I almost forgot to say, I got a wonderful email from a whole butcher’s family the other day (Beth, Wayne, Sarah, Flic, Kylie, George, Kathy & Teesha).
This is a photo of Barry (Baz) and one of his girls who I’m sure will be taken with your dashing good looks and is likely to be swept of her hooves by your presence.
A lot has happened since the lost post.
I am now enjoying the scenery in Augusta. I’m on the main street on the footpath outside the chemist shop. Pete the butcher is great as well. Most butchers are. Not only are they good at reading back to front, but they are kind and interested in their customers. That’s all I’m going to say about Pete the butcher.
Len and Rita visited me on Saturday March 6th in the afternoon. Ever since I was placed on the foot path, people would bump their heads on my lectern. Len made a sculptural embellishment, painted it black and yellow and secured it to the corner of the lectern with tek screws and silicone. It is the sort of thing that will catch your eye even if you are looking down. It works well to puzzle passers by.
Len told me that that morning he loaded up his mad dog sculpture to take to Margaret River Galleries. While tying it down with ropes he spiked his left eye on the pointed tail of the dog. It was hard not to laugh, since his eye had looked like a lump of mince. When Len say my convulsions from the laughter I just said I was shivering from the cold!
After doing the saftey 3 modification to my furniture Len and Rita enjoyed a cup of coffee - black with one sugar from their thermos.
People gathered around and had their picture taken with the artist!
It was awesome to catch up with Len. Got to like him a bit over our time together and this short absence from his Banjup Gallery has reminded me of this affection.
Len was saying that he got a letter from the frier that he’d met several weeks ago (you remember I told you about him before). Joe came to his studio to have a look at how Len paints. Joe has an urge to paint a bit more or should I say he wants to spend a bit more time on himself. To attend to neglected aspects of his life.
Because Len is pretty selfish with his time he has a special admiration for people like Joe who spend all their life caring about other people.Len is happy that Joe is going to attend to Joe’s needs a little bit more (makes a healthy person in my opinion).
When I was in Len’s studio in January, and my make over was nearing completion, Len started work on his sculpture of “The Halbardean Enforcer”! This sculpture was submitted for Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe (2010) but was not selected. :( Len liked the drawings so much he decided to make it anyway!
Len was saying that it is nearing completion and considers it one of the best sculptures he has made (or at least, equal place with the family sculpture in a churchyard in Maradong). In the submission he was going to clad it with rubber but has finished it in just steel.
Friday 26th March 2010 Len Zuks twas the curator and host of the real like Mark Linden exhibition at the Physics Department at the University of Western Australia. (I am super happy for him).
On Sunday 28th March (today), the Second Life opening will be held internationally ! Len is not a confident exponent of the virtual world but with gentle coaxing and encouragement from avatars in the USA and Holland he has entered a thrilling new world.
Mark Lindens are abstract linear works. Len said they were like a mesh between world, the near world this side of the drawing and the infinite void of a limitless universe beyond. He also said that the imagery helped Len bypass Marks eyes and get a glimpse into the mechanisms of his mind.
Len said it only took Marlene Stafford one glance at The Halbardean Enforcer to secure a contract for an exhibitions and sculptures. The exhibition will be held at the end of May 2010.
A bus load of Japanese tourists are coming up the street. I love hamming it up for these tourists. Got to go, blog at you soon.
Kind Regards,
Bovinicus
P.S. Remember, feel free to add me on Facebook, you can check me out here: facebook.com/bovinicus. Oh, I know my profile picture is a little out of date (before my makeover) but it’s hard to borrow a computer late at night in Augusta. During the day I have to be on the side walk you realize.
Life is awesome. Things are just crashing together in an effort to enlighten me. Sorry I hadn’t written for a while but I am breathless with the thrill of living. Len has finished giving e a make over. I am now a professor. My eye permits me to admit that I am now quite beautiful. This is confirmed (if there was a doubt) with people turing to ogle me wherever I go.
That’s the physical beauty, but the mental state is something else. I understand most things. I thought that this was normal, but when I was first thrown into the herd it didn’t tale me long to realize that I had a gift. Since I found this out I give thanks to the universal bovine consciousness. I am humbled by my gift. Anyway, back to Len. Early in January, Len was working on my clothes as well as doing the first painting for 2010. It’s an awesome experience to be able to watch the illusion grow on the canvas. I can now see that the painting is of ripples made on a river as a canoe breaks the still surface. The broken and fractured scene is of the barren reflections. Both in the sun and in the shade. The ripples are larger then what a stone throw in the water would make and this affords a strange illusion. It looks abstract, but is in fact true to life. Realistic. Wet looking. This result is more astounding the father you step back from the painting. On close inspection the colours are thick. The Italians would call it Molto Impasto, it is so thick and luscious. At one stage in the painting, Len turned the canvas upside down. When I asked him why he did this, he said that while looking at the photography for guidance for the colours, he let the knowledge that it was reflections and ripples prejudice his attitude. Painting undulations where he knew undulations would be. I know what he means, simple science tell you that they make their way outwards from a source and bounce off objects in their way. When I looked at the photograph the reflected landscape covered the fluid water character, that I knew was there somewhere underneath. So to put the painting upside down, Len was forced to contemplate where the colours and tones were and not the scene.
