Cherine Fahd & Todd Robinson

Cherine Fahd and Todd Robinson and their delightful young daughter Rei make up my favourite trio (after my sister and her little family!!). They are very dearest friends back home whom I miss!

Cherine is an award-winning photographic artist, represented here in Berlin by Gitte Weise Gallery. She and I lived in an apartment in sunny Bronte, Sydney, for a couple of years and there we shared a very artistically productive period, culminating in a joint exhibition called Musing in 2002 at Gallery 4A in Sydney. My work from that show The Missing Muse is featured on my website (link at right). I modelled in a many of Cherine's photos of that early period, such as Soft Sculpture, and the photo used in the bus shelter where Cherine sits, pictured above.

Todd, whose portrait I took above, had a successful, also award-winning, self-titled menswear label, when I met him during my fashion school days, (pictures above I took of his work that were published in Oyster Magazine), and then went on to become a wonderful artist. He also teaches design studies and fashion at University of Technology Sydney.

Harry Alexopoulos

My dearest friend from fashion school many years ago, Australian born Harry Alexopoulos works as a magazine art director, stylist and writer. He has lived in London for many years since we studied in Sydney in the late 1990s.

http://www.millndoll.com/artists/styling/harry-alexopoulos

Edwina White

One of my nearest and dearest from Sydney is the fabulous illustrator extraordinaire Edwina White. Everyone who has the pleasure of knowing Ed finds her a true treasure among those on earth. Her work delights with whimsy, cheek, wit, grace, fun, beauty, style and a whole lot more! Edwina is based in New York and exhibits frequently there and in Australia and elsewhere. You can also dry your dishes with her work (I do) with the Musical Chairs tea-towel, available through Third Drawer Down in Melbourne.

Emerald Pillow

Nina Field (Tim Kliendienst's wife) makes the most beautiful, sexy, to-die-for lingerie under the label Emerald Pillow. Her designs are truly exquisitely erotic, with great names too, and make you feel like a sex goddess! Let the goddess out to play, I say... You have to go to the site to see the raunchy pics.

Nina also makes beautiful bridal wear under the label Petal. She is one to watch!

Paul Clark & Tim Kliendienst - Alphabet Studio

One of my closest friends back home in Australia is the very talented Paul Clark, a graphic designer/illustrator, who works in a partnership with equally talented graphic designer/photographer Tim Kliendienst under the name Alphabet Studio. Their work is often seen about town in bus shelters and illuminated street ad boards, advertising theatre and dance in Sydney, particularly for Belvoir Street Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, The Sydney Opera House and Bangarra Dance Company, among many clients in the arts & entertainment industries...

Check out their beautiful, distinctive work on the link above.

Patricia Niven

Patricia introduced me to Jan von Holleben in the previous posting... Patricia (right in the above pic of us) is a Brisbane born photographer, who lives in London. I love her fashion photos of men (one pictured above)... Alongside her fantastic photographic work, she also belongs to a collective of superwomen called Container Plus. Read their blog below and check their site on the active link of their name.

http://containerplus.wordpress.com/

Jan von Holleben

So here I begin a friends posting series... I met Jan von Holleben here in Berlin through an Australian friend Patricia, who lives in London (whom I will post about next), and he's a very talented young photographer who makes playful, gorgeous, whimsical, heart-warming work for the inner child in all of us. I finally bought his book Dreams of Flying 2 last Christmas. Delightful!

If you live in Berlin come to C/O this Friday night (27th March) for his opening there Liebesorte, of pics of where people have sex, made for the new AIDS campaigns!

Saul Leiter

I see he's been blogged about many times but I have to mention him too - I was looking again at the book I have of Saul Leiter's Early Colour works from the 1940s-50s, and this American self-taught photographer's work absolutely delights me every time I look at it... 'stolen' moments, observed moments, subtle, elusive, beautiful... a kind of voyeur's eyes, perfectly composed vignettes of daily life. You can tell his is a curious, intensely observant, sensitive eye.

Cecilia Östebo

I learned of this talented young Swedish photographer Cecilia Östebo from blogland links, and I love her work's simplicity, playfulness, unpretentiousness, humanity, mystery and whimsy... Just take a look!

Cache Coeur

As my bicycle needed to be taken for repairs today, this meant that instead of whizzing past all the good things, I got the chance to walk slowly past some of them... and so I visited a shop I like to pop into now and then when I get the urge to fossick for treasure amongst a gorgeous collection of vintage clothing: Cache Coeur here in Berlin (Prenzlauerberg). There are no pics on the webpage but the shop needs to be visited... and it's been substantially organised since my last visit, so it's now much easier to see the owner's collection!

Mathilde Rosier

I met this gorgeous French artist, Mathilde Rosier, at her opening last week at the Institut Français, where I will show next month. I became enchanted by her universe of animals and dream-like apparitions. She is a multi-talented woman, crossing between painting, installations, video and musical performance work.

http://www.iris-kadel.de/biography_english.php?id=81

Congratulations Lionel

I found out a couple of days ago that my sculptor friend Lionel Bawden back in Sydney, who makes miraculous things out of coloured pencils, recently won the prestigious Wynne prize, announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. BRAVO Lionel!!

http://misociety.com.au/?p=4933 (this link has the winning work in it)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats_on?eventid=2904

Other kindred spirits...

It's been head down lately sewing for my upcoming exhibition, but I thought I'd quickly post about couple of other kindred spirits whose work I discovered in Paris on a recent visit in the bookshop at Palais de Tokyo...

One is the Finnish artist Anu Tuominen whose work "Earth I" (2005) I have in postcard form above my desk - the piece is made from collected socks and mittens, like the pictured works (from top) "Under the Great Sky, at the Foot of the Wide Blue" and "Hammock".
http://www.art-u-room.com/exhibition_eng/08-04forester_2.html
http://www.anhava.com/?http://www.anhava.com/exhibitions/tuominen/index.html
http://www.kiasma.fi/site/pop/pop.php?tid=48&lang=en&mo=

The other is artist Lucie Duval of Quebec, whose work graced the cover of an art magazine featuring women artists, and when I saw the image of the garments made of gloves my eyes lit up in glee!