Thursday Thoughts...

“To my mind one does not put oneself in place of the past, one only adds a new link.” 

 Paul Cézanne

I think I respond to the humility in this quote. So often, artists have the need to break free; to boldly go where no other has gone before; and to somehow prove themselves to be unique and original.  

Whilst I fully support the notion that we need to do our own unique work, that nobody but ourselves can do what we do, and that we can only do what we do, I really like the idea that this is not about individuals starring in their own show; rather we are about building on what has gone before; and building a platform for what may come after.

We are all links, this way and that. A bit like the internet with connections spanning across centuries, and the world. My work despite being mine; has been influenced and/or inspired by other who have work with words, and books, and soft palettes, and letterpress, and lovely papers and threads, and...

That said, my work will possibly go on to influence or encourage or inspire others - when people respond positively to your work it probably means they have taken a little nugget of it into their mind, and who knows how that might are-appear down the track?

We are all linked, we are all connected, and so too is our art.

The second book of silences (1)

 So... the second book of silences is complete!

I have also managed to wrap, pack and post those that need posting. Once again, posting to the US proves challenging as we negotiate tariffs, non tariffs and all the rest, so I have sent them off with my very best wishes and hopes!

I wanted to show the books in full, so have created two blog posts; this one and the next one so that all of the pages can be viewed without creating a single, huge post of almost 30 images!

This is a book of silences and a second book of silences, side by side. I had thought at the last minute that I might add a second line of pen 'stitching' to the bottom (or the top) to differentiate them, but when I tried to do it it looked really awful, so I quickly retreated from that thought. Instead, they look the same on the outside, but differ on the inside.

Siblings.

I tossed up between a book of silences ii; and a second book of silences and went for the latter. So many decisions.

And straight away, the book offers you silence.

And little bit more silence, then a perfect silence.

I can feel myself in so many of these silences. Either acknowledging a shared silence; or seeking one I am yet to experience.

And we reach the middle of the book, we pause, with silence.

The rest of the book can be seen in the next post. It is nice to take time and read the silences slowly as well.

An Artists' Talk

 On Saturday afternoon I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of artists about my work. The event was hosted by Sandra Pearce of Art from the Urban Wilderness, at Hive Studio in Banyo (north Brisbane).

It was a warm and generous audience and there were many lovely exchanges and conversations. I remarked that we don't often get the chance to share our stories in depth; to handle people's books; to ask questions of the maker; and to learn about their process and their philosophies, so it was special.

Sandra took many photos of the afternoon; and here are some of them.

It is such a great, creative space.

One of the things Sandra wanted me to touch on in particular was my making in Scotland. Here I am pointing to the cottage in January when the snow was everywhere.

And me pointing to where the cottage is located - right at the very top of the North of Scotland. Gotta love a skirt with pockets!

One of my first 'activist' books in the background - Fragile Gains.

After the talk I chatted about some of my books and showed people the details and talked about the ideas...

It was lovely to show some oldies off - A Subversive Stitch,

And some newbies too - Red Card

There was a marvellous spread for afternoon tea too!

Sandra hosts some wonderful workshops and I picked up flyers for a couple myself - would love to get back down and do one or two!.

Thanks to Sandra and all the attendees for a wonderful afternoon.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.” 

Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays on Education

Mr Griswold was an historian and educator, and a President of Yale University. He was also, I think, reading other quotes of his, quite a wise man, tho I know not all that much about him.

For me, there is wisdom in these words. The sense that the short term gain of banning or burning books feels like victory for those who achieve it in that moment; is not I think a long term win at all. I oftentimes visualise books being covered over with whatever, and then seeing them pop up like new shoots elsewhere. A bit like weeds perhaps, but the idea that you could stop them being shared or read or spoken about is pretty nonsensical.

Of course, if you make enough fuss about them, then that will only drive folk to go and discover what the fuss is about as well.

I really like the logical progression he makes from bad ideas being overcome by better ideas which emanate from wisdom which is gleaned from a liberal education. No surprises I am a fan of a liberal education!

