Denita Tizard

with a local artist Paul Rayner and I thought you may enjoy reading it as I did. Paul Rayner enjoys a double-life in his real life and artistic one. As a ceramicist he is fond of self-portraiture, modelling himself in various guises from Goldilocks to Humpty Dumpty. More recently he’s moved out of the storybook realm to re-create himself as other people such as fellow artist, Ronnie van Hout. In real life he’s also well known for trotting out his drag personality, Miss Courtenay Place, at exhibitions. During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired? I have to eat at least two meals and drink at least 2 coffees before anything happens. How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style? Shabby chic. What aspect of your creative practice gives you the biggest thrill? Finishing. How do you think your environment affects your work? As long as I’ve got a stereo and something to lean on I could work anywhere. Do you like to look at the big picture or focus on the details? The ‘b...

I had a great day yesterday I turned everything off and just had a me day. I worked on making a catalogue for the open studios. It's looking great and I'm getting really excited about opening up my studio for the event! I was hoping to do some painting yesterday but only managed to paint another thing on my freedom of speech painting. The dude that Shaughan was buying my car off rang yesterday and said that he had taken it in to a mechanic and the car was in need of some major money spent on it so he decided to let it go and look for another one. I'm happy cause I really wanted a red one so it goes faster hahaha . I start my permiculture course today and I have been invited to go to the tutors birthday party tonight so I'll see where the flow takes me. It sounds like fun sitting around the fire in her garden. I had a nice surprise when I opened the Sargeant Gallery's newsletter yesterday on the first page was a photo of some of their patrons standing in front o...

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?" "It was great , Dad." "Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked. "Oh yeah, " said the son. "So , tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father. The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve...

Shaughan bought me a new car on Monday yes it is this black 300 xz . It's in Auckland, I think we are going to go and get in this week? I can't wait! I took Ralph into the vet yesterday and he had to be put under again to get the tube removed from his ear. He wouldn't let the vet pull it out and was getting really grumpy. So it was another quite day for him yesterday. Poor little man. My cousin is coming over today which I'm looking forward to, she is living in Brisbane now so I don't get to see her much, mind you we chat heaps through facebook . I read an article on facebook and they were going on about how bad it was but I think that's crap! I have caught up with heaps of people that I wouldn't have bumped into in the streets of Wanganui ! I have been buzzing around the house getting it ready for the Open Studios. I have taken all the art done by other artists down and hung my work in themes and written little blurbs for them. I figured that I'm ...

Well loads has happened since I wrote last. This picture isn't the best photo but we had a car crash into the scaffolding last Wednesday night around 10:30pm. I was in bed trying to sleep and I heard a terrible noise and went running down there in my dressing gown. The ambulance had to come and take the passenger to hospital but I'm sure she is ok. It was a bit of a shock and I found it hard to sleep that night. The night before I had slept with Ralph cause I was worried about him after his operation he was a sore boy, now he is back to normal bouncing around and has been loving the extra attention he has been getting. I finally took a photo of my piece of glass I did a few months ago in Mangaweka. I haven't found the time to sit and give it a good going over with the dremil and sandpaper so it's in the raw straight from the mould. It's going to be a real cute bowl when it's finished. I couldn't believe how heavy it was! For my first piece I was really happ...

George Carlin's Views on Aging Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21 YESSSS !!! But then you turn 30. Oooohh , what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed? You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're ...

Life has been pretty choice over the past few weeks. I like 2008! We have had been drinking coffee and enjoying the sun loads which has bought me to deciding to have a break from coffee. Yesterday was the first day without it and I ended up sleeping for a lot of the day. Lets hope today will be better. I'm thinking that giving up smoking too might be a good idea. I don't know were all this came from but lets hope I can get past the 3 months. Every time I have given up it is easy until the 3 month mark when I start again. I called around to see Mum and she was in her garden which is looking fantastic her plants are loving all the attention. I can remember going to Nana and Popa's when we where young and spending ages in their garden it was a small market garden. I miss not having a garden and look forward to getting a home and getting into the garden. I had a nice day calling into see lots of family the other day which was good. I have been a bit of a house cat working on ...

It has been a great week here in Wanganui, the rain was here yesterday and I thought it maybe wet today but the sun is starting to shine through the clouds. The lovely Maka came back from her 3 months away and it was nice to see her yesterday. She had some good stories to tell! I have been busy working on things for the open studio event and am pretty excited this year it's going to be bigger than it has ever been before. I'm so into it and really want to get people excited about coming here at the end of March to check out over 50 artists. Wanganui Art ROCKS! I got computer drain yesterday from working too much on it. It's been ages since I have had to concentrate and have so much work that I wanted to get done. Shaughan has gone back to work this week and the painters are close to getting the building finished. I'm not sure the colours they have chosen are going to be nice but we will see? I have started a painting called Freedom of Speech and it's on a huge ca...

This is so true!

Hahahaha bring it on!

I could watch these clips all day.

It was a very quite night last night for a new years eve. Vanessa came up and we sat chatting until 11:30pm when we started watching a movie at 12pm we said our happy new years and I pretty much fell asleep. What a boring old duck I am, there was no getting together with the girls and getting dressed up to hit the town or the hottest dance party in town that night, oh that's right Wanganui doesn't have dance parties. It's weird going through change which most of us are doing. Becoming fearful of life can make the transition a little harder for all involved. We had the most perfect day today we found a beach, with no one on it, and made a shelter as you can see in the photo. Shaughan threw out his fishing rods and we read, drank, ate and enjoyed our piece of harmony. I had never been to this beach before and was pleasantly surprised with where Shaughan had taken me, even with all the bumps and on the track there. At the end of the day we had a group of people come down ...