Thursday Thoughts...

“As readers, we are the conductor and the orchestra, as well as the audience” 

Peter Mendelsun (What we see when we read)

I oftentimes find the different ways folk explore the interplay between art and audience, and book and reader, really quite fascinating.

I certainly think that books can change you; and that each person reads a slightly diffenret book.

This quote takes us further along that path I think as it suggest to me that the reader is almost a co-creator with the author/writer.  How else to explain the notion of orchestra and conductor?  Both these roles seem to be either guiding the performance; or literally undertaking the performance.

So perhaps as readers we do both those things as we read - we guide the speed, the memories, the connections and associations; and we also undertake the process of reading - it is us doing it, performing it.  And then the audience is the recipient of the words, the story, the information and that too is us as we read.

Quite a bit of fun trying to get my head into all three roles!

... how to read the music...

Week 1

 So we have made the trek up and across the globe and once again find ourselves back in our beautiful, restorative cottage in the Scottish Highlands.

The first week is always one of recovery and re-settling, remembering the rhythms, the places and the ways in which we move through this part of the world, differently to Australia.

Not much creativity has occurred as we re-adjust, so here is a sequence of images from our first week.

We stopped overnight at Pitlochry and the heather was beginning. We have seen only the tiniest fragment of heather further here in the Highlands thus far.

After a week or so of heavy snow, we were fortunate to be able to drive safely 'up through the middle' rather than hugging the coastal main road. The remnants of snow and the clouds and the sky were magnificent. We stopped frequently to photograph the wonder of it.

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On arrival, our stones at the front door welcomed us once again. I always think of this collection as The World is a Circle - and here somebody has placed a peace dove which may have been felled by a storm or high winds.

The rock garden was fairly spare - Spring has barely had the chance to begin, and it seems as if each timid advance is followed by the need to retreat and take cover for a little bit longer. The tiny, resilient cyclamen astonish me with their capacity to be covered by inches of snow one week, then blooming bravely the next.

Our first morning here we headed for the cove and were rewarded with this wondrous turquoise colour.

Back at home, the daffodils have begun to show their faces. There are so many waiting to emerge, I hope they can find their way to blooming.

As ever, the light captivates and the fishing net drying poles fascinate. And the silhouetted horses...

A different perspective on the cove as Barry heads out to the edge on the other side.

I stayed where I was and turned around to capture this bluebird sky and the fence line...

And then this morning - snow and hail! This was the first round of hail, gathering in our front door mat, creating a beautiful black and white checker board.

Re-working

 Part of my art plan for the year is to work mostly with things I already have in the studio rather than purchase new items. I don't know why I haven't completely focussed on this idea previously, because I really do rather like the creative response to restraints like these.

So as part of tidying our house and the studio, I came across these images I had photographed and printed for Barry years ago. 

They were placed in this small folder as a reminder for him of some beautiful work. I think there were five in each folder.

This one has had its moments in storage it would seem!

The printer that could produce such stunning velvety blacks is long gone, but I thought it was a shame that nobody got to see them so I pondered to myself could I re-use a few frames and put them together and see what happened?

And so before we headed off I did just that and here are a couple of the results - impossible to photograph given the glass and the light in the studio, but you get the idea...

It's kind of nice to see the original work represented like this I think. A nice result and a way to share them a bit more.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Hope is optimism with a broken heart” 

Nick Cave

I recently read Nick Cave's conversations with Sean O'Hagan "Faith, Hope and Carnage". I have written briefly about Nick in previous posts, and his deep thoughtfulness, seeking, and generosity really do appeal to me.

I enjoyed the book, hefty as it was, because it was broken up into these conversations and you could pick it up and put it down and not lose the thread, because they kind of covered off different things in each one.  Honest and open, each with a thirst for knowledge.

The notion of hope has engaged me for a while. I think I remain in the exploratory phase, trying to come to terms with what it means; how it can be described; and what the point of it is?

So this is a new and different take on it.  I have come to think that hope is not optimism. Optimism sort of remains positive no matter what. Hope seems to seek the positive, whilst trying to do something about it.

So perhaps Nick Cave has captured my understanding of hope - optimism that isn't quite whole; that is a little bit broken, that isn't positive irrespective. Hope perhaps recognises that things need fixing and chooses to do something about it.

I guess it could also be read that optimism with a broken heart is actually hope-less; but that's what I like about these ponderings. I get to look at things from both sides and decide where I think I land...

Hope can be optimism that needs action to make it right again.

Learning Letterpress

Just before we headed off, Barry and I spent the day with a few representatives of the Warwick Historical Society who have been gifted the massive task of getting the old Warwick Daily Newspaper Press back and working. Not all of it by any means; but having saved the equipment, they would like to be able to use some of it.

Warwick is about 3-4 hours' drive away from Maleny so it was quite the trek for them.

We packed a lot in as we tried to teach the basics of setting type by hand, but also share with them some of the tricks of the trade about setting up a press and studio working space. Things we have learned like labelling, sorting, categorising etc. In the morning we set about learning about tools and equipment and setting metal type.

We discussed how metal type ranges from very small (8pt here) to large (72pt). Such a contrast!

