Book and more books

Barry and I have recently joined ArtsConnect another group of local artists sharing information and promoting their art. I am participating in my first Market with them this weekend and have been busy ripping paper, cutting boards, covering boards, decorating pages and stitching books.

I plan to have a number of my artists books with local poets' works in them; along with a series of blank journals for people to fill with their thoughts, ideas, lists and so on.

Here are a few shots of the production line late last week!

Risky rusting

Last weekend my friend Sue visited and I introduced her to rusting paper. It was hot and we worked outside on the back deck. We figured we had enough time before a major storm hit, but we kept an eye on the wind and the weather as we worked.

We had just about finished when we thought the world ended. A lightning bolt hit our block about 50m from where we stood. The world went white and made an enormous noise, and I saw the bolt come down in front of our neighbour's trees. I think we both screamed. It was eery afterwards - silent, but thinking the thunder must happen now; but of course it had happened simultaneously. Lucky we weren't holding any metal!

A few shots of the fun in the pre-storm and some finished pieces.

Andy Goldsworthy visits

Andy Goldsworthy is a remarkable artist. I think of him as an environmental artist who works in the landscape with nature and natural materials. I learnt about him and his work in 2006 and have been a fan ever since.

So he had hero-kind of status in my mind, and I did the classic, literal double-take when I saw an email saying he was going to be in Kenilworth (a town tinier than ours, about 40km west). I re-read it, clicked on the link to check we were thinking about/talking about the same man, because it seemed surreal and unbelievable. But yes, he was visiting.

We went and listened to him talk about his work and views slides of his last 12 months of work. It was wonderful to hear him and realise he was a nice as you would have hoped he would be. He spoke with passion and care, respect for the land and materials and had a mind that was open to wonder.

You can view some of his work and hear him talk about it here.

Below (courtesy of my friend Sue) you can see my friend Susan I being 'groupies' - getting our books signed; and Barry talking with the man himself. Sigh.

A month of mountain mornings

I mentioned previously that I belong to COMA and that we have a group exhibition opening at Maleny Artworks on Saturday 12 December.

We delivered our pieces to Ken today and I am happy with the quirky nature of mine. Interesting how quirky continues to appear in my work and appeal!

Some people say the view to the mountains from this block is a different postcard every day. My challenge was to photograph the mountains every morning to record the changing moods and colours. I chose to present the images in a book form – but one which reflects the original grid we all chose from. I like the idea that this book could be repeated over and over again and always be different.

I also love that it is so interactive - it appears folded up, flat out, turned over and in strange permutations. I used 32 photographs to create my double-sided book; and of course, then had to make two books using different parts of the same photograph; luckily Ken let me enter them both!

Remembering Peace is every step

It's funny I should be posting about this beautiful new book I made in the past few days given that I really need to be reminded to believe in the words I used. It has been quite a week and as I said to somebody today -sorry, but I am really up to my "ear balls" this week!

I flew to Sydney to work - started at 1pm and finished at midnight then got up and did another half day - then flew back to Brisbane and instead of a 1.5 hours trip home got caught in a mess of traffic and it took 3 hours. There is plenty to blog about since then - hearing Andy Goldsworthy speak, playing in my studio with Sue rusting paper, salting ink and so on; openings attended and then a couple of commissions to finish, entries to finalise, dealing with no phone/internet/email for 48 hours, then having the car battery die and leaving us stranded twice, having a report to write, a crown fitted at the dentist and dinner for 8 to deliver tomorrow night!

Hence the need to remind myself that peace is every step. This is my entry to the Libris Awards in Mackay, QLD, managed to send it off yesterday in amongst it all (thanks Barry). I enjoy making metal books and using peaceful words within them; the contrasts are strong yet I like that the strength of metal supports the message - it will remain not disappear. This is the third in the series...see the first here. This one uses recycled copper - I love the patina - and is stitched with waxed linen thread.

Fashion Fun

A little while ago my good friend Sue visited Brisbane so I headed south on the train and we spent a couple of great hours together - chatting, shopping and this!

We walked across the bridge to the State Library and GOMA - the Gallery of Modern Art and found this exhibition celebrating twenty years of two Brisbane designers Easton Pearson. The most fun part was in the children's education area (we didn't have any children with us, but still felt we could join in) where you could play with different photos of fabrics that the design duo use, a couple of different styles of clothing and put them all together on these templates and stand them up as part of an ongoing exhibition. We had fun!

The two girls side by side are ours; the others belong to the ongoing exhibition/display.

Clearly you didn't have to be a grown up to do this - the last photo is the proof.

Student art exhibtion

We travelled to Brisbane thru the week to attend my niece Emily's Year 12 Graduation exhibition. The students did a major art piece,and then had to make an artists book to accompany it. There was such variety and talent around, and I love that they got to explore the book medium in all its wonderful permutations.

I think Emily is very skilled with watercolour and has great control of the medium. I liked how she used her mock up drafts in her book; and even more I loved that she used a binding we had done together in a studio day here, and used rough brown string instead of toothpicks or skewers - taking an idea to a new dimension.

Her main work was woven and hung and also used some tea bags we had done some mixed media work with, so it was lovely to have the connections to her final pieces.

