A commission underway

Barry and I are fortunate to have been asked to do an interesting and large commission. Comprising eleven individual pieces, the works combine elements of both of our art and styles.

And we have been busy. It feels like a case of extreme scheduling and logistics; things need to be done in a sequence and there is no way to go faster or cut corners; everything just needs to take the time it takes and so we do a little bit each day when we can. My mind boggles a bit at all the processes and the fear each time that something could go wrong and we have to re-do things and re-jig our schedules to adjust to the new timeframes...Strangely enough, the deadline is about the exact same time our exhibition opens!

Me, I have been cutting up lots of paper and making lots of embossing plates and pieces, and embossing...

Most of these marks reference marks Barry has beaten into metal - all 11 pieces will be unique and individual, yet also have the continuity of a similar look and feel. This is only the beginning, we have so many more steps yet to do!

Quiet book blues

I prepared these pages ages ago it seems; wondering what they might become. So many options drifted through my brain and for quite a while I was very hooked on the notion of them becoming hanging scrolls with tumbling words.

But they kept sitting there waiting.  Early last week I realised I wanted to make them into a book and that I wanted it to go in the exhibition - note that all works are due this Tuesday!

I like it when, if you get those nights with interrupted sleep, you can actually use them. I am no fan of interrupted or sleepless nights; but if they come I like being able to use the time in a positive way.

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind during an episode of wakefulness and driftiness, I realised I wanted to write on them, and how.

I then started playing with other pages, tissue paper and embossing, sourcing book cloth for the covers and just enjoying time spent with them.  Some pieces are generous like that - they let you enjoy yourself, they help you along, each thing you try actually works and feels like a reward.

And you get to have fun along the way and gaze in awe at the lovely papers!

I think the blues are lovely...

And yes, the exhibition begins at Rosebed St Gallery this week, and runs from Friday 23 August 2013 to Sunday 6 October 2013. The official opening is 7pm on Friday 30 August, with a jazz latin duo playing and official speeches starting at 7.30pm (RSVP to the Gallery by  Wednesday 28 August).

It would be great if you could drop in or drop by sometime!

Thursday Thoughts...

With my eyes closed, I would touch a familiar book and draw its fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy. 

 Haruki Murakami 

 I think one of the things I love about books is how they involve so many senses...there is the sense of vision if you are seeing words and reading; there is the sense of touch as you hold the book, feel the paper move and unfurl, turn in you hands, sometimes even the weightiness or not of the book adds to the pleasure and experience of reading. There is sometimes the sense of hearing when you listen to the pages as they land softly after turning. Then of course there is the smell of paper, new and old; fresh and worn; no matter where the book lies on the spectrum of age, there is a unique smell that says book. 

I think smell is such an evocative sense – it often reminds me of places and people; feelings and experiences. Just a whiff of a perfume reminds me of a friend; the smell of coffee roasting or bread baking has me feeling happy; and yet the smell of smoke has me out the door in a flash checking where the fire is and if anybody is keeping an eye on it.

As companions, books do offer up their own experiences, including their smell and their touch, which adds just another dimension to their delightfulness.

It's that time again when Jennifer and Julie go looking for the rainbow - this month's colour is purple.  I saw this bowl of petals in Shimokawa-san's studio in Tatebayshi earlier this year.

I can almost smell them from here...

An exhibition piece finished

We are edging closer to the deadline for our exhibition and I think we're petty much on track so far.  I have one piece sitting around waiting to be made but no others that seem to need to be made just yet, so I hope that I am on the home straight now.

I finished this piece on Saturday and am happy with how it ended up. It is simple, elegant and filled with quiet strength.

Peace within Chaos is its name and it stands testament to that possibility.

The covers are very soft leather - with some circles embedded underneath. Tied with a simple bow.

The chaotic swirling is interrupted by a narrow band of quietness...

Encouraging us to find peace within the chaos, to know that in amongst the hurly burly of it all, we can be still and quiet and know peace.

Within the knot of chaos lies a perfectly woven peace - Fiona Dempster 2013.

More printmakers' play

Barry has already posted on our play day with Maleny Printmakers, but I have so many colourful photos I just have to share as well!

We are a small group (13) who are kind of independent, loosely connected and yet all get on well and do good things together. One of my favourite parts of being a member is that you have to sign up to one rule - The "No Divas" rule.  We just don't want to deal with divas or divos for the blokes, and as a result everybody just plays nicely together, and works nicely together when we put on exhibitions.

We hosted  a play day here a few weeks ago, today it was Kim, Sonja and Nancy's turn to share and teach and we had great fun with geli-plate printing.

Basically a monotype process, working with Nancy's beautiful Golden inks, we explored the layering and textures, mask prints and ghost prints.  I love that we all just settle in and explore in our own way; ask questions, investigate what others are doing and share our inklings, without any divas demanding attention or having hissy fits..

I did heaps of different things in quite bright colours

And a few in more subdues tones as well...calligraphic marks

Habu thread...

