Spending time with Silence

We are almost there...

Susan and I met briefly this morning to do a few last minute catch up things before we deliver our work to Noosa in the morning. Our priority was to finish off all those final tiny details on our 10th book; the book we have called Silence.

Firstly, we embossed our marks onto the inside lower flap of the box we had made to house the unbound book.  Then Susan signed the back of each page - there are 50 pages.  We are using 25 to create an edition of 5 artists' books. The first two are held in the Pas de Deux collection; but three are for sale.

We are then selling the individual prints with original calligraphy in editions of 5 as well. That is, there are only 5 of each page, but they can be bough individually.

We finalised a few things and after she left, I went on to number every print, name every print including the quote attribution and sign them as well.  Then it was wrapping the individual prints for the books in the beautiful tengucho paper (without creasing it) and then placing them in the box, and wrapping them with the band.

I then popped each print for sale into cellophane bags and sealed them as well.

So I have spent most of the day with Silence, which is a beautiful book.

The books and pages will be available for sale through Noosa Regional Gallery once the exhibition opens - the individual print-calligraphy pages will sell for $150 and the artists' books with their 5 pages, individual wrapping, hand-made box and band and process of gentle revealing will sell for $1000.

To give you a sense of the kind of day I had, here are several photos of the works, taken by Anastasia Karyofillidis.  She gave the books such gentle lightness and quietness...

One book in its box with bands on the left; one other book partially opened...

Getting closer to the books...

All the prints are out here...

The page we nominally open with - a quote by me.

 The second page - a quote by Susan...

The third page - a quote by Hanif Kureishi

A beautiful fourth page quote by Christina Rossetti...

The page we nominally finish with - quote by Mark Rothko

It was lovely to note that today, with a bit of distance between us and the hard work involved in the making of this book; that we both felt so much happier with how it turned out and feel quite good friends with it now!

If you would like to talk about purchasing a print or a book - please don't hesitate to email either Susan or I.

Letterpress learnings

It's so funny. My main learning after my second bout of letterpress printing was - print in the morning and not in the afternoon.

No, it's not the weather, or the light, or the temperature, or my mood. It's the fact that I got so carried away that I went on and on and on into the dark and had to run across to the house apologising to Barry that I knew it was dark; I knew it was dinner time, but I just had a few more runs to do and then clean up and then I could re-join the real world?!?

So I think it can be officially noted as a bit of an addiction.

And so I figure, printing in the morning helps me avoid missing out on dinner. The things we learn.

I decided to try out my Adana table top press and see how it worked. We got on very well. It behaved, I understood what to do and it wasn't too tricky at all. You know how sometimes you feel like you are winning?

I inked her up and went to town! These two photos are courtesy of Barry. Using the rollers to spread the ink across the platen plate.

The studio space in an awful state of untidiness, hoping to resolve that soon.

 I decided to try a different style of type and whilst working with the same "word" "poems" I had written about clouds, try to print some much smaller pages that might be attached to the wall, rather than drifting from the ceiling.

The first three lines locked up in the chase.

As I stepped down from the full 'poems" and long drifty pages, I chose three lines of two words that came out of each 'poem'. I didn't plan this, I just thought it might be nice to reduce them to their essence a bit and see if they still hold.

After proofing, I printed on some lovely Khadi paper.

Then I had to run and get some of my handmade paper and print on that as well

And then some goyu to see what would happen.

Total chaos ensued but by the end of the day/night I had quite a few sheets printed.

I went even smaller, with a single line of two words on a page, but that will have to wait for another day

Tomorrow is the closing date deadline for the Regional Marks exhibition - I have entered a few pieces and shall see how we go.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Please keep demonstrating the courage that it takes to swim upstream in a world that prefers putting away for retirement to putting pen to paper, that chooses practicality over poetry, that values you more for going to the gym than going to the deepest places in your soul. Please keep making your art for people like me, people who need the magic and imagination and honesty of great art to make the day-to-day world a little more bearable.” 

Shauna Niequist

I struggle sometimes with the notion that one should be able to make a living from art. That somehow our work is available on the open market for people to pay for as a commodity. That what we create from the heart should have some commercial value that others should be willing to pay for. I am not fond of the word 'should'.

I often have difficult conversations with myself around the purpose of art-making; the purpose of exhibiting and so on and on and on.

But it is quotes like this that can keep me going; keep the fires burning and help me understand what it is that we do.  We aren't here simply for commercial exchange. We are here to make things of beauty; things that provoke thoughts and ideas; things that make others feel...

I think we sometimes forget that we can appear to have the keys to the magic kingdom. That we can seem to be the folk who can offer others moments of hope and beauty and magic. We can forget that people need these things in their daily lives - that the things we can do and make offer people a salve to the ordinariness or mundaneness of life. When they don't have time or skill or energy to create - we can offer them those things.

