Exposed has popped up and gone!

Here we are on Sunday afternoon, after a huge and busy weekend popping up the photography exhibition Exposed by my friend Sheila and I.

Some compilation images of our work. We had been playing with these setting in our phone cameras and loved the effect we could achieve, and sought to refine it and improve it until we felt we had some quality photos.  We each selected our Top Ten. Each work was in an Edition of 3 - No. 1 was framed and No.s 2 & 3 were available unframed.

Sheila along the top, Fiona along the bottom.

Sheila along the top, Fiona along the bottom.

Fiona across the top, Sheila across the bottom.

Sheila on the left, Fiona on the right.

Sheila top left and bottom right, Fiona top right and bottom left.

All of the frames were re-furbished and re-purposed. We cleaned, painted and replaced foam core or other backings, we had the mats professionally cut and if acrylic had been used we replaced it with glass; and then Barry attached all the hanging wires.

Deciding which images go into which frame, framing and matting and cleaning...

Nearly there...

The artists at work - after having framed and cleaned all the pieces., pondering layout and hanging maybe?

The first hang.

Opening Night... Sheila and I.

It was quite the arty party! Lovely flowers, food and friends...

Both of these works of mine sold out their full edition... so that was pretty special.

And. It is so hopeful - when Margaret Atwood was asked what her favourite word was she answered with this.  I pondered that thought over here at Thursday Thoughts, more than a decade ago...

And this one, called Worn, is a hymn book we found in a church in Scotland that had been left abandoned...

Thursday Thoughts...

“The wind is the moon’s imagination wandering.” 

Saul Williams

I chose this quote today on my pondering of life as I think it might help on dark, windy nights.

I am not a fan of those nights when you lie in bed and can hear the wind whistling or roaring or howling, depending on its mood. I find it quite unsettling.  

So to consider the wind as some more benign form is a lovely thought, worth thinking on. 

I stopped and thought about how much I love the moon - in all of its phases and guises. I love it when it is a tiny fingernail fragment; when it is rising above the ocean and making a ladder across the sea; and when it is glowing fully and bright and majestically all night.  So to be able to associate the wind with the moon is a good thing in my book; and the idea of the moon having an imagination that is out for a wander - even more delightful!

Preparing for Exposed

 Well, as if life isn't exciting enough, my friend Sheila and I are having a pop-up photography exhibition next weekend!

A year or more ago we started playing with a setting on the cameras on our phones and really liked the variety of moods we could capture. We sent each  other photos we had taken - when I was in Scotland, when she was in Italy, when I was back, when she was back and over the time we collected some lovely images.

Friends and family enjoyed them and encouraged us and this wee pop-up, Exposed, is the result.

Exposed, by Sheila Bryden

There is an opening event at the studio on Friday 28 June 2024 from 5pm - 7pm; and then the works are on show and for sale on Saturday 29 June 2024 from 10am - 4pm; and again on Sunday 30 June 2024 from 10am - 2pm. So if you happen to be in the vicinity, feel free to pop-in, or pop-up or pop-down and say hello!

This weekend has been all about final preparations...

I am such an analogue person; I printed out a bunch of potential images, cut them all up and laid them out on the kitchen bench. I used the mat board I had cut as a frame, to help decide if the image looked any good.

I thought this series of ten might work. It was interesting to see how moody they were.

We have been re-purposing and re-furbishing frames, and getting mats cut, and glass fitted to the frames, and in so doing decided on three sizes of image. Small, Medium and Large. A few trial shots being used to test sizing.

A few older works being sacrificed to make way for new works...

Testing image sizes and selections over the weekend.

My book Worn large.

And also small.

And then of course we had to name them. Also very analogue, and some have been switched out and others changed since this photo.

This is the only shot I managed of us looking at Sheila's works and trying to decide.

So many decisions; but we have made our selections and framing is done and then a small catalogue as well. Phew!

Here is my image Worn, just as it is...

I love the darkness and the highlights and ma very happy that the blacks have been printing really velvety.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Signs and symbols, scrawls and scratches do not have to signify anything at all but they must look as if they do. Such marks need have no connection with real words, but must have the emotional resonance of words". 

Stephen Silver

I am at that stage of solo exhibition production where I am coming to the end of the project; and my mind is beginning to wander ahead of itself wondering what's next. Even tho there is still plenty to do! And my mind has been contemplating abstract calligraphic art, paper and books all over again.  Perhaps in response to so much time spent stitching.

Hence this quote resonated when I rambled across it in my newly formatted Thursday Thoughts document - a story for another time.

I think Mr Silver catches exactly what it is I love about abstract calligraphic art - it's the hint of, the sense of, writing. That somehow there is meaning to be decoded; that if I could begin to understand the repetitions, the forms and the shapes I could interpret the 'words'.

Apparently he is an animator, not a calligrapher so maybe he makes animated calligraphic art!

I like how he references the emotional resonance of words - for words are powerful (as mentioned in last week's Thursday Thoughts) and they hold power and meaning in a culture.

The beauty of abstract calligraphic art is that it lets you participate in the artwork with all the sense of words and reading and writing and all that they mean; yet leaves you wondering and able to interpret the 'message' as you please. Delicious.

