standing on fishes .....

One of my most favourite pieces of prose/poetry ever.  I think I first came upon this on Leslie's blog though it is so locked in my heart I can't be quite sure.

Every now and then you make a piece of work that becomes 'the favourite piece you have ever made' and I think this is it for me.  It could be that I love the poem so much and hence love the book, but there is also magic that happened here.  I worked with pen and ink of some of my father's old architectural paper and magic happened.  At that point I did not know that this was to be the book I had longed to make for 'standing on fishes'.  The last image happened and as I looked at it once finished, I actually felt that sinking feeling as though standing on fishes.  I knew this book had been made, almost, dare I say it, made itself.

The deep parts of my life pour onward,

as if the river shores were opening out.

It seems that things are more like me now,

That I can see farther into paintings.

I feel closer to what language can't reach.

With my senses, as with birds, I climb

into the windy heaven, out of the oak,

in the ponds broken off from the sky

my falling sinks, as if standing on fishes. 

Rainer Maria Rilke

This book is rather like Fiona's and my collaborative book 'Silence' in that it is quiet and meditative. Because I had made the images on film, I used layers of soft Japanese papers in between the pages.  The book is large as far as artists's book go - 52 cms wide by 36 cms.  It is covered in warm white Fabriano Tiepolo, gently embossed and stitched with Japanese stab binding.

The Exhibition is drawing closer every day and I am still finishing off a couple of 'bits'.  I am editioning a couple of my etching books and so will still set aside time to finish the editions.  Other than that I am feeling more in control which is a good feeling.

We are still waiting for the invitations to send out by PDF but the details for the exhibition can be found here on the Noosa Regional Gallery website.

The Opening is on Friday 23th October 2015 at 6pm and it runs through until December 6th.

Fiona and I are also doing an Artists' talk in the morning of October 31st and a workshop in the afternoon where we teach a coptic binding technique of making a book but spend most of our time in the workshop working on collaborative page.  We have a maximum of 12 participants six of whom will work with Fiona and six with me.