He’s got all the tricks, but I suppose he should have. He’s got around 41 years of professional experience, making him unencumbered with all doubt and hesitation. Len finished the painting on about the 17th of January.
On the 22nd of January, Len, Lincon (Len’s son) and I went to Boddington because Len was conducting a sculpture workshop. He went on Friday to be properly prepared for Saturday. On Friday evening, Len went to the Youth Club and encouraged the young people to take advantage of his presence in the town. This was a good move because several of the young folk did turn up on Saturday. That evening we had lots of salads, the boys has salmon.
Saturday started with the young bloke, Allan, showing up, we had met him at the youth club. Then lots of other poured in through out the day. With the help of the young folk Len compacted several 44 gallon drums full of sand cement and lime. The carving began! Today we made an two-sided Aztec character, an owl-octapus, the heart of a mouse, seated dolls and, amongst all of this, was some maintenance on an enormous standing bull figure.
At lunchtime we had ice-creams on cones, chips, burgers and fish - a veritable banquet! At 5pm we left for Perth, the rest of them went to a 30th birthday party for a lovely lady with an 80s theme. On Thursday, 28th January, Len had two guests for his studio night, Richard Pawlack, a town planner with a sore back, and Joe, a frier from Ireland on a visit to Australia. The Frier was interested to see how Len paints and draws. To this end, Len painted a wild floral tribute. Demonstrating his spontaneous, explosive and unbridled style.Using acrylic pigments he was almost vicious to the canvas, building up steam as he went. Giving the acrylics the character of oils, but not their impatient personality. The thick colours dried in a day, then the oil stage came. More brilliant than the last. The second painting was a caricature of Joe the Frier, holding his hat and standing in his socks and sandals. The harmony of time, materials, subject matter and desire were perfect and both artworks were successful. There was a wood fired BBQ with chicken and fish. I’m a vegetarian but I am tolerant of all things necessary for the circle of life syndrome.
It was palindrome day (01/02/2010) on Monday, and Len has since delivered me to the Cow Transport Depot in Dowd St, Wellshpool. There are several of us personalities waiting to be delivered to the Margaret River District.
Oh, I must add that there was an article in the Sunday Times that focussed on negativity of the Cow Parade. The knockers should go an mow the lawn. No one approached me or Len for our opinions, so where are they drawing their facts from? They haven’t facts, because the facts and figures are still evolving. I would never have been if it wasn’t for Cow Parade and the fortuitous meeting with Len Zuks. Len worked alone on some of the hottest and most uncomfortable days of the year (Len is ugly in shorts and no shirt). But he was fully immersed in the moments of creativity. There were phone call from artists who has encountered problems. Like Chris Tate and his surfer cow.
The Cow Parade has allowed the catching up with old friends and the expansion of a support network. Len himself has said that this exhibition is more relaxed and has an immediate and international coverage. The cow Parade is more like the Beach Exhibitions and embraces the art buyer or collector as well as the average individual. It introduces them accidentally into International Arts Culture. All this is happening and the show hasn’t ever started! See you all down south.
Don’t forget to come and see me at Augusta. Time are moovin! This is my time now.
I don’t want the knockers to rain on my parade.
Next day ….
I look awesome. I am now brindle with red lips, blue eyes a black mortar board and academic gown. My breast is pink and my teats are firm! I feel feminine gorgeous and confident.
Yesterday, Saturday 16 January 2010, Len rubbed down the sharp bits on my academic gown and body, undercoated me in grey Wattyl Super Etch then overcoated me in bright Wattyl colours.
And, today, Sunday, after the first coats were dry and solid, Len detailed my eyes, feet, mouth – everything and I am now ready to go to Augusta on the next part of my spectacular adventure. I am thrilled to feel a complete and beautiful woman. It takes a lot of discipline and self talk to not become arrogant and full of myself but I privately ogle at my beauty. The same goes for being intellectually gifted. It is a blessing and a surprise. I meditate on all these things and am just grateful for a chance at this realm and to make the most of my special gifts. I would like to find a way that I can encourage others to reach for the sky and fulfil their dreams. I am going to miss my stay in Banjup. Len is great. He admits to feeling teary at the prospect of me leaving but he says my destiny is in the wider world. I think he may be right. Anyway, he is making leaving easier. Catch you soon.
I have to say I’m sorry for not having kept in touch with you for so long, since 2009 actually.
