Adaptim…

Oh I’ve so been AWOL peeps…for literally weeks. Apparently a new job will do that do you, particularly when you combine it with being crook.

But I’m starting to get back on my feet so the first thing I wanted to do was shout from the roof tops that me and some pals (Anjella Roessler, Sascha Roessler and Melissa Rolfe), have a group exhibition opening at The Space Gallery, Newtown on Saturday 24 December. Our exhibition will sit alongside another exhibition from the fabulous Molly O’Hara. 👏

My contribution to the exhibition will be Paper Women, but what I’m also very excited about is that I will be working in the gallery space on and off during the exhibition which is on until 14 January. So if you want to come down at have a look, let me know in case we can work a coffee in at the same time! ❤️

Have a fabulous rest of the night!! xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #Adaptim #Exhibition #PaperWomen #TheSpaceGallery

17th Dec 2022 0

PC Art Sess #37

Printing peeps…printing!! Not very much, but still…PRINTING!! ❤️ This is my strong man – the last of The Privilege-O-Meter characters that will be printed before this draft artwork goes out for discussions on exactly what shape and style it is going to take before launching out into the world. Now I’ll be drawing, drawing, drawing for the next couple of weeks…and I say BRING IT ON!!

Apart from that though, a bit quiet on the art front this week. Oh, I’ve done paperworkey crap, but actual creativity has been pretty quiet. I’ve got a new paid job, so pouring my energy into that. Luckily it is pretty interesting, and they like…pay me kind of a deal, so all good really! 😆 But I’ll be happy when the learning hump is through and I can get stuck back into my normal routine a bit more.

Actually, that will be in perfect timing I think, because our group exhibition ‘Adaptim’ at The Space Gallery is coming upon us fast – it opens 24 Dec (stay tuned for more info!). While I have limited artwork to get ready (this is the next venue for Paper Women) it has been a different process organising the exhibition along with a couple of other artists (thus the paperworkey crap 😉) and a bit of a learning curve in that direction as well. Again, lucky for me it is all pretty interesting!

Hope you are as well as can be and that you are safe and happy in your personal space. Take good care and I’ll chat again soon! xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #Sun #TheSpaceGallery #SundayArtSession #PrintChangeArtSession #ThePrivilegeOMeter #ThePOM #WIP #PaperWomen #Adaptim

27th Nov 2022 0

PC Art Sess #36

Howdy everyone – hope you are having a good day! Today I have been hand-colouring my little astronaut linoprints with drawing inks…isn’t this a pretty cute little production line? ❤️

I’ve had a busy week art wise – was drawing like nobody’s business until my stylus up and died. I get a little annoyed at these things but recently I figured out that my surface pro (and the associated annoying stylus) have been in my service now for nearly ten years. In tech terms that is pretty amazing, so I can’t complain too much. Hopefully the next surface pro and stylus can do equally well! I’ve also transferred another Privilege-O-Meter character to lino and I’m in the process of carving that, which means a print session next weekend now that I have something to actually print! 😆

On Friday I spent some time at The Space Gallery, getting to know the ins and outs of the gallery in preparation for our upcoming exhibition at the end of the year. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Paper Women sits in amongst other artworks in a gallery space compared to being exhibited on its own. I’m hoping that it will add something to people’s interpretation of the work, particularly since it will be exhibited alongside some other similarly themed work. I’ll post more on that closer to the date, but trust me when I say I’m excited!!

Finally, I’m starting to get stuck into the upcoming Print Change zine and organising articles etc. Yesterday that involved chatting to the wonderful artist Baby Guerrilla. Of course it was actually just a chance to have a fabulous conversation about everything under the sun with a lovely person…but I’ll suffer through that part of it to bring you an interesting zine article. 😉

Take good care. xx

20th Nov 2022 0

PC Art Sess #35

Hi peeps – I hope you are doing well? ❤️

Today, just like last week, I was still drawing, drawing, drawing. The Ringmaster has still got a little ways to go, but they kind of demanded their time in the spotlight this week, so here we are. I am pretty much in love with them…more so after a few wonderful people pointed out that they look a teensy bit like me. Don’t tell Moon Girl, but I suspect once The Ringleader is finished that they will be my new profile picture everywhere. To be fair, Moon Girl has had over 10 years with top billing, so that is a pretty good run!!

