Saturday, February 06, 2010

Good news and bad news

Two lots of good news to report; but briefly, due to the consequences of my bad news. Please do follow the links to find out more details than I have been able to include.

Breathe, my mangrove piece, has been selected as a finalist in the Uxbridge Estuary Art Awards 2010. I made the French knitted pneumataphores especially for the Awards, which encouraged research into the environmental issues facing the Tamaki Estuary. I was excited to have an opportunity to finally realise some of my ideas for representing mangroves in my art.

The Estuary Art Awards exhibition open on Thursday 11 February at Uxbridge gallery in Howick. I encourage Auckland readers to go along and see all the finalists. The exhibtion runs until 10 March.


The other bit of good news is that one of my poems, Two Kinds of Time, has been nominated for the 2010 Rhysling Awards. This poem just seems to run and run! Written for, and first published in the Voyagers Anthology, it also inspired me to make a (very) short film and a limited edition artist's book (which has sold out).

Tim Jones, one of the editors of the Voyagers Anthology took the initiative to write a media release about the nomination, which you can read on his blog, as well as on Scoop and Beattie's Book Blog. I'm very grateful for Tim doing this, since I am still devoting all my energy to my temporarily fulltime 'straight' job.


Bad news: yesterday on my way to work I was knocked off my bicycle by a driver opening his door suddenly. Fortunately I was riding very slowly so no great damage has been done. I am shocked, shaken and a bit bruised; my knuckles took the brunt of the collision of handlebars with door. I'm taking the accident as a sign of having reached my limit for full-time work, so intend to negotiate down to part-time hours by the middle of next week. Next weekend I'm moving, and then once ensconced my new studio-home, I look forward to blogging progress on my own, actual, creative practice again.

8 comments:

Tim Jones said...

Sorry to hear about your accident - I'm only glad it wasn't worse. But congrats on the good art news, as well, of course, as on the good poetry news.

Gretel said...

Poor you! What IS IT with car drivers? they are so dopey sometimes and it's usually the poor cyclist who comes off worse; I always steer clear of any parked car if I can because most people seem oblivious to the possibility that a walker or cyclist might actually be using the road as well. So, commiserations, and congratulations, and have a bit of a rest.

Helen Rickerby said...

Congrats on all the cool stuff! Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you're ok.

rachlovestheweb said...

Oh NOOOOOOooo!! Poor you! [HUGS]. I hope you recover quickly!!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on all three pieces of good news - the latter because you survived to write, knit, sew and create another day!

Actually - hold on - there were 5 pieces of good news...deciding to scale down work and moving into new studio home got slipped in there too.

Hugs my dearest - and guess what - there's a high chance I'll be moving to the Tron for a few months...will keep you posted...
E

PS: I just love my captcha 'glogoons'!

Ngaio said...

I hope you are ok now, I don`t think most drivers even check for people on bikes.
Congrates on the awards also !

Carol said...

Double congratulations and so sorry to hear about the accident. Thank goodness you're okay. Part-time will be better for creativity even if less lucrative. Great that you're moving into your studio-home so soon. Good luck with the move.

Lawns Christchurch said...

I am guilty too but in my case, it was a moped. It's good that he was also about to slow down and was able to stop just before he hit my door!