Thursday Thoughts...

“Some women are lost in the fire. Some women are built from it.” 

Michelle K.

A quick search makes me think I could be quoting a poet called Michelle K; a musician from regional Australia also called Michelle K; or perhaps K. Michelle an American singer. Apologies all round for not being sure who the words may belong to.

Fire is an interesting element to reference I think as it holds so many associations and connotations. It is easier for me to understand how a woman (or other) could be lost in fire. Fire can consume and destroy. It can leave nothing behind; it can remove all trace.

Trying to consider how a woman (or other) could be built from it is a tad harder. In some circumstances perhaps people can be burnt and recover and a new way of being is forged, and possibly built. I don't really think women rise from the ashes like phoenixes purportedly do. And now I think about it how DO phoenixes rise from the ashes??? Maybe I am just being too literal.

I can grasp how if a person's home and effects have been destroyed by, or lost to, fire that they may then re-build and build a life anew. And maybe that the fire event makes them stronger.

I imagine the main message is supposed to be that difficulties and challenges can either overwhelm you or you can emerge from them stronger and more resilient. 

Perhaps it's best not to be too literal about it all!

Our beach bonfire, Summer Solstice, Scotland 2025.

Off to a new home, and visiting

 I showed these three small Grief is a Stone book-ets at the Narrative Exhibition here in Maleny in May. Whilst we were in Scotland I got the lovely new that the State Library of Queensland had purchased a set. 

And then, another set! A bit like their purchase of my book about domestic abuses W?W?W?W? earlier in the year the Library has bought another set for use in their Education Kit. I love the thought that visitors and student will get to examine these and think bout grief in different ways.

So I packaged up two sets last week, and popped them in the post.

So those books have a new home; and a couple of my other books are visiting new places!

Its a busy time with my work in a few different localities across the country...

My book Red Card is a Finalist in the Libris Awards in Mackay, and the show looks marvellous from afar. Here are some photos from the installation that the Gallery has shared with me.

The catalogues of works is here and I have heard tell you might be able to do a 3D walk through of the exhibition sometime soon.

I have also sent two books across the country to Perth, to be shown in the exhibition Between The Sheets. Simply Being and Red Card have made their way over the Nullarbor Plain, and are looking good alongside some other great looking artists' books.

Building a new alphabet and the sale

Early in the time of our last visit to Scotland, I made some marks and made some books.  

At the heart of these books  was mark-making, building on an old calligraphic challenge of creating an alphabet from within a square.

I am sure on investigation, that this exercise has it genesis in the Berber alphabet, but I remember it as an exploration and a creative exercise.

This is how I went about it.

I recalled the notion of a square, with an X within it.

And so I went about trying to see what shapes you could pull out of these two marks.

I took the nextstep and added circle and a vertical cross which offered way more character type options.

I also recalled we could add dots.

I selected some favourites, and drafted a bit of an alphabet from those.

I came up with what I thought was my final alphabet and wrote a couple of  words using it at the bottom the page. And I thought I was done.

Through the week I looked back at it and wondered if it could be refined/improved in any way. I wondered why I had made all the vowels based on the circle, and then done the same for the S? I also decided I didn't like the dot in the middle of the circle for A - looked a bit too much like a cartoon boob. For both K and W I decided I didn't want them to look like a recognisable E, even tho they were upside down or backwards, to me they still referenced an E too much.

Don't ask me why, but the V shape started to annoy me, so it had to go! Replacing K and W, I went for complete rectangles with bits in them; but after a while decided no, all the other letters were 'open' except for the vowels, so I had to have another look and find a form/shape that would work better.

And then the Z looked too easily mistaken for the R, so it was off to find another shape for that as well.

Sometimes my decision making process is a mystery to me; but this is where I landed.

It's all pretty funny really, given that I mainly intend to use the letters in ways that are illegible, so all of this consideration may mean nothing; but at least I will know that the forms to begin with had been well-considered and had some sense of purpose and reason behind them.

My next job is to find some time to write with them and see how they work...

We hosted our BIG studio-grade sale on Saturday and it was an amazing success. It was such a joy to see so many artists finding things that meant something to them; that they could use; or could afford to experiment with. it was such a delight and we were left with not too many things by the end of it, for which we are grateful.

The great down-sizing has begun in earnest! Here are some before shots that B took; I failed to take any and certainly by the end of the day I had no energy to take any after shots...

I think half the books went.

Every single frame, mat and perspex stand went!!!

Not much is left from this table - the marbling kit is still there as is the paint mixer and the small packet of coloured inks.

Some paralles pens remain, as do some lino cutting tools and some paper embossing tools. Otherwise, all gone!

Such a good day. With gratitude to all who came and visited and who bought things.

