Amanda Watson-Will

February: Celebrating 300 posts and 6 years of blogging

2012-02-03T19:10:00.001+11:00

Above: This was the image that went out with that first post!

Probably lucky I didn’t scare everybody off permanently.

It was a Saturday afternoon in late February 2006 when my first blog post was published.
My friend Claire (who just over 12 months ago finally launched her own blog, Doing What Matters) convinced me that perhaps I had something of interest to say.
Claire and I share a love of art and art-making, and we both believe firmly in the power of art to heal and to nourish us as human beings. Claire works as an art therapist and there was a time, before the existence of this blog, when I hoped to make that my life’s work too. When I moved to Melbourne in 2003, my plan was to study Art Therapy at La Trobe University. Although I had ME/CFS, at that time I was much improved, and it seemed a possibility.

Installation view from the exhibition I had in Brisbane just before moving to Melbourne.

The gains I had made were only temporary, and it was soon obvious that I wasn’t energetic enough to undertake such a demanding full-time course of study. So, being in a new and exciting city which offered a range of institutions, I looked into the possibility of studying art in a university environment. And the rest is history, as they say. (In case you don’t know, I eventually completed my MFA from RMIT University).
Those first steps into the blogosphere were rather tentative, at times erratic and mis-directed, but my impulse to equate art and health remains strong.
I re-read that first post today with interest. Personally, I have a need to create regularly or I can feel the tension building inside me. I become ungrounded, irritable, anxious and eventually depressed. It’s not pretty! I guess these all sound like mental health symptoms in the jargon of the day, but I also see it as a question of the heart (not to be confused with cardiac), soul or dare I say “spirit”.
Whatever term you prefer, the bottom line is that creativity and art are essential in a healthy life. With the help of this little blog I hope to spread a little of the joy of art around.

A Give-Away

Yes, this pic is *somehow* related to the Give-Away

So to celebrate 300 posts and 6 years of blogging, I’m offering a give-away to everyone who comments here before my next post (make sure I can find an email to ask for your address). When will the next post be? Well, who knows? I certainly don’t! That’s one of the rules I have for myself about blogging. No pressure! There are very few areas of my life where I allow myself a little leeway, but blogging is one.
As my friend Cusp likes to describe it:

So, leave a comment if you’d like to receive a little something from me in the mail. What will it be? Well that would be telling, wouldn’t it?

Making “The Great Library” Part 3

2012-01-25T17:42:00.001+11:00

The Outside

Having worked out the inside of my story box (see here and here) I started thinking about the outside. Initially I thought about just using text from the excerpt but decided to continue with the idea of the box actually being a simplified physical representation of the library.

Architecture of Ancient Alexandria

An internet search failed to come up with any drawings or artists’ impressions of the building which housed the Great Library of Alexandria of antiquity. In fact, the library collection was quite possibly spread across a number of buildings. I decided to look for images of important civic buildings from the time in Alexandria to use as a guide. I was lucky enough to find this book, and to be able to borrow it via an inter-library loan. The book proved fascinating and I was sorry I was only able to have it for a fortnight.

I decided to base my library on the temples built during the reign of the Ptolemaic period. (Winterson mentions Ptolemy in our extract). The feature I was most concerned about was the column capitals. I know very little about architecture from this period, but I do know enough to know that if I made a mistake with this, someone more knowledgeable (perhaps even JW) would know!

Fortunately this reference told me all I needed to know: the columns needed to be straight (not bulbous) with “composite capitals”. This refers to the fact that more than a single plant was depicted on the capitals (e.g. not just papyrus or palm, but both).

Creating the “Cover” Image

Edfu Temple from the time of Ptolemy III- XII (public domain image)

Above you can see a photo of a temple from the Ptolemaic period and below is my original drawing before processing and adding effects. In the end, I kept decorative details to a minimum, but it was important to me to have the basic architectural forms right.

As this image was to form the equivalent of the cover, I needed to include a title. I decided to use the “title stone” below as a layer over the whole image.

I used this online tutorial on Moe’s Realm as a guide to develop the effect of text engraved into stone. For the most part I followed it exactly, and then at the end just tweaked things a little until I was satisfied.

Below: the two images with opacities adjusted to my satisfaction.

Using Instagram

The final step was to transfer my drawing to my iPhone so that I could process it using Instagram. Unfortunately, the Instagram app is not available for non-Apple devices, and if you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch you probably already know it. However, you may not realize that you can also use Instagram to process any jpg file, just like this one of mine.

Unfortunately I’m not fluent in “Apple-talk” but as it is done in iTunes, I imagine it is very similar to the method I’ve outlined below.

The steps on a windows computer are:

connect your device to your computer
open iTunes
open your device
click on “Photos”
Tick “Sync photos from” and then select folder from the drop down menu
then click on “Sync” at the bottom right of the screen
once the sync is finished, open Photos on your iPhone, iPad etc and you’ll find your images in your Photo Library

And voila! special effects courtesy of Instagram.

(Also, I want to extend a BIG THANK-YOU to the talented Azirca over on Speak Without My Voice who so kindly shared this facility with me!)

Visitors!

2012-01-23T16:26:00.001+11:00

Last Thursday I was delighted to meet long-time blog friend and Book*Art*Object colleague, Carol.

I don’t remember how we first came in contact, but I know that it was before the days of BAO, through our mutual love of books. Carol is a retired bookbinder who blogs at Barnacle Goose Paperworks, when she’s not travelling and visiting friends that is!

Carol was in Brisbane visiting fellow-bookbinder Leone, who has just moved here recently. We spent a hot but lovely afternoon at Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens, and when we weren’t spotting sculptures of native animals (some very realistic) there was rather a lot of artists book talk!

When I got home, I found that “someone had been sleeping in my bed” or more accurately – reproducing in my pond! There were rather a lot of these little eggs floating on the water surface. But I’m not sure who, or rather what has laid them. Can you help?

I know it isn’t a toad, because toad’s eggs don’t look like that, but is it a frog? I have seen green frogs around this year for the first time in many.

The other possibility is that they are snail eggs. We have some rather lovely largish gold coloured snails, I believe they are known as Mystery Snails or Apple Snails. The trouble is that these eggs don’t look like any of the pictures I’ve seen online.

Unfortunately, it may all be rather academic, as the goldfish in the pond are finding them delicious! That said, everyday since Thursday I have found more eggs have been produced, so “whoever” is laying them, isn’t giving up easily!

Making “The Great Library”, Part 2

2012-01-16T23:30:00.001+11:00

The Inside Continued – Editioning

In last week’s post I had made it as far as a successful proof for the inside of my book object “The Great Library of Alexandria”. You would think that a successful proof would mean that things were sorted, but as soon as I tried to make an edition of the drypoint, I had problems.

As I’ve said before, I’m not experienced in intaglio printmaking, and with a drypoint especially, there is quite a bit of lee-way in how you wipe back the ink. In case you’re not clear, a drypoint works like this.

What is a drypoint exactly?

* you take a plate (traditionally copper, but also used are zinc, perspex, other plastics and even illustration board coated with wood varnish, as I wrote here)

* and a pointed scribe of some sort (even a nail can be used at a pinch)

* and you draw, creating “a burr” or a raised edge on the plate. It is this which catches the ink for printing in addition to the line you have scribed.

Once your image is done, you cover the plate with ink and wipe it back with tarlatan (a coarsely woven fabric traditionally used by printmakers) using circular movements. Working this way forces the ink down into the line and burr, while removing it from the surface.

When you print a drypoint, you achieve a very particular type of line. One that to me, is very beautiful. It is soft and fuzzy, yet rich and dark. And the burr is essential to that mark.

The Great Library of Alexandria (detail)

You can imagine that the burr is very fragile, even more so with perspex than say copper. So, as I tried to make my edition of about 12, I was wiping very carefully and also trying to replicate the original plate tone, which had contributed so much to the first proof.

After three or four attempts, none of which were usable, I began to realize that my plate might not last the edition. What to do? The plate was quite large, I didn’t want to start from scratch (no pun intended!).

Digital BFK Rives?

I knew that there is now a digital BFK Rives, produced by Canson. I wondered what the paper was really like, and whether it would be possible to reproduce a scan of the artists proof using it. I decided it was worth a try, and then I remembered that a while ago I bought a Canson inkjet paper sample pack. When I checked, there was a sample of the BFK Rives in the pack, so I downloaded the *free ICC profiles from Canson, pressed print and crossed my fingers.

I was actually stunned by the quality. I had expected to feel that it would be a major compromise to work this way, but in the end, it was such a practical solution for me. I love to work with my hands, and a mouse or even a graphics tablet can never be the same to me. Yet, so often I come up against my practical limitations, and am physically unable to create even a small edition like this without exhausting myself. It seems to me that making the original by hand and editioning it digitally is a good compromise.

*Using free ICC Profiles

Free ICC profiles can be downloaded from the websites of the paper manufacturers. If you’ve bought a fine art quality inkjet paper but found the colours hugely different from the colours on your monitor, using the ICC profile may help. I am planning to write a post about what profiles can and can’t do for you, and how to use them in the next month or so.

Making “The Great Library”, Part 1: Inside

2012-01-07T16:49:00.001+11:00

From my first reading of the Art & Lies extract by Jeanette Winterson, I wanted to depict the boys in their eyries.

Initially, I planned to make a varied edition of altered books and I progressed as far as buying Condensed Readers Digest books in sufficient numbers, before I realized the difficulty of hand-carving hundreds of pages over and over to make the edition. Fortunately, another structure came to mind.

The Structure

At Ed Hutchins’ Single Sheet Structures workshop, a couple of years ago, I learned about the story box. It’s a simple structure that can be very effective when it supports the concept, and in this case it was perfect. With the image of the eyries in my head, I plunged into working on the inside of the box.

Inside

For this edition, I really wanted the warmth of a hand-pulled print, despite having more experience with digital printmaking. Having only made a couple of etchings before, I chose to do the inside image of the library as a drypoint on a Perspex (acrylic) plate, 30cm x 42cm. I did not want to make a large acid-etched plate in case it wasn’t successful.

Below you can see the plate now.

To inscribe it I used two drypoint tools, which you can see too.The one with the wooden shaft is an inexpensive diamond point from Dick Blick. The diamond makes an incredible difference in the pressure you have to apply. I’m not sure whether this particular tool will last very long, but if not I’ll certainly be replacing it with another diamond point. If anyone has a favourite tool for drypoint they recommend, please do let me know.

Digital Background

I found this lovely photo (above) of the book stacks at the British Library by Steve Cadman on flickr. It was the inspiration for the colours I initially prepared for the background of my print, using acrylic inks (below left).

Right: In progress, showing lightened areas in two places

I scanned the background and planned to create areas where the eyries would be positioned using the “lighting effects” in Photoshop. Obviously, this darkens those areas of the print that you haven’t chosen to be “lightened”.

In case you haven’t used this, you just go to:

Filter>Render>Lighting Effects.

There are a lot of options, but a good place to start is with either Omni or Spotlight (found in the Light Type window). From there you can play about with intensity and narrow or wide focus. It maybe useful to adjust the “exposure” and/or “ambience”, which can be found under Properties. I’ve found these to be the most fundamental controls to achieving simple but effective lighting effects. Beyond that, you can spend hours playing to see what can be done.

Combining the Digital and Drypoint Prints

In total I created five “lightened eyries”, which showed up quite nicely, but the background was now looking rather dark and dull. I altered the saturation and colour balance until the background printed on the Rives BFK printmaking paper to my taste. As this isn’t a paper for inkjet printing, there aren’t any colour profiles online, so I had to make numerous small test prints on the actual paper in order to see the colours.

Left is the final background, as the file appears on-screen. Right, a scan of the artists’ proof (drypoint over digital background on Rives BFK).

More next time!

It’s a lovely clean slate

2011-12-31T19:15:00.001+11:00

As memories of Christmas indulgences fade, it is time for the bit I really enjoy – the New Year.

I like nothing better than the feeling of standing at the top of a brand new year, with the months unfolding before me, like bright, white pages of opportunity. I love the sense of possibility and I hate to fill it up with specifics too quickly.

There’s also a chance to pause and glance back at the year that’s finishing. For some, I know it hasn’t been a particularly good year. I’ve certainly known how it feels to say “good-bye and good riddance” to some years. Luckily for me, 2011 was not one of those.

Yesterday I dug out the plan I made twelve months ago. Inspired by Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity fame, last year I put together my most extensive list of goals ever.

The process Chris describes seems very business-inspired to me, and I have to confess I wasn’t entirely committed. He sets very specific, measurable goals even for his personal-life, which feels a bit too concrete and didactic for me.

However, I did find it interesting and helpful to think about all the areas he covers, including the personal. For the sake of the exercise I wrote down some ideas, which meant I had those to refer to yesterday, some twelve months later, and I have to say, it did make interesting reading. Some things I hoped to do were a bit over-optimistic, and I think if I repeat the exercise this year, I’ll know myself better.

If this sort of thing interests you, Chris’ s guide can be found here. I think you’ll find it quite an eye-opener!

Whether I go the full Excel spread sheet (yep, that’s how he does it!) or not, I will certainly be doing a review of my year in relation to my art work. I love to sit down and write out a list of works made, exhibitions, workshops or conferences attended and in recent years, I’ve been able to add works acquired to that.

It’s a great time to update the CV and celebrate the year’s successes. I often feel frustrated by what seems to be very slow progress during the course of the year, so writing up the year in this way is a pleasant surprise.

Highlights of 2011

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

Then when it’s done, I can turn the page to a fresh new year, and think about my priorities for 2012.

Wishing you a lovely, shiny bright, fresh New Year, with lots of blank spaces to fill in just as you want!

The Big Reveal: The Great Library of Alexandria

2011-12-23T19:20:00.001+11:00

The good news is the wall bed has been installed in the studio and I am slowly getting the rest of the room back in order. This is a chance for a bit of a spring clean, so things tend to progress slowly as I sort through everything and try to part with some! When it is all organised and looking pretty I will post a photo or two.

In this post I thought it would finally be safe to post images of my latest Book Art Object edition, as I think that everyone must have received their copy by now. I have decided that the best way to show off books is in a video, and as I now have my website to keep up to date as well, I spent some time this afternoon putting one together. I don’t usually use much in the way of transitions or effects, as I don’t think they usually add much, and in fact used badly can be rather comical. However in this case I used a few and I think they help to give a bit of an impression of handling the book and turning it in your hands.

And in case you are interested in details, here is a close-up of the colophon.

I also want to let you know that over on the Book*Art*Object blog, the call has gone out for our next edition. So if you think you might be interested in joining in the fun, pop over there and take a look at the details. Making an edition of ten plus is a challenge, but we are a friendly and helpful group, and I guarantee you will learn a lot from taking part.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who has visited my blog this year, and especially to those kind and encouraging folks who commented. It is such a delight to hear from you and I am always thrilled and surprised when your feedback comes through. If anyone has been thinking of commenting or sending me an email, but hesitated in the past, please know that I would love to hear from you!

I wish you all a happy, safe and loving time this festive season, and hope to see you here again soon. xxx

BAO edition finished & other progress

2011-12-04T23:15:00.001+11:00

I’m very happy to be able to report that this week I completed the edition of 10 books for Book*Art*Object inspired by an extract from “Art & Lies” by Jeanette Winterson.(Yes, they are curiously square in shape for books, aren’t they?)