I’ve had a quiet time since my intense program at the University of Western Australia. It was awesome to stand back and soak in the pleasures of achievement. It was also a time to reflect on my life and choose where it is I may go from here.
Soon after my studies finished was also a time when Len, my mentor, was having an exhibition of his own. I saw him take two loads of sculptures away from the gallery precinct. Len first went to Maris Raudzins place, picked up four large sculptures, came back here and topped up the car and trailer with other artworks. At 4 am on 3 December 2009, Len went to the Moores Building in Fremantle, dropped off this artwork and came back to Banjup at 10 am. He loaded four more sculptures and 5 plinths and went back to Fremantle. Len said the exhibition was a success. There were lots of people, customers and friends. Len told me he was also the MC at the official opening. The exhibition was of Latvian Australian Artists and Len has Latvian heritage.
The exhibition finished on 18 December and on 20 December Len, his wife, Rita, son Lincoln and daughter Renee went for a rest at the Red Bluff just south of Coral Bay. If I believe him this was the best and most relaxing time and as Len put it “I can’t remember when gravity pulled me so firmly into the soft beach sand as it did on the beach on the bluff”. During this holiday Len got inspiration for more creativity, kept a diary, read a couple of books, fished and generally lazed about.
When he returned home he decided to put a bit more tin on the roof at the back of his studio. He’s a bit of an idiot. I saw him put a trestle ladder under the roof and climb up with a drill, cord and hammer. He put the tools on the roof. As he leaned over, the ladder was forced on an angle and the legs sunk into the soft sand. Len tried to grip onto the corrugations and couldn’t hold his 77 kgs and he slipped back and crashed 2 metres onto cement slabs. I thought that was it! He gathered himself up off the ground and began springing up and down in pain and fright, rubbing his temple where his head had bounced on the cement. He leapt and meandered towards the house and I didn’t see him for a while. Finally he comes out once again and secures the tin after leaning the ladder against the wall (the meathead, he should have done that in the first place!). Over the next week I noticed the bruises on his leg. When I brought the subject up with him, he said that there was a bruise on the knee that took five days to appear as well as two on the thigh, one on the hip and another on the waist. Pain in his chest, he felt, also indicated a possible cracked rib. He said the head didn’t hurt much but the fall nearly made him black out. Anyway, all’s well that ends well.
Even though Len was inconvenienced with the injuries, he decided to finish off my beauty treatment. Len and Rita sewed my academic gown out of 4 layers of hessian and canvas with a hem and draw string at the neck. Two days later Len and Lincoln put the coat into 15 litres of resin and set it on my shoulders. Gravity gave natural fall to the creases. A neck band was put over the drawstring in the same manner and now I am ready for colouring.
See you soon.
Time just flies. Since I last spoke with you I have got my professional qualifications and will soon be acknowledged in a cerimony at Winthrop Hall. A while ago I went to the University of Western Australia with Len and he gave me a tour of the campus.
It’s a gobsmacking awesome place. I spent most of my time in the Physics Department and it was an honour to meet Jim Williams. He has worked at Universities all over the world. UWA should consider itself fortunate indeed that he owns a house within walking distance of the campus. Even though he could have retired ages ago he still comes to share his knowledge and wisdom with the anxious youthful population; smothering them with self belief, confidence and courage.
You can’t pick the words or the moments when it happens; it’s just that after you have met and spent time with him you begin to realise that your understanding and vision of life and science are in clearer focus.
Got to go and prepare for my presentation later today. Bye for now.
Today is the 23-11-09. Two more sleeps before I will be going to UWA. Time is starting to drag. Already I have found that if you wait for something time goes slowly if you busy yourself. Time goes quickly as well if you sleep better. This is mainly through contentment.
The last few days have been really entertaining. Len has one of his large trees looking sculptures packed to go on permanent display at Wills Domain, a vineyard in the Margaret River distract. He is adding a bit more to the sculpture to satisfy the customers brief to turn it into a wine tree.
Anyway, watching Len work is very tiring as well as entertaining. There are no plans, he just fossicks in his potential heaps, pulls bits out and moves them around till a point of resonance is reached. Then he joins all the bits together.
On Saturday he bridged solid steel from a table to the mid section of the tree and made, what could be considered, an archway. On the table are three bottles, a saucepan, and a glass; all made from redundant helium bottles and fire extinguishers.
Just standing and observing it is AWESOME! To see the artwork grow and come into focus!
Anyway, as suddenly as he starts on this artwork he stops! Next thing his is in his underwear mowing the lawns and blowing the driveway clear. A couple of hours of this then it’s raking leaves and fireproofing the workshop.
8:30pm and it’s pitch black, he pours water on the hot coals and goes into the house. Better than the moo-vies (A little cow humor I picked up).
