Installation of IGA commission

At 6 am on Thursday morning, Barry and I met Sean from Quality Choice Signs at the doors of IGA in town, just as they opened, so that he could install the lettering work for the piece of art above the cash registers there.

As part of the 2104 renovation, this artwork had been designed by Noela Mills, and installed by Edith Ann and her team. Rob, the owner told me so many people loved it, but didn't really know what it was about, and he asked me to do a storyboard for the work; like I had done for the other artworks in the shop.

His preference this time however, was for a line of words ON the artwork, not a board that was separate to it.

So I had to do a lot of thinking about how to achieve that - what would be the best medium to get words on to composite aluminium? How large could the lettering be? what style might add to the work not detract from it?

The length required was just over 8metres, so I decided I wouldn't try to do calligraphy that went for 8 or so metres; but I would choose a font that I thought supported the work.

I offered Ron and Sam several options and they chose this one; a font that looks hand-drawn without being too stylised, yet is still easy to read.

I went to work trying to determine how to get the lettering into the files that the signwriters would need;   and making sure I had it all at the right length. I posted about my old fashioned approach here.

With the usual stresses and hassles of trying to get work upscaled and commercialised, it was with fear and trepidation that I showed up on Thursday, hoping against hope that I had chosen the right colour, the right size, the right layout etc.

By 10 past 6 Sean had laid out the first bit. I had planned for the baseline to be 200mm from the bottom as I recalled that the Christmas decorations and wreaths impinged on the work a bit; however when he placed it at that height, the words looked like they were floating in the middle of the work and didn't belong; so we dropped it down 50mm where it settled nicely, and should still be seen at Christmas.

It is quite a long piece of work...

When we got to the end, we were faced with a dilemma. Storage of some products hid the end of the artwork. There was no point moving the boxes, putting the lettering up and then replacing the boxes, so we had to modify the layout of the attribution (the title and the artist). But our solution works I think.

Here I am trying to explain how I want it to look. Sean was a designer and understood it all so beautifully; was flexible, and happy to work to make it look the best it could.

The solution (and the problem).

And then there was a little happy clap. Can you see that there is a hole in the floor just in the bottom right? We were working around the builders who had to replace a floorboard; folk coming in to buy things had to run an obstacle course for a bit!

The amount of lighting in a supermarket is amazing.  The words are there, but not there, depending on how you look at it and from where. But not in an irritating way, just in an interesting way.

A few closeups.

 Sean preparing, and revealing, the final (first) word - a job well done!

A pano shot attempting to get the whole work in (no easy task).

That is the final commission completed and it feels amazing. Now to focus on teaching in Toowoomba next weekend and making some of my own work.

Thursday Thoughts...

“We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art—we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.” 

 Anais Nin

When I try to think about the things that help make me feel whole; art and creativity is key.  It is integral to who I am as person and to how I make my way through the world.

I don't think I escape there, or retreat there; I go there because it nurtures me and fills me up and makes me feel like I am being the most 'me' I can be.

I'm not necessarily there because I need to restore my shattered self; but I am there to continue to build and construct and enhance my "me-ness", and to feel my most alive.

Similarly I guess philosophy and psychology - understanding the world and the people in it - probably help us make sense of the world; but could also restore us if we need it.

There is something in here I think that says that art is integral to our wellbeing; and I have to agree.

Art can help put us back together... Pas de Deux books by Fiona and Susan.

Life Fragments

I have completed and sent off another commission. Once again, the works are winging their way to Melbourne to be part of the new McAuley House for homeless women.

Life Fragments is a collection of four works where the words of women who have been supported by McAuley Community Services for women are gathered under the four values of

Hospitality
Compassion
Justice
Community

Both Hospitality and Compassion reflect the comments women have made about their time at McAuley; how they felt valued, cared for and supported by the Service. Justice and Community contain comments from women to women who will follow – words of hope, dignity and strength.

Hospitality

Compassion

Justice

Community

It was important for me to use the women’s own handwriting and words, to make it personal and real, and to transfer them onto fabric using handstitching, symbolic of women’s work over centuries and connecting women of all cultures.

The pieces drape within their container, seemingly delicate yet resilient. They have not been held rigid or bound within a frame. These moments of difficulty, these fragments in a lifetime, are transient and the women are not held back or contained or restricted by them. They move forward in their lives, freely, yet supported.

As ever my work proves nigh impossible to photograph, so here are a couple simply sitting on my table before packaging.

