Thursday Thoughts…and a give-away

“Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours. Who would we be if we could not sympathize with those who are not us or ours? Who would we be if we could not forget ourselves, at least some of the time? Who would we be if we could not learn? Forgive? Become something other than we are?” 

Susan Sontag

Who would we be indeed?

As I read this my heart fills and I feel the wonder of her words, the strength, the compassion and the humanity. The sense of a life that is not simply about 'me' but is about getting outside of one's self and caring for, and about, those who are not us, or ours.

And her conviction and belief that what gets us there is literature. Is writing. Is books.

Without these things it is so much harder to share experience, to discover empathy and to reach an understanding of something and somebody we do not know. Not impossible I grant you, but words and writing and books and literature almost give us a head-start in a way.

This is almost a hymn in praise of literature and the great goodness that can be found within.  What a wonderful set of words, what great and challenging questions. I can hardly bear the thought of who we might be if in fact we cannot weep for others, nor sympathise, or forget about ourselves. If we could not learn or forgive or become something other than we are…

Thank you Susan Sontag.

Detail of a recent book "peace is every step".

Which brings me to my give-away.  I don't always a manage to keep track of my blog posts, but I did become aware recently that I was approaching 800 - and today is the 800th post on my blog.

I am amazed. It has been one of the most delightful journeys and experiences of my life - to find a way to share my art, that suits the introverted me so well!!  I think that blogging suits me because I like writing more than talking and I get to share without having to be present in a large group which is sometimes a wee bit hard for me to manage.

What has been so unexpected, and what continues to inspire and nurture me, is the connection with like-minded folk around the world who are kind and generous and share their thoughts with me. Every time I get a comment I am thrilled to see what folk have said; I have learned from others' thoughts and words; and I am buoyed when something I do or say has meaning for others, and they let me know.

So thank you all.  As a celebratory give-away I have this wee book 'peace is every step'. It has the phrase overwritten many times, with small pieces cut out and others then stitched in, with threads left dangling.

The cover is mat-board with white gouache calligraphy.

To take part in the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment and share with me (and others of course) one of your favourite quotes - it can be on anything - just words that you love.

I will draw the winner next Wednesday 11 June at 5pm Australian EST, and let everybody know in next week's Thursday Thoughts…

Abundance...

And slowing down.

I thought after last week's Thursday Thoughts, I might share some of the abundance from the block.  Not so arty, but it feels creative and all about making.

We are fortunate to live in a sub-tropical landscape and to have an acre of land on which we can grow plenty of food. May I say, very often more than enough for two!

At the front we have avocados, macadamia nuts, lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruits. On the terrace below the shed we have rambling pumpkins and then the coffee 'plantation'.  Over at the house we have a vegetable garden where we grow eggplants, basil, rocket, potatoes, spinach, rhubarb, chillies and more. At the back of the house we have three banana 'trees'. Imagine tho - we have four BIG bunches ripening, and they nearly always ripen at once.  That's a lot of bananas!

I mentioned it has been a year of slowing down and spending time with the block and trying to make the most of our produce.

Here's a selection of what we have managed - it feels like an abundant life….

Bell chillies by the hundreds.

Became bottles of sweet chills sauce and chilli jam. LOTS of bottles.

Basil is now pesto in the freezer - I also took to freezing basil leave just as they were when I couldn't face any more pesto.

Eggplants everywhere turned into baba ghanoush, moussaka; whilst eggplant and chilli pickle made the most of two of the most abundant crops in summer.

Our crop of macadamias was good this year; I am forever grateful to my cousin who has all the set-up to husk and hull and roast them - then deliver them back perfectly packaged!

Citrus is in overdrive at the moment - so orange cakes are being baked and popped in the freezer,

 
And Orange jam (it says marmalade but it isn't quite right!) is now ready to go as well.

The cherry guavas that were bubbling away merrily last Thursday Thoughts, are now happy jars of Jelly.

Whilst the pumpkins have been roasted, eaten and also pureed and frozen as well as made into pumpkin chutney.

Avocados are going into our pasta tonight, and last but never least - our coffee! We have been drinking our own coffee, all processed on the block, since the beginning of the year, and think we have a full year's worth this time. Pretty wonderful, single source and no food miles!

