"The Art of War"... Matchbox Paintings from WW1

"The Art of War"

                                                  ART OF WAR from Tom Cowan on Vimeo.

Matchbox Paintings from WWI.

This collection of war paintings printed onto matchboxes was offered by the props man when we were filming the feature "LIFE CLASS 1920".  

The art was relevant to the story of war trauma suffered in a small rural town and the healing effect of art. The movie is about a somewhat shell-shocked French artist who tries to introduce life drawing to the village in 1920. So I thought I might use them as a preface to the movie.

As it turned out, I didn’t use them in the edit and only remembered them recently. They seemed so interesting and beautiful that I decided to put them out in this video. 

I don’t know who the artist was or their place in the art of the war. Perhaps someone will come forward with information about their history.

Peter has told me that there are many such itmes available on the net which were produced in the period of WW1 and also WW2.

Here are some other examples of these:

WW2

"Eat. Sleep. Dive." by David King

Eat. Sleep. Dive. 

A simple, monastic existence for 15 days.

Breakfast at 7.30am, freediving from around 10.30am to 2.30pm, return to shore, wash gear, rest and recover and maybe do some shopping in the local markets until dinner at 7.30pm. In bed, exhausted by 10.30pm.


Next day, repeat. No TV, no newspapers, no social media.


The only variations to the schedule were breathing and strength exercises and some pool work. The staff of Bali Reef Divers Resort were more than happy to let us drop a weight belt to the bottom of their 2m pool and do static breathholds with reflections of palm trees dancing on the surface above.


This was our life in Tulamben, Bali over two weeks in July-August 2023.


The diving was spectacular. Breath-taking. Mind-boggling.


From six or seven metres of visibility in Port Phillip Bay to 15 – 25 metres of viz off the north-east coast of Bali where the water temperature was between 26 and 29 degrees every day.


From shivering in 9 – 12 degrees on land and wearing thick socks and roll-neck jumpers in Portarlington to pulling on a pair of shorts and singlet in Tulamben. And that’s what they call ‘winter’ over there.


We only had one bad dive at 3pm one day when the tide was out. Like swimming inside a pie. But the next day made up for it.



The wreck of the USAT Liberty – a US transport ship torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1942 - is the main attraction. It’s roughly 122 metres long, broken up and scattered over a sloping seabed in depths ranging from 5 metres at the top of the up-thrusting stern to around 30 metres at the end of the flattened bow.



You reach it by swimming maybe 50m out from shore. The shoreline drops off sharply on this coast and causes a strong inshore break which can be hard to get through given the slope is comprised of loose volcanic stones and rocks. But once out there, the magic starts.




Schools of brightly-coloured fish flitter through dancing sunbeams, and weave in and out of rusty structures overgrown with corals and sponges.



This is a popular and over-dived site. Bubbles from dozens of Scuba divers often make it seem like swimming in a champagne glass. Whole squads of snorkellers and their guides jostle for space on the surface – a nuisance when you’re preparing to dive.


But down there is a wreck diver’s paradise - an eerie underworld of jangling sunbeams, surreal twisted, broken and collapsed structures, and a mesmerising parade of marine life.


Eerie because the sand all around the wreck is black, casting a kind of permanent twilight, courtesy of the local volcano Mount Agung which looms over Tulamben and the dive sites like a Damocles Sword.


Indeed the township derived its name from the word batulambih, which roughly translates as "many stones", a reference to the destructive eruptions by Mount Agung that have affected this part of Bali from time to time. The beach in Tulamben is entirely covered with large and small smooth stones. The modern name evolved over time, first to "Batulamben" and finally settling on the contraction Tulamben ("batu" means "stone" in Indonesian).


Some memories of our dives: Andrea perched on a metal structure eight metres down, sweeping her hand through her hair like a model in a shampoo ad as I dived down filming her with our GoPro.


Swimming down through the hatch of a former cargo hold, transfixed at nine-and-a-half metres between the light of the surface and the dark of the hold. I hung in the sunbeams with arms spread-eagled and ankles crossed like I’d been crucified in the light as Andrea glided down filming me.


Lounging against a pillar in the gloomy cargo hold 11 metres down with a large Napoleon wrasse circling around me. I could just see the arrogant bastard thinking: “And what do you think you’re doing in MY territory, Surface-Dweller?”


But I gave him the eye: “I know what you do when the sharks come out to feed, don’t I? Skulk away in your hide-away, don’t you?” Napoleon gives a disgruntled grunt and swims off.


Looking up to see Andrea distantly silhouetted against the surface with a school of blue and gold Fusiliers swirling between us.


Kneeling on the seabed with the pyramid-like stern section towering over me. Gliding through a maze of metal struts and beams and finding holes in the structure to exit from for a swift return to surface.



Bursting through the surface, floating on our backs to gulp down huge breaths of warm tropical air between dives.



There are other dives around Tulamben. Artificial reefs in seven to 12 metres of water only 15 – 20 metres from the beach.



Corals gardens with huge staghorn and brain corals and a large open-topped species of sponge which reminded me strongly of the leathery egg-cases from the which the face-huggers sprang in Ridley Scott’s sci fi film Alien.



We excitedly planned to do an imitation Alien shot with one of us kneeling at the side of the sponge, peering down into the opening as the character played by John Hurt did before the face-hugger sprang at him. Hopefully, nothing would spring at us.



But alas, we lost the GoPro and all its footage. Maybe it just didn’t want to come back to cold Victorian waters, but it somehow got separated from the wrist strap. The tether between the camera and the strap broke without either of us knowing it until too late.


