Temperature's rising...

...it seems to have curdled my brain.


Firstly I suddenly had to go away for a week. It was a bit crazy. I was either flat out, exhausted or had lots of time to kill. It resulted in some journal doodling which I haven't had time to do lately.
Secondly, I made a new 'artwork' today...
This is the view from my lounge/dining into the kitchen...
No comments on the mess you may or may not see here - I didn't clean up for the shots!
Ta Da! And here are the after shots...
Thermometer creates a dialogue with the adjacent room which has shape and colour as it's dominating theme...
It also 'speaks' of the function of the room itself... (it gets hot)...
...as well as linking the Aboriginal art objects (I bought from a local artist) to their natural environment...

...yes, I did it as part of my uni course. I'm a shocking house painter, but I quite like it!

Roly, Randomness and a Sword-Swallower

For those of you who are new around here, Roly is my boxer dog. He is getting on in years now, is arthritic and grey but it doesn't stop him from bounding around just like he did when he was a puppy. This undying love of all people, places and things has meant there are a lot of people around who have a very soft spot for Roly. My friend Monika is one of them. Yesterday was my birthday and look what she made me! This photo was taken hurriedly after we had eaten half of them and suddenly thought to record the moment. You think eating a Roly cupcake is a bit strange? It is nothing next to seeing what two people do when they decide to share one!
Here is the mugshot view. The middle one is Monika's tribute to the face Roly accidentally pulls when his lips get caught behind teeth. Isn't she clever!
In other news, I've just updated my shop with two new rebound sketchbooks/journals. These handbound rebound journals (my Perfect Journals) have been quite popular and sell out fairly quickly so if you are interested in Random All Round or Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower check them out over at Etsy.
The cover of 'Random All Round' is still in excellent condition inspite of being a first edition from 1960. The dust jacket wasn't in such good condition, but still good enough to be reborn as endpapers inside the front and back covers.
I added a ribbon page marker, headbands and when I rebound it I reinserted 36 original pages along with mixed watercolour and drawing papers to make a total of 132 pages.
Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower is the story of the author Dan Mannix and its cover shows its age - it is also a first edition but this time from 1951. Again I added a ribbon page marker and headbands.
In this book I also added a vintage library due-date slip and envelope inside the back cover. The endpapers are retro striped paper.
In rebinding this book I again added a mixture of high quality watercolour and drawing paper pages along with 46 of the books original pages, including two photos, one of Mannix swallowing his sword and the other of him fire-eating.

Both books would make really fun sketchbooks or journals to record your own adventures in. What a lot of fun I had making these! I'll be a little sorry to see them go.

Moly_x_portrait1 Update

Yes, still catching up on my exchanges. This one is of Remi and myself done as part of moly_x_portrait1 exchange. For this exchange we do a portrait of the books owner and a self portrait before sending it on it's way. I got the idea from a photo of Remi on Flickr in which he was looking very French. A little bit of escargot and a meat pie and tomato sauce later and voila!

What is it with BIG things?

Ok, I said I'd show my books, I know. This is a book but it is not one I made. This is my latest entry in the moly_x_25 Moleskine exchange. I managed to do this after work today and it is another thing off my to-do list and happily on my done list!!! If things go according to plan I might have another to show tomorrow...

Coffs Harbour has two main tourist attractions. One is the Pet Porpoise Pool which is an excellent spot to kiss seals and pat dolphins and even have a swim with them. It is always a great day at the Pet Porpoise Pool. The other is The Big Banana.

There is a little artistic license in this sketch. I left out the gift shop, the snack bar and the History of Bananas building. From this perspective you can't see the lolly (sweets) factory, the puzzle shop, the toboggan ride, the snow slope, the ice rink or the water park, so it was easy to leave them out.

There is a fine tradition of Australian artists sketching and painting Luna Park in Melbourne. I love these works. They capture the essence of the conflict between fun, fear and sleaze in Luna Park and other attractions like it. When I look at them I wish I lived in Melbourne to be able to paint it too. Then I realised - we have the Big Banana right here! I could paint it. That idea was firmly implanted into my 'one day' basket right up until Clare drew Luna Park in Kerry's moly and posted it off to me to follow on. Too good an opportunity!

But it's not the same when it is a conflict of fun and sleaze only, without the fear. I'm left thinking 'it's just a big banana.'

For more information on Moleskine exchanges visit here.

The post you have when you're not having a post

Yes, I'm alive. I've spruced up my banner. What do you think? I'm getting through a great long list of things to do (oh, I wish I had some spare time). I've put in my uni assessment, made a couple of books (show and tell here soon), been away, made some amazing caramelised onion jam and am slowly catching up on the rest of the list. I've also spruced up the banner in my Etsy shop and more importantly spruced up my prices. There is no financial crisis in The Little Shop of Horus - only financial bonuses!!! The Aussie dollar is down so that means my prices are down too. There had to be some good news this week!

