When you’re not sure what path to take, that middle of the night insomnia can yield some ‘eureka’ moments. Such as revealing the solution to what art to create during my Art 4 Takayna residency in Tasmania over Easter.
All tagged artist books
Scrolling
What happens in the polar regions affects us worldwide. I was reminded of this when stitching the words in my scroll artist book, from ice crack to melt and flood. Having narrowly avoided flooding from the recent cyclone event, this scroll book is a narrative of our climate crisis and its impact.
Mapping Chaos
When systems fall into chaos, it’s time to get creative and start imaginative mapping. Creating a visual representation of how you want life to look helps bring that future into reality. Chaos and entropy are natural parts of systems under pressure and from them can emerge new order and stability. Hold that thought!!!
Success (and some failures)
We are taught to reach for perfection, yet that sets us up for failure every time. Printmaking in any form has a strong ‘perfection’ element and to make blurry prints which messy edges is not considered to be technically correct. Yet what if you reframe that idea to turn seeming failures into successes. Perhaps it is a truer reflection of living life in all its messiness.
Art of Pain
When one image is not enough to tell a story, then artist books are a great way to combine pictures with text. I have been wanting to find a way to show pain through its relief and have started planning the structure for an artist book. How the materials and narrative work together is an exciting journey of discovery.
Possibilities
There are so many things you could make, it can be hard to know where to start. I’ve been making blank notebooks using up old prints that I folded to become the little book covers. Creating these notebooks has put me back into ‘maker mode’. What will go inside them? The possibilities are endless.
Dimensional Thinking
Creating sculptural book structures was a challenge I set myself this weekend. I have been influenced by observing the new and proposed housing developments in the city and how to portray the tension between housing and green spaces.
"Have you Gaelic?"
Being gifted Gaelic titles for some of my artworks while in Scotland has given me the key to a map of landscape. My accordion fold artist book Pilgrim Stranger with its Gaelic name Coigrich Taistealach has unlocked this landscape as a place of mystery which I have entered as a pilgrim.
A little bit wonky
A little bit wonky is a good thing in art, it frees you from perfectionism. When it comes to repurposing old artworks, the courage it takes to tear up or paint over the old, is worth it. Old and boring transforms into wild, wonky and unique.
Love Songs
There’s so much been written about love in poems, songs, letters and books. Classic romances and cheap romantic paperbacks, they all have a place in fiction. And why not? It’s a day for silly love songs and picking flowers.
The virus of restlessness
Travel is a “virus of restlessness” writes American author John Steinbeck. This year I have started making artist books again as a way to relive my travels when we can’t travel anymore. Reading Steinbeck reminds me that the urge to be somewhere else can be found by reading a book - or making one.
Planting seeds, planting trees
What happens when a group of artists arrive in a small Icelandic town every month. New ideas, community projects and an influx of creative spirits converge to nourish and grow at NES, this remote artist residency in Skagastönd.
Momentum
Maintaining artistic momentum through a daily arts practice.
One door closes
Reflecting on doors, entrances and exits, endings and new beginnings.
Minuet ~ le menuet
A workshop of mini artist books gave participants the opportunity to interweave visual sounds to create their own paper dance.
Le Travail
The work we do. I’ve been thinking of that today as I wove strips of photocopied posters advertising the silk industry which dominated the Cévennes up until fifty or so years ago.