I’m still not 100% sold on the colour scheme of these characters, particularly after it occurred to me that I may have inadvertently picked my old school uniform colours…and added in some stripes (commonly used to designate ‘outsiders’ in the middle ages ie witches, prisoners, servants, court jesters, prostitutes, pirates…you get the idea!). I wonder if subconsciously I still have some teenage issues to work through? 😉😆. Any which way, I am stoked to have two characters nearly down…and only about 10 more to go hahaha. Small steps!!

So I’m off for now – I want to get the colour scheme worked out for my little astronaut print who will be going out with the Print Change zine in Jan. I’m kind of in the drawing zone art wise right now, but zine release dates don’t give a toss about that, so I best be cracking on.

Have as good of a day as you can. Find some magic for yourself and take good care. xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #SundayPrintSession #SundayArtSession #PrintChangeArtSession #ThePrivilegeOMeter #ThePOM #WIP #PrintChangeZine

13th Nov 2022 0

PC Art Sess #34

Hello my friends, hello! Hope you are all well and as happy as can be. ❤️

Today I was drawing, drawing, drawing and in the end decided I was close enough to finish The Fortune Teller with a bit of colour, so I could put her up here.

I’m not sure that she’ll end up with exactly these colours, but the dark red and black and white stripes will definitely be the ‘uniform’ across most of The Privilege-O-Meter characters.

I’m also finding that Sketchbook Pro is a lot more sensitive with the bucket colour fill, so I will have a lot of more fiddling with getting the colours ‘whole’ than I used to have with Photoshop when I was doing the Pixie books, canvases, cards etc. Fingers crossed there is a shortcut…and I figure it out sooner rather than later! 😆

Take good care. xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #SundayPrintSession #SundayArtSession #PrintChangeArtSession #ThePrivilegeOMeter #ThePOM #WIP

6th Nov 2022 0

PC Art Sess #33

Hey all – hope you are super dooper well!

I did a super quick printing session this morning of the acrobats for The Privilege-O-Meter and next I’ll be working on the words to go with The POM too.

I did a quick video today too, but as I was saying in the video – I am not sure that I will keep doing them as they take a bit of energy and are light on for views compared to before I started putting them on You Tube. Which either means I am less interesting (a distinct possibility 😆), I repeat myself too much (another distinct possibility!!) or you finding your way over to you tube is a bit too much of a bother.

But you know what, I really am not too worried. I think I am past the point of sticking with something that isn’t working and I’m definitely in the zone at the moment of going about things differently…so out with the old and in with the new. I guess making it to the age of 50 will do that to you – I don’t have that much time left to fuck around with the things that don’t work / matter!! 🤣

Click here to watch the video.

Take good care my friends. Stay safe and as happy as can be. xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #SundayPrintSession #SundayArtSession #PrintChangeArtSession #ThePrivilegeOMeter #ThePOM #WIP

30th Oct 2022 0

PC Art Sess #32

Will you look at what I’ve done peeps! After running out of linos to print last week, I got thinking about how I sometimes rip, tear and bust to get a lino ready to go so I can ‘deliver’ a Sunday Print Sess. Seems pointless really, particularly as I am now well and truly in the habit of printing on Sundays. So instead, I am hereby publicly committing to a Print Change Art Session on the weekends…that can be printing, carving, hand-colouring, drawing etc etc. But I’m not giving up the numbering of the print sessions – I’m not starting from scratch again, so Sess #32 it is!! 😆

Anyway, I printed today rather than tomorrow, because we have a full day out tomorrow and I know I am not going to get time when we get home. I printed some more Privilege-O-Meter linocuts and then I talked in the video about where I am up to with The Privilege-O-Meter (drawing and carving close to finished, most of the printing done, clean up of scanned images started and now grant acquittal nearly finished). I also yammered on a bit about where Paper Women is up to (still at Cloverdale Community Centre and then moving on to The Space Gallery in Newtown at Christmas time).

