Thursday Thoughts...

“Introversion- along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness- is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Introverts living in the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man’s world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.” 

Susan Cain

I am happy that I can still roam through my quotes pages and find ones that for whatever reason, jump out at me and recommend themselves for pondering.

I read Susan Cain's book Quiet many years go and felt such an infinity for her world and descriptors. I have actually done two previous Thursday Thoughts on quotes by her I realise - here and here. But still, it seems I have more thoughts! Or maybe, she has different thoughts on introversion worthy of pondering...

I really do agree with this quote as it suggests the world of extraversion is the one which is valued, celebrated and held up as an exemplar of a successful life. Introverts rarely get praised as role models or set up as exemplars.

She appears really pointed when she describes the personality trait of introversion as being considered as somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Ouch! 

I have come to accept that folk will oftentimes underestimate me. In part because I am a woman, in part because I don't need to shine in public settings or push forward my position or prove my expertise. I am a watcher and a listener. I am an observer who also carries with her a strong sense of intuition. I can read a room, I can read body language and I can read the temperature of a conversation.

When required to be forceful or project my position; when the job or task at hand requires it, I can do it. Happily and successfully. But I am much happier in my introvert world - small groups of people, time by myself, time to recharge my battery.

The next book of Silences

I have found both the brain space and time to start on the second book of Silences. I sat down and discovered that past-me had been very good and cut all the pages, the end sheets and the covers for the second book; and that she had also done the stitched line pen marks on the cover as well, so all that present-me had to do was print! Ha ha.

I thought I would get a run at a couple of prints, but first up I did have words with the more recent-past-me who as she packed up the studio had pulled apart the chase that she had used to print the first book. 

This was not a total disaster; but it did mean present-me had to spend some time trying to find a photograph of the set-up and then try to re-build it such that the books could be printed looking very much the same as the first ones by getting all the spacing and alignments right.

Funny the things you think about under pressure - I was clearly trying to be tidy, when in fact I made my life a bit trickier.

I did however manage to re-build it and here is the table with work about to begin.

Not the traditional way to set type; but it works for me when I am trying to replicate the location of the type on  page. Here I am using an awl to hold back the type so it doesn't fall into the space whilst I get the next spaces and letters.

The first silence set!

And printed...

One down, only fifteen to go! Plus a title page or two, a colophon, and a thank you page; but we have begun!

Exhibition - Learning My Lines

 We recently had a mini-mini-break down by the water - to celebrate the end of our 6 year lease and the transition out of a public space and to home-based work.

Here is the holiday mood in three photos...

A time to relax and reflect and celebrate.

On our way home we visited the University of the Sunshine Coast University's Art Gallery. The current exhibition is called Marking Time: 30 Years of the USCArt Collection. I am honoured that one of my books  - Learning my Lines - is in the collection, and even more honoured that it was selected to form part of this show. 

I really love this book. It is a bit of a departure for me into the sculptural artists' book realm; but I have been in love with it ever since I first bought the books that form the basis of it.

Its origin story can be found here and here.

This book is where I first learnt to hand rivet. Lovely hand made copper rivets hold the rusty straps together.

And here I am alongside it, looking a tad dishevelled, but proud!

This is the first time I have seen it on show without a Perspex cover and I loved being close to the texture and being able to see the details under gallery lighting...

The University has shown it previously as part of the exhibition Women's Work back in 2019. 

Here I am with it in that show. Much shorter hair, but better groomed (it was at the opening!) and I am laughingly trying to hide my left foot behind the plinth because I had a badly broken toe and it was in a foot splint thingy...

Thursday Thoughts...

“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose".

Zora Neale Hurston

I write this post just after returning from one of our sessions of what we call Biblio - where we go out for breakfast, and sit with our toast and our coffee and read books and articles;  explore unusual things that are art-related; write poetry; and all other random type activities that make for an interesting art life.

And on return, this quote popped up as a true validation! I love the descriptor of poking and prying with a purpose!

