Ida Musidora

cubism

2011-01-25T21:24:00.001+11:00

Have had a bit of a break on the 'isms'. mainly because i've been getting ready to go back to school - but i have still been heading off into web world in a random sort of look into cubism. this will probably be my last 'ism' for a while..other things are calling particularly some work on BAO ..and some work on 'teaching and learning'.so here goes.

10 things about cubism:
1.Denial of classical conception of beauty
2.geometrical analytical approach probably a direct influene of Cezanne who is said to have said "....artists should treat mature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone..."
3.rejects the concept of perspective asa a sign system taken from the Renaissance. (I particularly love this, it relates very much to the post structuralist stuff we teach advanced kids at school. In other words if you don't have the 'language' you don't have the meaning.)
4.the cubists looked to 'primitive' art for the new 'language'
5.There were different stages of cubism
6.Analytic(c1907 - 12) - pulling things apart, showing objects as the mind sees them (not the eye)
7.Synthetic (1913 - 1920's) -combining objects, reducing things, collage, limited neutral palette
8.Nice quote by Picasso "Painting is a blind man's proffession"
9. Another nice quote by Picasso - "It takes a long time to become young"
10.Loved collaging with found objects - brought collage into the circle of fine art.

Picasso 1921

Picasso - the Guitar player - 1908

Oh yeah ,I forgot to mention the love guitars and mandolins!

Reading about cubism has been a lot like reading about the pre-raphaelites - I have given myself permission to really like it ...like I did when I first saw a 'Picasso' (in a book of course) probably when i was about 14....and thought it was so clever...and then I sort of moved past it...good to back and think things are nice just because they are.

Braque 1910 - guitars with flute

NEW WORDS

2011-01-14T08:15:00.000+11:00

Apart from learning about the "isms" I remember mentioning that I wanted to improve my vocabulary this year. Well, I recently found this site while I was doing a general blog search for stuff to show the kids and fell in love with it.
One list I found particularly humorous (and relevent considering the categorising aspect of the 'isms' project) was this list of 'names for names':

acronym word formed from initial letters of another word

allonym other person's name used by an author

ananym name written backward; often used as synonym

anonym person whose name is not given; pseudonym

antonym word whose meaning is the opposite of a given word

aptronym name that suits its owner

autonym a writer's real name; work published under writer's own name

caconym wrongly derived name

cohyponym word which is one of multiple hyponyms of another word

cryptonym secret name

dionym name containing two parts or terms

eponym personal name from which another name is derived

euonym a pleasing or beautiful name

euonymous appropriately named

euphonym euphonious synonym

exonym name for a town or country in a foreign language

heteronym word having same spelling but different sound and meaning

homonym words having the same sound but different meanings

hypernym word representing a class of words or things

hyponym term which is a member of a larger class

isonym word having the same derivation or form as another

meronym word whose relation to another is a part to the whole

metonymy figurative use of word to name an attribute of its subject

metronymy system of naming after the mother's or female line

onymous bearing the author’s name

paedonymic name taken from one's child

paranym euphemism; word whose meaning altered to conceal evasion

paronym word from same root or having same sound as another

patronym name derived from father's name

poecilonym synonym

polyonym name consisting of several words

pseudonym fictitious name used by an author

retronym new name as modification of older term used alone

synonym word whose meaning is the same as another word

tautonym taxonomic name in which genus and species are the same

teknonymy the naming of the parent from the child

toponym place name derived from geographical feature

trionym name consisting of three words

Wow! I hardly knew any of these!!! but i am already getting ready to put them into the vernacular....especially retronym, caconym, and polyonym!!!! And I can just see myself going back to school and telling the kids we are now going to talk about 'poecilonyms' instead of 'synonyms'.

But seriously i do get anoyed when people define a word by what it is equal to or what it is not equal to. I am coming up against this with the 'isms' and it seems the 'nyms' are no different. I have the utmost respect for the composers of dictionaries. But it does make for interesting thinking.....?

What to to?

Floods

2011-01-12T08:47:00.000+11:00

My heart is going out to everyone in Queensland.

I am sharing a photo of my husband's family. They were farmer's around Leongatha in Victoria in the 40's 50's and 60's. Bill is the little grub sandwiched between his mother - Jess and his grandmother Myrtle on the front seat, with two spinster aunts hovering on the backseat for good measure. I think you can just see his brother poking out from amongst the bountifulness of the aunts while their father Ron was no doubt taking the photo. (circa 1962)
I love this photo especially as we only came across when clearing out the family home after
Ron passed away 3 years ago. There were hundreds of slides and Bill painstakingly went through every one and scanned the ones he loved the most. It has so many wonderful aspects to it: Myrtle's profile - such a wonderful pose, Jess's generous, relaxed smile and her army coat but particularly Bill's cheeky grin escaping from between mum and nanna. Not to mention the WWII jeep and the profile of the cows on the hill in the background, wondering what on earth is going on.
It always makes me smile and I hope it brings a little bit a smile to you right now.
Take care everyone!

Classicism/Neo classicism

2011-01-09T11:18:00.001+11:00

So far the most confusing (not that the other two have been straight forward). It has been very difficult to get a list of facts that don’t refer to an alliance with or reaction to some other ‘ism’, for example, the general consensus is that romanticism was a reaction classicism (19th century) and mannerism was a reaction to classicism (16th century).

So instead of worrying about it too much I am just going to do classicism very quickly .....here goes

10 pieces of information

1)From classical antiquity – Ancient Greek and Roman Art – architecture (remember Ionic, doric Corinthian columns from Ancient History) . Adopted the idea of the golden section/triangle from the Egyptians.

2)Predominately associated with the Renaissance – 16th and 17th Century – (technically this should be 'neo classicism' but alas is often considered the 'height of classicism')

3)Orderliness/Predictability

4)Harmony/Clarity/Restraint

5)Form/simplicity

6)Geometry/grids (golden triangle)

7) The pre Raphaelites were Neo Classicists.

8) Therefore Raphael highlights the type of Art know as Classicism/Neo Classicism during the Renaissance that rekindled the appreciation of draftsman ship, composition and restraint.

Raphael's - the crucifixtion (c 15010)

highlighting 'classic' composition based on golden triangle and pentagrams

9) The European ‘Academies’ highly valued Raphael as an example of the classical ideal. In fact he was even valued over Michelangelo who was considered too emotional.

10)Popular use of the term ‘classic’ or ‘classical’ has interesting connotations. The implication is that there is some inherently good/better value attributed to art described as classical.

Artists include –Raphael, Nicolas Poussin, Charles Le Brun

Poussin - Midas and Bacchus

Le brun - Alexander in Babylon

So what is next?........CUBISM.

Aestheticism

2011-01-05T09:31:00.000+11:00

10 pieces of information:

1) Valued aesthetic elements of art over moral or social themes (no conceptual art here folks)

2) A reaction to British morality, Victorian ideals and Industrialisation

3) Art for Art’s Sake – iconic phrase first used by Walter Pater (1867)

4) Blue and White dinner ware(decorative arts)

5) Nature – flowers and birds (decorative arts )

6 )Whistler /Ruskin trial http://blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/rpower/archives/001951.html

The guilty painting

(interesting in relation to Ronnie’s comment on the last post regarding the weight of Greenberg’s influence in the American scene of the 1950’s.)

7)Here is another interesting account of the Whistler/Ruskin trial http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/Landry.htm

– particularly interesting because it gives four ‘tenets’ of the movement which basically states that artists and their visions are superior to everyone else in society and therefore their only duty is to create art and therefore they can distort what they are representing if they want to.

8) Oscar Wilde was a promoter of the aesthetic movement

9) The Aesthetic dress movement grew out of the artists desire to paint medieval knights and ladies. The artists models and wives started wearing the less restricting clothes. This was part of what was known as the “dress reform”of the 1870’s which was trying to get woman out of corsets and into bloomers.

Now they couldn't of done that in their Victorian finery! c 1880's

10)The pre Raphaelites are probable the best know group associated with aestheticism and the ideas discussed above. Whistler was not a member of the pre Raphaelites but was linked to the same ideas of art for art's sake. Whereas the P R's focused on ymbolism and religious and medieval scenes, Whistler was concerned primarily with colour.

