Thursday Thoughts...

Art is about what religion’s about, getting you airborne. Getting you out of this box, which is life, into the expanding universe –which is what everybody wants. 

Rosalie Gascoigne

I take or leave the link the religion, but I think Rosalie has it sorted about art being about getting you up and out.

I think her use of airborne is lovely - the idea of being elevated, lifted up, carried away...

Life can be good, and it can be dull, and it can be wonderful...but the joy of art being able to take you up and out into an expanding universe beyond the everyday is marvellous I think. An expanding universe reminding us that things continue to go forward, to grow, to change and that art encourages and supports that.

Carl Milles, Millesgarden Stockholm, 2017.

'Away with Words' exhibition

I was invited to participate in this show in the exhibition space at Entangle - living art at Dayboro.

Barry sells his home and garden wares at Entangle; it has a great vibe and is lovely place to explore.
Dayboro itself also has great antique shops, good coffee, a nice park  and art galleries and is worth a wander or a day trip.

The title of the exhibition felt exactly right for me - so I took down several pieces that included text in some way.

My Artist Statement for the show was this:

I love words. No matter what I make, text is nearly always present – in beautiful calligraphic words, in letterpress type, or in burnt book pages.

Each of these works is personal and tells a personal, yet universal, story. Under Construction is a series of meditations on the wonder of nests – the skill and effort of the tiny birds that live on our block. Cartography II seeks to find our place in the world; the journeys we take; the times and places where we feel at home. Wordless I, II and II consider how we can lose our words; how we can be silenced; our voices can be muffled - whether from grief, abuse or by simply belonging to a marginalised group. When our words simply disappear.

When making, I work slowly and meditatively, and all my book and lettering processes take time – from setting type to designing layouts for calligraphy or hand-stitching books. My work is quiet and thoughtful, as I strive to make work that can be quite complex, appear simple and elegant.

Cartography II

Under Construction II and III (Photography by Penny Riddoch)

Wordless I, II and III

All work is framed and for sale at very reasonable prices! Let me know if you are interested but can't make the trip to Dayboro.

The exhibition runs until 26 August - Entangle Living Art, Williams St Dayboro.
Open Wednesday - Sunday 10am - 4pm
Nola from Entangle M: 0449 533 620

Practising and printing

I can barely recall where I was up to with these books; but it has been an interesting process and I have discovered and learned a lot along the way.

I have chosen to print six 'verses' of a poem I have written, onto pages on which I had I printed lino prints based on photographs I had taken of Stone Circles in Scotland.

I had this test page to play with the layout and was happy.  I mentioned the tricks of getting the layout right way back here in June.

Onto the real pages, and I placed a sheet of white paper with the poem printed on it where I thought it might sit.  This was because each page I had printed was different - the height of the print from the bottom of the page; as well as the page sizes themselves.  Why not throw a bunch of complications and calculations into the mix hey?

And then I had a bit of a brain wave - and worked out that if I proofed the verse on goyu paper; it was transparent enough for me to see how the words related to the image, without having much of it masked by the white paper.  Another learning; another win.

So I measured how far the left side was from the edge of the paper and set the press up to locate the print in that location. I did these for each of the five books - measured distance form the bottom; and distance from the edges; moved the chase around in the press to achieve it; marked the press where I needed to line up and then printed.

I have grown fond of this tear in the paper on one of the pages; the grey graphic page.

The pure white page.

 Detail of the tall thin grey stone marks page.

And so by the end of printing, I now have this collection of goyu paper to remind me of proofing with it. It feels like I probably won't forget that trick tho, it worked really well.

Thursday Thoughts...

"No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters". 

George Eliot

I think I have pondered quotes like this before - about how when we re-read a book we often bring a different perspective to it; a different angle and I still think that is true.  I am quite often astonished to find that a book that I thought was life changing and brilliant,  on a re-read seems pretty ordinary or not so amazing after all.

I guess that perhaps its is also about the time at which it was written and/or when you read it.  Perhaps both the times and the the person have changed in between readings.

This happened to me recently when I was feeling like I needed a really good inspirational and thinking-about-art-and-life book; and one that I had raved about, I turned to re-read and couldn't for the life of me understand why.

And I didn't finish it which utterly astounded me. I flicked back and forth trying to find the hook that had reeled me in last time, and just couldn't find it.  Perhaps I have moved well beyond what it was saying or teaching; perhaps I am no longer in a place where it resonated.

George Eliot knew a thing or too and she certainly knew this!

Not the same book.

Photograph of me cleaning my ink rollers on the weekend.

Printing for peace

Weathergram production is underway and I have moved in a slightly new direction. Yes folks there is colour!

I chose blue as it has links to the UN's International Day of Peace; and then decided to follow up with some layering.

