Our next books begin

Susan and I sat down after we made our first collaborative books - back in April for World Book Day and talked about where did we want to go from here?

We have decided to try and make a few more books together, with a few different 'rules' or approaches each time to provide some guidance, but not dictate what the other has to do, and to add variety to the books we make, and to offer ourselves a bit of a challenge.

This time around we decided that we would do a two-step dance.  Our first book was a three-step dance. We each prepared pages, gave them to each other to work on, then we got them back to finish the book. For book two, we are each preparing some pages, and giving them to the other - and then they work on the book AND finish it. That is, the pages don't come back to us.

We also decided we would offer up suggestions for materials that might be used with the pages. We used words like guide and suggest, not dictate or direct. We are free to incorporate what the other gives us; or not.

We also agreed that this time we would swap pages well in advance - so we each have time to ponder, plot and if necessary purchase things we want to add in to the book.

So on Thursday afternoon, Susan popped over and we swapped pages. You can see what I sent her way and what she has started thinking about here.

These are the pages and pieces she brought me to work with.

The four dark chocolatey brown pages are the main pages - the rusted tracing paper and ink-marks on paper are suggested materials, along with the beautiful waxed linen threads...

I think they look sumptuous together and am already quite besotted by them. My mind is going this way and that and I am picking up things around the studio and asking myself "what if?" "what about?" "how would this work?". It's lovely to have the pages and pieces about and to keep looking at them and pondering...

And just because she is Susan and so beautiful and thoughtful, she also included a whole separate package of pieces I might like to use with the dark brown pages, just in case I didn't feel like working with the warm, strong colours. These soft watercolour pages and pieces complement the dark ones so well, but you can tell from my first five photos I'm planning to work with the stronger tones this time.

It's one of the beauties of this work - we get challenged, but in the nicest, most supported way possible.

Our planned Book Day is Friday 6 July, so we have a wee while to play with ideas before committing. I must say, I am looking forward to another day of studio delight!

Thursday Thoughts...

“That’s who you really like. The people you can think out loud in front of.” 


John Green (An abundance of Katherines)


I'm not sure when or how I came across this one - but it made me stop and nod to myself - 'yep, they're the best'!

I know I'm around folk who love me, know me, and still love me, when I can say out loud the weird or wicked things I am thinking.

Those people that I can take the handbrake off with and let the fun thoughts, hilarious thoughts, cheeky, wild, wacky and wonderful thoughts loose with.

Sometimes these are people I have known for a very long time; sometimes they are lovers; sometimes they are friends I have only just met but with whom I feel safe enough to say things.

It's most often these people too, who I feel safe letting my best or most special dreams out of their little boxes with, knowing that they will be heard, supported, critiqued kindly or enthusiastically cheered on.

It's good to have these folk in our lives.

On the third Thursday of each month Jennifer and Julie go in search of Roy G Biv (aka the rainbow). I try to join in by posting an image that matches the colour for the month - so no prizes for working out that this month it's orange!  This is a poppy from our garden last spring - the sense of vibrancy and delight matches my feelings for those I can think out loud in front of. Thank you.

Dark is hard

I did these pages a few years ago - when a few of us went around to Noela's for a play day. In this instance she had us splashing black ink onto big pages with brooms and dripping it on and generally just going for it. That's me making them in the last photo on this post...

I rediscovered the pages about 6 months ago and decided to do something with them. I found some words that seemed to match them, coloured in a bit here and there with red, cut them up and then glued them together to make book pages. I even made some covers.

And then the book sat there, for about 5 months, waiting to be stitched.  I picked it up again last week thinking I would just start stitching and found that I couldn't.

Perhaps the words were too raw - they start with "when you lose someone you love". And as I picked up the pages and turned them, the dark energy of them almost overwhelmed me. I hardly wanted to hold them let alone work on them. I kept saying to myself "I have to soften this, I have to soften this".

So I have been trying to, and experimenting with a few things. In  a way I think I am trying to take some of the hurt away that the marks seem to express, and just let the words speak their gentle truth.

I tried wrapping each page in another page of tracing paper. I thought about gluing the tracing paper onto the pages muting them and their message. I laid some Japanese tissue paper over them wondering if that would hide some of the sadness and grief within it. I tried making soft curvy and gentle marks into the tracing paper to counteract the darkness of the pages.

I'm not sure it will be possible to soften it sufficiently, and I'm not sure I will actually make this book.

It has been quite an intriguing process to go through - I had no idea when I picked it up thinking "that's a little UFO* I can get on with" that I would be faced with this raw energy that made me back away. I've never before felt that I can't complete a project because of how it makes me feel. So I'll wait and see what happens next.

Until another day perhaps.

*UFO = un finished object

Pottering and playing

Unlike last weekend we have been experiencing beautiful sunshine this weekend and really, the word is probably basking. Just sitting or standing wherever the sun can be on your back and soaking it all up, feeling the warmth seep into your bones and relax you.

Things are still moving slowly here, but they are all moving in the right direction and we enjoyed time just pottering here and there on the block and dipping into the studio now and then.