Artists include Rossetti, Burne Jones, Whistler, Beardsley, Millais,

Millais

Bearsdley

Burne Jones

Rossetti

So that is Aestheticism in 300 words or less.

I must admit I do love the images no matter how cliched some of them have become.

Please feel free to add anything.

Abstract Expressionism

2011-01-03T13:09:00.000+11:00

What a place to start? I am already having doubts about doing this in alphabetical order. Obviously any movement is influenced by what has gone before it and starting with an ‘ism’ from the the 1940s/50s is somewhat putting the proverbial cart before the easel.

BUT....where do you start?

I am reminded of a friend who always reads the last pages of a novel first.....don’t ask me why....so I will plough on with list...I must admit getting to “stuckism” near the bottom is very motivating. Stuckism is definitely going to be my new saying for 2011....I just have to find out what it means.

Because I have so many ‘isms’ and such a short amount of time to get it done (I’m not kidding myself that I will have much time when I get back to work) I have worked out a loose sort of scaffold to work to:

1) 10 pieces of information (note: I am avoiding the word ‘fact’ here)

2) Prominent artists and their art

3) Creation of a timeline with all the ‘isms’ in place

Yippee! This is just like the projects I did in fourth grade – deep down I’m a primary school project sort of girl.

Abstract Expressionism

1) 10 pieces of information

• 1940’s and 1950’s – New York

• First ‘American’ art movement – called the “American Style”

• 2 types – a) action painting , b) colour field painting

• Term ‘abstract expressionism was first used by Alfred Barr in 1929 (or 1919?) for works by Wassily Kandinsky

• Robert Coates first used the term to apply to American Art in 1946

• Not so much a style as an attitude ie a revolt against conventions and a desire for spontaneous expression (how often do you think I am going to use this phrase over the next couple of weeks?)

• There were some conventions that could typify an ab ex painting though ie:

o Huge canvases

o Flatness of space

o Importance of process

o Individuality of artist is important

• New York came to be known as the centre of the art world after this movement (replacing Paris). Wow! Is this true?

• Indebted to the European Abstract painters who fled to New York during WWII – but probably most indebted to the surrealists.

• Suggestion of role in American cultural imperialism – ‘cocacolonisation’

2) Artists:

Pollock , Krasner, de Kooning (willem and Elaine), Kline, Guston, Rothko, Gorky

Bourgeois, Still, Frankenthaler etc etc

pollock

Rothko

Gorky

Frankenthaler

Bourgeois

A couple of interesting quotes attributed to artists:

Elaine de Kooning - "A painting to me is primarily a verb, not a noun, an event first and only secondarily an image."

Still - "It's intolerable to be stopped by a frame's edge."

would these ideas have been new in the 1940's? (time will tell)

project

2011-01-02T11:17:00.000+11:00

I am not a person for new year resolutions. I always break them. Pretty much like everyone else I guess. But this year I'm determinined to do a couple of things. 1) I really want to improve my vocabulary and 2) I really want to improve what I know about art history.
So i guess these are new year resolutions as such. Imust admit they are pretty pathetic after all I only have to learn one new word or one new 'ism' and i have succeeded. That's gotta be good.
But I'm not going to be that soft.
During the last week of term I was asking the headteacher of art at school about the pre raphaelite brotherhood (i can't remember why - just one of those random things) and she couldn't give me a clear answer as to who they were or what they stood for but she said she had a little book on "isms" and she would look it up. She did so and showed me the book (i didn't catch the author or publisher) but just a quick look through showed me just how ignorant i am about all these so called movements.
Anyway....
A couple of days ago the 'ism' idea jumped at me again while i was researching some stuff for my extension class (the nsw curriculum has an element that is quite focused on post modernism/post structuralism/post colonialism/feminism etc) and while i feel fairly confident in this narrow use of the terms I would really like to see how it all fits together. I don't know if that is even possible. I suspect it is not.
Anyway.....
not taking it too seriously...
I have decided to undertake a random look at the 'isms'
knowing it has been done before but much more capable/knowledgable/articulate people than myself
but not for any other purpose than to learn something new.
So.....
i put together a list of isms (from a number of web pages and my own knowledge):

• abstract expressionism

• aestheticism

• classicism

• neoclassicism

• cubism

• cloisonnism

• dadism

• deformalism

• existentialism

• expressionism

• formalism

• fauvism

• futurism

• humanism

• impressionism

• neo-impressionism,

• post-impressionism

• luminism

• mannerism

• maximalism

• minimalism

• ophism

• post-minimalism

• modernism,

• postmodernism

• multiculturalism

• naturalism,

• realism,

• photorealism,

• spatalism

• social realism,

• socialist realism

• stuckism

• suprematism

• romanticism

• structuralism

• post-structuralism

• surrealism

• synthetism

• vorticism

and I am going to randomly investigate each one of them! (Random in that I am going to work down the list, which is alphabetical, apart from the 'post' isms)
Please feel free to add to the list. ...just leave me a comment and i'll be happy to include any you think need to be included. (please don't make them up! although i'm sure that is very tempting).

So.....first cab of the rank is.....

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM...
will report back soon
cheers jane
ps Should feminism be included in a list of artist's 'isms'. eek, i problem before I even start (but it's ok 'f' is a long, long way off). Could you more knowledgable arty folk please tell me, what you think?

happy new year

2010-12-31T07:05:00.000+11:00

oh what a neglected little blog. .......have lots to tell everyone and now christmas is over and holidays are in full swing i make a commitment (in writing) to post more regularly ....

hoping you all have a fabulous,wonderful 2011!

love from jane

spring

2010-11-06T08:17:00.000+11:00

It has been soooo long since i have been here i thought i just better put fingers to keyboard and get something new up before my blog becomes totally redundant.

Life is a frantic flow of work with a little trickle of art at the moment.....That is not always a bad thing as long as there are times when life is a frantic flow of art with a little trickle of work.....And we do have our big five week (Christmas Holiday) approaching......full of promise.

It dawned on me how lucky i am to enjoy my job so much....even as difficult and challenging as it is....with my office sandwiched between the two deputies and across the hall from the head teacher welfare and being the only woman of the four i am often called in to interview some of our more difficult female students and this week has been a real doosey (spelling anyone?).........With one student telling me and the deputy to do sexual acts to ourselves... another calling us racists......another telling us to suck on her "you know what" (go figure)....and last but not least being called a "*******" old B.I.T.C.H.'

The last one really hit home....'old'....'old'... !!!!at 46, I was more than mortified.

Anyway it was still a good week....and i do love my job....To put the above outbursts in perspective this week had some really great moments...... a student who i have been mentoring for a long time actually passed everything required to get her school certificate (18 months ago it didn't look like she would even come close) ..............my unstreamed year 8 English class made it to the hall to do their yearly examination and not one of them got kicked our of the exam (yipee)..............my year 12 students have been wandering in to get their leaving forms signed and to tell me how 'easy' the exam was (which in fact it wasn't....but ...confidance has to be a good thing right????probably not) but lovely just seeing their relieved faces............finally on top of all this i have just heard i 've been given the allocation to teach extension english for the hsc in 2011, (a coveted and somewhat closeted position at our school)...SCARRY ...and lots of work....

but TODAY i am off to the studio today to make some very youthfull looking art.
........just after i do 30 minutes on the exercise bike and apply some makeup!!!

unearthed

2010-09-26T10:20:00.000+10:00

louis band has been unearthed by triple j.

he is still working in the snow at the moment but is coming home to play in the Indent concert supporting urthboy at the bega showground pavillion on the 8th of october.

ned, louis, jim and riley - Cried Wolf

it is so exciting . u can listen to their music here

the walking track at the back of my place

2010-08-29T22:16:00.000+10:00

the walking track at the back of my place hugs the coast and leads the eye south to the antarctic. yesterday it felt like the southern ocean lives right on my doorstep with ripping winds and icy ocean spray tearing up the cliff face. i couldn't resist getting the camera.
i realized i haven't given much of a description of where i live - here it is......

to the north

to the south

down into the sea

south again

The track was made a few years back (by a local man, as a community project he undertook instead of going to jail). At times it loops dangerously close to the cliff but offers mesmerisingly beautiful views of the seascape that forms the eastern boundary to the town.

