BAO Exhibition in Canberra

I have been fortunate to participate in a couple  of editions of BookArtObject and have created some books I am proud of, and have received many wonderful books in exchange.

My wee book A Subversive Stitch was made for Edition 4 of BAO, and has gone on to sell mostly into University collections in the US. So BAO has been kind to me.

Caren and Terence in Canberra have pulled together an exhibition of the books they have received and made; as well as a couple of swaps from Edition 4. The exhibition details are:

17 October - 28 November 2013
Building 13 Academy Library, UNSW Canberra.

A great set of photos of the exhibition, the space and the books can be found here.

Here are some  photos of my books on display - Snow Falling in Daylight, and A Subversive Stitch.

My bestie Sue has been to see the show and says it is fantastic - I wish I could get down there!

Thanks Carena and Terence for your brilliant efforts on our behalf...

Thursday Thoughts...

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.” 

Madeleine L’Engle

Oh I loved this the minute I read it!  I love the notion of the book as a guiding star, a light, a lantern…all of that imagery that suggests that books can enlighten.  Some, I know, may think of books and burning in another way… but I guess that too lightens the night!

It seems to me that books can and do hold so much that can encourage us to see another way, to learn something that changes us, to discover a new path in life…

Perhaps the internet could be described in the same way, but it certainly doesn't resonate with me as much.  There is something about the book as container - holding information in a contained space. The internet is more limitless in a way, porous and without boundaries.  Books hold it all together without setting you off down a myriad of rabbit holes and distractions.

I like the idea inherent in this, that a book and what it offers doesn't fizzle out; it is a sustained light that offers hope and guides you out of darkness; not a quick firecracker burst that suggests it might help but is gone too quickly to be of any use. You can go back to a book, re-read it, and even years down the track it can still hold something of use to you.

I could wander and ramble all over the place I expect with this one, so shall just stop and be happy that books have lit many a path and discovery for me.

Fluttering Peace

Barry and I have been doing a fair bit of tidying up and sorting out around the place - a bit like a Spring clean I suppose.  In doing so, we came across our range of peace flags from this year and last and thought to ourselves; why don't we just hang them altogether?

We chose out the back near the peace bell deck, where we already fly Jennifer's flags from last year.

In the end we strung the recycled baby-wipes flags, Barry's metal flags, my peace crane fabric flags and Barry's last year's rainbow umbrella flags.

I think they look great and make me smile whenever I see them!

Looking out from the house...

Looking back at the house...

Closer up from down below…

From the side with the peace bell…

Closer up from the side with the peace bell and the breeze!

By the way, Barry has just posted on his prints for the Maleny Printmakers' exhibition - pop over and have a peek; I love so many of them!

Signed and sealed

Barry and I spent a few hours over the weekend selecting, signing and sealing up our prints in readiness for the Maleny Printmaker's exhibition next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

As most of you know, doing the work for an exhibition is only the first part. There is always more work to be done photographing, pricing, cataloguing and packing up ready for delivery.

So we sat next to each other companionably as we signed, numbers and titled our prints, then as we popped them into cello bags and stuck a sticker on the back of each bag - FD1 or BS3…as a way of identifying them amongst the 120 prints on the wall.

It will be a remarkable and visually stunning show I think; and we are all excited to see it hung.

We are signed and sealed, but delivery and set up is not until Thursday.

Here are my 10 prints that will be on offer - each print is in an open edition, and to date I have made 10 of each print.  They will sell for $25 each and with their size and weight make perfect gifts.

Each print is 13.5cm(h) x 11.5cm(w) and fits in a CD case as a stand. Or on a lovely small easel. I think that's about 5 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches.

FD1 - Dance lightly. Gelli plate print, Guinea fowl feather, pencil with Aqua Charbonnel ink.

FD2 - Fly, fly away. Gelli plate print, feather, scored writing with Aqua Charbonnel ink.

FD3 - My Secret Story. Aluminium etching with Aqua Charbonnel ink.

FD4 - Temple Posts. Aluminium etching with Aqua Charbonnel ink.

FD5 - Wordless. Aluminium etching with Aqua Charbonnel ink.

FD6 - Without Words. Aluminium etching with Aqua Charbonnel ink.

FD7 - Poppies. Layered lino cut with relief inks.

FD8 - Cornflowers. Layered lino cut with relief inks.

FD9 - Daffodils. Layered lino cut with relief inks.

