mother of crows .....

Recently I have been examining what it is that makes an artist's book, how to tell the story effectively, wondering whether words are needed and so forth.  I don't know that there really is a definitive answer.  Some books just work well and then others seem to miss the mark.  I doubt there is a formula for the success of an artist's book because, as it is with most artwork, the success or not is in the eye of the viewer and is purely subjective.

Sometimes work just resounds for someone and the person standing beside them may have no emotional response to the work at all.  The last time I posted I was showing a book that for me just did not work.  There seemed no reason visually or otherwise for it to exist as a book.  It worked as a print though  somehow did not break down to tell a convincing story.

I like to think that this version of a 'mother of crows' book leads the viewer through a more comprehensive story.  It is made from an etching which has used before but I have taken apart and rearranged this one differently, adding more layers and words.

This book was made as a demonstration for what I have been teaching of late so I may have over loaded it a little but it stands up nicely to tell its story in a slow reveal, rather than reading the whole story laying flat where all is revealed and there is no mystery.

It is a personal story of the crows in our garden.  We are on top of a hill so mostly we are looking down on crows even though they are flying high.  One spring a couple built a nest atop a tall tree in the garden, high up from the ground but for us, we were able to watch the process at eye level.  Enchanting.

I have used black thread to sew this book which is a version of a concertina or accordion book.  I think the thread suits the book and makes me think of fine twigs.

I don't often do artwork on both sides of a book but thought this print on fine tengucho paper added to the work.  I also demonstrated and therefore made for myself a simple folded and glued box to protect this book.

and now it is neatly tucked away .....

telling or creating a story .....

What is it that makes an artist's book a success?  For me there are two elements foremost on my mind when I plan a book - how I will present it visually and what story am I telling.   This is not a strict rule in my making but I do prefer to ponder these issues before I begin creating an artist's book.

As I am about to start some teaching I have been beavering away in the studio creating further examples of my artist's books to share with students.  Next week I will post on a book which was conceived with a story inbuilt, whereas this book is very much about trying to create a story from a couple of etchings that I found in my drawers and which I had never particularly liked.

There were two prints, very graphic though using one of my favourite techniques in the printmaking arsenal, sugar lift.  I love the free flowing forms you can give your work with the sugar lift process.  With these two prints I had experimented with different colour ways and obviously was not happy with them as they have been buried in a bottom drawer for years.  I decided that as they didn't work as prints, I would take them apart and create a story with them.  You can see in the photographs below that I cut them into a favourite landscape shape and then decided to use some ink solutions to change the work into something I preferred.

The problem arose when I was trying to construct some kind of storyline for my 'artist's book' and I ran into all sorts of problems as I could not find a way to present the pages in a way they came together to tell their story.  I thought I could mount them onto a Fabriano 640gsm paper and emboss around them.  Still I could find no story to tell.

I thought that I could include further mark making work in behind each image to see if I could find storyline.  No luck.

Somehow this way of presenting the work and trying to fabricate a story was never going to work so I almost gave up.

Finally, I realised that the pages only made sense when I laid them out as a landscape book - a long thin story line of marks both subtle and bold which tramped their way through my landscape story.

And so after much playing around and juggling the eternal 'I could do this' or 'I could do that' I had made a decision and went ahead and sewed my book using a grey blue thread which actually brings out some of the lovely blues still present on the pages.

I now have a seven page little landscape book, 24cms x 5cms and the truth is, I really don't think it works that well as an artist's book.  And that is how it happens sometimes - you start with no plan and really try hard to pull a story together and it just doesn't work.  Other times, especially if you begin with a story in mind before creating the artwork, you find a story line which comes together very easily and rings true.

So now I have quite a cute little book which you can hold up close and examine closely, finding all the embossed marks I created before the book was laminated and sewn and though I have accepted (or have I ....) that there is no story here to tell, I can just enjoy a wee visual adventure.

 

a very welcome new year .....

I love that time of year when a new year turns the page and all the weariness of the end of the last year fades away, or begins to fade away as the new year strides along.  We are already one week into 2022 and I have been giving the studio a big clean and sort in readiness for some teaching to start here in February. Exciting.  It is always such a joy to teach artists the joy of making books and sharing my books to show that there is an abundance of opportunity to turn their work into something quite unique.

I have not worked in book form for a while - though skipping back through my posts and not looking at the dates you would wonder if that were true.  When I was working on my self imposed 'book a week' project I stopped after 26 books as the discipline had done what was required - it got me into the studio and anxious to work.  I became absorbed in drawings rather than books and though there is little shown on my blog about these drawings, they do exist and I may pull one out everyone and then for show and tell.

