Thursday Thoughts...

“One does not see with the eyes, one sees with the mind” 

Oliver Sacks

I'd love to know what Oliver Sacks was really meaning when he wrote/said this. He was clever and had a great understanding of the mind, so he probably had something specific in mind.

I wonder if its a bit about the difference say between hearing - the physical act of sound waves meeting clever things in our ears which interpret and then transmit them to our brains - and listening which is paying attention and making sense of the things we hear. Perhaps we listen with our mind?

Maybe he thinks that seeing is not simply the physical act of visual stimulus upon clever things in our eyes being relayed to our brain; but rather it is is the effect those images have within the brain - the connections and understandings within our mind that let us make sense of shapes, lines, dots, colour and so on and call it something.

With art I imagine it is that our minds make associations, delve deeper, consider the shadows, respond to the layout and all of those things that happen so instantly when we view an artwork. All of that helps us to see differently.

I am pretty sure that it it our brain that does the seeing and understanding, not just our eyes.

The Shape of Things 5

 As mentioned, the fifth books in the collaborative series The Shape of Things have been completed and exchanged. 

As I continue my approach to using up things that I have in the studio for this second half of the series, I turned to some pre-folded khadi paper concertina books - see here for the beginnings. And here for some of the testing I did on the way through.

The book presents in this pouch - folded and then held together along the sides by circular baubles of French knots. Sturdy, yet elegant.

Inside the book folds into a square and I used a piece of Annwyn's printed paper to maintain that circular theme, I also chose pieces of prints that had circles within them, as part of the band to hold it together.

On the bottom, another wee circle from Annwyn's prints. Form and function - it actually hides some things!

Each book is made from four of the pre-folded concertina khadi paper books, and as you open it, they stretch out along four sides.

A wee pebble rests at the heart of it, hand stitched ripples flow around the central panel, and then embossed ripples continue through each of the four lengths. Hand lettering in graphite spirals around the lengths and the little dot lets you know where to start reading...

Ever expanding, yet ever diminishing; dissipating yet extending...

And then it folds up on itself to a neat little book!

This book was an absolute head-twisting challenge, and I worked hard to resolve it. It started off one way but as soon as I added a pebble, I suddenly realised it would be about ripples. And then how to represent ripples, and how to accommodate the pebble, and then how to fold it so it made sense as you read it, how to contain such a multi-folded springy little thing and... so it went.

I am very happy with how it worked out and how I used up several of the accordion fold booklet pages that had been sitting in the studio for quite sometime wondering what to become!

The Shape of Things - Exchange no. 5

 Despite some wobbles with my posting, Annwyn and I have successfully exchanged books number 5 in our collaborative exchange called The Shape of Things. 

This book is quite wee - about 7cm (h) x 4-5cm (w) and it feels good holding it in the hand.

It unfurls beautifully too. Annwyn has used a piece of my strong, graphic, calligraphic markings as the central pages, folded like pleats in fabric. The backing of red paper is sumptuous.

It is a book of interaction, and I laid it down, stood it up, opened it, folded it back on itself...

And thoroughly enjoyed myself. I love how the red backing peeps through the central fold. 

So that was a delight to open after we returned from a day or so away!  

I don't bring my own book from the exchange with me; just the one that I post to Annwyn from here, so I can't photograph our two books together as such. Nevertheless; here are some images of the two books I made before we came away.

Housed in hand-stitched pouches, with French knots to hold them together, the books fold up to a square.

Some days, the winter light in the studio is just so so beautiful.

I will follow up soon with another blog post of the details of mine and its making. Our next books will be completed and sent when I am back in Australia.

Thursday Thoughts...

"When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than was there before." 

 Clifton Fadiman

There are so many ways to say this and I think a lot of folk say it well.  Here, the emphasis is on a classic, perhaps because they thought that people may only re-read classics, everything else gets read once and sent on its way?

Perhaps the use of the word classic could be personalised - for each of us a book we choose to re-read could in fact be termed a classic for us?

Whichever books we re-read, we are for sure different people when we come to re-read them.  I oftentimes have looked back upon books that captivated me as an older child, or as an adolescent and I wonder what the big draws were. As a young adult some books felt life-defining; whereas to read them now they seem less convincing. The book is word for word the same; it's me who is different.

Rose Rigley, A preserving nature: Family History, 2014

Grief is a Stone

 One of the joys of being in Scotland is the access to stones, and pebbles and rocks. They are such a feature of our north coast and I revel at all the different types and how each beach or cove offers particular 'types' of stone. Or so it seems when we go looking.