Thursday Thoughts...

"All my early memories are of forms and shapes and textures. Moving through and over the West Riding landscape with my father in his car, the hills were sculptures; the roads defined the form. Above all, there was the sensation of moving physically over the contours of fullnessess and concavities, through hollows and over peaks - feeling, touching, seeing, through mind and hand and eye. This sensation has never left me. I, the sculptor, am the landscape. I am the form and the hollow, the thrust and the contour". 

Barbara Hepworth

Reading these words after seeing Hepworth's work, they make so much sense. Her work is full of hollows and concavities; gentle rises, curves and peaks.

The manner in which she describes her body's place in the landscape and how that translates to her sculptures (and clearly also her drawings) made me wonder about how it was to live in her body that way.

The amazing experience it must have been to feel all of the landscape and then have that feeling and movement move through her and be re-created in stone, with string, or on paper. You look at her work, and you can see and feel her landscape.

I love gazing at her work and it is really special that the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness on Orkney has a lot of it. Each time we visit we spend time with her work. It is both settling and soothing. 

Curved Stone (detail), 1946

Paper, paper, everywhere...

 Life is full and fast at the moment, and I am feeling like I am constantly running to keep up; but never quite getting everything done that I need to get done. Sigh

But flowers help make everything better...

We are moving some things on from the studio space and are having a BIG garage sale on the weekend.  B has been busy moving paper from the studio to the office/studio at home and once here, it has been my job to sort it. 

Yesterday a friend and I spent a couple of hours cutting and tearing paper and this is the lovely pile we made.

And this is the box of paper I just ordered!  We need some of our favourite grey for book covers that we both have planned, and we only have two sheets left. It felt odd to be opening packets of new paper as I was trying to sort out which papers went where, and if in fact I could move some of them on!

There was paper all over the sewing room/studio space.

But some excellent new paper drawers to put it all in!

After two hours of sorting, B came home and found me like this!

There is method of sorts in my madness - there are piles for sale; scraps for sale, papers free to a good home and some good papers to sell in their packs. It really was one of those jobs best done by oneself - I had a vague plan and understanding of what differentiated this paper from that paper and why, and it all worked out OK in the end.

All I have to do now is do some labels for the new drawers - numbers and descriptors of what they hold -then that job is done. Phew.

And here is a lovely photo of eucalyptus leaves in the sunlight on our kitchen bench, which we have purloined to be the backdrop for some promotion of our Studio Garage Sale.

A Big Weekend

 Well, we have made it through another Big Book Club weekend. A ever, it was a great day, with folk sharing their thoughts on books and listening to our special guest Kate Evans from Radio National's weekly fiction show The Bookshelf.

We discussed James by Percival Everett; and its predecessor/antecedent Huckleberry Finn; and then in broader terms what it means to re-write the Classics; the different ways it can be done; why it is done, and even what makes a book a Classic?

It was a great meander around the world of re-writings and re-imaginings and back again. We all learnt so much!

Here the two of us are having a chat and then me listening intently and wearing the pebble earrings made in Scotland recently on their first outing.

And the two of us after the show - relaxed and smiling.

Earlier in the week, in line with my attempt to promise myself to make some art each day (which nobody will be surprised learn failed at almost the first hurdle...) I decided I would use some odd moments to think about re-working a bunch of pebble forms that were lying around in packets.

Some of them were attached to earrings which I thought I could dismantle; others were just there, and I wondered could they all be re-imagined into something else perhaps?

Personally, I was a bit taken with this lovely arrangement  of forms.

And I played around and found some possible earrings, and some possible pendants in the mix.

I showed them to a friend, who thought they looked a bit dark, so in another moment that I found, I decided to buff and polish them and make most of them silver again... leaving just one oxidised one.

So there was some artiness this week. Also - Kate and I managed to spend some time in the workshop on Friday and she is the first person I have ever shown how to make pebble forms from silver wire and she made her own pendant (which you can see in the photo of the two of us together). What a talent she is!

It is now heads down and bums up this week as Barry and I prepare for our Studio Garage Sale!

We will be selling lots of things we no longer need or use, at very excellent prices! 

Next Saturday 26 July there will be cutting mats, bone folders, calligraphy pens, paper, some inks, rollers, book cloth and oh so much more for sale at the studio from 10am - 4pm.

We aren't in a position to provide detailed information or imagery about individual items, so it really is a case of come along and see.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Books are disruptors. Books are questions. I’m not talking about How To Manuals that pretend to give us answers. I’m talking about the noisy row that breaks out in our heads when we have to think past ourselves. 

 Do I believe this? How is this making me feel? Why am I getting angry? How come I suddenly recognise what I haven’t been able to put into words?"