So we should listen to those who ask us to keep on making our art...

A fragment of "silence helps no-one", a book about family violence.  Maybe I just need to keep making art like this in case it might help one person...

And it is all a picture of grey, which leads me to Jennifer and Julie's ongoing monthly search for the rainbow and other colours. Having exhausted the rainbow, here we are at grey...

Pas de Deux - Under Construction

I mentioned last week a bit about my approach to my individual works in the Pas de Deux exhibition.  I was keen to not only have a Pas de Deux within our collaborative books; but also between the collaborative books and my own work; and within my own work.

That possibly makes for a pas de six or some such; but it has been the thread that holds my otherwise possibly disparate work together.

A further example of the threads connecting between and within the works is the series called Under Construction.

You may recall that Susan and I gave each other the theme "birds, feathers, nests and eggs" for one of our collaborative books. Susan created the beautiful Tidings of Magpies, and I made the quiet, soft and subtle Nurture.

I really, really enjoyed the imagery of nests and building and wanted to create further work along that theme.  So I made the Under Construction pieces - all of which refer to the precious work of building nests.

I spent some time writing the words, capturing my own thoughts about what was happening when a nest was built, the time it took, the care and the patience.  I wanted to say gently and quietly how much I admire wee birds and their intricate weaving of hopes and dreams; how they create such delicate yet robust masterpieces of shelter and protection.

Here are a couple of them:

gleaning downy threads

patient weaving of new dreams

time and twigs entwined

spiriting away

discarded tactile fragments

home is built anew

mindful selection

ephemeral yet robust

waiting and protecting

I used solar etching to capture nest and feather imagery, and used multiple plates to print - always interesting when one moves with the weight of the roller! Still, I did manage to create five wall pieces and five books.  

Again, I wanted my wall pieces to be linked to books; and my books to have a wall connection as well - another pas de deux.

Here are some of the framed wall pieces. I am so fortunate that my local framers handle my tricky works so well! Phil of Holden's Framing always knows multiple tricks and just the right frame depth etc etc to hold all my fragile bits together beautifully.

Under Construction IV 
Photographer Penny Riddoch

Under Construction V
Photographer Penny Riddoch

Under Construction III
Photographer Penny Riddoch

And a few of the books.

These books stand about 40cm high and about 45cm wide when opened.

Under Construction 2
Photographer Penny Riddoch

Under Construction 4
Photographer Penny Riddoch

But I have also designed them so that they can lie down along a shelf or desk and be read from above.

Under Construction 3
Photographer Penny Riddoch

The books are all bound in a beautiful book cloth, and each cover has an inset with a feather hand stitched on vellum. They are tied together with a Habu thread; and are housed in a Perspex slip case.

I don't know that I would have ever explored the birds and nests without having made the collaborative book along that theme; or without having learnt how to do solar plate etching during the making of White Ribbon Day...so the collaboration has really sent my work in new directions.

Queensland Literary Awards 2015

Barry and I were honoured to be asked to once again make the trophy prizes for this year's Queensland Literary Awards.

This year, the State government decided they would re-fund them and recognise that literature and the arts matter to a community and a society.  So we were extra thrilled when they asked us to do them.

Some of you may remember we did them in 2013 and 2014 when the community got together and decided they cared and ran the Awards themselves - the colour theme was a fabulous orange. This year we had a new logo and an indigo type palette to work with.

Once again we kept to the book theme with Barry doing the metal work for the covers, me doing the embossing and calligraphy on the inside pages and the two of us drilling the holes in Perspex and riveting together. I then stitched them up and made the pouches. You may have seen a sneak peak here.

This year, Barry riveted together several small pieces of steel to make the cover. The new logo was engraved within it.

I think it is beautiful industrial look - gorgeous copper rivets.

Open up and you see the page with the award name and the winner's name. I emboss these pages with plates, made by Barry, which echo the cover. I then write the winner's name in calligraphy, a real team effort.

The embossing plates...

The winners...

You can't see it here, but the back of the inside page is also beautifully embossed.

The back cover once again uses a quote from our fabulous author David Malouf.

I stitched the book with a blue thread similar to the pouches. It is complicated trying to get two covers and one page to stitch well, using a single page binding technique and it took me a few goes to remember the intricate weaving I did to make it hold firm!

The award ceremony was on Friday night so it is safe to share the names now!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Books: a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a readable form no matter what happens.” 

Nicholson Baker

I often times find the debates about audio books, e-books and print books fascinating.  I think all book formats have their place; and that each of us will have our preferences.  And sometimes our preference simply applies to the context in which we find ourselves.

