Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Trying something out

 As mentioned previously, I am really hoping to make a book sometime using my seven sets of words that began with walk... and look slowly

In fact, I went to Julie Chen's Artist Book Ideation cards and captured some goals and guides for making the book. I thought if I took away the structure and techniques issue and just worked to a set of guidelines I might get myself closer to just making the book, given that I have the words, rather than face three more years of pondering...

I find the cards a marvellous tool for breaking through road blocks - they are a bit like the Nike tag line and get me going to - just do it.

I don't often work with the accordion structure so that will be a bit of a challenge. (You can see some testing of ideas and counting of pages coming through the page from the other side!). Mixed media I think I can work with, the translucent/transparent paper is yet to be worked through, but I was happy I got to work with my favourite colours! I have to design an enclosure or box as well. So,  these are my parameters.

This was all done a few weeks ago, but on the weekend I collected some watercolours and cards from the studio and brought them home just in case the mood or moment arrived where I felt up to doing something with them. Mindless blobs of watercolour seemed perfect for my brain fog.




And then I began drawing onto them a bit. Not quite sure where they are going but... maybe somewhere.




Not much to show for it yet, but this is further than I have gotten before with getting these words turned into a book, so it's progress. All very slow at the moment, but going gently is the thing.

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Not much, but something

 I still haven't spent any time making down at the studio, but I did pop in the other day to collect some cards. I was pleasantly surprised see that before I got sick I had re-arranged a few things and that this little display was now the welcome at the front door. I had completely forgotten I had done this.

I did manage to sit and stitch three more fragments of fabric with resist. Yippee. Major milestone. I felt some of the stitching may not have been clear/legible so added the words and some inked morse code for clarification. Red is still clearly having a moment with me.




And that was pretty much that. As we emerge from under a blanket of blah we managed to walk to town and have a coffee this morning. Another milestone. As a reward, our companion was this young water dragon.



And for context, this is how close they were sitting for most of the time - my chair, my shorts and my shoe. They are quiet and gentle companions and it feels like a privilege to have 'wild' animals spend time so close to you really.

And keeping us company through the week have been flowers and twinkles - cheering us up on the miserablest days. Strelitzias from a neighbour and one of Dad's orchids.


Onwards.

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Thursday Thoughts...

“You can’t use up creativity. The more the you use, the more you have.” 

Maya Angelou

I like this idea of an ever-replenishing well of creativity. It is comforting. 

There are things in life that seem to multiply, and sometimes exponentially - like infection and like some allergic reactions which just get worse each time - but this seems like a lovely thing that multiplies!

I must admit that I had never thought of creativity as finite. I had aways assumed that if you reached a blockage that time would find a way to create and form new ideas and work. I had never feared using up all my creativity. 

It seems possible that what she is expressing is that as you are creative, new ideas emerge; new connections are sparked; new paths appear to follow. I am sure there is a scientific term for this but I don't know it.

It seems to me that creativity is almost a way of being; and a skill/technique/tool that can be applied in different settings, and in different ways, so really it doesn't have a supply, it is a way. It is not a noun as such, perhaps it's a verb?


Preparing to bake can be creative!

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Some good news

 I haven't managed to get to the studio or do anything for quite a while now, so the only thing I have to blog about is some good news received from the State Library of Queensland.

Back in 2017, the Library acquired one of my books  what about? why doesn't? what can? what does?for their collection.

I recently fielded an enquiry about whether I had any of the edition left as they were interested in purchasing an additional copy.

The book attempts to answer four questions I often see asked about domestic abuse and family violence:

What about male victims?

Why doesn't she leave?

What can I do?

What does gender have to do with it?

The Library has a White Gloves Room, where the Australian Library of Art often hosts White Gloves events. These events offer visitors the opportunity to engage with artists' books in their collection, to learn more about them and to experience handling them. 

In this instance, the Library wanted to purchase another copy of my book, so that they could make it available for these programs; especially for the handling. This way the original remains in the collection and can be brought out to be handled by individual patrons; but the second version would be able to be handled by many more people. 

I was honoured that the book was selected for this program.


The imagery for what about male victims?  - shows the vast majority of victims are female. All victims should be supported and believed; however, the systems we live and operate in are skewed such that women are far more often the victims of domestic abuse.


why doesn't she leave? imagery shows how hard it is to leave, how trapped and caught within a maze and web women often are. How hard it is to find a safe way out.


what can i do?  is represented by imagery suggesting you can stand beside her and surround her with  a circle of support.


what does gender have to do with it? women and men are not treated equally. Historically women were considered the property of males; they could not own property themselves and so on and so on. This encourages some men to think they can do things to women because they 'own' them. What we are seeking is a gender neutral way of being in the world where men and women are valued and treated equally.


