Somewhat random bits of making

 My head is racing this way and that and trying to sort and sift and settle with so many things I want/need to get done. I am trying hard to come down on the side of things that NEED doing - rather than heading off in a million directions of things that I COULD be doing. Sigh. There will be time for those later.

I had a note to self that I needed to make a pretend scroll. Barry had previously made a beautiful scroll book which worked brilliantly for explaning about scrolls - but somebody recently purchased it and it now has a new home and I can't pull it out and use it for demonstration purposes! 

Down at the studio on the weekend I looked at a roll of paper and thought - that might do it.

And then I looked down at a crack in the floor and thought - that might do it.

I went off and grabbed a stick of graphite and did a rubbing of a crack!

I am quite fond of the marks made, and now simply have to work out how much to add to it without detracting from it!  That will happen.

If adding words, I have to work out is the work read from inside the scroll to the end of the scroll? Or is it read as you unfurl the scroll from the end ot the inside? Interesting...

I also have to print a few words, so was playing ever so briefly with some type, and surprised myself with how quickly I managed to decide on the typeface, the layout and then when I found one empty chase that I could pop the words into and lock it up I really felt like I was winning! 

Now to simply find some moments to cut the card and print! Easy right?

And then a quick rub over the letters with carbon paper to check if we are on track, and I think we actually are.

I also squeezed a few moments at home to sit down and try to use my alphabet to write some words out. I had a scrap of paper left over from the paper sample book episode, and just used a basic roller pen I use to write my daily to-do lists. This writing is quite small and dense.

Interestingly, I chose some words that are a reminder to me, and I like the way in which they are coded and not easily understood. Almost secret.

Life is full of variety!

And a rainy afternoon gave me the perfect opportunity to review these books and reflects on them as I prep for teaching and the Conference. So much wisdom and goodness within.

I enjoyed it so much the idea of a book reading session came over me - how delightful would it be to have coffee, cake, good arty folk and books and just sit in silence reading wonderful books and exclaiming and sharing every now and again?

Thursday Thoughts...

“When you lose yourself in a book, the hours grow wings and fly.” 

 Chloe Thurlow

So true!

I always try to check who is who that I am quoting, given that I find the words all over the place in books or on random pages or searches. Apparently Chloe is a writer of erotic fiction who mother doesn't speak to her. Or she could be a knitting designer, but I think I'm going with the author here.

Books, reading and time make for a fascinating investigation of the relativity o time i think. Time is such a fluid concept and just as she says here, when you are deep in a book, utterly committed to it, using every spare moment, delaying and postponing other things just to get the time to read it, you do honestly lose yourself.

It is wondrous that words on a page can have that much power. That they can virtually warp time. Somehow their effect is as if to place you in a form of vacuum where there is no sense of time, that you exist somehow beyond the notion of it.

Just fabulous.

And yes, the hours grow wings and fly...

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.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." 

 Frederick Douglass

Being able to read most definitely opens doors and opportunities and in itself is a kind of freedom. A freedom to choose. A freedom to explore. A freedom to refute. A freedom to think. A freedom to debate.

Reading enables so many things and makes so many more things possible. I imagine if ever imprisoned, it would be the greatest of solaces to me - in my mind I could be free; even if my physical body could not.

In lots of ways this is exactly why education is so important. Why reading widely and reading things that you might not know about or understand, or even agree with, is so important to a full and rich life.

Education is also freedom.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man's freedom.” 

 Franklin D. Roosevelt

Well, there is a lot to say about this, who said it, why they said it and how different things are in some places today. Perhaps not burning books per se, but banning them.

But back to the sentiments I think the then President was reflecting upon. He clearly knew the power of books and of the written word. Of how impactful they can be; and how they can become embedded in memory and in oral traditions and oral histories even if they are destroyed.

Books are powerful, and yes they can be weapons because they can ignite imagination and courage. And yes, they should be used in pursuit of man's (people's) freedom, not as weapons of division and hatred.

Simply put, I agree with pretty much everything he is saying here.

 

Timbers burning, not books.

Thursday Thoughts...

“There is only so much we can know via direct experience. Reading gives us more time. More lives to live.” 

