Thursday Thoughts...

“There are two kinds of light—the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.” 

James Thurber

This quote resonates with my former life of work-work.  I remember realising how much impact an individual could have on a workplace. One person.

There were 40 of us in our Branch and we got a new boss. It was amazing to see how much that one new person could change the vibe of the place, how we felt about ourselves and what we were doing. And it wasn't good.

When I became a boss at that level, I thought to myself, you can either be a person who shines a light on your workplace; or you can be the person who casts a really long shadow and I wanted to be the one who cast a light.

I think this light comparison here is similar - and goes to another of my workplace thoughts.  I often said (and still do) "every strength, when overplayed, becomes a weakness". And so it is with the light here - if you get it just right, you illuminate, if you overplay it, you end up blinding people. Not helpful

In the end, I think this ramble is trying to get to the point that really, it's always about balance and its always about context.  It might be handy to create glare in certain situations, but generally speaking, we should try to get the balance right in life.

Play day with Caren

We were thrilled when Caren Florance agreed to open our show - she is such a thoughtful and insightful thinker and writer around artists books and printmaking.  She is also an uber-talented letterpress person and of course I was in the throes of delight when we worked out she would be staying with us for a few days.

That meant I could get her into the studio and muck around a bit. Of course, what was totally the best thing about it was that I didn't only muck around - I learned heaps.

We had a morning to play and did quite well really.

I showed her this dirty old tray of type I couldn't recognise.  It was clearly a blackletter typeface, but I had searched my type books to no avail.

Not pretty this tray - it is next on my list for washing and cleaning during my spare moments.

We decided a really good project would be to try and print the type and see what was there - was there a full alphabet? What did all the letters look like? Could we discover what it was once we printed it?

But we started way back with the basics - the composing stick and measuring your lines.

I am pretty sure this is my hand given the hyper-extended thumb! I set the lower case letters.

Getting ready to pop the type into the chase and lock up. Also known as "make ready" this part is the part where it can take forever to get the type secure, pressure right etc etc. We faced a few dilemmas but solved all the problems and as you know, learning to solve problems together with an expert is invaluable.

Inking up - Caren even taught me a way of rolling the ink on a plate then applying it to the platen; you get much faster coverage this way - another excellent tip.

We did many many trials and re-set the tampen paper and actually completely unwound all the pressure off the platen, created a test chase to make sure we had even pressure across the whole chase as we wound it back in and when we got it right, I loved the result - here are all the 'characters' I have in this typeface - I love the extra ower case r where it has a drop; and the additional lower case h where it has a drop below the line as well. But really, the whole thing is just so elegant. Look at that lower case y!

Once we'd printed a couple of samplers, I then of course went to town!

I think I was most enthralled with pieces where I printed this rigid, formal, upright typeface over abstract calligraphic pieces - I loved the tension and the variations so much.

 \
No scrap of paper was safe from the whirling printing dervish I became. Whilst I was madly grabbing this paper and that, Caren was very kindly dissing some type into a type drawer for me - the perfect guest in so many ways!

And to finish before cleaning up, Caren let me video her tying up a type form. Very good. So this is what you do with type that you want to keep to use again, but in between you need to print other things in your chase.

A fabulous few hours in the studio with an expert, I think we should do it again sometime!

A talk and a winner..

As mentioned las week, on Thursday I drove down to Brisbane to give a talk to the Australian Textile and Surface Design Association.  They wanted me to talk about my artistic journey, marketing and promotion, my love of paper and what I make with it and my career highlights.

I really enjoyed myself, and survived the thunderstorm-riven drive home,

As part of the talk I had some bookmarks to give away and took along some small books and some prints for sale - in case folk wanted to take home "a little bit of something".

I had fun working with the technique that Gemma had taught back in February, using a range of water-soluble pencils and crayons and then adding a word or two. Inside there are nice printmaking and watercolour papers to draw on or write on or...

I had such fun going thru my threads and trying to choose eight different colours that matched the covers.

Imagine..

Begin...

Wonder..

Shine...

Believe..

Enjoy...

Share...

 All stitched and ready to go..

Once they are packed and sealed of course!

But on to more important things... the winner of the Imagine Peace print giveaway is:

Congratulations Charlton (Margaret)!  Let me know the best address to post this to and I shall send it on its way...

Thank you all so much for the kind thoughts and words you left me. I hope to use the words somehow someday...

Thursday Thoughts...

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake.” 

Sir Francis Bacon

Tonight I am giving a talk to group of textile and fibre, including paper and book, artists.  I was asked to speak about my artistic journey, the business of making art and career milestones. Oh, and also my love of paper!

The love of paper was easy to write and plan for; but the other elements required a deal of preparation, thoughtful reflection and investigation of my own life.

It has been an interesting process for sure, and one I am glad I have had the opportunity to undertake.

This quote reminded me how much we need to begin. To not put off. To find a way, any small way to begin our art and live with it, think about it, share it and just do it.  Our lives are precious and we never know what the moments may make of us; but we can begin in small ways now.

This quote and my preparation for the talk, made me think about how important the wee project A Letter A Week was for me.  Back in 2010 I was hankering for more art in my life and wanted to do something, anything. Work-work was crazy and there seemed to be no time.  This little project -writing one letter per week on a piece of something 7cm x 7cm turned out to be an absolute marvel. It was a small project for myself, and then my friend Gemma, and then it grew and grew until we had artists all over the world making alphabets.

It was possible for me - it was small - who could be afraid of a 7cm x 7cm piece of paper? It required one thing each week and one thing only - a single letter.  It kick-started so many things in my art-life, and they all came from this tiny, desperately needed, commitment to my art.

