word and image

Lately I have been thinking a lot about words, words and images... and of course books.

Always something Ive been drawn to in some shape or form. I had a business years ago making Art Cards which was successful but in the end too much like a production line. I used quotes on some cards and the best selling ones had a Matisse quote. I've never photographed the cards ... must do that. Pre-computer days (for me) ! Then there are the 4 decades of journals.

My recent organisation of credit card access for selling art work has opened up the possibilities... Ive had so many requests for the Homage to the seed book from OS, particularly from people in Art and  Education Institutions/organisations in the UK. 

The book was first printed not long before the Huge flood disaster that Brisbane suffered in january 2011. QUT Printers, whom I worked closely with at the time, were completely inundated and had to close down and transfer to another site ... on University campus away from potential disaster.

They didn't lose the file and I did do another print run but the price went up due to the need for them to out-source the job.

The Homage to the Seed book has suffered quite a fateful journey as I accidently corrupted the file and had only one copy made (tech savvy NOT!) The printers still have it on file but that was not suitable for me to download and send to an E-book publisher. Costs of printing are a little steep .... so I wanted to set it up on E-book. That's when I discovered the sad state of the book file...  ages ago now. 

I still have all the uncollated pages... but I would have to spend days on In-design which I was helped with before by a very generous architecture student who had just completed her studies for the year and had the time and the mind for it. Anyway, this year I undertook an excellent Book Publishing Program through a Brisbane business to come up to speed with everything for my next book project. Let's just say every effort to have back-up versions will be made this time. E-books yes... and publishing on demand should be available as well as a small print run I will publish for my own use.  

After the Cairns trip in October I had thought that would get underway....but as things have a way of happening... the 'for sale' sign looks like it will go up on our family home in January. Not a 100% certainty... we don't have to sell ... but feel with changes in our housing needs it might be for the best.

Summer holidays are by far the least disruptive time for such changes... as far as work projects and commitments go...  so the book is on hold... hence the artist books and other smaller projects I've been doing of late. I'm showing at the Gallery where I have a studio in February.... an opportunity I am very grateful for as its possible to set up the show very easily working downstairs.... and it makes the chaos of home seem a lot less unsettling.

                           The Homage to the Seed book from two years ago was an important aspect of sharing the work o the project the year it was launched. I had no idea I would still be running this project but after 3 years its too full of life for me to give it over.

Well ...I've actually saved a small number of copies of this book to archive...leaving me with 5 books now to sell. I had no idea a book that had only 4 weeks to be written and put together could possibly play a bigger part in my story and work. But it has been, despite perceived limitations and a seriously low budget, an incredibly successful experience all up.

In the meantime there are more books to work on...

I actually want to work on these pages... maybe put the book in the February show.  Somethng about an empty page just draws me in! This was a  work on paper that I reworked into a book... its partly very graphic and then there are pages that are collaged and more earthy.

I suspect it will be a busy period with little down-time apart from Xmas... as it is... I am now posting many photos that have been backed up waiting for free time to blog!

All fine though... its good to be busy doing things you (mostly) like or love  .... or see the point of more aptly!

Cheerio... 

        oh... 

     but first... may I offer my huge thanks to the lovely people who have visited my "shop" (well... no formal site)... sending blessings to you ... and to all who come by here.. and take time to surprise me when you can with nimble thoughts and open hearts... you are greatly valued!

New Artist Books now available for purchase

A busy time at the moment... I wrote a post yesterday at my Visual Eclectica blog on a few things that have been happening.  

I also wrote a post here at this blog two days ago that shows recent work. A new endeavour was introduced as well which I've copied to here. 

Which brings me to something new...

Ive decided to offer a number of unique, handmade quality Artist Books for purchase that I recently, very enthusiastically I might add, put together as a way to give new life to artwork on paper that I didn't want to go to the trouble of framing to show, but felt was definitely too interesting to ignore.

the infinity book

15 x 21 cm

Infinity Artist book featuring 16 pages is a 

one-off artwork 

on watercolour paper signed by the artist. 

$85 AUD Plus postage

 the black bean pod book

15 x 21 cm

"Black Bean pod" Artist book 

is a 21 x 15 cm, 24 page 

unique lino-printed artwork 

on watercolour paper signed by the artist. 

$125 AUD Plus postage

      (I'm delighted to say that I think this one ... Back bean Pod ... 

       will be crossing seas to go to a new home!)

