Friday 9 December 2016

Flying an Etching Press to Indianapolis..

 Finally finished and waiting the crate and Customs clearance and then off to Kris's studio in Indianapolis

And below is a before photo of the 1903 antique the press was made from in it's original disguise as a wreck

..

Monday 17 October 2016

The Irish Famine and -Lisdoonvarna - Christy Moore, Declan Sinnott & Donal Lunny


                 
In 1840 began the Irish Holocaust with a million dying in the ditches of starvation over the next 20 years or so and then followed the Irish diaspora with a million fleeing their home land and going every where else... 70 million Irish all over the World last I heard. 
In 1862 my Great Grandfather got the hell out of Dodge and  caught a boat to New Zealand. 
I am black Irish by blood and all the Mulvay's look it and I never give a damn about any of this until the Maori in New Zealand began rarking up in the 1970's and wanted their land back etc. and this scared me for I had no Maori blood in me and thought "where  I am gonna go, I was born here.. will I be kicked out? This is the only home I have known.." 
I had heard about the Jews and the Nazis, Martin Luther King and Apartheid in South Africa and never thought among all this knowledge of Racism in the World that maybe I had a race, a blood, a colour..
A new thought... And then I remembered what I had overheard my Parents and Aunts and Uncles said here and there..
I am Celtic, Black Irish by blood and a New Zealander, a land peopled mostly by refugees just like the USA. 
And so I have developed over the years a fondness for all things Irish like Guinness and the chaps here in singing for you..

Sunday 9 October 2016

Five Days Old..

 A new addition to the herd out at Ruthie's Animal Farm in nearby Te Aroha. Tentatively named Sparky. 
My latest drawing subject but he will not keep still for me but must come over and see what I am doing..

Lady, his Mum, is being hard fed and young Sparky wants to try some as Mum keeps him waiting for his milk while she is eating

Likes his rump scratched and tries to scratch his ear with a hind leg like a dog and falls over. It's early days yet so we assume he will wise up to that one..

Wednesday 5 October 2016

The Multi Tasking Artist..


Making a press for a print maker in Indianapolis and


 Framing some of my better drawings for a local Art Exhibition and..



Recreating some iconic vintage Kiwi grocery store advertising on three panels to decorate a friend's ex-shop which is converted to tourist accommodation . - I used to ponder the meaning of life and what am I? and what is this place I exist in? and Why for God's Sake?? but these days I am just too busy. The World must get on as best it can without my curiosity and  endless questions. No doubt all will be revealed in the fullness of time by which time perhaps I will not be so busy...

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Flying an Etching Press to Denmark

 The Danish artist Mikala Valeur bought the large antique press I had built, pictured here in my studio, and decided to fly it to her studio which is in a barge in a canal in Copenhagen. This is a story told in pictures..



                           Delivery to the freight people at Auckland airport last Monday morning early


                                              At the canal in Copenhagen three days later..




                            In Mikala's floating Copenhagen studio, assembled and ready to boogie..

Thursday 26 May 2016

Table Top Etching Press For Sale: email enquiries to johnmulvay@gmail.com


Very strong, 6.3 to 1 gearing, press bed 465 x 800 mm complete with felts, made from a hundred year old antique. Built to last life times. Already has lasted some lifetimes :-)



Thursday 17 March 2016

Wednesday 2 March 2016

Mural Gallery Artists at Work

A photo by the American artist Chelsea Haines who was staying at Art School Waihi for a week and captured me, Bronagh and Chiara at work on our respective murals..

Sunday 17 January 2016

The Mural Gallery

 The current project, could be a few weeks on this one. Eight or nine murals, five or six different artists..