If you turn west from any of the above scenes you face about 50 metres of tea tree which acts as a buffer between the ocean the township of Tathra - about 1600 of us.

on the other (more fashionable) side of town a beautiful, safe family beach with pristine surf and sand is sheltered in pretty bay. but i love my side of town with its jaggered wild outlook.

latest paintings

2010-08-22T13:35:00.000+10:00

King Lear - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

2010-08-08T12:31:00.000+10:00

just on the subject of king lear...these socks are very good....

king lear

2010-08-08T11:44:00.001+10:00

my yr 11 english class is at the moment studying king lear as their shakespeare module.....
at first this was a pain having to prepare a new module as i have taught macbeth for the last few years....
but now it is a joy
as shakespeare ALWAYS is......
those of you who have read the play ....
or any of his other big tragedies .....
will appreciate the puzzles and anomalies and treasures
found within
the jewels of language and ideas.
we are particularly enjoying the fool and developing some ideas about how to play him when we begin to act it out........

the truth and conscience of the play...

able to speak without retribution.....

the fool is a wonderful shakespearean convention ... speaking nonsense and riddles leads to truth and honesty.....and how to portray him ....young, old, fat, thin, serious, silly, male, female????

we will have a lot of fun deciding!

painting at tafe

2010-07-25T09:28:00.002+10:00

I have started doing an evening art course at tafe with Veronica O'Leary teaching (this link shows two of Veronica's paintings if you scoll down). I did a similar course with Veronica 2 years ago and it was great fun and Veronica is a wonderful teacher. When i turned up to the class last week we were given a painting by Matisse to use in our first activity so you can imagine my excitement - it already matches my new blog banner!!! i haven't got far with it yet but want to share some of my favourite Matisse images.

COLOUR COLOUR COLOUR........

op shop books

2010-07-12T21:30:00.001+10:00

I have had a wonderful time scouting the local op shops while I've been on holidays and mostly scoring books.
I always plan to cut them up and sometimes I do but i must confess i've become a bit of a book horder and I've got a feeling these new additions will not be made into anything in the near future.

Check out this wonderful old collection of encyclopedias.(sorry about the photo) Now i know they are a dime a dozen but these are a real treasure - 1934 - The Modern World Encyclopoaedia - 8 volumnes -
with some really fabulous line drawers scattered throughout.

They remind me of the projects we use to do in primary school - something I use to love doing. Not much 'higher order thinking' (one of the buzz phrases in educational circles at the moment) but lots of fun and I suspect a fair bit of learning was accidentally happening....I can feel a project coming on!!! could be a great idea for a book without actually cutting them up. some of you might remember when photocopiers first made their way to school libraries and some (kind) teacher use to photocopy pictures for our projects, they were shiney and the paper slippery and when coloured with textas glowed like some dead sea creature...weren't they great!!.

Another book I found today at the Salvos in Bega was a copy of Mother Gooses Nursery Rhymes. some of them are a real laugh, mainly because of their political incorrectness. Thank god for mother goose, although I don't think youll find too many parents, now days, reading the following to their little darlings. ....tut, tut, tut.

some I had read before,although i don't remember the second stanza of Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater......

but others were new to me....

and....

and i dare anyone of you to explain that a Dick Redcap is actually a riddle

....and keep a straight face

Happy mother goosing till next time....there are plenty more!!!

snow???schmow

2010-07-08T10:12:00.000+10:00

The snow was virtually non existent. i don't know why but i expected to drive into a snow covered landscape of chalets and pine trees glistening with white awnings and snow covered branches. i now know that i was being very naive - apparently snow very rarely settles on the ground in jindabyne let alone creates the snowland scenes of christmas cards that i was so anticipating. anyway it was good to catch up with louie and have a look around jindabyne.

It wasn't what i expected at all. i hadn't thought about what a young town it is - both in terms of population and physical existence. and it does really show. i stopped counting both the number of pubs and the number of ski clothing shops. the place must be so different in summer, i couldn't help but think those shops must close down. i suppose it is a little bit like tathra but in reverse, we get an influx of tourists for the summer months but we only have one pub and zero clothing shops even then.

but apart from the number of pubs and clothing shops what really bothered me was the lack of anything else. i'm sure if i'd had longer to explore i might have found an op shop, or a wool/textiles shop or a cute little gallery hiding ashamedly in a back street somewhere. but the few hours i had to entertain myself (while the boys were doing car stuff) i couldn't find anything.... except there was a fabulous book shop (and one shouldn't complain as long as there is a bookshop)

and i could of spent a fortune....especially since it had a great kids section full of wonderful picture books (for me of course)...however i did refrain and only bought two books -

Taller When Prone by Les Murray

and

Gravel by Peter Goldsworthy

We have a bookshop down home, and it a particularly good shop too, but contemporay poetry collections and short stories are not usually on the shelves for browsing. so it was wonderful just to pick these books up and flick through.

.....and to read anything by mr murray is a delight.... and this collection has a number of little descriptions that vividly highlight his lucid perceptions..... such as this one;

Croc

This police car with a checkered seam

of blue and white teeth along its side

lies in cover like a long-jawed

flat dog beside the traffic stream.

I have only read one of Goldsworthy's stories, Shooting the Dog, but if that is anything to go by i can't wait to read the rest......

but for now ........

back home and still 10 days of holidays.....off to the studio....lucky, lucky me.

off to the snow

2010-07-06T08:18:00.000+10:00

we only live 2 hours from the snow but i very rarely visit. but today we (bill and me) are going up to see louie who is working there for the winter. i am as excited as a kid at christmas. i hope it's snowing!! at the moment it's raining here so that might a bad sign. maybe its a good sign. i know nothing about snow.
anyway off to rug up in long johns, scarf and beanie and head off to a white fairy land.

snap short film

2010-06-20T16:51:00.000+10:00

thought to share this quirky short film snap but accidently posted it to BAO. Head over for a look.

teddy

2010-06-06T10:15:00.000+10:00

It has been too long since i've said anything here that I am just putting fingers to keyboard so it actually looks like the blog is not defunct.

Work is getting crazier by the day and I am beginning to wonder if I made a mistake becoming a head teacher. I did know what I was in for, and most of the time I do enjoy it but i am tired and overworked and getting frustrated....the holidays are not far away and I'll be able to regroup and do some making.

I have made very little lately and am looking forward to the next BAO project to spur me on. .....

I did knit a little teddy bear last night while I was watching, my only compulsory television since American Idol finished last week, - Doc Martin and The Bill.

He was fun to make and is knitted in one piece with a fold at the top of the head and seams sewn down the side of the body. You can find the pattern here.

Here he is with the fruit and veg and a scratchie that won $9 - ( Yes, I did resort to gambling as an alternative retirement plan!! and Yes, $9 is going to last for about 2 seconds, so.......... i am going back to work on Monday )

Here he is on the window sill watching me wash up......lazy teddy!

Here he is with oldest son,Jack's thermos, ready to head of to work.....plumber teddy!

Here is a photo of teddy with a picture of Louis (youngest son) who is off to the snow to work next week....cold teddy!!!

Here he is in my sifter.....baking teddy!

And finally here he is playing the guitar .........Teddy Santana!!!

I hope this counts as a blog post!! Really a lot of nonsense I know but.....

it has stopped me worrying about work for a while ................but I better get off and do some for now.

I am promising to post a book next week!!!

cao for now.

I Love Fairy Tales

2010-05-08T20:38:00.000+10:00

It's true, I do. I know I'm not alone. In fact it is probably a tad cheesy now days to be stuck in the 1980s and confessing to continually reliving a neo-Jungian/Freudian preoccupation with our mythical roots. But I don't care. I love Fairy Tales.

My most recent reliving of this passion was one of those '6 degrees of separation' type thingies

1) I found a copy of the The Complete Illustrated Stories of Hans Christian Anderson (a facsimile of the 1889 translation), in Vinnies in Bega and with the wonderful illustrations by AW Bayes. Had a bit of a flick through and put it away promising to read from cover to cover (948 pages) when I had a spare moment. (please!!!)

about 2 weeks later........

2) I went to the ETA conference (for English teachers) in Sydney and did a workshop on Visual Literacy and one of the picture books studied was Anthony Brown's Into the Forest - a wonderful picture book that pastiches a number of fairy tales.

came home and ...........

