An amazing exhibition, Part II

 The last few rooms of installation at The Soul Trembles at GOMA in Brisbane brought enormous joy as well.

This piece Connecting Small Memories spoke to me of community and connections; of family and domesticity and the small things that bring us together.  Somewhere in amongst it, it also spoke of being bound, contained, perhaps limited.  It was really interesting to examine and discover so many many differing elements.

The next piece Uncertain Journey was bold.  A canopy of red threads above you tethering, smothering, red vessels. Astonishingly grand and amazing. A contrast to the small detailed viewing in the previous room.

Another piece of magical monochrome stillness, but with contained movement. Suspended movement. Bird-like sheets of A4 80gsm paper... with so many many beautiful lines and wispy shadows.

A Question of Perspective.

This final piece Accumulation - Searching for the Destination was another breathtaking wonder.  As you walked in you became mesmerised by the bobbing suitcases. I feared somebody had accidentally set them in motion and now they couldn't be stopped. An interesting response because the previous pieces had all been so still, and the motion felt somehow a bit illegal. However, the movement was deliberate and I could relax and enjoy it even more. 

From beside and beneath.

And the movement here...

And we left in an almost trance-like state. How art can move you and transport you...

Thursday Thoughts...

“I also believe that introversion is my greatest strength. I have such a strong inner life that I’m never bored and only occasionally lonely. No matter what mayhem is happening around me, I know I can always turn inward.” 

Susan Cain, Quiet

In her book Quiet, Susan Cain really tooted the horn for introverts in an extrovert world. I oftentimes follow and read posts by introverts and nod along merrily. I feel heard when people say things like "I'm staying in today, it all seems too people-y out there".

To be an introvert; to have a tendency to internal workings; to seek solace and strength in time alone; to feel exhausted by large, active interactions, is not something that the world kind of expects or values at times. It wants you to be up, to be out there, to connect, to network, to promote, to blahh blahh blahh.

Introversion is me and exactly what I need.

I can support Ms Cain's notion that she is never bored and only occasionally lonely. I oftentimes think I need another lifetime or two to get through all the things I am interested in doing; in exploring, and in pursuing the funny little thoughts that come to me in quiet times.

There is great comfort I think, in knowing you can turn inwards as needed, to restore your equilibrium and and renew.

The risk of course is that you stay there and losing contacts and connections in not a good place to be either...

An amazing exhibition, Part I

 I thought I might blog about this exhibition we saw recently, but realised I didn't feel as if I could really do it justice without looking at in parts.

Currently on show at GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane, is the exhibition The Soul Trembles by  artist Chiharu Shiota.

We had seen some snippets of images that were utterly intriguing, but I must say that nothing prepared me for the impact of this show.  We were both rendered speechless at different points, and I know that I struggled to find word to express my response and my feelings.  It was quite simply, breathtaking and stunning.

The first room we entered contained the work Where are we going?

I was mesmerised. The vessel forms, the grid of black threads, the interlacing and interweaving of white wool. You could walk around it, you could stand under it...

I could have left there and then and feel like I had seen all that I needed to see. It was so satisfying, I was full.

Amongst it, there was one, red vessel.

The next work to make me stand still, gazing, absorbing, feeling was called In Silence.

As a contrast, the next work I really enjoyed was inside-outside. 

And a smaller and more structured fibre work to finish, State of Being.

I'll complete the exhibition in another post soon.

2000 posts, plus pegs and type

 When I was trawling through Blogger trying to work out how my ability to comment and reply had been randomly removed from me, I noticed I was about to make my 2000th post. Wow. 

In the days of FB and Insta and TikTok and all, people often wonder why folk continue to blog.

Fortunately I have moved on from any angst I may have once had about lots of people reading what I write, of wondering how many comments I get, how many posts get read and so on. I have come to the belief that primarily, I seem to blog for myself, and that is fine.

Whenever I am wondering when I made something, or did I do something a particular way - I turn to my blog and go searching. It is actually the most reliable memory of my artwork that I have and I am grateful for its existence more often than seems reasonable.

I also blog because I know that some folk are interested in what I do; that some folk like to see how I do things; and because I like to share thoughts about making, and processes, and highs and lows; and also because it that it is just lovely to still be part of an online community that is generous and kind.

So a HUGE thank you to all the folk who read, who comment, who email  and message me.; and who keep me motivated to make a record of my work, and the odd other event here and there - including flowers and travels. Thank you.

Yesterday I taught a one person workshop and we had a grand time. So much wonderful experimentation, testing this, trying that.  As part of my Introduction, I pulled out some type for comparison.

The tool on the left is a pica ruler - picas down the left hand side and inches down the right. I love the ingenious little hook at the top which makes it possible to hook it on a piece of furniture and measure how long it is.

With this type I was showing type at 8pt and type at 72pt. BIG difference. I was also showing how 72pt is generally as large as they make metal type, because after that it gets too heavy, and too expensive to make. Beyond that point size, they usually head for timber. Some timber, like the A here, is 72pt as well. 72pt is about 2.5cm (or an inch); whilst 8pt is approximately 2.8mm.

I have only ever worked with 8pt once. You can see why really...

And in this shot I am comparing the smallest type in the studio to the tallest/largest type in the studio.

The M here is Italian, and is measured as 30 ciceros (no points used with Italian type). A cicero measures about 4.5mm and therefore, 30 ciceros makes this block of wood type around 13.5cm long. Italian type is also a tad higher than the type we generally use.

In between times when the weather was cold and time inside was the best kind of time; I re-rolled some of my natural-dyed threads from round pegs onto square/flat pegs.  I like flat pegs and they are hard to get hold of; so when I come across a stash of vintage ones I nab them and then sit quietly rolling from one type to the other.

