The Devil’s Birthday Art Collective workshops were made possible due to the Creative Connections Art And Poetry Exhibitions program success in acquiring the MasterSteps Grant though Community Arts Network. Artists were selected from Nulsen Disability Services, The Ability Centre and Disability Services Commission.
The exhibition showcased work from Clinton Carter, Vicki Lee Devenish, Jeremy Gowing, Joel Grant, Delores Purdie and Bonnie Wilkinson. All artists are self practising and have been involved in many exhibitions but this is their first as a collective.
A TALE OF TWO BUILDINGS words by Val Neubecker, artwork by Jeremy Gowing
HARLEQUIN DAYS words by Rose van Son, artwork by Vicki Lee Devenish
LOST ART OF PASTELS words by Kevin Gillam, artwork by Clinton Carter
PHOENIX words by Jan Napier, artwork by Delores Purdie
STORMS OF FALLING FLUTTERING words by Allan Padgett, artwork by Joel Grant
WHERE SHADOWS MERGE words by Gary Colombo De Piazzi, artwork by Bonnie Wilkinson
A TALE OF TWO BUILDINGS
words by Val Neubecker
artwork by Jeremy Gowing
an eerie dawn a blood-red sun
chalk-white strokes
draw a skeletal profile
history murmurs
ghosts dance
noon
melts the ghosts
manifests the building
the burning rays
rendering a scarlet veneer of heat
then a full moon floats like an empty sun
the city’s lights spin magic
a radiant turret
a vibrant door
a caterpillared arcade
is there magic
inside too?
the library
announces itself
its bookshelved exterior
offering confirmation
‘come inside’
call the escalating steps
you know what to expect
tiers of tomes
a plethora of publications
a volume of volumes
all the magic of literature.
HARLEQUIN DAYS
words by Rose van Son
artwork by Vicki Lee Devenish
Dances spun so long ago–
red, azzuro blue, flowers fringe our hair
music takes us there.
Over horizon the sky
blanketing all our summers the sea
those harlequin days
tapping the earth with our toes
fingers closing on what once was –
knees up and dancing
light through light
a corner stone
fixing an old world
stepping the turn
our axis hinged
notes drumming our ears
the bucket spilled–
seeds of a new season
birds flapping their wings
the air, our breath
the earth
sipping our content.
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LOST ART OF PASTELS
words by Kevin Gillam
artwork by Clinton Carter
you are invited to fish,
cast a mind out for hope
in five oceans, from one lush island
just a hook, a line, none sinker,
trawling through sly workings of turquoise
and dream, you, invited, fishing
under talc light from far flung moons,
lapped by erratic tides,
these five oceans, on one lush island
standing, sideways in water,
taking in ink blots, scribbles, veins
of thinkings, you, invited to fish
call it the lost art of pastels,
ponds of forget, deep hues of solace
in five oceans and on one lush island
but knee deep, waves in whisper,
hope tugs, hope runs, hope is but horizon
on five oceans and from one lush island
where you stand, invited, fishing
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PHOENIX
words by Jan Napier
artwork by Delores Purdie
i
Tendrils of heliotrope smoke lace air,
nurture the bird screened and half seen,
a waver of red wingtip before flames
leap and flash around its cloudy nest.
ii
Hot blue yellow sparks flare, spit, settle
to dense, shadows dance like thistledown,
strange energies pulse, and magic thrums
within the dusking roil.
iii
The ghostly haze cools to violet,
evening swirls, prophecy unfogs and
in fire soft as feathers, unveils
the peeping future.
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STORMS OF FALLING FLUTTERING
words by Allan Padgett
artwork by Joel Grant
Sometimes in the world of living
there are times when plants line up and approach moons
when gametes surrender their own to each other
when incandescent leaves shift their pigments
and mobilise storms of falling fluttering, and wordlessly
exploding otherness. Inside these quieter moments
arise gasps of knowing self among the clutter
of ordinary days. Sometimes a small day’s bemusement among
the waiting, turns side on to display a rush of colouring
storms, when people, planets, their moons and stars above
and surrounding all-seeing depth and height coalesce to ever extending
unknowns, where words fail and the splashing impact of colour
and effect stroke their way into a new knowing,
a freshly hatched awareness of the power of seed, cell, pigments
– the tumultuous energy of hand driving brush
to dip in paint and pull then across a paper surface
where inner worlds collide as atoms of feeling
are smashed in darkened tubes at breakneck speeding
freeing a rush of sparkling textured lightning
generating multiplicities of sight, sound and taste,
compounding happiness and unimagined agility
from invisible orbits, and then –
reimagined molecules of love, meaning and desire
step up upon the stage to proclaim:
I am me, I am here, take me for real.
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WHERE SHADOWS MERGE
words by Gary Colombo De Piazzi
artwork by Bonnie Wilkinson
On this day where words
surround me with their jagged tones.
I reach to touch the moon
and find your face, my face
in the contour of colour
shaped to the familiar
and the strange.
This wobbled world where my eyes see
the bright and elusive against entropy.
Where shadows merge, undefined
and I stretch to hold them existent.
Find the depth and breadth of who I am
in the sudden choke of revelation.
The slight shimmer away from ordinary
where real and dream combine.
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