In my heart, I love a print book. I love to hold a book in the hand, and I love all of the things that a print book encompasses.  But then, I do love an e-book when I travel so I don't have to lug several extra kilos of luggage with me!

Even with my love of the print book, I found this quote a bit tricky.  Clearly a huge bonus of a print book is that the battery won't run out - which happens for both audio and e-books; but then you can't read a print book in the dark can you without some form of external lighting; whereas the e-book comes with its own; and the audio book needs no light at all.

And probably mostly because I am a book artist and have seen many books made and created that are in print form yet can't be read, made me disagree somewhat that they exist "in a readable form no matter what happens".

Thoughts?

A book called Dark is Hard, with previous ramblings here.

Exhibition echoes and connections

Pas de Deux, opens soon at Noosa Regional Gallery. The twenty collaborative books Susan and I have made together over the past three years are at the heart of the show, and we are each exhibiting work that supports the books.

I have chosen to show several different bodies of work, all linked to the collaborative books by materials, subject, or process. In doing so I aimed to created a pas de deux of my own, with my artists' books being echoed by wall works with the same theme. Two working together.

Fragile Gains is a work I have shown before in the US, but never in Australia.  It is a good example of how earlier work influenced my collaboration - the burning of small holes with incense sticks is reflected in my large collaborative book Endure, where I used incense sticks to burn the centre of my Os.

Fragile Gains

Endure (detail) Photograph by Anastasia Karyofillidis

Fragile Gains as a book, is now supported by wall pieces as well. Once again, each page from the same  title (altho of course a different actual book) is burnt, leaving only the key word remaining - a fragile gain by women.

It feels like a double play of Pas de Deux, as well as encouraging people to look at my work and see the connections to the collaboration; to do a bit of investigation into where or how the influences are at play, whilst at the same time linking my books and wall works.

The exhibition Pas de Deux runs from 23 October to 6 December 2015.

It is being held at Noosa Regional Gallery, with an opening at 6pm on Friday 23 October.

Susan and I are doing an artists' talk 10.30am - 11.30am on Saturday 31 October; followed by an afternoon workshop 1-5pm - making a collaborative book.

Time to Change

We are only a few weeks away from our opening at Noosa Regional Gallery.

Susan and I have been working away on our individual works, to support our twenty collaborative artists' books that will form the centrepiece of our exhibition.

I have chosen to link my works to the collaboration - to show how the collaboration has influenced me, and how my work has been expressed in the collaboration. A little bit like a figure 8 - I bring myself and my work to our collaborative books; and out of our collaborative books I find myself doing new things...

So my supporting body of work is in parts - I will be showing work around women; around war and peace and around birds and nests...

This series of 52 books - Time to Change - is one part of the women's work. In my 50 word artist's statement about them I say:

"In 2014 one Australian woman was killed each week, by a partner or former partner. These women were mothers, daughters, sisters, friends. 52 books make up this library, hand-stitched covers count the dead, pages with unique burnt patterns recognise their suffering. Clocks parts tell us it is time to change"

The 52 books are now housed in their in their own library/book case.

The front covers use stitches to count the dead women.

And the inside pages are all individual - as are the women who have died.  As are the thousands more who face controlling, aggressive partners and ex-partners each day.

The burnt patterns reflect these women's suffering and pain.

The clocks parts remind us that it is time to change the way we deal with this issues; time to change how we respond to women fleeing violence and time to change our laws.

These women were mothers, daughters, sisters, friends...

This work stems from one of our collaborative books - White Ribbon Day. That book started me on a journey to use some of my artists' books to raise awareness around family violence in Australia. 

Details of the show can be found here at Noosa Regional Gallery.

Opening night is Friday 23 October at 6pm.

The show runs until Sunday 6 December.

Would love to see some of you there!

Thursday Thoughts...

“There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath.” 

Douglas Adams

We are moving towards Summer here, and as we pass through Spring, we begin to notice how the sky lightens earlier; that we wake and turn to see the valley basking in dawn's gentle glow.

I have to say I love waking naturally with the light; rather than forcing my way into the morning through the inky, compacted, dense darkness. And so, I feel lighter.

It is a wonder to watch the dawn do what it does, the range of colours it moves through and how each and every variegated colour is perfect for just that moment. I love watching and wondering if I can notice the moment, the micro moment when one colour merges into another - but I never really can.

I loved how Douglas Adams suggested that there is a moment when light floats - such a lovely lovely image in my mind; and then that there is the possibility of magic.

It seems like a truism, but I certainly feel more hopeful at dawn, and it seems very much as if there are all sorts of possibilities, including the possibility of magic. A little bit of magic every day - perfect.

Waking to dawns like this helps you believe in magic for sure...