Before.

After.

There is a way to go, but I am getting there with the transfer.

The current stash from Maleny.

And the current stash from Scotland.

Still plenty of round pegs to be replaced!

Commenting and Replying

 I have just spent time trying to work out why Google and Blogger have not allowed me to reply to comments on my own blog post for a while.

I think I've cracked it and have just now gone back a fair way with replies - so apologies if you have felt neglected. I have been reading but not replying and now I can again!

I hope to get all the way back but am a bit weary from my investigations.

Fingers are crossed the fix holds.

Nothing specially connected to comments or technological frustrations, but the beautiful surface of our electrician's ladder the other day.

Thursday Thoughts...

"What keeps my heart awake is colourful silence". 

Claude Monet

There are lots of possibilities around how to think about these words. Depending on which word or combination of words you focus on, you can head down a few burrows.

The two parts that intrigued me most were about keeping your heart awake; and making silence colourful.

I thought about why colourful? And does a colourful silence sound like something? or look like something? Which way in, through the noun or the adjective?

A colourful silence feels to me like a vibrant and active silence; rather a silence in repose. It hums, even tho it is silent. Maybe it bubbles along. I am not sure; but I think the words suggest a sense of going within, or being in quietness; and then this space allowing your imagination to run riot; to be activated and to explore.

As I think about keeping your heart awake, I think what a marvellous and beautiful framing of an idea.  Right now I feel like I really need to keep my heart awake, my heart open, my heart willing, my heart seeking.  Just generally in terms of life.

In terms of creativity I think it means that an open and awake heart is ready and prepared for making and creating, for depicting life and beauty and hope, for telling stories and for bearing witness. 

When our hearts are awake; we are awake to beauty; however small...

All sorts

 It is indeed a funny old studio time - it seems like a time of slow momentum. Of things happening slowly, on a small scale, and not in quick bursts. So many bits and pieces taking small steps - some barely getting any momentum, just the odd nudge.

The commission is the main game at the moment; but it is having its moments.  And funnily enough, every time I think I have a chunk of time to have a really good run at it, life happens and I end up only getting a small window to make small things happen. As an observer of my own making, I am finding this an odd project in the manner in which it is evolving. 

That aside,  I am beginning to try and work out the additions to the lettering. The marks and images and things that will personalise it as a gift.

Here I am playing with travel lines - journeys and places. I am using a heavy tracing paper to make the imagery and then lay it over the page and determine how it would sit; how it interacts with the lettering - does it interfere or does it support? How will I make the marks - solid? light? and so on.

And now playing with some symbols and imagery that are part of the person's life. Figuring out potential placement, and sizes.

I do like tracing paper! Such a usual bit of kit.

And here is a piece I used to sit on top of a book cover I was gluing to protect the book from any transfer marks from the weights upon it overnight.  I couldn't create these magical wave-lines if I tried.

In amongst everything I was considering my sewing set-up at home.  It was poorly organised and did not reflect that I no longer packed up my sewing on a weekly basis and travelled to my sewing class. I had previously had everything arranged for transit; and there was not  a lot of practicality in my set-up for sewing at home.  In a bit of  rush and a roar, I purchased a secondhand Horn sewing table - most excited - and then started sorting my fabrics and 'things' that were stored alongside my former table.

Now everything has a home and is packed away neatly (except I have to go through my dressmaking fabric boxes - two of them, with oodles of lovely fabrics, waiting to be made up).

And this is what I had to sort through at the end of my first tidy - dyed threads waiting to be wound on their pegs and labelled, scraps of material  and old cotton scarves. They all needed ironing before I could tell if they were of any value.  I quite liked the look of the stash.

And out of some of the scrap linen fabrics, I hand stitched this purse-pouch. On our last trip my very old jewellery pouch gave up the ghost so to speak, so I thought rather than go looking to buy one I would make one from scraps, and I did.

The sense of contentment and happiness I found by sorting out my sewing world has enthused me for more hand stitching and making. But I just need to be patient...

Nudging things along

It has been nice to put a full tick against one body of work - the three Validation boxed works (no ticks yet against the two Validation books, sigh).

Once more I have been nudging other things along.

Having decided on the walnut ink for the calligraphy commission; I spent quite a bit of time drawing up the pencil lines to work with. I had originally worked the letter height at 4mm; but for the sake of my brain, I decided to change it to 5mm, keeping the 10mm inter-linear space. So much easier to mark things off along a ruler if they are 5mm, 10mm, 5mm, 10mm etc.

Having done that however, as every calligrapher knows, it immediately extended the length of all my lines, and when I wrote the first stanza out I learned that that extra 1mm height had added 40mm to the length of the lines.

So my trial piece was adjusted along the way, and by the end of it I knew I just needed to start the final stanza 50mm to the left to maintain a pleasing balance. So far, I can find only one error in the writing!

I also went back to the original to check for correct punctuation, and I think I now have it right.

So that is the first full draft of the poem done. Now to get on with drawing up lines for what is hopefully going to be the final piece; one that remains error-free along the way! Love my positivity.

I have also been pondering work for the Vessel exhibition September, and started playing around with the idea of envelopes as vessels that can contain thoughts and feelings.  

As part of the playing around and getting ideas moving, I found these lovely bits and pieces.

Then I set up this lovely bundle.

From which I then made this smaller bundle. Which feels just right.

I like it very much, but have no idea how it might really apply to making a work for Vessel!

So then I went and played with these - also fun but not really related in any way to things that could be exhibition works yet...

The pursuit of works for the exhibition continues.