Four are currently winging their way overseas to members of BAO in the UK and the US, so I’m holding off a full reveal here for a couple of weeks until they have arrived.

We’ve also been lucky enough to have the “Art & Lies” edition acquired by the State Library of Queensland. Helen Cole, from SLQ, saw the work exhibited at the Impact conference and that’s where the deal was done! There is also some discussion with Alicia Bailey from Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado about exhibiting “Art & Lies” there! This is a very exciting possibility and if it comes off, will be my first step onto the international stage.

I realized that I haven’t posted the text by Winterson here yet. So, in case you haven’t seen it over on the BAO blog, here it is.

300BC. The Ptolemies founded the great library at Alexandria.
400,000 volumes in vertiginous glory.
The Alexandrians employed climbing boys much in the same way as the Victorians employed sweeps. Unnamed bipeds, light as dust, gripping with swollen fingers and toes, the nooks and juts of sheer-faced walls.
To begin with, the shelves had been built around wide channels that easily allowed for a ladder, but, as the library expanded, the shelves contracted, until the ladders themselves splintered under the pressure of so much knowledge. Their rungs were driven into the sides of the shelves with such ferocity that all the end-books were speared in place for nine hundred years.
What was to be done? There were scribes and scholars, philosophers and kings, travellers and potentates, none of whom could now take down a book beyond the twentieth shelf. It soon became true that the only books of any interest were to be found above shelf twenty-one.
It was noticed that the marooned rungs still formed a crazy and precarious ascent between the dizzy miles of shelves. Who could climb them? Who would dare?
Every boy-slave in Alexandria was weighed. It was not enough to have limbs like threads, the unlucky few must have brains of vapour too. Each boy had to be a medium through which much must pass and yet nothing be retained.
At the start of the experiment, when a book was required, a boy would be sent up to get it. This could take as long as two weeks, and very often, the boy would fall down dead from hunger and exhaustion.
A cleverer system seemed to be to rack the boys at various levels around the library, so that they could form a human chain, and pass down any volume within a day or so.
Accordingly, the boys built themselves eyries in among the books, and were to be seen squatting and scowling at greater and greater heights around the library.
A contemporary of Pliny the Younger writes of them thus:
[here is a chunk of latin that is never translated. JW at her most scholarly & impenetrable... but would look great in calligraphy, Ronnie!]
There is no system that has not another system concealed within it. [my emphasis] Soon the boys had tunneled behind the huge shelves and thrown up a rookery of strange apartments where beds were books and chairs were books and dinner was eaten off books and all the stuffings, linings, sealings, floorings, openings and closings, were books. Books were put to every use to which a book can be put as long as it is never read.

Jeanette Winterson, Art & Lies (London: Jonathon Cape, 1994), pp. 4-6.

STUDIO

The other lovely news I received is that our wall bed will be installed on December 20th. You may recall this post from a couple of months ago, mentioning my plans for doing up my studio (at last!).

Well, having a wall bed, instead of the current single, will allow me to have a lot more shelf space above the bed. Storage has been a problem in this little room ever since the air-conditioner was installed, which meant that small bookcase that sat on top of my desk had to go. Here’s where some of that stuff has been patiently waiting for a “real” home for some months.

I didn’t want to leave you with a photo of my mess, so here is the plan I’ve drawn up for the studio. I am hoping I might be able to squeeze in a small comfy chair for reading between the bookcase and the built-in, but time will tell.

If you see any glaring problems, please do comment! Your thoughts, as always, are gratefully received.

Spring is sprung or “It’s a new kitchen!”

2011-11-20T16:58:00.001+11:00

New waterlily leaves emerging each day now. What I like about his photo is my “twining's tea” grasp of the iPhone, reflected in the water!

I mentioned that I had a busy Spring planned, and it has kind of swept me off my feet.

After a busy and stimulating time in Melbourne, we returned to finalise details of our kitchen renovation. What started with considered review of articles in Choice about cooktops and ovens, gas vs. induction, finished by dragging ourselves into a lighting chain store, pointing disinterestedly at some spotlights and paying up asap.

In between, there was tile dust, jack-hammering, cement dust, a bench top that didn’t fit in the space left for it between the upper and lower cupboards and more. Oh, did I mention the 7am starts? Might sound reasonable to most people, but it means spending the day in a jetlag-like fog for me.

The good news is the main works were all finished within two weeks, and now we have beautiful bamboo floorboards and a lovely new, fully functioning kitchen with a designer space-age extractor, all looking very swish. We still need to sort out the tiles for the splashback, and a few other details, but we can take our time with that.

So here are a few photos:

BEFORE/DURING

What the kitchen looked like before, except that we did have ceramic tiles on the floor, not bare cement!!

THE NEW KITCHEN ARRIVES

One of the cabinets has this rather disturbing message written on it!

(Never did work out what it meant.)

AND NOW…

Do you like the demolition-site aesthetic we’ve gone for with the splashback?

I think it’ll be a new trend.

More soon, and I promise it will be more art and book-related.

Exhibitions at Impact, Part 2

2011-11-07T16:12:00.001+11:00

Things are rather chaotic here, with the fridge still out on the patio along with half the living room furniture. The good news is that today is the last day of early starts and tradesmen creating clouds of dust. The finishing touches to the new sustainable bamboo floor are happening as I type. The kitchen is in place and operational. There's just the mess to clear up, but first some rest.

For now, here's some more photos and links to work I saw at Impact7 in Melbourne.

Clare Humphries: Material Remains

This Melbourne artist was once an occupational therapist and her work relates to very similar interests to my own. I missed her paper, but hope to download it when the conference proceedings are available. Some info about Clare here.

Unfolding Projects: Afghan and Australian Artists' Books Collaborations

These beautiful collaborative artists books were in glass cabinets, just near the BAO display. Read & see more here.

Melike Tascoglu: The H2O Series

These prints exploring the nature of water really spoke to me. I'm not sure if they can be read as well from a screen. Read & see more here.

Janet Bellotto: Finding Juliet

I freely admit I am sucker for a good lenticular print. (You know, the postcards of your youth where the lady winks suggestively etc). This diptych is the largest format lenticular print that I have seen, and it is used to great effect to depict a wave crashing though this scene. I loved it!

The artist is from Toronto, living in Dubai. Her website where you can see more of her photographs, as well as video and installation work is here.

Exhibitions at Impact, Part 1

2011-10-16T17:47:00.000+11:00

One of the best aspects of Impact was having so many printmaking exhibitions right there on the university campus where the conference was being held. I saw almost everything, I think, but all of it far too quickly. I could have spent at least twice as long!

As I raced around, I took as many photos as I could to share, although all with my iPhone. I know that some people who read this blog can't make it to many exhibitions, so I've chosen my favourites for you to see.

Gosia Wlodarczak:

a Polish-born artist who lives in Australia. This was the only video work at the conference, as far as I am aware. I was drawn to both its subject matter, and the fact that the style has a clear connection to digital imagery. There were numerous papers about video (I didn't attend any) but it shows that working with moving images has appeal for printmakers.

The Train Trip

You can see a lot more about this work (including a 7 minute version) here.

Jan Hogan:

an Australian artist who I believe has recently completed her PhD. There is a little more about that work here. She also presented a paper at the conference - some details here.

Becoming

The sense of layering and networking in this work is beautiful.

Dylan Martorell & Mat Valdman

These works were enchanting! The top print filled the wall, while the lower two were viewed through a device reminiscent of the old "Viewmaster" (hence the blurry photos). There's an interview with Martorell here and this is his blog.

Hapmoniym (digital printed wallpaper)

Hinteridact (digitally altered screenprint, slide, slideviewer)

Sally Smart

I am pretty sure I've mentioned Sally Smart's work here before. Like many others, I find it captivating and inspiring. To be honest, this is the first opportunity I've had to see it in a gallery, so I was quite excited. This work was part of a group show entitled "The Devil had a Daughter". I've included Sara in the shot to give you an idea of scale. Smart's website is here.

Paul Liam Harrison, Scott Hudson & Andy Rice:

500 Years and the Complaint of the Black Knight

I'm sorry to have to admit that this poem was unknown to me before seeing this work. Now I know that The Complaint of the Black Knight is the oldest surviving dated printed Scottish book (from 1508). Written in fact by John Lydgate, it was falsely attributed to Chaucer (all this according to Wikipedia, of course!)

I walked around and around the room, and loved the rolling Scottish tones, but was able to understand "nairy a wud"! I felt compelled to make a recording to share, but of course had to cut it short when a crowd entered the room talking at the tops of their voices. If you press play, maybe you'll get a tiny taste.

I have more photos of work to share next time, as well as my thoughts about some of the papers I attended. It's 9 days till work starts in our kitchen. Tearing up the floor tiles is first on the agenda ( dust and noise - my favourites!). I may be kidding myself, but I'm thinking there will be a lot of time sitting around, not being able to leave the house when I might be able to get online and catch up on my blogging. Am I crazy?

Last moments in Melbourne

2011-10-03T16:41:00.001+11:00

Architecture: from international style urban living to olde worlde...

Pictures of Melbourne

2011-09-28T23:45:00.001+10:30

A mostly surreal look at St Kilda.

Hello from Melbourne!

2011-09-26T22:43:00.001+10:30

Window at Heide Art Museum (detail)

I’ve been in Melbourne a week already and it’s great to be here.

We are spending two weeks here, the first entirely holiday, and during the second I’ll be trying to attend as much of the 4 day Impact International Printmakers Conference as I can. Although I can’t make any claim to being a printmaker, there are two streams which I hope to attend:- the one about artists books and the other on digital printmaking.

The entire collection of Book*Art*Object books from both editions so far is to be displayed on Monash campus, where the conference is being held, which will give the group and the work high visibility. As well, there are a huge number of artists book and print-related exhibitions on in Melbourne this month, all timed to coincide with the conference.

The conference starts tomorrow (Tuesday) and the hard-working Ronnie has already installed our work in its display cases at Monash campus. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to rest up today in the hope of getting along to all the stuff I’ve circled in my conference programme!

If you’re interested in following some of the conference action online, head over to the Book*Art*Object blog. Together with Ronnie, Sara and Caren, I will be blogging from the conference, hopefully even “live” at times, as we have all armed ourselves with the appropriate apps for blogging from our mobile (cell) phones.

SEE YOU THERE!

Priorities!

2011-09-16T21:38:00.001+10:30

If there is one thing that I thought having CFS/ME had taught me, it is how to prioritise.

And in some ways it has.

Having been out of the workforce for a long time, I only recently learnt the modern approach to prioritising. You know, the old “urgent & important”, “non-urgent but important” etc paradigm.

I know, I’m probably the last person on the planet to hear about this, but now I know.

The thing is, when your energy is low, often it is only the “Important and Urgent” things that get done.

And that’s not how it’s supposed to work. The ones that theoretically fall off your “to do” list are both not important and not urgent. You manage to plant those seedlings before they die and to clean the windows before it becomes embarrassing that you haven’t!

But it is amazing how far and how long you can stretch you definition of “unimportant”. Really!

However, there is another factor that comes into play when you haven’t been in the workforce for a long time. I look around my home and I can see that I have developed a pattern of always trying to choose the most functional option (I wasn’t an occupational therapist for nothing). It feels as if I can’t allow myself to have the beautiful bookcase, if the cheaper (and uglier) one will do the job.

Silent conversation in my head

Will this fit in the space? Tick.

Is it affordable? Tick

Pause. Looks.

God, it’s ugly!

Oh well, never mind. At least it’s here right now (as opposed to some beautiful but cheap version which may or may not exist somewhere.) It’s good enough.

And often it may be. It’s true that not every item you own has to be a design classic. Lots of stuff just has to do a job.

The trouble is that I think I may have trained myself a little too well. It’s become a challenge to allow myself to choose something I like, rather than settle for the most economical option. And you can’t surround yourself with stuff you’ve “settled” for, without it having an effect on you.

The other side of that is that sometimes, with a bit of work and elbow grease, you can make something very inexpensive into a treasure. But extra work and elbow grease aren’t plentiful around this house, so that’s not usually a realistic option (think about those poor seedlings I’m trying to get planted before I head to Melbourne).

All of this of course is pertinent right now because I’m planning to do up my studio. Even though this needs to be a functional space, I do want it to be somewhere I love to go. I spend a lot of time in this room, and I want it to draw me in. So I’m saying here, out loud, for you all to hear: I’m going to try to choose comfort and beauty. Oh, and function!

Spring plans

2011-09-07T22:03:00.001+10:30

While bloggers on the other side of the planet have been writing about autumn ringing its changes, temperatures are slowly rising here.

It never seems as if much that is tangible changes in September in Brisbane, and yet without fail, I find myself longing for a holiday at the beach!

I rather like to remind myself that Spring is the real start of the year because it’s always so hot in January that I don’t feel very inspired. So this spring I have a few plans that will inspire me and hopefully set things up for a period of productivity.

Number 1:

That beach holiday I mentioned (albeit at St Kilda in mid-September, so there won’t be any swimming - brrrr!) followed by Impact7, the International Printmakers Conference.

I am really excited about attending the conference, because normally its not possible for me to make it to this sort of thing. Even one whole day is really too much, so travelling followed by a number of days in a row, for the price of registration, travel and accommodation – well, it just doesn’t add up. Fortunately, being in Melbourne (one of our favourite places) makes this trip an option as a holiday, so the conference fee is the only additional price to pay. As it is such a rare event, I made the decision to register for the whole four days with the expectation that I will pick and choose what I attend, and not allow myself to be pressured into trying to go to too much.

As well, there will be three other Book Art Object-ers at the conference, and this is my first time meeting them. I can’t wait!

Number 2:

I’ve enrolled in this four week online course on encaustic which starts in October. If you’ve been reading this blog a while you will know that I’ve dabbled with encaustic work on and off for a few years, but courses are hard to find locally. I’m so looking forward to this chance to learn from an expert and to be able to ask questions.

Number 3:

I am finally biting the bullet, investing in a wall bed for the spare room, which will allow me to maximize the functional space in my studio.

This is a shot from the door taken using a panorama app (Dermandar).

There’s a bit more I’d like to say about setting up the space most effectively and I’d really like your input and tips, so I’m going to save that for another post soon.

Have you made any plans for a shot of Spring Spritzer in your life?

New book: sneaky peek

2011-08-30T18:48:00.001+10:30

Mia, all tucked up

It’s been a long slow week in our household as we all (IT, me and the cat) spent a lot of time sleeping. IT and I have been trying to recover from our colds and Mia, well she’s usually happy to join us in amongst the blankets whenever she gets the chance.

I was quite pleased with myself for just accepting the situation, not fighting and pushing myself, despite the fact that the deadline for sending our Book Art Object books off to Ronnie is this week.

If you’ve read Michael Nobb’s blog, Sustainably Creative, you might know his approach to slowly moving creative projects forward, with tiny work periods each day (e.g. 20 minutes). I’ve been keeping this in mind this week and amazingly the book is actually getting there!

So below is the first sneaky peek to give you a hint about my book for round 2 of Book Art Object. When the whole edition is finished (I’m planning 10-12) I’ll write some posts about each step of the process.

But for now, this is all!

(drypoint on archival inkjet background)

Radical Craft!

2011-08-22T13:05:00.001+10:30

This is the sort of unexpected juxtaposition that I love to think about.