I managed to get some things organised and tidied away and sorted and settled in the studio which made me feel better; and along the way played some more with rusty bits and tea.

I got some lovely marks and have enjoyed cropping parts of the paper and imagining book pages and details, burning and more marks...

Don't ask me why or how, but out the back I found these rusty old chains - for car tyres in the snow! Clearly not needed here in sub-tropical Maleny... but here is the after and the before shot.

Here is how the back of the studio looked with four pages rusting - on the table, on the concrete, on the pebbles and on the old rocking chair.

 And some of the lovely marks left behind...

I got a little over-zealous and over-enthusiastic about the tea. I just kept dripping it on and as result got some wild and almost fierce marks which was fun.  I am so grateful to everybody who made suggestions and especially to Alice who explained why tea works with rust! See here for a fascinating explanation.

Tread Lightly opening

We had a fine time last night down at the Arts and Ecology Centre for the opening of Tread Lightly. A beautiful setting, some delicious and exquisite creations and a fine group of friends, family and artists in attendance.

The exhibition space where my work was featured included work by a number of other artists, all celebrating paper and the re-purposing of paper and books.

My little nook

Showing my mum a few details... 

Good friends Edith-Ann, Carol and Liz

Arty friends - Kari, Kim and Mieke

Mr Coma himself Ken Munsie with Pam from Arts Connect

And a few of the pieces by other artists...

Part of Small Print by Corrie Wright

Part of 18 Cornerstones by Rosie Miller

The O'Brien sisters perform 

Fabulous dress and slippers (artists not captured, apologies)

The exhibition is open 10am - 4pm daily until 8 July 2012 at the Arts and Ecology Centre at the Maroochy Regional Bushland Gardens, Tanawha.

Thanks Noela for some of these shots...

Thursday Thoughts...

“Work on a good piece of writing proceeds on three levels: a musical one, where it is composed; an architectural one, where it is constructed; and finally, a textile one, where it is woven.” 


Walter Benjamin, One-Way Street and Other Writings


I like it when people think about one thing but can use other experiences to describe it.  Like how in this quote, he is able to give us a sense of writing, through our understanding of music, of building and of textiles.

I stopped and read this a few times, thinking it through, feeling it and testing if my experiences mirror his, and if what he uses to describe writing helps me understand his experience of writing, and I found that it did.

My next thought was to see if the same ideas and descriptors could apply to how I feel art is created, and in many ways I think they can.

Firstly the idea of composing - of dreaming up the ideas or the insights that create the sense of what comes next; the sense of flowing like a musical score as it lilts and drifts and takes its own beautiful course. I think there is a musical composition part of creating art. Muses and music.

Secondly the architectural and construction part seems very true to me.  We all know this part well; the actual hands-on doing, of the making or the painting, drawing, sculpting, stitching, felting, dyeing, printing, photographing that we each do. Sometimes this is the only part that some people see taking place. How often do you overhear folk saying "Oh I could do that" when viewing a piece? Like the doing is all that there is.

Thirdly the sense of weaving...I think this is the part that if often unclear to the eye but is held in the essence of the work.  It is for me the part where we try to bring together a range of ideas or concepts, and use our materials to express or support those thoughts, emotions or concerns. Like choosing the size of a piece to add to its story; or the juxtapositioning of things to create tension and ask people to react; or hiding messages so that people need to work their way into a piece, to discover the layers.

This weaving is the strength and integrity of good work I think. Without it the composing and the construction are almost two-dimensional; whereas for me, the weaving part makes it three-dimensional and fully realised.

I think this is wise advice to any young writer, and for any artist (whatever their age!).

Musical composition, architectural construction, textile weaving. Perfection.

Rusting thru the rain

Well, I left you all on Saturday night when I had popped my rust and paper and teabags out in the light gentle rain. Ha. I woke at about 11pm that night to driving, torrential rain and thought oh-oh, things are going to be totally soaked. And they were. in fact they were swimming and I started to worry that the paper would disintegrate with so much water. But it held.

I moved the table under cover on Sunday morning, but the rain kept coming from all angles so it had no hope of drying. Then I moved it inside with a log fire on Monday morning to let things dry out and to see what had happened.

And there was definitely some magic.

 Here's how things looked when I lifted up the rusty bits and took away the teabags.

I quite like the shadow sorts of marks that are left, and you can see the green tea (grey) and the black tea (rusty) colours that washed through the paper and the pieces. And some tea leaves that broke out of their bags!

Here are a few of my favourite  fragments...

I think I need to pay better attention to the weather and not leave my poor paper out in flooding rains.
I really like the way the chain rusted.
I love how green tea brings in the grey.
I'll definitly be trying it again with some of the ideas from folk and some better planning...

Misty rusty mountain days

It has been a bit damp and a bit misty here on the mountain today. When I caught up with Susan yesterday morning, we both talked about how we wanted to experiment like Jennifer and Pam with rusting paper by leaving rusty bits on it out in the rain. We also love how Alice gets beautiful marks transferred (but don't know how!).

I have no idea what I am doing but off I went when I thought it might start to rain.

