Mary by Lucy Hardie
Ink on cotton paper 2012

I am looking forward to meeting artist, Lucy Hardie. I was introduced to Lucy's artwork by my best friend last year and I was awestruck at the intricacy and detail of her drawings and also the mysterious potency in the eyes of many of her characters. I am also drawn to her themes of death, transformation and rebirth. The artwork above, Mary, particularly intrigued me, I could sense so many layers, so many stories... Today Lucy shared the story behind this bewitching image and now I am even more eager to sit down and talk with her about the ancestral medicine carried in her lineage.

"This piece was inspired by my great grandmother, Louisa 'Mary' Dundas, who worked as a Medium in London in the early 1900's. A story that has been passed down through my mother's side is that my grandmother once walked in to the room when Mary was holding a séance and saw a person levitating. Another story is that when Mary saw a portrait that Hungarian artist, Philip Alexius de László had painted of her, she said he'd made her hair look like seaweed.

I used these stories in forming the composition. The poppies in her hair were included as my way of honouring her memory, and more broadly, as symbols of life after death, and awakening. While this image was inspired by an individual who I share a personal relationship with, I wanted to capture in her a sense of what exists in all of us, to evoke a deeper experience of who we are beyond our stories as separate self identities."

Limited edition giclée prints of Mary are available for purchase at Salt Contemporary Art, Queenscliff, Victoria, as part of Lucy Hardie's show, on now until Nov 24. Open Friday - Monday 11am - 5pm and Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment.
Sales inquiries: info@salt-art.com.au or (03) 5258 3988

It's here - it's real!

YES!!! The new book: Night Flower - the Life & Art of Vali Myers has been birthed at a beautiful launch and exhibition at Outre Gallery in Melbourne on the Eve of the Spring Equinox. Thank you to everyone who turned up to celebrate Vali and her extraordinary life & art, what a fantastic night and it even included a visit by the cops - Vali would have loved that, she would have disarmed them with her fox ways and invited them inside. The biggest hugs in the world for Nicole Karidis & Ruth Cullen of the Vali Myers Art Gallery Trust and Martin McIntosh & Gemma Jones of Outre Gallery & Publishing. Wow - it's really here. I remember the first day years ago when all of sat around my dining room table and the seed of this dream was born and to hold this luminous, golden dream of a book in my hand right now is so exciting.

It was an honour to be asked to write the foreword for Night Flower, to express in words the magic & wisdom that Vali gifted to me during our friendship. This gift is a creative 'quickening' that is open and available to you all in this book and I encourage you to READ IT, SPEAK OF IT, SHARE IT and then let it inspire you to CREATE. Wild, flaming love to you Queen of Foxes and to you all - THE DREAM IS REAL. Julia xxxx.

Night Flower is available from Outre Gallery where you can also see for a limited time Vali's original drawings, personal diaries and talismans in a current exhibition. Go and see it!!!

Inside the Outre Hive before opening with
Nicole Karidis & Ruth Cullen of the Vali Myers Trust
with Gemma Jones & Martin McIntosh from Outre in the background