Peace flags return

Over the weekend, Barry and I got to hang our peace weather grams and birds.

International Day of Peace is next Monday 21 September and we wanted to have a week or so where the flags were flying, people could notice them and then read more about it on Monday when we put out our sandwich board letting people know about International Day of Peace.

The tree at the top of our driveway is still bare; but tiny wee shoots are beginning to emerge.  I like watching the transition - from the weather grams being exposed, to being covered in green leaves, so it was timely to get them up.

We started on Friday, on Saturday it rained and several of my paper ones came down (about 14) and then as I watched from the office, I noticed currawongs (birds) trying to eat the paper! So, clearly we have to work hard to promote peace.  I reinforced and re-wrote some weather grams and we re-hung mine and now they are flying proudly.

Lots of folk have paused as they walked by to ask about them; many people have slowed down as they drive by; and people who visit are all commenting; so we are raising the profile for peace a wee bit.

Here they are in their glory - this afternoon against an ominous cloud that completely disappeared in about 5 minutes.

Late Friday afternoon.

One of Barry's beautiful peace birds - patinated copper with peace stamped on it.

I will keep making more weather grams over the next wee while - the work of peace is never done.

Thursday Thoughts...

If self is a location, so is love: 
Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, 
Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, 
Here and there and now and then, a stance. 

Seamus Heaney

I spent some time savouring this quote - letting the language roll over me, softly and gently. I often think about how the people we love are marks on our maps of our selves. How they anchor us and let us know who we are and how we are in relation to other places, people and things.

And how, when we lose them we are untethered...unsure of our place in the world, until we establish new markers and guide posts.

I think there is probably a bit of a wry description of love here - starting with the bearings taken. Isn't that how it always starts? Finding the true and cardinal points and exploring options.  Then occasionally dug heels and distance.  And often then a stance...

We do take positions with regard to those we love - and I often think families can be very good at solidifying roles and characters. Positions established in childhood can still remain 50 years later!

But oh, just to think about love being a location, from which we take bearings...

Fragile Gains plus

I will be showing an Artists' Proof of my book Fragile Gains at the exhibition at Noosa in October-November-December (23 October - 6 December 2015).  I wanted to do some accompanying wall work, and have prepared seven pieces, using the same pages that are used in the book.

Barry and I got on a roll last weekend and drilled holes in the Perspex, and applied the book posts to them to hold Perspex, and then overnight I remembered I hadn't photographed them!

So, there I was during the week, undoing all the posts, taking the Perspex off and placing the works down to be photographed so I could get the detail without the reflection. Then, cleaning the work, cleaning the Perspex and replacing the posts all over again.

It's not like I haven't done this before; it's not like I didn't actually write down on the to-do list to photograph before framing; it's just that I got carried away with the idea that I could actually finish a piece and forgot one or two important steps!

Still, they are done now.

Here are some close up and a sense of the pieces...

One of our fragile gains, leadership...

 And choices...

And equality...

And feminism itself...

And a final shot with the Perspex and posts in place so you get a sense of a finish piece.

Thursday Thoughts...

“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” 

George Bernard Shaw

I heard somebody say on a home renovation show the other night how they enjoy walking into a house that shows the owner's character and personality.  I stopped and looked around me and thought I wonder what our house says about us?

I certainly looked at the art and thought so much of it is a reflection of parts of us - some vibrant and expressive; some quiet and muted; some old and worn and beautiful...yet somehow it does all feel like us.

I wondered if George Bernard Shaw meant that when we look at art, the work speaks to us or moves us in a way that reflects our soul.  Or do we make art that reflects our soul?  I imagine he was speaking for the majority, and not only artists, so that the art we see and enjoy and respond to is saying something about us as well.

Art and images do make a connection on some deep level - we respond to different work for different reasons: some obvious, some tangential, some unknown, but always worth wondering about.

One of my favourite recent additions to the yard - looking from the kitchen I see these leaves bending, against the backdrop of our rusted Corten Steel wall...love them.

"Bending IV" By Barry Smith.

Peace, thanks and farewells

It has been a bit of a mixed bag of days, capturing short moments here and there to write a few words; and at others to write longer words, and sew and prepare pages for a book.

I have been working on a new book for the exhibition - Peace Emerging.  Peace as light from darkness, peace within darkness. All those notions of living in troubled and difficult times, and yet believing and hoping that peace can still make it ways forth out of the gloom.

 It will be a companion piece to seven hanging scroll-type pieces with the same words.

The title is inset into the front cover and the book is covered in a dark book cloth.

The first few pages...

I liked the close up of these words as well.

Each page has been machine-stitched without thread, and the reverse of each page looks quite nice I think!

I have also run out of thank you cards, so made a few last night - just simple pencil Versals on warm paper - it's just always nice to give (and receive) a hand-made thank you card I think.

And a friend is moving so I wrote a couple of wee cards for her as well. I couldn't decide which was the best word to use, so sent them both.

So one big thing and lots of little things. That's kind of like life really...

Produce and little bits of peace

I have very little to show for my artistic endeavours this week; rather more to show for my kitchen efforts I'm afraid!