3)Bought a copy of Into the Forest, promising to develop a Unit of Work for my Year 11 English class.

also........

3) Hunted out my old copy of JC Cooper's Fairy Tales Allegories of the Inner Life. (1st year psychology 101 - 1983 - luckily for everyone I went down the English/Philosophy route and didn't continue with 2nd year psychology 101)

A couple of months went by and....

4 ) I found three (please remember three is a very symbolic number in Fairy Tales) kids board books at a jumble sale at Tathra Country Club and thought they would make great altered books....plonked them in the studio (as you do) and promised to get back to them

Another couple of months go by.....

5) Making a card for a friend who loves witches and searching for a picture found an old copy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .............

and finally ...........
click, click click..........(yes that was my mind)
click click click....

had an epiphany (I know you don't have to say it........)

6) Ran around like a mad woman.....(I know you don't have to say......)

Every book in the house that had any link to Fairy Tales .....Hans Christian Anderson, JC Cooper, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Classic Fairy Tales, Into the Forest, Dictionary of Symbolism, etc. etc etc.....spread out on the dinning table, sharing my bed, in the toilet, in the car, in the classroom, in the office, staffroom....

obsession.....

so much for marking, prepping, cleaning, cooking, conversing with family, patting dogs, weeding weeds.....

there are so many ....and so may new ones .....the Hans Christian Anderson book is an absolute GEM.

As is the JC Cooper Fairy Tales Allegories of the Inner Life. I love trying to find meaning in everything, maybe that is why I love Fairy Tales so much - they are so symbolic, allegorical and archetypal. There is one chapter in the book that deals with Time and the Sleeper and starts with a discussion of the ritual opening of of a fairy tale - Once upon a time......the purpose they suggest is to '....take the narrative out of time and into a state in which events are no longer controlled by the normal, so that ordinary standards disappear, or lose their values....."

...yes please.

Anyway my obsession has settled down a little ......I did manage to cook a meal and clean off the dinning room table enough for us to eat at it ........but it has focused itself in an appropriation of Snow White...one of my all time favourites ..I love apples and I love sleeping ...and hopefully will be able to share some images and words with you soon but in the meantime it has been ..... lovely to revisit old friends....make new connections ......and generally have a few moments of madness, and irresponsibility.

PS I still haven't read all of Hans Christian Anderson but i really enjoyed a story called The Aunt .

If you have a fairy tale you love please let know about it.

PSS please excuse my 'six degrees of separation'!!!!

2010-04-26T09:29:00.000+10:00

Cleaning up, I found this book/magazine from 1952. It was on B's bedside table. I think it was my father-in-laws (many of the 'ideas' remind me of gadgets he often made).

Check them out:

This one is an absolute necessity, I am surprised I haven't requested one before, to file away clippings and recipes 'in alphabetical order'.

Now this one, a ticket dispenser, is a bit of a worry. So far we haven't had to issue tickets at our house for anything?? Am I missing the point somehow or are we forgetting ourselves when we invite people around?

This one I seriously want. Check out the scrubbing brush attached to the side of his desk to hold his brushes!!! Brilliant idea. Almost as good as the cotton reels nailed next to each other on the inside of a cupboard door to slot knives in between.

This one is my favourite and I can't wait for a tree to die so we can try it out. "A novel lawn ornament which affords a welcome spot of shade can be achieved by disguising the trunk of a dead tree to look like a giant toadstool.....Both the trunk and the wire mesh top are coated a a mortar-like cement mixture to give a stucco effect."....I am actually lost for words....just a little anxious for the safety of the children in the photo.

This one is the fore runner of those wine glass charms everyone got for christmas 2 or 3 years ago (I actually loved them)....... "you can be sure guests won't pick up the wrong one by giving each guest a peronalized glass marked with his own initials.This is done easily by hand-lettering the initials on the side of the tumbler with a china marking pencil....After the party just remove the initials with soap and water."

Just think in 1952 this was an 'idea'. I think it goes to show that 'china marking pencils' were a real novelty back then.

This one is titled DECORATED STATIONARY GREETS EVERY SEASON and is encocuraging all young housewives to marble their paper and envelopes in colours 'in tune with the season'.

There are hundreds of ideas in this treasure of a magazine...too many more to share. What an insight into what life was like...some of the ideas are very sound and make our attempts at reusing and recycling timid and pathetic.

Louis' band have been getting a few gigs lately and i'm just wondering if I should.......

Back to work tomorrow...might be a good thing!!!!!

book review

2010-04-18T13:20:00.000+10:00

Holidays are almost over and head back to term 2, tomorrow. I have had a fantastic break. I didn't go anywhere so actually got a bit done around the place and spent a bit of time in the studio.

Last term I bought some pretty cool books on book making, and have had a chance to have a good look at them:

by Kojiro Ikegami

and Esther K Smith

I love Smith's style - both her layout, the images she uses and the type of books she makes. She takes the simple books from childhood and gives us permission to use them at the level of artists book. She has an example of the turkish map fold i used for BAO, (she calls it a pop-up map fold). Some of the other book types she talks about are pocket movies, origami star, shaped pamphlet and, my favourite, cross stitch star book. Her diagrams are a little hard to follow but you can get them with a little bit of imagination. This book is definitely worth a look. It took me back to primary school in a grown up sort of way.

Ikegami's book on Japanese book binding is a very different animal. Slick and informative it requires focused ready. But it is well worth it. If you read the debate on Amanda's site about stab binding you might find it worthwhile to take a look at this book. It does not try to bring the Japanese binding styles into the 21st century but it doesn't have to. It simply gives clear instructions on things such as four hole binding (kangxi, hemp-leaf, tortoise shell, chinese style, Yamato) Accordon books ledgers, scolls and miltisection book.

It has very detailed. If you like lots of coloured pictures of examples and varitations of the styles (something i usually do) this is not the book for you. but i appreciated the information that was shared. It certainly increased the already huge respect I have for stab bound books. Again definitely worth a look.

I am in the process of altering some board books I bought at the op shop last term. have spent a lot of time gessoing and covering them and am now doing a lot of writing and drawing to fill them. Great fun!

Covered this one with an old butterick dress pattern, one with a old typewriting excercises and another with a maps from a jaranda school atlas.

have also done a couple more stick trees ....

ciao for now!

Stick Trees

2010-04-08T10:52:00.002+10:00

Searching for some paper in my studio I came across some drawings I'd done last year. A series (a very small series on stick trees). I had forgotten how much I'd enjoy drawing them......simple, imaginative, no rules apply....

stick tree

stick tree

.......I can feel some more stick trees coming on........

Books ready to mail

2010-03-21T20:48:00.001+11:00

I have got my BAO books ready to send out....finally. Will put them in post hopefully tomorrow... but no promises...work is crazy at the moment and didn't surface at all during post office hours last week....but will definitely aim for tuesday at the latest... here are some photos.....

turkish map fold format

better write something

2010-03-03T20:54:00.000+11:00

just realised how long it has been since i posted something. work is full on .......in a nice way.
i am making time to finish my BAO project and nearly there but the last bits of embroidery are very slow to do. but that is ok. i think i will be able to post them next week......the wet weather has meant a lot of time under weights trying to make sure they don't buckle too much.
it has been fun but i am looking forward to mailing them off.... i'm at that stage in the process where you are looking forward to the next things you want to make more than the one you need to finish... this always happens to me.... maybe it happens to everyone....? it is a sort of nice part of the whole thing.... the anticipation of both finishing and starting at the same time.... i love that.

am really enjoying my classes...yrs 8, 11 and 12 ; a nice mix of personalities and strengths and some great texts to teach. At the moment am planning a inquiry response to The Old Man and the Sea for my year 11 class...an throwing Gran Torino in as a supplementary text ...it is going to be interesting to see how they respond and what sort of directions they head off in.....very exciting....i feel like a fraud sometimes...their young minds teach me more than i ever teach them ...but don't tell anyone that....one young woman is going to investigate the context of fishing in the novel and compare it to the heartless practice seen by commercial fishing practices today - im not sure how she is linking gran torino to this thesis but im sure she'll come up with something surprising.

