An afternoon in the city

My darling needed to collect some items for the "Around the bay in a day" cycling event in which he is participating tomorrow, so I took the opportunity to attend the NGV's Charles Blackman 'Alice in Wonderland' exhibition at Federation Square.

This is Feet Beneath the Table (1956), showing his wife as Alice and himself as the white rabbit.

Charles Blackman grew up in a home without books and it was when his wife was going blind and listening to 'talking books' that he first heard Lewis Carroll's famous story. It seemed to parallel their own lives with his wife's loss of spatial awareness and changing view of the world similar to Alice's experiences. The works are engaging with clear strong colours and a whimsical, surreal presentation. I joined a tour lead by a passionate volunteer and found it very informative along with a video of an interview with the artist. It is 50 years since he did his 'Alice' series.

He described drawing as putting a line around your dreams with the eye and the hand working as one. He also believes if you have a talent you must use it, otherwise it is a complete waste. It reminded me of how we are not to bury our talents nor hide our lights under a bushel. I wondered ... do I have any talents I am wasting? I once heard that a talent is when you find something is quite easy when others do not. I believe we all have our own unique talents and the challenge is to put more creative efforts and energies into our talents, use them more, develop and share them. I'm feeling quite inspired and looking forward to it!

P.S. As soon as I 'published' this post, my darling and I quickly took the dogs for a walk as it was starting to get dark - a tawny frogmouth greeted us as we set out, what a bonus! We do live in a lovely area. Also I forgot to mention that my darling gave me a 'dub' home on the back of his bike from the station ... maybe we will end up with a bicycle built for two some day after all.