Jeanette Winterson

I think the image I love best from this quote is "the noisy row that breaks out in our heads". I am often in awe of how swiftly our mind makes connections, jumping from one thought, notion or subject to another with lightning speed. And then back again  These words make me think about those time when you see with great clarity both this side AND that side. When you recognise the contradiction; but feel the great comfort of harmony simultaneously.

Ms Winterson loves books and all that they offer - after all that they offered her in a difficult childhood.  She is not one for the easy; nor the prescriptive; but she is one for the ideas and thoughts and challenges.

She is speaking here I think of when books take us out of our comfort zones and ask us to consider new perspectives. It might be the language used; the relationships developed; the perspective from which the book is written.

I know there are times in my life when all I want is the familiar, the cosy, the swaddling, of a book that I feel comfortable with. 

I also know I need to bring the other books into my life on a regular basis as well. How else does one continue to learn and grow? To be a better human? To understand life and others more fully?

And when making books, I have to sometimes explore the tougher side of things; the things that make me uncomfortable or fearful. And to constantly be learning from others.

Pebbly bits and Celebrating Books

 I have been working in a small notebook I made and designed in Scotland a few years ago. Its funny how it takes a while to realise how those wobbly pebble forms have been working away slowly in the back of my brain...

I  had a couple of commissions for large pebble pendants to do when I got back and this week has seen it all happen. 

I soldered six pebble forms, rolled them, oxidised a few and then got them onto cords. Now to catch up with their prospective new owners for a cuppa and a handover.

We are also busy with preparations for our annual book event - The Big Book Club. This year we are looking at re-writing the Classics - what it means to take a tale well known, and re-imagine it. 

We have focussed on James, by Percival Everett, and Huckleberry Finn. James tells the story from the perspective of Jim, a black slave in the original book. James was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, and won the 2025 Pulitzer along with the 2024 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and the 2024 National Book Award in America and a wonderful book on its own; but better because of it's re-telling I think

We begin with small, facilitated group discussions about both books and then gather together as a larger group for the plenary session, where I will be interviewing Kate Evans from ABC Radio National's book program The Bookshelf.

Always a challenge interviewing a highly skilled and talented interviewer!

We will be discussing what re-tellings and re-imaginings do; how they work; when they don't work; and what it means to take somebody's story and tell it again, differently.

I am really looking forward to it but am still beavering away trying to make the interview flow...

I am sure it will be great event on Saturday 19 July 2pm - 4pm (doors open at 1.30pm for afternoon tea delights). Bookings here...

Serviettes

 Since returning we have been busy. No real surprises there,we knew we had a few things on and of course there is always the joy of catching up with folk and gathering and chatting.

I have been reflecting a fair bit on how to make sure that art remains a part of my every day. And my everyday.  I am working hard to spend time each morning as I write my To Do List to ask myself the question - what art will you do today? Or perhaps What creativity will you do today?

I have known for a long time that it's never just about making the art; there is so much support work and admin that goes with it. I think that knowledge has somehow been a blessing and a curse as they say. I have often found myself doing art admin things, and saying to myself that is what I did for my art today. And because I am who I am and how I am, I often prioritise the admin and the jobs and the chores, over the making time.

So I switched my brain a bit and have set aside time on Mondays for Art Admin. For all those follow ups, writings, ordering etc that might otherwise steal time from making. Monday is already our chores and life admin day and I am trying to add in Art admin too.

And so I have been doing bits of this and of that where and when I can. Mostly I have just been scratching the itch that is serviette making! Laugh. These things buzz into my head and won't go away until I do something with them and so I have managed to get to work on them this week.

Some of our sheets had come in these nice linen bags. I spent an enjoyable evening unpicking them, and then ironing them.

I watched a YouTube video about mitred corner serviettes with hem stitching and set about cutting out serviettes from the remnant bags. There were some seams remaining in a couple of them and I thought I would still give it a go to see if they could hem stitched.

The answer is that they could, but the machine didn't really like it and juddered across the heavier seam and stuttered and got stuck and I had to jimmy it along and so the stitching is rather odd in places. See last photo.

But generally speaking I did OK. I did a different stitch on each serviette. I have made a pair and there are two more in this fabric to go; and a few more to be cut from the grey bags, and two more ready to go in some remnant linen fabric from a dress, so I will be able to go along quite well when I have time.

In typical Fiona fashion, I forgot to attach the dissolvable stabiliser to the second serviette - too excited and enthusiastic to slow down and remember the steps! Probably because the linen was a mid weight, it didn't make too much of difference thankfully.

And here they are washed and ironed.

In all their wobbly, recycled glory.

And just because it has been a magical week for the moon - here are a few photos of where I found it in interesting places...