We are possibly the only folk I know who head off on a beach wander with a metal tape measure in our pockets, picking up stones and giving them a quick measure to see if they will be fit for purpose.

As mentioned previously, I brought the Grief Is A Stone calligraphy in steel with me, and we have been searching for rocks that might suit the work.

Barry has kindly carved a straight line the length of several rock stones to test the idea. We have learned a lot along the way.

The groove needs to be cut 1cm deep so it is important that the stone has enough depth along its length.

I enjoyed playing with pebble placement afterwards.

Different rock, different pebble play. I do like how it echoes and references the 'o' in stone.

Same stone, turned around with the wording towards the back.

This slightly different calligraphy is longer (about 20cm) which has made it that much harder to find stones that will let it shine.

Having a flat surface for the full length of the stone is also important, otherwise some of the lower bar sits too proud, but this one works pretty well.

Because we have so much driftwood and so many timber off cuts in our shed here, I couldn't help but wonder how it might look in a long length of timber, and Barry obliged by carving a recess into this piece.

If you look closely you will see how beautifully the curve of the 'o' in stone references the rusty staple in the timber. I do love those moments.

And of course piling pebbles alongside to see how they might balance the work, or balance themselves is fun as well.

We collected a stash more stones on Sunday afternoon and are beginning to think we have enough to go on with!

There is also the choice between brushed and shiny metal to work my way through. Any thoughts on whether shiny or brushed works better would be welcomed!

Charred III and a Fair

 On Friday Barry and I decided that after all the chores we had both been doing, it was time to play and make some art, so we got together and brought Charred III into being.

We worked together to select the bits of rust that we would choose from to put on the cube; and Barry spent time preparing them - drilling holes, grinding bits off, cutting out the interesting bits we might want. And then we began the selection and placement process.

And then we got to pop it in the front garden and let it just be lovely.

And a few days later, I managed to get this photograph of the Charred series I, II & III alongside Barry's Cove Post.

As the sun shone this morning, I came upon my earlier post, sitting in the fireplace now and looking warm and very much at home. Our cottage is a place of posts!

And just quickly, we attended the Watten Craft Fair yesterday and had a grand day out, met some lovely people and made some sales as well. Our table looked very quiet, calm and soft.

And again, the sun shone and we got orem lovely angles and shadows...

We head to Murkle Market next Saturday to meet more folk and hopefully sell some more things. 

Thursday Thoughts...

“Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world's ills, misery, ignorance, and violence. Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of a generation.” 

 Robert F. Kennedy

It is sometimes so hard not to be discouraged. I think here, RFK is trying to let us all know that our small acts, our individual conversations, the small things we each do, can help shape a future. 

Even tho the loud and large world may seem to be saying the opposite of what we hope for.

Our country is undertaking an ugly conversation about the simple notion of a Voice To Parliament for our Indigenous people. For so many reasons I am voting YES and it feels as if I am just one tiny voice amongst the ugliness. 

I dearly hope that we can bend the arc of history; however, I am uncertain, and fearful, that we will not prove to be up to the task of being the best we can be. 

One small voice tho, can be amplified by sharing, so the YES buttons have been made and shared around and are being worn by many folk in many places. I hope we can write a positive history of our generation.

Buttons made by B and me, using imagery from Aboriginal artwork that we own, 2023.

Fire and Flowers

 On our last visit, I created the first in a series called Charred. What started with some burnt fence posts became a lovely, balanced and elegant sculpture. Barry and I joined forces to create Charred II which I am not sure I ever blogged about! In fact looking back I never even photographed it! Must have been just before we left early last visit.

Charred II

And a photo a friend took to show me the sweet peas, but there it is in front!

Following the creation of The Fishers post as part of Barry's exhibition and our work with the students, there was a small (23cm x 23cm) cube left over. Which immediately said to us both it needed burning.

On Saturday we had a good day for burning - not raining, not too windy, and not too hot; kind of like a Goldilocks day. So we went ahead and have created the base for our next sculpture in the series Charred III.

I am looking forward to adding in all the bits of interest to make this another lovely piece for our garden.

And then, as ever, to flowers (with the addition of feathers and fruit). I have loved the summer brightness of so many flowers in the garden and how they have cheered each room I add them to. In the kitchen, with my favourite bird the chaffinch at the window.

And our fabulous crop of apples out the back - culinary ones some have been stewing them for our breakfast and they are delicious.

As we farewell the last of the bright colours, I turn to and enjoy the muted tones of the dried grasses and weeds.

And just keep arranging and re-arranging them...

And playing with effects.