 Jeanette Winterson

The first part of this quote is actually a really important argument in defence of reading and books I think.  Whilst I am a strong supporter of listening to folk with lived experience of something - they know best what it means for them - I also believe your own personal experience is not the whole story.

One simply can't say I know all about this because this is what happened to me; or this is what I see; or this is where I live; or this is my life and that is the end of that. For me the world has any number of angles, facets, and perspectives and we all experience it differently and the more we can understand other folks' positions and views and experience the fuller picture we can see.

We can't get out and travel everywhere and talk to everybody in the world and so we read. Reading takes us to places, inside people's minds and thoughts and all sorts of ways of being and thinning that are outside our own experience and that helps us understand the world better.

In some cases it does allow us to live another life in the sense of experiencing somewhat vicariously, what it might have been like to be a dancer in Paris in the 1800s or a soldier in Flanders Fields, or a wealthy woman in The UK or a teenager in the 50s...

The same can possibly be said for watching movies or plays, but for me, reading is the way I go about it.

From the rainbow stack of books in our home in Maleny. I collected the books for their cover colours, not for their content, and have to admit to never having read any of the books in the stack...

Thursday Thoughts...

"When you love something like reading - or drawing or music or nature – it surrounds you with a sense of connection to something great. It’s an alchemical blend of affinity and focus that takes us to a place within that feels as close as we ever get to ‘home’. "

 Anne Lamott.

I love reading and re-reading Anne Lamott. She has whimsy and wisdom in spades and it's a great combination.

I think she is so right here - that when we love something it gives us a deep and meaningful connection to the world and beyond. It helps us feel part of the connectedness. We are a small moment in the ongoing story of folk throughout the ages who have enjoyed the same pastime, hobby or calling; been interested in the same things; dreamed similar dreams.

I love how she hits the sweet spot with the suggestion of alchemy where affinity and focus meet and create that feeling of home. 

When I am making, at my desk, in the studio, hammering away I feel the most like me I can feel, and I feel deeply at home with myself and the world. The same goes for reading. When I sit and read I feel like I am home, that I am me.

Thursday Thoughts...

"A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth." 

Andre Dubus

I oftentimes wonder about which books to keep on my shelf. Which books might I re-read? Which books should I say I have read you once and that is all I need? These words suggest that perhaps I should keep them all and regularly re-read them! I doubt that I could, but I do agree with the sentiments that suggest that even after a very long time, book can be re-read and utterly shatter us.

So much of the joy and wonder of reading is the equation that a book = author's words plus reader's perceptions. And each and every one of us brings our experiences and thoughts and beliefs to the reading of a book; and of course, these change over time. 

I love the phrasing here of how, after re-reading, a book can open us up by cut or caress - it can wound us or enfold us. So true, depending on where we are and where we have been in the intervening years.

Also the notion that what we had thought of as "the story" can itself, break into pieces and be re-formed or re-shaped into a new story based on who we are now.

Sigh, so many big ideas, and so much to think about and consider about the process of reading and re-reading.

Thursday Thoughts...

“The paper burns, but the words fly away.” 

Akiba ben Joseph

Part of me was very surprised to discover that I had never used this quote for my Thursday Thoughts ponderings before now.

I used in my books "Beyond Bombs and Burning" an din my book "Endure".

I think it is such a powerful quote, and one we need to take comfort from as we watch books being banned in many places. You can ban the book, or burn the book, but the words are still out there, being shared, on the breezes, reaching hearts and minds.

I imagine the quote also encourages thoughts about the value of oral traditions and how the written and oral can complement each other and how we can benefit from both.

I do find comfort in these words.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don't you agree?" 

 Christopher Paolini

I have never read of M. Paolini's books but at least I know he is a rather famous author of fantasy!

That said I do think I agree with his suggestion here.

Books play so many roles in our lives. For me some of them have been constant companions since I was a child - they sit upon my bookshelf and haven't been read in a while; but they are treasured and every time my eye runs over them I am reminded of childhood reading time and the joys of discovery.

On the other hand I am truly quite ruthless about moving books along when we have finished with them. I do really agree that books should be shared, that they should be where they are most appreciated and not neglected or forgotten. After I read something, then Barry reads it, then maybe we send it to my Dad to read, it heads off out into the wider world for enjoyment by somebody else.