Click here to watch the video.

Now I’m off to a party (congrats to Pauline and Neil ❤️) that took a long time to dress for. I don’t go to many parties nowadays (maybe that needs to change I think) and also the weather is weirdly humid. You’d think as a sub-tropical, ex-Hedland person I’d have that all sorted, but it has been too long and my wardrobe has changed too much!! 🤣

Take good care my friends. Stay safe and as happy as can be. xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #SundayPrintSession #SundayArtSession #PrintChangeArtSession #ThePrivilegeOMeter #ThePOM #WIP #PaperWomen #CloverdaleCommunityCentre #TheSpaceGallery

22nd Oct 2022 0

Print Change Zine Callout…

Hey peeps – it’s that time again! The next Print Change zine will be hitting the streets in January so if you’ve got something that you would like to see covered in there…YELL! 😆

For those of you that aren’t up with the zine, it is basically a teensy magazine that I make every six months – it has articles and a bit of artwork from me, then articles on artists, writers, creators etc etc. It also is starting to feature a bit of poetry, which is awesome!! I can write a story about you or you can write something to drop straight in. I’ve also put in adverts for people’s small businesses before, so that is doable too. Anything that involves you is editorially controlled by you and there is also the option to go anonymous too.

I make roughly 20 colour copies that feature a small hand-coloured linoprint as a keepsake (we’re heading to space this issue peeps 🖤) and these are for sale at $5 a pop. Then I make a stack of black and white copies, that I give away for free. Plus, I pop the link to the zine online, so anyone in the whole wide world who is interested can have a squiz.

So if you are keen to contribute, let me know. If I can’t fit you in the January zine, I promise it’ll be the next one in July and that seems to swing round pretty quickly!

Have a fab rest of the day!! xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #ZineMaker #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #PrintChangeZine #Zines

21st Oct 2022 0

Sunday Art Sess #2

No printing today peeps…and that was for a weirdly good reason…which is that I have run out of things to print!

I swear to you in the whole time I have been carving (roughly 15 years now) I usually have a stash of stuff that I will get around to printing…one day. Well, apparently one day has come and gone! 😆

I actually blame you lot – cause once I have said publicly that I will do something, I tend to stick to it. So after declaring out loud that I would print every Sunday, it lit a fire under my bum apparently lol.

In good news though, it isn’t like I haven’t been carving (aka this photo from today) so the printing will be back next weekend at this stage. In practice it is more a matter of me trying to maximise / economise on my lino and pack as many images into 30x30cm as I can…and not being able to print one of those until each image is carved as the ink and the clean up will remove the transfer. So…being cheap has bitten me on the bum!! Two bum references in one post…it seems I go off the rails when I am not printing!! 🤣

Anywho – I hope you are well and as happy as can be…and DRY if you are in Victoria!! Take really good care and I hope you can manage to live without me rambling on in a video for another week or so hahaha. xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangeTheWorld #SundayPrintSession #SundayArtSession #ThePrivilegeOMeter #ThePOM #WIP

16th Oct 2022 0

Sunday Print Sess #31

Hi peeps – hope your Sunday is travelling smoothly!

I printed this morning, but it has taken an hour or two to upload the associated video to You Tube…that either speaks to my poor internet connection…or the amount of crapping on I did!! 🤣

Today I printed up some more images for The Privilege-O-Meter, which is slowly coming to life. I talk about that artwork and Paper Women, my feelings towards both and the role they play in my life…or possibly more accurately, the role I play in theirs lol.

All this tied into me going to White Night in Geelong last night. I didn’t think to explain in the video, but White Night is a street festival showcasing art, music, projections etc…imagine fabulousness every which way you look and experiencing that with crowds of others wandering the streets and you’ll get the general idea! It got me to dreaming big time about what I can do with my artworks into the future, so lets just say I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.

If you are keen, click here to watch my video on You Tube.

Take good care and I’ll see you all again soon. xx

#AmandaFirenze #Artist #Writer #Spieler #PrintChange #SharedStories #ChangetheWorld #PaperWomen #PrivilegeOMeter #ThePOM #SundayPrintSession

9th Oct 2022 0