Any education that encourages you to read broadly, seek out opposing views, try to understand them, challenge them, and debate them; or one that provides you with such strong evidence and research to support sound and sensible ideas is surely a fine thing.

Araki Takako, Bible with Black Page (1982). Porcelain with decal glaze

Continuing with the nesting book

 The pages are coming along well for the new nesting book. I continue to struggle with how much to add in, or leave out. How soft and gentle to be; how not to overcrowd things; how to make it friendly enough to read without distracting. Heaven only knows why I still have all this fluff going on in my head when I make a book, but here I am.

I have done the writing, and am happy with it. It is soft, it is subtle and it is legible.

Nidus is the title of the book - Latin for nest.

Some of the words on the pages...

A bunch of the pages tumbled together.

Here is the embossing plate I used for the nest. Back in the days of Pas de Deux when Susan and I were collaborating mightily, she used this embossing to help illustrate a book of mine; and one of hers. I borrowed it from her recently to see if it could have another book opportunity. 

Because we sold our etching press, I only have access to a proofing press these days so it was quite the challenge to create the pressure to get a full emboss. I also think the paper was quite heavy, but it was the colour I was after so needs must.

In amongst things I have completed a small calligraphic commission, and am preparing for my artist talk in Brisbane next Saturday. 

Oh! And we are still hoping to get to Scotland in a few weeks, but there are of course complexities. We are going slowly and steadily with our plans and changes, but are hopeful...

A screen shot of the thumbnails of the slides in my artist talk!

Another nesting book...

 I have been enjoying my book about nests a lot, and on the way through started to create some more pages that could possibly be used for another book.

The pages are all grey, which I like, and I imagined a really soft book, so I was hoping to be able to get white wording onto the pages (not the black of the typewriter).

As much as I love white, softness and there, not there looks, even I knew this wouldn't look good or be legible for most folk.  Sometimes subtle is tooooo subtle. Although I tried all sort of pens and inks and pencils!

So I checked again with the black - and really it was too stark and demanding. It didn't feel as if it reflected the quietude of nest building.

So all the pens and pencils I could imagine came out and off we went again. Luckily for me B now has a lot of grey pens and I could test quite a few.

As much as I loved the very fine 0.1 pale greys, when you stepped away from them you could barely read them. In the end the warm grey 0.3 was the best choice. Not as harsh or stark as the dark greys and blacks; but legible unlike the light greys. It felt like Goldilocks I tell you!

And here are the grey pages with this beautiful soft emboss of a nest. The bottom card is true to the light and colour; the tilted one is far darker than the real thing, but offers a look at the embossing.

And so i set up a template to start writing...

And began...

There have been some dreary days here and there, but I brought these bright flower inside recently and they were rather cheering!

Thursday Thoughts...

"If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present". 

Lao Tzu

I oftentimes read a quote like this and something clicks. Perhaps it is that I respond to simple theories and categorisations; or perhaps it because somebody has captured the essence of something, from which we can build.

When I first read this, I wondered how accurate it could be, and I tried to analyse it. I think like many truisms or simple statements it can hold up; yet can also be challenged.

The last part about being at peace if you are living in the present, seems to be strongly linked to mindfulness approaches and that being present is all that we really can be. That this moment is really all that we have.  I pondered how this is oftentimes true; if we are here in the now, then the past and the future are not affecting us, along with the burdens and or gifts that they carry.

However; of course, for many folk right here and right now is the fearful place. It is the place of bombing, of sirens, of burning; the place of great sadness or of anger. The present is not always peaceful; nor are we sure to be at peace if we are present. But broadly speaking it holds in the general spirit of things I think.

Living in the future and being anxious was a good way for me to think about it as well; because for me anxiety is nearly always about something that is out there, to be done, to be faced, to await. Anxiety for me seems to be linked to waiting for something to happen and wondering how awful it will be; or assuming that a moment in the future will be stressful. Or simply that the future itself is stressful. Which at the moment it kind of is.

