Thursday Thoughts...

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!”

Jane Austen

I've got to hand it to Ms Austen here - I concur!

It's interesting to me how often I want to just sit and read a book. When I was a student, living away from home and studying a high intensity course, there was little time for any reading  other than text books, lecture notes and research. My load was pretty much 8 or 9am - 5pm each day at Uni and for each hour of contact we were expected to do at 2 hours of home study, so most nights went late, and weekends were for study.

But still. I tried to always have a novel, by the bed which I could pick up and read a chapter of, or half a chapter or a few pages before falling asleep. Reading was my reward.

During that same time I loved visiting the homes of friends who still lived at home - I walked in and could wander through their bookshelves, their libraries and simply be surrounded by books again. Oh it felt so good! As a student in rented accommodation I had one bookshelf and it was full of text books and folders. To see books! To get lost amongst them! Oh it was heaven.

Books continue to entertain, to provide solace and reward and I sincerely doubt I will ever tire of them.

And I love finding books in out of the way and unexpected places. Isle of Mull 2016.

Would I follow me?

 As mentioned here, I am have been pondering things like my creative brand and social media platforms and marketing and....all the stuff I struggle with. I am however committed to working my way through things and understanding it all better, so the other day I sat down to assess my Instagram account.

And one of the funniest things I wrote down was "Would I follow me???".

It came about because I was thinking about what I am looking for when I follow an Instagram account as it is one of the questions that Kim asks in the workshop. For me I think it is a combination of things:

• The art work and style have to appeal to me
• I like the look of an account to be consistent - that sense of when I go there I will find the sort of things I like on a regular basis
• I don't enjoy too much irrelevant information or imagery - food, travel, people etc
• However it is nice to have those occasional moments of life outside the art revealed.
• I like to see the person, the maker on occasions
• I like to see the process as well as the outcome
• I like to see close up details of things and the whole
• I don't like to see  a heap of promotion for events, mostly because living in a small country town I am unlikely to be able to see any of them!

I was surprised by the number of things that fed into an account's appeal and I wondered how my own account would stack up against my collection of 'criteria'.

And as I imagined, I was a bit disappointed and not entirely sure that I would follow me at all!

The first full screen from my Insta account (on my phone which is where I mostly look at Insta) when I did this check, had some book-ets, a close up of paper, some jewellery a stack of books, a promotion of the garage sale, a silver wire nest, promotion for Libris Awards, some cards, a black and white shot of some artwork, more promotion this time for for the pop up show in Scotland, some earrings, and black and white photo.

So I didn't give myself many marks for consistency, lack of promotion, or images of the artist or works in progress. And personally I just really don't like yellow and it felt 'ick' to see it on my page!

The next full screen of images was a bit better. The colour palette was more consistent, there was a photo of me, a bit of promotion and a real sense of the exhibition Hame which was the main focus at this time. Also a couple of random domestic arty moments which may or may not work.

Going further back, things were a bit hotch potchy, but the palette was soft and soothing, a mix of my work and others, and a lovely domestic moment (the vases) which seemed to complement the arty things.

I went back one more screen and the colours and paper-based nature of things worked well, the artists' books and the cards. I imagine the pax was for the International Day of Peace. The earrings sort of stood out a bit as different. I liked the pop of gold leaf int eh Circles of Concern.

My learnings from this were to really consider what I posted - both the why and the what - and to see if I could get the mix right of consistency with variations and interest, colour groupings that pleased the eye, and to use promotion very carefully. Especially when the colours don't suit me! I noticed some folk would have their art for a show on the front and the last image in the carousel would be the promotional image. The text would talk about the exhibition or show or whatever it was, but the promotional material wasn't the number 1 thing.

I am also now testing and trialling reels and stories - making short videos from images and adding music here and there. It is all a bit hit and miss at the moment, but a worthwhile thing to pursue I think.

The process is also making me think about, and try to understand, what I do where (like here on this blog) and what I do on Insta and what the website is trying to do and how they all fit together.  Fun times!