Painting and studying painting

I am finally back to studying after a prolonged break caused by a little black eight-legged not-friend!
Yep, that about describes what I've been doing lately. These little black and white detail shots are of some of the mark making I've been experimenting with. Above is using mediums and a broad knife. Below is using a piece of toweling as the applicator.
And this next one was done by applying the paint with sandpaper. Feel lucky I didn't show you the one that I did using... I'll let you guess!
I've also been painting things other than for my uni course. I am really in love with these cup and/or vessel images I've been making. This one is for a dear friends birthday.
And this one went to a lovely couple for their engagement.

Vessels

Those cups have really got a hold of me.
To me they symolise much more than a vessel for my coffee.
The round soothing object that I hold in my hands holds me in a comfortable reverie.
The roundness encompasses comfort, luxury, pleasure...
To me they represent all the good in my life.
Actually, I'd quite like a coffee right now...
These paintings are available for sale if you care to look.
Enjoy!

...and then it occurred to me! Why not combine cups AND pattern!?!

I'm pleased to say I've been painting again. I really haven't wanted to paint in quite a long time and I love paint so much that it kinda bothered me, when I allowed myself to acknowledge it, which wasn't often. I mean I was drawing, printing, making books. Did I really need to paint?
I've always needed to paint. I'm a much nicer person when I'm painting (I don't mean the actual instant I have the brush in my hand, but when I share my life with painting). Ask anyone I know.

And pattern was my first obsession when I began drawing and painting. I LOVE pattern.
And cups! Cups have been my muse for many many years. It started when drawing a mug was part of a course I was doing. "I can't draw a mug!", I thought. "I hate drinking out of mugs! I'll draw a cup." "Wow, I loved drawing that cup!"
And then it occurred to me! Why not combine cups AND pattern! I don't know why I didn't think of it before!

These little cuties are available for sale. If you are interested please feel free to click on over to my shop and have a look. Contact me with any questions. I love questions! Or leave me a comment telling me what you think. I love comments!

My Moleskine Exchanges - Update

This was done as part of Moleskine exchange 25 (Moly_x_25). I had to follow on from Clare's tribute to Van Gogh. I was stumped for a long time not knowing what to do. Ah, Matisse! That's always the answer!
For Moly_x_Portrait1 I drew the gorgeous Marina. She is such a delight to draw! I couln't stop!

I left drawing my self-portrait until last in Marina's book. After her I didn't find myself inspiring at all! I drew myself with Sunday morning hair.

What is an Artist Book? - An Interview with Sara Bowen

This question was on my mind when I recently made a journey to see an exhibition of artist books at Barratt Galleries in Alstonville. I wondered how much I actually knew about artist books, even though I have made a couple myself! The question was all the more poignant as my travelling companion was Sara Bowen, printmaker, artist book maker and friend. I knew Sara’s entry for the Southern Cross Acquisitive Book Award did not physically resemble a book although it had many ‘book’ qualities. Happily that day we were able to celebrate the acquiring of her book for the university's collection, along with others’ more book-like forms.
Later I asked Sara if she would allow me to ask her this question and others about her art practice, inspiration and the meaning of the motifs and symbols in her work - her river and her bridges. Sara arrived before me and as I walked in and scanned the coffee shop for her, at first I failed to notice her. As a newish arrival to Australia and Coffs Harbour I hadn’t expected her to be the one joining in conversations with nearby tables. Ah, but I was to learn more about her networking skills as the morning progressed.

Sara arrived in Australia in 2006, having left family and friends in Bristol, UK. She told me she came around to art the long way after 15 years of working with small businesses, setting them up and running various ones herself. She is now concentrating full-time on her art; well as full-time as a mother, wife, PHD candidate and project manager for the building of the family home can be.

JA How does your small business background help your art practice?
SB It has taken away the fear of the non-art part of being an artist. I’ve done cold calling with a suitcase of samples, written my own press releases and marketing plans and, because I have confidence that I can do those things, I don’t worry about them. It doesn’t mean I’m super confident or that I’m not terrified, but it does mean that I don’t panic about it.

JA How did you get started in printmaking?
SB In an effort to avoid killing my stepchild I was encouraged to get out of the house! I’d done life drawing and painting and I thought “Oh, printmaking that sounds good.” The little cogs went around in my head and just that whole thing about working backwards came easily. Somehow it all made sense for me.

