Days of progress

The weekend has really been a time of consolidation. Of finishing some projects, of pushing others along and of making preparations for others.  It was a very satisfying time all round and I feel good about all the bits and pieces I achieved.

At the workshop last weekend, Helen I reminded me of some pen-holders that Carol Du Bosch makes and which were featured in Bound and Lettered.  They are simple to make and feel good in the hand. I was quite conscious of how much penholders cost as I recently bought some - but couldn't afford as many as I would have liked so this seemed like a great opportunity.  I went a little bit over board...

A pencil sharpener chamfered the ends nicely.

Ta - da! I have since transferred several orphan nibs into their new holders and it makes me happy to look at them.

I am selling my calligraphy pebbles down at Caloundra Regional Gallery and had a phone call that more were needed!  A rather nice problem to face, so I am head down ink out and writing both upper and lower case letters on pebbles, and will deliver a new batch this week I hope.

I made a slip case for a book I had swapped with Caren Florence. She mentioned she referenced my A Subversive Stitch often when she taught and would love a copy of her own - I found one in my studio and we swapped - her offering was Learning Absences a book based on a poem by Rosemary Dobson and made as part of Book Art Object.  I treasure this book and wanted it to be safe.  I made a light slip case for it and wrote in ultramarine watercolour on black - nice result!

I found time to finish my homework from the workshop - two wee books with covers using the techniques we learnt.

Barry's work is selling well at Maleny Additions, a beautiful homewares shop in town, and I had to do more labels for him. This is the second batch of 10 in two weeks so that's great news.

I am anticipating a small job coming up soon and have prepared pages and some covers just to be ready...

And I had a play with a nice long, thin strip of paper writing words about peace.  Still waiting to complete it, but am edging closer.

The biggest chunk of time on the weekend went towards finishing my burning book - part of my collaboration with Susan.  We have until the end of the month to complete it so I really had to push it along this weekend.  It is now nearly there; I think I have done the hardest of the yards and hope the next phase is simpler.  I sat down to write notes on everything I had done for it so far (for future reference) and was amazed at the many stages and details involved - made me tired just looking back over it! Lucky it has been spaced out over several months.  Soon it will be done.

It has been productive time in the studio and I have been really enjoying myself - life is good.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful as believing that I’m standing on the outside of my life looking in and wondering what it would be like if I had the courage to show up and let myself be seen.” 

 Brene Brown

I first heard of Brene Brown when I listened to her TED talk on Vulnerability. She spoke beautifully and made a lot of sense.

This quote is one of those that goes right to the heart.  It lands somewhere deep inside and says pay attention, think about this, your life is precious and you have to live it.

I almost ache when I read the opening words, about how awful it feels to stand on the outside of your life. I get such a feeling of despair at the thought of not living the life you deserve to live.  Of course, sometimes all sorts of reasons (like earning money) and choices can keep us from living the dream-life, but I think these words are more about living an authentic life wherever life finds you at the moment.

I am so glad that I have moved to a point where I feel as if I am inside my life, living and doing the things that matter to me. We made some big decisions nine years ago - to leave well-paying jobs with status, to try to live a fuller life, a life where we could spend time on things that matter, where we could stop and enjoy the beauty of the world around us, where we could be present with people and not just rushing by on our way to a meeting, where we could go out and enjoy a coffee with friends rather than put them off for the fifth time because work got in the way...

It meant a significant drop in income, being more vulnerable around financial security, but I can honestly say it feels like we've shown up to our lives and can be seen, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Columbus Circle, New York City looking out from inside...

Purely Pencils Part II

Over the last day or two I have been able to think about the workshop a bit more and organise my brain and my photos a bit better as I unpacked my bags and finished off a few pieces.

We covered a lot of territory working with both white paper and black.

Here's my mark on watercolour paper with Graphitint pencils - a mixture of pigment and graphite.

Here's some more initials - this time I used the Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolour crayons. They were so creamy and I was impressed by how little you needed to create such vibrant colours. I was using a soft sable brush for the water and it just wasn't firm enough to pull the pigment out of the dimples in the cold-press paper, so I have learnt to now use an acrylic brush on this sort of paper - thanks Gem!

