Kiss It Better

Just a little note to the internet to say: Kathy Holowko & I did this:

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It’s for the lovely fishermen and people we talk to and see down at Laughing Waters daily.
Lovely because of the conversations we have.
Not so lovely when they leave piles of coke cans, cigarette butts, beer bottles, maccas wrappers and general rubbish in such an idyllic spot.*

Also. Because some people GRAFFED A TREE. A TREE.
WHY WOULD YOU GRAFF A TREE?
As some lovely boys said yesterday as they saw us painting it:
“Graff’s for the city, man. Why the fuck would you graff a tree?”

So. We wanted to cover the graff, and make a statement that provoked people (gently) into being better.
I wanted to write “you’re the result of 4 billion years of evolution, fucking act like it.”
But.
We fortunately(unfortunately) found a band-aid down there that said “Kiss it Better”.
Perfect.

So became a process of finding eco-ways to paint the log.
Trialling of natural glues, colours, natural pigments.
In the end we made paint out of a natural water-proof glue made of glycerine, vinegar & gelatine.
And mixed in chalk (gypsom) & ground ochre stone.
The glue is the same. You can find the recipe here.
(Feel free to post other rad natural glues/paints for outdoor use below too!)

So.
Kiss the log better.
Kiss the world better.
Kiss eachother better.
ok?

xx

*Kathy noted: Is it a co-incidence  those that eat rubbish (aka maccas & coke) are always the ones leaving the rubbish?

 

 

Notes from Laughing Waters #1

Cleaned and nested.
Walked.
On paths made and wallaby tracks.
Seen kangaroos and wallabies.
Owls: heard.
Kathy’s seen an echidna.
I’ve seen it’s tracks.

We’ve had fires.
And drunk wine.
Cooked well. Eaten well.
Bought things at the local rooftop markets.
Rediscovered Aldi.

We’ve sat on the rocks.
And been silent.
Been swimming (Alex:2, Kathy:1)
Listened to water.
Heard it on the river.
And the roof.
Felt it on our feet.
Our bodies, eyelashes & gumboots.

We’ve been researching natural glue.
Natural paint.
How to be, make but not harm.

We’ve nattered to fisherman.
And cleaned up their beer cans and cigarette butts the next day.
Heads shaking and muttering.

We’ve tried to stay here as much as we can.
But things keep calling us.
And people keep telling me, it’s “only 40min.”
But it’s a world away.
Its hearing only the trees and water and birds.
Of not seeing as I look out the window anything made by a human.

It’s shameful to be part of the human race.
I want to put sometimes after that statement.
But I don’t think I can.

Water can be beautiful.
Deep, impulsive, reckless, dangerous.
Hard or soft.
Open, vast, closed.
Fast or slow.
Reflective.

Water is in us. And, well, most things breathing and living.
Yet.
We are but aren’t like it.

The damage it hurls is temporary.
A reaction to weather, a shifting plate, the moon.

Yet we are affected by us.
Human to human.
Action to action.

Dear water, you need to stop us.
_______

Kathy Holowko and I are in residency at Laughing Waters, Eltham, a residency run by Nillumbik Council.