WORDS, images and taxidermy – three artforms come together in the new book from Women Writers Queensland (WWQ).
According to Ipswich author Toni Risson the project involved several levels of collaboration, “it’s an anthology and it’s called Stuffed.”
Taxidermy is the art of preparing, stuffing and mounting animal skins.
By the 19th century, almost every town had a tannery, where hunters presented their trophies.
Upholsterers then sewed up the skins and stuffed them with rags.
The results were displayed in ‘Cabinets of Curiosity’.
To write short stories for this collection, writers became literary taxidermists by stuffing a new story inside the skin of Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing.
Every story in the collection begins with this sentence:
“The morning burned so August-hot, the marsh’s moist breath hung the oaks and pines with fog”. and every story ended, ‘”Way out yonder, where the crawdads sing”.
“The first line of a story is crucial,” says Toni as it sets your story up and the ending must be satisfying for the reader.
So, it was a real challenge to write a story that needed those two sentences around it.’
A painting of a goshawk undergoing taxidermy graces the cover for the new book and this is the result of collaboration with local artist Deb Mostert.
Several members of Women Writers live in Ipswich and the Scenic Rim. They met these challenges head on and the result is a diversity of tales stuffed between the ‘skin’ of Delia Owens’ sentences.
Sixteen stories tucked inside a cover featuring Deb’s artwork. Stuffed will be launched at Brisbane City Square Library in early October but advance copies are available for $20 at Vintage Advantage, 185 Brisbane Street, Ipswich.
In the Pink
The Fernvale SASI Group and the Marburg Art Group members have donated works of art and craft with the theme ‘Pink’ to help raise funds for Ipswich Hospital Breast Cancer Nurses.
Everything has been donated and all proceeds made from this exhibition will be going to Ipswich Breast cancer nurses.
Organisers of the exhibition are thrilled at the generosity of the artists. The exhibition ‘In the Pink’ is now open at the Lowood’s Open Doors Gallery and will run for the month of October.
A special evening of festive fun is planned for October 21 to auction the remaining works. Lowood’s Open Door Gallery is open Thurs 9.30am to 12pm, Saturday and Sundays from 9.30am to 2pm.
