Thursday Thoughts...

“Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own"

Arthur Schopenhauer 

This is such a good way to think about the gifts that reading brings.  Through reading a newspaper, a zine, a novel, a memoir, a history or a text book; we are given the opportunity to see how somebody else thinks.

We get a different take on the world; we see things through other people's eyes.

I wonder if there is any link between reading and empathy?  If we read are we more likely to be able to empathise; to understand another's view point?

I guess it depends on a lot of things, but I am sure that reading would be a contributor to empathy. Unless of course we only read things that supported our own opinions and biases!

You know, like the algorithms that feed us information we are interested in and send the other things in a different direction.

I am so often grateful to a writer or author who has written things I would never have known or thought of by myself.

I never knew anything about this - before the movie. Then I got the book. Always a different thing; but what an important story to tell.

It's a big, big sky...

One of the things I love most about living where we do is the sky. The vastness of the sky we get to see and experience. So much air...

The past few weeks have seen lots of beautiful skies.

Here are a few...

A scattered sunset.

A quiet awakening.

Frangipani fingers reach out to the sunset.

Spring blossoms in cold blue.

Fire in the sky.

Farewelling the day.

Flame trees as I look up.

 And a tiny rising moon...

Ten little books...

Wow! I have reached the end of the book making for the Sydney Contemporary and it feels amazing.

A part of me never really understands why I get so involved in adding some many things to my books; even tho they don't end up looking busy, there are so many processes in there, and to me they feel necessary and important, so for whatever reason, I do them.

My final hurdle this week was to do 40 5cm x 5cm panels of tightly written calligraphy.

I could do 3 panels an hour; so the whole effort took me about 14 hours of writing and drawing up.  My hands and arm ached that's for sure.

That came on top of four etchings, two other small pages of calligraphy, two typeset pages and one stamped page per book (x 10). Enough.

A stash of 10. Yay!

They are small (only 10cm x 10cm) and feel good in the hand.  It's quite an intimate time spent with them, slowly turning and reading and wondering...

They are very much the siblings of he walls works - incorporating the words and images, but in different ways.  The books contain all four etchings and all four sets of words - but only in calligraphy. And there are a couple of additional elements that appear only in the books.

You can see the text squares appearing, and the etchings.

One of the single line of calligraphy pages, with stamping in the bottom right.

Another single line calligraphy page and a text block too.

The colophon.

A little book doing a handstand kind of. Stitched with red waxed linen thread in a coptic binding. stitch.

Feels good to be done!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Watch out for intellect, because it knows so much it knows nothing and leaves you hanging upside down, mouthing knowledge as your heart falls out of your mouth.” 

Anne Sexton

I've always loved this quote. I think it's a great little reminder of how we need to listen to both our head and our heart.

Too often people try to convince us that the head is all that matters - that intellect, that logic, that thinking and analysis and deductions and conclusions are the only way to make sense of the world and make effective and wise decisions.

So not true.

Our knowledge and intelligence appears in so many ways, and we have to be oh so careful not to cede all power and authority to intellect and the head.

I often 'feel' the right way to go; I often 'listen' to the work tell me what to do; I often 'know' swiftly and deeply that something is or isn't right - without rationalising or processing it.

I really do listen for my instinctive and intuitive response to things and that knowledge guides me. I also think my way through things and problem-solve but I honour both processes equally.

I come to quiet knowings...

Calligraphic siblings

After a few trials here and there I came up with the way I wanted the pieces for Sydney to have calligraphic siblings.  I chose my own heartbeat font - it makes sense to use your own style - and I like the way the densely written lines make you work for it.

Lots of tracing and transferring are needed in the early stages. For those who like process - there is plenty in this!

I start by lining up my page with the master layout underneath, then taping the page in place. All very high tech.

Then its down to line up the master-lines and draw them onto the page. Tools of the trade.

And then the writing.  Once again, I want the reading of these words to be disjointed, difficult and to make you feel a bit twitchy about the lack of ease. I stop where I stop. Words are broken. Hard to read. Things left unsaid.

