Traffic Stopping Art (number 38)

"Me and You" by Artist: Jo Murphy & QPASTT

This traffic signal box recently won an award as the "Best Organisation" traffic signal box.

The Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma (QPASTT) provides flexible and culturally sensitive services to promote the health and wellbeing of people who have been tortured or who have suffered refugee related trauma prior to migrating to Australia. (from their website)

On the Artforce Award Winners website, the box description is:

Young person watching young girl crying (with eyes watching her in background) A young face thinks or says "Me and You we are Australian" A hand (henna) reaches up from the bottom offering a rose to welcome the girl. A friendly man stretches out his arms on his chest it says Welcome Children at bottom hold hands over globe with AU They have an angel in between and are happy The box is unified with the music from the sitar This lifts the scene and the reflection from the musical notes is what lightens the forest (painting).

This post is in memory of Salman Abdirahman Arte, a 13 year old Somali refugee who came to Brisbane nine moths ago and died on Tuesday after being overcome by floodwaters when playing in Bulimba creek with two of his brothers.

Quenching the Big Thirst

These past few days have seen South-East Queensland get big, fat, rainfalls. Checking the Bureau of Meteorology Radar Website has become something of an obsession with Brisbanites... so much so that they cross live to it during the evening news. Gardens have sprung back to life, creek beds that were crisp and dry last week now gurgle and gush... and farms to the west have been given a life line with some of the biggest falls in years.

House For Sale...

Charming bijou home on enormous block, 360 degree views...

Incase you are interested in what I have been posting the past couple of days, 2 days ago I had a happy blog post-related co-incidence. I clicked on the Shopkeeper who had a link to Art By Georg where I came across This Post. How's that?

Outdoor Art Gallery

Following on from yesterday's post, this is a wider view of one of the walls on the vacant block. There are a few familiar local styles in there. Plenty to look at. And you have to stand in long grass to do so which adds a certain element of risk to the whole thing.

Mortar this wall than bricks and mortar...

Sorry ...I couldn't resist the bad pun. I recently discovered this vacant block near me that has got some great art on it.This wall in particular. I love all the lumpy, multi-coloured lines of mortar.

More of this tomorrow.

Boxing day sky...

Round these parts they describe the weather we're having as "sultry" - hot, humid and with a heaving purpley bruise-coloured sky.

Sing, Choir of Angels!

This is part of the beautiful carved Choir section in St. John's Cathedral.
Have a happy and musical Christmas!

Prawn Crackers!

Fresh prawns, by the bucketload, are an integral part of Christmas in Australia. People go crackers for 'em.

When I called up this Gambaro's Seafood shop in South Brisbane yesterday to find out what time they opened this morning they proudly announced that they would be opening all night long to avoid the usual Christmas Eve queues. This was the scene at 7am today. Luckily the coffee vendor was on hand and as you can see several people anticipated the wait and brought a newspaper!

School Holiday Roads

There's not too many good things about working over Christmas... but one of them is if you commute in Brisbane, chances are your journey is much quicker and calmer.

Christmas Shopping

Queen Street Mall in the city, busy with Christmas shoppers. It always raises a quizzical eyebrow with me... the snowflake decorations. I get the symbolism... but it's 30 degrees!

Four Calling Birds

There's an interesting take on The Twelve Days Of Christmas in King George Square each day up until December 23rd. It's called Artist's Dozen: twelve artists have been invited to create large sculptural artworks from pre-made numbers to portray their own interpretation of a line of the song.

The results so far are funny, interesting, strange... these "calling birds" are kookaburras - best known for their raucous laugh especially at 4.30am when I am trying to sleep. Here's a few more... I quite like the ninja turtle doves. No idea at all about the 6 geese a-laying... any thoughts? The seven swans a-swimming (a work in progress on Saturday at lunchtime) was supposed to be a model of Wayne Swan (Australia's treasurer) swimming in a GF Sea (geddit?)

Click on a picture for a closer look...

King George Square, looking up...

This is looking up at the Petrie Tableau sculpture in King George Square. The man with the horse is John Petrie as a young man, who went on to become Brisbane's first mayor, and in the background the clock tower of the recently evacuated Brisbane City Hall. Recently evacuated? yes. Crumbling structure in dire need of restoration. It's going to cost millions but I think worth it to bring such a prominent landmark back in everyday use. You can read all about King George Square right here courtesy of the brilliant blog Your Brisbane Past and Present.

Traffic Stopping Art (number 37)

Here we are at Montague Road for another look at Brisbane's hundreds of painted traffic signal boxes. These ones by Pen Donovan are brand new, put in for the lights to the new "Go-Between Bridge" or Hale Street Link. Pretty quiet right now but once the bridge opens, gazillions of cars will pass these ones every day.