And this is one book that will travel alongside me as I make my explorations into abstract calligraphic art sometime next year...

Four scrolls now done!

 As mentioned, these scrolls are a central feature of the exhibition in Scotland, and I am pushing through stitching as much as I can, and as often as I can, to complete the series.  The fourth one is now finished and it feels a bit better knowing that I have three to go, and that each of them is shorter than this longest one, so hopefully I am well over the half way mark.

Here is the back of the fourth scroll showing two hand stitched seams and the 'interesting' stitching!

And here is the right side with a lovely seam sitting flat and words that can be read.

Here it is unfurling...

And the four of them together in many ways...

And transferring the words onto the fifth one so we can begin again...

Onwards!

15 years of Paperponderings

 This morning as I looked at my phone a reminder came up as 'blog anniversary'. I thought oh, that's nice, and then counted the years and thought again, 'that's a lot of years'

Next Tuesday's post is the one I had planned for today but when I started to think about it I thought the anniversary day deserved its own post, so here we go. This photo is just a lovely photo to do with Tuesday's post!

Back on 16 June 2009 I wrote my very first ever blog post on Paperponderings. Over time the blog has chronicled my progress as an artist, my process and its many twists and turns, and the things I have made and created. It has kept track of my travels and moments of beauty in the sky, in the garden, in the mountains, along the roadside,  on the kitchen bench and by the sea.

Paperponderings has become my most precious resource for recalling where and when I did things, and made things. I come back to it time and again to check how I went about making something, and to check dates when I am required to include a piece in some story.

I am forever grateful that I began this blog, and for the joyful journey it has been thus far. And also for the folk who have been with me on and off across the 15 years, who have read, commented, provided advice and suggestions and let me know they are out there. 

Many a friendship has been formed by blogging, some of whom I have met face to face; others who I may never meet in person; but the support and exchanges between us is a source of great joy and comfort.

In this post on the 10th anniversary, I went back over a decade of posts from the date closest to the anniversary date and found such an interesting random collection of reminders I decided I would do it again for the past 4 years and see what I have been up to.

On Tuesday 16 June 2020 we were in the early stages of learning what a global pandemic meant. This post was about gecko poo which is odd, but a great story about how to make things out of mistakes (or misadventures...). The work that emerged from this episode is now in the State Library of Queensland collection.

On Thursday 17 June 2021 I have a Thursday Thoughts post, which had me cry-laughing apparently! But the words and the image are reminiscent of our short mini-break a few weeks ago; the timings eerily similar. Same place, same view, same routine...

Thursday 16 June 2022 saw another Thursday Thoughts land on the actual date. Pondering thoughts about flowers and fleeting moments, and moments of beauty. I sense that has been a bit of a regular theme in Thursday Thoughts over the years.

Thursday 15 June 2023 just a year ago and the date closest lands yet again on a Thursday! This was interesting to revisit as we begin the countdown plan for Scotland and my mind has turned to art there and thinking about art and walking...

And so to 16 June 2024, where the posts either side of the anniversary are about stitching and an exhibition in Scotland.

Paperponderings has actually been archived by Pandora, a growing collection of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with nine other Australian libraries and cultural collecting organisations. 

The name, PANDORA, is an acronym that encapsulates their mission: Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia.

 It forms part part of the National Library of Australia's ongoing work to identify and record the virtual, as well as the physical, records of our lifetimes.

With thanks to all who follow and enjoy; and with hopes that I can continue to record my ponderings, my progress and my wonder at the world for a few more years.

Thursday Thoughts...

"A word after a word after a word is power". 

Margaret Atwood

In the world we live in, words and writing and sentences and letters and books all hold power. Our laws are written in words; our many contracts are written with words; our shopping receipts list words; and so many, many instances of our daily lives that are official, demand and require words.

Being able to manage and handle and use words is a certain sort of power and this quote has made me think hard about how much power is unobtainable; inaccessible; when one does not have the power of words. When reading, or writing or speaking is denied you, how much power is taken away?

I am pretty sure Ms Atwood wasn't headed in this direction when the wrote these words; but I imagine she might agree nevertheless.

I imagine she was speaking/writing as a writer, whose job it is to put one word after another; and describing how powerful that can be as a novelist. The ability it gives you to give form to your thoughts; to describe and speak of situations; to tell stories others may be afraid to tell.

Words are powerful in so many ways. 

They can keep you safe; help you feel safe; or force you to seek safety...

Three scrolls complete

 The major and central work of the exhibition Scotland is a cascade of seven hand-stitched scrolls. Household inventories.  I have enjoyed finding the fabric, and stitching it together (learning how to do hand stitched run and fell seams) and now the hard slog of stitching all the items onto each scroll is underway in earnest.

I have finished three of them and am almost finished the fourth which is the longest. and holds the most words It will feel good to have cracked 4/7!

The dappled studio light has been delightful yet again and gives them a dreamy kind of look I think. Each scroll is stitched using a different colour and hopefully they will all complement each other and look as if they belong in the Highlands.

Here is number 4 scroll underway. For some reason I have decided to stitch from the bottom up!

And dried Australian eucalyptus leaves also look lovely in the light. It is good to stop amongst the busy-ness of life and smile at small moments of beauty.