Being able to see the stitching on the back of the fabric, through the fabric, shows the steps we all take to grow, become stronger and more independent. Nothing is hidden; the effort it takes to change is on show. Thanks to Barry for holding the pieces drifting, draping.

Most of all these works are reminders of each and every woman who passes though these doors – and the hopes they have for their futures.

After and playing

We are coming to the end of a month of culling, cleaning and sorting in our household - we have been at it for all of January, working our way through every box in every drawer in every cupboard in every room.  It has been quite the marathon, but oh so rewarding.

The house is now looking happy; and the studio spaces are well underway. They of course prove almost more problematic than the house as there is so much interesting stuff to think about hanging on to - just in case!

However, I have at least tidied my studio - not cleaned and culled yet, but tidied enough so that the disaster that was before; is no longer. The things on the floor and the seats and the tables are gone and I have surfaces upon which to work and play - hurray!

And play I did.

I had been thinking about bleach and black fabric; and decided to do a few trials with bleach and black paper to see if that lovely rusty under-colour would appear.

Using a syring filled with bleach I wrote a few words...

Trailed off a few letters with dots...

Played around with some swirls and doodles...

And just enjoyed photographing those sensuous lines and lumps!

Therefore I deduce that it is good to have a clean work surface so that one can play.

Sadly the bleach did nothing to the paper so I'd best go experiment with the fabric now.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled “This could change your life.”"

Helen Exley

Doesn't it feel as if it's time for dangerous and life-changing books!?!?!?

In lot of  ways I think a lot of books are life-changing. Not so much in the explosive, earth-shattering, mind-blowing way that some books can have; but more in the small and subtle alterations they make to our thinking and our understanding.

If reading a book changes how we think about a situation; or allows us a much deeper understanding of something; or encourages us to change our behaviour, then they have most definitely been life-changing; but without the massive wow factor.

Off the top of my head I think of Anna Funder's All That I Am; Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour and the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd as novels that really changed my understanding of history, the environment, and race relations. And To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Half the Sky by Nichola Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn was also another game changer for me - opened my eyes to a bunch of issues for women around the world; and I Am Mala by Malala Yousafzai similarly.

Which books have changed your world? Your thinking?

Looking and Seeing

Sometimes you see things sometimes you don't. This past week I had a day or two where I just saw  a bunch of lovely looking things - marks and shadows and gatherings.

First up at breakfast to celebrate B's birthday, the lights from inside threw these gorgeous shadows on the outside.

I was later ordering as a result!

On return home we gardened a bit and tidied up some timber. We came across where the little marsupial rat (an anticinus) had been storing the macadamia nuts they stole from our box of nuts - a little house of sorts, but they had clearly been well fed.

And the next day somebody returned some timber to us; a sign that I had written on years ago and which had been left to simply weather and disappear. The tracelines of lettering are still evident if you look closely.

Before...

I'm not sure if others get themselves into a mess in the studio as often or as easily as I do - but around this time I find the studio seems to have simply accumulated all the stuff of the year before and there is hardly a surface to be found anywhere.

This is how bad it looked before I began the clean up.

I had brought these trays with type home after Christmas and they had simply had to be put on the floor. You can see some chases resting on the table legs; and a box of musical scores someone had recently  given me asking if I could use the paper.

These prints and plates were all over the table; but really they were all over a proofing press Barry had cleaned up and fixed for me because it had landed on the table with no other known home.

The chairs were even piled high with bags of stuff from workshops; and books that had been returned.

The proposed home for the new proofing press was stuck under these deliveries of letterpress paper because there was no room in the paper drawers for them. And some random thread I had been using for stitching.

The studio was still home to artworks I had collected from the show at Pine Rivers, yet to be returned to their owners.

And I have no idea why so many things had accumulated on the table here. But they  had.

Some people had also dropped off a couple cabinets they thought we could use - and they just got dumped in the studio till we could work out where they would live more permanently. And we had a new air conditioner delivered as well which took up space.

I started to 'dis' some of the type; but you can see four artworks that had just been completed still trying to find a comfortable space to rest. They have since been wrapped and packed and posted.

And then we moved things and draped things ready for the air conditioner folk to do their job.

And that's the before shots. Hopefully soon I can show you some afters which look much better.

I find this time of year is good for sorting and tidying and learning and clearing and culling, so I may have been subconsciously just letting things pile up so I could sort them (or then again, maybe things were just a bit out of control as they year closed...)!!!