A Unique State

My mind is jumping from place to place...overwhelmed with things I must get done, the noise from the renovation is loud, jarring and constant.  I am finding it difficult to get into any sort of creative routine at the moment and the time spent in the studio is sporadic.  Any sustained creative flow is constantly interrupted by administrative thoughts and to do lists. Things I need to get organised for the business seem to be forefront in my mind and I am finding it almost impossible to switch off from this to focus on more creative endeavours.

In an effort to break the creative drought and to try and find respite for my mind from the ever growing to do list I have gone into the studio telling myself just a half hour of play, that is all you need to do. 

I am not a traditionalist printmaker, especially when it comes to repetition...printing the same print over and over again just bores me silly.  Even when I have created editionable plates, once I have pulled a good print...I am rarely interested in printing it again. In the past I have worked very large, the majority of my prints have always been 1-2 metres in size. I don't have access to equipment to work with this scale anymore so have had to try and find a smaller size that speaks to me.  I do seem to go from one extreme to the other and am finding the intimate 10x15cm postcard proportion working for me at this point in time. 

My favourite method of printing is monotype, I love it for its unique state - one off event - the here and now - can't be repeated - the immediacy of working directly - layering and the serendipity of accidents.

Mostly I print bleed prints, which means having an image that extends to the edges of the paper...no border or frame (the white border in these pics are default with the blog template and I can't work out how to remove it) for me the work becomes more object like.

I have been printing on small left over scraps of paper, no expectations...except that I work for at least a half an hour. 

At the moment the challenging part is initially committing to that half hour but once I do I am ok and the half hour sometimes turns into 3-4hrs as I lose myself in the process.

It was a good creative workout!

As you read this post I will probably be in Copenhagen with my daughter-inlaw Olga and grandson Henry for just 2 nights...you can read about the reason for the visit here.

In the studio

Well I finally managed to pull apart the plan drawer and even then Ross and I had to still jiggle and coerce her through one of the narrow doors leading down to the studio. I felt so relieved once she was in...she is such a difficult piece of furniture very broad around the girth.

I proceeded to to put the old girl back together and then after the beating she received with hammer and nails I lovingly coated her with beeswax furniture polish...she was so dry and soaked up a whole tin of the stuff.

I am not sure what it is about this piece of furniture but I am connected to her in some strange way, when I first acquired her some 14 yrs ago I felt she had finally come home...it is almost like we have known each other before...sounds crazy I know...but I love every scratch, dent, hole that she has acquired over the last 150 years (some of them only last week).  She has these unusual crazing...almost calligraphic like text markings...I often wonder when in her life they appeared, what memories they hold and who owned her in the past.  Over the years her past lives and experiences has imbued her with a soft patina brought about by years of existence with other owners whose character and tone permeate from her.

 

The studio required a little re-arranging to fit her comfortably in, she now looks at home in this spot

 and once again back into full working mode, crammed to the brim with paper and prints. 

When I have had a few spare moments I have been playing around with book structures for the book(s) I will be working on for the BAO project..if you want to know more about this I have written about it here.

I also cut up a couple of old prints that worked well in sections but not as overall images and created a small journal to practice and improve my bookbinding skills.

Plus I mounted a few about the size of postcards to create a series of images that now work better together.

 

 Collograph and monoprints on photographic (type) paper

Finally the renovations have started this week...hip hooray! Will post some photos soon.

Creative moments!

I must say that I just love my newly created studio.  I have never really had a separate designated room for creative endeavours...and I am just relishing this space...it makes me happy to spend time in it....which is what I wanted.  It is bright and airy, warm with heating, spacious, I put the Ipod on its speakers, crank up the music and immerse myself into doing...it feels so lovely.

A couple of weeks ago in the studio I ran a beginners introduction workshop to monoprinting.  Three lovely ladies attended and I introduced Anna, Guðrún and Ingibjörg to the joy of playing with different types of monoprinting.  All three ladies could speak a little English which made my job a whole lot easier.

 

 They experimented with the subtractive,

additive 

and transfer methods. 

 

Played with paper stencils

and textured materials to create differing effects,

plus pulled a ghost print from each plate.

The ladies seemed to thoroughly enjoy the afternoon as I did.

I had also intended to run a Japanese bookbinding and decorative paste paper weekend workshop the following week but unfortunately that ended up being cancelled as there were not enough takers.

Hopefully I will get the chance to offer it again in the near future.

Initially the participants would have spent the Saturday afternoon creating their own unique decorative covers and end papers for their book. Paste papers are made from a wheat paste mixture and have been used in bookbinding for over 400 years.

And then the following afternoon spend time creating their book to end up with something like this.

 

A lovely hardcover journal/drawing/guestbook

 

using their own unique original decorative covers 

filling the book with the soft look of torn papers

 and stitching it all together with the Japanese stab binding method

I interspersed a few of my favourite art quotes amongst the blank pages in this example to inspire me to go forth and fill it creatively.