catch up ..... three of my 52 books

23/52 'deep landscape - an inner journey'

and

24/52 'landscape scars'

I really enjoyed making these two books and in fact, once the project is over, these two books will probably be fixed open and framed.  Steve claimed the darker one and I am partial to the lighter version, so happily they will be visible upon our walls at some stage.  I very rarely do this as I am such a lover of the artist's book in its own right.  However, every now and then I like to think of the books fully revealed and visible.  I have been meaning to frame one of my magpie books as well so may do that at the same time.

The pages for both these books were made from left overs of the landscapes series I did for the exhibition at the Noosa Regional Art Gallery.  They are rich with texture and yet the colours and markings are very subtle.  The inspiration for this body of work came from flying over Lake Ayer after the wind had whipped up all the salt and it look almost like a coastal landscape.  I have also flown in helicopters over other parts of the Australian outback and those visual images of our land from an aerial perspective are my favourite.  The land is flattened and distinguishing features of the landscape often become mere marks on a flat plane.

 25/52 'longlines'

This book is incomplete but of all  the books made  thus far this year, this one has fed my imagination and so I see this as a mock up of various ideas which I wish to explore at some other time.  I will explore the idea of ancestry and various branches and endings, intertwinings and overlaps.  In fact I am contemplating make my first digital artist's book with this idea and will post on it should I ever bring my idea into reality.

a map of me and my place ......

Mapping 'my place' - the image is not as yellow as this, just really aged.

I have been working really hard in the studio for the last ten or so days and am only now just starting to work out where I am heading with this very large book.  As I have been working through the planning I have come to realise that I can't divorce my emotions and myself from the land I live on - all are inextricably entwined.  From the onset this book, which will be about six metres of work, was going to be just about this beautiful block of land we live on.  As 'the story' has been evolving for me visually I realise that though the books will contain many fragments of things that have meaning to me around the land, it is starting to contain much more.

I am feeling the need to include some of the pieces missing from my life now, by including marks and images which will represent some of the major happenings in my life since moving here towards the end of April 2010. By pieces I mean incorporating work that reminds me of those recently absent from my life and also the newcomer who has fulfilled my life.  So my story about the land will now be one overlaid with a more personal story - all pretty obscure but it will all mean something to me.

Well, that is the plan .... As we know, work can have a way is leading us off in tangents.  This body of work has already taken a fairly major shift of direction.  

Below are some of the photos of false starts, which may yet lead into other images,  beginnings of ideas, the trying out of technique to make the lines I want to use and so forth.  I have found that I am needing to experiment every single step of the way as I am using layers of different papers left over from my father's architectural practice, various other transparent and fine papers and I have to work out how they all react to various techniques.

Heading for the bin - though some of the ideas I will re use.

A bundle of old, very old, tetra set from my father which will find its way into some of the work .

Blending and bleeding with conte - one of my favourite tools.

I decided my book needed some king of cohesive thread running through the pages to help tie the story together.  Hence an afternoon of printing on numerous papers.

Ideas forming.

Working out how to suggest rather than draw lines.

More possibilities I think.  For me it is like working into already messed up paper which is far less daunting that facing the big blank white.  Only I need to muss up lots of paper and create layers into which I can work and then paste them down onto the papers I am using.  Pasting has proved almost hazardous with may of the film papers and tissues.

birthing twins .....

way too many photos - I have already removed ten from this post

I took ten times as many as this  .......

'ode to fallen angels' 

became two books....

details and fragments

very difficult books to birth 

but I am happy with them.

the dance continues with starry starry night .....

Fiona and I met this morning to exchange the books we had been working into the last couple of weeks. The theme is Starry Starry Night and I am delighted with the marks and additions Fiona has made to my book.  Mine is quite a large book and I focussed primarily on large star filled skies - that sense of the enormity of our universe.  Fiona's book started with the sense of starburst and even though I took it in a different direction, that sense still remains prominent.

Now we both have our pages back and need to finish our own work before binding the books ready for their bookmeet next week.  Each stage of this is a challenge I must say.  Here are some of the images so far ....... 

Fiona's addition of tiny cutouts and metallic bits that add lustre

Fiona giving specificity to my two page starscape

a closer look

one of my transparent pages - Fiona has worked a constellation of stars into it

I love the addition of these subtle marks

same marks carried through onto the edge of one of my transparencies

not sure how I will tie in this page to the back of the previous page!

these marks of Fiona's are imprinted/embossed

part of my mica sky with another of the constellations.

I don't want to talk too much about the book as yet as I will save that for next week once we have completed the project.  In amongst our get togethers we have planned our next three collaborations - how thrilling is that :-)

As I said, I am delighted and a little challenged about the work ahead in this book.  Unfortunately, it is not going to be an easy book to photograph.  Fiona seems pleased with the direction I took her work and is now working out her next steps too.  This is the fun part.  Waiting until next week to see how we have each pulled the books together.  

ps:  whilst taking this set of photographs, I found out my new little Lumix TZ30 takes square photographs.  How cool is that!