Art Inspiration

 I am back to making, but also to thinking. This time of year feels reflective as I look back and consider what has taken place and what I have achieved; and as I look forward as I begin to plan out next year.

It might seem ridiculous, but there are already several key markers in next year's diary which will mean we travel to different places at different times and do different things...

As a result I need to have a think about what I want to make next year - are there shows I want to submit work to? Is there anywhere I can take some of the work I have done? How do I deal with my feelings about the world? What sort of things could I be making? When do I need to have key works done by and how does the travel interact with that?

I am fortunate to have a variety of modalities to investigate and play with and sometimes my head just gets a bit jammed full of ideas, dates, times and deliverables; so it is always good for me to stop and ponder so I don't get too anxious about things.

Whilst we were in Scotland, I had the notion to write a list of things I love in artworks; things I respond to; things that hit me in the centre of my body and make me go ahhh...

I think the availability of so much imagery on Instagram in particular, has made me stop and think about but what do I REALLY respond to? enjoy? appreciate? How might I include some of those things in my artwork when I am getting stuck or feel like I am doing the same things over? Are there themes?

I added to my list on my phone regularly - whenever a thought popped into my head or I reacted to something and wondered why. I am not sure if I will do mood board as originally indicated or not - seems a bit of overkill and would take too much time I think. Might also make me get focussed on other people's work rather than my own.

Then I transferred the list to the computer so I could print it out and over the past week or so I have picked it up and played with it.

I had given myself permission to double up; to jot down anything and to not worry about it. And so it was a fair jumble of things; and I tried then to see if there were grouping or categories.

I ended up with 8 categories, and I colour coded each of them. Some words ended up in two or three categories. I am not convinced this is at all comprehensive or scientific but it was a good way to sort and settle my brain.

At Biblio this morning, I continued with the grouping and added in extras here and there. And then this afternoon I got on the computer to make a table - colour coded again - and began to enjoy the thoughts and ideas it generated

I laughed at  the name I gave it, but it felt right, not too serious, but kind of what  hope it does!

I am going to go away and have a play with this. I have a book in mind, and will now see if any of these ideas nudge me along a slightly different path than the one I kind of assumed I would follow...

Stocktake time

Well, after I don't know how many years of making things, selling some things and filing away other things we realised it is well and truly time to do a stocktake.

This comes about in part because we are preparing to open the studio space to the public next month, and plan to have an Open Studio event on 13 June.  By that date we will be allowed to have 20 people gather outside and be able to have 20 people in our studio space given its size.

Unless of course, things go backwards before going forwards; but we must make plans of some sort.

So we realise that we had 'stock' at the house; in the garage; in the sewing room; in the new studio and even in a shop in town that we needed to gather together and get a handle on.

If you want to sell it, you need to know what, where and how much.

Not my favourite task; but a rather large sense of satisfaction that at the end of the weekend I know every piece that I have and where it is.  What it might cost is yet to be finalised... I dislike that part the most.

Stocktaking cards it became clear that we don't have any Happy Birthday cards. So I played around with colourful ink rolls and some numbers just to see.

But mostly I just sat at the desk counting and cataloguing and noting editions, framed, unframed, matted variations and details like that.

Having gone through them all it became clear a few pieces could do with a bit of renovation, so I pulled them apart and refreshed them.

One of the Gentle Journeys pieces was a bit foxed in parts so I removed the paper and made up new pieces and replaced them.

High tech way of getting the alignment right. As ever, I kicked myself for not photographing the work before I put the glass and frame back on and taped it down. Must do better.

This piece is deep and dark.  I forgot to take a before shot; but that central square was a bit boring, soI I removed it.  I wanted some reason for you to go in and have look that I don't think was there before.

So I played around with rusty washers, gold leaf and colours and decided that a scratched bit of gold leaf over red  really popped.  Again I forgot to take a shot of the piece before re-framing - this is  a progress/options shot but better than nothing.

The options that were tested and rejected.

But then a small card made out of one of the rejects with the word SHINE scratched into it. A bit of fun and a reminder than remnants too can have a home.

I was really pleased to have typed up a record of all of the work that I have, and also pleased that going through and re-visiting some of them allowed me to refresh and renew them and and bring them new life.  It was also fun to play a bit along the way, so all in all happy days. Now to pricing...

Preparations...

This week is a bit of a week for finishing a few things.

On Wednesday I will be teaching artists' books to the Year 11s at Grammar again.  The focus will once again be on telling a story and not simply stitching a book that you paste things into like a scrapbook.

For simplicity's sake we aren't going to do a whole lot of complicated layouts; instead we are going to use  single pages, and bind them with Japanese stab bindings.