For over an hour, we swam and dived in search of it over a wide area where we thought it must have dropped to the bottom, but no luck.


We returned to shore utterly exhausted and demoralised. All that wonderful footage – gone.


Meanwhile, there was still a few days of our Bali adventure to go and the Japanese wreck to dive off Amed, some 40 minutes along a narrow, winding coastal road from Tulamben.


This is a small but stunningly beautiful wreck (courtesy of the astonishing variety of marine life which almost hides it from view) which lies in four to nine-and-a-half metres of water off yet another steeply sloping beach comprised of volcanic stones and rocks. Visibility at the shallowest end can be non-existent but swim a few metres deeper and all becomes clear.


Being keen wreck divers, Andrea and I could have spent another hour exploring this wreck in spite of having swam over and around it at various depths several times. Every dive seemed to reveal something we hadn’t noticed before.


We had hoped to dive with the manta rays off Nusa Penda, but time flew by exploring the wrecks and there was none left for what would have been a whole expedition in itself.


We were bitterly disappointed over losing the GoPro and the footage we had managed to get.

But we rallied ourselves and vowed to come back next year with another camera and a stronger tether.


As Andrea put it: “We’ll be even Older and Bolder!”


Back in Portarlington, Victoria, Australia, rugged up in jumpers, jeans and scarves, we can barely believe we’ve experienced what we just have - a tropical wreck diver’s paradise only five-and-a-half hours away where we left a note on the bed of our resort room reading:

“Old’N’Bold Freediving Adventures 

occupied this room from 

22 July to 06 August. 

We had a blast and we’ll be back.

 Thanks for everything. 

David & Andrea.”

A wonderful coincidence.

On Monday morning I was sitting at my computer and listening to the radio when I received an email from my friend Richard which introduced me to artist Lloyd Godman and his beautiful Tillandsia sculptures.

I've already sent out an email to all our friends on this subject but I forgot to mention that it coincided with another event on the radio at the same time.

Floating wetlands!

You all probably know about floating wetlands but I had no knowledge of them at all. They have much in common with Tillandsia varieties which can flourish in many environments without being attached to the soil. 

So I really enjoyed finding out about both of them during the same couple of minutes in my lifetime. Also because I love the experience of coincidence.

The radio chat was between Virginia Trioli and a guest who was chatting about floating islands for the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay, about their value and issues relating to them.

Here's a few images where they are situated in the Yarra River:

and here they are at Docklands

 How to build one if you have a fine body of water near your place:

You can see why I was fascinated by this conjunction between Lloyd's sculptures and these floating wetlands. There are so many advantages to these applications.

One huge advantage is that they can be shaped in many ways, large or small, to enable animals to thrive in areas where they are most threatened. 

They also act as water filters to clean up polluted waterways and lakes, as well as human sewage.

They can be constructed from many materials including metals and stabilised plastics, grids, barrels, wire mesh, etc.

Of course one would need to be selective, but most of you would know about plastics which are being used for fences, posts and barriers, which are converted from plastic waste...

• Made in Australia from 100% UV stabilized recycled plastic
• Will not rot rust or be eaten by insects
• Low Maintenance

Matrix Woven Lattice is ideal for screening, shading and It can be used for covering up unsightly areas. it is made from 100% UV stabilised recycled plastic so will provide a low maintenance screening solutions for many years. It is single sided and can be fitted with a C Channel kit to provide extra rigidity and support.

Of course, we all face the overwhelming issue that we cannot recycle enough of our burgeoning plastic waste and that not enough people are buying the recycled offerings such as the above, which would mean that we don't have to send out mountains of waste to third world countries to be recycled there!

Thanks to Lloyd Godman showing us the way with his wonderful Tillandsia sculptures and with the floating wetlands projects, I got inspired! I used to have a dam which was big enough for a floating wetland, but I don't have it any longer. Pity! 

But around my house there are many possibilities for growing Tillandsia to keep out the savages. Last year I was planning to grow organic razor wire:

But the happy coincidence of meeting Lloyd Godman and hearing about floating wetlands on the radio has softened my approach to keeping out the bogans and their progeny.

It's not that I have given up on my organic razor wire project, I just have more options available to me now!

pt

Our friend Alexandra said it's OK to add two of her images:

Phoenix

“Butterflies need recharging too”

 

"3 panels"

 

Many years ago over a period of 5 years, I made 3 short films which were intended as companion pieces:

"My Belle"

"Hey Marcel..."

"Queen of the Night"

I had always hoped that one day I would show them together as a "triptych" in a public space, but that never eventuated. 

I did realise a sort of unification of the three under the heading "TRIPTYCH" when I remastered and released them on DVD via Artfilms.

Recently I decided to create a short experimental version which would present the three separate films as panels on a single screen.

Finally, forty years since I created these films, I have realised that dream with a lot of help from two people in particular.

First, Bill McDonald who composed the music for each of the three original works. I was very lucky that Bill was introduced to me by our mutual friend Robert Ratti, who also starred in "Queen of the Night". Bill's music for the three separate films fitted them like a glove, I have always been incredibly grateful that he composed those tracks. However, in creating the new version of "3 panels" we agreed that Bill would create a new piece, not trying to match any of the old music tracks.

The second person I need to thank here especially is Alix Jackson, whom I met when he was working for Kriszta Doczy at Artfilms.

 

I find Alix really great to work with and it was he who helped me create the re-mastered version of "Triptych" in 2017. This time I needed his assistance in working through the technical issues of 3 panels in one widescreen format.

So here now is "3 panels", a new event drawn from films I made forty years ago.

Hope you like!

pt