We also had a 'teachable moment' when we were proofing a postcard - the s wasn't printing properly.  So we had a look and altho its hard to see; the piece of type had clearly been damaged and  couldn't pick up ink where it had been a bit flattened.

After lunch we printed the metal type on postcards on a platen press, (no photos sorry!) then set up wood type and printed it on A4 pages on a proofing press.

Lots was learned and noted.

I liked the playfulness of this; the bright colours, the random type, the variation in bottom and top lines and the touch of gold powder at the end. It evoked a carnival atmosphere for sure!

This was a tricky lock-up but B managed it beautifully alongside the maker.

Who also decided to have a play with different colours and diagonal rolling.

Of course I loved the minimalist nature of this one With the word set in the middle of an A4 page it looked stunning. When we did a quick postcard sized print it looked surprisingly different. Both good, and headed to the studio of the maker as an elegant, thoughtful, reminder.

It was a big day all round, but a truly satisfying one.

Continuing Making The Shape of Things II

 So I had worked out the format and the paper, and the folding and the layout and the writing.

The next phase was to select papers and decide placement of the various elements.

I tend to like odd numbers, and each book ended up with 5 cut outs, 7 embosses and 9 paper chunks.

I have mentioned previously that these collaborative books are for me, siblings. They are not perfect replicable editions of each other, and so I found that my calligraphy was larger in some places on one than the other; it went further across the page on one of them and the like.  And yet you just know they are related when you look at them.

Here I'm checking and comparing that I have the right number and same sizes of paper chunks. I think I was also comparing should one book be dark and one light? And you can see an error I made in the calligraphy underneath, as well as some variations on shapes where I thought something needed to be larger, and changing placement of bits for better balance.

A dark, a light and medium in progress...

And then converting to two light ones!

Folded with their title pages, ready to attach to their covers

Testing cover book cloth with card to make the slipcase, and thinking that the tonality is working.

Two sibling peas in their pods.

The siblings unfurled...

Thursday Thoughts...

“It is craft, after all, that carries an individual’s ideas to the far edge of familiar territory” 

Mary Oliver

I daresay that Mary Oliver is speaking here of the craft of writing, poetry in particular.

Which doesn't stop me from thinking on how to apply this thought to making and creating.

In applying the word craft here, I am thinking of skill, wisdom, and knowledge that has been built up over time. I am thinking of techniques that have been finely honed, understandings of materials that are deep.  I am thinking about familiarity with the patterns and ebbs and flows of how work comes into being that experience has shown us.

This craft of making is definitely what takes us out to the edge; to the boundary; to the liminal space between the known and the yet to be known. That place where our work pushes through some barrier which we may not even have been aware of. 

The notion of breakthrough doesn't just happen. Even those moments where we think of as being struck by the muse; clear moments of inspiration, or  easy discoveries of the way forward, we owe to our craft. To all the things we have gathered in harvest as we have come to be where we are now. All that has gone before enables and facilitates these moments of breakthrough.

Those moments that happen on the far edge of familiar territory...

Like a rainbow comet over a familiar valley...

Making The Shape of Things II

 My inspiration for the second book in this series The Shape of Things II, came from doing this quick calendar of the year.  I had struggled so much to work out what the shape of the year looked like. I need the shape, the outline, the blocks of time before I can settle and work new things in and around my commitments.

Once we had decided we would head back to Scotland wth my Dad for probably his last trip, the year began to take shape, quite literally here. Chunks of time were blocked out.

One of the challenges Annwyn and I have set ourselves, is to use unfamiliar or not often used book formats.

Way back when (in the late 1990s) I made my first book. It was part of the submission process for CLAS and I became one of the first Australian calligraphers to be accepted at Intermediate Level.  

Anyhoo, it was a fold out book, based on a 15th Century Doctor's notebook found in the British Library (the pattern and information is found in the book BookWorks by Sue Doggett).

I felt the format worked as the original book format was medically based (as is my sense of time warp due to Covid and its associated impacts); and it also seemed to work as a guide to the future.

I chose to work again with A4 paper; partly because it will connect a number of my books in the series; and partly because I am never sure where I will be when I am making and it may be all I have available! My previous book was made in Scotland where I only had an A4 pad of watercolour paper...

So based on my calendar, and modifying the folds to reflect the 12 months of the year - 2 x 6 month rows - I tried to reflect the chunks of time a bit too literally.

On a practice sheet, I cut out a chunk and realised I would have no book structure left if I continued along that path, so indicative chunks and blocks of time it became. With options for embossing, papers and cut-outs to represent the chunks.

Some embossing chunks being prepared.

It never ceases to amaze me how many mockups and tests and trials I do - all to make the final book look so effortless, as if it could only ever have been the way it is!

I chose my paper and tested my words. I cut large sheets of paper down into A4 size to work with. I only needed two books, but I prepared four just in case I stuffed up along the way. See earlier note about tests and trials above!

The five lines read:

 Some edges now frame time

Events are set more solidly

Things still get bumped or disappear

Shapes emerge and hold

I begin to the shape of things

The next steps were cutting, embossing and pasting. More to follow...