a couple of weeks ago we had the bega show and i entered some preserves and my date loaf... i don't really know why except a couple of the woman in the office at work are long time exhibitors and i sort of thought why not...my grandmother (who died before I was born) was a renowned and successful exhibitor, especially at the candelo show...so it sort of became one of those things i needed to do...anyway my date loaf and tomato chutney both got first place, my green tomato mustard pickle and chilli relish both got second place.....it was the most exciting thing..walking throw the pavillion and seeing the blue and red cards perched in front of my stuff......i do have to confess there were only two date loafs entered so it was more a relief than anything but still.....
however after the initial flourish of winning passed i was a little disturbed by the obvious fallinge off of interest in pavillion exhibitions...not just the dateloaf...but most of the baking was a little light on.....do we need to make sure this iconic tradition does not fade into the past.....what can we do to make sure it grows into the new millenium....have we stopped cooking and preserving.....paying homage to the harvest...i hope not.

and the rain ....you have to see it down here to believe it and it wouldn't really make sense without before and after photos. most people thought there grass had gone .. lawns were a thing remembered.....cattle and sheep eating grass ....gone .... but one weekend and 10 inches of rain has brought it back....they say the eskimos have 28 words for white .... i am thinking at the moment i could have 28 words for green.....

i started doing it(28 words for green, lol) but stopped .... they all sounded so cliched and cheesy......maybe i no longer have any words for green.......i'm just glad we can finally see and smell it.

Rain

2010-02-05T20:07:00.000+11:00

It is raining. I had forgotten what it sounded like. To hear rain all night long. Umbrellas and raincoats had to be found, and fished out of long forgotten cupboards. The smell is the probably the best thing. The smell of a clean world. Washed and rinsed and refreshed like all our spirits. Bega today, at school and down the street, was a smiling place. Everyone swapping stories of how much rain they'd had and how they'd watched their tanks over flowing and their dams filling and their creeks flowing.
Yippee!!!!

Handkerchiefs

2010-01-24T09:47:00.032+11:00

I have one day left before I go back to work. Well officially I have 3 days left but my new position is beckoning and my new office looks like a tornedo has willied its way through - so I need to return a little sooner. I wonder what I have done with all my time off. I could write a list to justify it all but that would be ......justifying it all.

Anyway what should I do on my last day?? Now I could really write a list. Just a bit of everything.

(Think of a 1940s film, probably starring Grace Kelly, and Gary Cooper has left her for another (much uglier) woman and she is waiting for a ,taxi to take her to the airport to fly off to some unknown destination, she wistfully walks through the apartment, momentarilarily and delicately removing one glove to touch a momento fleetingly, longingly).

My momentos will be the garden, the washing machine and the vaccuum cleaner but the Gary Cooper fantasy will definitely help. And the gloved hand of Grace Kelly... a diferent era. It reminds me... when I was 'cleaning for my cleaner' I came across a hoard of handkerchiefs I forgot I owned. They were under the table that the phone sits on. The table is covered with a red lace tablecloth to hide the phone books, a gaggle of scrabble boxes and a tin of photographs and this collection of handkerchiefs.

I remember when I got them. Years ago we bought a chest of drawers at a clearance sale in Bega. Louis was about 3 or 4 at the time... so about 15 years ago. After we got the drawers home and started cleaning them to put in the boys room, one of the drawers revealed this hidden treasure....boxes of ladies handkerchiefs. Beautiful lace work and embroidery on linen and cotton and delicately folded and pinned to form patterns in their boxes. Two on them still had their cards, showing they were gifts, which I suspect they all were, to be so kept and unused. As you can see from the photos the boxes are just as beautiful as the handdkerchiefs themselves. I particularly love the dogs even though the box is worn and nibbled away.

I wondered what I should do with them. Using them in my BookArtObject piece was a definite option but I've already found some green curtain material for the book bags I want to make. And I just can't bring myself to unpin them and take them from their boxes. They seem so pretty and perfect and, girlie (the feminists are now rolling their eyes and muttering thing like 'symbols of passivity' and 'feminine submissiveness') and hark back to a time when I used hankies.

Remember never ever going to school without you hankie neatly ironed and folded into triangles. and on tuckshop days having your 15 cents tied into the corner for safe keeping. Remember that embarrassing father at the sports carnival with the handkerchief hat. What about the the kid in 3rd grade who constantly had a blood stained one tied around his knee.

I am remembering another hankie.

........I had to go and look long and hard for this one.  On my 8th birthday I remember skipping into my dads office after work.

Dad was an auctioneer in Bega from the age of 14 until he died at 75. He loved being an auctioneer (he always referred to his business as 'stock and station agent' ) because he loved farmers. He was a bit of a character himself and told typical yarns about cockies but not as wild or funny as the stories that some of the men told. One of my big regrets in life is not writing down his stories before he died although most of them were not for my or my sister's ears as he considered anything crude to be inappropriate for his daugters to hear. He was also fiercely loyal to his clients and would  not like us to see him laughing at them even if it was in good spirit. But, of course, we would often overhear stories and antecdotes.

Anyway back to the hankie. One of the real larikins who was quiet often on the seats at the front of my fathers offices was a man called Garnie Healy (affectionately know as Garn by most). Garn was always an old man to me but I can vaguely remembering him marrying a women called Dorrie. She managed to catch him quite late in life for both of them. Garnie was often a character in the stories we overheard. I think Dorrie used to get very upset about his excessive drinking and was a bith of a shrew when it came to dishing out the retributions.

Back to the hankie. This afternoon, of my 8th birthday, I popped into the office on my way home from school and Garn was there talking to dad about cattle stuff - prices and rain no doubt. We didn't usually hang around to talk to the men but vanished 'out the back' to play on ancient typewriters and adding machines and stamp pads but this day dad stopped me and told Garn it was my birthday. I don't remember it being particularly important at the time because Garn was just someone we knew from the office. I'm sure he wished me a happy birthday and I said thankyou and went on my way. But the next evening when dad came home from work he had a card from Garn for me. Inside the card was  crisp white linen and lace handkerchief. Never before had Garn bought us kids gift and at the time I think my father was more touched by the gesture than i was.   But I do remember thinking the handkerchief was very beautiful.

I don't remember know how I came across the photo of Garn that is now part of the hankie/card memorabilia but a one pound note was sent from my Auntie in England for the same birthday. Both real treasures.

So that is my hankie story. Will have do something with them to save them from the moths.

I haven't actually done it yet but I am very, very close

2010-01-15T07:10:00.001+11:00

I have been a bit of a slack poster lately and I have no excuses - still on holidays so should be able to manage a bit more. I think I'm just in that cotton wool state where everything seems soft and fuzzy and and a little bit uninspiring-.the Summer Heat Blues. But with less than two weeks left I am determined to put in a big effort on everything. So here is the list - finish BOA books (get more paper, cut out prints, stitch etc), prepare texts for school (Wilfred Owen poetry, the Old Man and the Sea, Holes - a novel for year 8, and a unit on Celebrities), clean the house.

Surely that will do! Notice I listed quite specifically - what I need to do for school and for BOA but cleaning house is a vague, generalized 'clean house'. Probably because if you saw my house you would understand why I don't want to go into specifics. I like to blame B and the two YAMs (young adult males) who reside with me but in all honesty that is not very fair. I just hate housework!!! (and I don't use the 'hate' word loosely).

I know I am not alone but there is this huge inconsitency between, one, my absolute hatred of all things housework and two, my desire to have a tidy house. It would be ok if I was one of those wonderfully liberated people who can invite people into their chaos with cool, confidence but I'm not even close.
Instead I feel I have spent my life since having children (22 years) trying to reconcile these two irreconcilable positions.

So things are going to change. I have decided to get a cleaner.

What was that?

I have decided to get a cleaner.

Yes I am actually confessing publically to the petite bourgeoise practice of inviting a complete stranger into your house and inflicting on them the disposal and organisation of your decadent, capitalist lifestyle. (Notice I am using the pronoun 'your' here). I haven't actually done it yet but I am very close. I actually said to B last night (and I quote) "We need to get the house in order this weekend so I can ring a cleaner on Monday" and he agreed. I don't know what was more disturbing that we have already started cleaning for the cleaner and we haven't even got one!! or that we have actually succumbed to needing a cleaner at all.

