Thursday Thoughts...

“Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting, and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives us a terrific advantage.”

Roald Dahl

My first thought was "well, yes, of course Roald Dahl would say that!"

Given the books he wrote and the stories he told and the way he engaged young readers - this is exactly how he saw the purpose of books.

His use of the word daunting interested me as I thought about this quote. For children I agree whole-heartedly. To develop a love of reading, and even the skill, books need to be accessible and engaging. If possible children shouldn't experience books as challenges to overcome, battles to be had, enemies to tackle. 

However, I can't fully agree with books not being daunting, if their purpose to educate and challenge. We can't always spend our life doing the nice things we love doing and not having our thoughts, perceptions or beliefs challenged. It does us good to se the world from a different angle and sometimes this can be daunting.

Daunting is also a nice word because it has a feel of the 'possible to overcomeness' of it. It isn't impenetrable, it isn't impossible it's just a bit daunting. Once we overcome our fear or hesitation we'll be right!

I agree in full with him as he finishes with how learning to be a reader gives us a terrific advantage, and is something I would wish for all of us. 

Celebration of Books Maleny, 2015. Setting up our Book Swap tree where folk could bring a book, then take a book....

Conversations with Women Friends - the choices

I have turned to these conversations because they feel unique, they feel special, and they feel enriching.  They are something I want to make small portable bits art about. The small works will try to celebrate the joy of women friends and the conversations we share.

Whilst I have bene pondering and playing with possible words for a while, I have settled on my ten descriptors/verses around different conversations with women friends. 

This is their first iteration as a set of words. I have thoughts about other ways to share them and use them, but for now I have settled on some business card sized pieces of printmaking paper, with typewriter, vintage Letraset, silk thread hand stitching and tracing paper pouches with machine stitching.

But the journey to this point has been a bit round about!

The first challenge was what sort of pouch to present them in? I tried a few origami fold style ones of different sizes. I tried some rectangular ones made of printed lightweight paper with tape holding the edges down and I tried my usual pocket pouches that I make for pebbles and some of B's jewellery.

Interesting how I came down on the side of what I know, and what I am known for.

And I decided I wanted to try out lightweight tracing paper as the pouch. Luckily I had a pad of 25 sheets I could use to test, but then I had trouble tracking any more of the same stuff down. I found another alternative, after trying some drawing/tracing paper friends had gifted me years ago. In some circumstances it would have been right; but for these, it just looked a little bit dirty, which was a real shame because I have a stash of it still!

I had typed the cards, and cut them all down to size and rubbed out the pencil guide marks and then it was down to determining how best to use the illustrations I had in mind.

I had decided on two circles with a line of running stitches between them, signifying a conversation. But first to the circles. I selected a couple of the letter O from a  few different typefaces we have and quickly stamped them using an ink stamping pad. Of course that ink ran, but I also wasn't too sure that I would get a crisp mark out of them anyway just by hand inking and stamping.

For the sake of testing I also chose to trace a few circles using a circle tool I have. They came out pretty cleanly which was good.

Then Barry asked if I had considered Letraset? And I hadn't, so I popped downstairs to the studio space and collected my bags of Letraset and set to work searching for a variety of Os that could work. Generally speaking they came out well and I thought yes, we have a solution. They aren't always perfect, but I kind of don't mind that they show their age.

And then to deciding which of the conversation lines I might use. Not the solid lines, and not the ones that were underlining but rather the intermittent lines that went between two people. I thought hard about do I choose a single style or ????

And as is often the way with me, the answer was in the ????s and it came about as I read each card and thought "that's a jumping up one" or that's a between two people one" or "that doesn't need a line between them" or "that is a very close one" and the images just happened.

And so here they are in sets of ten. I have made three sets of ten with a few spare. The idea is that they get sold individually because one of them might be just the perfect one for a friend; but that all ten could also be bought together as an art piece/installation.

The red thread harks back to my Women Friends work for The Red Thread exhibition and felt like the right choice. See here and here and here...