Barry is as ever my partner in crime in these ventures, and we share the load between the crops; each doing different things. He is the coffee roaster and grinder; whilst I'm pretty much the jelly maker. we both make chutney depending on who has the time and so on. A great way to spend our time.

My next blog post is my 800th.  I can hardly believe that, so I will try to do a bit of something as a giveaway with my Thursday Thoughts…

Bits of progress here and there

I managed a couple of days in the studio on Friday and Saturday and found myself doing lots of little things; finishing projects, tying off loose ends, getting ready for things and generally just enjoying being there.

There are a range of projects on the go and it was good to progress each and every of one of them.

Here's a selection of the activity…

Seven peace in your pocket books finished, yippee! In good time for our Open Studio in a fortnight.

I am off to a week long calligraphy course in July and am gathering my supplies, my tools and thinking about what to take.  It is my first time to this gathering and I learned that everybody prepares a 'pin' with their details on it, along with some lettering or the like which they exchange with the people in their classes and others at the workshops.  I got stuck in and made about 50 - I have no idea if that is enough or not - but at least I have made a start.

No real surprises here - old book pages, onto bamboo paper, black marks made to dance along the page and Habu threads of different sorts.

And then with the left over pages on the bamboo paper, I started to play with ideas for a wall show I have to do later in the year at our Celebration of Books.

And here, well I'm thinking about rusty birds…I'll explain more later!

Thursday Thoughts...

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” —

John Pierpont

Pondering life this week, I sat quietly with this quote and let it wash over me a bit; let myself think bout what it really meant.

I think it's about change.  And how you begin.

There is something quite powerful in the thought that by simply deciding that where you are, what you do now, the stays quo as you know it, is not going to be for you in the longer term.

It suggests that that moment of awakening, of acknowledgement and recognition enables us to move forward, gives us a sense that changes are afoot, or could be afoot.

I think it's quite deliberate however that you may still have to decide. It's not like you just follow along and realise I'm moving, sometime you have to stop and say, I am not going to stay this way.  You might not yet have the knowledge or tools or resources to head off somewhere else, but you know in your heart that you will.

For me, this quote resonates most about the pace of life, the commitments I make in all spheres of my life and the intensity with which I sometimes fill my days.  This year we have decided to actively and knowingly be slower. To commit to less, to take time in our days and let go of things that aren't really all that important in the long run.

We have spent many more hours in our garden, working the block and making it even more beautiful. Giving it the respect it deserves. We have planted, nurtured and harvested so much food and abundance; and we have made the time to process it to value add and to stack our cupboards with preserves and chutneys and nuts and coffee.  I feel fortunate to have found my moment of deciding not to stay where I was, without having to be hit over the head by illness or difficulty and then being faced with no option.

Cherry guava jelly on the boil...

Pieces for Peace together

Last week Susan, Barry and I took the opportunity to photograph our three books for the Pieces for Peace exhibition together, before they head off overseas.

It was really nice to sit with the books and work through them slowly.  They each tell stories, with words, imagery and materials, and it was nice to have the time to really appreciate them.

Here the three are together - Barry front left, Susan's front right and mine back left.

We played with them a fair bit and quite liked this way of fanning them; with Susan's delicate poppy imagery at the front.

And then we liked the spines together - each so different.

And then the tops where you can see how the pages have been attached.

This is Barry's metal book. Made from a brass shell casing from WW2 and steel cartridge boxes, he has added buttons, bullets and casings we came across in Ypres when we visited there. On the inside pages he has stamped war poems and words of peace.

And yesterday, we popped them in the post and sent them off. This little wrap protects my book.

 We wish them well.

Open Studio preparations

My, how I love a list!

Barry and I are opening our  studio in a few weeks and the list of things to do in order to have a clean, happy, welcoming and well-stocked studio is quite long.

It ranges from clean windows and cob-web the outside; (thankfully not the inside), to bake food, print flyers and weed the garden, with many stops in between, such as make work, pack work, label work and price work.

The studio will be open from 10.00 - 4.00pm on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June 2014. 

You will find us at 601 Mountain View Rd, Maleny.

