Building Narrative Workshop

 Sunday evening weariness after a wonderful workshop with four great women, at the amazing Kim Herringe's studio here in Maleny. Kim is a fabulous printmaker, artist, and all round champion of art and is a truly excellent and generous teacher.  I was honoured to be asked to be a guest instructor in her beautiful studio space - and yes there were wallabies hopping through the garden!

Kim had asked me to teach my Building Narrative in Artists' Books workshop and it was a joy to spend time talking about the many ways we can bring our stories to life for people in our artists' books.

As I said at the beginning of the workshop it is a really heavy 'head-day' and far more so than the usual  'hand-day' that we love as makers and creators. However, time to ponder, investigate and explore is also a gift that is welcomed and we went in and down and around and through and back again with our thinking about making.

As ever, I failed to get many photos, but here are a few.

After chopping up papers for my paper sample books, I knew there was a reason I had left the scraps lying around!  There was enough black paper to make 4 name plates for the attendees at my Building Narrative workshop (and enough white paper to make the next ones too!). Winning.

Packed and ready to go - those boxes hold so much books-goodnes!

We talked about books and what they mean to us. We talked about storytelling and art. And we talked about how to bring it all together.

Part of the workshop encourages folk to examine artists' books, discovering how well they tell their story, and what the artists might have done to enhance the storytelling. Here the group is quietly at work interrogating some beautiful artists' book.

Here are just a few of the books we spent time with. Thanks to my friends Susan, Annwyn and Lesley and one from Alice Fox in the UK as well.

It was a big but beautiful day and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to work with these women. So much richness in their thinking and exploring and learning and sharing. I have another workshop set up with Kim in October and then we shall see if there might be more. 

Kim had run a cyanotype workshop yesterday, and how could I not take a photo of these beautiful blue brushes left out to dry???

Ahhh.... the end of a good day.

I ask participants for one word about how they are feeling at the end of the day and here is a compilation (some gave two or three...)

Challenged, Encouraged, Enriched, Inspired, Overwhelmed, Exhausted...

A week of words

 Every morning for a long time, Barry and I have chosen a word for the day. We stopped the other day and realised that in fact, I had written out these cards in 2004 when we were living in Hobart. So for 21 years, we have paused, first thing in the morning, with a glass of juice, selected our words, and pondered on how the words might move with us through the day.

In my mind's eye I can see us doing it in Hobart, then in an apartment in Canberra, then again in the shed in Maleny, then the house, and now in our unit. 

We used to have them in a different bowl, but a while ago now Barry hammered a bowl so that we could combine the two us and our work in our daily words practice. I daresay this colour blue ink would not appear in any set I made today!

It is a lovely practice - even when the words are challenging and I wonder what on Earth the Universe has in mind for me when I select them. We always do the selection without looking.

The other week, just before we headed off, this was our selection. It was so beautiful and so perfect that I photographed it. I then thought I should photograph a week's worth of words, just to see the variety of words to ponder, so here we are.

Sunday.

You could just tell it was going to be a beautiful day.

This was Monday. It always interests me when I get a word like truth. How will I work with that word? Will it be a day for truth-telling? Or truth-seeking? Always interesting to me!

You can see the wear and tear on some of the cards, and certainly the foxing that has occurred in our moist climate and with lots of handling. The originally sharp corners are all now curved as well

And on to Tuesday.

Humility always gets me - reminds me to think of others, not assume I am right and so on. I am often humbled just to get the word - it feels like the Universe reckons I might need reminding...

As often happens, one of us selected the same word two days in a row! We even try to work out what we are supposed to learn from this? Another chance for happiness? Bring more happiness to the world - it needs it?

Wednesday. We got another repeat this week - truth; and it was nice to get creativity, even tho the day ahead had not many moments one could foresee where creativity may take place! Still, it felt to me like a reminder that creativity is a part of my life, and that I get to live a creative life (even if not every day).

Thursday... Trust is a good one to get when I am worried about stuff - it helps remind me to let go of anxiety and fretting and trust that things will be as they shall be. And of course, release is an equally good reminder to let go of things, like worry! Occasionally one does wonder if the Universe isn't being a bit solid with its reminders...

And so to Friday where there was a real change of pace and the sensation of a delightful day to get into and enjoy. I must say that delight is one of my all time favourite words. I adore the sensation of the word as well as the way it feels as I say it. To join it with inspiration set these scene for a good day. I love to think about where one finds inspiration; what word or image or conversation might spark a little something...