Sunday before last, ABC2 aired the documentary Making It Handmade. Four Melbourne crafters feature, showing how they’ve “upcycled” the once daggy ladies sewing circle into something with a much more feminist flavour. (I suspect there may always have been a hint of the female power in the old sewing circle).

Image wantonly stolen from this website: http://www.grrrlzines.net/interviews/hoopla.htm

No malice intended – if you would like it removed, just ask.

Each young woman has employed the crafters’ circle in a different way, from a gentle space for young women to gather, share their skills and be creative, to night-time raids to cross-stitch political messages onto wire fences (above). There’s also the crafter who makes decorative “female parts” with her friends and then flings them up high onto the electricity wires in the street, so if this offends, it’s probably wise to avoid this particular movie.

On the other hand, if you’re interested, the documentary is still available via iView for another 6 days. The link is below:

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/812234

If you’re visiting here too late to catch iView, this interview with one of the crafters, Rayna

might fill you in a little.

Now back to bed to rest. I’ve caught the annual lurgee that sweeps into Brisbane on the westerlies every August and I’m not going to fight it. Keep warm!

Changing houses hits Hawthorne

2011-08-14T16:34:00.001+10:30

Edit 16/08/11: The title of this picture should have been “This Is Not My Home” because it isn’t. Sorry to anyone who I inadvertently misled. It was meant to be a generic house, but I can see why you would think otherwise. I don’t feel that our home is particularly photogenic, but I felt I sort of “owed” you all a pic, so you can now find one right at the bottom of the post (heavily processed to improve its appeal).

No, no, we’re not going to be on TV (thank heavens!) but we are finally going to be making some changes to our home and hopefully putting our own mark on the place.

We bought here (a three bedroom ground floor unit built in 1994) back in 2003, just before moving to Melbourne for two years. It was sort of our safety net. A way to say yes, we are heading south to live and hopefully have some adventures in a “real city”, while knowing we have a home back near our families, where we can return.

When we moved back two years later because the family needed us, there wasn’t really time or money (or energy) to do much other than move in and get on with life. But many years later, the time finally seems right(ish).

At the start of this year, we made grand plans for a renovation that would fine-tune the space we have to our (somewhat unusual) needs and lifestyle. Our “forever home” as Kirsti of Location, Location is so fond of saying.

Then we spent a month in Paris and we realized a few things. We saw that part of the reason we both become a bit disenchanted with the world is that Brisbane doesn’t actually offer us much of the things we love. High on this list for us is a sense of a long, long history and culture (with the appropriate buildings, layers of time, and yes, dirt & grime). On a bad day, I could go on and on about the things that Brisbane doesn’t offer and what it has replaced those things with, but it seems much more reasonable just to say, I’m sure some people love it, but it’s not for me!

At the moment we have “family things” that we want to do, but they won’t take forever, and then we will look to move elsewhere (exactly where is still undecided). In the meantime, it changes the way we think about this unit and the work we will do. Yes, now it’s 17 years old it’s definitely time for a refurb but if it’s a given that we don’t intend to stay here forever, the changes we make need to take that into account.

So you can see that there’s been a lot of thinking, discussing and heart-searching going on here, in this little unit, as well as practical decisions about a new kitchen and new floorboards to replace the horrible carpet. And of course, quite a lot of work in the studio towards the BAO edition with its approaching deadline (which I promise I will post about just as soon as I have time.

EDIT: 16/08/11

Our Home

We live on the ground floor behind the high fence. I may be a city girl and unit dweller, but I still like to have my feet on the ground.

My website is up! Huzzah!

2011-07-31T16:12:00.001+10:30

After a few days of concentrated effort I have uploaded the basic content for my website and published it! YAY!

You can find it at: http://amandawatson-will.com

I’ve been messing around for over 6 months trying to organize one, but I don’t think that I’ve been totally convinced that I needed one before Fiona’s comment on blogging. She delineated beautifully for me the way that a website can be your “professional face”, leaving you free to be more playful and/or personal on your blog.

This was the motivation I obviously needed to get to work and more importantly to finish (for now).

I tested out three different options, which were either totally free or had free trials before deciding to go with Weebly.com (recommended by Sandra Pearce – thanks Sandra!).

First, I spent ages choosing a layout or theme. There are so many on offer and some are really funky or gorgeous, but I realized that the last thing you want when you are an artist is somebody else’s aesthetic on your website. Somewhat ruefully, I opted for a plain option.

All the services I checked out offered plain and simple design options, and they also all offered the possibility to buy your own domain name (e.g. amandawatson-will.com or similar).

I chose weebly in the end because it was quick and easy to use. Your options are set out across the top of the screen and you simply drag them into place. I found some of the others far less intuitive in their operation. I had to keep returning to the “help” page to remind myself how things worked. There’s enough to be done loading up loads of visuals and text without unnecessary complications, I think.

Anyway, if you decide to pop over and check out the website I’d love to hear from you. If you come across anything that doesn’t work as you would expect, or if the organisation doesn’t make sense to you, I’d be most grateful if you would let me know!

P.S BTW I don’t have any affiliation with Weebly, they are just the option I found easiest and so I thought I’d tell you about them in case you are interested.

Where to next?

2011-07-27T18:56:00.001+10:30

I want to thank everybody who commented on my last post and shared their thoughts on blogging.

I thought it was really interesting to see how many people started off on a particular path and how their blog had evolved and changed course over time. It highlights one of the major features of blogging – the flexibility inherent in it, and the freedom we can therefore allow ourselves.

Those of you who did make a comment last time, you may be surprised (or not!?) to hear that I made notes from your replies and drew up a list of reasons for blogging.

I would say the most popular reason was the “conversation” or personal connections that participating in the blog-o-sphere allows us to make. This is certainly the main benefit for me, and it is one that I hadn’t predicted before I started blogging. It’s an ideal solution in that it allows artists, who are often introverts, to converse about art and overcome “studio isolation”.

A lot of other reasons described by you coincided with my own, in particular using the blog as a way to share work because I’m not comfortable with more traditional modes of marketing.

Some of your comments have started me thinking. For example, Fiona remarked how the blog allows her to speak in the 1st person, where she sees her website as more formal and a showcase for her finished work. Also, a number of you talked about using the blog to show works-in-progress or as a studio workbook/notebook. And Ronnie (as usual!) threw out the challenge with her comment about her decision to offer work on her blog under the freer copyright of creative commons.

So where does this leave me and this blog? Well, I’m not sure, but certainly still here.

I have started work on a website, and I feel that once that is up and providing a professional window on my work, I will probably feel more free to be creative here, to have some fun and allow this blog to be a little more organic and responsive to daily life. While this space is my sole professional face online, it does need to meet certain criteria (or I so I’ve thought). That said, I suspect any changes here will mostly be along the lines of a gentle pulling into shape, rather than any significant surgeries!

More soon!

Why do you blog? The million dollar question.

2011-07-16T18:25:00.001+10:30

I’ve kind of fallen into a bit of a blogging funk – hence, the lag between posts.

Interestingly, I’ve noticed that I’m not the only one in the blogosphere who is feeling this way. One artist who blogs wonderfully, sharing her life and inspiring many, spoke about the possibility of opting for a monthly newsletter instead.

110 comments later!!! she was left with no doubt that others still valued her blogging efforts most highly.

Loads of comments are definitely a wonderful reinforcement, (I love ‘em just as much as the next blogger) but my question is more about what you want to share in your blog and why. Yes, this actually is a question, I’d love to know!

I am sure that there are as many reasons to blog as there are bloggers, and they are probably all valid.

Originally I started out wanting to show what my life with cfs was like, without specifically describing symptoms or gory details too much; more of an illustration over time of what was lost and what was gained.

Next came my masters, and that seemed a worthy process to document in a blog. And since finishing that two-and-a-half years ago, I’ve been blogging about the art I make and see around me.

Earlier this year, I realized that while I am still learning (I’m sure I always will be) I have reached both an age and a stage where I wanted to share what I know. I’m not in a position where I can run classes or workshops, but I thought that perhaps the blog could be honed to work more in this way. By confining myself to posts that might interest book artists, and working a bit harder at the research background and structure of the posts, perhaps I could offer something worthwhile.

Unfortunately, that level of blogging isn’t always sustainable for me, and while it’s great fun while I have enough energy, it just becomes something else I feel guilty about leaving undone when I am unwell.

So just now, blogging has become a bit of a chore for me. I’ve thought about trying to turn each post into a piece of art in itself, rather like the beautiful posts on Speak Without My Voice and The Floating Bridge of Dreams. I’m still thinking about that option, but I can see problems with that too.

In the meantime, I know that after 5 years of writing in this space (yes, I’m amazed how long it is, too) I have built up a wonderful, inspiring, international network of bloggy-colleagues. You feel so much more than mere cyber-friends. You feel very, very real, and although I may be casting around for a direction for the blog just now, you can be sure that I will remain connected to you.

Watch this space!

Artists books in Paris

2011-07-01T23:35:00.001+10:30

I took this photo of the sun emerging over the horizon as we flew over inland Australia, heading home. Apart from reducing the image size for uploading, it is completely unaltered or processed.

So now I am back home, settling into a surprisingly cold winter, but I still have more to share about the trip.

When I was in Paris three years ago, I tried to look for artists books. I did some research on the internet and also checked out the Book Arts Newsletter, but only came up with two shop names. The first, as I’ve mentioned previously was Florence Loewy nearby in the Marais (9 rue de Thorigny) and the second is Christophe Daviet-Thery, which is in the 13th arrondissment.

On that trip, by a bit of luck, there was an exhibition of artists books down the road from where I was staying in Montmartre. It was at the Musee d’Art Naif (naive art) at Halle Saint Pierre. The artists books were a student graduation show (not naive art at all) and I’m not really sure why they were in that venue. Anyway, those three were all I was able to track down, even after speaking to the lecturer whose students were participating in that show and who ran a small publishing house for his students’ books.

This trip I had some more luck. One week-end there was an antiquarian, rare and old book fair in the the square in front of St Sulpice. While the majority of stalls concentrated on the first and rare editions, maps, etchings, lithographs etc, there were some stalls that had brought along some of their stocks of artists books. There were some beautiful contemporary works by major French publishers of this type of fine edition, which included etched, blind embossed, lithograph and screen printed artists books. As Paris has always been a major site for numerous historic avant-garde movements, there were also some artists books in this category too. However, there was one little old book that won my heart (and despite a hefty price tag) and a place in my suitcase.

The best way to show you is visually.

The man selling this told me it is a Moroccan prayer book, dated 1729 (when the date is converted to the Gregorian calendar). But it isn’t the usual prayer book from the region, which would be based on the Koran. Instead this is rather heretical, containing incantations for warding off evil spirits, for blessing travellers etc. It is built for carrying on the belt (by the loop) hence its condition isn’t great, but both this, and its subversive contents make it very rare.

I was, of course, entranced, and had to have it. I am interested in showing it to someone knowledgeable in this subject, so if you can help, or suggest someone who could, I’d be very interested to hear from you.

Beyond the Antiquarian Book Fair, it is my impression that the situation in Paris regarding artists books had changed since 2008. Perhaps I am just looking in the right places this time, but I definitely found a lot more artists books around.

There appears to be three main types of venue.

Contemporary galleries showing installations, paintings etc but also including a small range of artists books by artists whom they represent (perhaps 30 examples by say, a dozen different artists). You may well stumble upon these, and I’ve learned it is worth asking whether there are any artists books (they are often hidden away).

Next, there are shops entirely devoted to the artists book. They stock contemporary works being published in larger e.g. 500, 1000 or even unlimited editions. In addition, these shops often include multiples and art objects, and perhaps a small exhibition space devoted primarily to smaller-run artists books. In addition to Florence Loewy and Christophe Daviet-Thery, we found (and frequented) Yvon Lambert Bookshop, (108 Rue Vieille du Temple) in the Marais. The bookshop is associated with the gallery of the same name nearby.

Finally there are shops selling old, rare books and/or prints, which can be a goldmine in terms of stocking artists books or objects by well-known artists who were members of particular historic art movements. These tend to be avant-garde movements who produced artists books, such as members of Cobra, the Lettrists, the Situationists and Fluxus. Here I am talking about names like Guy Debord, Asger Jorn, Alison Knowles. A number of these are located on the left bank (6th arrondissment). My favourite was Libtairie Lecointre Drouet (9 rue de Tournon).

With all this opportunity, of course, we had to do some purchasing BUT I was very restrained – no, really, I was!! So here’s a little peek at some of my favourite new acquisitions.

Title: “sleep on, beloved”

Artist: Yosuke Yamaguchi

See more on the artist’s blog (mostly in Japanese): http://blogs.dion.ne.jp/bonfire/ or his Flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cribas/

This book of beautiful, gouache paintings by Yamaguchi, reproduced at the size of a tabloid newspaper, explores a world of dreamscapes.

Title: Editions Dilecta

Artist: Anish Kapoor

Kapoor said: “What I am trying to do is paint the interior, my interior.”

I was drawn to the grainy darkness seeping into the white of the page, the contrasting bright colours. But actually, as soon as I saw the marks creeping around the edge of the paper, invading the first opening (first picture) I was entranced.

Sadly, this is not one of the 50 copies signed by the artist.

Title: RF.22.301

Artist: Rene Fauconnet

A very cool book of genuine typewriter art dating from 1961 (who has a typewriter and the patience to do such a thing these days!). Actually belongs to my dh, but I love it too now!

Title: Et pourquoi pas l’eternite? (And why not eternity?)

Artist: Renaud Allirand More here:

Text: Jacques Lesot

This book of moody, semi-abstract ink paintings is by talented printmaker, painter and book artist, Renaud Allirand. Jacques Lesot wrote the text in response to Renaud’s images. Apparently it is rather difficult to penetrate even for a native French speaker, so I am most content to immerse myself in the tiny paintings. (Each is only 7.5cm x 7.5cm).

There are more images of Renaud’s books on his website here.

Art Exhibitions in Paris, May-June, 2011

2011-06-20T19:29:00.001+10:30

I know the internet is brilliant for bringing us art from all over the globe, but nothing beats seeing it in person… Nevertheless, I wanted to show you some of the art that I enjoyed the most.

FIRST, THE BIG NAMES

Anish Kapoor, Monumenta 2011, Grand Palais

Indian-born Kapoor now lives in England. His beautiful and intriguing works play with perception and lead the viewer to question their own eyes. Experiencing Leviathan was one of the highlights of the holiday for me. There were supporting exhibitions of his work in other locations around Paris, some of which were equally or even more confounding. But just imagine having the chance to make work for the Grand Palais!

Inside views of Leviathan

And outside of Leviathan, inside the Grand Palais

Anthony Gormley

The first work by Gormley that I saw in a photo was Field for the British Isles. Ever since I’ve wanted to see his work for myself. Although there was a show of related work in Melbourne earlier this year, this was my first viewing. It was in a gallery 5 minutes from our apartment.

Monet

I wasn’t aware of this work at Musee de L’Orangerie until just before we left Australia. It made me think of Rothko’s Chapel, and I think it would be much more impressive if visitor numbers were limited at any one time. Apologies for the poor quality of this video. Despite signs forbidding photography, everyone (really!) was clicking away. Security did nothing, but I still felt uncomfortable, hence this poor effort. A longer and smooth view can be seen here

AND THE LESS-BIG NAMES

This is just a few of my favourite exhibitions within 5 minutes of our apartment.