So I did all  my preparations and packed my bags; and also made a few sample books.

But first of all I came across rainbow on Barry's keyboard!

Getting ready, choosing colours and making templates

The first few sample books. I thought that the purple one looked a bit weird.

And realised that I made a mistake, leaving out a few stitches, so I re-did it.

The final four samples - we will see which ones they choose to do.

And the paperwork for Sydney got down to tin tacks this week - printing off the documentation, printing off the envelopes, signing the documentation...

Books of stickers arrived!

New business cards arrived!

Mylar bags and acid-free card arrived, as well as photo corners, so prints were packed.

And envelopes and cards inserted.

 And then everything packed in bubble wrap, and put into boxes for transport.

The boxes for the books should arrive tomorrow so then I can be fully packed to deliver to the transport folk on Wednesday. Phew.

The bits and pieces of studio days

Having broken my multiple projects down into further multiple tasks, I find myself doing bits of this and that most days I make it the studio.

But still, I am making progress.

In between times I did some book marks for guests at the Celebration of Books.

 A few practises here and there and oh, that red dot must have been practiced here as well!

And then because you can, more bookmarks just in case.

Practising calligraphic layouts to accompany the etchings on the wall. I am trying to have siblings in a way - letterpress words and calligraphic words.  I have clearly changed from my early play with balsa and upright to return to my heartbeat script. 

I like it when it is dense and it offers that tricky reading experience I am trying for with both the letterpress and calligraphy.

It felt to me as if reading about these issues shouldn't be easy and flowing; the reading should jar and jolt and be hard to read somehow. And so I try to make that a part of the experience of engaging with the work.

 Getting there...

And then to practising some stamped words that will appear in the books, alongside the titles of each piece that hangs on the wall. Again, aiming for siblings - the books and the wall works will be related but the books are not a direct replica of what is on the wall.

Forever testing, measuring, comparing...

Using up some ink after letterpress printing, making small thank you cards.

And loving those moments when you go what if I just turn the paper around a few times?

 And feeling truly thankful as I wander back from the studio to the house - and smile at these wee folk.

Pedantry

There is nothing groundbreaking in this post - just a detailed examination of the elements I try to get right and the steps I take to get them there. Equally well titled - how very slowly things happen.

In preparation for the Sydney Paper Contemporary, we are pulling together an advertisement which means we need photos of finished works.  Kind of sort of finished in my case.

So I printed a photo of one of my most recent prints because I liked how it had turned out, and then spent ages trying to work out where to place the third element - the red circle I posted about way back here.

The story is one of gender equality and how inequality promotes violence against women. The imagery is trying to talk about quality, inequality, being less than or more than.  I chose the red circle as it forms part of the gender symbols we are familiar with - the circle with an upward arrow for male; and a circle with a downward cross for the female.  I wanted gender neutrality so chose just the circle.

But where to put it to help tell that story, yet remain part of an elegant, well-resolved design?

All I knew was that I wanted it to relate to the equal sign.

So this is what I did...

You can see there were 9 variations I attempted. I came down on the side of this one.

But laugh out loud, the printed photo was not the exact same size as the print, so when I popped the mark on, it didn't land just where I thought it might; but it was good enough to photograph and send off.

So many things to focus on and learn.

From planning to preparing

My artwork progresses in small steady stages, and I have come to understand that many things take time. The things that take the most time seem to be the things where I am most invested in the final result - the things where I know I am going to be on show in public and want everything to be as good as it can possibly be; or things where I have been specially commissioned to produce a piece of work for somebody.  Also things with  deadlines, because if I don't plan properly and forget a major step, then I am up the creek without a paddle as we say.

When I get to play in the studio and follow my own whimsy or fancy; or let the work lead me, things do tend to go a whole lot quicker.

On a couple of projects I have moved from planning (research, notes, trials, re-dos) to actually preparing.

For the first of the letterpress prints I am making for Sydney, I have sat and worked out the size of the paper that will fit in the Lightning Jobber press and the amount of paper I want to show around the print  once framed (if I wanted more to show I might need larger paper).

And so I collected my draft frames and mats.

Here is the 3cm frame with the larger aperture - more space around the work.

The 3cm frame with the smaller aperture - tighter around the work.

The 2cm frame with the larger aperture.

The 2cm frame with smaller aperture.

Decisions decisions.

Finalising some text in preparation for printing.

Proofing without ink.

Stacking up sheets of the beautiful Gmund 300 paper ready for printing.

Starting the laborious and labour-intensive process of cutting lots of 20cm x 20cm sheets from the 70cm x 50cm sheets.

Almost ready for the first print run!