More garden bounty

The hot weather has certainly see the vegetable garden take off - the corn is high and ears are growing, the basil has already gone to seed, and the tomatoes are taking over.

We picked some zucchini and pulled up some onions this week. One of those zucchinis was just a little bit over done; but will be stuffed for dinner tonight we think.

I love garden bounty!

Mapping the Range - COMA exhibition

Plenty of local artists belong to COMA - the Collaboration of Maleny Artists. It is a group where information about exhibitions, workshops, prizes and awards is shared by a regular newsletter and which also 'hosts' a couple of group exhibitions each year.

Our next one is "Mapping the Range" in which we have each purchased a grid on a topographical map of the Range where we live (i.e. mountain range) and have been asked to produce a square work of art.

I sneakily chose the grid representing where we live, so I didn't have to travel far to create. Below are a couple of images from our deck that I plan to include in my bookwork...

The thoughts behind the art

I am in a bit of a hiatus at the moment - a couple of big pieces of work-work to get thru, a trip to Melbourne and then I can re-focus on all the lovely bits of books and art that are in my head.

In the interim I thought I would simply share the thoughts behind the exhibition. It was called "In the stillness..." and Barry created several series of works - meditation bowls, incense burners and fonts from recycled metals that worked towards that theme. My calligraphic pieces, prints, books and paper work were joined by this thinking which appeared as my artist's statement...

I respond to quiet art. I like work that doesn’t shout; work that is calm and quietly draws you in and asks you to spend some time with it. This is in part why I love artists books - books allow the viewer to be intimate with the work; to have a one on one experience and to be drawn into the artist’s world, often quietly and slowly.

This series of works includes a small number of artists books as well as a larger number of wall pieces. With these works I have reflected what happens for me when I stop and am still and am quiet; as well as my desire to promote peace in small and everyday ways. Some of the works involve inspirational words that can remind us of our potential; reminders which often come when being still or quiet allows them in.

My love of books and words and text mean I often express these sentiments, thoughts and desires through calligraphic means and in this exhibition I have used a range of materials and forms to produce the written word. My prints suggest the tranquillity that serene landscapes offer; for when we stop and celebrate the beauty of small moments and recognise the wonder of the world, our spirits are nourished.

Being. Being still. Being quiet. Being peace.

Planning an art future

Barry and I tend to work in a fairly incremental way with our art - we don't take off and explore new horizons without thinking; we don't drop everything and say 'that's it, we're going there, we're doing that'. Instead we tend to think about what we do, how we might take it forward, and do little steps. Perhaps we need to be bolder at times; but so far it's working for us.

Following our exhibition we thought it was time to review and explore where to next, so we sat and had a planning session (supported by Barry's famous homemade pizzas and a glass of red wine, so it wasn't a dreadful business type thing).

We worked our way thru a couple of mind maps (see below for some examples) and then today I have written it up more formally. We are pretty loose; no timeframes, no strategies, no milestones; but we do try to just explore things and test them and use these 'plans' as guides to what we do next. Knowing us several things will appear from out of left field as well that we will pursue enthusiastically; so a plan should always be flexible!

Floral happiness

I am often bemused and befuddled by art. What sells? What is valuable? What is it worth? I pondered over and over about whether or not I should exhibit my whimsical copper flower and words pieces. They made me smile as they hung on my studio wall; but I wasn't really sure if anybody else would 'get' them.

In the end I took them both in - reminding myself that this was an exhibition about who I was and what I did and these were well and truly 'me'.





They both sold before the exhibition was fully hung. Since opening I have taken orders for 4 more. So I guess the answer is yes, other people do enjoy their whimsy and they make other people smile too!

BTW - the online exhibition is now available for viewing here.

Open for business

We finally made it and had a great opening night on Saturday - lots of people and lots of friends joined us as we stepped forward onto the stage. This exhibition was another important marker for us as we build and grow our artistic side. We have both been in group exhibitions before but this time we were saying - OK, here we are, this is who we are and what we do - with nowhere to hide really.

We are both pleased that a number of pieces have sold and that a lot of folk have also said how much they enjoyed the quiet space. We were aiming for the room to be peaceful, still and restful and thanks to Ken's curating it appeared just so!

We were way too busy to take photos on the night - but here are a few of the space without people that we took today.

Serene Landscapes

As part of the exhibition I made some simple dry point prints. Five of them appear in one larger piece and they are each also framed separately and a set of them is also simply matted.

Simplicity appears to be the key.

I enjoy printmaking but know I am still quite a novice. Nonetheless these little pieces worked out quite OK I think.

Perspex white on white

We have made it! We spent this morning photographing, cataloguing and pricing and then with the help of mum and dad we delivered the complete works to Ken's gallery this afternoon and got to hand them over.

It's a sense of relief and a sense of excitement, mingled with a sense of fear and a sense of let-down. A heady mix.

Our exhibition is called "In the stillness..." and for one of my pieces I wrote 3 short sentences about what happens for me when I am still, and the experience of silence. In small ways, I am beginning to try and create my own words to use in my calligraphic work.

I engraved them into perspex - long thin panels - and then placed paper between the front and back panel. Of course, this makes the words recede or disappear a bit, and makes you have to get up close and personal with the work to discover what is written.

Here are a few hints of the images...no idea why I can't get them to appear in the correct orientation!