belgrave alive at the end of the line

Congratulations to organisers of the End of the Line Festival. Belgrave was jam packed with artists, events and all sorts of creative happenings as part of the festival.

CJ Baxter, Cr Samantha Dunn and Brent Dakis.
I was pleased to be able to provide funding from
my community ward fund to the EOTL festival.
Thousands flocked to Belgrave for a great event.

CJ Baxter and Brent Dakis of Limerence and Josh Collings, local artist, the driving force behind the End of the Line Festival, put together the most amazing program of events and the town was pumping from 10am till late into the night.

The Cameo Outdoor Cinema proved to be a very
popular live music space for the festival.

The festival featured over 40 musicians, had 18 different performance and exhibition spaces, some in places you might not ordinarily visit in Belgrave.

This mural, created by Glenn Scolyer, was painted 
whilst the festival was underway - it looks great!

The festival was a fantastic celebration of all things creative in the hills. People flocked to enjoy the everything that Belgrave and our artistic community has to offer. It was a great example of traders, community and local government working together.

Myself, Tiffaney Bishop and some of the collective
artists at Belgrave's newest public art space.

It was great to be part of it and officially launch the Belgrave Bins project. For a very long time I've been keen to see the wheelie bins that line Blacksmith's Way turned into a feature, rather than the eyesore they've been for many years. With the assistance of the Tiffaney Bishop Collective, a collective of young artists who operate out of Belgrave, the bins now feature works which will change over time so there's always some new and interesting public art to see.

It's Belgrave's newest public art space and I'm very thankful to Tiffaney Bishop, the collective of artists, the Belgrave traders and our Manager of Waste, who have all been very supportive of the project. The bins look great and are well worth a visit.

A myriad of events continued into the evening and the town was bustling with activity, it was terrific and I thank CJ, Brent and all the volunteers and businesses who supported them and the End of the Line festival. The bar's been set high for next year's festival, I can't wait!

This sand sculpture was created by Kallista local, Natasha.
The kids played in the sand whilst Natasha set about
creating this sculpture during the festival. At the same time
the Selby First Scouts did a roaring trade on the
sausage sizzle.

This space at the rear of India Gate was transformed
into street art and dance party.

Artist Glenn Scolyer donated his time to create this
fantastic mural on the Safeway wall, one of the gateways
to Belgrave.

 

Even Belgrave's Cherry Trees were
part of the festival action, this one
sporting some yarn bombing.

Me and Glenn Scolyer, Glenn's done a lot of work
with murals across the Shire, but this is his first
local piece and it looks great.



Night time saw this spoken word venue created
downstairs at Chocolate Sensation. Isha Molloy
captivating the audience with her pieces.



Belgrave's live music venues were part of EOTL too.
Local artist Ben Kelly played Oscar's Alehouse, Steve
Davies joined in with drums and digeridoo. It was a
great way to finish a big day in Belgrave.

 

2nd annual th'ink tank project

2nd Annual Th'INK Tank Project

CJ and Brent from Limerence have announced the time has come again, for their annual hills community illustration competition. The Th'INK Tank Project has come to a close and it's time to present the entries, and winners, to us, and I for one can't wait. 

It's a terrific project, last year's inaugural project was a great success and showcased some amazing ink art on t'shirts.

Each year Limerence open entries to anyone who lives in the Shire of Yarra Ranges to submit a work in the form of a black and white image, of any medium on a particular theme - This years theme is 'Forest'. 

Limerence proprietors and artists CJ and Brent, they
are the driving force behind the Th'INK Tank Project.

Now that entries are closed Brent and CJ begin the arduous task of determining a winning design (or two) to be printed on a limited edition series of 100% organic fair trade cotton t-shirts, and as of this year, 100% organic cotton hoodies also.  It is a community event is designed to get locals excited about art, to help be a platform for young and emerging artists, and to create some truly enique and exciting clothing to be sold from their store. 


Be sure to mark Friday August 31st between 6pm and 8pm in your diary to celebrate the fantastic work of our local artists.  Limerence are located at 2/1642 Burwood Hwy, Belgrave. On the night the Limerence team will be announcing the winning design and releasing the t-shirts and hoodies for sale.

It's sure to be a great night, I'll look forward to seeing you there. 

If you need any more info check the Limerence facebook site or email  info@limerence.com.au.

limerence announces 2012 th'ink tank project

It's great to learn that Brent and CJ from Limerence (in Belgrave) are running their second Th'INK Tank Project.

The Th'INK Tank Project is a community based t-shirt design competition that centres itself around local artist exposure and promotion while also providing the winning artists with display space with some unique, limited edition pieces of clothing.

This year's theme is FORESTS. Entries close 2 March. The two winning designs will be printed on a series of limited edition, organic cotton t-shirts exclusively available through Limerence, each labelled with the artist's name. Entries are limited to 'hills folk' - you know who you are.

If you want to know more, check the event page on facebook.

Last year's Th'INK Tank was a great project and not only provided some very exclusive and funky clothing but gave winning artist Nina Maskiell an alternative venue to display and sell her work. It's terrific to see business support local artists and locals support this terrific boutique business in Belgrave.

belgrave abuzz

It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the success of two new small businesses in Belgrave.

Last Friday saw the launch of the very first Th'INK Tank project at Limerence. Twice a year Limerence opens entries for the Th'INK Tank project, a competition for interested artists to submit designs to be printed on a limited run of Australian made, organic cotton t-shirts. An exhibtion of the finalists is currently on the wall at Limerence and well worth a look. The pen and ink work is just extraordinary.

Pictured left to right in front of the winning art work: Winning artist, Nina Maskiell, Cr Samantha Dunn and Limerence owners CJ Baxter and Brent Dakis.

CJ and Brent intend to run the Th'INK Tank project twice a year to provide local artisans with an opportunity for great exposure and also provide access to exciting and high quality pieces of wearable art.

On the same night owners of Through the Looking Glass, recycled book shop celebrated their first birthday with music, wine and song. I had the great pleasure of being barrel girl for the raffle draw and was delighted to pull out the names of some well known locals.

Pictured with me are business owners Sarah (left) and Margo (right). They've done a great job with their book selection and have really found their niche in the town.

Both businesses are a terrific additions to Belgrave and well worth a visit whether you be a local or a visitor.

open studios coming soon - 28 & 29 may

The group exhibition for the Dandenong Ranges Open Studio opened this week at Burrinja. It was a terrific night and a great way to showcase all the artists involved in this year's open studios.

It was wonderful to catch up with local artists and chat all things art in the Dandenongs. Open Studios is on next weekend, Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th May across the Dandenong Ranges. Local artists open up their studios and welcome visitors across the two days.

Joy Serwylo does amazingly intricate work, this year's works feature rusted cars and torn encyclopaedias in a new body of work called "relics". Joy's studio is well worth a visit.

Kirsten Laken is a very well known and loved glass artist. Working with a variety ot techniques, Kirsten uses hot and cold glass, stain painting, fusing and slumping. She pushes the boundary of glass art and always has an extraordinary breadth of work. A must for this year is checking out the solar panelled chook shed with self opening doors!

CJ Baxter and Brent Dakis are newcomers to Open Studios, operating Limerence in Belgrave, they are both committed to Australian made and local art. CJ, under the label Twisted Fig, creates unique clothing and accessories from reclaimed fabrics whilst Brent creates amazingly unique jewellery from found objects under the label Depths of the Never Never. They have created a wonderful space at Limerence in Belgrave, it's well worth having a look.

If you'd like an Open Studio's catalogue click here.

Can't make up your mind who to see? Perhaps a quick visit to Burrinja for a bit of a preview will help.