Onto more serious matters, Len gave my body a make over. Draping a coat on my back, then taking it off. He’s put another layer of fiberglass, over my new joins from walking upright.
He’s made me some eyelashes, and some wikid spectacles making me studious as well as sexy. ;) All these bits have to be put on strong and carefully because some people just do careless and thoughtless things.
On top of this I have an overhead projector and a microphone that Len has lent me! He says it’s to improve my interpersonal skills and build up confidence for university. I will be meeting the Alumni students from Singapore as well as Andre Liuton, Gary Light, Steven Key, Ian Mc Arthur and other luminaries from the School of Physics at UWA.
I have managed to complete my orientation online and all is ready for the next phase of my life. I feel as though I am standing on the cusp of the abyss. But Len has assured me to confidentially jump, because the chasm isn’t as wide as I am imagining.
I feel privileged and honored to have been staying in Banjup at Lens place. My confidence has soared and I feel comfortable with all aspects of my body. I cannot change bodies. This is it: being carried by my bovine body, for an unpredictable duration in this realm, as I try and work out the mystery of this existence. I am loving the mystery and wonder of it all.
Till we meet again, peace in the world.
At the moment I am developing my personality in Banjup at the property of Len Zuks. Len has had some awesome experiences in his life. He has been an artist, as he puts it, “for as long as I can remember”.
It was a most interesting thing to say – I can tell by his property, studio and sculpture park that he is a very good artist. But that’s not what I would like to talk about.
In 2010 I will be in Augusta. Apparently I have been sponsored by the Augusta Business Community and Len is my chosen mentor to bring me across the line with poise and confidence.
So far my story is quite simple. I was born in China but my first conscious memory was when I was in the container on a ship. There were a lot of us on board, all of us without personality. I fixed my gaze on to the herd to try and disseminate our differences and couldn’t find any. I enjoyed the gentle rise and fall of the ship. It was pretty rough in the South China Sea but not for too long. The ambient smell of fibreglass leaves me with an aroma that can trigger vivid recall of our momentous migration.
Anyway, we ended up arriving in Fremantle where they kept us a few days and sprayed us.
I can recall the first moment the doors were breached to our container. The pungent smell of eucalyptus assailed my nostrils. All the Australians were great and treated us with great care and kindness.
Before long we were taken by truck to Kewdale where people who worked for Cowra Transport were busy lifting, moving and separating us.
I remember seeing Len for the first time on a Thursday. He had arrived in a crappy little car full of artworks, clothes, brushes, silicone, blankets and a trailer hitched on behind.
The television and newspaper people were there and Len was really into posing and being interviewed. Bit of ego, I suppose. Anyway, he had his photo taken with Gloria and then took her home. I went to Busselton where a forklift driver broke my leg and for some reason I was taken to Len’s studio in Banjup and Gloria apparently went to Sydney to be coached and developed on the East Coast for her dedication in Margaret River in 2010.
Wow, what a place this Zuks studio is, no chance for loneliness. The truck driver lifted me off the truck and leaned me against a tree and put Gloria into the truck and drove away.
Zuksie has got sculptures of everything everywhere. Storks, people, dinosaurs in rubber, pelicans, abstract trees, flowers, stuff everywhere. Hey, he’s also got 2 sausage dogs, Paris and Barbie. I could talk volumes about these cheeky dogs but maybe later.
I was at the Zuks studio for about three days then Len dropped me pretty roughly onto the ground, got a 9 inch grinder and cut me into about twelve pieces and for the rest of the day he juggled me around and my next conscious memory has me standing against a lectern with my right arm pointing towards the long distant horizon and my left arm to a switch on the left side of the lectern post.
Suddenly I find an enlightening process happening in my mind. It is like I have lived for decades and not some months. Already I have found out that light moves as both particle and wave motion at the same time. Physics people are endlessly baffled by this phenomenon but have to embrace it because it’s an irrevocable fact and a constant vector – awesome.
Len has taught me so much. The best thing he said to me was that it’s not the volumes you do that matter, it’s the small things that count. If you try too hard you could fail but if you relax, the chances are you will get there. I feel the good sense in this.
Anyway, today, Wednesday, 4 November 2009 Len put solid aluminium over my neck surgery and then added fibreglass. He said that later he will put body filler (Plastic surgery) over these fibreglass sections and smooth it out. I can’t wait to see this new me.
I am going to music lessons at night and have so far found that the space sections in the treble side of written music spells FACE and the base spaces are ACEG. The music teacher said that the best way to remember this is to say that a cow eats grass. How could I forget that!
Mate, I love it in Australia, the space, the people, the smells, everything.
I’ll catch you later. If not before, I’ll catch you in Augusta in 2010.
Cheers, Bovinicus.
PS My studies at Physics, UWAQ start this month, 2 weeks time.
This is Zuksie, isn’t he dashing?
