GOODBYE 2014 - HELLO 2015

HOPE EVERYONE HAS A VERY

CREATIVE, INSPIRING AND

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Double Accordion Artist Book Structure

Trying out different looks for the double accordion fold format

I have been playing with.

Prototypes

Have been working on some prototype book structures which have been rattling around in my head for quite a while.  So glad to get them out of my brain and into the real world - even happier that my ideas actually worked so flexibly in a structural form.  Now to work on some ideas for content.

Image via National Geographic Kids

Not a lot going on over here.

I seem to be keeping myself busy organising the

Personal Histories exhibitions and maintaining the 

blog and website for that particular project.
It's all going along swimmingly with over 100 artists
from around 23 countries now involved
and 3 definite exhibitions lined up for 2014-2015.
Fun and games!

I have been making a little bit of mail art for 

Theresa Easton's WWI Mail Art project
(as well as working on the project with my students).

I've also been flubbing about with Cheryl Penn's 
Encyclopaedia of Everything project,

along with dabbling in some lino cutting and printing.

Lots of toes in the water, but not much deep sea diving going on.

Early Morning

The up-side of getting up super early to get my daughter to the train station when it is still cold and dark is being able to see the sun rise over the horizon (after filing in and out of the constant stream of headlights).  The sun isn't showing itself around here until just after 6am at the moment and disappearing around 5.30pm.  Lovely, short, cool & sunny days.  BLISS.

Contributions to 'An Encyclopaedia of Everything'

Over the past little while I have involved myself sporadically with making a few books for Cheryl Penn's artist book project "An Encyclopaedia of Everything".

I am currently working on another edition for the project.  This time pamphlet stitch books as part of a collaborative trade between Artist Book 3.0 members.  For this latest edition I am incorporating lino prints with the subject of refugees/boat people.

I think this will be the final call of works for the project as the exhibition is imminent and Cheryl will reach her goal of 500 (?) books by the conclusion of this latest collaboration.

The most recent book I contributed was "After All", a concertina fold book about the final silence which awaits us all.  A bit of a dreary subject, but don't we all love a bit of melodrama now and then?! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the cover before I sent it off into the never, never.

A small extract from a well known  Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven" weaves it's way across the folds 

(Deep into to that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before) 

along with images of gravestones, dodos, skeletons and the like - all symbols of memento mori and eternal demise.

The other books I have contributed:

You are my everything......

 and

Missing

Curious Little Visitor

We have had a curious little visitor in our garden this morning.

Whilst we sometimes see echidnas snuffling around at night time,

this is the first time we have seen one during the day 

- apart from on the side of the road after they have been hit by a car :(.

The temperatures are much milder today, which could explain

their daytime presence, as echidnas are not fond of extreme temperatures.

Echidna babies are called puggles.  

Should I get my hopes up of spying a puggle any time soon?

Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere

It's a beautiful time of year in my part of the world.

The light is softer, the days are shorter and the temperature is just a little cooler.

Hope you are enjoying nice weather in your corner of the world.

World War I - Mail Art Project

These are some little postcard sized artworks I have been working on as part of a mail art project centred on the centenary of World War I, organised by UK artist Theresa Easton entitled
WWI Trench & Folk Art.

 

For my part I have been investigating ways of showing how the war effected and interrupted the personal lives of ordinary people and how imperialism and geographical distance played a huge part in Australia's involvement in the conflict.

Print Exchange

My attentions have been diverted with the

organisation of the Personal Histories project

and I have been blatantly neglecting my own blog

and allowing it to gather cobwebs.

One of the myriad little projects I have been working on 

is a small print (7" x 5" - edition of 12) for the 

Brooklyn Art Library Print Exchange Project 2014.

The theme this year is "Let this be a sign....".

I went the environmental route with my little

bird representing the proverbial canary in a coal mine

as a metaphor for how we are treating the environment 

and how this affects the other creatures on this planet.

The good news is - if you are a true optimist you

can turn this little print upside down and you 

will be able to revive the state of play

by bringing the bird back to life :)

Waiting for the Breeze

Well, I have spent the first part of my year

lazing at Bondi Beach, visiting Taronga Zoo, wandering

the streets, galleries and underground mazes of Ol' Sydney Town.

Partaking of foods and restaurants available in abundance.

On my return to home soil, I find myself torpid and lethargic

with the muggy weather.  I am without compass.  Waiting for the
breeze to catch my sail and drag me forward over the Hokusai like,
mountainous wave of paraphernalia I should already be traversing.