Now that I am back posting to this blog, I am reminded of my reason for starting trademarks in the first place.  It was to record my studio activity and keep a digital visual diary of what I was doing - rather than the effort of keeping up a 'drawing a day' which was another way I recorded visually for some years.

I should really have taken some photos of the clean desks before I filled them with work.  Next week I have a few artists coming here for show and tell before we begin our lessons.  I have tried to break my books down into four categories/techniques which I tend to employ more than any others.  The plan is to begin with a commitment to four lessons after which I will see who is still keen to continue and who is not.

Well I for one am excited - and busy practising stitches, or variations thereof, which I haven't used for ages. I am out of practice taking photos while I work but I have just completed a small coptic binding with a header stitch which I undid three times before I was happy that I remembered it well enough to teach. I kept looking at a wonderful postcard Fiona Dempster made which reads ...

BREATHE

HOPE

PERSIST

3/52 - noughts and crosses .....

I had lots of fun making book number three for this year's project.  Right back into my crosses, though adding the circular imagery is not common in my work.   Hence the name 'noughts and crosses'.  I have been reading a book by Charles Seife called 'Zero - The Biography of a Dangerous Idea' which is totally enthralling and have a suspicion that the idea of zeros (noughts) in my work has stemmed from that.  Who knows ...

I had the privilege of working for a couple of days in a friends amazing studio and used the first day to draw and play, making my third book for the year.  I used the second day to do some printmaking, etching and aquatinting, which was enormous fun.  In my heart of hearts I am still a printmaker and I still hold onto the hope that maybe one day .....

You can see the mess I make sharpening my graphite pencils on the paper.  I do this so that I can then use all the shavings and rub the graphite into my images.  

Using the graphite to rub in soft shapes.

By using transparent papers as well as the Japanese lightweight papers, and aged brown tracing paper too, I am able to read imagery from the page beneath.

I made the covers out of grey board with a simple window cut to reveal some of the work on the first page.  Coptic binding was used to secure the work - a difficult exercise with such an assortment of japanese papers and architectural film.

Some of the details of the pages.  It was interesting to me to find that my comfort zone, or my preferences have changed.  I used to love dwelling in the dark areas, in obscurity, but find now I am really enjoying working more subtly and in the brighter lighter realm.  I am enjoying softness and light - not that this is new for me but I certainly have had a pre disposition to work into the depths and darks in the past.  In this book, and there are many pages (some still waiting for further work), I have only worked on two dark images and they are not my favourite pages.

studio visits make for a studio bath .....

Like all of us who have played a part in both the Regional Marks exhibition and the other opportunities built around the Opening last Thursday, our heads are still spinning and grinning. The outcomes from the exhibition and supporting activities have been marvellous and are ongoing with printmakers meeting or contacting one another, wanting to meet up and share ideas, emails of congratulations arriving unexpectedly and so forth.  Such a buzz.

The exhibition was a great success and you can see some of the happenings on both the Regional Print blog and Fiona's blog.  

My role in all this was a quiet one, working on the catalogue, attending meetings and being part of the committee and though I couldn't be actively involved in some of the events, one which I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in was the studio visit day.

It was a simply glorious day up here on The Range so for the visitors to our studios, an absolute treat with coffee and a wander in Steph's garden before heading over here to my studio which is under the house but as it on the escarpment, offers lovely views up and down the coast.  After lunch we are wandered along to Fiona and Barry's home and studio which looks over the Glass House Mountains so it felt like a pretty special tour - and not just for our visitors!

Not the highlight, but something of great joy for me was that in order for me to host the studio visit, I had to tidy my studio and bring out some work to be seen.  And the studio is still tidy - probably because there won't be any time for actual work before I head overseas.  It is just waiting for me to come home and make a mess.  So, a little tour of my tidy studio with work placed around for people to examine.  I actually have many etchings in those drawers you see at the back and I forgot to tell anyone to go and have a look!

 Some old favourites open on the table and work standing around on the floor as I don't have walls large enough to hang the work.

And why the nests you may wonder .... just because I love them and they are waiting ever so patiently for me to make their perspex boxes.

Bits of Fiona and Barry all around my studio, and also a work by Adele Outerbridge peeping out and and part of an artist's book by Noela Mills.

It was fun to hang 'wandering' again. Mostly to cover all the mess on the back wall of the studio which is my 'working wall' when images are too large to be accommodated on my tables.