Dreamtime

Back from my travels and finding it hard to get back into the swing of things - not sure what I actually want to swing from.  Great time in Australia and wonderful to see art from a different perspective.  

I was particularly interested in the aboriginal concept of Dreamtime and quote from Wikipedia (Fred Alan Wolf from his book The Dreamtime):-

"Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the 'dreamtime', more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime."'

That sounds better than any description that I could have come up with.  The little sketch here is something from my travel sketchbook.  My own Dreamtime - the whole experience has left me with so many ideas and an uncertainty of how to express them just now. 

This week has seen me at Westhope College playing with some glasswork, another area I have been wanting to try for quite a while.  Making a few sample pieces before I tackle any cathedral windows.

Journal for the Trip

I've been hunting; without success, for a good quality watercolour sketchbook and decided to make one up myself. And also wanted to continue with practising bookmaking, so it was a duel intent. Found the paper for the cover amongst some prints I made only about 8 years ago. It was worthless as a print but I'm quite happy with it is a journal cover and it has a nice heavy textured feel to it - ignorant of the ins and outs of printing ink at the time, I used acrylic paint and some linocut images layered into an abstract pattern.


I am heavy-handed with paint (watercolours usually flinch when they see me coming) and find ordinary sketchbook paper too lightweight to take a hammering.

Sydney Beckons

I did anticipate getting some work done this week but it hasn't happened. And last week I was Grandson-sitting over half-term, so it has been a couple of weeks of best laid plans going to pot. I have stopped beating myself up now and decided to go with the flow. (Flow sounds sedate but it has been more flying around like a lunatic for last minute things).

I fly out on Monday and am gathering together what I hope will be sufficient to keep me occupied and sane during the 22 hour flight - books, pens, sketchbooks, downloads - if anyone has any other ideas please let me know:(

I am really looking forward to seeing my youngest daughter and also looking at art from an Australian perspective - I hope I return full of ideas for new work in April.

I will post if I can during the trip and of course keep up with all my favourite blogs!

Madding Crowd

Just about finished the Artist's book using the gelatin prints of birds that I made back in October. I use the word finished loosely as I am not happy with several aspects of the piece, so this will probably be the prototype for something else. I spray painted the covers and found that pushing an awl through for the holes disturbed the paint - trying to rectify this with a paintbrush left rather obvious blobs on the surface. So lessons learned for the next one.

I have used Japanese stab binding.

The other piece is experimental, using an old gelatin print with some collage and chine colle. The text is taken from Gray's Elegy - there's not too much left of this little book! I am currently going through the portfolio to see what I can re-use with more layers.

Oh! the studio that was tidy two days ago is chaos once more.

Artist's Book

Bitterly cold day outside and not much better in the studio today. I needed to do a tidy out before I go to Australia at the end of the month and I wanted to spend some time working on the prints I began a little while ago with the intention of making an artist's book. (I think I posted them under 'Birds on a Wire' as a working title but think that will change).

Over the weekend I trimmed the pages and worked knots into them with some very old embroidery thread - and I do mean old. They came from some my mother had during WWII. And today I looked at some ideas for a cover - the best option at the moment is the simplest one of the stencilled bird but will look at other angles tomorrow.

I am increasingly interested in the the link between women in families and their complexities. The birds have come to represent my youngest daughter leaving home and the threads represent the continuation within this family group.

Epitaph

Experimented today with some 'failed' prints combined with collaged material and chine colle. I tore the epitaph from somewhere weeks ago and of course, now have no idea at all where it came from but never mind, I am more concerned with using the various elements together to see what happens.

I don't really want to start anything new in the next few weeks - so just being playful with odds and ends already hanging around the studio table.

(Just remembered the torn page came from Gray's Elegy written in an English Churchyard - I am glad about that, it would have driven me batty for the rest of the evening).

The Seven

I just noticed that my lonely follower of the past year has been joined by six others and that is delightful. So hello and welcome to the ramblings.

Grinding to a Halt?

Don't know where the last month went but here we are landed safely in 2010 - well, just about. The view from the steps of The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool shows the city grinding to a halt on Wednesday. The wheel distorted through the window of John Lewis whilst I was warming up with a cup of tea.

We arrived for an overnight stay and so I could catch the Rothko exhibition at Tate Liverpool and The Rise of Women Artists at The Walker art gallery but the snow arrived at the same time as we did and the day deteriorated as galleries, shops and just about everything closed - buses stopped and we returned to the hotel to watch the white stuff settle quietly over everything - our room overlooked the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Georgian rooftops and it all looked quite lovely from the comfort of our well-heated lodgings. I did get half an hour with the Women Artists and slid up to the Tate the following day to see the Seagram murals but by then the pavements had become treacherous, the Tate closed early, so I called a halt to the visit and we headed for home. Liverpool had no grit and had to borrow it from the Wirral; if hotel gossip is to be believed! It seems bizarre that a city of this size is unable to react to a few inches of snow but hey, thankfully I am not in charge.

I have not been in the studio over Christmas - a combination of my back still recovering and the ice on the inside of the windows. I am also planning a visit to Australia in the next few weeks - so my mind is hardly focussed on work at the moment - a bit of personal grinding to a halt on the creative side for a while.

Plans for 2010 - continue with the gelatin prints when my place defrosts and check out art Australia. Oh, and be kind to my back so it doesn't try this stunt again!