love having time at home, with my cat and my beardy husband; my little studio is filled with bouncing light from the mountain and the trees and the traffic on the highway. I'm eating relatively properly, I've given up bread and taken up sleeping more. My anxiety level has dropped and I'm ready for new adventures.

To finish, here are some images from Things We Made (all works are for sale - if interested please email me pipstafford @ gmail dot com or go visit the lovely Jemima at CUBE:

Artist Slash Waiter (at Skittle Alley, Stable Gallery, Moonah)

2010-09-06T12:45:00.001+10:00

New glasses

2010-08-20T08:33:00.002+10:00

I am fast becoming one of those people for whom the first morning ritual is to scratch around furiously for spectacles. My old glasses were more than four years old; prescription out of date and so scratched I couldn't really see through them. It was time to take the plunge and buy new specs.

Being a Poor Artist (tm) I assumed I'd have to get new lenses put in my old frames, because, as Australian's all know, new frames cost a gazillion dollars (and a sacrifical kitten).

ENTER AUSSPECS.COM.AU...duh duh duuuuuuh.

I promise I have not been paid by them to spruik their wares - but so CHEAP! And nice frames!

I got two pairs: one prescription, one prescription sunnies for $90! Including postage!

Am-az-ing.

Oh and they are actually hongkongspecs.com.au but who cares when they are awesome and came in super cute packaging (green tissue paper-wrapped box and stamps with birds on them!).

What do you think of my new glasses?

Poor, neglected blog

2010-07-31T09:12:00.006+10:00

It's been a long time between drinks, eh?
You should see my house.

Today is a cleaning day and then a working day.
In 8 working days I'll be leaving the confines of my office job and stepping back into the uncertain (but free) world of freelance (and working in a bar!). We'll be poor, but happy.
Hire me!

So this is what I've been up to:

Hanging out with these guys:

Keeping warm:

Making

and sometimes drinking beer:

Cheesecake

2010-06-18T08:35:00.004+10:00

A little look at my new zine (in Czech and English). Which will be available at my show tonight (along with the cheese cake featured in it):

35 Reasons to Forgive You

2010-06-16T19:05:00.003+10:00

35 Reasons to Forgive you
Begged, Borrowed and Thifted Dollies, Hand Embroidery, Drawing Pins dimensions variable 2010

A peek at my work from a group show called Let's Make the Water Turn Black at Inflight ARI.

I'm currently installing at Six A ARI and you are invited to the opening this Friday (gulp):

There will be zines and cheesecake for the early comers!

Le Flanuer

2010-06-05T15:26:00.004+10:00

A is currently walking the long midlands highway, for his Flanuer Project as part of the Look Out group exhibition at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (or TMAG as us locals know it).

In short:
I miss him.

Also:

I'm in a fun show at the moment called Let's Make the Water Turn Black at Inflight ARI in Hobart.

My work is called 35 Reasons to Forgive You and is a exploration of childhood influences on current art practice. Photos soon.

27

2010-05-21T13:17:00.002+10:00

On Monday I turned 27.
More Trip 35 images

Secret nanna business

2010-05-13T13:35:00.004+10:00

My husband (does anyone else find the word "husband" unbearably awkward and embarrassing to say? Just me then? I digress...), calls my little coterie of lady pals "The Nanna Brigade". Because we wear clothes that may have come from the wardrobes of Nannas past, we like to drink tea (and gin - though not together), eat cake (CAKE!), sew and make things nice. I'm starting to see his point.

Any hooo...this is a long winded way of saying I'm in the middle of some secret Nanna business (read: making work for three shows, trying to get a new Pip Emma range together, working at my part time job and skating like a mad woman in preparation for the Great Southern Slam and reading ALL the Sookie Stackhouse novels) so the blog may get a little neglected for the next few weeks. Or it might not. We'll see.

Here's some of my Trip 35 photos to keep you warm at night.