Bits of teaching, marketing and sharing

 Life as a creative, as an artist, is full of all sorts of weird things that are tangential to the making, yet make for a full and arty life.

I count amongst these the work I do researching, planning, thinking and prepping for teaching. Recently I wanted to update some thoughts about how to progress work when it feels stalled; or where you think you might have got the perfect solution really quickly. I came across some of my learnings from a workshop six years ago and refreshed them, added to them and printed them. 

 

And as I so often  do - I reckon I got the its v it's thing wrong again here! Why oh why doesn't it have an apostrophe for the ownership bit??? A do-over won't hurt. Sigh.

Fixed it!

And today I got to use the cards as I taught another workshop on Building Narrative in Artists' Books. It was such a joy and delight! It's a small group - only four folk - and we get to go deep, think hard, and explore a lot.

I get to teach in Kim Herringe's beautiful space The Studio here in Maleny, with so many lovely things around us how could we not be inspired?

One of the things I teach is about how to read an artists' book and we have some lovely, lovely examples to dive into.

A few weeks ago we did a short evening workshop with Kim on Marketing and Social Media for Creatives. It's never easy for me to do the marketing thing, but Kim offered sensible and clear ideas and information about how to go about it.  And I think I can do some of it!  It was so good in fact that I started my homework the very next morning!

And to share some small good news...the State Library of Queensland recently purchased my small Grief is  Stone book-ets. In fact they bought two of the editions so that one could go in the Education Kit to share with visitors, school children and the like. I am thrilled to know they have a public home; and will also get the chance to be shared and talked about more.

So I packed them up and posted them!

An artistic life is full of this and that, and oh what fun it can be.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?” 

Lawrence Durrell

As I work away on my book of silences, this quote popped out as having real meaning to me this morning. 

My sense is that this is really quite a profound way of looking at and understanding our existence and our world.  It really took me aback to think of things this way.

I daresay that words have equal impact - of course they do; but perhaps he suggests that we hear those and understand them and that they are available to most of us to interpret. Of course, they can be layered and confusing and misinterpreted too!

But with this thought I think he suggests that the silences around us are ripe for misunderstanding and our ability to interpret and possibly translate silences; to fully understand the subtle messages they reverberate out into the world, is a kind of superpower. An ability that elevates our understandings.

Silence can be understood so differently between people - for one it is a pause, a moment to gather thoughts; to another it appears as rejection and disagreement.

I have been gifted so many amazing silences for this book and from within them I am discerning so many more silences than I would ever have imagined knowing for myself...

Practising calligraphic silences, 2015.

More printing and proofing

 My book of silences continues to take small steps forward, and to date no major dramas, just the odd problem to solve and sort.

Whilst waiting for some ink to dry, I got the 18pt Univers out and got the title ready - although this is not the layout of the title page, I have it out, ready to go when the chase is finally free from the 16 silences that are making up the first book.

At the moment, the plan is for an edition of 21, so I am printing 25 just in case...

These great little drying racks also offer some wonderful paper moments!

As I have previously mentioned, there is a fair bit of imposition and alignment to get right. I was trying to check whether the silence on the front and the back of the page had printed at about the same height, and thought - oh its such a great sunshiny day I am sure I'll be able to check out there, And I did.

I am happy here that the top lines on each sides line up.

And here I was hoping that the where I had to print on both sides would broadly line up as well, which I think it has.

And just what a great sky it was. So good for soul to feel warm again and to enjoy the bright light that is Australia in Spring and Summer.

And it is definitely doing magical things with my Dad's orchids as well!

The proof is in the proofing

 This will possibly be a pretty boring blog post about proofing, but I have begun to print the silences for my book of silences and am taking it all very seriously!  I really want this book to work and there is a lot of imposition and alignment to get right, so I can't be too casual about where things go on the page.

In part, because I am using other people's silences, I feel it is particularly important to honour them.

I have tried to think my way through lots of things and am hopeful I can progress smoothly. There will always be hiccups; but I would rather avoid pile ups!

