White Ribbon Day

Here is my latest book in my collaboration with Susan.  The books we made to a 'recipe' we selected from Julie Chen and Barbara Tentenbaum's' Ideation Cards.  The book had to have the following features:

Text: None
Image: Abstract
Structure: Multiple openings
Paper: Multiple colours
Layout: Asymmetrical
Technique: High Tech
Colour: Muted/Pastel

Adjectives: Miniature, Photographic, Personal, Issue-based, Simple

It is called White Ribbon Day.

It tells a story of Australian women who are killed by their partners or former partners.
Each year in this country around 72 women die this way.
More than one a week.
Since January, 12 women have died this way in Queensland alone.

This was my issue.

White Ribbon Day is Australia's campaign to stop violence against women. I chose a white ribbon to wrap my book.

I won't show every page, but you get a sense of the work from these images I think.

At a gathering in our town in May to stop violence against women, a memorial of shoes was laid out. Each pair represented a woman who had been killed, and had a tag with details like her age, where she lived and who she cared for. This image stuck with me.

My book uses abstract, miniatures prints of shoes to represent women who have died. Through the small openings on each page, you find an image.

Markers on each page count the women.

The female symbol is embossed and de-bossed throughout.

I chose soft grey and creamy white and had to include black even though it isn't really muted.

It tells a story without words, but it helps to know the back story.

Book meeting day

I love how in my diary today it read "9.30am Books meet - Susan's". It might sound mad, but it has become a regular part of our collaboration, where after we have worked our way through the ups and downs and twists and turns, our books get to meet. We know what it means when we write it in our diaries, and it feels as if it's almost a necessary politeness to let our 'sibling' books meet each other when they are complete.

We always enjoy the moments - knowing a fair bit about the book the other has been making; or not, as the case may be. This time we had shared much of our thinking and process as we worked to find a way to make a 'recipe' book not look like it was made by throwing this and that together and hoping. So even tho we had a fair idea of what to expect, there were still lots of lovely surprises as well.

We both loved them both.

They tell quite different stories and have used the parameters of the cards quite differently; but once again, they seem to sit well together.

Artists' books are not always easy to photograph, and trying to show two together looking beautiful is quite difficult!

So in the end, we go for angles and interesting corners and elements...

They both offer the viewer a lot as you turn the pages, spend time with them, and look at the many details.

And to finish - an abstract shot of Susan's cover - delicious!

There was another satisfying sense of accomplishment and achievement today when we looked at our work together and reflected on how we had resolved issues, made tough choices and discovered lots of new ideas that we can't wait to test out! I'll tell the story of my book and show you it in detail soon.

Of nests...

I think like many others, I am enamoured of feathers and nests and eggs and birds as imagery and as symbols.  Somehow for me they feel accessible and friendly and something that we can relate too, something that brings out a certain gentleness in us perhaps.

I like the idea of flight, and of drifting; of new life and of nurture. Birds, feathers, eggs and nests offer these things I think!

Maleny Printmakers are hosting another Collectables exhibition in November - all small prints which fit in CD cases and cost $25 - so I have been trying to make some prints to show and sell.

This is an edition of nests I have made, on beautiful soft goyu paper from Talas in Brooklyn, NY.

The paper is light and feathery, yet strong, which reflects how nests are. So often when winds have blown and leaves have been shredded; the nest remains.

I wonder what the collective noun for nests is?

Such beautiful feathery edges...

Testing, testing...

I am involved in an interesting art project at the moment which is really pushing the boundaries of the kind of thing I do.  It's a big installation of artwork and four of us are working on it.

Can you tell it's still hush-hush and secret squirrel? I can't say much about it at all yet, but I did want to share these lovely images of test-plates I had done last week.

I am going to be writing some calligraphy and then getting the calligraphy laser etched onto metal or a similar material.  So I have been learning heaps about materials and techniques.

Most of the work involves composite aluminium, so I wanted to see what was possible using that.