I know I said earlier that it is unfair of me to blame the YAMS for the state of the house but this is different. I am definitely blaming them for the moral degradation of me and their father. A cleaner!!-yikes?? such a long way from my commie, Marx studying days of Uni, and my Dr Spock mentality of child rearing. A cleaner!!

There is still hope- I haven't actually done it yet but I am very,very close!!!

Resolutions-Who needs them?

2010-01-04T09:49:00.000+11:00

New years resolutions! What are they? Some sort of 'hair shirt' punisment for enjoying yourself during the year - squeezing in a few vices (and I use that term very loosely and in a non-religious context) amid the hectic schedules we all keep just to survive in our jobs and private lives.

Deprevation at its most extreme and severe. My religious friends (and I do love and respect their beliefs) talk about Lent, Ramadan and Passover. We heathens have New Year's Resolutions.

I can understand the resolution to stop smoking, (that will kill you) but most of the other common resolutions are designed to take away what we enjoy most - eating, drinking, reading, shopping, partying, dancing, talking, breathing etc etc.

So, it seems, the only sensible resolutions to embark on are ones that give you something. But even then you have to be careful. (I definitely do not want illness, grandchildren or more housework).

But even worse then the taking and giving mindset they provoke, I don't know about you, but New Year's Resolutions ALWAYS leave me with an overwhelming sense of failure. It is almost like saying do the opposite of what you resolve - don't each sugar, becomes a daily trip to the bakery; exercise more becomes lay on the couch all day and defrost chicken kievs for dinner; garden more becomes yes those weeds are a new trend in permaculture. etc

By now(round about mid February if you're lucky) you are engulfed by feelings of guilt and self loathing so overwhelming that they manifest themselves in 5 extra kilos and a backyard that makes Mao's parched earth policy look like an oasis.

So for 2010 my New Year's Resolution is to never, ever, ever to have another New Year's resolution ever again.

Now that I've got that off my chest I can get back to the eating, drinking, gardening and generally being merry.

The Garden

2009-12-18T08:24:00.000+11:00

Having been on leave this term one of my aims was to get stuck into the garden. I took a walk early yesterday morning, camera in hand, hoping to capture the hardwork and ultimate reward of cucumbers and zucchinis and pots of flowers and herbs.

The beauty, however, seemed to lie in the haphazard arrangement of gardening paraphenalia, ............

rubbish....

raku pots

empty containers

a family of bins and barrows hanging out with the wood.

I know I am accidental gardener...I very rarely remember the names of what I plant ...I plant seeds out of season....I prune to soon or late....forget to feed the citrus and I make it endure weeks(months) of neglect when my focus takes a different turn.

Maybe that's why the piles of detritus are the truly impressive objects growing amongst the plants...

...appearing amongst the rocks.

Film Review - Genova

2009-12-13T07:27:00.001+11:00

I watched the film Genova when I was in Sydney and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I went into the Denby under the Opera House, really to get out of the dust and smog and into a dark air conditioned space - a bit like a hobbit.

The film that was about to start was one starring Colin Firth and I thought to myself .... 'Gee, lovely, a period drama/romantic/comedy based crudely on a Jane Austen, novel. This will be nice.'

So, in other words, I went into the theatre with no background information about the film whatsoever....zero. And that is what made the experience so memorable. So therefore, not to ruin the experience for anyone else, I am not going to say anything in this review except:

it is not like Jane Austen,
it is not a comedy
Colin Firth has broken out of the Mr Darcy mould and is showing himself as a pretty good actor
it is about creating emotions
the camera work, editing, mise en scene, sound etc is worth seeing

I keep thinking what a great film to teach technique - and then I kick myself. Enjoying a text is not about breaking it down into its multude of parts and wringing the life out of them. It's about sitting in the theatre for 90 minutes and taking everything in. This is a definite downside of being teacher, but I think we are all guilty of it at times.

(Anyone been to a gallery lately and just loved the piece in front of them and next thing your looking for colour and form and context and motif and meaning (whatever that is )etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.)

(I just put bracket inside a bracket - is that allowed?)

Anyway .......a poem by Billy Collins always comes to mind when I start analysing things to death:

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

I enjoy Billy's poetry because this is the first poem of his that I ever read. Sort of takes the pressure of doesn't it. I think he was poet laureate in the USA a few years back. If you follow the link above you get to a site that has a number of his poems on it. A lot of them have a cheeky feeling, you know not taking themselves too seriously. Check this one out:

Child Development

As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs
and sauntered off the beaches into forests
working up some irregular verbs for their
first conversation, so three-year-old children
enter the phase of name-calling.

Every day a new one arrives and is added
to the repertoire. You Dumb Goopyhead,
You Big Sewerface, You Poop-on-the-Floor
(a kind of Navaho ring to that one)
they yell from knee level, their little mugs
flushed with challenge.
Nothing Samuel Johnson would bother tossing out
in a pub, but then the toddlers are not trying
to devastate some fatuous Enlightenment hack.

They are just tormenting their fellow squirts
or going after the attention of the giants
way up there with their cocktails and bad breath
talking baritone nonsense to other giants,
waiting to call them names after thanking
them for the lovely party and hearing the door close.

The mature save their hothead invective
for things: an errant hammer, tire chains,
or receding trains missed by seconds,
though they know in their adult hearts,
even as they threaten to banish Timmy to bed
for his appalling behavior,
that their bosses are Big Fatty Stupids,
their wives are Dopey Dopeheads
and that they themselves are Mr. Sillypants.

Anyway.... If you get a chance to go and see Genova remind yourself of Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins and just waterski across its surface.

new directions

2009-12-03T21:40:00.002+11:00

The honest accounts of the members of bookartobject has been inspirational. Following the varied responses to Rosemary Dobson's poem, Learning Absences, has been an invaluable experience and is having an important effect on me as an artist. Reading how others are approaching the text and using it in their books is just a great thing to be participating in.

It has been interesting to read the various interpretaions of RD's poem. I must say I haven't formed an opinion about whether it is a death or separation. For me the overwhelming aspect has been the huge impact the poem had on my senses. Mainly visual, the sight of the clothes on the line and the cumquat tree and Hayley's comet in the dark sky, the milk bottle on the door step, but also the smell of the bread coming out of the oven, and the deafening silence of no one to talk to. The most significant image for me was the shutting of the windows and doors and these have formed the basis of the motifs used in my book.

I have been developing a folded form...and it has taken a new direction. But I have finally finished one completely. When the book is folded shut it actually looks like a house. This is what prompted the change in direction. Learning Absences, for me, is all about the domestic world of the house/home.

This is the finished book!

and standing up.

The open book.

I am going to change the size and prints for the exhibition but the format will stay pretty much the same (maybe 2 'pages' instead of three).

It is based on a turkish map fold - 3 folds - that I have sewn together. Each 'page' has a series of lino prints sewn onto them. Some of the prints have been done on mango paper, some on hemp paper and some on the pages of an old book.

Here are the individual pages before sewing them together.

I hope you can see the stitching around each print.

These corner prints were done on the pages of an old text book.

The contrast between the orange mango paper, green silk and the black ink has worked well.

The stitching took ages and was quiet tricky at times but it has been worth it. I feel inspired to do a whole series of books on windows and doors!

Back

2009-11-30T19:44:00.000+11:00

Have been in Sydney for the past week - doing the big smoke things. Trouble was it felt like the big smoke, literally. Dust, dirt, smog - surely I haven't become so old that the city no longer holds an attraction, even for one week, and just becomes a receptacle of physical discomfort. But it seems I have. When the plane touched down at Merimbula airport I thought I would explode with joy. Oh, to be nearly home.

the dust blanketing everything increased the temperature by 10 degrees and made it extremely hot and sticky. Was it all bad........no!

It was wonderful to go to the MCA (Fiona Foleys retrospective had some very powerful pieces). It was great to go to the cinema under the Opera House and watch Genova (which too, was very moving). It was good to get to Amazing Paper and buy some paper for my Learning Absences book. The English Teachers Association Conference had some excellent workshops. Shopping was fun. But most of all it was fantastic to get home to to rain washing the tarmac and kangaroos bounding across the road, the corner shop, vegie garden and the blue, blue ocean.
For god's sake....I was only gone for a week.