And on Saturday we got one of the ones we are never really sure about. We often look at each other when one of us selects the blank. Does it mean that anything could happen? Is it a reminder that we have no control over anything? Is it simply suggesting that unexpected and unanticipated joy and wonder await? We always talk about it when we get it. And another repeat of release, which feels about right given we were under the pump a bit!

So there you go, a wander through a week of our words as we we select them, and ponder them, and continue to be intrigued by them, as much now as when we began 21 years ago...

We don't have a set with us at the cottage, but perhaps I should remedy that some day.

Circles of Concern

 It's interesting to me how things come around, and go around.

I last made a series of Circle of Concerns cards early in 2020 - the beginnings are here. The times feel right for more cards. I blogged on the different stages it seems both here and here.

I think it's fair to say we live in troubling times. Every time I look at the news I think about all the things there are to worry about in the world; all the places you fear for; and all the people struggling and suffering. It's big. It's a lot. And it's not hard to get overwhelmed.

I worry about climate breakdown and the intensity of the weather everywhere; I worry about refugees in countries which are under threat and living through attacks; I am horrified by the Taliban and the decisions they continue to make about what women and girls cannot do; I fear the impact of the elections result in the US; the cost of living goes up and up for folk; housing is scarce and expensive and homelessness is rising.

At times there is not a lot of cheer. Although these roses did bring me cheer this week.

And so I have to bring myself back from all of these circles of concerns - all of these things I worry about - and return to my circle of control. What is it that I can do to help ameliorate these problems? What steps can I take? What small things can I do? These are my circle/s of control and I need to focus on them and take small steps within them.

And so to the cards as a visual reminder of this.

I have begun again with a different typeface and a slightly different layout and size. I printed out a photo for reference.

After printing I draw in the squares.

These are the ones that were rejected - I didn't keep very straight liens as I traced out the square...

This is one under construction... adding circles here and there, trying for the "centre" circle to remain the same size across them all, but with variations around it.

Using my trusty circle drawing template!

A couple with both square sand circles drawn - although now I look at it, that one on the left is a bit wonky and should be added to the reject pile!

It's a slow process and I still have to draw circles on the remainder; and then add gold to the single circle, that circle we can control.

Nevertheless I also enjoyed this accidental photograph of a Christmas star with lights on it where I clearly moved well before the camera had finished doing its thing!  

Finding happiness and joy in small things and small moments.

Words at play

 Looking back through my journals and notes it seems like I started to write these words about the way life flows when at the cottage back in 2019...

I did nothing with them, but by 2021 had thought I might add another verb into the mix.

Whilst we were away I had another think upon the words and started to draft some ideas. Here I was working with 5 sentences. 

But this is what I found in my phone and added to last month. I had found 6 in another journal somewhere and written that into my phone, but forgotten I had. So clearly my record keeping needs tidying up.

By adding the dates I tried to firm up the chronology.

This morning I sat and went through them again. I realised I have created six short sentences, and wondered to myself if they wouldn't be better as seven? Seven is a much nicer number.

Rather than revert to five, I went for seven and this is what my book looks like this afternoon after a bit of a play.

And then I tried to be ordered about things and wrote three columns - two verbs and one adverb - and wrote the different words in the columns thinking I could play with this and that - join them up this way, try them that way...

Half way through I then thought to analyse what I had written thus far - hence the bits about syllables. I figured the rhythm should be pretty much the same across the seven sentences.

Clearly nothing is resolved, but the idea of seven works. My understanding of how they are written is better. The direction is underway and soon I shall have my seventh.

Then of course to work out how to present them - but that will emerge. Given it has taken 5 years for the idea to get to this stage, I really hope this is the time to complete it.

I have written notes to myself to stop directing the work, and let it emerge. I had drafted outlines of the book, and the size, and the placement of imagery, and the where the words would go on each page and what typeface I might use, and I just said to myself STOP. 

I hope to now do some playful experimentation and see where the words and possibly the imagery from the previous post take me. Let the words and the work lead me, so often better things emerge that way...

Busy with bits and pieces

 It is a week now since the Pebbles, Stones and Rocks exhibition closed, and it has been a time still busy with tidying, re-arranging, calculating sales, payments and transfers, delivering work, making appointments for folk to collect work and trying to work on the work for Scotland if only my brain would allow me!

