Fascination by Elle Santos

Starting to chip away at the free games I've claimed from Epic, with Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge.

It's undeniably cute; the watercolour aesthetic is lovely, and I really appreciate the focus on conservation. Sadly, the gameplay didn't click with me. It's quite repetitive, and the breeding mini-game was more frustrating than fun. I was ready to move on after a few hours, so this is one I'm happy I picked up for free.

#things that make me happy

Just finished the Fourleaf Fields playtest, and it was such a delightful experience. The cuteness level is off the charts, and the areas of the world you can explore are absolutely charming. While the gossip mechanic is a core part of the game, it isn't really my thing... I always leave relationship-building until the very last minute in life sims. That said, I loved wandering through the beautiful world, taking in all the little details, and I'm especially excited to explore the ranching side of the game further. It has such a lovely, cozy atmosphere that's incredibly easy to get lost in.

I might have accidentally acquired a rather large stack of vintage Juxtapoz magazines ih ih ih... to reclaim a tiny piece of the collection I once had in Portugal, many lifetimes ago.

#things that make me happy

#things that make me happy

#things that make me happy

#things that make me happy

#things that make me happy

Brisbane - 09/25

Artist: Arthur Boyd

Year of Creation: 1957-58

Media: Painting

"Sleeping bride 1957–58 is from Arthur Boyd’s major allegorical series, ‘Love, Marriage and Death of a Half-caste’ (or the ‘Brides’), which arose from his travels to central Australia in 1953.

The ‘Brides’ are considered one of the most significant achievements in Australian Modernism, akin to Sidney Nolan’s ‘Kelly’ paintings from the 1940s.

Boyd’s stark multiracial bride and groom representations were painted in the years of the Australian Government’s assimilation policy and the stolen generations, which saw children of mixed race removed from their homes.

In Sleeping bride, the bride is depicted sleeping alone in a dark, blue-tinged landscape, an ambiguous realm of half-light, which suggests the psychological space of the dream. It is one of the gentler, more contemplative works in the series.

The painting is replete with symbolic elements — a green beetle, a ‘ram-ox’ and the recurrent motif of a posy of flowers — variously denoting fear, lust and hope. The sleeping bride is joined by several black birds, a feature in Boyd’s work across his career."

On my way to work

On my way to work

Brisbane - 09/25

Artist: Sandra Taylor

Year of Creation: 1978-79

Media: Porcelain

"Sandra Taylor (b. 1942) trained at East Sydney Technical College in 1965-66, and in the early 1970s moved away from making functional wares in the Anglo-Oriental style, towards making painted and modelled narratives of Australian life. These have usually been humorously and critically observant of some aspect of Australian 'norms', and over the years she has made these observations through metaphors as diverse as pigs, savaloys, palm trees, dogs, cattle, houses, swimming pools and pencil pines."

Brisbane - 09/25

Artist: Stephen Baxter

Year of Creation: 1991

Media: Porcelain

“Making artwork for me is a bit like, the thrill of the chase. Just like life, sometimes it works and sometimes it fails. That’s the beauty of it. My failures are quite often my most successful developments in the end. One day I could be focussing on found shiny stainless steel and the next could be beautiful white porcelain and the next, thick buttery impasto paint. 😊.

The underlying research of Stephen’s working methodology is Bricolage. Structural anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss coined the term in 1962. Baxter explains “The Bricoleur, reconstructs, and reuses found and at hand materials and ideas to produce something new with new meanings and insights.”