Elisabeth Brillet

A French ceramic artist made these porcelain books!! I was entranced. They have psalms imprinted on them. If you click on her name above, you can see more photos of the exhibition.

Anita Dube

This text-based work by Indian artist Anita Dube at Galerie Dominique Fiat caught my eye. There is more images of the exhibition here.

Zarina Hashimil – Noor

A show of woodblock prints and paper works (including cast paper sculptures) at Galerie Jaeger Bucher. The whole exhibition is well-documented on the gallery site if you would like to see more.

Cherel

Finally, I really wanted to share this French painter’s work with you. He’s on show at Galerie Felli. We have a catalogue but we posted it back, so I’ve just used a screen shot from the gallery site.

The paintings are on paper, which is then mounted on canvas, I think. It’s beautifully finished with rough painterly edges and the works are very appealing. There are trees, houses and a few objects (a bottle, a bowl) which are all very atmospheric and meditative. I really wanted to buy one, and maybe I will in the future. You can see more on the gallery site. You need to click on “Artistes” and then choose “Cherel”, followed by “oeuvres” (works).

A Quick Addendum

2011-06-11T04:52:00.001+10:30

I have two things to share quickly.

First a bit of exciting news. I just heard by email that my book “Caterpillar is to butterfly as book is to?” has been selected for the East Gippsland Regional Art Gallery “Books Beyond…Words” Award exhibition (that is quite a mouthful!)

I’m really thrilled, as I pushed myself pretty hard working on this before we left Australia, so it is nice to be selected after all that. Great news is that Ronnie, another member of Book*Art*Object has also been selected. Double YAY!

Secondly, late yesterday I made it to the wonderful Relma, (3 rue des Poitevins, 75006) which I mentioned in my last post.

This photo shows less than half of the marbled papers on sale.It was a sight to behold! In the next room are the beautiful, soft skins of every colour (I know, it’s so sad, but nevertheless, they are beautiful and deserve to be revered.

Somehow I managed to arrive with only 10 minutes to closing, which was perhaps lucky or I don’t know how I would have been able to make a decision about which papers to choose. With such a brief visit, I didn’t buy anything, just walked around in a state of bliss and awe. Basically there are two large areas, one for skins, one for papers. Then there are smaller spaces for bookcloth and tools, and further on there are presses, board cutters and any other larger items.

As I was hustled from the shop at 5:59pm (most shops close at 7pm here, hence my mistake) I managed to ask for a catalogue, which turned out to be in both French and English. I’ll quote from the introduction:

“…In the small typical parisian streets of the latin quarter, Relma is a privileged spot for book lovers. For more than (a) hundred years we have been revering books and thinking with passion of everything which can protect it, and decorate it.

It is a magic place, you can discover there the most noble materials…”

Book arts-related shops in Paris

2011-06-09T21:13:00.001+10:30

I have such a lot to share with you, but I am trying to keep information in categories that will make the information easier to find in the future. In this post I’ll focus on places I’ve found where you might buy book arts-related “stuff” in Paris. I am also planning to talk in future about artists books I’ve seen (and bought!), art/artists I’ve seen and in particular, one printmaker and book artist, who we met and got to know a little.

At “Les Puces” or “the Fleas”

Paris has a large number of markets which often run for 3 days of the week, like the St Ouen flea market (Sat, Sun, Mon) which I visited. I read that Les Puces are the original flea markets in Europe, and the term comes from the fact that the area where they are (St Ouen, just beyond the boundary of the Parisian arrondissements) was, in fact, heavily infested with fleas! Fortunately not the case now.

Les Puces are HUGE, covering numerous blocks. The first part is devoted to clothes, but more than half is vintage items. I had a tip to look for a particular shop which specializes in ephemera, pens and other items of interest to calligraphers.

I rarely use ephemera in my work, but I have been doing some ink drawings these past few months. There were literally hundreds of nibs, for calligraphy and drawing, from numerous countries. These are the ones I eventually chose, and the ones on yellow were a gift from Veronique, the store owner.

From: Boulevard des Ecritures, Marche Vernaison, Allee 7, – Stand 128 bis

Just around the corner, down the winding alleys of the market, we bought these wonderful wooden printing blocks. I have longed for some of these since I first became aware of them. We spent a dusty half hour, picking through boxes sorted by letter, until we came up with this configuration. We had to include the large “E” with the circumflex. A few others have french and german script features too.

From: tombees du camion.com, Marche Vernaison, Allee 5, – Stand 92

Rue du Pont Louis Philippe

When you wander from the Marais towards the Seine, one lovely street that is lined with interesting shops is Rue du Veille Temple (Old Temple Street). Once you cross Rue de Rivoli, the street name changes to Rue du Pont Louis Philippe. Clustered near the top of this street are a number of “paperies”. My favourite was Calligrane (6 Rue du Pont Louis Philippe) where I bought 6 beautiful sheets of handmade paper. Ahhhh! if only money and luggage allowances were more plentiful. Large sheets of paper are not easy to travel with!

Kimonoya, on the corner at 11 rue du Pont Louis Philippe, sells beautiful items from Japan. They include traditional tea cups, teapots, kimonos, scarves and gorgeous calligraphy brushes on stands. Then if you continue down the lane beside Kimonoya, you’ll come to this gorgeous building. It’s a rare example of what I would have described as Tudor architecture, but my husband pointed out that it’s unlikely to be the term used by the French!

Back in rue du Pont, Melodies Graphique is at number 10. It is a paper and calligraphy shop too, but was unfortunately closed when I tried to visit. The sign on the door read “fermee exceptionelle” (exceptional closure) which sounds serious to me. I can’t tell you much more about it but here are some lovely photos of the interior of the shop here.

One last place that I still hope to visit is Relma, (3 rue des Poitevins, in the 6th arrondissement). It’s a bookbinders shop with a history that dates back to the 1920s. Sounds like heaven!

A bloggy-book arts meet-up

I’ll finish off this post with the best of all! After my last post, former BookGirl, Clara Boza, checked in on Facebook and noticed I was in Paris. So was SHE! Clara got in touch and voila! Here we are enjoying “une express” and the odd macaroon (yes, I know I mentioned them in the last post too!).

Clara is lovely and I was absolutely delighted to meet her. So good to chat about common interests (and in English). Clara lives in North Carolina, not far from Penland. Hmmm. She has a new blog now but unfortunately I have lost the link. I’ll add it here when I can.

And to really finish off, a few more photos of this wonderful city.

Paris: First Impressions

2011-05-29T05:14:00.001+10:30

It been such a long time my dear bloggy friends, and I am sorry to have ignored you.

Preparing and making this journey has been more of a challenge than I was expecting. My energy is rather low, and as is my usual pattern, at such times I feel a preference to withdraw from social contact as it is especially tiring.

Nevertheless, here I am in the beautiful city of Paris. The weather is divinely sunny (around 22 deg C during the day, with crisp cool nights down to the low teens). I am surrounded by (even staying in) buildings older than any in Australia.

The Marais (the area where we are staying) is renowned as the home of art galleries and studios for fashion designers and all manner of artists. Not to mention the best creperie in Paris! (Well, ok, I did mention it!)

The clothes in the shop windows are…beautiful. Gorgeous, natural fabrics like silk, linen, cotton woven more thinly than we ever see in Australia – how do the French get away with that crushed linen look so successfully? I can’t understand why the clothes in Australian shops turn to synthetic fibres. Hot in summer, cold in winter, what is their use? I know, its the no-iron thing, but I recommend we just get over that!

So far we have wandered (quite far) without any particular aim, except perhaps to locate a patisserie or fromagerie (that’s an entire shop devoted to cheese!). I know there is no such thing in Brisbane, although there is one in Maleny and one in Melbourne, both being much smaller affairs, and a part of other foodie businesses.

About a two or three minute walk away is the amazing artists book shop Librairie Florence Loewy. I visited this shop when I was in Paris in 2008, but I confess to being rather overwhelmed then. This time I settled in for a long stay and scoured the shelves until my legs were aching. No purchases – yet! (but the shop is close by!)

When we booked our apartment here in Rue de Saintonge, I knew how close we would be to Florence Loewy. But I did not know that there would be a bookbinder’s studio in my street (how quickly I’ve claimed ownership!).

On one of my first days here, I was stepping carefully along the narrow footpath when my eye fell on a wall of boxes, covered in beautiful fabrics. Along the entire length of the opposite wall, stretched a work bench and five or six men and women bent over papers and board. I looked through the window at the studio, a workshop obviously in progress. There was a book press close by the glass of the window, and another press further back. The entire space seemed to be less than 2 metres by 4 metres, such a hive of activity. I longed to go in!! But I could see that the middle of a workshop was not the best time for an approach with my faltering, limited French.

Back at the apartment I found the website for the studio – and yes, I was right. Celia Malouvier is a bookbinder with wonderful credentials, nearly 30 years experience, who runs workshops, speaks English, in my street – what to do?

So far, I haven’t plucked up the courage to go into speak to Mme Malouvier, mostly because I’m not sure what I want. But you can be sure, at the very least I will go in and say hello.

E-BOOK

Before I say “au revoir” and hit the cobbled streets again I wanted to tell you about the ebook I mentioned before I left home. I had planned to post this pretty-much live from whatever I recorded on location, whether photo, audio or video. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the energy to devote to the project. I still think it is a great concept and I am gathering a lot of information towards a book (in fact, maybe a few). I just feel that to do the concept justice would mean devoting all my energy to it and I am enjoying visiting the art galleries, book and clothes shops, flea markets… well, you get the idea.

Instead, I’ll just be posting about the art, especially artists books that I am seeing, and I hope you will enjoy that!

There’s good news and there’s bad news

2011-04-18T19:24:00.001+10:30

But fortunately, a lot more good than bad!

First the bad news

If you’ve been visiting me here for a while, you may have guessed that my recent bloggy silence denotes a period of low energy.

The first few months of this year have been pretty productive for me but about three weeks ago I began to feel that I was over-doing it.

I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by the start to the year. Both my energy levels and my ability to make plans and follow through have been good. I started the year setting a few goals and things were coming together well.

Unfortunately it all came unstuck when I disregarded my priorities hoping I’d manage to “do it all”, and then I really pushed the limits to help out a friend. I knew it was foolish, but I hoped that the price would only be a bad week. That was around the time of my last post.

I hope you will forgive my disappearance without a word of explanation. I was hoping that quick action might lead to a quick recovery, but CFS doesn’t really work that way.

And the good news…

Apart from just being good sense, there is another reason that I have been trying to recover quickly, and that is because in just over 3 weeks I will be heading off to Paris for a month. Sacre bleu!

The trip is a holiday, but I have a number of arty ideas and plans.

The first to come to fruition is an e-book that I will publish while I am there. I am still ironing out the details of how this will work, but of course you will be the first to know.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to continue my holiday from blogging to give myself the chance of the best possible recovery. I hope you can bear with me a few more weeks while I rest up and get ready for the trip.

If you think the e-book idea is interesting, and you aren’t already following the blog, it might be an idea to join up so you’ll hear when my next post goes up. You can see a number of different options for following in the column to the left.

When I’m back

After the trip I’ll be diving in to producing my contribution for the next round of Book*Art*Object.

By the way, in case you don’t follow the BAO blog, there was some wonderful news recently from the State Library of Queensland, which has acquired the entire first round (that includes “Judy and the Jacaranda”). This shows great support for our collaborative project and has given the concept a wonderful sense of legitimacy.

When I get home I’ll definitely be posting about writing artists statements and I also have some more information about different venues for selling artists books. But first, some rest.

Caterpillar is to butterfly as book is to ? or Writing an Artist Statement

2011-03-29T20:33:00.001+11:00

This week I thought I’d write about the process of developing an artist statement. Instead, you are getting a super-short post as I continue to wrestle with the statement that has to accompany these photos. Together they will soon be off to East Gippsland Art Gallery to be considered for selection for “Books Beyond Words – Books Evolving”.

I wasn’t planning to suggest that I am expert in these matters, although I think I probably face the task with less dread than some artists I know.

The artist statement is crucial if you want to send your work, well, anywhere really. You will be asked for one in any gallery context, and as it will be representing you in your absence, it needs to be good!

So I will definitely put together some information on exactly what an artist statement is, what to include, what not to include and the process I use to write mine. I also have some references on the subject to share.

In the mean time, you could pop along to this site, which has been developed to help the struggling artist to generate their own Critical Response to the Art Product (or CRAP). I was delighted with this pearl which I hope to include somehow!

I'm troubled by how the reductive quality of the sexual signifier notates a participation in the critical dialogue of the 90s.

Hmm, maybe not!

6 Ways to Feed Creativity

2011-03-22T19:21:00.001+11:00

All artists need to take certain steps at times to “pump up” their creativity.

Some people refer to “the muse” and while I’m not totally comfortable with this term myself (it seems rather disempowering to me) at least it acknowledges the elusive quality of inspiration and the important work we need to do to foster our creativity.

Even the most experienced artists (or perhaps especially them) have things they do that help them to “get into the flow”.

These are the things that help me:

meditating – slowing down, being in the present and practising mindfulness. These all clear the mind and open some space for creative thoughts.
allowing time – while great ideas often strike in a flash, they seem to require lots of open space around them and no/low expectations. It’s hard to be creative when your life is jam-packed with doing. It’s fine to take half an hour here and there when you’re in the flow on a project that’s going well, but I definitely need to spend some gentle days, going for long slow walks, pottering in the studio or the garden to develop a sense of spaciousness.
art-gazing – with the internet it’s easy to look at great work often and getting out to real exhibitions when I can is even better.
going back through my visual journals, looking at all the ideas I’ve generated in the past that I never had time to complete (or start!)
play – trying out new materials or just doing something crafty. Often these things feed into future projects, but just as often they don’t. It’s really just about the importance of play.

I found an entertaining talk on creativity on TED.com by Tim Brown. He’s the CEO of a large design firm, IDEO, so he’s talking about stimulating creativity in collaborative teams (more collaboration!) but I found much of his talk useful. I especially like the way he talks about the way creativity thrives in a safe, secure environment. This, I think is key. I think its why we can be so creative as students and then when we get into the real world, we suddenly freeze up. So my final point is:

6. let yourself feel safe to fail – create time and space to have all those playful, crazy ideas, including quite a few that plain don’t work. They are an important part of the process.

If you feel like delving more deeply into this final point, I’ve posted the TED talk below or you can go to the talk on TED where there is a script if you prefer reading to listening.

AND HAPPY CREATING!

More thoughts on collaborating in the book arts

2011-03-16T18:59:00.001+11:00

When I last wrote about collaboration in the book arts here, the subject seemed to interest quite a few of you. Since then, I’ve thought a little more on the subject and I’ve put together two related posts.

In the first (which you are reading now) I’ll (very) briefly talk about the history of collaboration, both in art in general and specifically in the book arts. Then I have an recent example to show you, as well as highlighting the potential benefits of collaborating with others.

The second post appears on Book*Art*Object and follows on from this post by suggesting some ways that the artists in that group might like to organise to collaborate on books in the future.

Collaboration in the 20th Century

It’s rather arbitrary where you start with the art history of collaboration. Certainly major artists had assistants and employees, and it’s likely some of these may have collaborated in some sense of the word. However, early in the 20th century, artists associated with Dada and the Avant-Garde worked together with the specific aim of exploring collaboration.