The older I get, the more I think that curiosity is essential to staying alive. To being active and interested and vital and engaged and happy. Being curious about this that or the other random thing is great. 

Today at Biblio I was reading a book called You Are Here - a book about mapping and maps.

Mapping is only a small and tangential thing in my art life, I have done some work in the past about finding my place, and yet I am adoring reading the book and am bouncing ideas out of it left right and centre.

 I thinkI find myself on the cusp of curiosity and research. At the moment I am following the line of curiosity, but if things start to take shape in my mind; ideas coalesce into something that has a modicum of form; then perhaps it becomes research. As I am writing notes and jotting down names and websites and the like for follow ups, perhaps it already is...

The book continues

 The next steps.

I have loved the background to these pages and really enjoyed the typewriter written words., but have been wondering what else to illustrate and support the words???

In my previous works Under Construction, I had successfully used twigs, both stitched down individually, and bundled and stitched, so I thought to see how that might work.

As ever, I do love the twigs.

I liked them more when they were angled slightly. 

But I was a bit worried about their fragility and if they would hold up as pages were moved around. The books I had previously used them on were concertina style books where the book was displayed like art, rather than one where pages were lifted, turned and placed.

And I think my fears were probably well founded given they snapped and fell apart as I tried to bundle them. I will have to see if, or how, twigs can be part of this book; but they won't be on the pages I now know.

I then turned towards stitching, as the words about the building of nests so often suggest threads, and weaving and stitching.

For some reason, the notion of couching came to mind as I thought I might like the little bobbles that form part of it. So I did a line of couching. And was a tad underwhelmed. So I did another line thinking that together they might say something more.

But I wasn't convinced.

So back to running stitch I went. And I decided I liked the alternate lines of stitching and I think that three might work well.

I then used a metallic silver pen to make a few marks on the page (barely noticeable here) and added a few bits of scrap material I had rescued on the way out the door of the studio. I think they add something...

As ever, the challenge is how to support the words without overwhelming them. How to make the pages interesting but not too busy... I have one more thing I want to test and then I think I can begin.

And on another note - I have been invited by Sandra Pearce of Art from The Urban Wilderness to give an artists talk at Hive Studios in Brisbane in late March. I am excited to talk about my work and show some books and generally have fun chatting with artist book type people.

If you are local and/or interested in getting along here are the details...

Progressing a book

The nest book is taking shape in so far as I have done all the typing and am now pondering the shape of the pages and also how they will be backed.

I had selected a cream paper to back these pages, but as I put the paper back in the drawer I came across this lovely warm grey and thought to myself, that might suit better - and lo it truly did. Somehow it was softer and warmer and matched both the marks and the thread I had been planning to use. Grey at the top here, warm white towards the bottom.

In typical fashion I keep learning. Not all decisions are made logically and thru research; sometimes you just look at something and know.

And then I turned my mind to the shape of the pages. I had written a note to myself in my book - nests have nothing to do with squares, they are soft and rounded, so I pondered trimming the corners to curves. Which in itself led me to the fun question "Did I keep any corner cutters when we moved?????".

Luckily I found two and discovered that one was a smaller curve than the other (barely visible difference but yet...)

The bottom one is smaller and also tidier I think.

And the next test was of course to see how they both fared on the heavier paper. The larger curve cutter was not particularly successful when faced with a heavier load.

But the smaller curve worked like a dream. Phew.

The supreme wobbliness of this typed line led me to think I should use up one of my spares and re-type it, so I merrily did that just.

I had happily done that and piled all the poems away, when I thought I should take a reference photo. Only when I looked at the photo did I note my error. 

And so I needed to use another spare...

And now I think I am ready for the next steps... which probably involve a lot of corner cutting.

After I took this photo I realised I actually needed another page for the title and another page for the colophon so in fact I only have three spare blanks left! Fingers crossed for not too many dramas.