I did another initial this afternoon - again the pencil lines are still there because it was wet when I finished, but it was also from some more gravel 'mulch' as we call it - hence the M.

After doing a couple of these we then moved on to black paper - mmm.

Graphite pencil on black paper.

And a bit of detail (before rubbing out)

Then it was on to colours on the black - metallic pencils (be kind) and plain coloured pencils (be gorgeous). These two are book marks.

And some details

I like the combination of these three phrases - be brave, be kind, be gorgeous.

There were other exercises as well - we were busy in the nicest possible way.

Here are some of the other folks' work, I hope I got names right!

Helen's I's G and swatch - a work in progress.

Helen V's metallics on black - so vibrant.

Greg's blended colours inside a letter (sorry for the bit of blur) - wow.

Desma's graphite pencil on black, I love the extensions, just stunning.

 And I did rub out the lines of those two earlier pieces and they almost  look complete!

I've been back in the studio working on another piece and doing my homework - two small booklets.  It has been great to have the time to re-enforce my learnings and explore a few new things with my new-found knowledge.  Where to next I wonder?

Purely Pencils

Here I sit, Sunday evening, glass of wine in hand, weary but reflecting on a fabulous weekend workshop I was fortunate to attend.

My good friend Gemma Black was hosted by The Calligraphy group at Buderim Craft Cottage and I was able to attend. Not only was it a great chance to catch up with friends, it was one of the best and most inspiring workshops I have done for ages.

I spent lots of time in a reverie, blissfully working my way through pencils, and watercolour pencils and graphite and water soluble graphite, deliciously discovering the things they can do. It was sublime.

I can't process the whole thing just yet, but here are some images of work from the first day.
We worked hard and there was always something go on with, something else to experiment with and try out.  My mind is still buzzing!

Gemma had asked us to bring something from our garden. In a sub-tropical climate like ours there were many beautiful and bight flowers and foliage.  I had asked Gemma on Friday when she popped over, if it was OK if I took some gravel.  We have lots of gravel around our house and it speaks to me more of home than many garden plants. She said yes, so I headed off with my gravel!

We investigated our objects in detail, looking to discover the many colours contained within them. We would then match these to watercolour pencils and do a 7cm x 7cm square letter - mine was G for gravel.

Here is my piece of gravel, my chosen pencils and the letter before it got wet.

Here is my letter after adding water to the watercolour pencils - still with my piece of gravel.

And my swatch - where I tested colours and then chose the ones I would finally use.

I have since rubbed out the pencil lines, but not yet photographed it as a finished piece sorry.

I think my biggest learning from this exercise was how you can't go wrong if you turn to nature for your palette.  Rather than accidentally choosing some random or clashing colours, by following what we found, each and every piece was harmonious and balanced.  A very good lesson!

I then had the most wonderful play with water-soluble graphite pencils - the swirls and the curls and the lovely lovely washes...

The hint of purple is a watercolour pencil.

Again, the pencil marks have been removed but no photographic evidence of that yet!

One of the exercises over the two days was to complete a graphite gradations chart - so we understood what each 'strength' of pencil would achieve.  I was getting a bit tired and wobbly by the time I reached 6B!

One of Gemma's own gs. Sigh.

And a detail.

We did loads more today but that will wait for another day - dinner beckons and an early night.

A huge thank you to the Buderim calligraphers for a fabulous workshop, time spent together and such wonderful sharing and learning. And to Gemma for her skills, knowledge, patience and generosity - I felt like I absorbed so much over the past two days that I'll keep going for weeks and months to come!

Thursday Thoughts...

My pieces can be looked at in many different ways. I try to provide a starting point from which people can let their imagination wander – what they will discover will be a product of their own experience as much as mine. My aim is to be allusive and elusive. 

Rosalie Gascoigne

Here I am, back with Rosalie again. But then she is not just an artistic hero, she also has a beautiful way with words. Words mattered to her, as did choosing the right titles for her work. I love that she cared about words as well.

This seems to me to be one of the most honest assessments of what we try to do and how it may be received.  It is wonderful to be able to provide a starting point for somebody - and let them find their way through the work and the meaning in it.  They may well find meanings and paths and answers we didn't even know where there.