The 1960s and ‘70s saw collaboration in art extend from movements like Fluxus and Art & Language to long-term duos like Gilbert & George and Christo & Jeanne-Claude. Today it’s an accepted, though not prevalent way of working.

Collaboration in the Book Arts

I think its interesting that collaboration was a part of the book arts from very early. In part this is due to the central role that artists books played in the art movements named above, already strongly incorporating collaboration.

Traditionally there are probably three pairings that are often seen in the production of artists books. These are:

artist and master printmaker
writer and visual artist
artist and bookbinder

Additionally, there are collaborations between artists and publishers, where the aim is to move beyond the handmade to achieve increased distribution of the artists book.

Exquisite Corpse

Recently a lovely book was published which based its concept on a variant of the Surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse. There are a number of variants of the game, but in the one I’m most familiar with one person starts by drawing the top part of a person, then folds the paper so that only the end of the drawing is visible. The paper is passed to the next person, who adds the next section before folding the paper again and passing it on. The third person completes the drawing which is then unfolded to be seen in its entirety.

The recent book is called “The Exquisite Book” and it has 100 artists who collaborated to create 10 fold-out double-sided accordions within the one book. Each accordion has a theme along the lines of “In the clouds”, “in the jungle”, “in the city” etc. and within each accordion there is a continuous horizon line. During making, the artists saw only the work that preceded theirs, but no others.

Here are a couple of photos of spreads from my copy of the book. Please excuse the rubbish photography (still grappling with a new camera).

Above: L-R Jen Corace, Pablo Amargo, Mel Kadel

Below:: L-R Sophia Martineck, Joseph Hart

I love this book and have spent more time than I’m prepared to admit admiring it and delighting in the detail and beauty of so many of the drawings it contains. I think the book is an excellent example of why collaboration is so worthwhile.

Benefits of Collaboration

These are numerous, and to an extent personal. Each person will have a slightly different take on the experience, and benefits will also differ according to the way the collaboration is organised. Some of the major points for me are:

The whole is greater than the sum: or the work created will be something quite unique and different from the creations of the individuals.
Collaboration enables more complex works than an individual could manage.
A number of artists will possess a greater variety of skills and approaches which can be used to create the work.
Learning from others – need I say more? I love learning.
For artists concerned by issues like “self” vs. “the collective”, collaborating with other artists can be a solution.

Book*Art*Object

BAO is already a collaborative project in some ways. When its time to choose our source material, every member is encouraged to make suggestions. The group selects the texts to be used as inspiration by voting. We make our books or objects individually, although the process is blogged – the level of detail is up to the individual artist. Finally, the works come together as a group when they are exhibited and so the final impression on the viewer is cumulative.

There are many other forms and directions that collaboration within BAO could explore. I have some thoughts, which I’ve offered up over on the BAO blog. I’m sure other group members will have ideas of their own. If you’re interested in following the discussion, you will find it here.

What’s your experience collaborating?

Before I finish, I’m wondering how many of you have experience collaborating with others on an art project? I would say that I only have a little myself, including my recent experience with Monica Oppen, which I wrote about in the previous post about collaborating. I would be very interested to hear how collaborating worked for you. What were the benefits? Are there any pitfalls? Would you try it again?

And what about group exhibitions? Aren’t they collaborations too? I think in a loose sort of way they are, more so if there is a theme and the works undergo selection. In this case, it’s up to the curator/s to make sure the show has unity, and I would argue that by the lack of interaction between participants while they are working, a lot of the benefit of collaboration is lost. But definitely not all in terms of the cumulative impact of different works by a variety of artists, which have the potential to play off one another for the viewer.

Still, my point is that collaboration is about regular interaction, and a dedication to communicating with your co-collaborators is the best way to ensure success.

Drypoint: Using cardboard and perspex plates

2011-03-08T19:12:00.001+11:00

Last week I showed you how I made the covers for the altered book I’m working on for “Books…Beyond Words”. This week I’d like to show you how the next stage is coming. I’ve been doing tests with drypoint using both card and Perspex (acrylic) for the plate.

For the book I need an image of a cocoon. I think I’ve mentioned (just a few times!) how much I want to learn etching, but the trouble is I have a few projects on-the-go, and a personal (exciting!) deadline of mid-May (more later!!!). I can foresee that a number of attempts might be needed before I can etch to my satisfaction!

Then this article from Nontoxic Print.com arrived in my inbox, showing me the way. I made the decision to try drypoint, also an intaglio print method, but a direct one, and therefore rather more straight forward than etching.

In the article Jenny Robinson discusses how she makes her large (e.g. 38” x 23”) drypoint monoprints using illustration board as her plate. She applies a thin coat of wood varnish and then treats the plate as she would any other drypoint.

With the high (and increasing) cost of copper and zinc, I thought this was definitely worth a try. As Robinson notes, cheaper materials provide the artist with more freedom to experiment, because you feel as if you can throw away something that hasn’t worked – and artistic freedom is always good, in my book!

Another cheap material that is often used for drypoint plates is plastic. I’ve heard of people trying virtually any type. Actually my kitchen chopping mat has some interesting lines appearing on it, and I’m thinking of swiping it and inking it up, but first I need to buy a replacement for the kitchen. More common choices are mylar and perspex, so I decided to give perspex a try too.

Tools, ink, paper

Apart from ink and paper, this photo shows everything I used. For paper I used two different Japanese papers in buff, one a medium kozo and the other with a little more texture.

I compared two inks, an oil-based etching ink from Graphic Chemical and a water-based one from Akua. The second ink was self-mixed using transparent intaglio base and the Akua Kolors, rather than the pre-mixed intaglio inks that are available. It really needed the addition of some thickener, which I didn’t have (but now do).

Tests & Results

1) Initially I began testing with tools that I had on hand – an etching needle (above – yellow handle) which I had used before for this my only previous drypoint (plate: perspex).

I knew I would want some tone as well as line in this print. I don’t own a roulette, the tool often used for achieving tone. In the article, Jenny Robinson talked about using carborundum, but the art store was out of stock. Initially, I decided to test some dry pumice (in the Matisse jar above) applied with acrylic gel.

The result wasn’t bad, but the tone is more in the style of a collagraph, and that isn’t the look I am after.

2) Next I inked the plate with my self-mixed Akua. The ink was much softer and the textural effect of the pumice is lessened (pardon the shadow that’s come through on the scan).

I wasn’t happy with the tone alone, and tried sketching in some detail in pencil.

3) I decided to add more line detail to the plate using an engraving attachment on the Dremel. I also tried wiping more lightly, so that more ink would remain on the plate.

I did quite like this result, but I felt the image now had a “man-made/machine” look to it. It’s an interesting effect, but I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted for the book.

Here’s the plate (on the right) and the print again, this time using Akua ink. You can see I started experimenting with the Dremel’s mark-making abilities.

4) I wanted to test the Dremel further and decided to use line to achieve tone, a traditional drypoint/engraving technique. The plate here is perspex for the first time.

The result was a very controlled and neat image, almost illustrative.

5) At this stage I made another trip to the art store and decided to splash out on a “proper” drypoint tool (you can see it in the photo under Tools). I was pining for that special soft line that you can achieve when your tool lifts a burr from the plate. It is this that holds the ink and gives the drypoint its characteristic “look”.

And there it is over on the right side. All those lovely lines! I’ve finally worked it out!

Still no carborundum at the art store, so I bought some Golden fine pumice gel, which you can see holds the ink quite beautifully. There are also tests with three different grades of sandpaper (150, 280 and 400 – reversed).

6) So finally I tried with my new scribe on a cardboard plate with the oil-based ink. I’m still working on my wiping technique, but this print is the best result so far.

Working with Wax: An Altered Book

2011-03-02T17:13:00.001+11:00

After last weeks post about a safe studio set-up for working with wax/encaustic, I thought I would show you some of the ways I’ve used wax in my work over the past few years. I also have my favourite encaustic references for you and a step-by-step look at my most recent use of wax in a book art project.

Early Work

As I mentioned last week, I am completely self-taught when it comes to wax and I haven’t really scratched the surface of what I’d like to try! Here’s a few things from around 2007 when I spent some time trying out the possibilities.

Above: Testing the effect of embedding myself in wax.

Above: This was to be part of an artists book – still a work-in-progress!

Above: testing out ways of working with wax in 3-D

If you’re interested there’s a little more of my work with wax to be seen here.

New Work

For “Books…Beyond Words” this year, the theme is books evolving and this has given me the chance to work on an idea I’ve had since I was doing my Masters.

“Cocoon” as a place of transformation was one of the concepts that I hoped to explore as part of my masters thesis on change and process. Time ran out on me before I got to make any “cocoon” works, despite have a number of ideas developing. “Cocoon” seems to me to work into the theme of books evolving quite nicely, and so I am working on my first altered book work, assisting it in its “evolution”.

The first part of the book to change will be the cover, which will be made from paperbark. This will be a type of return to the tree from which the paper came, in order to “evolve” via the process within the cocoon.

In my local area the Council has planted hundreds of paperbark trees (Melaleucas). There is one out the front of my place and at the end of the street is Riding Road, with its beautiful avenue of paperbarks.

I love trees with weeping foliage and the paperbark is a favourite of mine. For a few years now I’ve picked up the bark when it falls off and stored it away, thinking I would somehow incorporate it into something. This new book is my first attempt working with it.

Step-By-Step

1. I gently peeled away layers of the bark using my fingers until I have the desired thickness, selecting pieces of bark with attractive patterns and colours.

2. I laid out my pieces of bark as you would any collage. You can see my final arrangement below.

3. Once I was satisfied with the arrangement, I made a 50:50 mixture of wheat paste and acid-free PVA. I painted this onto a sheet of Japanese bookbinding tissue and then onto the back of each piece of bark, gently pressing the tissue to the bark to ensure good adhesion.

4. After a few minutes, I placed the whole thing between some sheets of cushioning paper, then boards of marine ply and left it overnight to dry completely. I didn’t add any further weights, although if you were after a very flat effect I think you could place weights very gently on the board.

5. The next day the paperbark was ready to be coated with wax. My aim with this was to stabilize the surface of the bark so it could be handled without small pieces coming away.

You can see the beeswax melting into the baking tray which is on the hot plate you saw here. At this point, I should explain that for this project I am using beeswax only, which is different from encaustic medium. Encaustic medium is beeswax with one or more additives, most usually damar resin, but other waxes such as microcrystalline or carnuba wax may be used. The purpose of the additives is to alter the characteristics of the wax, such as melting point, brittleness vs pliability, hardness of the finished surface. I am just beginning to explore how these work, so I have stayed with the straight beeswax, with which I am most familiar.

6. Once there was enough wax in the tray, the process was very simple and as you can see, not even particularly gentle! I simply placed the sheet of paperbark into the wax. To ensure good wax coverage I used a traditional Japanese printmaking baren which was coated with alfoil.

7. The final step is fusing the wax. Fusing is done by lightly re-melting the wax, just to the point where a sheen appears using a heat gun. This allows the different layers of wax to bond and improves the structural integrity of the surface.

This final series of photos shows how the wax looks before fusing, immediately after turning off the heat gun and 5 minutes later.

My Favourite Encaustic Resources

Bear in mind, these are just my own favourites. There are numerous others out there. Just take a look on Amazon or on the R&F Handmade Paints website.

1. Joanne Mattera: The Art of Encaustic Painting (Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax) 2001

The original contemporary guide to encaustic painting. Includes history, a survey of artists working with encaustic, and a thorough introduction to materials. Focuses on painting primarily.

2. Lissa Rankin: Encaustic Art - The Complete guide to Creating Fine Art with Wax, 2010.

New on the market last year, this is the book I was waiting for! Its focus is fine art plus a great “how to” guide to many different techniques. There have been other “how to” books out there, but they were more project-based.

Both books 1 & 2 can be checked out via the “Search Inside” feature of Amazon. The links above will take you there.

3. Paula Roland: Encaustic Monotypes – Painterly Prints With Heat and Wax (DVD)

For something different, this is great if you’re a visual learner, but it does only cover monotypes i.e. using your hot plate as a printing plate with encaustic paints. This was something I was interested in and before Lissa Rankin’s book came out, it was impossible to find any information on it online. The DVD definitely contains more detail on this technique specifically than Rankin’s book.

4. R&F Handmade Paints – Forum

A great online resource which you can search, and pose all your questions to staff from R&F and others, who in my experience are both extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

A Safe, Cheap Set-up for Encaustic/Wax

2011-02-22T19:38:00.001+11:00

I’ve been pretty busy in the studio lately – I have three projects on-the-go at the moment.

One of these is a book I’m planning to submit to Books…Beyond Words at East Gippsland Art Gallery later this year. I was making the cover using paperbark and encaustic medium, so I thought I’d show you how I do that.

In this post I would like to share my set-up for working with encaustic/wax. My emphasis for any art activity is always health and safety, closely followed by not spending too much money until I’m sure I want to commit to the medium.

You’ll see that the set-up I have at the moment is both safe and functional but cost me less than AU $80.

The first thing that I want to say is that when it comes to wax, I am completely self-taught. I do have a few excellent references which I will share with you later. If you’ve been following this blog for a (really) long time, you may remember that I did some work with wax as part of my masters. So I’ve been a “serious dabbler” with the medium for some years, and it has captivated me from the start. I am always on the look-out for ways that it might add to the work I am doing.

The Basic Set-Up

First Considerations

Wax: There are a lot of different types of wax but beeswax is the primary one for art. The wax in my photo is from a beekeeper just outside Brisbane. I order online here. This wax is water-cleaned but not bleached, so if you are looking for very pure colour, you may want to buy your wax from an art store instead.
Next you need to melt your wax. It’s important to never use your wax containers for food again. You can use a baking tray, or saucepan, or an old tin as your container, and any sort of electric heating mechanism you can lay your hands on cheaply. I bought this old grill plate at a garage sale for $15-$20. I also have a second hand crock pot from Cash Converters, which is slow, but useful for keeping large amounts liquid for a number of hours. Personally, I would not use a gas camping stove for wax, because it is flammable, and I just prefer to keep away from an open flame in that situation. However, I know that others do – including the famous Jasper Johns who has been working with encaustic as long as anybody.
Brushes: Its best to start with cheap natural bristle brushes. You can clean brushes with paraffin wax (from normal candles) but its easier to have dedicated brushes for wax. You’ll see I use some foam brushes in the photo above. I read they were useful to achieve a smoother application than the coarse boar hair. That is true, but they don’t last long at all and next time I’ll be spending the money on more expensive soft brushes, like hake brushes. Synthetic brushes aren’t advisable due to the flammability factor.
Fusing: When working with wax its important to gently fuse the layers frequently. For this you need another heat source, so the layers can combine into a single entity, rather than remaining as thin shards that can chip off easily. A heat gun on a low setting, a sun lamp (in Australia!!!?) or a creme brulee torch are some of the tools recommended. A hair dryer isn’t supposed to be hot enough, but that’s exactly what I used the first few times I tried out encaustic painting, and those pieces are still hanging together. I wouldn’t recommend it for too long though.

