Sunday, November 6, 2016

Pondering clouds...

It's funny how things can be with you for quite a while, and then you look at them with fresh eyes and begin to wonder what else they might become.

The spark for this re-consideration was a visit by a gallery manager who wanted to take a look at a book of mine. In preparing the studio for her visit, I stopped to look at some of my small Amongst The Clouds prints and wondered how would I explain what they were?

That got me thinking and I thought that they needed to become a book; yet how to bind clouds?

The words are printed on small sheets of goyu paper - soft and feathery edges; light-as-a-cloud paper.


They look mightily structured when you see them in their formation here.  and somehow that just didn't feel right for clouds.




So I started jotting down thoughts about how I could sequence them; how could I stitch them? What thread could I use?  All the questions that I have to ask and answer in order for the final work to have integrity. 


On reflection, I see these pages as a conversation I have with myself - posing questions, answering questions, making points asking myself to pay attention to certain things...intriguing. Quite literally you can see the conversation and the statements back and forth I think.

And that was the real question wasn't it? Stitching Clouds...


But I have come to a form of resolution, melding a bunch of ideas about softness, and drifting, and not being held; about forming and re-forming...


And now the prototype sits waiting to begin...





14 comments:

  1. I've no idea how you'd sew clouds. Looking forward to seeing the finished book.

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    1. Thanks Jac - it's quite the dilemma isn't it? You can see how I couldn't quite do it - it felt wrong!

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  2. What a delightful dilemma. Stitching clouds. Thank you for letting us in on the discussion and am looking forward to the finished work.

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    1. Its an intriguing difficulty isn't it Pam? How would one? They shift form and shape and dissipate...you just can't pin them down...fingers crossed it works out somehow. Go well.

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    1. Thanks Susan - its always fun to face a problem and then almost maybe find an answer!

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  4. How cool to sew clouds! Can't wait to see the resolution.
    Sandy in the UK

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    1. Isn't it just the most delicious dilemma Sandy?!??!

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  5. F - delicate pages requiring a delicate solution. And you of the white on white will do it. B

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  6. funny how these things just hang around, and then suddenly they start to come together.

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    1. So true Velma, so true - and sometimes they become more than they were...

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