A plastic table out the back, a piece of Arches Velin (watered with the hose) and then a bunch of rusty bits placed on the paper, then on cue...rain.

This is how things are looking towards the end of Day 1.

I plan to leave it all out overnight and see what happens.

I would love to hear any tips or trade secrets about doing this - or whether patience is simply the key ingredient!

And here's some of the mist clearing momentarily - quite a gentle and beautiful sight.

PS Just as I was making the links to folk, I looked again at Jennifer's table and I think she put tea bags on as well, so I am about to run over in the dark and pop a few tea bags down and see what happens. Laugh!

PPS A real sign that Barry is getting better - I was in the kitchen explaining how I had just realised there might need to be tea bags as well; and he just said "so shall I get the torch and we'll go over?". And we did. Laugh more!

Thursday Thoughts...

"She read books quickly and compulsively, paperback after paperback, as if she might drift away without the anchor of the printed page.” 


 Jane Hamilton


I don't know much about the author - she has written books that people love or loathe and I'm not sure if this quote comes from one of those books, but I like it.  I know how this woman or this girl feels.

I feel terribly untethered if I don't have a book around me or some ability to read something, anything. A newspaper, a magazine, a timetable...

I have always found books to be calming and settling influences. In amongst it all, books anchor me.

In Emergency recently with Barry as he was recovering, and asleep, I sat beside him and read a book of short stories on my phone.  I was so glad to have my phone as I hadn't thought to pack a real book when we left the house earlier that morning. Every visit to the hospital after that however, I had the book-bag with me and lots of options.

Being a wee bit of an introvert I also find reading a book in public - on a train, a place, at a coffee shop or clearly in a hospital, enables me to be free of having to talk to folk or interact too much. A little invisible shield goes up that almost says "Don't interrupt me, I'm on important business. I'm reading".

Whenever I need to calm myself, be quiet or settle - I turn to books. They are true companions, always different, often amusing, sometimes incredible, occasionally earth-shattering. When I need to re-energise, I go sit somewhere quiet and read. Reading a book is a tonic that renews and refreshes me and I'm sure I'm not alone.

©2012 Fiona Dempster - Ken reading Barry's book, using PhotoCamera

The Poetic Pen

The wonderful 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland Oregon is hosting a special exhibition called The Poetic Pen. The exhibition is in conjunction with the Calligraphy NorthWest International Calligraphy Conference taking place in Portland from 24 June to 1 July 2012.

I was very excited to be attending my first Conference - over 500 calligraphers attending workshops with some truly amazing and brilliant calligraphic tutors.  It was so hard to choose and nominate a workshop. But in the end, after Barry's recent illness and episodes, we have decided not to try to tackle a long-haul trip to the US in a fortnight's time and I was not feeling good about going on my own and leaving him here. So some lucky person who was on a wait-list now has the chance to participate; so I'm thrilled for them, whilst being a little bit sad for me.

But back to the exhibition.  The Gallery called for works that celebrated calligraphy and poetry and I thought oh well, I might as well enter and see what happens.  I was very excited - like pinch me really - to learn that both pieces I submitted were selected!  They chose 40 works from 140 submissions so I was feeling very chuffed.

I am sending "Artemis" a small book with poetry by Robyn Nugent and "Blackbird" another wee book with poetry by Annie Kerr from Inkhaven.

This is what I said about "Artemis":

Robyn Nugent’s poetry is always spare and often unflinching. I chose a very minimalist representation for the words, but added interest with weight variation. The simple nature of the book enables one to carry a poem in the hand, lightly. 

 And what I wrote about "Blackbird":

Annie Kerr’s words always create such beautiful word-pictures, and the imagery of silver threaded calligraphy, and liquid song as the bird flits through the streets is lovely. This is my own personal heartbeat script, which I think gives a sense of rhythm and movement to the words. This is a very personal format for the book as well—it sits lightly in the hand like a precious object.

Both books will be winging their way across the Pacific Ocean this week, and I look forward to hearing how their visit to the US goes!  For anybody in or around Portland OR the gallery is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from midday to 6.00pm, and the First Friday artist reception is on 6 July 2012. The exhibition runs from 22 June - 29 July 2012.

ALAW - playing catch up

Well the good news is that Barry came home on Friday afternoon and has been going slowly and quietly forward since then. Little steps and lots of sleeping, but gradually getting better each day, which is wonderful. Thanks for all the healing thoughts and energy that came our way from across the oceans and down the road - it helps to know folk are thinking of you in those difficult moments and times.

In the past few weeks I've not been at all creative, but have still managed to do a few of my letters for A Letter a Week.  We are nearing completion of the first alphabet of the year and I am all caught up.

I have five more letters to do which I should be able to squeeze into the next few weeks. Phew!

I am still loving the simplicity and elegance of this little alphabet. Each square is 7cm x 7cm and the letters are all pierced, as part of the 'going dotty or polka dot' theme for one of the alphabets.

I am still imagining the final piece - I have the main idea, now all I have to do is execute it! Laugh - how often is it that the idea never quite translates as brilliantly to the real thing as when it appears in your head?  Stay tuned.