The wild dangling threads are just part of me and my making (dating back to A Subversive Stitch I think way back here).

I'll go through the finished cards individually next time I think.

You can see that each card is individual and unique with different typefaces and sizes of the Os, and different placement and numbers of stitches.

 Just like our friends and our conversations. Unique.

Doodling along

 I mentioned back here that I had set up a wee doodle practice because I thought I might enjoy having a very small thing to turn to each day.

So far, I have done pretty well with it - I think I have missed one day (so did two lines the next day) and one evening I realised I hadn't done it, and with only ten minutes to go before dinner was ready I thought let's see what I can get done - and I managed half a row.

It's been interesting to notice how much I have enjoyed the maybe ten or 15 minutes I spend each day doing what is really, a fairly mindless task. I think it has enabled me to empty my mind and simply focus.

It has been little bit like a circuit breaker and then of course there is the lovely simple feedback loop that shows me that I have done a little something.

I looked at my container of watercolours and just went - I don't ever use the browns - now is the time! I had five to choose from:

And so it begins.

Rather than simply paint directly into the shapes, I decided to try a bit of that watercolour thing of laying down the water first, then adding the pigment to it. Clearly some work better than others!

Some days the rows happen quickly!

The day I did two days in a row, in one sitting.

I think I did two rows in one day here because they were so tiny.

The ten minutes before dinner day!

And the next day.

And where I am up to now. Nearly time to draw up another one I think.

I have absolutely no purpose with this except to paint some shapes each day. It is proving to be both simple and soothing.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Shape clay into a vessel;
 It is the space within that makes it useful. 


Cut doors and windows for a room;
 It is the holes which make it useful. 


Therefore benefit comes from what is there; 
Usefulness from what is not there.” 

Lao Tzu

I know I have some work ahead of me when I read over a possible quote and go yes, then shake my head in disagreement, and wonder if I've not read it properly.  This happened with this quote and so here I am about to dig in and try to sort out my thinking.

I am fully on board with the first idea - that it is the space within a vessel that makes it useful. A cup is useful because of the void within it that can be filled with liquid that provides sustenance or comfort.

The second idea about doors and windows making a room useful I'm less sure of.  I think it's the walls and the roof that make a room useful! The roof in particular is key in terms of protection from the elements and by virtue of keeping the roof up, walls are also key and they also define a space which creates its usefulness in terms of scale - a tiny storeroom or a large living area. Doors allow you enter it and make use of it I guess.

And then I end up being somewhat confounded because I am not sure I fully understand his definitions and delineation between benefit and usefulness...

Somehow benefit comes from the form of the cup - the structure? Because it creates a void? And usefulness from the void within? And for a room its benefit comes from walls and a roof and the usefulness from doors and windows. Is that because the windows allow light in and one can therefore navigate the space, see things and find things within it? Doors make it useful because you can enter it?

Enough pondering for one day. It's a tricky one!

Both the benefit, and usefulness, of a cup are clear tome!

Back to jewellery - making!

 In preparation for the next Pop-Up Art Show back in Scotland later in the year, I have put my head down and been working hard to create some new pieces of jewellery. Some are variations on a theme so to speak; others are new designs and I am enjoying the challenges they all bring.

I did a lot of soldering of silver wire when we were at the cottage, and on return I have rolled it and buffed it.

Here I took five of the rolled pebble forms and set them together as a necklace. Rather than solder them together and make it a rigid piece, I thought I would try to link them together; and that would give a little bit more movement to the piece.

And then I connected it all together with a sterling silver chain. And was happy!

I had six small pebble forms ready to go, so I also rolled them. This time I did solder them together and they are such delicate little stacks of stones.

And here they are together. Quite a good result for a new design; and an older design modified to use very small forms!

Packed and ready for sale!

Back to the typewriter

 Yum! I spent the most delicious of mornings playing with the typewriter I got for my birthday. It was the first chance I have had to see what it does and how it does it and it was good to feel the keys under my fingers.