The first four letters in my first ALAW alphabet, 2010.

Today on the block...

Life is slowly resettling itself after all the busy-ness of the past few weeks with the exhibition preparation, opening, visitors, talks and workshops.  Needless to say not a lot of making has been happening, but I did get a deal of joy from wandering the block this morning and enjoying the bounty...

It began with a bunch of happy smily flowers - a rose, some ranunculus, and crucifix orchids.

It turned to the nectarines which astound me. This year we pruned the tree well and have managed to harvest more than ever before - and this time before the birds got them all - feels like the sweet tang of success.

I went down the side to where the blueberries grow, and picked more - again before the birds - and joined them with some snow peas from the veggie garden.

The veggie garden is looking splendid and is being most generous.

This morning's bean collection.

And then, the blueberries picked yesterday and the day before, ripening happily inside.

 None of the garden is on an industrial scale - but it supplies plenty for us with some to share and is a form of creativity all of its own.

Good Grief and a giveaway

As I posted a week or so ago I had a look at my blog posts and realised that I was coming up to blog post 1000.

And this is it. Good grief.

I hardly know what I should post about on such a momentous (smile) occasion, but did think it was worth marking the milestone with a give-away. Hang on in here and you'll get to the giveaway I promise.

I decided I would post about books and making them, given as how I love both books and making so much; and it was perfect because Susan and I ran a collaborative book making workshop yesterday!

We did our artist talk in the morning then spent the afternoon working with 13 people making books together and it was great. Exhausting, but great.

We each prepared pages for our groups and gave them some of our own work to work with; a bit like how Susan and I collaborated early in our collaboration where we gave each other materials to make a book with.  It was fun and I really enjoyed watching people respond to my birds and nests, and making them their own.

They got some pages, and then could raid this stash to add their own take on what they had in front of them...

Here are some snippets of the work that my group did.

Glenda

Judith

Katie

Cathy

Coral

Brenda

A number of coptic-bound books that both groups made - in just three hours!

It is always lovely to watch folk get excited by making a book. Their very own book. Which they made themselves. Such a delight!

And now to the celebratory giveaway.

It seems to me to still be important to think and share peace and so I shall happily share this print with the person whose name is picked from the hat in a week's time.

All you have to do is: leave a comment and let me know three of your favourite words...

The giveaway draw will close at 5pm (Brisbane time) on Saturday 7 November, and I shall post the winner's name on Sunday 8 November.

Looking forward to hearing from you, and thanks for joining me along the way...

Thursday Thoughts...

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.
 

 Joyce Carol Oates

In my meandering through life and art and books I have arrived again at books. My Thursday Thoughts began in July 2010, and here we are still going, despite a wee break for 6 months.

One of the things I love is that I can still find words about books that charm me, intrigue me and make me celebrate or investigate books further.

One of the marks of a truly good fiction writer is their ability to let you get inside the head of a character. They could be a different gender; older; younger; smarter; wickeder; or any thing else that differentiates us, and yet we can slip into their world and experience it from within, in a way.

Non-fiction biography and autobiography offers the same I think and sometimes a really good movie does as well. But it is often the extra descriptions and time spent with a book that allow you to soak deeper into the skin, the voice, the soul of another.

I love that notion of travelling somewhere without leaving home; of experiencing someone else's world for a bit whilst I remain completely and utterly me.

So this is a bit  funny...Barry and I both enjoy Ian Rankin's DI Rebus books. When we visited Edinburgh we had to vista the pub where Rebus drinks (the Oxford) and sit in the back room, as he does...

The only time I think I have done a book-scene-in-real-life moment!

Pas de Deux opens...

On Friday afternoon, Susan and I took our guest speaker Caren Florance to view the exhibition before she opened it. Always a good plan we find!

It was so nice to arrive at the gallery and to have it virtually to ourselves. To be able to wander through and gaze and gasp at the beauty that had been wrought with the rooms and the work.  What a beautiful space to show the work; and what creative and breathtaking arrangements of the work.  It was a good feeling.

Barry took most if not all of these photos below; I was too absorbed wandering around and breathing in the wonder of it all...

The entrance to the exhibition. We had hoped that our two burning books could be features of the show; and they did so beautifully. The lighting and the shadows are exquisite.

The gallery spaces had been transformed, and each body of work had breathing space, and yet spoke to the other pieces around it.

Barry took a panorama type shot which bends time and space a bit, but almost allows you to see the two rooms.

Opening night saw a large crowd - some locals but also loads of folk from Maleny to support us and Ken who is showing in another one of the gallery spaces.

Caren, myself and Susan at the opening.

I won't show all the works here today - mostly mine and I will get to the collaborative works soon!

The Under Construction corner was a quiet, gentle, space. On the wall, and on the plinth.

Time To Change and Time For Change sit quietly  and strongly.  Hinting at their message, but benefiting from the story about them being told in person. I spoke to many people about them and they were all moved.

Fragile Gains, also sitting serenely yet intimating strong messages about women's gains.

Peace Emerging looks so good all together.  Two have sold already (1 & 5).

Too Many Poppies was a piece I worried over and struggled with including - yet it is presented so beautifully, it is almost a memorial in itself.

And to finish where we began - the shadows...

Outside in the foyer is a little nook that has become a pop-up shop for Susan and I. Small works, prints, and books for sale.

All of the works in the exhibition re for sale (except our collaborative pieces) and I am happy to field enquiries or you can contact the gallery direct: gallery@noosa.qld.gov.au