Wednesday 4 March 2015

two books meet ..... endure and preserve

Endure and Preserve met today and though the books were truly impossible to photograph, we could feel them grinning at each other as much as we were as they looked each other up and down, then lay quietly beside each other like coupled companions.

I had very little success in photographing these books and I am sure when you see more photographs of the individual books, you will see why.

The books began their life ingrained with angst and really during their making seemed to hold that angst tightly to their chests.  I thought I was the only one having problems, not just with pinning down a thousand ideas into one that would work, but also in the actual construction of the book.  More of this will be revealed when we post on our individual books.

Apart from the delight in our books, enhanced perhaps because of the struggle in realising them, the thing I enjoyed absolutely the most today, was spending time with Fiona.  As she said in passing today, we have hardly seen each other since November.  And that is true.  My life was a tad manic from about September last year, and then I had so many trips both local and overseas, followed by a time of incredible busyness and then hibernating for a couple of months due to poor health.  So, although we live very close by and are great friends, there just simply has not been the opportunity other than a snatched hour here and there.  Today was bliss.

We had time to talk about our next, and last, book and to plan our exhibition at Noosa Regional Gallery later this year.  Big sigh.

I had hoped now to have been heading to bed but have only just made it onto the computer to post on the books' meeting, and then I also want to write another post as tomorrow I am leaving very early for New Zealand and will be away from blogland.


As you can see, it is very difficult to see what these books are like though you get a hint.
Fiona's pages of words wrought beautifully throughout her book.
In my book her words have been burnt, bled and obliterated in order to make the book look like work I have made.
In both our books there is a delicious layering effect through the perspex.


I have included a couple of photographs of my book as a teaser but also to show you how much the surrounding light can affect the book.  I love the image above reflecting the blue of the sky which was flooding the room upstairs when I was trying to photograph.

The image below was taken in the studio under harsh light.  No lovely blues - and probably a more honest representation of the book.  Only a professional photographer will actually be able to get any decent photos of the books and I think we will both resort to that down the track.




Off now to write a post on Preserve.  A name I like but upon which I have not yet settled....




8 comments:

  1. These are lovely, though I can see why photographing them would be a huge challenge. congratulations.

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    1. Thanks Sharmon ..... big challenge with the photography. still love using perspex though so it means putting up with the problems it throws your way.

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  2. I love the way the worked layers seem to float above each other in the thickness of the perspex

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    1. Many thanks Jac. You are right - when work is trapped between layers of perspex, it does seem to float about. I also used engraving on both sides of the perspex which gives quite a 3D effect though that is quite hard to see.

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  3. What fascinating and beguiling glimpses you give of the books - the layering, the colour and the effects of the perspex - extraordinary!

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    1. glimpses are jsut about all we could show of these books but Fiona and I were quite delighted with the way they turned out. :-)

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  4. Once again, you've got me sitting here sighing with nothing intelligent to say...yet. Love the hints of your book all stretched out.

    Safe travels!

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    1. Sorry I missed this comment Jennifer. Sitting here after a gorgeous day with the Moeraki Boulders here in New Zealand and feeling like you ..... nothing intelligent to say but plenty to think about.

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