JA How did you get started making artist books?
SB I don’t think I was really conscious of the fact that I was making artists books. I think I just ended up assembling things. I had a very vague idea of what I might do and it will just sit there in the back of my mind for ages and then something will trigger me off and it will usually be something like a little piece of cardboard or a photograph and I’ll think “that looks nice.” Tidying up the studio is actually quite often where it comes from, because I come across things I’d forgotten about, like bits of wire or a rusty nail or something and I’ll start thinking what can I do with that? And it ends up being a little exploration. That’s what starts me down the path and what the end is I’m not at all quite sure until I get there.
JA What printmaking medium do you most often work in?
SA The technique I use most often is viscosity printing where you are able to layer colours on your plate instead of having separate plates for separate colours. I change the viscosity, the runniness or thickness of the ink, and the different viscosities repel each other and instead of making a brown sludge like you might think, the colours stay separate and one top of each other. I’m interested in it as a technique to get multiple colours on the plate. This gives me the subtle colours I’m after. I also use a lot of embossing in my printing.

JA Where do you get your inspiration?
SB I love moody landscapes, bleak places where I can search for beauty. I am primarily a landscape artist. My work has an emptiness. I have a reoccurring motif in my printmaking, a swirl of river. It comes from a grainy black-and-white photograph of The Great Juanbung Swamp, which is the area at the confluence of the Lachlan and Murrumbigee Rivers. It was taken by my father-in-law from a crop-spraying plane in 1960. It is mainly a metaphor for journey.
JA You have been working on bridges in your Artist Book works. Have they always been a motif? Is it because of the river?
SB No. It’s got nothing to do with the river. It’s quite odd, but it’s got everything to do with moving countries. I moved here in October 2006 and I had my PHD started at UWE which was great because it made me feel like I wasn’t leaving everything behind, there was still some kind of connection with my old life and the people I knew and my art. But then I just didn’t have any contact from anyone in my old life. The people I felt very strongly connected to in Bristol turned out to be no good whatsoever at keeping up contact. I spent a year blogging about art and moving over here, being very up front with people about how I was feeling and I didn’t get a sausage back, no emails, no phone calls, no cards, no birthday presents, nothing! I spent 2007 feeling very, very lonely and very isolated.

Eventually I decided I needed to build bridges, metaphorical bridges that linked me with people, with ideas. I initiated a project with an artist back in the UK to exchange artist books and the project was to be about bridges. I spent ages fiddling around with different things and I came up with the idea of physically making a bridge. I read this lovely little poem by Walt Whitman called “A Noiseless Patient Spider”. It does mention the word ‘bridge’ in the poem once, but it’s about how spiders fling out a thread of gossamer and the wind catches it and they have no idea where they’re going to end up, an act of faith. It was such a meaningful way of looking at how I was feeling about my life. I think that’s been my way of working. Sometimes I just have to take courage that I don’t have and do something, even though I don’t know where I’m going to end up. The poem goes on and is effectively about building ones own bridge, what one needs in life is to do that. So it’s very reflective of my own experience and how I was feeling at the time.

It got me thinking about the form of the book and I’d already decided I was going to base this series of books on children's building blocks (you can build bridges with children's building blocks). I ended up with the carved plastic text, which was such a nightmare to do. Originally it wasn’t about the light shining through it with the shadow revealing the text, but about making the text a kind of gossamer. It just happened to work in that other way and gave it supplementary meaning.

There are a few other reasons why it ended up being very meaningful for me. One is that I’m terrified of spiders! I had hypnotherapy at Bristol zoo before I came to Australia so I could deal with the Australian creepy crawlies. I ended up holding a bird-eating tarantula in my hand. I am quite fascinated by them now although I still find them really repulsive. I also wrote a very bad poem about not being able to say anything meaningful to my father about leaving and going to live on the other side of the world and it was couched in terms of spiders.

That book has a much more open meaning available to it than most of what I do. Practically everything I do has a lot of personal meaning to it. I have a bit of a problem actually expressing the meaning to other people. In the end I’m very glad of people who do manage to work out what a work means, but its not why I’m giving them the object to look at. I’m very happy for them to give their own meaning.
I find my self really fascinated by artists who can write out very personal experiences in their art and the reason is because I can’t do it. I don’t know how one would begin. I tried it and doesn’t work for me.