Safety

There are three main aspects to safely with beeswax. They are:

burns – first aid
fire
inhalation of fumes

Burns

Even a small splash of wax can cause a painful burn, particularly given the wax will stick to your skin. It pays to take care and always have an oven mitt and or tongs close by so you can handle containers that may have become hot.

It’s a good idea to plan for how you would manage burns, so that everything you need is on hand. This is a link to some pointers from St John’s Ambulance.

This is what I do:

Run cool water over the burn for 10 minutes

Apply a good layer of my favourite burn cream

Cover with a sterile bandage

This is a good article by the Mayo Clinic about evaluating the seriousness of a burn so you can decide what you need to do.

Fire

Beeswax melts between 62-65 deg C (143.6-149 F) and it will ignite at 242 deg C (468 F). You can see that is a huge difference and there is really no need to heat your beeswax to anything close to the flash point. In her book on encaustic painting (reference coming) Joanne Mattera recommends an optimum working range of 165-220 deg F (74-104 deg C).

Nevertheless, its always best to be prepared, and to be aware that water will cause a wax fire to spread. Instead, an all purpose extinguisher is recommended. We have one just outside the door of our unit, but because that feels a bit far away I have bought a fire blanket which hangs beside my work table.

Fumes

The risks associated with inhaling toxic fumes from encaustic work has definitely held me back from diving straight in with the medium. Anything you read about the subject always mentions ventilation. A couple of times, in the early days, I worked with the window open but still had a bit of a headache afterwards, and this really worried me.

If you are going to work in an intensive way with wax/encaustic, I really recommend seeking advice from a suitably qualified expert in the area of safe ventilation/extraction systems. R&F Handmade Paints have a very helpful article on the subject posted here.

There are however, some simple principles which can make your work environment much safer. At this point, I don’t work extensively with the medium and I am satisfied with my work room set up for now. I will share my set-up with you, but please know that I am not an expert and cannot guarantee that this set-up is 100% safe.

There are two ways that I avoid fumes in my studio.

1. Palette Thermometer

So far, this is the only specialized piece of equipment that I have bought. It is from R&F Handmade Paints in the US, and I have to say that for the peace of mind it provides, it is worth more than double the money! I never let the grill plate go over 220 deg F and there has been a noticeable reduction in both visible and smell-able(!) fumes.

2. Physical Lay-out + Box Fan

The aim of this layout is to draw any fumes away from the grill plate and out of the studio window. To get this to happen, I -

place the hot plate in front of the open window
place the box fan facing out on the window sill directly in front of the wax (the fan was $20 from Cash Converters)
close the window up to the box fan (this discourages blow-back)
open the studio door and open the windows in the next room where the afternoon breeze comes in.

All of this works together to firstly minimize fumes by keeping the wax temperature at an optimum without being unnecessarily high, and by creating a through-draft carrying any fumes out the studio window.

There is one other thing I could do to improve this system, which is to have a board installed around the box fan to fill the open window space. This would increase the draw-out and completely stop any blow-back. I may do this in the future, if I start working more extensively with the medium.

Fumes can be an issue with lots of mediums, not just encaustic. I really hope this post helps you to be safe in the studio. If you’ve got a studio set-up aimed at dealing with fumes or other toxic materials, I’d love to hear about what you’ve done.

Next post I’m planning to show you some photos of the book I’m making for East Gippsland, as well as those references on encaustic.

How to Sell Art Online Pt 3

2011-02-15T19:04:00.001+11:00

This is the final in this series of posts looking at and comparing a few of the ways to sell art online.

I want to say a big thank-you to those people who wrote in after last weeks post and shared valuable “tidbits” from their own experience using Etsy. If you’re thinking of trying Etsy for yourself, I urge you to take a look at the comments as well as last weeks post. There are actually two points that were raised about Etsy where my info was out of date or incomplete, so I’ll be posting an addendum on last week’s post to correct these.

This week I’m writing about RedBubble and the option of adding PayPal to your own blog or website. So here it is!

RedBubble.com

What is it?

RedBubble works in a very different way to Etsy and BigCartel. It is a print-on-demand site where your artwork is made into a product eg matted or framed print, card, t-shirt, calendar, stickers. It is also the actual shopfront where the item is sold.

So you upload your images onto their site, write up your profile which accompanies the work and they do the rest.

Fees

Free to join and you don’t actually ever pay them anything
Before you get too excited – they are paid by your purchasers. Items have a “base price”, all of which goes to RedBubble for their manufacturing and other costs.
You set your prices as a percentage on top of the base price and you receive all of this monthly.

Art 4 XMVR

Advantages

Low work load: you focus on the artwork, but don't have to produce the actual product or post it off
No financial outlay
Australian-based
Buyers can search by tag word/s, medium, time and popularity.
Has a community feel, with groups and challenges etc. I am still to get into this aspect so I can’t comment much further on that, except to say that I have received welcome emails and invitations to introduce myself to the groups I joined.
In my experience, manufacture and delivery is fast – about a week from order to arrival at my door. It would of course be slower for items ordered from overseas.
For readers of this blog, RedBubble is not a venue for selling artists books. However, it is highly appropriate for selling photos, prints and drawings, which many of you also produce. Even gorgeous photos of your artists books could look good on cards, calendars or whatever.

For a tiny investment of time and no investment of money, it’s a great avenue to get your images out there, and via your profile you can always entice art lovers to your blog or website, where they might just buy a book.

Disadvantages

Not as well known as etsy, in my opinion
Earnings must reach $20 before they will transfer them to you.
You have to drive people to your work within the site from your other web “presences”. Your products are competing with everybody else’s and there is a lot on there to distract them.
Lack of control over finished product.

This is obviously the “biggie” in using RedBubble. I know this will bother some of you more than others. Of course, it is the other side of the coin which makes this such a low effort approach. The two are in direct relationship to one another, and only you can decide whether the equation balances for you.

I suggest that you order something to do your own quality assurance. I ordered some greeting cards, which was not a huge outlay and put my fears to rest. If you are really worried, you could also order a small matted or laminated print for a moderate outlay. You do of course get your own items for the base price.

4. PayPal on your own site

What is it?

Paypal is a service which allows you to pay and receive payments from people without setting up a credit card facility. Basically, you join up, link a bank account or debit/credit card to PayPal and off you go. It is considered very safe, with strategies and procedures in place for both Buyer and Seller Protection.

There are three types of accounts. As a sole trader you can use either a Personal or a Premier account. If you already have a Personal account, it’s easy to upgrade to seller status.

From this point on, I will just be discussing the use of PayPal as a mechanism for selling items from your website or blog.

Fees

No joining fee & no fees until a sale is made.
Charges are 2.4% plus AUD 0.30c for each transaction. If your sales total AUD$5000+ in a month, you can apply for the merchant rate, which is 1.1%
When items are purchased by an international buyer, the rate increases to 3.4% (less if sales are AUD$5000+)

Advantages

You can be in complete control of the process, from the making of the artwork, the packaging, and the postage.
You have your shop on your own space (blog or website) and you won't lose people easily to other sellers.
Low fees, especially in comparison to gallery commissions etc.
Can be added to your existing blog or website &
whether or not you use Paypal to pay for items already, its easy to get set up.

Features which allow you to easily customize your buyer’s view, as well as assist with processing orders, keeping accounts etc.

Disadvantages

You have to attract people to your website/blog in order to sell, but presumably that is what you are trying to do with or without a PayPal facility. You still need to be active in some other online forums so that people will see your work and your name when you comment, and decide to click on that link and check you out.
It seems to me that, if you make work and you would like to sell it, even if you sell in shops “in the real world”, I can’t see any disadvantage to using this PayPal facility on your site.
Despite the customization options, this facility won’t have the slick finished appearance of “your own online shop” unless you have HTML skills at your fingertips.

Well, that’s all that I have to say on this subject for the time being. During the course of publishing these posts, I discovered yet more options for selling art online. I’ll list them here with links, but I haven’t checked them out myself.

I really hope that these posts have provided you with some valuable information and I encourage you to get in touch via the comments. Your thoughts and experiences with selling art online would be most appreciated.

How to Sell Art Online pt 2

2011-02-08T17:59:00.001+11:00

This week I’m going to share the research that I did into a number of online selling options. Now I didn’t explore absolutely everything that is out there. I felt that examining three or four ways to go was good enough for me to make a decision. I probably would have gone further if none of those seemed a good “fit” for my needs, but as you know if you read last week’s post, I chose RedBubble for my first online selling domain.

I will compare four options – Etsy, BigCartel, RedBubble and using PayPal from your own blog/website. I’ll talk about each in turn, starting with an overall description and their fees, then listing the advantages/disadvantages. Of course, some features may be viewed either way depending on your needs and viewpoint, so these are really just my own thought processes, but I will try to present both views.

1. Etsy.com

What is it?

Etsy is an online shopping space where literally thousands of craftspeople and artists sell handmade or vintage items, or supplies. Basically you join up for free, set up your own shopfront, with its own style and flavour, and set your prices independently. All prices are in US dollars, so there may be a few currency conversions before you receive your money e.g. a buyer in the Netherlands has to exchange their Euro to US dollars, and then that will be exchanged to whatever currency you as the seller use, in my case the Aussie dollar. You won’t be paying for the first conversion, but you probably will be for the second. I believe there is some sort of “back-door” arrangement some people offer to buyers in their own country, as I’ve seen it offered, but haven’t looked into it.

Fees

For each item you list, there is a 20 cent fee.
If the item sells, you pay 3.5% of the sale price, but not on shipping.
If the item has not sold after 4 months, it will be unlisted. You may re-list it for another 20 cents.

Advantages

You have full control over production of the items you sell, how they are packaged, shipped etc. You are definitely in control.
An established site, known by potential buyers
Relatively easy set up, no need to know HTML or whatever.
Reasonable costs, in particular low set-up cost
Groups and teams, forum, community atmosphere – there is a lot of support, tips & encouragement provided to help you get started and continue to expand your business.

Disadvantages

Your shop name will be a derivative of etsy.com e.g. etsy.com/shop/Amanda’sArt
You have to list work often to keep your profile up on the site. e.g. I did a search for “handmade journal” and there were 44 pages of results. On the front page, there were 40 items with pictures – the most recently listed items. You can also sort by relevancy (which doesn’t make much difference) and price. So you can see that if you haven’t listed work lately, your beautiful journal could be buried somewhere around page 20.

In the same vein, you compete with everyone else on etsy to entice buyers to your shop. It can be easy to lose potential buyers - they can just click on another image and they are away.
You really need to be active in other forums eg blogging, facebook, flickr to drive customers to your shop.
You do all the work yourself – packing, posting items yourself. (Some may see this as an advantage)

Post Script: In the comments, Sara & Buechertiger mentioned a couple of improvements on Etsy that I had missed.

It is possible to relist items for AU 0.40c, which will cause them to bounce back up to the top of searches etc
Transactions can now be done in numerous currencies (including the Aussie $), not just US $s – so if a buyer is international there will only be one currency conversion – from their money to AU $. Hope this makes sense! Feel free to get in touch if I haven’t explained this clearly.

2. BigCartel.com

What is it?

BigCartel functions as an online directory and shopping cart for all sorts of creative products ranging from bands selling their CDs and vinyl (yes! its the latest trend - again), up-and-coming clothing designers, artists and craftspeople. You can create your own online shop, list your items and use their shopping cart mechanism. A number of currencies are supported including the US $, Aussie $, GBP, NZ $ and the Euro.

Fees

There is a sliding fee schedule, ranging from free to $29.99/month. For free, you can list up to 5 products, but only 1 image per product. There is basic customization of your shop available.
$9.99/month: 25 products with 3 images each. Much better customization & features including your own url e.g. Amanda’sArtShop.com.au (you will have to buy this).
$19.99/month: 100 products, 5 images each, best features.
$29.99/month: 300 products, 5 images each, features as above.

Advantages

Sell in your own currency (for Aussie’s anyway)
Some might argue with me, but I think BigCartel is about as well-known as Etsy. Possibly it has a broader profile, because it is well-known for clothing and music. Perhaps this is a disadvantage, if these people aren’t into buying art, but I think there would be plenty of crossover.
BigCartel shops can be integrated with Pulley for digital downloads e.g. e-books.
Personally I like the search system on BigCartel. I searched for “handmade journal”, and got only 5 results, but these were shop-front graphics, not individual items. I could then work my way through each shop in turn. This just seemed much simpler.

As a seller, this means you don’t have to rely on a particular item drawing a potential customer in, and similarly, some gorgeous item in someone else’s shop can’t lure your customer away. On the other hand, I’m sure some other searches come up with many more results, and you need to name and “brand” your shop accurately to attract the right people.

There is a “store directory” where you send your graphic and your store will be included. This is in addition to the search mechanism. Stores who opt to be in the directory may be featured from time to time.

Disadvantages

You are competing for the buyer’s dollar with a broader range of product.
You need to have a PayPal account. Personally I don’t see this as a problem, but some might.
Less of a community feel. No teams or forums, although the help section seems pretty good. This is pretty business-like, as the name, BigCartel suggests.
You do all the work yourself – packing, posting items yourself. (Some may see this as an advantage)

This post is pretty long and there’s a lot to digest, so I think I’ll hold RedBubble and PayPal over to the next post.

In the meantime, I would love to hear from anyone out there who has a shop on Etsy or BigCartel. It would be terrific to hear about your experiences, how it is going and any tips or advice you can add. That way, we can create a useful resource for artists who are thinking about selling their work online.

Selling Your Art Online: The Why and The How, Part 1

2011-02-02T13:16:00.001+11:00

MY REDBUBBLE SHOP IS OPEN

For some time I’ve been looking into ways of selling my work online. I’ve considered Etsy, RedBubble and using PayPal to sell from my blog. And finally today is the day when it all comes together! I am really excited to be launching my RedBubble shop.

If you glance slightly to the left of this post you should see my RedBubble display. There are links over there to take you straight to the shop.

Last year I designed a series of four prints entitled Seasons, related to the Judy & the Jacaranda artists book featured in last week’s post. I gave some of these away to celebrate my 200th post, and now I have decided that the proceeds from these prints should go to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Fund.

Over at RedBubble, the prints are available as greeting cards or as prints, in a variety of formats including matted photographic prints and printed on canvas. RedBubble offer a money back guarantee and you do not have to join anything to shop.

It’s a great cause, and I hope you will support it!

All that aside, I thought you might be interested to hear why I decided to opt for an online shop and then what my research about the options revealed. There’s quite a bit of info, so I’ve decided to split it across two posts. I’ll explain the features of each option, what I considered to be the advantages and disadvantages, and finally why I decided RedBubble suits me best at this time.

I should say that I have no affiliation with any of the sites that led me to favour one over another. Also, there are other options such as CafePress, but that is more for merchandise like t-shirts, aprons, mugs and so on. I wasn’t after that sort of product, so I haven't looked closely at it.

Why Sell Art Online?

I could write a whole post and still not fully answer this question, or I could just say, “because the web is there”, but I’m going to try to give an honest, personal response.

For me, with my health problems, it seems a logical approach. Despite being ill for 20 years, I am serious about my art and I would like to have the best career I can, within these limitations.

Making art is almost essential to me. Only a few steps behind breathing, eating, sleeping. But now that I’ve reached a certain level, it has become increasingly important to share what I do. That said, it feels like I have barely enough time and energy for the art-making, so how can I find time to get the work “out there”?

