2015 Devil’s Birthday Exhibition

Invitedca

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 GowingJeremy 1

an eerie dawn            a blood-red sun

chalk-white strokes

draw a skeletal profile

history murmurs

ghosts dance

Jeremy 2

noon

melts the ghosts

manifests the building

the burning rays

rendering a scarlet veneer of heat

Jeremy 3

then a full moon floats                   like an empty sun

the city’s lights spin magic

a radiant turret

a vibrant door

a caterpillared arcade

Jeremy 4

 

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.

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HARLEQUIN DAYS
words by Rose van Son
artwork by Vicki Lee Devenish

 Vikki lee 1 

Dances spun so long ago–

red, azzuro blue, flowers fringe our hair

music takes us there.

Vikki lee 2

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 –

vikki lee 3

knees up and dancing

light through light

a corner stone

fixing an old world

stepping the turn

our axis hinged

vikki lee 4

notes drumming our ears

the bucket spilled–

seeds of a new season

birds flapping their wings

the air, our breath

Vikki lee 1

the earth

sipping our content.

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LOST ART OF PASTELS
words by Kevin Gillam
artwork by Clinton Carter

 

Clinton 1 

you are invited to fish,

cast a mind out for hope

in five oceans, from one lush island

Clinton 3

just a hook, a line, none sinker,

trawling through sly workings of turquoise

and dream, you, invited, fishing

Clinton 2

under talc light from far flung moons,

lapped by erratic tides,

these five oceans, on one lush island

Clinton 5

standing, sideways in water,

taking in ink blots, scribbles, veins

of thinkings, you, invited to fish

Clinton 6

call it the lost art of pastels,

ponds of forget, deep hues of solace

in five oceans and on one lush island

Clinton 4

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

Delores 2

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.

Delores 1

ii

Hot blue yellow sparks flare, spit, settle

to dense, shadows dance like thistledown,

strange energies pulse, and magic thrums

within the dusking roil.

 

Delores 2iii

The ghostly haze cools to violet,

evening swirls, prophecy unfogs and

in fire soft as feathers, unveils

the peeping future.

 Delores 3

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STORMS OF FALLING FLUTTERING
words by Allan Padgett
artwork by Joel Grant

Joel 1

Sometimes in the world of living

there are times when plants line up and approach moons

when gametes surrender their own to each other

Joel 2

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

Joel 3

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

Joel 2

– 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

Joel 3

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 –

Joel 1

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

Bonny 4

On this day where words

surround me with their jagged tones.

Bonny 5

I reach to touch the moon

and find your face, my face

Bonny 1Bonny 6

in the contour of colour

shaped to the familiar

and the strange.

Bonny 3

This wobbled world where my eyes see

the bright and elusive against entropy.

Bonny 2

Where shadows merge, undefined

and I stretch to hold them existent.

Bonny 5

Find the depth and breadth of who I am

in the sudden choke of revelation.

Bonny 1

The slight shimmer away from ordinary

where real and dream combine.
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