FD10 - Stellar architecture. Drypoint, Chine Colle with teabags and paper, Aqua Charbonnel ink.

And two others I have done but not for inclusion in the exhibition (unless I sell out of one!)

FD11 - Lunar Architecture. Drypoint, Chine Colle with teabag, embossing, Aqua Charbonnel ink.

FD12 - Peace. Aluminium etching with Aqua Charbonnel ink. There are many colour variations in this print - red, orange, yellow, blue, green, payne's grey and on.

Prints that don't sell at the exhibition will be available for purchase at our Open Studio on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 November 2013, and hopefully on-line soon after, or by request.

If you are far way and can't make it to either showing, yet would like to purchase a print, please send me an email with your queries and I'll be happy to help out as best I can.

Thursday Thoughts...

It is possible to live in peace. 

Mahatma Gandhi 

We've rotated around to the life Thursday Thought and I was wondering about life and lives and worlds and my world, and I came across this quote.  It felt so hopeful.

Many times I wish I had the answers to how to stop conflict; how to encourage understanding between nations, religions and sections of the community. I can feel overwhelmed at times by our inadequacies and our belligerence, and our apparent unwillingness to listen to and respect others.

But then I come across a quote like this which make me believe all over again.  Peace starts in small ways, within me, in my relationships with others, with the messages I send out to the world, with the words I use, and the work I make.

I also think I need to believe that peace IS possible. It clearly is because at different points in history, those who argue now were once companionable; those who fought previously have been reconciled.  I think maybe I am just hoping for all the on-again and off-again relationships could coincide at one point in time and we could all be on-again together! Wouldn't that just be amazing…

Some coloured peace prints...

New studio working space

I mentioned that in amongst all of the madness and chaos we have been 'renovating' the shed studio and re-claiming working space and creating a gallery space.  It was a lot of heavy and dusty work at times, but the results are oh so worth it!

Here's a tour of the working areas, not completely sorted, but close enough is good enough for right now. Some of you will remember that we used to live in the shed, before we built the house, and it has a lovely feel to it.

As you walk through the door you see this...

Turn to your right and our kitchen has become the printing area; with the press and inking up spaces and rollers hanging..

Turn left and the paper drawer has been reorganised so it contains much paper and an old proofing press sits upon some old storage units from the house brought on over for a new lease of life.

I have grouped my tables into two pods rather than one huge area - will see if this works for me.  I am clearly mid-printing here...

The other two tables looks almost pristine for the time being. The back one is set higher for cutting paper (thank you Susan) and is working a dream. On the front one I am leaving out projects that I have to do, to remind me when I go over…I need quite a few clues and cues!

And we got some storage/display units too. Not filled yet but I am thinking I need some boxes/baskets to slip into the cubes.

Though I do love how they offer little nooks for storing and displaying bibs and bobs.

I moved my standing calligraphy table over to the window and moved a couple of filing cabinets nearby.

Looking back from the calligraphy table.

I forgot to mention that halfway across the floor are the stairs that go up to the mezzanine where we used to sleep. I am gradually moving my books over and have kept the filing drawers under the stairs. We now have a gallery space upstairs and I'll show you that another day.

And re-arranging storage continues…

It feels light and airy now and as if there is a chance I can keep it organised.  We shall see of course, but I love the way the space is working. It feels so much better to have all the display and sales of work together upstairs and not mixed in with my mess!

A busy few days...

Sitting here at the end of a fabulous weekend of the Maleny Celebration of Books - that lovely sensation of still feeling on a high despite being a wee bit exhausted!

The weekend was a huge success and there were so many wonderful bits.  I was so enjoying myself I took barely any photos; but I did get some down at the Library yesterday morning. And before that at Cooke Park, where at 7.30am we set up the Book Swap Tree.

In this first shot Barry is holding a branch in his hand that fell off - very heavy balloons perhaps?

The gang getting the tree together...

The Book Swap Bush was down at the Library for the kids and the Treasure Hunt really went off!  We had about twenty five children in two teams racing around the Park discovering clues, running back to look them up in the books and discovering the gold at the end.

My bookmaking workshop with children was also full and busy. We always laugh - despite a booking system, there were no bookings but of course the room filled with children and it all went berserk! Thank you Barry for being the back-up bookmaker! We did a simple alphabet book.  I love how you teach kids how to make a book, which is magical and wonderful on its own; then they get to fill it, to tell their story and I watch in wonder where that next bit takes them.

