Today was Fiona's and my collaboration day. Our fourth book, our fourth dance. We had decided on a common theme for this enterprise 'Starry Starry Night'. Our plan is/was to each work one half of the page - or one portion of the page even if it was not rigidly a half of the page. The book would then be given back to its maker for completion.
There were no guidelines about paper, or book size, materials ..... anything actually, other than the title. My book is actually fairly large, and before showing it to Fiona a couple of days ago (to give her some time to work out what she planned to do with her part of the pages), I had decided the finished format, the covers and the way it will be bound. Fiona presented me with her pages, small black and whites with a very beautiful, strongly graphic reduction linocut - no hint of the book it will be turned into.
As is our way, we spent a little while together discussing our ideas for our books, the directions we were thinking about and so forth. We also knew that the other person may take the imagery in a completely different way.
Both of us had thought of a number of ideas before our day began - mine beginning rather more timorously than Fiona's but once I started jumbling Fiona's images in amongst the ideas I had brought forward (concept drawings I had made as part of my drawing a day book some time ago) I began to find my way through. Not there yet, but close. I wonder as I work these pages, how Fiona will use them, what her book structure will be. I do know that she will make something fabulous from 'our' work.
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| Fiona's 'Starburst' images. |
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| still think separately ... |
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| by overlaying and mixing up our images and concepts I could see where I could go ... |
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| the hard part was actually working around Fiona's prints |
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| backgrounds in - still some marks to be made .....
We have a week for our work before we hand the books back ..... so watch this space and see how this collaboration works.
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What a delightful dance!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer. Aways scary to work on someone else's pages. Was very tempted to work on the back of Fiona's lino cuts and let her finish off the design on the front! That was not the idea though....
DeleteS - such boldness and courage you two have. Both books are looking great. B
ReplyDeleteI think the whole concept of adding to another's work is bold! An a little scary. I do think that it is fun to see where the other person takes our own work - especially when you have done quite a bit of work on it and then you are handing over ..... We are lucky to have this trust in each other.
DeleteIt's fascinating how two entirely different approaches can blend in and create a totally new concept! What might seem impossible when viewing your separate originals is magically resolved in the process. I admire Fiona's and your skills but also your open minds, the capacity to take in and transform each other's work without altering the substance -or the beauty of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ersi. In this instance i think my work seems to have taken over, and yet when I view the images photographically, I realise that fiona's star bursting imagery actually stands out from my starry skies. Small but impactful images.
DeleteI have just finished Fiona's pages - we hand them back to each other next week and then finish off our books.
I hope she likes what I have done!!! that is always the fear .....
I love the contrast between the graphic and the apparently random. What an inspiring collaboration!
ReplyDeleteIt's a jam loving the harmonies!
ReplyDelete