International Day of Peace

Tomorrow (21 September) is International Day of Peace.

Each year since 2012, Barry and I have hung peace flags in the tree at the top of our driveway - and sometimes in other places around the block - to mark and celebrate International Day of Peace.

This year we have hung Barry's copper peace doves; and some of my imagine peace letterpress cards.

Lovely rough jute string works so well with the soft dove grey and creamy white.

Waiting together in the tray...

Some lovely details...

And then into the tree!

It was a grey old day when we hung them but they are fluttering away in the breeze, sharing messages of peace which is what we need.

This year's plus part of last year's...

 Barry's dove's silhouette so beautifully...

Tucked into the branches

And looking up from the bottom of the driveway

One neighbour has already stopped and asked is it time for the peace messages again? And yes it is, and yes it always is in a way...

Collagraph workshop

In what has been pretty much a whirlwind of printmaking it seems, last weekend, I was fortunate to attend Day 1 of a two day collagraph workshop with the Maleny Printmakers.

I will miss Day 2, but I really wanted to learn bit about collagraphs and really enjoyed getting a better idea of how to make these interesting plates.

Jackie L and Kim H were our fearless guides; both know so much about what they do and it was great to be able to ask a million questions and photograph the materials they use - which glue for what for example.

One of Jacky's plates and a print (plate on right)

Delicious details...

 I was lacking somewhat in imagination, but did want to test different textures - so a basic old townscape.

With clouds! Laugh.

Experimenting with thick PVA and drawing into it

And then cutting into it after it had dried a bit

 And also playing with cutting out shapes, peeling back cardboard...

Susan also came along and talked to us about embossing which was a real treat - she does it soooooo  well!

And then it was on to encaustic collagraphs with Kim - heat guns and wax yum!

Here is one of Kim's plates and one of her prints

Here is one of my plates waxed, fund and scraped (the before shot)

And here it is a after a blast with the heat gun...

Delicious fun - now to shellac the plates and ink them up!

Thursday Thoughts...

He who works with his hands is a laborer. 

He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. 

He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist. 

St. Francis Of Assisi

Once again, I read this as he or she; but didn't want to fiddle with a direct quote.

Semantics over; as I think about the content of these words, I think they are wise and may offer a simple way for me to understand the oftentimes fraught art-craft divide.

St Francis lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, so these words have travelled many years to reach me sitting here at my computer, after washing ink from my fingers from a piece of calligraphy I was writing in the studio.

Today my work felt like craft - it was a job, a skill I have, to make words looks beautiful.  I used my head to calculate nib widths, line lengths, and interlinear spaces; and my hands to craft the letters. The work is signage for a shop, and so a bit hard to imbue with my heart.

When I compare today's work with some more recent work where heart and head and hands were at play throughout; I realise I feel differently about work where my heart is involved.  And for me that work is artistic.

I wonder if it's that simple?

A glimpse of a piece with head and hands and heart...

Garden gift

I love our block - it is a constant source of salve for the soul. It provides us with food, flowers, birds and beauty.

And last week it brought us another gift.

We came home to find this wee nest sitting on the chair outside our front door (made by our friend Ken) - a friend had found it down below when wandering and left it there to make us smile. Which it did.

Perfection in so many ways, and it is still sitting there making me smile when I come in the front door!

A pile of printing

I printed up a storm over a couple days - doing the fronts of 200 pages one day and the backs the next.

There is nothing quite like production to hone skills, and build a better understanding of what to do and how to do it!

I started with printing a page for a letterpress calendar - so here it is - May 2017.

I wanted to trial a few ornaments - the stars - and loved the grand shadow letters and the calendar block.

I printed 100 or so calendar pages, then another 100 "Let Peace be a Daily Conversation" pieces.  I let them dry overnight, then turned them over and priced on the backs of them.

I had a good rhythm going on the old Lightning Jobber!

And felt chuffed at the end of it.

 

But I still had a heap of ink on the rollers and the plate, so grabbed some wood type and printed a few of these:

A great way to finish!

Thursday Thoughts...

I love a library. The idea of reading books for free didn’t kill the publishing business, on the contrary, it created nations of literate and passionate readers. Shared interests and the impulse to create. 

 David Byrne

Sometimes the world of books becomes all woe is me - the e-book will be the end of the real book; the audio book will knock off the e-book and so on. But I think things are beginning to find their new balance. People still read real books. People still read books full stop!

Libraries didn't kill off publishing in the slightest and the wonder of them is that they continue to give opportunities to people who love to read but who can't afford to keep buying all the books they want to read; and of course the multiple other benefits afforded a community and individuals by having a library with doors open.

They also store and keep books that would otherwise disappear; they let us investigate and research using books we could never get for ourselves. They are still going strong.

Yay libraries is pretty much how I sum  it up!

Books behind bars, Morgan Library New York City.

Experimental words

Words are important to me. As I mentioned back here, they have also offered me a way back into making, and thinking like I want to make art again.

It was the simple decision (in one of those lengthy talks one has with oneself at times of creative stagnation) to work with the word 'words' itself that has re-ignited my capacity to make.

I have done some cutting with words, some coloured pencil work, and I have some stitching in mind as well; but I have also been playing with letterpress and wooden type.

I have made an edition of books using the wooden type - or at least I have printed the pages and prepared the covers - but as I was going along I also thought to myself; what if I could print a broadside along with the book?

After our Pas de Deux exhibition last year; I have been drawn to the idea of having wall works and book works that go together.

So I had a go, and laughed at myself because of course as soon as I printed the second of the five words, I made a mistake!  Still I kind of loved the mistake and took it through the whole piece.  Very happy with the result I was...

The mistaken broadside. It now has a name "Words and more words".

The mistake I made was rather than remove the tape after inking, I printed the type with the inked tape on. Sort of like this would print.

But I kept going each time, printing before removing the tape and enjoyed the form the letters took.

Of course, this is more the look I was going for - disappearing letters - but sometimes you just have to work with your errors and make magic with them instead!

Alongside each other - they are cousins I think, not siblings (definitely not twins which was the original plan). But I think they get along OK!

Printmakers' road trip to Maryborough

Over the weekend a couple of printmakers from the Sunshine Coast headed north to Maryborough to meet up with the printmaking group up there.

It was a lovely gathering and so wonderful to share the joy of printmaking with other passionate folk. We hope to do it again sometime!

We had a lovely stay and saw lots of beautiful buildings and public art; but one of the highlights was a visit to Geraghty's Store. Now a National Trust building it is a an old grocery store that remains intact.

Close up, some of the old crates reminded me of a Rosalie Gascoigne piece.

or two...

There were 'still life' images all through the shop...

And so many fabulous bottles and jars for lotions and potions...

And beautiful marks and traces...

 But one of my favourites was an internal door, where folk had clearly written sums - pounds, shillings and pence I think - on the timber panels; keeping records of something...

It was an absolute treasure trove.

Thursday Thoughts...

May you take time 
to celebrate the quiet miracles 
that seek no attention. 

John O'Donohue

Ahhh John O'Donohue, such a solace to the soul.

This morning we were working in the yard, trimming trees, watching birds, discovering nests and finishing up by going for a wander on the block.

Our block is steep and hard to negotiate at times, but today it brought much happiness as we walked the slopes.

Luckily I had secateurs with me as we wandered and I gathered in my arms a full load of Australian native flowers - our funny, odd-looking flowers that to me just burst with Ozzi-ness. Unbeknownst to me, down below, the quiet miracle of bursting forth with Spring joy had been happening, seeking no attention, but ending up sharing much happiness with me.

And yes, I celebrated.