Book pages and words...

Overprinting kozo paper...

 And the others did amazing things...here are Barry's mountains...

One of Steph's beauties...

 One of my favourites of Kim's stunning pieces...

Sonja's combination piece...

Nancy's silhouettes and life drawings...

And one of Di's leaves...

All very delicious, immediate and fun. Not sure how I will use the gelli-plate printing, but it's great to have it here as an option. We need to do quite a few new prints for our November exhibition so it may get a run there.

Thursday Thoughts...

"We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. 

I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography—to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience". 

Michael Ondaatje

I wondered what sort of quote about life I would choose today - one that reflects how I am feeling or one that reflects more positive thoughts. In the end I chose one somewhere in the middle, that also resonates with my life.

A friend of ours died this week, the partner of one of my dear friends and we are grieving.  But we are also celebrating a life of graciousness and giving, and love that poured out to my friend and made his life full and beautiful.

I think it is almost impossible to encapsulate a life in words when one dies; and so I like this notion of being marked; of stories being told; of somehow all our life experiences as we dined at the banquet table of life being understood.

People's lives are so amazing, so full of fabulousness, experiences, wisdom, jokes, cleverness, funniness, kindness and just moments. How can we ever capture that when someone dies? We are so communal; our experiences shared with others; our best moments oftentimes those we spent with other people - with raucous laughter or in silent companionship.

Here's to life, the journeys we take and the people we love along the way...

The journey begins and ends with home... a piece of mine that my friends bought in 2011.

A visit to the city

Not so much about making art but viewing art. I have just returned from a day in the city - I headed down to Brisbane this morning to spend the day with a dear friend who was visiting from Sydney. The weather was sublime - 25 degrees in the middle of winter so we enjoyed our wander along the river and into and through the cultural institutions that hug the river bank.

We visited the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and spent a long time working our way through "My Country, I Still Call Australia Home" - an exhibition of works by Contemporary Aboriginal artists.

In typical fashion I forgot to take my camera - life is way too full to remember details like that - so I relied on my phone camera to record some of my favourite pieces.

I had seen magazine articles and photos of this piece, but nothing prepared me for the power of it.

In Sorry, Tony Albert  uses kitsch items depicting Aboriginal people and spells the word sorry backwards - in reference to how ineffectual the Apology to the Stolen Generations was considered to be by some Aboriginal people.

Across the gallery on the opposite wall was this piece by Bindi Cole I forgive you. Again, in response to the Apology, but in this work, she recognises how important it was for her to acknowledge the apology and forgive people. As Karen said - the walls are talking to each other.

 

Each letter was made from multiple emu feathers..

Another piece which captured me was this series of tiny bibles, which had been re-worked to incorporate book page sculptures of each of the churches on Aboriginal Missions.  Each piece was called On a Mission from God with the name of the mission in brackets after it. I think these two might have been On a Mission from God (Darnley Island) and (Mappoon 1819).

And as we finished the final gallery I looked out through the entrance/exit  to be re-entranced by Arthur Koo-ekka Pamebagan Jr.'s Flying Fox Story Place. A series of hanging pods/poles which just look beautiful. I would love to have a space large enough to hang something like this...

It is always good in amongst the madness, to stop, take time out with friends, and wander through some art. Even better when it makes you stop and reflect on the world.

Pieces pieces everywhere...

Our exhibition is looming - opening night Friday 30 August - and the works and schedules are due well before then.

I have only just been able to get back into the studio in the last day or two and I feel as if I have pieces, pieces everywhere... and none of them quite finished!

Still, it's better than not having anything at all I guess.

Here are some glimpses of works in progress; some of which may finish up in the show, some of which may not.

There are lots of little tests and trials going on as well - it takes me so long to test an idea, check if it will work, and then try to replicate it.

Here I am pondering options for covering a book - will I use leather or paper? Will I try to add an embellishment to the cover or leave it plain?

The joy is the journey for sure - I just sometimes wish the destination wasn't quite so close by time-wise!

Thursday Thoughts...

The grid is very peaceful. Nothing can go wrong. Everything is complete. 

Louise Bourgeois

I have to say this quote speaks to me the moment - peacefulness, completeness, and all being well.  I am encouraged by that possibility and that notion.

And truth be told, I also love grids and wonder now if that is because they seem quiet and ordered and peaceful; and somehow that soothes my mind or settles it somewhat.

I love squares and grids; my mum loves organic and free flowing shapes and designs. It's always amusing when we are looking at fabric together and we instinctively head to opposites...

I think grids are nicely ordered, but they also seem to me to be about individual pieces making a whole. They often allow for small pieces to be part of something bigger and with more impact. They seem to let individual pieces breathe and be themselves, yet join with other pieces that are sympathetic.

At the moment, I just feel as if I could gaze at a grid all day and that would centre me.

One of the combinations and permutations from my last book collaboration with Susan.