Dennis Mealor – Art <dm@dennismealor.net>

copyright Dennis Mealor 2014

oil pastels & pencil

click on image to enlarge in HD

https://open.abc.net.au/explore/73371

Click on the  link above to go to ABC Open article “The Normal Nude” by Dennis Mealor: His views on The Nude in art, and his photo-art.

Model, Sophia.

This Art Blog is a labour of Love, with no annoying ads, and I want to keep it that way.

So my only payment is some (preferably nice) feedback. It helps me to keep keen – although I will be keen anyway, as this is my Art.

So if you enjoy my free site, Please feel free to drop me an email – just click on “Contact” at the top of the page, and say a few words if you will, some queries about it all, perhaps. Say ‘No Reply Please’ if you only want to comment. But if not, I will write back. But please, no sales people. Would also be great if you can ‘Share’ as well.

Thanks Very Much,

Cheers All.

Dennis.

click on image to enlarge

“Sails Number 1” – copyright Dennis Mealor 2014

The photos here were part of a collaborative exhibition Just Nudes by The Brag Trade (that I was once a member of), at Dirty Linen Art Space, Bundaberg (Australia). The exhibition was late 2014. My focus for the exhibition was “In Praise of the Mature Nude,” which is also the over-arching theme of my Life Photography on this Art Blog.

The setting for the photo-shoot was the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery’s (BRAG) Artist-In-Residence apartment, on the first floor. I stayed in the apartment for 6 weeks in 2013.

It was a wonderful old-world setting, but fully refurbished maintaining most of its original Federation charm.

“Sails Number 3” – copyright Dennis Mealor 2014

I was quite surprised that a rather senior couple in their eighties visited the exhibition and  bought the 2nd  photo here (silhouette, left). A week later my partner and I were invited to tea and biscuits at their home. A lovely interlude, and was great to see their  art collection, from their travels around the world. I was very honoured to have one of my works displayed on their wall (Please click on images to enlarge – some devices may rotate images).

I found this  piece of rock maybe 15 years ago, and immediately thought it looked like an indigenous tool. But was it? The location was South Kolan, near Bundaberg, Australia. There it was, with part of it poking up from the dirt driveway, on the property where I lived at the time. The daily traffic of cars probably brought it to the surface.

The location also seemed to back up my feelings of it being of indigenous origin. Scraping tool, I thought, and it was found on the threshold between rich red soil, and grey, alluvial soil. Nearby, was a watercourse that would fill up during rain, and empty into the Burnett River maybe a kilometre downhill. So it was suggesting a past river or creek bank, where much Aboriginal activity was most likely.

The moment I found the stone, I placed it in my hand, and it fitted snugly, a beautiful fit, with the apparent scraping edge facing exactly how you would want it. My thumb nestled nicely in a slightly worn recess. If it were a genuine artefact, then its maker, or original owner, was obviously right handed.

But was I right? Was  it a genuine Aboriginal scraping tool?

I would have to wait a long time to find out. After 15 years of procrastination (my middle name), I finally contacted the Queensland Museum. Their verdict is yes, it is an indigenous  tool, as their email informs me:

“Yes this is a scraper. It is a common stone artefact as it had many uses but primarily used for preparing skins and sinews.

The local Aboriginal people in Bundaberg are the Gooreng Gooreng people and they have many documented sites along the river connecting inland ochre pits with the mouth of the river. South Kolan has been known as a significant site for many years and early colonial people in the area photographed many rock art sites in South Kolan – back when photography was a very recent invention. So the Aboriginal community, their sites and artwork at South Kolan made a big impression in the late 19^th century.”

So I was stoked when I received this information only two days ago. It is a wonderful thought to hold the tool, and sense the person that once held it, and used it everyday. How long ago, I am not sure. A hundred years? I don’t know. A wonderful feeling, tinged with sadness, at what has gone, and what has been lost.

click on images to enlarge

DON’T FORGET.

CLICK ON

“PREVIOUS ENTRIES”

AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE.

FOR MORE ARTY  STUFF

Please search “Hayley” on this site for more.

click to enlarge – some devices may rotate images