My first proof print of my first silence. I wanted it to be 10mm from the folded gutter, and it was 12mm. Easy to sort. But I looked at the l on love and wondered - is that an l or is it a capital I? 

It would be an easy mistake to have made if I was dissing type so I went into detective mode and collected both an l, and an I, and the original piece of type in the chase. The photos are not too clear, but I was checking the width of each piece of type.

And sure enough, the piece from the chase was one of the wider pieces, which meant it was a capita I. I felt rather chuffed that I had noticed, and also solved the issue.

The top piece shows it with a correct l in place.

Every silence is being proofed, and a couple of them have definitely had moments!

This one's only real problem was layout, and was easily sorted.

This one had an upside down s! Which in other circumstances I might have rather enjoyed, but not here.

And with this one I had completely left out the word 'in'! Had I been writing a small poem, I could have left the word 'with' out as well and it might have worked, but I really need to reflect the words properly.

Sorted now.

It has been a good time. All the pages are cut plus many more for just in case...

The covers are cut and the end pages are cut. 

The imposition and layout have been decided and now I am printing. 

Because most folios need to be printed on all four pages, it will take time to ensure that the ink has dried in between printings. 

I am enjoying going slowly and letting it unfurl.

These brilliant, bold and bright images are close ups of waratahs. I love the varied wild and curly parts!

Thursday Thoughts...

“A bird gets up every morning and sings its song. It does not wait to hear what other birds are singing, nor does it look to see if another bird is getting more notice. It knows its song innately and sings. This is nature: knowing your own song.” 

Michele Oka Doner

A little bit late to the party of Michele Oka Doner whose work I have just discovered and am intrigued by.  Having first read her words, then sought her out, her art reflects this quote perfectly.

"Knowing your own song" seems a really joyous and confirming way in which to describe your own artwork and the way you go about it and how you have travelled to be here. I love the connection to nature and birds here, and feel it is ever so true to say that we may not know what we sing, or why - we probably shouldn't compare our song to others, we should simply sing our song - our own personal creative expression.

Whenever comparison comes into play I know I am in trouble.  

Whatever else age and experience bring, I am forever grateful that they have brought me the understanding that my work is my work. 

It is work only I can make. 

And it is the only work that I can make.

And if you have ever listened to a kookaburra laugh, you know that nobody else could do that; their laugh is their song, and theirs alone.

More peace

EDIT: three more images added today, 27 September

EDIT: A further two images were added today 26 September

EDIT: another three images have been added,  24 September.

Today's post is an update, a top-up, and a refresher, with images of the peace weathergrams from far flung places, and nearby home.

It was so good for the soul to see them in place in different locations and to know that perhaps a few people stopped to ponder upon peace or to be held by thoughts of peace as they passed by.

In a friend's field in Scotland with such rusty beauty alongside.

On a 90+ year old neighbour's hand rail!

A Peace tree sprouted in Maryland in the US - so thrilled they made it through!

In Texas (they made it through here as well!!!). I love how they grow year on year...

In Northern Italy

On a neighbour's tree in Maleny...

And one of my favourites from a few years ago, still going strong in Vermont. A photographer's eye.

With gratitude to Karen and Brian, Lil, Bridgette, Liz, Karen, Faith and Gabriella.  If I find any more images of them flying around them world I will pop them in here to keep the waves and vibes of peace reverberating.

For all the gentle peace-seekers amongst us.

Edits 24 Sept: This year's weathergram fluttering in Vermont as well - the relief that they made it through is immense!

Two more in our neighbourhood

Edits 26 September: 

A peace flag flies in a yurt in the north of Scotland!

And another one flying in Maleny...

With gratitude to all the seekers of peace...

Edit 27 September:

Peace flags and weathergrams from years gone by gather on the seat at our front door, adorned with a peace dove by B

A rusty peace dove twirls in the late afternoon sun

Another weathergram flying in Northern Italy!

So many small seekers of peace out among the world...