I had this idea in my head to use some of these Moleskine postcard books I had purchased a few years ago, to pop a couple of poems I had written in Scotland into.

I typed out the first poem to see how it would fit. And just like letterpress, discovered that you can't modify the size of the font/typeface, and the poem ended up much wider than a single page. I would need a Plan B.

I typed it at triple space, double space and single space.

So I started to put the wee book through the typewriter. The poor thing, its first outing and it has to handle a book! The life of a typewriter in the hands of an artist...

I typed the title on the opening page.

And then opened it up and tested how it would go typing across the double spread and the flattened spine.

It didn't work really, so that was a good test. The roller also creased the cover and back cover rather a lot.

So off I went to type the second poem and then typed them both onto this nice firm, but light, Japanese paper.

And then tore them out (with no grain to guide me) and looked at them and thought maybe yes.

So now I am drifting and dreaming and thinking and pondering and wondering how they might become part of the page...

Thursday Thoughts...

"There should be something revelatory about art. It should be totally creative and open doors for new thoughts and experiences". 

Tracey Emin

I have pondered upon this one for a bit, wondering why I responded to it. It's always interesting to stop and reflect on why did I even save this one into my Thursday Thoughts document?

I think what I like about this is that she is suggesting that art should not simply be descriptive. That it should be expressive. That it should ask questions; not provide answers.

It seems to encourage engagement with art and allow for ongoing questioning and wondering. It seems to want to keep the doors open to new understandings, new explorations and new learnings. It feels so generous in its offering. That art should be there for us for ever - for us to keep learning and exploring and enjoying.

The opening sentence suggests this as well in terms of art being revelatory. The second part suggests, to me at least, that this revelation can and should be, ongoing as I imagine doors opening leading to new doors, and to other doors and to....

Hub, by Do Ho Suh.

Doodling, lettering, colouring

 I am keeping pretty busy on return and have lots of arty things on the go.

The other morning at Biblio I started playing around with ideas about how to write the 5 'S' words starting with Stillness, that I blogged about on Sunday.  I am thinking of making maybe five small pieces that would fit in a frame similar to the black one I tested them in when in Scotland.

I wrote the word love out by hand in green; then used pencil to create perhaps nicer letters; and went over it with red. However, and no real surprises, the pencil stayed under the red even when I rubbed it out, and it looked a bit iffy (photo 2). And for comparison I wrote direct with red and the colour stayed much brighter, even tho the photos barely show it!

I then gave myself a little task of creating a small sampler of the pens I thought I could use to do these small works.

And it worked out well.

And then for the first time in days the sun came out as it set, and caught the page and looked beautiful!

And for no good reason other than I am doing so many small things towards bigger things I thought I might try a doodle a day kind of thing. It was more about doing a small thing each day if I can. And by small I mean really small, like simply filling in a square or a few colours on a mixed up kind of grid. Who knows if I even do it; but it was meditative to draw things up.

I tested the idea out in my journal.

Decided the X was too distracting and added a few more of this and that, here and there.

And then went and had a play on a piece of watercolour paper 10 x 15cm. And inked in the lines. 

Now...to colour them in!

I am trying to stay away from over thinking it...but I doubt I will.! I will select  series of colours to use and try to stick with them.

Practising stillness

In the last couple of days before leaving the cottage I got to play around with some words. I had previously written out the words Stillness, Silence and Simplicity and the wonderful Robyn Gordon had commented that she also loved Solitude and Serenity. I thought to myself they would be delightful additions and set about seeing if I could bring together a composition of sorts.

Using Kilian Capitals, it looks like it could be possible. 

I then returned to another form of handwriting I had used many many moons ago, and thought the simplicity of its form might also work with these words.

I picked up some tracing paper I had to hand, and wrote with a white gel pen.

There are things to think about with the layout; and much muscle memory that needs to be returned and reminders of which letter forms do what, but it has potential as well.

I placed the tracing paper over white paper and over black paper.

And greyish paper...

And then I popped all the tests into a black frame, to see if they worked.

I think there might be some places to take this...