We do keep a few special ones - some of the ones I have given away or loaned and not had returned that I scour secondhand book shops for to get  my own copy again. Some that really really moved me and some that I know I will be re-read.

Art and craft books are the hardest to toss! I just never know when I might want to dip back in or get inspired by something that didn't have meaning for me earlier. It's tough, but necessary at times to move them along and honestly, they are some of the most joyfully received of passed on books when they land in the right place.

I think his use of the word appreciated is important - some of my books are sitting there, perhaps suspended in time, unread for a while, but they are truly truly appreciated for the role they have played; or the role they may yet play...

Bookshelf at the beautiful Brooklyn Art Library, 2013, before the fire destroyed so much.

Thursday Thoughts...

“I want to write a novel about silence. The things people don’t say.” 

Virginia Woolf

As my eyes flew along the page that holds my quotes for Thursday Thoughts, this one caught my eye and I went with it immediately. That doesn't always happen, but today I thought -"ooh I wonder what that would look like???"

And before I knew it, it was copied and pasted over here and I was typing. 

At first I imagined an artists' book type book that had chapter headings like "Silence when sitting in awe at Nature" or "Companionable Silence whilst reading alongside each other" or "Silence when your heart hurts too much to speak of it" with each chapter followed by blank pages.

However because Virginia Woolf was a novelist I imagine she may well have written descriptions of these sorts of silences, because there really is so much variety in silence. She may have described in words, the silences I am imaging and no doubt silences I haven't even conceived of.

Silence can be deafening, or eloquent. There is a lot of power in silence. And indeed, there is lots to think about or write about it.

I am tempted now to collect a bunch of silences and I might just make that book at some point!

Quote by Mark Rothko; calligraphy by me, and etching and embossing by Susan Bowers. 2015.

Thursday Thoughts...

"A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on, you are enriched threefold." 

 Henry Miller

I agree with Mr Miller about keeping books circulating; but can't describe those books that remain in my shelves as wasted ammunition!

I love sharing books and having books shared with me. Barry, my Dad and a friend have an unofficial book club where if we come across a book we think the others might enjoy we share it amongst ourselves and then have dinner to chat about it.  The last person to read it, then passes it along to somebody else.

Most of our books end up being circulated around a few times before ending up with somebody else for good; or for them to do their own network of sharing. Some books however, I like to have returned so that I can continue to access them.

I recently spent a morning going back through my Biblio notebooks/journals, remembering all the great books I have dipped into and making notes to myself - MUST re-read this! There were some great books that I had kept, and that I have been reminded to return to for their insight and wisdom.

Not wasted ammunition; just resting until they are needed again.

I agree that when you share a good book with another you are enriched - knowing that somebody else has the chance to love it, enjoy it, be moved by it, learn from it; it does give a bit of a gentle glow to life.

Some of the books I MUST re-read!

Thursday Thoughts...

"Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let's not forget this." 

 Dave Eggers

This quote got me thinking today about how often I do this. How often I get stopped in my tracks and think, whoa, this is important. Do not forget this moment; these words; this capturing of an idea; this expression; this perfectly succinct crystallisation of so much. And yet sadly, I so often do.

It feels like with the amount of information one consumes in the course of an average day, that where once you might have thought "that was so spectacular, I will remember it", nowadays I find myself barely remembering what is what that stopped, me exactly, nor where I came across it, or sometimes even who wrote it or said it. I am oftentimes left with a vague sense that somebody said or wrote something really good. Which is neither impressive nor inspiring...

Perhaps he isn't referring to that at all; rather he might simply be saying that a book that tells a story is encouraging us to pay attention to the time in which it is set; perhaps the place and how it operated; maybe the workforce of an era; or the gender roles we took on at different times. In a book about WWI we might be reminded to try really hard not to go there again; a book set in or around outback Australia during a drought reminds us of the fragility of both the planet and our people. Perhaps that is what he is saying.

But I focused on forgetting particular moments and was reminded how often that happens to me.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know." 

 Alberto Manguel

Perhaps this.

So often I seek solace in books, trying to find the words that somebody has managed to think, arrange, and express, that go close to how I am feeling.  There is a form of validation that occurs when you realise somebody else has felt this way and has thought about things from this perspective; that they too have felt bewildered, terrified or hopeless by the turns in events.