JA What is an artist book?
SB MY definition of an artists’ book is hardly definitive and is highly subjective and probably very woolly from an intellectual perspective. I think an artists’ book is a book made by an artist, that requires the evocation of ‘book-ness’ in order to function as a complete work. There is the question of why make a thing defined as a ‘book’ rather than as a ‘sculpture’ or as a ‘print’? What’s so important about it being associated with being somehow a book? For me, there is something about a confounding of expectation (e.g. a book that is part of a child’s building block, for example, and in the same example, a slipcase – usually an afterthought – that has as much of a role in the complete piece as the book has itself; or perhaps where the text, written in shadows, is actually OUTSIDE the book rather than inside). There is also something about physicality: the ability to pick something up, however gingerly! and to view it as a piece of art from more than one direction – a quality that book arts share with sculpture, I guess. And perhaps there’s something about a thing having an outside and an inside: even my ‘bridge’ book comes concealed and had to be unwrapped and assembled in order to be ‘read’. There’s something there for me about text and covers too. Interestingly I find myself drawn to artists’ books with little or no text but find myself putting text in, sometimes obscurely, because that is part of my ‘model’ of what a book or book-object is. How conventional of me! But I like to subvert it too; although the shadow-writing aspect of my bridge book was an accidental aside rather than an intention from the start it makes me snigger quietly that there IS text and that there ARE covers for it, but that the text isn’t IN the book but written outside it!
JA How do you promote your work?
SB You never know who’s looking so it’s important to get it out there. Moving to a new country has given me the opportunity to make new networks. I like talking to people and putting them in touch with others. I work on the premise that people are happy to talk to you about themselves. They are also happy to be put in touch with new people that they can talk to about themselves. I don’t mean that in any negative way. My business experience is in creating structures that allow things to happen. I see networking as doing much the same.

JA Any advice for others who want to promote their work?
SB Just get out there and do it!
***


JA I don't think she means me though. I don't think she means I should get out there and do it. I don't think so. Not me. She wouldn't. Would she?

Note to self

Must do scanning today!

Ooh What Fun!

Well, I've had a hell of a lot of fun tonight since I discovered COLOURlovers!
These are some patterns I made up from colour palettes, some that I made myself and others from other CL members.
It is an active and open group of people who all share a love of colour and pattern. I'd love to paint this one!
Yes, I'd really love to paint this one... I think I might just have to!
Edited 27.8.08 - Check out their blog too: http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/

Inner Glow

James Gleeson - Australia's foremost Surrealist an exhibition at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery. I caught this exhibition on its final day which might give some indication of how much I was looking forward to seeing it. Gleeson is one of my daughters favourite artists and she had timed a visit home so she could see his paintings and mixed media drawings. I couldn't go with her that day and when she came home raving about the eloquence his work and how I would love the way he combined printed images with drawings I listened politely. I knew there would be intestines, and worse, and there was. And lots of them.

There was also other familiar Gleeson themes like the gentle waves on a calm secluded strangely familiar beach, the shells from that beach grown large and bursting with, well, maybe not intestines but something ominously internal. Naked men provide a realistic counterpoint to the wrenching disemboweled images, often sharing the same frame. Surprisingly their full frontal nudity provide the only images of genitalia. These are not latent sexual images from a sick mind.

There is beauty (somehow!) here too. It is the light and the colours the light illuminates, soft emerald greens, rosy pinks and deep magenta (where I feared there would be venous blue, membrane grey and blood red). The wrenching and tearing fails to extinguish hope, but instead seems to open the picture plane to allow entry of hope through the exquisite light. How is that possible?

At this time when I am planning to push my creative boundaries, and have actually allowed play to replace the seriousness I had allowed to creep in, the glow of Gleeson's light reminds me that the creative journey is always individual and that it really is OK to be me, warts, intestines and all. And really if it has served me no other purpose than to remind me to get back to drawing my deck of cards with alternate suits, one of which is body parts, it has served me well. I do believe I was up to the Ace of intestines...

I love paint!

When I first started this blog I had a little sentence at the top that said I like to paint, draw, make things, sketch, paint... yes, I like paint! It was there up until only a couple of months ago when I was finally too embarrassed by the references to paint in a blog where there are practically no paintings. You see I have called myself a painter for over 15 years, but shortly after starting this blog I just stopped painting. Lots of reasons, and none. Just stopped. And it's true - I love paint!

"He's a Suitor"

To my relief my desire to paint has been building up for the last few weeks and finally spilled out of me, onto the pallet and then onto the canvas. I have been inspired by William Kentridge (no I will never stop mentioning him!) and wanted to have a go at Goccoing on the canvas too. These three paintings are the result, silver gocco prints of pattern combined with acrylic paint, ink, collage and real silver-leaf.

"Helping Hand"

I combined my own drawings with those from the books "The Wide World Story Book for Girls" (1937) and "Ideal Book for Boys" (no date but similar vintage). Oh, the risks one takes in the name of art!

"The White Glove"

In this one I used the old pages of "Complete French Course" and "Electricity in the Home - Teach Yourself Guide" to create the tones and form of the face. Acrylic paints in silver and reds allow the guy I saw in the coffee shop one day to come alive on the canvas.

"Under Influence"

With these 4 paintings I've re-opened a new department in my creative life and a whole new section in my Etsy shop. They're all available if you like them enough!