 My desk is a mess at the moment - I keep clearing tiny spaces to work in as I have to just to keep on pushing through. The joy of tidying shall come later.

So here we have three versions of each - aiming for a calligraphic edition of 2. I will add the red highlights, then select and choose in a wee while, title and sign, photograph and then its off to get framed and wrapped and packed! Only a dozen mores steps and we're done! Time to get on with the books I think.

Epic fails...

You can't take on a project as big as this one is for me, without the odd mistake, error or utter fail appearing.

Last week saw a flurry of them really, and you just have to stay calm, breathe deeply, attempt to problem solve and hope that it all works out in the end.

The first one happened as Barry and I were printing the third letterpress print for the series.

Despite all my best efforts to keep the furniture in chase in position; it must have moved a bit. I think it happened in the proofing as I had to change a few pieces of type over, unlock it and then re-tighten and I inadvertently unlocked one side that I had avoided unlocking before.  In the re-tightening, there were only millimetres in it; but that's all you need.

Some of the guilty type that started it all. Nobody's fault really - the type was damaged and  it only becomes clear once you proof.

That one resolved, I thought I would just go print a page for the book. On the Adana tabletop press which is my best mate, and has never failed me nor not played nicely with me. Until it didn't.

How's this for a bunch of failed prints? On and on and on it went.

We got up early the next morning and Barry came over to help see if we could sort it out together. A bit of engineering and we think we've got it - the good news is the book page printed well.

And then the final of the letterpress prints. This one shows us moving the paper up and down to try to get it to fit around the etching.  Each and every one of these prints caused us grief.

Bad huh?

We finally worked out why it was so hard. The line above the etching had a descender (the y). The line below the etching was full of ascenders (the k, the i, the ls). With the top descending and the bottom ascending - we were squished in the middle! This hadn't happened on any of the other etchings, and in future I will choose my words more wisely.

Here's the print run.  Two epic fails on the the top step, an edition of 5 (just!). 3 possible A/Ps and two other fails, less epic. And then some blanks and some fun.

Onwards!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Art is giving yourself permission to translate life. Exactly the way you feel. See. And hear it. Be the artist you are. Give yourself permission to speak your own language.”  

Nayyirah Waheed

I am pretty sure that most artists would agree with these sentiments. That urge to translate what you see, read, hear or feel into something. That need to create something in response to beauty, to horror, to politics, to love...

And in doing so, translating it into your own unique language - expressing it in a way others don't, and sometimes in the only way you can.

Perhaps writers feel the same way; when they write they are translating life as well.

That may set us apart from those who absorb and reflect but aren't urged to respond in some way? Activists would say they respond I am sure so I guess it is tricky to try and imagine how it is for others.

All I really know is that I think making and creating is about translating life, and speaking in your own language. Permission granted.

A wee wintery embossing of mine...

The bits and pieces of studio days

Having broken my multiple projects down into further multiple tasks, I find myself doing bits of this and that most days I make it the studio.

But still, I am making progress.

In between times I did some book marks for guests at the Celebration of Books.

 A few practises here and there and oh, that red dot must have been practiced here as well!

And then because you can, more bookmarks just in case.

Practising calligraphic layouts to accompany the etchings on the wall. I am trying to have siblings in a way - letterpress words and calligraphic words.  I have clearly changed from my early play with balsa and upright to return to my heartbeat script. 

I like it when it is dense and it offers that tricky reading experience I am trying for with both the letterpress and calligraphy.

It felt to me as if reading about these issues shouldn't be easy and flowing; the reading should jar and jolt and be hard to read somehow. And so I try to make that a part of the experience of engaging with the work.

 Getting there...

And then to practising some stamped words that will appear in the books, alongside the titles of each piece that hangs on the wall. Again, aiming for siblings - the books and the wall works will be related but the books are not a direct replica of what is on the wall.

Forever testing, measuring, comparing...

Using up some ink after letterpress printing, making small thank you cards.

And loving those moments when you go what if I just turn the paper around a few times?

 And feeling truly thankful as I wander back from the studio to the house - and smile at these wee folk.