SUE BUTLER

Lee Sass' room

Living Room - How about this:
I am lying on my back on the floor, the magic carpet I am lying on is just short of me, I am 5'4''. I can't spread my arms out as I would put my right hand in the fire, well if the door was open on the stove. I could rest my left arm on the coffee table, but I might knock the candles and cups or the paperwork and assortment of notebooks onto the floor. The ceiling looks far away from here even though I know I could just about touch it if I stood up. The dog could easily slip onto my head with his inquisitive nose from his favourite chair. I must brush the hairs off the stripes. There really is only enough room for cat pose and leg lifts, that's my excuse anyway.

After some serious exercise I have to move to the sofa and kick away some of the paperwork to put my feet up. I can watch the TV from here now I have positioned it well on my designer boxes. The boxes are from my arts project which had sound built inside and a slot for looking out of. I have six but only two are holding the TV up. They form a sort of totem to TV. The other parts of the art project are holding up shelves behind the second sofa, its good that art is meaningful isn't it? - though I have to say the collaged art boxes and records propped between them hint at my interests and age! I have an attempt at getting up to date with a techno ispeaker/doc thing strategically placed for the most effect (along with an antique/old bit box). I'm full of contradictions, isn't that what makes life interesting?

This living room is true to its name, it is stuffed with things for living - musical instruments, books, computer, desk, files, cupboards and wii, not to mention artwork, mainly my late husband's - his black and white card cuts are both strong and sensitive and hang side by side with homage to him and his life's work made by me and close friends. He was a fiddle player and an artist, he is still here in a container in the corner of the room covered in a blanket of love, next to my old dog Lucy. No one knows he is here, just us. How sinister does that sound! I just haven't scattered his ashes yet.

CHRIS WALSHAW + JOAN GROUNDS

Anne Mosey's room

Byron Bay, NSW, Australia

The room I’ve selected is my study. It’s where I think and sometimes make art, also do my consultancy work, read books, dream, do my tax and general household stuff, read more books, meditate, write poetry, plan projects, read more books, send emails, write letters, look out the window, listen to the birds, dream again…


It’s a double brick room painted white, about 5 m x 4 m. It has a double glass door all along one wall opening out to the west into a small private courtyard. My desk is there, so I look out on a large eucalyptus tree filled with parrots, kookaburras and magpies (not all together!) which is on the far (street) side of a 2m brick wall at the back of the courtyard, and lots of tall ferns and a bougainvillea with purple flowers on the internal part of the small courtyard garden. Sometimes huntsman spiders and other creatures, geckoes, small skink lizards, mice,etc make their way into the room. No snakes so far. The room has a nondescript carpet in a teal blue with white and brown specks.


There are two long tables on the north and south walls. The south table is covered with messy piles of papers, boxes, a printer, a phone, a box of tissues. Underneath it are three clear plastic boxes with photographs and other papers in them. The table is actually a white painted door set on 2 wooden trestle tables. On the wall above the table are several photos. One is in colour of my father patting his red kelpie dog while standing in his woolshed. One is of my brother standing in a paddock with wooden sheep yards in the background and holding the hands of his two small grandchildren, a boy and a girl, who both have ecstatic grins on their faces. My brother has a rather weary smile. There are some big gum trees behind him. Next to these photos, which are about 40x25 cms, is a painting about 60x90 cms, of a hillside in browns and yellows, and a road going up the hill with a red kelpie walking away from the viewer up the hill. It is late afternoon and there are long purple shadows. Then next to that painting are two more coloured photos, about 20x30 cms. One is a collage of several shots of a grey-haired Aboriginal woman and myself. The other one is the same woman on her own holding a small blond-haired toddler on her lap, her great grandson. She is wearing a turquoise top and a red and blue flowered skirt. He is wearing a black top and white pants. They are sitting on an old tankstand with a dark green wall behind them.


On the western side is the double glass and screen door with a curtain across it to stop the bright west setting sun. Also there is my desk, which was my father’s. It is a small desk, made of walnut, with lots of pigeonholes at the top which are filled with papers, clips, a blue and white spotted cup holding biros, a box of staples, a box of those coloured wall pins, envelopes of different sizes, a tape measure, some sheep’s ear tags, a small black diamante purse of my mother’s, a card from her funeral with her photo on it in a sort of misty oval shape, a roll of toilet paper, and a small spiral-bound notebook next to my laptop which is on the open fold-out part of the desk. There are three long drawers, and turned wooden legs. On the top above the pigeonholes is a small lamp with white shade, two phone books and a small round tin with red roses on the top. 


On the northern side there is a cupboard which was my father’s when he was a boy at boarding school. It’s juts an ordinary brown wooden cupboard with two doors, one on each side, about a metre by a metre high.. The doors are shut, and on top is a cork noticeboard with lots of business cards in bright colours and some photos. On top of the cupboard and in front of the noticeboard is a round woven basket coloured shades of ochre and yellow, made from fibres and natural plant dyes by a woman from ArnhemLand in NT. Next to it is a decorated lacquer bridge card box, brought back by my parents from Kashmir. It is painted with kingfishers and sprays of golden flowers. Next to that is a b/w photo of me as a baby in a white dress, sitting on a lawn, looking very pleased with life. Next to the cupboard, between that and the glass door, are several rolls of paper and paintings, tucked into the corner. Next to the cupboard on the rhs is another long table, a brown wooden one, with piles of papers across half of it and bare the other half. There are two clear plastic tubs under the table with turquoise lids. You can’t see what's in the tubs. Next to the table is a white three drawer filing cabinet, with an empty Beatles plastic mug and a large enamel mug filled with coloured pencils and with red flowers on it. Above the filing cabinet is a framed collection of portraits of members of my brother’s family – himself, his wife, one teenage girl, two teenage boys, a small boy and a baby girl. Next to the filing cabinet is my grandmother’s brown rocking chair, covered with a tapestry back and seat, and a carved wooden head and sides.


On the eastern wall is a white seven-shelf bookcase covering all the wall, full of books, some on their sides, most being vertical. Some are leaning, some are in piles, some are vertical. Next to that is a carved tall wooden standard lamp with a curly globe but no lampshade. Then there is a door into a passageway, which has b/w photos all along it, some family portraits and some landscapes. There are two windows, one long high window above the pinboard, and a large clear glass skylight that lets in a lot of light from the northern side (like your south). There is a fake leadlight hanging light fitting next to the skylight with green and white panels in it. The full-length curtain in front of the glass door is a plain light grey with many folds, no curtain rings, just those folds behind which are hooks on to a rod. 

And I’m sitting on a standard black swivel office chair with no arms. I see the blue sky and clouds from the skylight which is about 1m x ½ m, and tree tops from the long window.