Two artists books:

Counting the seeds I: 21 x 15 cm 16 pages

Counting the Seeds I Artist book 

is a 21 x 15 cm, 16 page 

unique mono-printed and hand painted artwork 

on watercolour paper signed by the artist. Price AUD: $75

II: Counting the Seeds II: 21 x 15 cm 16 pages

Counting the Seeds II Artist book 

is a 21 x 15 cm, 16 page 

unique mono-printed and hand-painted artwork 

on watercolour paper signed by the artist. Price: AUD $ 75

'Potent world' Artist book 

21 x 15 cm 

'Potent world' Artist book 

is a 21 x 15 cm, 12 page 

unique lino-printed and hand-painted artwork 

on watercolour paper signed by the artist. Price: AUD $ 95

'Seed Capsules' Artist Book

21 x 15 cm

'Seed capsules' Artist book 

is a 21 x 15 cm, 24 thick (acid free) cartridge paper pages 

unique lino-printed and hand-painted artwork 

on watercolour paper signed by the artist. 

Price: AUD $ $105

'Study in green' Artist book 

21 x 15cm

book waiting to be bound together... see below!

'Study in green' Artist book 

is a 21 x 15 cm, series of thick (acid free) cartridge paper pages 

nb: waiting to be finished + assembled into the completed book

unique lino-printed and hand-painted artwork 

on watercolour paper signed by the artist. 

Price: depending on number of pages included, b/w AUD $ 75 - $ $125

'Seeds multiplying' Artist book

21 x 15 cm

Pages yet to be assembled, laid out 

for photographing loosely here.

More photos will be added soon here... 

also at the Homage to the Seed Facebook page.

NB: All inquiries welcome. Contact me via here if you'd like to make a query or purchase a book. I'll be adding images here at this blog and a link to another site for viewing asap!

When purchasing inside Australia Direct account payment is suggested. Outside Australia payment by credit card available through family business: Adept Display. All questions here.

Enjoy your weekend!

in search of a way to add to a rich vocabulary...

In recent work Ive been using the pod and seed capsule motifs cut into lino that I worked with when in Cairns 2 months ago. This says a lot about my approach. Instead of working on further developing lino-cutting as a medium (unlikely) I am most concerned with exhausting the possibilities of colour,  composition and approach with the ten motifs I already have. And then not even using all of those.

Here I took a roughly cut, not even square metre of quite a dull green cotton fabric I'd had sitting around for a long time and played around with building layers and seeing how the blurred, raw image might look on fabric. This technique I can pull of perfectly making the prints onto paper, then using a brush to add and subtract to resolve the work.

On fabric it is a less precise and more random effect.

Did I like this approach on fabric?

Not sure ... thankfully I had the good sense not to interfere so it could be completed as an idea  to ponder at leisure. I'd like to think I might be getting better at holding off. Perhaps one of the hardest lessons Ive had in the studio. We all have our curious traits and foibles that if not reigned in result in work that could become samey, even tedious at times. 

That said there is a lot to be said for the slow and dilligent working over an idea ... many traditions and  artists the world over understand the benefit of the disciplined application to skills and process. In the 20th century novelty was everything ... yet many have decided it was going against their nature to have to pay heed to novelty above all.

Ever eclectic I still like to take the middle ground on this... find novelty within certain parameters... hence the reworking of such simple and formal motifs yet with an eye for reinvention and fresh seeing.

working raw

liking some of the subtle areas and compositional elements

the underneath printed layer I did first is is evident in part

loved the opportunity to push around colour in this.

On a different note... an earlier work with the seed-capsule cross-sections

Acrylic on linen

 Working with a single seed capsule motif on this one... I happened to be listening to a wonderful discussion on Tiwi Island artists on Radio National. Such outstanding printmaking (and other art forms) come from this island off Northern Australia that I felt very humbled pottering around with these simple forms in the studio. In a way, however, they are imbued with cultural significance for me... albeit a largely personal language which only perhaps manages sometimes to intimate something of the interconnection of all things.

Once again I feel I could work these ideas over and over till I settled on the kind of composition that works best...  more minimal perhaps?

In contrast these small 10 x 10 cm squares gave me a chance to play with the potency of the form as symbol, the element of design and such. I like to sometimes create "loaded" symbols that may speak to the sub-conscious mind more than 'here and now' mind. A vocabulary of motifs that have a life-force living quietly in them and are reflective of the enormous variety of forms to be found in the realm of biological and cultural diversity.

Ive been thinking a lot about forms of late. With our narrowed down, mindlessly-got-at attention span we often end up with a really narrow range of visual ideas pushed at us everyday... the McDonalds way. As an artist I wonder if I'm able to "knock on the door" of the subconscious mind of occasional viewers... is that possible or likely... I do feel it to be a good thing to think on the kind of noticing we do. There is a lot of fetish stuff about ...and advertisers get off on that... and it gets blanded out through the rehashing of the obvious day in and day out.

I want to be somewhere else.... adding something to a rich vocabulary.

Back soon... there is  more to share