The North Sea is only 4 miles from where I sleep but it is as far as these times are concerned it is as distant as the Cape of Good Hope eight and a half thousand miles away.
But the sea waits, it will be there waiting when this passes.
And while we wait we can remember past voyages.
Decks is a spiral accordion fold with transparent prints from journeys between the Hebrides. A tailored envelope finishes the books.
As lockdown continues we all surmise we aught to be doing something but lacking any inclination or creative thought repetition might be the answer.
Mini meander books meet a number of my modest goals –
The project uses a Liquitex basics acrylic paint set of 48 mini tubes (some colours I can think of no other use for) and some A3 FlatWhite paper (which is good for pencil or acrylic sketches on but useless for printing or water soluble media as the plastic content in the paper allows the inks to lift.)
The book form is as simple as possible.
Painted, cut, folded with a couple of dabs of glue to hold everything in place.
They multiply…
Madeira is an island of verdant greenery, the variety of plants and flowers intoxicating in shape, colour and scent.
Cyanotype prints ane hand toned with green teas and bound into a letter-cut accordion. Closed with a matching blue elastic band. (Edition of 5)
Only February and already a painful year. I took a large sheet of paper and wrote every angry word I could think of over and over again. I poured all my frustrations onto that paper, then I poured water onto it and symbolically , at least, washed them away.
It might have ended there with a pale patterned sheet but the #areyoubookenough challenge set by Ink & Awl for February was HEAL so I picked some cheery colours of card and thread and stitched it into a quick book.
The cover is closed, it’s on the shelf, I hope not to revisit the feelings or re-ink any of the words. (edit – 2020!!!)
Having known each other for over a decade and reconnecting at a woodblock printing class a few years ago, our collaboration on Forth Margins made for a very satisfying project.
During the class we were both inspired by the local shoreline and its historical sites. Rowan continued with the project developing over a dozen plates following the edgelands of the Firth of Forth Estuary while I went on to develop blocks of a series of details from the Steam Ship Explorer.
Printed on recycled bamboo paper as a hard cover accordion and tied with string. Edition of 20. Suitable for use as a book or a linear display of prints with the accordion form fully extended. A map is included to allow you to visit each of the viewpoints.
Forth Margins is available for sale at Art Walk Porty, Gallery 10 Edinburgh, Print Space Dundee and other select events. (Edit – Edition I – SOLD OUT)
A site visit to the Steam Trawler Explorer proved inspiring. A Nationally Registered Historic Ship, the SS Explorer was used as a research vessel and the protection society is now trying to raise funds to restore the vessel.
2 books have been made so far, using material gathered from the visit.
Taking some of the rusty utilitarian details and symplifying the shapes a seties of woodblocks were carved to make symbolic illustrations for a limited edition (10) concertina book.
A small meander book with 28 images of details found on the ship is available to download as a pdf file to print at home.
Work on the theme of Almanac for a photographic exhibition led to the creation of 36 darkroom silver gelatine prints of entirely man-made constellations.
Three books have been produced to accompany the exhibition. A catalogue pamphlet, a dos-a-dos zine (limited edition of 60) and and large format book (limited edition of 12) exploring how the seasons that used to inform and schedule human activities now in the Anthropocene era the seasons are effected by mans activities instead.
Developing books for the Art Walk Porty “Pleasure Ground” theme led our collective to consider the carousel, not only of significance in the fairground as a swirling ride but also to photographers as the holder of memories in sequence – the slide projector carousel.
Thinking about the theme for several months the final project formed when I encountered a boarded up Merry-Go-Round in France. It was 37 degrees, the ride abandoned by the sensible folk who didn’t want to melt in a plastic tent. Time alone to make multiple exposure medium format colour kodak images of the structure.
These photographs formed the ground of the work. Four photographic prints, an installation of transparent floating circular accetate ‘bubbles’ on a glass balustrade and the book works themselves.
Experimenting with the circular form led to the main work Merry-Go-Round. A hard cover double sided accordion variant with paper cut letters. The slinky book could be displayed in a variety of round forms, but also stretched out to permit the prints to be seen. Edition of 5. (Edit – SOLD OUT)
Taking inspiration from the transparent installation further artists’ books were developed utilising origami and map folding techniques to make additional carousel forms.
The final book in the series – with a nod to our hosts at Twelve Triangles – was a work of off cuts, recycling the cut off papers from the other works to form a unique triangular structure with loose pages and many display possibilities.
Working up some new maquettes on the theme of “Carousel”.
Testing out a structure to use for publishing some poems – part mini poster, part bookmark.
The beautiful colours suggested by this poem by Emily Dickinson were fun to find for the text.