I am getting old aren't I.

makoto yabuki

2009-11-19T08:23:00.000+11:00

Here is another video - i love this. does anyone know anything about the composer?http://vimeo.com/5469963

Colour

2009-11-17T07:37:00.002+11:00

Thought you might like this videohttp://vimeo.com/5471619

Book Art Object and Out of the Box

2009-11-11T12:26:00.002+11:00

Have been working on the following books for two exhibitions.

Book Art Object - have taken the sketches and been working on a mock up. I have cut out the small lino prints and collaged them onto the inside of the book. This will give me plenty of scope for printing on a variety of papers to achieve the fragmented effect I want. I am pretty happy with how things are going, but still a long way to go. Haven't done any of the stitching, or the images for the cover and back or the colophon yet, but the overall look and feel of the book is coming along. Last night I completed some smaller lino carvings and will do another couple of mock ups today. What do you think? Feedback is very welcome.

This book folds out like a map. This is part of the centre fold. A repeat motif of a window (lino print) has been stamped across the inside. Could put the colophon here instead or on the back - what do you think?

Inside - opened. There will be stitching along both edges.

Totally opened. Sorry about the messy background. Two quotes from the poem - Learning Absences - have included. Gouche, pen and ink and acrylic make up the inside image.

Out of the Box - my work in progress for an exhibition at the Bega Regional Gallery- something much more sculptural. I don't know how happy they will be about constructing this entry.

Needs a bit of tweaking but could be ok. It is a book! - again I will collage prints around the petals and add embroidery.

Cleaned My Studio and It Looks Great

2009-11-05T22:02:00.000+11:00

This could be the name of a song on an album of artists laments. Other tracks of course being -

When You Wish Upon a Kiln
New Book, New Book
Somewhere Over the Roller
Glaze Slops Keep Falling on My Head

............and of course the all time favourite..........

I've Been Through the Gallery on a Horse with No Name.

But seriously, I am so chuffed with my tidy space.

I should of taken some 'before' shots so you could really appreciate just how de-cluttered this is.

I can't wait to get in there tomorrow.

Book Review - The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

2009-11-05T07:24:00.000+11:00

Finally finished and it was worth it - a wonderful ending (but I won't tell you about that). An interesting book. I can't stop thinking about Renee and Paloma and the ending. That is always a good thing. You don't want to spend hours reading 300 + pages to forget it as soon as you finish the last page.

You can definitely tell Muriel Barbery is an academic with plenty of philosophising to pack into her story. At times this becomes a little a heavy but overall lifts The Elegance of the Hedgehog from being just a story into a story that has something important to say. (Is it old fashioned to like this sort of story?)

What makes it a good read is that while it does concern itself with life and death and love and beauty and art etc (all the BIG things) its main focus is on class and intelligence. Barbery writes an allegory of equality and acceptance during a time of global inequity. I found it refreshing to read something that wanted you to make the connections and explicitly commented on the condition of the world. Not very post modern, I know, maybe there is still room for the grand narrative afterall.

BUT it is allegorical. A lot of readers, I suspect, will not like the soap box she uses as her writing desk. But I did. Mainly because the characters were well drawn and she created a wonderful microcosm within the French apartment block where they lived.

I would rate The Elegance of the Hedgehog - 4/5. definitely worth a read.

Book Art Object

2009-11-04T18:46:00.000+11:00

I am part of a group called Book Art Object. Eight women who make artist's books. We are planning our first group entry for early December. That is only 4 weeks away!!!!
One of the main issues about the design is that I need to do a run of 12 - 15 books. I know for the letter press printers this is a tiny number but for me that is pretty big and is playing a major part in the design process.
We have a couple of common elements to link the entries ie size - A5 landscape, and the poem by Rosemary Dobson- Learning Absences. I have tried to separate myself from the English teacher and respond to the poem instinctively instead of analytically but I was glancing back through my sketch book and found the following pages.

I know they're very hard to read but they show how hard it is to break old habits. Analyse, poke, prode and probe until the poem falls apart at the seams. (I hope I don't do this as a teacher but, if I'm honest, I suspect it is the fall back position I take in a desperate scramble for HSC success.)

I have, since then, been doing heaps of drawing and am starting to produce some ideas I feel comfortable with......tearing myself away from the analytical, literal reaction.

Anyway I will continue on. More drawings...less thinking. Does this go with my last post????? Learning complication. HYPOCRITE??? I am laughing now. There's nothing like a bit of tasty hypocracy to keep you on your toes.

If you want to have a look at the group go to http://bookartobject.blogspot.com/

Learning complication

2009-10-15T09:01:00.003+11:00

Yesterday my school had a study day for the HSC students. About 50 turned up. Sounds good in practice but as i suspected it became a bit of a social/stress/panic/procrastination exercise for some of them. Not all. I had a little band of 6 from my English class who wanted to revise Hamlet.

I wasn't expecting it, I thought it would be more like extracting teeth. I was pretty chuffed that they still wanted to write an essay that somehow reflected all they had put in.

They have been struggling with the bard all year. They DO understand him when we're reading it (funnily enough - because the general consensus is that reading him is the hard part) but when it comes to writing about him that's another thing. I'm sure anyone who has done the HSC can remember that feeling clearly enough.

We found a study room in the library. My stomach felt a bit twitchy and I knew it had as much to do with this being the last time i would ever teach them, as the sushi lunch that had sat on my desk since 9.00 am.

Where to start. We don't want to panic them now. These flighty yearlings.

I asked them what the big issues were and like well trained monkeys they rattled them off - revenge, life/death, love, appearance vs reality, action vs inaction etc. etc. But when it came to writing about it in any depth they stumbled as usual. The model mapping, scaffolds, smart boards and numerous other visual tools, promoted as the next leap forward in the education revolution, only valued added to a certain extent.

Nic said in frustration, "They are all so complicated." The rest nodded and sighed in agreement.
I could sense growing anxiety.
I didn't want them jumping ship.
"Let's look at the complication...How does Shakespeare make these ideas complicated?...Just how complicated is it?....Let's take revenge ...the sons....Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras...why....how....therefore."

A discussion followed that, while it might not make them write better essays itshowed that complexity can be a way out of the darkness. Certainly a way out of the black, inkiness that colours the darkness.

Revenge turned into murder, turned into lust, turned into guilt, turned into action, turned into inaction, turned into reality, turned into appearance. And very soon turned into jokes and laughter and a certain comfort in our own ability to dress in Hamlet's clothes. Black though they may be.

Are we meant to grab hold of complexity, complication, confusion and chaos? Build on it - not deconstruct it. Let it take off.
If out of the darkness comes more darkness than learn how to make lemonade (and candles).

And maybe....if all else fails.... upgrade your search engine.???

Slept in - no vodka needed

2009-10-07T18:04:00.000+11:00

No I'm not trying to rewrite War and Peace. Just trying to break a years worth of being head teacher administration and waking at 5.30 to receive calls from sick and worn out teachers. I was threatening to start drinking (at 5.30 in the morning) but, alas, it was not needed.

Yesterday and today I managed 7.00 am with no problems at all. Might have something to do with the FREEZING weather we are experiencing down this way at the moment. Not that i want to become a slug - I have always enjoyed getting up early - I just don't want to be a slave to habit. Anyway I slept in, got up to fatty, lavish breakfast of bacon and eggs, did very little exercise and made a new and delicous batch of chocolate chip biscuits (cookies???)

yum

The recipe is:

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

125 gms butter

1 egg

vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups SR flour

1/2 cup white choc chips

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and line trays with baking paper.

2. Melt butter and combine with sugars.

3. Add egg and essence and mix well.

4. Stir in flour and chips.

5. Place teaspoons of mixture on trays and bake for 12 mins.

Hope you enjoy them as much as L did. Good study food.

Year 12 farewell

2009-10-04T07:50:00.001+11:00

Finally the year 12 school year has wound up and they have had their luncheon, their assemby, their muck up day and their graduation. I think Virginia Woolf might have called it a 'moment of being' (or maybe moments of being might be more accurate) -but on Tuesday at the luncheon i was quite overwhelmed by the thought of not just L finishing (mind you I did not say 'leaving') but all of the year 12 kids.   they have been a crazy/cool group all the way through.

