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Happy Chinese New Year- the Year of the Rooster!
Purpose... Integrity... Honour...
Phoenix, rising from the ashes...
Dynamic creative energy.
Be wary of aggression, yet ready to confront it, whether as a
Resister (or bro),
or solitary nurturer of dreams.
Take your pick - or peck!
Just don't let anyone
pluck your plumes.
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| Sun Loong - photo by Louisa John-Krol |
We thank Sun Loong for his years of distinguished ceremony, and wish him a spangling, serene shimmy toward retirement at the Golden Dragon Museum.
Read about Sun Loong's approaching last dance.
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| Waratah portrait by Linda Jackson |
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| Australian native Protea |
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| Bird in Gum Blossom by Olaf Parusel |
How do shapes or hues
of flora & fauna
...inspire faerie art?
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| 'Bush Landscape', by Linda Jackson, Australia |
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| 'Waratah Beauty', by Linda Jackson |
A Tribute to
Linda Jackson
Australian fashion icon
& member of the
Australian Fairy Tale Society
Biography:
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| Linda Jackson, 2016, Living Arts Centre, Bendigo |
Linda Jackson is a true pioneer and free spirit of Australian Fashion and Textile Art. After studying fashion design and photography in Melbourne, she left Australia in the late 1960’s to live in New Guinea, traveling through Asia to Paris and London.
Returning to Sydney in 1973, Linda met kindred spirit Jenny Kee. Colourful creativity was their flamboyant force, along with staging Flamingo Park fashion parades that became famous for their energetic amalgamation of art, fashion and music.
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| Linda Jackson |
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| "Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" - Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet |
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| Goddess Sun Star Rain Beauty Flame Opal Angel Auroraustraloz... Model Deborah Hutton, Grace Opal Butterfly Angel, Jenny Kee, Linda Jackson Flaming Opal Follies 1981 |
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| Linda Jackson with Grace Kee (left), 1981 |
Over four decades, Linda played a significant role in development of a distinctly Australian approach to fashion. Working outside traditional boundaries of Western fashion, Jackson’s wide ranging interest in art and design, Indigenous cultures and her love of the Australian bush, inspired and sustained her creativity.
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| 'Beauty and Swampy the Wallaby', by Linda Jackson |
Travels to Central Australia and Lightning Ridge led to opening a salon-showroom, Bush Couture, in 1982: bringing the Bush to town in a new Art form… experimenting with unorthodox ways of printing and making cloth and canvas, by exploiting techniques of mark making, monoprint and painting. Linda continued to show Fashion collections in a theatrical Salon style in her studio along with exhibitions of Opal jewellery and Textiles. Commissions included designs for Rugs, several Port Douglas Hotel interiors, Theatre and Film costume and a collection of Scarves and product with Oroton. Her label Bush Kids was sold around the world, while a Bush Kids shop opened at Darling Harbour. During these years, Powerhouse Museum Sydney, National Gallery of Victoria, and the Australian National Gallery of Canberra, acquired Jackson’s Fashion, Textiles and photographic archive. |
| 'Lyrebird Beauty and Friends', by Linda Jackson |
Closing the studio in 1992 due to ill health from screen printing inks, Linda relocated to Arnhemland in the Northern Territory; she travelled and lived in remote parts of Australia including WA, NT and North Queensland, worked in Indigenous communities, managed Art projects and continued painting and exhibiting her art and textiles in private or regional galleries.
In 2012, the National Gallery of Victoria curated her retrospective exhibition entitled ‘Bush Couture’, to celebrate her unique form of Art clothing. The displays were a record of Linda’s romance with classical couture, the dress traditions of India, Japan, China and Africa, infused with colours and shapes of the Australian Bush and Indigenous collaborations. Linda’s archive of photographs featured in multi media images in the exhibition space. At this time Linda also collaborated with the Centre for Australasian Theatre in Cairns for costume design of the production ‘The Colony’ performed at Jute Theatre, November 2013, and continued collaboration on ‘This Fleeting World’ ... sets and costume for 2015.
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| Flamingo Park And Beyond Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson Living Arts Centre 2016 |
Interview:
Louisa: What are your favourite costumes in fairy tale illustrations or films?
Linda: Actually I have loved many... and the more exotic the better. I was an avid reader of many books... Growing up I loved every Walt Disney films. The Jetsons and the Flintstones. I guess they are not fairy stories but cartoons !!! I drew and designed clothes for the characters. I made cutout paper fairy doll clothes and stored them in little stocking boxes. When I was about 15 my dad printed one of my black and white drawings of 3 fairy type girls with big eyes as a card and I would colour them in all with different patterns... and sold to a local shop in Beaumaris, plus other colourful small paintings. Maybe they were my Pixies...