How about some rain, then?

Water restrictions relaxed in Brisbane on December 1st - our reward for being so frugal with it for the past year or so. It's brilliant. Now all we need is some rain...

Soak up other skies across the globe over at Skywatch Friday.

Trolley With A View

Absolutely nowhere near a supermarket... or a house.... it must have come for the view.

Giant Skulls Painting

I didn't manage to find the name of the artist or the work but this imposing painting was a striking backdrop for people wandering into and out of the Gallery of Modern Art.

For me? Oh, you shouldn't have!

Zhu Weibing, Ji Wenyu | People holding flowers

Many mini men at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art...aren't they lovely? You can just make out the real-sized people in the background.

Asia-Pacific Exhibition at the GoMA

There's a brilliant exhibition of Asia-Pacific artists going on at the moment in Brisbane's GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art). If you're in the area, I recommend a visit. This photo is of part of a stuffed elk that has been covered in glass and resin balls. Here's the blurb on this exhibit from the GoMA website if you are interested...

Kohei Nawa’s sculpture PixCell-Elk#2 transforms the body of a taxidermied elk, purchased through an internet auction site, by covering it with transparent glass and resin beads. In the process, Nawa dramatically changes our perception of the original creature; the surface of the animal is fractured, magnified and distorted through the images captured inside the spheres. Viewed through this shell, the elk’s textures and colours are filtered through, and dissipated into, myriad individual surfaces, like the pixels on a computer screen. In using these media, Nawa aims to destabilise our sense of what is real and what is virtual.

Doorways of Brisbane

Raise Your Glasses!

Brisbane Daily Photo is 1 year old today! I thought I'd celebrate with one of Brisbane's most recognizable celebrities, the FourEx Beer bloke on the side of the brewery in Milton. His perpetual neon wink is enough to put any Brisbanite in a good mood.

As for me, I'd like to thank everyone who has visited over the past year... your comments and encouragement are what keeps me going - Cheers, you lot!

Ripening Mango Skywatch

Brisbane's western sky, dominated by Mount Coot-tha and the transmission towers perched on top... It's been a hot week. The temperatures have been hovering around 33/34 degrees during the day and 22/23 at night. Perfect mango eating weather.

To enjoy other juicy skies from around the world, sink your teeth into Skywatch Friday .

Boost Your Spirits!

I really like the site-specific ones. Someone has gone away and thought about it a bit. It caught my eye as I was driving home from work along Montague Road on Monday evening so I came back early on Tuesday when the light was better.

A Box At The Arena

I found this piece stuck on the door of the abandoned Skate Arena in Red Hill. This kind of cut-out and stuck-on street art seems to be springing up quite a lot in Brisbane... or maybe it's been around for years I am just more aware of it because I'm looking for things to photograph.

Another one tomorrow!

How much is that trolley in the window?

...about $150 new... or $107 if you're a supermarket buying back your trolley that has just been impounded by Brisbane City Council. The big supermarket giants are not happy bunnies; here they are trying to scratch out an honest living and the council are cruising around town, collecting trolleys (and probably paying their collectors a much better wage than the poor kid at the supermarket) and holding them to ransom. They've got 4000 so far and the supermarkets are refusing to pay the release fee.

I was tempted to wheel this one down to the local Woolies and suggest they give me $50 for it.

This could be the start of a series...

Pick Me!

This is the enclosure at Doomben racecourse - where they parade the horses around so you can check out how they are looking before the race. While I was standing there, I overheard that the jockeys aren't allowed catch your eye incase someone suspects them (or you) of foul play. The horses, I think, are allowed to catch your eye as much as they like. I gave this one a knowing wink and tapped my form guide to my nose in a suitably coded manner.

Racing At Doomben

Yesterday's 4.20pm race at Brisbane's Doomben racecourse.

His and Hers Queenslanders

Queenslander houses, made mostly from wood, are about as fire-prone and termite-prone as houses can get, they're hot in the summer, chilly in the winter with no soundproofing... but it doesn't stop Queenslander people being fiercely loyal to them. You don't really see them being built any more but there are thousands around town in various states of repair from lovingly restored to falling apart. No matter where they are on the scale, they really have an unmistakeable character and charm.

Poinciana Skywatch

Poinciana trees all over Brisbane are studded with bright red flowers right now - best viewed in the sunlight under a clear blue sky. Gorgeous!

Check out other skies posted in blogs across the world today at Skywatch Friday.

