Diary Of An Artist In A New World

The Floating City

Today the USS Kitty Hawk returned to Sydney Harbor. Naturally she tied up at the Garden Island navy base which is a 5 minute walk down the road. We are fortunate that Woolloomooloo Bay has such deep water that the biggest ships in the world can dock just a few steps from our public streets. I took these photographs from Embarkation Park. It is part of why I love Kings Cross so much - that so much that is different and exciting is just a few minutes walk away.

I think aircraft carriers are very beautiful pieces of engineering where the beauty grows out of the pure efficiency of function. Like large bridges or large aircraft the laws of physics take precedence over compromise and the result is by default beautiful.

There is also the kind of impression of beauty that grows out of the human ability to be awed by immense structures whether they be mountains or huge ships. I love being in a big jet when it is taking off just for the sensation of the power of those engines to  create speed and then the physics of pressure differentials on the wings lifts that great weight into the sky. I get that same feeling from a great ship like this, its immensity, the power of its engines, and the  city-like functioning of its crew, 5,000 souls working together like a purposeful machine. That is just as much beauty as the lines in a hull.

Docked at the wharf great doors open that expose the hangars in the bowels of the ship. I have been inside there on an open day when the ship was in port a few years ago. The feeling in that immense space is of something from another world.

It is good to see so many sailors in the Cross tonight. 4 more ships were in port - cruisers and assault ships. It is a lot of sailors. Kings Cross has been hosting visiting sailors for 150 years. It always has a good feeling when a ship is in. Judging from the smiles on happy sailors it seems the feeling is mutual.

A Kings Cross Sunset

I had been busy writing about local Aboriginal history but I noticed it was getting late and I wanted to go see the visiting US aircraft carrier before my haircut appointment. As I walked up William Street and down Victoria mother nature decided to show me who is the best artist in existence. Always our pale interpretive efforts are just relections of a larger beauty that is the natural world in all its glory. Sure, some man made things can be beautiful, just look at that row of buildings across downtown Sydney. But mother nature is able to wrap it all in gorgeous mauves and salmony pinks and then throw the palette across the sky. All while changing every detail in the twinkling of an eye. Every day I am in awe of the beauty that I see. This is my small impression.

Where The Aborigines Lived

I took Rosemary on a walk around the places where the Aborigines lived and revealed to her the way the city has covered the past as much as it can yet the traces are still visible for those who know what to look for. The first photo is of the road outside the Kings Cross fire station at the intersection of Victoria Street and Craigend Street. This is where the main camp site for the Eora people was when the first settlers arrived in 1788. Without realizing it, Captain Phillip chose as his place to settle the same place that the Aboriginal inhabitants chose as the center of their world, and for very similar reasons - the abundant fresh water, and a surrounding landscape that had a great variety of natural resources.

We went next to Hyde Park. The photo shows the monument to Captain Cook. When he went by here in 1770 this beautiful park was a swamp and valuable food resouce for the Aboriginal people. It was the source of both the Tank Stream and the stream that flowed through East Sydney. That stream is long gone, perhaps it still exists in a pipe below the ground, but the evidence for it does still exist at ground level, especially at Stream Street which meanders along the original creek bed. It is not a pretty street as you can see in the photo, but the buildings each side give me an impression of the tall trees that would have been here once like walls along the stream.

It flowed down to the mud flats of Woolloomooloo. Now all reclaimed land that dense concentration of buildings in the last photo was once covered in water at high tide, and at low tide it was mud, with Aboriginals looking for crustaceans. What a difference.

The Yellow House

There are lots of reasons I fell in love with this place when I first discovered it, but my first impression was of the bright yellow color. It is such a sunny and warm little building nestled amongst the bigger brown and grey drab of the business-like buildings all around. It is warm and inviting, it has personality. It is like the little red engine that could - this is the little yellow house that could. It is my little magical refuge from all the grey of the world.

Of course there is the other thing. No feeling artist could help but love the hopes and dreams that Vincent wrapped up in his little yellow house in Arles all those years ago. It was his magical place where he could invent the artist within, safe within a nest the color of sunshine. So to find this place of the sunshine here in my Kings Cross was to find a place that spoke to the deepest levels within my psyche.

This place is a place of special stories. Downstairs is the oldest business in Kings Cross. It first opened its doors in the 1880's just down the road before this building existed. When you look into their shop you see the values of an older world in which the latest electronic products sit side by side with something old and well used. They are like a family to me. They are proud that they have the mad artist upstairs I think. They have stories of other artists they helped over the years, other studios in the garret. Some names that are now famous but were then young and poor dreamers.

The building came into existence in 1923. All the buildings along this side of William Street are no older than this because back then William Street needed to be widened and all the buildings on the south side of the street were demolished to accomodate a wider road. The city fathers paid fore the work by selling off the buildings they owned. This was one of them. It was sold on condition a 3 story commercial building be built. This is it. In the floor I see evidence of machinery that was once used here. I do believe it has been a printery. Another time there was a photographic studio. The walls have the feeling of happy times and many lives that enjoyed the warmth of the winter sun through the big window at the front.

Now it is my turn to make good things in this special yellow house. I hope to always do honor to its memories.

EQ Ice Rink Fun

I was surprised to discover an ice rink alongside the Leonardo exhibition. I haven't been ice skating in years. I used to love it when there was a rink down by Central Station every winter for many years. After it closed the nearest rinks were a long way away out in the far suburbs. I will go there soon to try and see if my body remembers how to move.

I first learned to skate in Brisbane when I was in my late teens. The rink there was gigantic, so different to this one. It has a wonderful feel of intimacy about it. There was a young woman who was skating for the first time. She was doing really well. It brought back my memories of that first discovery of that effortless frictionless speed. That beautiful feeling of that gentle rhythmic side to side movement.

I've got to get down there soon and enjoy the ice.

Its at Fox Studio's, now called The Entertainment Quarter, in the showring where they have the farmers markets. Open everyday except Monday and Tuesday after the school holidays.