There are so many fragments to push forward and along. I think it will be a while yet before I can say, something is actually complete, but sometimes that is the way of things.

We re-arranged the studio, and I like the way this little gathering of Barry's timber dry bud vases is now settled.

I continue to play around with how to get messages onto the fabric for the cubes I'm hoping to sew and cover.

I am also working on getting the lettering prepared to go on the wall of the gallery in Scotland. This little sequence is funny. I had selected 6 fonts that I thought might work. Barry and I narrowed them down to three. I sent the three off to the lettering-cutter and he indicated he could work with two of the fonts, so we landed on this one.

From there I simply had to work out the layout. How much space would they take up on the wall? What sizes would I use for the various elements? And how would they appear? The top one is left justified. We decided to do the second one fully justified. Tick. But Barry had also suggested we should move the name closer tot eh definition, but I didn't like it.

So in the third one I made more spacing - and it was too much!

By the fourth we had a goldilocks moment - the spacing was 'just right'.

In between we had sold a small Adana press and as part of the package I prepared a random alphabet to go with it.

I wrote all the words for the fourth and longest scroll, and began stitching with my variegated purple threads.

Whilst I was waiting for folk to come in to the studio and collect their wares, I thought I could manage to transfer some type between trays. It is a nice, quiet, almost mindless task that can take the odd interruption. Not all tasks can be interrupted!

And then just for fun the wildlife of the weekend... Saturday a small wallaby with her joey waiting to cross the street (grin)

And Sunday morning a platypus in the creek.

We live in a pretty magical place.

Validation

 I have been working away with my textile fragments and my Letraset, creating 'pages' for a couple of books. And also for a couple of 'framed' pieces.

They started out considering our feelings around Covid.  The way we felt as it emerged, raced away from us, as we shut down, closed down and locked down; as we re-emerged; as we opened up and we learnt to 'live with it'. 

It has seemed to me that whilst we are beginning to operate in an ongoing kind of sort of normal way; that we do so against this gentle buzz and hum of uncertainty.  That somewhere in the deep recesses of our minds we remain slightly unsure and a bit ambivalent about how long things will stay 'normal'. We have all had our plans whipped out from under us like a magic trick with tablecloths.

We are no longer as confident as we were that life is good and we are doing it well. Many of us are not convinced that the government decisions being taken to remove all restrictions are necessarily about looking after us.

I think these feelings have more recently been added to by the Russian invasion of Ukraine - and our sense of helplessness and powerlessness around helping or doing something to make him stop.  On the east coast of Australia we are coming to grips with the fact that extreme weather events are part of our new normal; and that the huge losses of life, property, vehicles, businesses and the like will be experienced by more and more of us.

Both of these recent events (building on Covid) are now also impacting on costs of living; housing availability, fuel supplies and supply chains in general.  We are all facing uncertainty around what will be on our supermarket shelves, how can we replace our cars ruined by floodwaters, will we be able to get things from overseas, when will our hardware have those clips again???

And so I have this sense that my 'feelings' work still holds and reflects an ongoing response to world events.

Here are some images of the work in progress.  I am still not entirely sure how it will be in the end; but am enjoying the process, and just wandering along with it.

I love the layering and the glimpses through and between the layers.

This fabric is divine, and I will be sad when I have used it all.

Lying awake one night thinking about resolving these books, I realised I wanted a page that put me in the story.  That showed I was a part of this, and that I was in amongst all of these feelings.

So many of us...

Peace and old words

 As you know International Day of Peace is 21 September, which means it is rolling around soon!  Given we now have a platform that makes selling easy, I thought I would get a couple of sets of peace pebbles up there for folk if they wanted their own little messages of peace around the place.

This photo of the pebble grid before writing just melted my heart. So calm. So serene. So gentle.

And then I wrote on them (a couple had to be replaced due to over enthusiastic ink-filling of my nib).

 

And as ever, I just love their simplicity.

You can find them here if you feel like you'd like a set for yourself or to share.

And then some lovely other shop news - one of my Library of Lost Words has been purchased and will be winging its way to its new owner soon.

Which meant I had to photograph the only other one left and here it is in all its old and rusty glory.

I love this word 'jobler'!

And 'stiricide' means icicles falling from a a roof! Or at least it did in 1656.

The original stories can be found here and here.

This actual Library can be found here.

I do love these wee works - and thank you to the reader who bought the most recent one. Another reader has bought one previously as well! We must like words and stuff.