I like that way he considers that we return to books, to find words for what we already know.  

Perhaps we know, but we simply can't express; and the gift is that somebody else can and has.

Perfect.

I come to quiet knowings, 2009.

Thursday Thoughts...

“We write stories, not because we have answers, but because we have questions.” 

Katherine Paterson

It feels like it's time to write stories.

This quote demonstrates for me how artists and creatives so often are trying to find ways to understand the world around them. The stimulus for work is often about enquiry, rather than expressing certainty.

If not about the subject itself; the enquiry and questioning can often be about process.

Altho of course sometimes the work is about trying to tell truth or a fact that is unwelcome. With stories I imagine a lot of us think as we read, "oh this person knows something", but perhaps they are just like us and trying to work it out as best they can as they go along.

As I think about how a writer might approach their work, I imagine it could start with "What if...?" which is really what this quote is saying in a nutshell I guess!

Ten years ago, the answer to the question "what if I cut a bird shape out of some rust and then tried to print it/transfer it using tea?"

Thursday Thoughts...

“Wear the old coat and buy the new book.” 

Austin Phelps

Oh  my goodness, what can I say, but Hard Agree!!!

I am more than happy to re-work, re-configure, repair and renovate my clothes, and can never walk by a bookshop without stopping in.

In fact we oftentimes make decisions about places to stop and visit based on whether they have an art gallery and/or a book shop! Dingwall had a great gallery and two bookshops...

I am glad that for whatever reason I am a person who is less concerned or excited with new looks and fashions than with new books, new ideas and new perspectives.

Books!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” 

E.L. Doctorow

A good book is definitely one where sensations and emotions are evoked.  I think if the writer is talented, they do manage to make you feel something; rather than simply be told something. They evoke rather than describe perhaps?

One of the best books I have read recently was the Booker Prize winning Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. I felt that this book was the epitome of evocation. With limited punctuation, you felt like you were rushing along. You felt as if you were inside her head - with thoughts about making tea; and getting the kids to hockey practice and the fear of the watchers on the streets. He managed to build a sense of fear and trepidation; of constriction and spiralling out of control so well.

They say a picture can paint a thousand words, and much imagery does evoke sensation. But so does really good writing.

Perhaps the anticipation of that storm arriving...

Thursday Thoughts...

"I don't read a book; I hold a conversation with the author." 

 Elbert Hubbard

I like it when I come across a quote that makes me wonder if I agree with it or not.  Some folk are quite clear in their statements, and I imagine that for them they are true.  I wondered about this one for myself.

Do I really feel as if I am having a conversation?  

I think if I am reading a book with purpose, and it is a literary fiction book it is possible I may be with the asking some questions along the way. I will try to understand what they are doing, and why they have done things and measure their success against a few things. I might wonder about the effects they achieve by some decisions they take around narrative style or punctuation; but I don't actually feel as if they respond.

It is not until I can listen to them being interviewed and hear them actually respond to questions like my own that I feel as if I have gotten to understand them and their intentions better.

I have come to understand that I get a lot more from a book when I listen to the author speak about it as well as read the book itself.

I also get lots out of a book when I chat with others about it. Big Book Club, Maleny 2024.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real." 

Nora Ephron

The older I get the more I try to work out the duality of things. How cognisant dissonance can exist within us all; and that sometimes it truly is possible to hold completely differing thoughts.  

This one I think helps us understand that something (a book) can do two separate things which in a way are also opposite things - the way it can act as both an escape; and as a connector. 

She put this really well. I have often said books let me disappear from life; and that they also make me feel not alone.  They are multi-functional tools.

Thursday Thoughts...

"Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves". 

Jeremy Collier

Ahh, the comfort of books. I think this quote suggests that books enable us to disappear momentarily from  our life and our strife. That they can let us forget the troubles of the moment and simply be within another world, with other concerns and stories that engage us.

Books offer respite from our worries.

I also often ponder the difference between loneliness and solitude. How two circumstances may be physically the same - one is by oneself - but the experience is so subjectively different. I like that he references solitude here; it is one of my favourite places.

Solitude.