I’ve been inspired by Michael Nobbs, another PWCFS who describes himself as an artist, blogger and tea drinker. He blogs at Sustainably Creative and this year has taken the plunge as a full-time blogger, supporting himself entirely via his online network. His aspirations are somewhat grander and different to mine (you can read more about them on his blog) but I’ve learned a lot from watching him and reading his advice.

Not long after I first encountered Michael, he was interviewed for Chris Guillebeau’s Unconventional Guide to Art & Money. On impulse, and largely because Michael was a part of the project, I purchased a copy. This e-book provides a broad brushstroke approach to an internet-based art career (hence the unconventional – avoiding total reliance on the gallery/museum).

It has taken me about 12 months to digest all this, but a couple of months ago I realized: “Well, I already blog, and I catch up with some people on Facebook from time to time. Oh! and I have a Flickr account that’s been a bit ignored lately, but I used to post my work there regularly. Plus there are a few book arts forums…”

So it seems to me that selling online is the missing link, and that by just continuing to share what I do, how I do it and what I learn, as I’ve already been doing, and simply adding in selling in one or two locations, something quite lovely and rewarding could be created.

So, here I am, dipping my toes into the vast sea that is online selling! What an adventure! But how to go about it? Well, that’s coming in Part 2.

Collaborating in book art

2011-01-25T18:23:00.001+11:00

I’ve been working away on the new website I mentioned in last weeks post, making progress but still a way to go.It’s given me the chance to look over images of my work, and reinforced the pleasure to be had connecting and sharing with online friends, like the Book*Art*Object group.

A great way for artists to connect is by collaborating. While BAO isn’t collaboration in the sense of the individual books/objects created, the project, which encompasses all our books as the group’s response to a text, plus the entire blogged experience of their creation is certainly a collaboration.

Judy & the Jacaranda, which was my first BAO work, opened up another opportunity for collaboration. In July 2010, when I was about half way through binding my edition of 14 copies of Judy, I took a break and went to Sydney. One highlight of the trip for me was the day I visited the Librorum Bibliothecea apud Artificem, Monica Oppen’s private artists book collection.

As well as being a printmaker and book artist, Monica is a trained bookbinder and spoke about her many collaborations with artists. Although reasonably happy with my stab-binding of Judy, I leapt at the chance to explore other options with Monica. With her depth of knowledge and experience, I was intrigued to discover what her solution would be.

I spoke to Monica about the way I had thought through my approach (see this post) so she would understand what had been important to me. Then, when I returned to Brisbane, I posted off one unbound copy and one bound copy for her to consider.

Monica suggested a single piece cover with z-folds. (If you own Vol 1 of Keith Smith, you can see a diagram on p. 131) This is also an Asian-style binding, but the sewing is hidden. I was keen to use an Asian binding because the book refers to the tradition found in Asian art, where the seasons are used as a metaphor for the cycle of life. I felt happy with Monica’s suggestion and sent three more unbound copies for her to bind.

In the end, there are 14 books in the edition, plus 2 artists proofs. There is a Special Edition of 4, handbound by Monica Oppen, which comes with a handmade protective slipcase and ten copies handbound in a 5-Hole Stab Binding by the artist (me!)

It’s been a very different process, but one that has been very valuable. Living in a house with a musician, for whom collaboration is a completely natural instinct, I confess I have longed at times for something similar in my work. This collaboration came along a little late in the project, and next time, I would definitely aim to share ideas from the start. It was somewhat of a challenge to hand “my baby” over to another (it never occurred to me that I could simply unbind it all if I wasn’t happy!) However, the leap of faith that was required was really just another of the type that is demanded at times during the act of creating. I found that there was much to be gained by opening myself to the input of another at this stage, and by the injection of Monica’s particular expertise.

The binding Monica chose gives the book a greater elegance. It opens with ease and still refers to the Asian origin of the book’s theme, but with more subtlety. That said, I think some people may prefer the stab binding simply because it is a much-loved binding, as pointed out by Tara O’Brien.

I’m proud to share with you that a copy of the Special Edition was acquired for the Librorum Bibliothecea apud Artificem. Thank-you Monica! There are copies of both editions currently available for sale. I will be putting them up on the new website, but until then you can email me (potsrmeathotmaildotcom).

Finally, I have posted a slideshow below that takes you page by page through the book. This is for those people who aren’t BAO-folks (who obviously have their own copy of the real thing!) Hope you enjoy it!

A page by page look at Judy & the Jacaranda

The Brisbane flood: connecting & contributing

2011-01-18T19:32:00.001+11:00

Well 2011 has kicked off somewhat dramatically with the worst floods this city has seen since 1974. However, it’s far too early to get negative, and I’m determined to view the fact that everyone in my family escaped inundation as a good omen. In fact, I haven’t heard of any friends who’ve been badly affected. Just good luck, I guess, given the severity of the situation.

Out of respect for those who haven’t been so lucky, I haven’t been out of my local area since this all started. “Rubber-necking” has been firmly discouraged by the authorities, and quite rightly so. It didn’t feel right to take photos, even locally, but a very high resolution aerial photo, taken on Thursday Jan 13th after the peak is online here.

I’ve posted a tiny section showing where I live and the closest flooding to our home. It seems quite far away, but when the worst was feared the prediction was for flooding to come as close as the footy field just across from us.

Below is a close-up of the area in the red square.

I find it quite heartbreaking peeking into those backyards. If you click on the photo you’ll see more detail, like the clothes lines and pools. Remember that’s after the peak. Nevertheless, our suburb is so much better off than many others.

It’s been incredible to see the way the city has rallied around those people who have lost so much. The money, the clothes and toys, but most impressive of all is the willingness to offer ones own time to do what is at best uncomfortable work. It’s been hot, humid and smelly and yet they came in their thousands.

Brisbane in the 21st century had become a bit of a strange, soulless place, in my opinion. Back before good old Expo ‘88 we used to be described by Southerners as “just a big country town”. It was meant derisively but it was pretty true, right down to the sense that you knew everybody (and their business) and that we looked out for one another, for their kids and so on.

By the new millennium, we may have acquired outdoor cafes and shops that stay open on Sundays, but we had lost a sense of community in all but a few small enclaves.

I can’t help hoping that the floods just might teach us the value of community, about reaching out and contributing time and effort for something beyond our own personal benefit. It might remind us of the joy to be had from connecting with neighbours and from the collective sense of belonging to a place. And most certainly it should remind us, as we seem to need to be reminded at regular intervals, that Nature is the boss and we disregard this fact at our own peril.

This might all seem pretty off-topic for me and this blog, but the strange thing is, it is exactly what I wanted to express in my first post of the year. After all the reviewing and thinking and planning I did in December, I tried to come up with one word to set the “tone” or theme for the sort of 2011 I hope to create. And I couldn’t do it of course, but I did come up with three: Connect/Community/Contribute.

These are the things that I most enjoyed about 2010 but that I felt I wanted in greater quantities. I realized that the easiest way (and therefore most likely to be successful) was to do this online. Being ill has left me feeling terribly isolated at times, but since hooking up online with both other PWCFS and with my book arts buddies, this has been much better. Still, I do want more, and I genuinely want to give back. I used to work in “a helping profession” so I always felt that I was giving and contributing, and never had to seek out more ways to do so. I don’t see it as realistic to consider that type of work any more, but I still have a lot to contribute, and I want to contribute.

I also want to share my work with more people. And when I say share, I do mean share. It isn’t about making money from it, I just want people to see it and derive pleasure from it. You might remember that for my 200th post last year, I had a give-away, and I was surprised by the pleasure and satisfaction I felt as I sent my prints off to their new homes.

At the moment, I am setting up a website that will have a shop facility, and I have decided that all proceeds from sales made before June 30 this year will be donated to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal. Hopefully the website will be online in the next few weeks. If you would like to be notified when it comes online, please leave a comment on this post with your email address. In the meantime, if you feel you would like to, you can of course donate directly on the Qld government site.

‘Tis the season

2010-12-23T13:59:00.001+11:00

Whatever your tradition, all over the world people regard this time of year (roughly) as the time to stop and celebrate a little, each with their own different “take” on the season.

Unlike in the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice often passes down here without much attention being paid. It is severely overshadowed by the hoo-hah of Christmas.

This week on the night of the 21st, in a rare coincidence, there was a lunar eclipse and the summer solstice occurring together. There were clouds covering the show here at the appointed time, although at 8:30pm I did notice a big beautiful full moon, so the sky must have cleared by then!

Nevertheless, I thought I’d share these photos, which I found on the Daily Telegraph picture gallery. They were taken at Bondi in Sydney and in Canberra, respectively. You can see more photos of the eclipse all over the world by following the Daily Telegraph link.

Above: Noel Kessell

Above: Gary Ramage

To all who pass by this blog, whether this is your first visit or you are a regular blogging buddy, I wish you the very best for the season, however you choose to celebrate. May you have joy, peace and good health. Keep safe and I look forward to re-connecting in the New Year.

December Rain & the Dobell Drawing Prize

2010-12-19T19:16:00.001+11:00

Well the Hunters & Collectors song is about January rain, but this is December rain. Last Thursday at around 2pm, to be precise. This is the view from our patio looking across the road. Notice how dark it is?

Fortunately the post man arrived before the rain, as he was carrying these goodies that I purchased from Lisa Engelbrecht’s site. They are a 6.0mm Pilot Parallel Pen and an ink pencil. By the way, Lisa has the parallel pens available for US$10 + $4 shipping, and with the Aussie dollar so strong, that’s quite a saving on the retail price here. I thought it was a great opportunity to try something new cheaply.

With Christmas so close, I haven’t had the time or energy to create lately, but I did want to mention some of the artists I discovered while I was at the Art Gallery of NSW. The Dobell Drawing Prize is currently on show (and will be till the end of January) and with my current obsession with drawing it was great timing for me.

Suzanne Archer was the winner, and you can the winning work here, but I wanted to share the works that really said something to me. I’ve tried to find images of the actual work, but if I couldn’t then I’ve chosen something with the same flavour. You can see more of each artists work by following the link attached to their name.

It was great to see an artists book included. The work is a beautiful collection of sea shells and creatures, very sensitively drawn.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any more about Angus online.

The work below by Anne Edmonds doesn’t show up well on a screen, but was a gorgeous study of light.

Anne Edmonds Climate Change: Beacons of Hope (graphite) Sydney*

Fiona Fenech Scapegoat (thread, graphite, polychrome pencil on mulberry paper)*

Michael Peck The land stood empty (india ink on archival paper)*

Catherine O’Donnell Number 19 (charcoal)*

This work was like a photo, and the idea that you could achieve such a degree of realism just with charcoal really bowled me over.

Another artist whose work really struck me was Annette Russell. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find any images of recent work by her, although the link will take you to some beautiful ethereal installation works and photographs.

Finally here is a link to a review in Australian. I note that the author and I only selected two works in common. Having not seen the previous exhibition to which he refers, I can’t comment on that comparison. However, I would say that I agree that in a prize specifically for drawing, it is good to see some examples of what is particular about the medium e.g. Michael Peck’s work. That said, I also find it impossible to disregard the technical virtuosity displayed for example by Catherine O’Donnell.

*All images of other artists works were borrowed with no mal-intent, and will be removed immediately if requested by the artist or their agent.

Terracotta Warriors – feats of clay

2010-12-14T19:36:00.004+11:00

As I mentioned, last week I was away briefly. We had another short holiday in Sydney, this time with some very specific aims. We had tickets to see Uncle Vanya at the Sydney Theatre Company. The major drawcard of this play was the star-studded cast, which included Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh. In Brisbane it is extremely rare to see a cast like this, so we decided it would be worth the trip.
Secondly, as soon as I heard that China’s Entombed Warriors were coming to Sydney, I was desperate to see them. Believe it or not, they actually did visit Brisbane (back in 1988 for Expo) but I somehow missed them. Of course, that was before I had studied ceramics so I would not have appreciated the technical achievement they represent, at least not in the same way that I can now.
Clay can be a wonderful, adaptable material, but constructing life-sized sculptures is no easy task. The exhibition is well constructed, introducing the viewer to the types of works the crafts people were making before they began work on the Terracotta Army. The potters made roof tiles and vessels, which were lovely but can hardly have prepared them for this project.
Parts of the warriors are solid (the feet, lower legs and hands) while the rest of the bodies were constructed using a combination of sections formed in moulds, slabs and coil-building. It was an honour to realize I have a small part of this heritage, representing all the potters who work using the same techniques, down through not only the centuries, but the millennia. While the solid feet and legs would have been necessary to provide the strength required to support the life-size statues, they would also have presented one of the most challenging technical aspects. Solid clay areas need to be handled very skilfully when it comes to firing.

Art Gallery of NSW advertising for the exhibition of the Terracotta Army

My only disappointment was the small number of warriors on show. There are only about 8 warriors plus two chariots with horses (these are half-size). This isn’t disappointing as a display, they are still very impressive. It’s just when I looked at photos of the 1000s of warriors that were found, it seemed a bit meagre. I can’t imagine how it would feel to be confronted by the army as excavated in China, but this photosynth by Robert Sprout is amazing.

Help! Where has the year gone???

2010-12-14T19:36:00.001+11:00

We went away for 5 nights last week and all of a sudden everything seems too busy and I feel tired and stressed. I have a list of posts with news and other stuff that I wanted to share with you, but it hasn’t happened. The list just keeps getting longer some how. On top of that, I haven’t had the chance to do anything creative since the etching workshop, and that just makes me cranky!

It’s the time of year when there’s loads of social events, preparations for Christmas and with the intermittent rain, it just keeps getting more and more humid – sucking away the energy and making a late afternoon nap a necessity. Even though I talk about the horrors of summer in Brisbane, by the time it comes around I always seem to have forgotten how debilitating it really feels.

But that is more than enough whinging – especially when everybody has their own version at this time of year. And I actually have lots of good stuff to write here.

Day 3: Moment

2010-12-04T16:21:00.001+11:00

Just a short photo essay to accompany my Day 3 post for #reverb10, which you can see on my #reverb10 page.

It was such a pleasure to write this post that I just had to draw your attention to it!

To see more about these wonderful works, you can search the NGA website.

#reverb 10

2010-12-02T19:42:00.003+11:00

Susannah Conway who came up with "The August Break", has alerted her readers to an online "event" called #reverb 10.

The idea is that the end of the year is a time to review and set your direction for the new year. And some 1400+ bloggers have joined together to conduct their personal reviews via their blogs, under the (hopefully) helpful guidance of the team at #reverb10.

I feel rather as if I've been reviewing all year long, trying to find the right direction and balance for me. Since I became ill, I spent many years studying, and then caring for my widowed mother until she died last year. So there is a huge space in my life, together with some very real limitations due to CFS, and I've been struggling somewhat to get a clear sightline on my life.

I'm very much a Big Picture Person, and I can't settle to the small detail without first having a clear view of the whole. And it feels quite unclear in certain patches. It's not that I'm seeking certainty or total control. I know that nobody has that. It's more a matter of seeing all the jig-saw pieces, even if some pieces are wildcards. There! how d'you like that mixed metaphor?

Anyway, I'm hoping that a month of review and thoughtful consideration of 2011 will provide some much needed direction. Having said that, I may not be able (or even want) to respond to every prompt. I have no idea what is in store, but I liked the first one, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I'll be posting my responses under a new page, #reverb10.