I do think that whatever they find in the piece is still a bit of a partnership - what we set out to do and hoped to achieve, combined with their experience interests, understandings and emotions.  A bit like a writer and a reader.

The last sentence just grabs me.  What an aim and how perfect it is - to do work that alludes to things rather than flat out describes them; and to maintain some mystery to keep people wondering... divine.

When I sit down and read Rosalie quotes I almost feel as if she is sitting here with me, giving me sage and wise advice; about how to go about, and think about, this thing called art...

These are the first two pieces of Aboriginal art we ever bought. Called My Country  by Kudditji Kngwarreywe they depict his country which is way out in central Australia about 230km north west of Alice Springs.

I look at them everyday and am astounded at how much his country, looks like my country. The one on the left could be the view from the bedroom where these hang - the mist coming across the mountains, the light, the valley below.  And yet we are separated by thousands of kilometres. So yes, I think we do indeed discover things in art from our experience....

Unidentified gifts

Barry and I are fortunate we have a community of friends, family and artists who often drop things off at our place, remember us as they shop or wander and trawl, and who share gifts with us from their days.

Recently these two appeared in my life and my problem is I can't quite identify them.  The first is a gorgeous thing.

That's all I can say - it is well-made, wooden with brass edging and numerical inscriptions, but I have no idea what it is or what it would be used for. It is about 20cm long and about 7cm wide. The numerical inscriptions are different on both sides, hmmmm.

I don't mind not knowing as I don't really plan to use it - I just enjoying having it around the studio. If anybody can help out - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Secondly - not so gorgeous for many, but rather beautiful in an odd way - was this snakeskin. Don't you love it when you have friends who say "oh I found this great snakeskin, you'd love it!" And they're right.

My mother asked me today if I had to drape it on the studio wall where I had, so perhaps it might need moving. It was at that point I realised that maybe not everybody thinks it a lovely arty-piece to have hanging around! But I am intrigued by the texture. And I wonder how it might print?

In terms of identification, my only worry with this one is that I think it's from a brown snake - one of our most poisonous and aggressive ones. At least our friend didn't find it at our place!

Warm days and paper burning

The days are warm, one could say hot, at the moment but then again it's summer in Australia and one should probably expect it.

As mentioned previously I am pursuing a number of things in the studio and the past few days have seen me burning.  The poor shed does fill with incense and the smell of paper burning- my fingers smell like burning and my fingernails get brown.  My finger tips get little burns and scars when I pat the paper to put out the flames and burning edges.  I figured rubber gloves wouldn't help!

Still, I think I have nearly burnt all I need for now - there is another project that needs burning but I'll get back to that one soon.

Burning very fine paper - it needs to be damp or else it just disappears.

Fragments and edges...

Different edges...

Different fragments...

And the gift that appears as you photograph...

Next steps - mathematical calculations around placement of holes for riveting ad stitching, then construction!

Thursday Thoughts...

“When I was little, my ambition was to grow up to be a book. Not a writer. People can be killed like ants. Writers are not hard to kill either. But not books: however systematically you try to destroy them, there is always a chance that a copy will survive and continue to enjoy a shelf-life in some corner on an out-of-the-way library somehwere in Reykjavik, Valladolid or Vancouver.”

Amos Oz

I love the magical thinking of childhood and how one could wish to grow up to be an actual book!

The logic in the story belies his young age, however, and he seems to have thought it through quite well.

It is so true that humans and individuals are fallible and vulnerable; and also true that books often outlast us. Their stories are told time and time again; they get re-printed and stored, passed along and handed down. They go out into the world and are picked up at garage sales and second hand book stores. And the cycle begins again.

He has somehow imbued books with a sense of eternality, and I complete agree with him that you can sometimes come across a book in the strangest and most unexpected places. And doesn't that make you wonder about the journeys they've made and the people's whose hands they have passed through to get there?

I love those discoveries - a true gem, or an old favourite found when and where you would never dream to find them.

Anselm Kiefer, Sternenfall/Shevirath
Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart

This piece makes me think of the tenaciousness of books and their ability to survive.