We do both really enjoy opening the studio - welcoming folk in and sharing what we do and how we do it. It's always a good opportunity to focus on making some new work as well as remaking work that is popular and sells well.

I have been lettering on pebbles a lot this week! They always seem popular, with folk selecting words, their grandchildren's names or whole alphabets to play with - even a scrabble set.

Peace in your Pockets are coming along - I am almost finished with the lettering, and then it's on to making.

I have packaged up some prints that haven't been shown before, and have been happily making art-cards as well.

A great way to use parts of prints that didn't quite work first time around…

I have also been hand-lettering labels  for some of Barry's work and my own. Phew.

Looking forward to it!

Thursday Thoughts...

“I believe it was John Cage who once told me, ‘When you start working, everybody is in your studio—the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas—all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you’re lucky, even you leave.’” 

Philip Guston

I love this way of thinking about the artistic and creative process; it seem to describe, with accuracy, the way it can sometimes be.

So often as we begin a project we are filled with things to do - ideas to test; techniques to apply; goals to achieve; definitive thoughts of what we are doing; trying to see how it all fits together and just how it might be.

And then gradually, the further we get into a piece, we shed these original purposes and concerns; they drift away, and we are left more with the essence of the thing. What it is meant to be, supposed to be and needs to be.

And isn't it just beautiful how at the end of the quote, he says, "Then if you're lucky, even you leave".

That describes for me the almost perfect state of creating and making; of having left your consciousness your ego, your thought processes, your awareness of other things and people, behind.

I liken it to "getting out of your own way". Bliss.

I remember this book as being probably the first time I really felt I got out of the way of a piece and just followed where it led me…

Books, paper, letters, words...

I'm happy.

Books, paper, letters words - I've had  a happy few days playing around with these.

Today in the mail I received the catalogue for the show at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland OR, USA.

I was thrilled and tickled to see a fragment of my book Fragile Gains on the cover and the postcard. How excitement!  The show looks stunning and I wish, oh wish, I could click my heels and head on over…

Over at the studio I have been playing with syringes and inks and paper, and writing letters and words.  I love the texture this is creating and am getting excited about the possibilities. Syringes make for more less-than-controlled letters and I kind of like the slightly random and wobbly and occasionally blobby version of events that occurs when I use them.

Barry and I are holding another Open Studio next month and I am working on a few "Peace in your pocket" books to have for sale then.  I am about half-way through overwriting "Peace is every step" on this page.

We will be open 10am - 4pm on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June. More to follow!

They are good days when you get to play with words and letters and paper and books...

Pieces for Peace

I have finished the wee book I will be sending to Ypres for an exhibition based around World War I.  I mentioned earlier that I had shifted from women poets to nurses and the book came along quite nicely once I had decided that.

I chose a fairly subdued palette - but then how could it be anything else given the horror of that time?The soft grey-khaki paper, the rusted braille paper, grey thread and the red cross.

It seems likely that many of the books that will make their way there will use similar colours and imagery - crosses, barbed wire, and probably poppies will appear quite often.  I wasn't trying to be original or avant-garde with this book; I was just trying to tell a story and be part of remembering, reflecting and honouring.

I de-bossed barbed-wire into some old paper a friend had given me; then wrote in small letters along the wire. The black depicts words that describe the nurses and some facts, figures and official type stories. The red is all quotes by nurses about some of the hardships and horror they endured.

Interspersed between the brown pages are slightly shorter pages of rusted braille paper, where I have hand-stitched the word for peace in four languages linked to Ypres - English, Flemish, French and German. I couldn't do a book about war without bringing peace in somehow; interspersed as a reminder that it is an ongoing universal quest. Each page also has a stamped red cross.

Where I couldn't, or didn't, fit words into the barbed wire well, I came back and wrote a black cross (like a grave cross) and a red cross (like the red cross) in the extensions.  I think I must have been channelling Susan subliminally!

The covers are also simple - embossed barbed wire this time and a single red cross on the front.

Each book in the exhibition measures 14cm (h) x 18cm (w), that is 14-18, the years of the war. I think it will be an amazing exhibition.  Barry has also made a book - see here; as has Susan, here. Helen has also made one, so Australia (or at least SE Queensland) will be well represented.