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| 'Gumleaves Tree Fairy', by Linda Jackson Power House Museum Sydney Collection. Photo by Fran Moore |
Louisa: What are three of your favourite fairy tales, and why?
Linda: Alice in Wonderland… Beauty and the Beast… I guess my own Story, Beauty and the Bush, which I started working on in the 70’s, is based on a combination those two... I feel that this story is really based on those early inspirations and my own life adventures, dreams and visions. I loved Thumbelina…and later associated that story with Buddhist tales of the Lotus Flower; and Fantasia, the Sorcerers apprentice. I love reading...!! so I have devoured many fairy stories from many countries. 
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| 'Rainforest Amongst Gumleaves' Tree design (& photo), by Linda Jackson National Gallery Victoria |
The Earth laughs
in flowers."
in flowers."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson,
'Hamatreya'.
Louisa: In Shakespeare's time, it was a crime to dress outside one's designated class. It mattered to identify status at a glance. It's interesting how many of his plays involve disguise. Do you see clothing as a way to hide, escape, or conceal? Or is it more about revealing what we wish to show? A little of both?
Linda: I was inspired by many countries and different cultures, reading National Geographic as a young girl. I liked tribal clothes and costume. My parents were ballroom dancers so I grew up dressing up in mum’s frocks. I did ballet and Calisthenics... I loved dressing up and making up my own costumes. I loved ethnic dress for the workmanship, the handwoven cloths and embroideries... The way you can tell where someone comes from by their costumes and jewels.
Louisa: Would you say that fashion is more about letting our internal quality shine through? Before knowing anything about you, I walked straight up to you and pegged you as the fairy I was meeting, because you had that aura. The word “glamour” traditionally meant a kind of enchantment. What is it that you try to evoke or convey?
Linda: I have made all my own clothes since I was around 12, and still do. I never wanted any of the clothes in shops… I always from an early age wanted to create my own. Perhaps I was dressing up as many different characters… I dress to be comfortable and I like to be able to jump around, dance, sit on the floor…peel layers off and dive in the creek... maybe this comes from the travels and life in remote places. Washing by hand and drying on the Hills Hoist is essential. In the early fashion days I was the mannequin...I experimented and explored all ways of cutting, wrapping, painting, printing on myself. Even with my photographs from the 70’s it was essential to roll up the outfits, both glamorous and practical in the swag back to the location that inspired them.
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| Seaweed Fairy, by Linda Jackson |
Louisa: If you could design clothing for a fairy tale character, whom would you choose? Why?
Linda: Now I would be only creating costume for my own story and characters, all the Wildflowers the Bush and Opals.
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| 'Opal Rainforest', Silk Scarf by Linda Jackson |
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| 'Opal Tribe', by Linda Jackson |
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| Floral textile ... Wildflowers Embroidery by Linda Jackson National Gallery of Victoria |
Louisa: You are working on your own fairy tale now, aren't you? If you feel ready to comment on this, we'd love to hear about it.
Linda: This has been a dream for many years. Now I see the main character is probably me; I have had to travel, dream, be inspired, wander the remote places of Oz… experience wild, powerful and magic landscapes full of stories and wonder, and make and create along the way. To be able to write and paint these stories can happen now as it seems a part of my journey has come a full circle… My visual diary is the clothes I have made… the artworks painted and printed along the way. Words like calligraphy appearing as patterns and shapes.
CV - Archive of Exhibitions:
LINDA JACKSON
COLLECTIONS
Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Frances Burke Resource Centre, R.M.I.T., Melbourne
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Private Collections, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Major Archive & costume collection
Queen Victoria Museum, Tasmania, South Australia Museum
The Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs. Chinese Museum Bendigo
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2016 Woman in Style Fashion Award
2010 Mossman Storycloths- Scarves & CIAF. Project Grant, Arts Qld BIA .
2009 Mossman Storycloths- Scarves & CIAF. Project Grant, Arts Qld BIA.
2007/8 Creative Communities. RADF Arts Qld,
2006 Essence DVD Cairns Regional Gallery Project Grant, Arts Qld
2003 Life Fellow: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
2003 1st Prize: Carnivale Art competition, - Port Douglas Gallery of Fine Art
1996 Fellowship Visual Arts / Craft Board - Australia Council for the Arts
1977 Lyrebird Australian Fashion Awards - Innovators Award
WORKSHOPS & TRAINING 2000-2016
National Gallery Victoria, RMIT Melbourne Victoria Floor talks, Lectures, Workshops
Port Douglas, Mossman Gorge , Cairns, Townsville, Cooktown, Aurukun, Mission Beach
Indigo Dyes, Natural Dyes, Shibori, Weaving, Painting, Sewing, Screen Printing
WORKSHOPS LECTURES & TRAINING 1977-2016
Presented workshops throughout Australia and Indigenous Art Centres.