I have spent the week doing a lot of writing for my art - two articles, a letter to be included in an exhibition and an exhibition proposal. Barry and I often note to each other that it's never just about the art is it?  We often find ourselves spending time at the computer writing the sorts of things I have been writing this week, or updating items in our shops, or writing out price lists and images of work to be delivered somewhere or entered somewhere.  So whilst it has been an art-filled week; I haven't got much photographic evidence of it.

But the garden is beginning to really let us know that winter is on its way out and that Spring is headed here!  I picked cherry guavas earlier in the week and made cherry guava jelly; we had spinach and fetta pies from our spinach and the bananas have been ever so bountiful (and they always all ripen at once and suddenly you have 35 bananas to work out what to do with).

Our bananas will never win any beauty contests but they are full of flavour. So banana muffins are in the freezer and a banana- pecan loaf is just out of the oven - using our own pecans as well.

Fresh out of the oven.

The rhubarb was glowing and so it has been stewed with apple to become a rhubarb crumble; and the rest of it has become a rhubarb and macadamia cake (our macadamias as well).  A couple of before and after shots.

So all in all a successful week with the garden, and at least in some small way I have been creative.

And to fill in a few moments, I began making my annual peace weathergrams to hang in the tree at the top of our driveway for International Day of Peace on 21 September.

I have cut, punched holes and tied the string for them all.

And written a few quickly.

At least I've begun!

Thursday Thoughts...

"Books take you under the skin of life, and into all the layers of the wind. Once you’ve seen that, it’s so hard existing on the ordinary surface. You’ve got to keep reading, to stay in the deep". 

Sarah Elwell

What a remarkable way of describing how books can affect you, where they can take you and how they can make you feel. "...and into all the layers of the wind". That stopped me in my tracks and made me wonder about the layers of the wind, and in my mind I could see them!

Every now again I read an article about reading - how it happens and the multiple processes that are at play as we not only translate the typed or written characters on a page, but then transform them into imagined experiences, places, people and events.

Some times my head hurts after I try to really grasp what is going on, and I have to go back and back again to re-read for a proper understanding. In these moments I am grateful that folk like Ms Elwell manage to capture the essence of reading so well, when the intricacies of its process elude me!

Wind in the grass in Tatebayashi, Japan. I can almost see the layers...

An alphabet book

I mentioned that there was an added extra in my gift pack from Lesley - and here is the wondrous and splendid book that was like gold.

Alphabets Old and New
For the use of Craftsmen, with an introduction essay on 'art in the alphabet'
By Lewis F. Day London, 1906.

Apparently there is a companion volume to this  Lettering in Ornament  an enquiry into the decorative use of lettering . past . present . and possible.

Worth hunting for I imagine!

The essay runs for 44 pages and is a delight. It is almost conversational and written by an observer and admirer of letter forms, rather than a scholar of them.  Which is to say that she describes letterforms and their variations over time in a perfect manner, yet without using the language we often employ to describe things.

Two examples "There is something very whimsical about the character of Anglo-Saxon capitals; at times mechanically square in form, at others exceptionally flowing and even frisky" p20.

"The mediaeval German version of black letter was stronger than that of other countries, the French more fanciful, the Italian more refined, more perfect, but perhaps never so Gothic" p.23

The book contains over 160 plates with various alphabets, numerals, and ampersands. Here a few that surprised and delighted me.

I was quite astounded at the variations in this book, some very individual styles and exciting design moments.  I have already identified a letter form I want to use in a workshop next year which is fabulous!

A great gift indeed. Thanks so much Lesley.

Gifts and generosity

Some weeks have you smiling for the gorgeousness and generosity of folk.

I recently completed a commission for a friend's father - to update his family tree with a few more generations. My friend was at a meeting and I gave her the completed work (on a large A1 page) and she swapped me for a rather large bubble-wrapped parcel. I had no idea what it was or who it was from and just took it home - it was beginning to rain and things were a bit mad!

I read the thank you card from her dad, and went on to open the parcel. Imagine my delight when I discovered an old type drawer was the gift!  It is in such good condition with all the right amount of wear and use.

It has such lovely little nails in the dividers.

I was beyond belief thrilled. This thank you was in addition to payment, so how gorgeous was that?  It was the perfect gift for me for sure.

A few weeks ago I was the lucky winner of a give-away on Lesley's blog - Printed Material - and during the week the prize book arrived.  It was all that I had hoped for when I had peered through the screen and wanted to touch the embossed pages...

So many lovely edges.

As Lesley and I exchanged emails - she asked if I had noticed the end pages.

I had looked but not seen.

Here on the inside of the front cover is the word book.

And here on the inside back cover is end. How perfect!

Lesley also included some gorgeous book marks. I have struggled to work out whether I can bear to share them or not - but I will!

Embossing, de-bossing, cyanotypes and etchings. Sigh. So, so beautiful.

In amongst this loveliness Lesley included yet another gift - but it is so special I have kept it for its own post. I have spent ages poring through it and admiring it and can't wait to share some of its glory - soon!

What a special time it has been, to receive such gorgeous, generous offerings.