Wednesday 11 February 2015

a busy wet week .....

What a week ........ we have had some rain but the big wet has come not from the skies but from tap water. Just after doing my last posting Steve and I had a few days up at Noosa finishing off some bits and pieces in the house and came home to find my studio floor flooded.  Not a good thing in a studio as you can imagine and all the water had pooled towards two large Ikea bookcases which store much of my work and lots of books and precious things.

I was surprised that only three or four pages of my drawing a day type work on the bottom shelf got wet and thought I had had a lucky escape.  Steve said I needed to get everything out of the bookcases - not the easiest thing in a studio as floor space is sparse.  Within a couple more hours the water had soaked almost half way up the shelves and had my artwork and books still been in the shelves there would have been so much damage.   The two bookcases were then cut in two and rebuilt to make one, and a couple of days ago another one was bought so my studio is now reorganised and I can find work space, and floor space, again.

We did a quick return to our Noosa home for maintenance on Monday - or that is what we thought, and I found the master bathroom flooded.  Seriously .... what is going on!  Hours later and a new tap installed, we managed to get home again.  The first two week rental begins tomorrow so we are crossing fingers that all is now well in our new home.

In between all the wetness I managed, under the pressure of time lines, to finish off a few books for the upcoming Cairns/Brisbane exhibition '4 x 4'.   How thrilled I was until I re read the forms and saw that it was to be an exhibition of books as sculptural forms.  Two of my books I view as sculptural (or one I then made into a sculptural form) but 'Downstream' which I had just finished did certainly not present in that manner as it needs pages turned to be viewed and seen properly.  Panic.  Then I remembered my play time with the paper looking bark and decided to finish that book.  I went back to my friends garden and rescued some more of this delicious bark from the woodshed, enough to make another 5 or 6 I hope.  I have had numerous bits and pieces outside rusting and many of those will now be able to be used in these books sculptures.  One will suffice for this exhibition and I am quite pleased with the results.  All three books will be packed and posted this week.  Yay - tick.  Then onto my edition of the WW1 books that those of us who sent work to Belgium are showing in the Caloundra Regional Gallery.  Fiona and Barry have both been posting on their additional books.

I took photos of my studio flooded but haven't included them here - just some photos of 'Downstream' and some of a little book I re made and turned into sculptural form  'Finding my Place'. I am not all that happy with 'Downstream' and when open it is 84cm x 13cm so very difficult to photograph, but have always like my little mapping book about finding my place.  And one photo of by 'bark book' - yet to be named.

















and then this beauty from a wander around my friend Sue's garden yesterday morning

17 comments:

  1. What a bizarre time with all the water Susan. Pleased to hear all is now ok especially the precious artworks. Look forward to seeing the fabulous bark book when the display gets to Brisbane.

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    1. Weird wetness - I hope there is no hidden meaning here though I bet some could read into it! Glad you like the bark book which I am now calling 'Censored' , as I have a number of these in the pipeline maybe for an installation. We will see. See you soon.

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  2. I love the textures and subtle pallette of these three books, espcially where you are incorporating the pebbles in 'Downstream'

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    1. Thanks Jac. With the Downstream book, each page you open reveals another pebble so that in the end all five are visible ... and there are the pebbles in the box end as well. It was quite fun to make but doesn't really feel like 'me'.

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  3. These sculptural books are a fascinating idea ... and your glimpsed photos of them are most beguiling.
    I'm especially captivated by the lovely bark book, all piled up and wrapped with roots(?) and held with the rusted washers ... delicious!

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    1. Thank you Margaret. I am pretty captivated with the bark too - and it asexually wrapped with rusted wire no roots. I have been wanting to work with large sheets of rusted iron to make books as sculptures and one day that will happen, but these using the bark which looks so like sheets of paper, are great fun. Not sure about their archival integrity!

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  4. Wow - what a time you've had! I think the bark book is looking delicious and am so pleased we get to see them all together when they return to Brisbane. Wishing you days without water in the wrong places!

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    1. It will be fun to have all 24 books together in Brisbane. I am sure the northerners will send photos down to us once they have set up the Exhibition in Cairns so at least we will have a sneak peek. I too will be happy not to have water in the wrong places ....

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  5. Hi SB - as if there is not enough to do - sorry to hear about the water inundations. The images of the works are a delight. Look after yourself amidst all this creativity. B

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  6. Hello Barry - yep, as if I haven't been busy enough. At least the studio floor has had a good wash and the books cases, and in behind them too. Always a positive side :-)

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  7. oh yikes Susan, sounds like you have paid due respect and made peace with the water gods x fingers!
    love all your books, especially the one with the pebbles, it fascinates me and works as a book
    re the idea of books as sculptural forms... books beckon to have their pages turned ... to reveal and conceal... books are kinetic intimate and have their own form

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    1. Hello Mo - the water gods seem quiet at present - though I believe our area will be inundated with rain later in the week as we possibly catch the end of a tropical cyclone . I think we are water right though.
      I am glad you like the downstream book and I would love to have put it in the exhibition. Because these will all be on shelves behind glass, there is not chance to turn the pages and have that lovely slow revelation of the story - hence putting in books that can be displayed visually as sculptures, without having to turn pages to see the story. Not my favourite way of working as that thing that draws me to making artist's books, is that intimacy one has with the view and the slow telling of your story.

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  8. wonderful!!!! i so want to get up close to these books. absolutely wonderful, susan

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    1. Hello Velma ...... next time you are in Australia, you need to come up to the Sunshine Coast!

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    1. Hello Marleen - not sure what you have said here but thank you so much for visiting my blog! I will get out my 'google translate' .....

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    2. just went and looked it up - wonderful work - thank you for that.

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I appreciate your comments - thank you!