Dolphins at Seaworld

OK so it's not strictly Brisbane.. we're about 60km south of it's southern-most suburbs in the northern part of the Gold Coast. To my knowledge there's not a Gold Coast Daily Photo so hopefully I'm not treading on any toes here! Seaworld is one of the many theme parks that are on this section of the coast. Earlier this year, it was in the news for taking in Nari, a dolphin who had been bitten by a shark in Moreton Bay. Vets at Seaworld sorted him out, releasing him back into the wild in the glare of the media. The dolphins I saw at Seaworld looked very much at home there. This group who did the show were amazing, leaping high into the air, swimming on their backs, waving their fins at the audience. The crowd loved it.

Traffic Stopping Art (number 36)

Here we are in Ashgrove on the corner of Waterworks Road and Stewart Road. It looks like we have a traffic signal box and a matching... something else box. Anyway they are called "My Ashgrove" by Anna Claudette Ferguson and reflect the architecture of Brisbane's Queenslander houses. Painted in 2007 and still looking good.

December Theme Day: Waiting

Queue for German sausage at Brisbane Square Market. The stall holders were rushed off their feet!

Today's "waiting" post is part of a world-wide theme for City Daily Photo sites.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Australia 1 West Indies 0

This is the Gabba cricket ground, where the West Indies lost to Australia in the cricket over the weekend. The game finished way ahead of schedule and as a result there were some rubbish movies on the telly. Many Australians were forced to emerge blinking into the sunlight and heat and find something constructive to do with their Sunday.

The Gabba's also home to the Brisbane Lions (Aussie Rules football team) who play here in the winter months.

I took this shot back in February from a hot air balloon. For some othe balloony type shots, click on the balloons label below.

Brisbane Art

Georg Whelan is a prominent Brisbane artist. He does street art as well but this one I saw hanging in a gallery a while back. It's called "Whiteley's avocada for Anthony Lister" and had a big red dot next to it so is probably adorning a private wall now.

Stanley Street, The Gabba

This little parade of shops seems to be enjoying a renaissance at the moment. It must be hard for a business to survive on a really busy road - and in the shadow of the Gold Coast motorway - but these little places are winning the battle. Both C'est Bon and Desmond and Molly Jones are on my to do list.
(I don't think it's the butcher that's for sale - hopefully it's the flat on top!)

Fiery Wiry Skywatch

You can't look up in Brisbane without seeing wires. They're everywhere. Behind these ones, the embers of the sunset from Wednesday as seen from Red Hill (looking in the opposite direction to yesterday's post).

For a multitude of skies posted today from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

Pink Cloud over Red Hill

Brisbane is made up of hills. You might just be able to make out the gradient of this road I was standing at the top of last night around 6.15 - it's really steep! This area is known as Red Hill. the house to the right of the picture is a typical Queenslander - wooden with stilts, gables and a tin roof.

A Dark Corner That Refuses To Remain Hidden

Back hallway, Joshua Levi Galleries, Woolloongabba.

Facade

When someone in Brisbane wants to knock an old house and build a new one in it's place, there are strict laws concerning how much of the old house you can get rid of... this is to preserve the character of Queensland's older architecture. A lot of the time the outer shell is kept and the inside renovated. In this case, they've only left the front facade and will probably build some sort of flats behind it. Which is going to look a bit bizarre...

Traffic Stopping Art (number 35)

Here we are at the Queensland Tennis Centre in Tennyson (dya reckon they built it there on purpose??). This box is called "Tennis aint easy" by John Ledingham. Incase you were wondering whether he could fit another tennis-related pun round the other side, yes he could! It's a miserable broken raquet with a think bubble saying
">sigh< no strings attached".
For others in this painted traffic signal box series, click on the TSBs label below...

Hello Possums!

Brisbane has a wide variety of wild night creatures and not all of them are human. Possums are all over the place, eating their way through gardens across the city. Despite their quest to eat my veggies... and fighting with bats and chasing eachother across the roof... I think they are gorgeous!

Juicy Mangoes at Rocklea Markets

The mangoes are perfecto in Brisbane right now! This shot was taken this morning in Rocklea where they were being sold by the truck load.

All Mouth and No Trousers!

Tuesday in Brisbane was pretty dramatic with a hot and sticky high of 35 degrees - way above average for this time of year. All day long the forecasters promised us a storm and this was the sky as I was leaving work at 6pm in Mount Coot-tha. Shortly after, the clouds closed out the last of the sun and Brisbane braced itself for a thorough soaking. The thunder claps were deafening and over 3,000 bolts of forked lightning spattered across the city... but only a few puny mills of rain. Boo!

Check out other skies from around the world at Skywatch Friday.

Back to Yoga Aid

I've revisited this marathon sun salutation on Sunday partly due to just not having a photo that I like... but also: that's a very nice back!

Cooling Off

The mercury hit 35 degrees celcius yesterday in Brisbane - 7 above average for the time of year. For those in the city, Aquativity in South Bank was the only place to be. It's a fantastic free water playground that's run, dought permitting, by Brisbane City Council.