Aboriginal Communities include from 1980 Utopia-Yuendumu-Santa Teresa-Maruku- Hermannsburg Alice Springs in Central Aust. Tiwi Designs and Bima on Bathurst Island-Ramingining –Maningrida, Oenpelli- Arnhem Land-Darwin NT. Cairns, Mossman, Cooktown. Atherton Tablelands, Mission Beach, North Queensland. Bundaberg. Hervey Bay
Extensive workshops-lectures in Schools, Colleges, TAFE, Universities NSW, Vic, NT Tasmania.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS: FINE ART AND TEXTILES
2016 Hand and Heart Wollongong Art Gallery
2016 Linda Jackson Studio Gallery 47 Rylstone NSW
2013 Linda Jackson Studio La Trobe University
2013 Gold-Dragon-Bush Bendigo Art Gallery
2012 Bush Couture NGV Melbourne
2012 Waratah Kado The Way of Flowers CellArtSpace Cairns
2112 The Avoca Project Installation Watford house Avoca VIC
2011 Waratara Opal cloud No 47 Rylstone
2010 Opal Mud Fossil Umbrella Studio Townsville
2010 Swamplands Paintings No 47 Gallery Rylestone
2010 Vintage Jackson Shapiro
2009 Black Opal Lightning Ridge
2009 Opal Jewels, Giulians Sydney
2008 Dyeing with the Red Mangrove Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns
2006 Essence Cairns Regional Gallery
2006 The Opal Forest Karnak Kaleidoscope Art Theatre
2005 Reflections in a Blue Lake Port Douglas Daintree Gallery of Fine Art
2003 Coral Sea Radisson Treetops Resort Exhibition and Residency
2002 Waratah Butcher Café Mudgee- Paintings and Scrolls
2001 Opal Reef Port Douglas Gallery- Paintings Textiles
2001 Black Opal Lightning Ridge
1999 Fan Coral Radisson Treetops Resort -Exhibition & Residency
Rainforest Radisson Treetops Resort – Exhibition & Residency
Lipstick Palm Post Office Gallery Port Douglas - Paintings
Fashion Art Survey Linda Jackson 1974-1999 Span Gallery Melbourne
1998 Paintings Rugs Textiles Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery
Desert Rivers Gondwana 11 Alice Springs -Paintings
1996 Pearl Coast Durack Gallery Broome -Paintings & Textiles
1995 Billabongs Boabs Beyond 24HR Art Darwin
1994 Opal Country Paintings Gallery Gondwana Alice Springs
1993 A Brush with the Bush Paintings Barry Stern Gallery Sydney
1991 A Bush Fantasy Museum of Childhood Juniper Hall Sydney
SOLO STUDIO SHOWS: Sydney FASHION-PERFORMANCE-OPALS
1988 Jordan’s Darling Harbour - “Bush Couture and Bush Couture for Kids”
1986 Shepherd Street Chippendale Studio – “Bush Couture Christmas Show”
1984 William Street Studio, Sydney – “Bush Couture Blossoms” Collection
1983 William Street Studio, Sydney – “Opal Essnece - Perfume – Jewellery and Textile Collection”
William Street Studio, Sydney – “Black Opal Bush Couture”
1982 William Street Studio, Sydney – “SalonOpalinda -Opal Jewellery and Textiles”
William Street Studio, Sydney – “Black Magic Bush”
1981 Queen Street Galleries Sydney - Opals & Silver Jewellery & Textiles
FLAMINGO PARK SHOWS - FASHION WITH JENNY KEE
1981 Jamieson Street Nightclub Sydney – “Flaming Opal Follies”
1980 Sydney Town Hall – “Red Centre”
1979 Seymour Centre Sydney – “Barrier Reef & Wildflowers”
1978 Queen Street Galleries – “Colour & Shapes”
1977 New York – “Wildflowers”
Milan Paris – “Wildflowers
Windsor Hotel Melbourne - “Trunk Show”
1976 Le Café Sydney – “Flamingo Follies”
1975 Bondi Pavilion Theatre – “Flamingo Follies”
1974 Hingara Chinatown Sydney – “Step Into Paradise”
ROMANCE WAS BORN Fashion Collaboration 2015
COOEE COUTURE ART GALLERY NSW
COOEE Collection 2
OPAL ROMANCE Collection 3
RECENT THEATRE COSTUME & SETS AND WORKSHOPS 2012-2017
Collaboration with Cairns based Centre for Australasian Theatre
The Colony, Jute Theatre Cairns
This Fleeting World, Jute Theatre Cairns
Cargo Club, Metro Arts, Brisbane
RECENT THEATRE COSTUME & SETS AND WORKSHOPS 2012-2017
Collaboration with Cairns based Centre for Australasian Theatre
The Colony, Jute Theatre Cairns
This Fleeting World, Jute Theatre Cairns
Cargo Club, Metro Arts, Brisbane
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS INTERNATIONAL
1991 Korea - “Australian Fashion The Contemporary Art”
1990 Tokyo Japan - “Australian Fashion The Contemporary Art
1989 Victoria & Albert Museum, London – “Australian Fashion The Contemporary Art”