And just a reminder, that the 15% sale of all my jewellery finishes tonight at midnight Queensland time... just in case you want to check it out.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Repeat reading for me shares a few things with hot-water bottles and thumbsucking: comfort, familiarity, the recurrence of the expected.” 

Margaret Atwood

I have often times wondered if there is a way of dividing the world through the binary of re-readers and never re-readers?  I know of folk who would never re-read a book in part because there are so many more books yet to read and why waste time going over old ground? You already know how it ends right?

And there are folk who seem to be in Margaret Atwood's camp that there is a sense of comfort to be assured of, a familiarity, a feeling of ease to re-read books because - you already know how it ends right?

I must admit that I often keep books that I think I might re-read. Books that have so much in them I know I won't have managed to get it all the first time through.  Books that I think will continue to add to my knowledge and understanding. That may continue to challenge and enlighten me.

And then there are the books I re-read for exactly what she says here - comfort, familiarity and the recurrence of the expected.

I love the notion of the recurrence of the expected. A sense of certainty in a an uncertain world. A sense of comfort amongst the unease. A sense of familiarity when so many events seem far from our understanding. 

In these moment I am happy to be held by characters I know. By plot lines I can follow without exerting too much brain power. And to finish on a note where there is a satisfying or happy ending.

Sometimes I need to not go through the terrible angst of not knowing where the story is going and if it will end well. Sometimes a touch of certainty and sense of assurance that all shall be well helps me.

I don't re-read huge amounts, but re-reading most certainly has place in my reading.

Margaret Atwood, what a woman. 

I haven't been able to credit the image, sorry.

Renewed Online Shops are open!!!

 Oh my goodness, the stress of it all.

Part of our move to home-based studios has seen the need for us to think about other avenues for sales. We hope to continue to have a couple of small Pop Up type showings or exhibitions each year; but on a regular basis we thought refreshing and renewing our online presence would make most sense.

And so the work began to delete the old inventory; seriously consider what groupings of work we have; working out what work we could sensibly sell online (and put in the post!!!) and the like.

Having decided those things it was then necessary to translate that into shops, categories, photograph them, describe them, price them and get them in the right order.

And having done that, it was necessary to promote it, which also meant refreshing and renewing our newsletter. So quite a bit of tech updating.

Our newsletter takes on a new role in all of this and we have been pondering what to say; how often to say it and so on.  We are evolving shall we say.

Anyhow, the stress of it all is that we had drafted the newsletter; we had set up our shops. We had started to populate the shops. We had learned how to apply discounts for time limited periods. We had managed to work out how to apply tariffs to the US so that our pricing covered those. And so on.

We were ready.

Together we sat and hit send on the newsletter at about 10.15am on Sunday morning. Very exciting! The whole thing looked good, the links worked and we thought phew we've done it.

Four hours later I rose from my chair in a panic. Oh my goodness, I had forgotten to make the shops go 'live'!!!  I had had them in dormant mode whilst were setting them up and getting organised so that no one could inadvertently purchase something that we no longer had. It was a risk management approach. Until we discovered the real risk was that we would promote something only for folk to find they couldn't buy anything!

Fixed it, sent a quick update email, and thought job done. 

But then I went and looked at the websites and it wasn't job done; the sites were still dormant. I fell down some serious rabbit holes trying to work out what went wrong; what I had to do; how could I save the changes? Would I have to send a third or maybe fourth email newsletter explaining it didn't work? Maybe it did work? It was awful. But after 15-20 minutes of frenzy, it worked and people could find our shops, as well as be able to buy something. So many lessons.

As a thank you to our newsletter subscribers we gave them an early bird type option. We decided my new jewellery and Barry's new watercolours would be 15% off regular price for a week. And that we would let other folk know after a day or two. And here we are.

I managed to learn how to do online discounts - yay - and I'm a bit chuffed to see here that the shop sort of re-sorts itself so that the pieces that have sold end up at the bottom as out of stock. Fascinating.

So that's part of what has been going on behind the scenes as we re-imagine our art lives!