Production methodology changed from the planned printing on the Lightning Jobber to the Cylinder Proofing press, because the old worn wood type didn't seem to be even enough to collect the ink.  As seen here.  A bit of a problem because I had thought doing a hundred of the weathergrams on the press would be quicker than having to hand ink and roll 100.  I was right, but in the end that's what I had to do.

Inking by hand on the proofing press. Much better coverage.

And lovely results.

Testing options for layering. None; black wrong way up; black right way up; grey.

I went for grey. The black was too distracting and made the piece feel jarring and disjointed.

So hand inking and rolling another 100 times and we had them printed.

Holes are punched, now just stringing is needed, but that too has begun.

Almost there...

Pondering peace

I think all of us have bibs and bobs that sit, lie, or wait in our studio spaces. At some point in time we re-connect with them and start to work with them anew.

I have been thinking so much about peace these days as I watch the world crumble a little bit; and when I came across these white clay scrolls I had made years ago, I thought maybe now is the time?

So I dragged a rough lump of timber out from our stack and let it dry off a bit.

Then started playing with the scrolls.

I have no resolution yet and don't even know if the wood is the right place for them to be; but I do think I want a large gathering of them. I do what it to be sculptural. I might want them laying down; or I might want them standing up - in a spiral form perhaps? Or a circle, united, joined and never ending?

The pondering continues.

And in between times and in preparation for International Day of Peace on 21 September I began pondering my weathergrams for the year.

I do so love proofing!

The good news is that the large wood type fits and I only printed two like this.

Much better.

And pondering another step...

 Keeping on believing in peace .

Thursday Thoughts...

“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” 

Rita Mae Brown

This one is interesting to me; and appears at an interesting time.  Two completely different reasons - one, Barry and I have been listening to a 'true crime' podcast called The Teacher's Pet and discussing how tough teenagehood can be - in particular trying not to stand out too much; trying to conform and trying to not be a target...

Secondly we are headed to a flash fundraiser in a few weeks and are faced with the question - what on earth is 'Cocktail Dress" and what does it mean for us; a pair of quiet, mountain-living artists who rarely go to the big smoke let alone the posh part of the big smoke.  I panicked about not having a proper thing to wear and then worked out - I would look like I fitted in; yet would be so uncomfortable if I tried to dress as I imagine they all do. So it will end up being something that kind of sort of fits the scene; yet makes me feel comfortable.

Ms Brown's words about being liked by everybody except yourself rang true - so easy to try and meet the expectations of others; yet be quietly dying and diminished inside.

I was amazed at my age that that flash of panic still appeared; I suppose it just doesn't last as long these days!

Airmail dress by Hussein Chalayan (199) seen in Edinburgh 2017.

Sitting in the sun

Last week I wasn't in great shape for a few days and decided that the only solution was to just go sit in the sun and soak up the warmth and healing rays.

So I popped myself down at the front of our house in a sunny nook - sat on a cushion on the deck and let the sun just wrap around me.

I was listening to a podcast, with my eyes closed and just soaked it all up.

Occasionally I opened my eyes and looked around.

It was a great spot to have chosen because in every direction I could look at some of our garden art.

Photographing into the sun isn't the best, but...

A pretty nice spot to sit and heal - didn't have to move an inch; just turned my head a bit this way, a bit that way and clicked. You get the idea...

Much better now!

Embroidering a bonnet

I recently got the loveliest request.  In a round-about-way, in lieu of payment for something I had asked my friend to buy on my behalf, she asked me if I could embroider a calico bonnet for her.  It will be part of an ongoing display at the Female Factory in Hobart, celebrating the lives of women convicts.

The bonnet had been made by another of her friends and it arrived in the post ready for me to add my bits. The job was to embroider the woman's name on one side; and the name of the boat she arrived on and the year, on the other side.  On the inside I was to embroider my friend's name.

So I sketched out a few ideas, wondered about how I would actually embroider the words - my handwriting or a fancy font?

I do love those magic new pens where you can draw on fabric, then rub it out when you don't need it any more. Also note to self, ironing will also remove the pen marks.

I trialled some fancy writing on a remnant and tested two colours of thread - cream and white. And decided on cream.

So I traced a fancy font onto the fabric.

And before committing needle to fabric on the front, I thought I would head to the inside and stitch my friend's name in my handwriting.

I pressed the bonnet a bit where I had done the hand stitching; turned it over only to discover that the ironing had happily removed some of the magic ink on the front! Laugh.

 But onwards. The hand stitching over the purple pen.

And then once, it has been pressed, the purple pen has disappeared. As mentioned - magic!

I thought about how to add a little bit of something. Originally I planned to do three rows of running stitch along the bottom edge, but once I had begun, I thought a single row of running stitch down both sides and along the bottom was just enough.

And just in passing, all I can say is that photographing a bonnet is almost impossible!

I look forward to it being on display in Hobart and am so thrilled I was able to help my friend's family history investigation take a tangible form...