Art as distraction

 There has been some pottering in the last wee while and another small jewellery commission or two to do, but my main making seems to have come about because we are heading back to Maleny soon. On my to do list was "clean up art desk", and so I dutifully went upstairs to begin said task.

But the task involved picking up all the paper scraps I had lying around, along with picking up pens and glue sticks that needed to be put back in the drawer.

That all came together and before I knew it I was making cards and book marks. Galore!

Not once, not twice, but at least three times I attempted the task and each time I got distracted. I am nevertheless now proud to report that the desk has actually been tidied. I got there in the end, but there were a bunch of wonderful detours along the way.

So lots of small collage pieces became cards, using up the scraps of black card I had left over from the Pop Up price tags.

B had the good idea to cut an equal size piece of white paper and stick it on the inside, allowing folk to write on the card even if they didn't have a white or metallic pen. Smart move.

I decided to make up two packs of four cards and sell them as a bundle.

And then there was some leftover brown paper. And I spent many a happy moment drawing lines on it with my white pen. Then doing a few flowers and sticking them together and sticking them on cards I found I had made last time but not used.

All good tidying.

Random lengths and widths of black paper and card have become bookmarks.

And moremeditative line drawing and flowers have come together as a variety of black and white cards

Here is the result of my to do list item tidy art desk.

I was showing a friend some photos of my silver nest and she saw these images on my phone as I flicked through and she asked about  them and went on to purchase 5 cards and a set of the 4 small ones! She told another friend who bought the other set of four cards and three more of the others. So an added bonus is more room in the suitcase!

Evidence of the tidied art desk - tick!

Some collage art

I discovered a large folder of imagery waiting for me when we returned. It contained images that I had printed when I was doing my Fibre Arts Take Two course last time with Sally Tyrie.

They were all about the fishing sheds and the fishing net drying poles at the end of our road near the cove, and they didn't belong back in Australia. It was nice to reacquaint myself with them and I began to play with them back here.

I really liked their softness and their tonal togetherness and went on to make more collages. My little studio space was somewhat cramped on Thursday as I had taken the laptop upstairs so I could watch an online sketching course, whilst Barry did his watercolours on the kitchen table.

Nevertheless, after watching for a bit I was able to continue with the collages and have ended up with six that I like.

They measure 12cm x 12cm and I originally had been thinking about them as art-cards, to be sold with their own envelope. The kind of thing where you could write on the back in pencil; then send to somebody, and the recipient could frame them or pop them on a wee easel or some such.

But now I'm not so sure. Barry has ordered some square black mats and I am wondering if they might actually look better as matted artworks? Who knows, these things evolve and become what they will become.

There are two other postcard sized ones too. A nice dilemma to have.

And just because Spring flowers are cheery and beautiful, here is a tub we planted at our front door.

Dabbling and viewing

 It felt good to sit down and get my hand moving again. 

Whenever I need to begin again and feel my way, it's good to sit down, touch things, tidy things, put some things away, pull some things out, and wait to see what happens. 

I sat at my wee desk-studio space and made some postcards out of some left over prints. I also found three strips I had left over, cut from something else last time, and put them together to make a book mark. Nothing earth-shattering or brilliant, but getting back in the groove of putting things together and making stuff.

We visited the gallery at the North Coast Visitor Centre last week and there was a vibrant showing by young people from the area. I was particularly taken with these glorious wings, with over 500 young people participating.

And we have hyacinths, and the first of the lambs...

Things are getting real...

 

This morning I checked my emails and Fiona from Strathnaver Museum was asking what did I think of the poster she had designed? I replied all good  - and within 5 minutes it popped up in my FB feed! Things suddenly got really real.

It is really quite exciting and I am looking forward to installing the works next week. Barry has made all the plinths for me to cascade my seven scrolls for All That Was Lost down, I have laminated all the signs I need and printed all the catalogues. I have prepped for the workshop with the High School students, and broadly speaking I think we are on track!

Here are some images of The Emigrants (shown in the poster above) and I previously blogged about it here.

And here are some details of All That Was Lost. The last image shows the word kist in a rusty tin. Kist means a chest, that you store things in.

And here are the seven plinths lined up against the cottage wall. Next time you see them, they will be installed!

Some of the words on the scrolls and dismantling

 I did a fair bit of research from the museum, from archives and books trying to work out some of the things that folk may have had in their homes in the Highlands around the 1820s.

The idea of the scrolls is that they form a kind of household inventory; lists of all the things that might have been in a home, that needed to be gathered, collected and packed up when folk were forced to leave.  There is a lot when you think about it.

I have included on the inventories some old Scots words which are unfamiliar to us today. I thought it might be important to also have a list of them to help people interpret the work more fully.

Some of these include:

Simmons - a rope

Flate - a straw partition

Rantle Tree - a pivoting iron bar above a fire

Creepy - a stool for children

Caff-seck - mattress ticking filled with chaff

Bosom - a brush or a broom

Kist - a chest

And yes, the stitching goes on...

Part 2...

As part of our recent photography Pop-Up show Exposed, Sheila and I chose to re-furbish and re-purpose the frames. Barry painted a number of them black, we removed old artworks, cleaned up the tape and glue residues, replaced the foam core and put in hangers.

And thus some artworks have been dismantled. I quite like what this one is becoming - lots of interesting moments appearing.

I can't find a decent photo of it anywhere - here is its sibling back in 2011...

Here it is out of the frame (which got used for one of the Exposed images). I began lifting the rusted paper which had drawing marks on it - travel lines and such - but some of it remained, which I quite liked.

And then I chopped the work up into 4 page-sized pieces, and played around with arrangements.

But also thought they might provide the beginnings of 4 new mini artworks

And that somehow the centre could be used on one of them; or become the beginnings of another piece entirely.

I love the process of re-imagining something; creating new possibilities out of old and worn work. 

we shall see where this goes, but for now it shows promise!

Student Workshop possibilities

 During the exhibition coming up in Scotland later in the year, I am planning to run a workshop with the students at the local high school.

I have been thinking bout what we can achieve in double class and would like them to make an artists' book that links to the Clearances, to home, and to moving between places.

I like the notion of a simple accordion book with a folded up pocket, in which they can pop some artwork.

I lit upon the idea of using luggage tags for the artwork - they indicate travel, movement between places and are about holding on to things you own or identifying things that belong to you.

Because we will need to take most things with us (our part of the Highlands is very remote!) I have been sourcing materials that might work; and plan to prepare pages and do plenty of other preparation.

I have come up with three options for the height of the book - depending on how much of a turn over they use for their pocket. I think I will also prep some bands like these for folding around the book, to help keep it together.

The shortest book has part of the tag peek over the top; but is very securely held inside.

The second book fits the tag in perfectly and still has a pretty deep pocket.

The third book hides the tag well inside, but has the shallowest pocket. I think it will be good to give the m options and let them choose what they want to use. We can either use 8 tags for artwork; or 6 and past the covers down or cover them to make them firmer.

I was reminded of this small tag I made when last in Scotland, using some of the techniques from my Visual Narratives course. I think it will be good to offer some papers for collaging, some words and lettering and let them create a story about home or travel or leaving...

Lots of things to be thinking about, and lots to push forward, but there is progress being made here and there.