Anyway needless to say I bounced back fairly quickly and the prospect of starting a whole terms leave banished any sookiness to the outer playground. However it is now day 2 of the holidays and the idea of freedom has not relayed itself to my body. I am still up at 5.30. Waiting for staff to ring, looking for marking, doing a quick load of washing, trying to make the house look like a small whirly whirly came in through the window and danced around the loungeroom - rather than a tornedo.

And I am still gazing longly toward the studio with some sort of mental dingo proof fence forbiding entry.

Here's a solution- if it happens tomorrow - take a bottle of vodka - and sit on the deck and watch the sun come up. If at anytime I think of any of the above jobs I am to take a couple of swigs from the bottle That will surely tell my mind and body things are now different!! and by 9.00am i am most certainly going to be back in bed!

Or better still I could get up and get that exercise i have been promising myself for the last 6 months? Nay  best we not rush things too much.

........Hang on.........finally my mind is slowly flicking channels ...... i just got up walked into the garden and pulled out a weed that i have looking at through the window for the last 3 months.......maybe i won't need the vodka afterall.   Better try it ........just to be sure.
After all it's better to be safe than sorry.

Adding an image

2009-08-21T18:21:00.002+10:00

Still sussing out how to add, delete and generally create a blog. Thought I might try to add some photos to my post ... so here goes. i made these pots in 2007 for an exhibition in Cooma... hope you like them.

the HSC and making excuses

2009-08-18T19:48:00.009+10:00

Have you ever helped a child prepare for the HSC?
The trial started yesterday - and the weekend was spent cajoling, bribing, begging, swearing, crying, tempting, indulging, eating, drinking and finally collapsing in an exhausted heap. (I am talking about me and not Louis our second son who is about to be blooded on the altar of exams).

I remember all too clearly that sickening feeling growing in your stomach as you approach the hall armed only with a felt tip pen and a bottle of water. Problem is Lou doesn't seem to have the sickening feeling. Not only is there no sense of desperation he seems to think theyare going to test him on Nascar playstation and the content of a bizarre You Tube instead of As You like It Kenneth Slessor and Jane Austen. mmmmm.

If I have said the phrase "after all it is your HSC" once (in a very nurturing tone of course) I have said it a thousand times............Yes I am at great risk of turning into my mother.
BUT........

I challenge anyone who has been the 'mother of a HSC student' to say they have not had a moment of parental regression. No?.....really?....think again. Do the following sound familiar?
'stop thinking about it and just get on with it'
'you have had all year to do that'.....
'no you can't go to the pub'

Yes he is 18, legally able to vote, fly a plane and marry multiple women in Utah. I suppose i should be greatful he asked actually asked if he could go to the pub.

Can yo u see now why I was exhausted? And this is just the trial. I promise to remind myself that yes, this is his HSC and to move on.

After all this has been one big long excuse for not getting any photos on this blog. (Lou is my digital/techno assistant). Sorry....next weekend I promise.

hello

2009-08-13T18:24:00.002+10:00

Hi to Sara, Carol and Moreidlethoughts who have commented on my blog. It took me a while to realize anyone had commented but I am slowly getting the hang of it. ....would definitely not call myself a 'blogger' yet..........

Am so busy with year 12 at the moment haven't really got time to play around with it but I promise to put some photos on this weekend.

At the moment I need to go and prepare a mindmap for Hamlet and the graveyard scene, you know the one...... '...Alas poor Yorrick! I knew him Horation, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy,...'
not a bad thing to be doing, the kids love reading it and Ialways find something new (?old) to think about.
Imperious Casear, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole, to keep the wind away.
Oh that that earth which kept the world in awe
Should patch a wall t'expel the winter's flaw!

It is just a shame you have to test it....squeezze it into an essay ........pull it apart to within an inch of its life? but I think I will need a whole other blog if I start down that road.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2009-08-12T20:14:00.003+10:00

Am reading a wonderful book at the moment. Will try to do the book thing on the gadgets later but in case I don't jag it the title is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It is set in France and tells the story of Renee, an elderly concierge of a Parisian block of apartments and Paloma, a twelve year old girl who lives in one of the apartments and is determined to end her life before he thirteenth birthday.... sounds morbid but so far it is quaintly enticing...at the moment I don't quite know what the title means ....but i'm sure it's going to be worth waiting for.

So i'm juggling my spare time knitting vest for B (husband) and reading this wonderful book... at the moment neither are winning.

2009-08-11T20:11:00.003+10:00

Oh i sound so vague. Reading back over my last posting ..... crazy ramblings of a mad women.......

The poem I'm talking about is one chosen as inspiration for a book art exhibition. Please follow the link to bookartobject to read it. It is by Rosemary Dobson and very beautiful. It is called Learning Absences and has beautiful words one after the other that gives a glimpse into loss. It ends like this......

"...At night, at this season, lingering at the window Not being certain where to find Halley's Comet, And looking a long time at the darkening sky."

It makes me think of all the things I would no longer be able to find or remember to do if I was left alone. Very moving.

Book art inspiration

2009-08-11T19:01:00.004+10:00

Didn't get back to take that photo of my idle scribbles. Nevermind I promise some photos this weekend.
Am really excited about the bookart project. It will be a great opportunity to make books and develop my blog. And what a lovely poem. Each time I read it I gather something else from it.

At the moment i am linking it to an accordion style binding with linoprint and sewn thread. But this is just one of many thoughts jumping around my skull. Very simple and stripped back....just like the poem. But I'm sure before I'm finished a number of ideas will compete for their chance to be the finished books on my desktop.

I have been making stab bound books using some lovely silk thread I bought at the Sturt Winter School and I keep wondering how these could be incorporated into the project. Half the fun is in imagining and planning what you will do.

janealiendi sent you a video: "Ken makes a mini-book"

2009-07-27T21:51:00.001+10:00

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janealiendi has shared a video with you on YouTube: Ken makes a mini-book Ken makes a mini-book
© 2009 YouTube, LLC 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066

Back to work

2009-07-27T20:20:00.003+10:00

Holidays ending is like saying goodbye to an old friend. You physically feel the loss and a mild melancholy slips over you... a deeper version of Sunday afternoon blues. I'm glad it has happened, because like all unwanted anticipations the event itself is far less traumatic than the build up.....how ridiculous does this sound? Of course it is not that bad. What I'm really going to miss is not the holiday but the 'making' that my holidays entail - books and knitting at the moment....sometimes I 'work' harder on holidays than when I'm at 'work'...and I love it....like an old friend.

First day back today. Pupil free day - lol. The layers of meanings embedded in that phrase are infinite and somewhat ironic. Needless to say they are a waste of time, (the days not the pupils). Not really but .....what is a teacher without a pupil? Probably someone in a meeting listening to a bunch of other teachers talking about how to better engage the 'pupil'....and the lucky little buggers are off running free.

During one of the workshops today boredom induced rebellion led to me fantasising about making a book. The bookclub workshop proposed by doubleelephant manifested itself on the back of two coasters (the only blank writing space available at the local bowling club0. I have set myself the challenge of photographing them and putting them on this blog for tomorrow. hopefully this will be the start of documenting the process of producing the books for the exhibition.
Gotta run now. Wag the Dog lesson preparation is waiting. The pupils can't be left to run free for too long.

2009-07-25T08:54:00.003+10:00

Managed to send this film to myself after a lot of stuffing around!! Not really how i wanted it displayed but never mind...will keep trying . I found this little gem while preparing a unit for year 12 on 'meaning and representation'...whatever that means.

janealiendi sent you a video: "The Most Beautiful Man in the World"

2009-07-25T08:47:00.002+10:00

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The Most Beautiful Man in the World the most beautiful man in the world
© 2009 YouTube, LLC 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066

Third time lucky

2009-07-18T16:42:00.000+10:00

Phew! managed to get something posted.
Just back from Sturt Winter School and my first aim was to set up a blog. Even before i start making more books. The bloggers seemed so in touch with what is going on. A great thing for anyone who makes anything and wants to share their ideas.
Experienced bloggers talked about having some focus for your blog......at the moment i just want to get it on the screen but basically i think I'll share ideas to do with:

making,
reading,
watching
and eating.

Pretty much covers everything.

2009-07-18T16:39:00.000+10:00

Sent my first post this morning but something went badly wrong!! Will stick to things short and sweet until I figure out what I'm doing.

1st blog

2009-07-18T12:53:00.000+10:00