1986 Tokyo, Japan – “Art Knits”
1987 Neiman Marcus, San Francisco USA – “Australian Fortnight”
Neiman Marcus, Los Angeles USA - “Australian Fortnight”
1986 Commonwealth Arts Festival, Edinburgh Scotland – “Australian Decorative Arts”
Neiman Marcus Dallas USA - “Australian Fortnight”
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS AUSTRALIA
2016 Flamingo Park and Beyond. Living Arts Space Bendigo
2016 200 Years of Australian Fashion NGVA Federation Square
2015 The Horse NGVI Melbourne
2014 When you see this Remember me. NGV Melbourne
2014 Paternation The Carlton Melbourne
2013 OPAL -Lightning Ridge NSW
2012 Rainbow Opal Collection - Dubbo NSW
2011 The White Wedding Dress - Bendigo Art Gallery Victoria
2011 Fashion Full Stop, LMFF Melbourne Fashion Festival
2011 Fashion Full Stop, LMFF Melbourne Fashion Festival
2010 Queen Victoria Statue Costume - Sydney Statue Project
2010 Mossman Story Cloths - CIAF Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Tanks
2009 Into the 80’s, Powerhouse Museum Sydney
2009 Mossman Story Cloths, CIAF Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Tanks
2008 Low Isles The Reef & Beyond - Sugar Wharf, Port Douglas
2008 Across the Desert - N.G.V. Melbourne
2008 Black in Fashion: Mourning to Night - N.G.V Victoria
2008 Low Isles: A Fragile Sanctuary - Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns
2007 Low Isles: A Fragile Sanctuary - Port Douglas
2007 Taking it to the Tropics - Tanks Performance Arts Centre,Qld
2005 Inspired! - Design Across Time - Powerhouse Museum Sydney
2003 Life Fellows Awards Exhibition - Powerhouse Museum Sydney
Carnivale Art Show - Port Douglas Galleries of Fine Art
2002 Federation Square Opening Twister: - The Ian Potter Centre N.G.V. Australia.
2001 Opal textiles & jewellery - Lightning Ridge N.S.W.
2001 Opal textiles & jewellery - Yowah Queensland
2000 State of the Waratah - H.S. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1999 Photographs - Museum of Sydney
Federation Fashion - Myer, Melbourne
Colonial to Contemporary - Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
One Hundred Moments of Fashion - Myer, Melbourne
1999 Design Show - Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
Southern Bias - Object Gallery, Sydney
1996 Great Lengths Central Australian Textiles - The Araleun Centre, Alice Springs
Indigo - The Araleun Centre, Alice Springs
Couture to Chaos - National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1995 The Artists Garden - Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1993 The Art of the Scarf - Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney
1989 Australian Fashion The Contemporary Art - Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
A Free Hand - ”Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
1988 Australian Decorative Arts 1788-1988 - Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Art Knits - Art Gallery of N.S.W.
Plastic Rubber & Leather Dress - Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1986 Linda Jackson & Jenny Kee, Flamingo Park & Bush Couture - Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1984 Permanent Collection - National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Australian Decorative Arts The Last 10 Years - Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1983 Clothes & Clay - Orange Gallery, NSW
1983 Costumes, Masks & Jewellery of the Commonwealth - Queensland Art Gallery
Textiles - Crafts Council Gallery of Tasmania
1981 Fabulous Fashions 1907-1967 - Art Gallery of N.S.W.
Art Clothes - Art Gallery of N.S.W.
1980 Vogue Australia 21 birthday Fashion show - Art Gallery of N.S.W.
1979 Into the 80s - Textile Museum of Australia
1973 Winter Fair Bonython Gallery Sydney
This information was kindly provided by Linda Jackson, with her interview by invitation for this Fairy blog. Special thanks to the Australian Fairy Tale Society, through which we met.
This information was kindly provided by Linda Jackson, with her interview by invitation for this Fairy blog. Special thanks to the Australian Fairy Tale Society, through which we met.
Fey regards - Louisa John-Krol