You can't laser cut through to the black core of the composite because it will 'ball' and rub and look messy, rather than leave clean lines I discovered. So the only option is to laser etch and I think it doesn't give me the dark text against the lighter background I was looking for. Altho in other settings it would be lovely!

Funny how with the light on the composite here, it actually looks like it could be used. The second one without direct light shows it won't be a starter.

So then I wondered about etching plain old aluminium...same effect really, too light.

And then Craig suggested the Engraving Laminate - silver with a dark core.  I like it. Nice crisp, clean lines, nice dark-light contrast and it comes in the size I need!

It is always so interesting when you move out of your comfort zone of ink and paper into other worlds and materials, to discover what is possible and how you can apply what you do in a different way. I'm enjoying the exploration and looking forward to the whole thing coming together.

But in the meantime, I basically now need to work out what to write, get the words agreed, get the style of writing agreed, then practice writing, get the layout right, then write it, then scan it, then get it formatted to the right file for the laser etcher and scaled up to the size of the board, etched, delivered and installed and we're done!

Exhilarating exhibition

I was wandering through my photographs the other day and came across this whole set of photos from an exhibition by Glen Skien which Susan, Steph and I visited back in May. I can't believe I haven't shared them before now! Probably says a bit about how busy life can get...

Honestly, it was one of the most moving and beautiful exhibitions I have seen in a long time; it took my breath away and left me in awe and wonder.

Sometimes works of art can humble you. Sometimes you just feel as if you have come home. Sometimes they make you gasp, then forget to breathe again.

So many times in this exhibition I felt that way. Every piece was deserving of time and reflection.

I didn't get all the names of works, but the creator is Glen Skien, a wonderful printmaker and story-teller, and maker of magic.

Enjoy!

All photos were taken with my iPhone, I can't believe I forgot to take a camera with me, but it was one of the days when I was grateful that technology could let me hold a camera in my phone...

The new book continues along

I have kept the bits and pieces for this book out in the studio - lying around where I can see them and where they can begin their little conversations with me as we go along.  Every now and again the pages let me know where we're headed, and what I need to do next. It's a comforting way to build a book; working with the materials in a friendly way.

Without words I am trying to find ways to tell a story.  For many this is utterly natural and their place of beginning; for me it is not. I still want my book to be very 'me' if that makes sense; I don't want it to be a book that doesn't look like I made it; so I can't just go drawing things because that isn't really who I am.

So I am making marks and using symbols...

And cutting out little windows and printing up some images.

Susan and I have agreed that the books will meet on 20 August, and given I'm away for  a week between now and then, I do need to get a wriggle on!

A new A Letter a Week alphabet

Over at A Letter a Week 2014, the themed alphabet for the year is an alphabet of place.  An alphabet that represents, shows, or tells a story somehow of place, or a place.

I gave myself the first half of the year to ponder what I would do, and then came up with one of my favourite places to visit - New York City.

I also figured that there would be lots of alphabet options in that city, so I started to think about the words that linked to the letters.

But to begin, for some reason I felt like embossing. Despite the city's vibrancy and liveliness and occasional neon overload, white on white embossing still felt OK for me. Perhaps because it was snowing the last time we visited and all was blanketed in white and Central Park looked so beautiful.  Or maybe when I stopped to think about words that linked to letters. I let the hubbub of the city disappear and just focused on that one thing.

I cut a map of NYC into a sheet of lino and then embossed it several times. I cut these embossings up into 7cm x 7cm squares so I would have a mixed up version of the map. The letters will be written in whatever part of the map that appears on top of the pile as I go along.

Here are my first four letters - I tried to make sure each letter was memory of our visit.

A - I love the Apple store
B - Bagels; we stay around the corner from one of the best bagel shops on earth. Heaven.
C - Central Park, so beautiful
D - Downtown, as the song goes...

 On occasions it hasn't been easy to choose just one word for the letter - we have so many wonderful memories of this place. But the good news is that so far, I'm on track with the weekly commitment. Phew.