It is all a pretty big adventure, but my what a ride. 

We hope to send newsletters more regularly this year depending on where we are and what we are doing, and will always try to offer our newsletter subscribers a little bit of something. So, if you would like to sign up you can do so on the right hand side of the blog here, or on any page of my website.

My new look shop is here if you'd like to see how it's going. Not every category has been filled yet - my main focus was on my cards and on my jewellery. Gradually, it will grow. If I keep breathing in, and breathing out...

Pondering a book

 I have settled into some of the routines and rhythms of working in my new spaces. I have remembered where things are kept; I have recalled the things I wanted to try; and I have re-stocked my cards. And so it feels like it might be time to start doing some slightly more serious, or challenging or larger work.

Although of course, I still have to label everything but maybe that's a rainy day thing.

There is a beautiful, boutique artists' book exhibition held in Maleny each year now, in association with the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival. It is called Narratives and this years theme is A Constellation of Stories, aligned with the Festival's theme.

I wondered about books about the night sky; about our southern hemisphere constellations. But also, I wanted to re-work, re-use and re-imagine some bird and nest words.

Apart from the astronomical and astrological definitions, Dictionary me offered me this:

Constellation

Noun

a group or configuration of ideas, feelings, characteristics, objects, etc., that are related in some way

any brilliant, outstanding group or assemblage

And within this definition I think I have found that I might have a place for a collection of poems about nests.  

My very early ponderings are part of this post here.

I have progressed slowly. After lots of thinking I have decided to cut the five pages into 5 smaller pages each. I know I have five poems with three lines each, so I need 15 pages and a title page and a colophon page, so that will give me some breathing space for trials and tests and blunders.

I wanted to check that if I chose to write with the typewriter, I knew how long the lines would be. So I typed them all up and stuck this trio onto some blank paper.

And then checked the haiku poem going this way...

and that...

All good so far. Next step was to check if the small pages would roll through the typewriter. And the answer was definitively "not on your nelly!". So then I had a problem. I played about with the rollers and feeds and tried to coerce the small page to roll through, all to no avail. So I tried a weird thing of hand feeding it into the side front of the roller and sliding it along to the left, then holding it down with the gripper (as best I could)...

I had to draw a line on the page to try and line up in a similar place on each page; and I marked a dot1cm in from the left so they all started at the same point. And I had to line that dot up with where the first key stroke would (might) land.

And then I could start to type; although the fact the 1cm in part didn't give enough distance for the left front clear guard to hold the page equally with the right meant that they all started  off a bit wobbly.

By the time I got a few words in, the guards were both holding the paper and things went a lot more smoothly. I couldn't change the 1cm margin, because if I made it further in, say 2.5cm, then the longest lines of the poem wouldn't fit, so wobbly won.

A very apt line for all the progress I made!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Silence is so accurate.”

 Mark Rothko

This quote appealed this morning as I turn my mind towards the second book of Silences.  Silence can be, and is, so many things to so many people, and I really wonder about this one.

The accuracy of silence.  I think that sometimes yes it is accurate, true and correct. That the silence is all that is needed, that it is the complete response or the complete way of being. 

But sometimes I really do think that silence can be misinterpreted as well; its accuracy mislaid; its meaning misconstrued. 

I think of the times when I am taken aback and am thinking, thinking, processing, processing; and my silence could appear to be all manner of things. At those times my silence is mostly just thinking time, an attempt to formulate a response; sometimes an effort to put a lid on what I might want to blurt; and to craft a gentler more reasonable response. 

In those moments I am not ignoring the person, I'm not dismissing them. It is no power play or trap; I'm simply processing and getting a handle on my own emotions. 

At other time our silence is perfect. Sitting alongside someone who is troubled, letting them know they have been heard, that we are in this together, that I am not trying to fix things or to resolve things or cheer them up. The silence of acknowledgement is accurate.

From Pas de Deux 10 - Silences. Susan Bowers and Fiona Dempster 2015.