And the book leads us to action. In big ways, and in small ways. To take to the streets, or to condemn a sexist joke or comment. To sign a petition, or to listen to a friend and help them stay safe.



It is nice to think this wee book (10cm x 10cm) with such a lot of work and effort and care and thought in it, will go on to speak to students and visitors for a time yet...

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Thursday Thoughts...

“I want to write a novel about silence. The things people don’t say.” 

Virginia Woolf

As my eyes flew along the page that holds my quotes for Thursday Thoughts, this one caught my eye and I went with it immediately. That doesn't always happen, but today I thought -"ooh I wonder what that would look like???"

And before I knew it, it was copied and pasted over here and I was typing. 

At first I imagined an artists' book type book that had chapter headings like "Silence when sitting in awe at Nature" or "Companionable Silence whilst reading alongside each other" or "Silence when your heart hurts too much to speak of it" with each chapter followed by blank pages.

However because Virginia Woolf was a novelist I imagine she may well have written descriptions of these sorts of silences, because there really is so much variety in silence. She may have described in words, the silences I am imaging and no doubt silences I haven't even conceived of.

Silence can be deafening, or eloquent. There is a lot of power in silence. And indeed, there is lots to think about or write about it.

I am tempted now to collect a bunch of silences and I might just make that book at some point!


Quote by Mark Rothko; calligraphy by me, and etching and embossing by Susan Bowers. 2015.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

In the red

 The number of times I wrote Studio - stamping or Studio - stitch on my daily to do list in the last week or more is funny. I think I managed an hour or two twice during the week before I needed to come home and nap. So progress has been slow.

I set out to do the Letraset on the red cards. In the foreground is an inside cover masked off for stamping.


Here are some of the cards. I honestly feel as if it's got to be this loud, this simple, this clear. 




You can feel my frustration and weariness in this one.

And it has been interesting to see how red is featuring elsewhere as well.

This small collection of blooms has kept me company and made me smile.


And this. 

As I watch with horror at all of the losses in the US, I have taken to stitching in Morse code. 


If you want to discover for yourself what it says, you can check here.

Otherwise I have written what the de-coded message is, way down below.











































RESIST

I think there could be a world of subversive stitchers and printers out there.

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Some more jewellery

 I have really managed a good run at jewellery making in the last wee while, before I spent the week being very quiet and trying to recover from RSV. A very nasty bug. Sometimes things align and you get the chance to use the moments, and sometimes if you are even luckier, the things you try to do in the moments, work out. 

A while ago I set out some pieces I had to see what I could make of them. The long thin strips are stone and I love their smoothness and the contrast with the wobbly pebbles. I also liked how they went with some of the beaten jump rings I had.

I had some small textured pebbles which also went well with the textured jump rings.

And then they became earrings.




And some bits became a pendant. I still really like the contrasts between the oxidised pieces, the textured and the silver...



Thursday, January 23, 2025

Thursday Thoughts...

Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” 

J. R. R. Tolkien

It feels timely to be pondering Life today, and to have happened upon this quote. I have read that this may not be an actual Tolkien quote, but that rather, the words appeared as a line spoken in The Hobbit movie; rather than in the book itself. Nevertheless, and no matter who wrote the words, I appreciate the sentiment.

I think it is really hard, when power can and does so much, to believe that it is also from among the small folk, and the small actions, that change can be wrought.

I have no doubt that small acts of kindness and love have an impact. They make a difference. 

It's not necessarily that together the small acts add up and rise up and take control. It feels more like what is suggested here, that they help keep the darkness at bay. They help us not feel alone; overwhelmed; or blinded by the darkness. Perhaps the collective force of them can shift the balance of power, can nudge the curtains open and work to keep the darkness at bay.

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Lots of stamping and letters

 The red book continues along. I have made a cover and am happy with the way it worked out; although piercing all the holes for the hand stitching took a while and a lot of control to stop the covers slipping. I tried some tape but it didn't hold, so I just had to be very careful.

I like the contrast between the single red line of machine stitching and more rugged hand stitched black running stitch.


The inside cover looks good with its overstepping.


And how the cover looks standing alone.


More stamping on the pages inside.



Working through Letraset options for the red cards that go in the pouches.


I changed my mind and rather than do the titles with Traditional Letterpress and metal type; I am going to continue with the Letraset. I thought it would seem odd to introduce a different style of lettering so went for a consistent feel rather than the jolt of contrast that added nothing, and may have distracted.

I think this will be the title Letraset.


My work table is a complete mess; but that is the good thing about a studio space you can lock and leave. It doesn't have to bother anybody else; and I can return the next day and just dive back in.


I am aiming to make an edition of three books, but you never know how things will work out. Fingers are crossed as the finish line gets closer.