Safer etching with copper sulphate

2010-11-25T19:55:00.000+11:00

This has been a really slow week for me again, as I’ve had to take some time to recover from attending a workshop last week-end. I have a number of things I’m keen to share with you all but I just couldn’t spend much time online, and even commenting or replying to comments has been too much.So please accept my apologies if you have posted recently and I haven’t been it touch.

Do you remember that wonderful blue liquid in the science lab at school? It was my favourite colour at the time, and I always remember it was copper sulphate. We didn’t often use it in the experiments we worked on, but it was a personal favourite (I know, who has a favourite chemical? I was a weird kid!)

So it was quite nice to find that copper sulphate can be used as an etch for printmaking and that it is one of the least toxic options.

These past few years I’ve been quite enamoured of etching, while at the same time being a bit scared of the chemicals involved. I realize that ceramics involves some nasty things too, but the thing that worries me about etching is it’s acid (ouch!) AND it gives off fumes.

I’ve been very hesitant about delving into etching because if it’s going to work for me, I need to be able to set myself up here in my home. A lot of people with CFS/ME have severe chemical sensitivities, and while it’s not really a major problem for me, perfumes have been known to make my nose run and give me a bit of a headache. I don’t need to add to my problems by exposing myself to further potential neurological damage by introducing toxins to my home.

So when I saw that Impress Printmakers were holding a workshop on Sunday on etching aluminium with copper sulphate, advertising it as a cheaper, low-toxic alternative, suitable for the home studio, I was quick to enrol. After the workshop I did some research online, particularly here and here, and discovered that the process really is low toxic. A very small amount of hydrogen gas is created, but it really isn’t considered dangerous, even inside, and I am planning to work out on our covered patio.

So perhaps I can really get on my way with printmaking now. Above I’ve posted scans of the two plates I made at the workshop. They both need further work to develop some strong blacks, but it was great fun getting this far. I’m actually really drawn to the plates themselves, and can see they may become artworks/book covers themselves. Has anybody else tried etching with copper sulphate?

Creative for a Second…or Two

2010-11-16T18:33:00.003+11:00

Just under two weeks ago a parcel arrived containing Journal #5, one of the journals travelling the world as part of Creative for a Second.
If you haven’t heard, this is the second time this project, which is for people with CFS/ME (PWCFS/ME) has run. If you follow the link above you can look through the first edition which was published through the print-on-demand service issuu.
And below is a video of Kirrliy Anderson who initiated the whole project. She is speaking at the launch of the tour which the first project made.

To keep the project rolling along, once the journal is in your hands you can only keep it for two weeks. In order to work quickly and also because I wanted to make something that was “recognisable” as my work, I decided to dig into what I call my “collage box”. This is where I keep test prints from previous works, a stash of Japanese papers and a few very select pieces of ephemera I’ve collected.
I began by physically putting different imagery together and when I had made a selection, I moved onto the computer which allowed me to work with the same imagery but to alter the scale and translucency.
I was aiming to make work that spoke about the experience of living with CFS, without being blatant and in a way which incorporated both the loss and grief, as well as the hope and potential. Below are the results.

I really enjoyed this process and found that there is a lot more work to be done with the imagery that I’ve developed in the past. It was very satisfying to bring together some of the work I did for my masters with more recent work. It also seems that this is a productive and effective way to work when I am quite low on energy.
There’s quite a lot that I could say about the imagery, connections that I can see and interpretations that could be made, but I think I’ll let the work speak for itself.

Experimenting with Hilke’s Headbands

2010-11-02T16:50:00.001+11:00

I’ve been continuing to test different bindings for my friend’s wedding album. I’m looking for something which will allow me to use an open spine with exposed stitching, but still provide enough support to the album which will be quite heavy.

I think I will need to use some cords, but while I wait for Keith Smith’s third volume with the instructions to arrive in the post, I thought I would try some headbands. I popped over to Buechertiger’s site, thinking I would need to buy her self published book on coptic headbands, but I found that on her blog there is a detailed post with step-by-step photos explaining how to make a “Simple Two Coloured Coptic Headband”. Thank-you for your generosity Hilke! This is much appreciated as I haven’t really been sure how much I like the look of headbands.

As you can see, they turned out quite nicely, and I think I can say I do like them now! And if you look closely you will see that they are in fact two colours, but they are very similar shades, as I thought the pattern on the fabric was complex enough.

I also tried out a couple of other new things with this book. I made my very first book fabric, backing it with tissue using wheat starch paste. Inspired by Paper Chipmunk’s recent successes, I took my method from this video on youtube, but don’t be misled by the ease and expertise you see here! What a kerfuffle! Talk about “paper wrestling”!*

I was amazed when later that evening I ended up with a beautifully stiffened sheet of fabric which covered the boards really nicely. I can definitely see the difference (previously I used an acid free glue stick to attach the fabric directly onto the book board).

I also used a different paper for the book. I was thinking of a book for writing, rather than drawing or painting, and so I chose Mohawk Superfine Text. It is beautiful paper, but not as strong as the cartridge, watercolour paper or BFK I’ve used in the past. As a result I tore one of the signatures, and marked some of the others at the top when working the headbands. I think I might leave this paper until I am more proficient with these particular bindings. A good lesson learnt.

* See Claire Beynon’s poem “Paper Wrestling”

Portrait of a Studio

2010-10-28T00:15:00.001+11:00

On Sunday I went to see “Self Portrait”, the Studio West End group show that I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

In 1998 artists Adele Outteridge and Wim de Vos established Studio West End, from where they offer various workshops ranging through book arts, printmaking, painting and mixed media.

Wim has developed extensive skills working with perspex and the material has become somewhat of a signature material for both him and the studio. Adele and Wim create such a welcoming environment and have so much to offer, that many of those who come to study choose to stay and develop a lengthy relationship with the studio, and with Adele and Wim.

The works in the show demonstrated the wide and varied range of skills and talent nurtured at the studio. There were 25 artists represented and the photos posted here are simply the ones that appealed to me personally.

Studio West End recently launched a website, which you can find here. Wim told me that they will be documenting the show in full on the site soon. In the mean time, the gallery on the site has works by Adele and Wim, plus a number of photos of cute cats!!

Above: Adele Outteridge

Above: Bronwyn Estaban

Above: Fiona Medhurst

Above: Graham Bligh

Above: Philomena Drake

Above: Sharon Smith

Above: Sheryl Whimp

6 degrees=5 artists=1 great show

2010-10-20T18:55:00.001+11:00

On Sunday I headed off to White Canvas Gallery in the Valley to see the show 6 degrees. On display was the work of five female Brisbane artists, connected by their common mentor Majena Mafe. I was so glad that I made the effort, as this was really one of the strongest shows I’ve seen in a long time.

All the work had a powerful and positive feminine energy, supported by layers of conceptual rigour. It felt as if the artists had delved deeply within themselves to create works that were soulful, emotional, complex and yet spoke with clarity about their individual concerns.

Kate Cooke’s sewn mesh sculpture and evocative shadows spoke of the constraints placed on women, and strongly referenced drawing with its use of line and tone.

Above: Kate Cooke

Mela Fitzgibbon embroidered pointed feminist commentary on gorgeous pink silk, which cascaded luxuriously from the wall.

Natasha’s brightly coloured and multi-layered paintings were rich with detail and time spent devoted to the recording of personal narrative.

Above: Natasha Narain

Sandra’s feminine basket forms were wrapped in fleece like a mother’s arms. At first glance they speak of holding in a way that is sublimely gentle and nurturing, but on closer inspection questions are raised. Is that tendril penetrating the basket form? Is this a loving or menacing embrace?

Above: Sandra Pearce

Ann Russell created amazing bricolage, exploring mythical worlds and characters, like the one above, Ariadne'’s Orb. You can see Ariadne, the spider if you click on the photo to enlarge it. I’m not often a fan of bricolage, but these pieces were constructed so sensitively while still with a definite nod to outsider art, that they managed to be both fun and beautiful as well as having a story to tell.

The artists have also put together an extensive catalogue of their work, 6 degrees, available on Blurb, which is a great idea I think.

Openings: a confession

2010-10-16T16:42:00.001+11:00

There were two openings on last night that I had hoped to attend.

I actually don’t really enjoy openings that much. For starters, it’s a terrible way to see the art because everyone is so crammed in. Secondly, there’s the speeches (yawn) and finally there’s the small talk. Even worse, if you don’t actually know anyone, you stand around, nursing your drink and trying to look comfortable, thoughtful, approachable or whatever!

I know this makes me sound like a terrible grouch, but hey! I’m an artist, and I spend long stretches of time on my own. We can’t all be so adaptable! (I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like this, am I???)

But it’s not just a matter of preference and avoiding situations that are a bit challenging. If it was, I would be firmer with myself and do the professional thing. The fact is that by evening I am usually pretty tired and the last thing I feel like doing is dressing up and going out. Preparing and eating dinner and then getting ready for bed is often challenging enough!

I’m gradually accepting that this is just the way I am, but I do try to make it to openings of friends, because I do understand how important these occasions are, and how much that type of support is appreciated.

All that being said, I did hope to get to these two openings last night. But I didn’t. It wasn’t completely slackness though. On Thursday I had to have a filling and although it all went smoothly, I was rather nervous because the dentist was new to me, plus having suffered TMJ syndrome, my neck was complaining about having to bear tipping back and holding my mouth open for half an hour. I had a vague headache and I was pretty tired – and I have promised myself that I would be a lot kinder to myself.

So, I didn’t go. But I will be going along to the shows in the next week and I’ll tell you all about them. Until then, in case you’re nearby, here’s the details.

Both shows are group shows and will include a variety of works. First off is 6 Degrees, with artist Sandra Pearce, friend and fellow Impress Printmakers member.

The second show is the Studio West End group show entitled Self Portrait. This will showcase the work of 24 artists, led by Adele Outteridge and Wim de Vos.

And despite what I’ve said about openings in general, I am really looking forward to seeing the shows.

Learning New Bindings

2010-10-09T23:02:00.001+11:00

This is my latest book. The paper on the cover is handmade mulberry that I bought in Sydney at Shop Kraft. Inside the cover I used paper from Amazing Paper, which I think is hairy abaca paper, but I’m not 100% on that.

The binding is waxed linen thread over leather tapes. I taught myself how it is done, and as such take full responsibility for any mistakes or misinterpretations of the instructions. I used two books to guide me, reading Keith Smith’s first volume as an initial introduction, but following the lovely diagrams and instructions in Cover to Cover, by Shereen LaPlantz.

It’s not too bad for a first attempt, although the stitches aren’t as even as I would like them to be. I found the signatures needed a bit more juggling and manoeuvring than with a coptic, which probably implies I was doing it all wrong!

I’m trying out a few different bindings at the moment as I have some books with clay covers planned. These will be heavier than usual covers, and so I need to be sure the binding will support the extra weight.

During the week, as part of the process of getting ready to make the clay covers, I recycled some old porcelain clay that had dried out. It’s nearly two years since I finished my masters and I haven’t done any work with clay since then.

The dried clay had to be broken up into small pieces and soaked in water (slaking) until a thick, wet, sticky mass is created. Then it is set out on plaster to have the moisture sucked back out, till it reaches just the right level of hydration and plasticity for handling.

This whole process takes a number of days and wow! was that physically-demanding! I was rather amazed to think how much of this sort of thing I used to be able to do. It’s a bit scary to think about. In future, I think I might just go right ahead and buy a lovely new workable bag of clay and forget about recycling. My energy is too precious!

Hannah Bertram in Melbourne

2010-10-04T14:28:00.001+11:00

If you’re in Melbourne before October 16th, be sure to get along and see Hannah’s latest works at Dianne Tanzer Gallery. The show is the culmination of her project for 2010, The Silence of Becoming and Disappearing.

Work by Hannah Bertram

If you can’t make it to the gallery, you can see the photos of the sublime works Hannah made in private homes throughout the year on her website.

The ruling pen

2010-10-02T20:56:00.001+10:30

I’ve been trying to work out how to use a ruling pen. In case it’s new to you too, this is actually a drafting tool, and I learned about it in the calligraphy book I mentioned a few posts back.

It took me a while to work out how to use it at all. Eventually I did find a blog post explaining that it should be viewed as two nibs and that ink or gouache can be loaded into the curved nib from a small brush. The screw is used to adjust the width between the nibs. Close together will give a thin line, while further apart gives a wider line. (Unlike the way I used it right back at the beginning of the month, wide apart to achieve double lines. Altho’ I guess this is ok too – maybe I’ve invented a new use!)

In the book, Denise Lach talks about varying the speed of writing, the tilt of the pen and the smoothness/roughness of the surface in order to create varied effects. I bought a small pad of canvas paper, thinking this surface might help me to get the gorgeous splattering effect shown in the book. As you can see from my page of attempts below, it’s not straightforward!

Above:No splatters!

Next I tried writing on some rough watercolour paper and towards the end of my efforts, by holding the pen quite loosely, I managed one little splatter, but not much!

So if anyone can offer any more specific advice on how the splatter effect is achieved, I’d really love to hear from you!

September catch-up

2010-09-28T23:42:00.001+10:30

Apologies for ignoring you this past couple of weeks. I wish I could blame it all on Google, but the truth is I’ve had a couple of infections and have been struggling with extreme lethargy!

In an effort to keep my spirits up, any energy was quickly channelled into something creative.

It’s pretty hard to work on anything new requiring inspiration or courage to push the limits, but I have done a bit of “scribbling” as planned.

Below are a few examples which I think may hold some potential.

Ink, graphite.

Ink, aquarelle. This one is just a study really, but I like the idea of the ink marks floating over a hazy “moon”.

Ink, aquarelle

While I’ve been enjoying playing with these drawing materials, I’ve found the lack of a fully satisfying finished product was becoming frustrating. I’m doing these drawings primarily in the very first journal I made, the one at the bottom of the picture below, which you can also see here. It’s the very last empty journal I have, so I decided it was time to put some of the papers I’ve collected to use, and to get my binding skills back in practice.

The red journal below is the result. It’s filled with acid free cartridge paper and has a combined Celtic/Coptic binding. The two centre threads in the Celtic weaves pass through the same hole, which was an experiment, but I think it has worked well.

I find it’s a good to combine working on something with a nice concrete outcome (like a journal) while doing something exploratory and with results that are less tangible, so far.

Problems with Google

2010-09-16T19:13:00.001+10:30

This is just a quick post to let you know that for some weeks now I’ve been having a few problems with Google, and hence blogger.

I’ve just discovered that a number of comments I’ve made when visiting other people’s blogs have not come through – either that or people just don’t like my comments and are blocking me!!

So anyway I just want you to know that if you’ve noticed I’ve been a bit absent, well that is probably why.

September Scribbles Week 2

2010-09-11T22:17:00.001+10:30

I returned to my first attempts with the pipette with a white pen, a Uniball Signo, that I bought maybe a year ago from Amazing Papers.

I really enjoy the look of the white line and devoted a lot of time this week to trying out different ideas with it.

These pages from my visual journal are posted in the order they were created.

Below: Ink, coloured pencil, pen

I bought myself an inexpensive calligraphy pen which came with three different nibs, and tested out my new sepia calligraphy ink (below)

Above: Calligraphy ink on vellum, monoprint on perspex, which you might recognize from here.

Above: Calligraphy ink with brushes.