I also really enjoyed the Queensland Writers' Performance, but the Big Book Group was exceptional.  I hosted a group of 8 in one of the local coffee shops and we discussed the book in great detail and with really interesting insights; then we all re-grouped (about 60 or so of us) and participated in a facilitated discussion with an ethicist who talked about many of the issues raised in the book "The Dinner".  Just brilliant.

Last night the Maleny Film Society hosted a movie which was based on a book - Henry James' "What Maisie Knew" which was remarkable. Today we spent a couple of hours at a Forum listening to three talented creative non-fiction writers talk about truth in non-fiction writing and how you manage it (in a way).

Truly delightful and spell-binding.

On Friday morning (and before racing back for the haiku workshop in the afternoon), a number of friends trooped up to Cooroy to listen to my artist's talk at the A Letter A Week exhibition. We had a delightful time and I was thrilled to share my passion for these works and how the humble alphabet can be such an amazing thing.

Kim Schoenberger took some photos of the talk, and as I said to Barry when I saw them - I clearly get very animated! Thanks Kim for letting me use them here.

And so here we are, settling into Sunday night, very tired but very happy. Another great effort by a bunch of people who loves books and reading and writing and want to share that passion. Thank you team!

Thursday Thoughts...

Art is not a thing: It is a way. 

 Elbert Hubbard

As I came across this quote today it made me stop and think, well is it really? if so, how?

It seems to me that the notion does hold true as I discover the many ways in which art guides my life, what I do, where I go and so on.  I know that when we travel, our visits are based around visiting art related things. We do art-tourism. We don't do food-tourism or theatre-tourism, or garden-tourism or hot-rod tourism; we plan out trips around arty things and they are usually first on the list for visiting when we get there.

If we are going somewhere without art-tourism; then we pack art things to do, art books to look at, and take photographs that rarely feature a person or a building but rather an interesting element...

I guess art influences how we think about our garden and our furnishings - adding little touches here and there, making sure that things appear balanced or surprise you.

It also seems I spend a lot of time looking at arty things, reading arty things, making arty things, doodling arty things or day dreaming arty things.  Its not just a thing, it is a way for me.  It shapes a lot of my day - how I spend my time and where I choose to go and what I do.

Of course, a lot of my day is also guided by life and its necessities; but for me, art is always there as a thing to turn to when there is free time.

It's not the only way for me - family, friends, gardening, baking, reading, community, sipping coffee or wine are all wonderful elements of my life, but art somehow underpins them…

Art-making on a deserted beach in New Zealand last year.

Celebrating Books!

We are celebrating books again this weekend in Maleny and as part of the Celebration we try to do a display of sorts at the Library. The Library is open over the weekend  and is hosting several activities - lots for children - and so it's a great opportunity to show more book-arty things.

Six of our fabulous local children's authors have put a display in the foyer cabinets which shows their storyboards, props and draft illustrations for their books. It looks great (but I don't have a photo yet sorry).

This year I got the wall.  So Plan A was to write out lots of quotes on torn out book pages. I planned to glue lots of old book pages to three large panels of mat board and then write some quotes about how fabulous books are over the top. Way back here in April, I even had the plan and was quite happy it would work. I worked out the size of the panels, pulled out all the pages, worked out the layout and the quotes...

Then a week or so ago it all went to custard when it became clear I couldn't purchase mat board in the sizes that I needed, and if we did a whole bunch of weird maybe this and maybe that options to get the right size I was still going to be out of pocket by nearly $200 which just seemed mad for a two week display in the Library... and the panels could still have fallen apart and I could have stuffed up the writing which would than have meant $200 down the drain.

Plan B, Plan B, does anybody have a Plan B?

In quiet panic mode I looked around the studio and wondered what one earth I could do to take up all that space.  I saw that I had a few folded books lying around and wondered what it would be like if I folded madly and then hung more books?

Barry figured it would work so I then sat and folded during every daylight hour it seemed... a slight exaggeration, but the pressure was on! I went into town and bought metres of coloured ribbon as well, worked out how we could hang them, discovered the Library didn't have enough hanging wire and hooks so raced to our framing shop and bought some more and yesterday we hung the installation.

Big breath out.

First we had to put all the hanging hooks in place and curl up all the extra wire. The books sat on the floor.

I kind of liked them in this random dangling formation...

But I do think they probably look better in this slightly more formal arrangement.

The different coloured ribbons seemed to feel like a celebration and I love how they looked in the end...

All in all, you just do what you have to do to celebrate books!