And the first/final notion of being depressed being linked to living in the past was also a simple descriptor which got me thinking. I am fortunate to not have lived experience of any serious or lengthy depressions. I have had sadness and grief and dark times and I wonder how much of that is about regret, or loss of things from the past. Death and grief lead you to be sad for the loss of relationships that you had; but I am not sure I am qualified to interrogate this notion too closely.  There is however, something in this notion that has a ring of small truth to it, for me.

A friend recently sent this photo of the lands near our cottage in Scotland. I look a this and I can breathe. The air, the empty spaces, the long long vistas... a place to feel present.

Boxes and displaying things

I have almost finished my book for Narratives. The pages are done and the cover is done and the colophon is done. The backing sheets have been glued into place. I have gathered some extra bibs and bobs.

And my mind has turned to storage and display. I had planned to make a display tray with a divider to hold the book and some bits alongside it.  At different points over the past few weeks I have watched some videos; drawn some ideas; plotted out a path or paths to making a box with grey board and book cloth. I chose the book cloth and got the grey board!

Sunday was the day I had on my To Do List - make box. 

So I set aside time and sat down to think my way through once again. Playing around here with some cardboard and getting a feel for how big I wanted it to be; how high I wanted the walls to be.

I decided I would do a trial run using Bristol Board/very lightweight card.

It was great to get out of my head and into my hands. As I went about doing the things I thought I should do (in my head) my hands remembered that I needed to do other things, and do some things differently. Thank you hands.

So I made a display tray with tape holding it together and thought yep I have the dimensions right and some of the logic about which side are slightly higher; which ones might be slightly longer than the internal dimensions and so on.

I was happy with the dimensions - it felt as if the book would sit nicely in its place and the other compartment could hold the extra bibs and bobs - the proportions worked. 

You can just see it here below, but I also wanted to include a notch in the divider so that you could lift the book out quite easily.

I showed it to Barry at this point and we agreed I had a good plan and the thing looked good. I then went - now I just have to work out how to cover it. And I pondered that in my brain and came up with some thoughts. My brain was really hurting here! I thought I might cover the divider before gluing it in and then when I looked at it I thought oh my goodness; it is going to be really hard to cover that notch neatly.

And I stopped dead right there.

This was the point at which I thought I have run into a real road block. I realised I had bitten off far more than I could chew and that I needed to re-assess everything about this book and its presentation and display. It felt as if there was no way I could bring a beautiful and professional looking finish to this work with my current plans and thoughts.

I had also planned to do another tray that would fit over the top and which you would lift off to reveal the book and its bits. Whilst this seemed simpler than the divider tray - it also would have to look perfect and so there was yet another job to do.

So it was back to the drawing board and looking at a multiplicity of alternatives that might somehow do what I wanted.

Dear Reader, I am still contemplating! Fingers crossed something reveals itself to me in a way that looks good and is manageable within the timeframe (just under three weeks). Stay tuned.

In addition to the twigs, I have been gathering other bits I thought could go with the book....

Much pondering still needed!

So many steps to a book

Well, in between rain showers and storms I have been slowly pottering along progressing a couple of things. A calligraphic commission has been posted, the book for Narratives is edging closer, and the second book of Silences is oh so close to being finalised!

Here I am creating a prototype to double check that the pages I have printed are in fact the pages I meant to print; and that they are in the order in which I planned it. For some reason I reached the end of printing and worried that I might have forgotten something, hence the double check prototype and the good news was that all was on track. Tick.

Laying out all the printed pages ready to fold.

Folded.

Collated 

The delight of a deckled edge on the cover.

The task ahead after stitching - trimming the pages down. At this point I felt a bit sad we no longer had a guillotine; but I knew if I took things slowly and had some rests in between times that I would be able to hand trim the 21 books.

Evidence of ongoing trimming. I actually took this shot at what I thought was the end of the task; only to discover a bit later that there were 5 books hidden under a sheet of paper that still needed to be stitched AND trimmed! Laugh.

Now just some lovely closeups of the spines and the edges.  I never tire of looking at these.

And then I began to tag them and make piles for sorting - which ones get handed out; which ones get posted within Australia; which ones head to the UK; and which ones go to Canada and the US. I think I have it all straight in my brain.

Now to wrap, pack and post and take a walk through all the second silences...