Why read?

"girl reading" by Vanessa Bell

You can do it anywhere -

"Grace reading at Howth Bay" by Sir William Orpen

At any time -

Artist: Edward Cucuel (found here)

(In stolen moments, why not?) -

Artist: Coles Phillips (found here)

Alone or in company -

(found here)

Fact: Reading can make you a better conversationalist.

Fact: Neighbours will never complain that your book is too loud.

Fact: Knowledge by osmosis has not yet been perfected. You'd better read.

Fact: Books have stopped bullets - reading might save your life.

Fact: Dinosaurs didn't read. Look what happened to them.

Art I like - Michel Francois

From the exhibition we stumbled upon at SMAK in Ghent in 2009, I've never forgotten these objects:

They were used, apparently, by Mexicans crossing the desert into the US - to disguise their footprints as cattle. 

Other objects in Michel Francois's huge show were similarly baffling - sometimes resonant, sometimes visually delightful, usually untitled. Here's a sampling of the many I photographed, in no particular order.

This one, too, sticks in my memory - as a subtle use of simple materials -

At the end of the afternoon, an installation of broken glass and the wintery blue twilight -

 See more of his work here.

Keyboard quandry

In German, three letters with umlaut (the double dots above the letter) are used often, so they need their own keys. If you're a touch typist, you use your right little finger for them -

Other keys are different on the German keyboard -

After a few days of briefly using this keyboard, I can just about remember where the Y is, but the ' and ? and - are another matter!

Poem for the week - by William Stafford

This week, a somewhat longer poem, 14 lines ... hardly a sonnet, though, without a rhyme scheme, with lines of so divergent numbers of syllables ...

You, Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
Sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
Than the breathing respect that you carry
Wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
For time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
New glimpse that you found; carry into evening
All that you want from this day. This interval you spent
Reading or hearing this, keep it for life --

What can anyone give you greater than now,
Starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

The author is William Stafford (1914-1993), who lived in Kansas and Oregon; I found the poem here. 

The photo was taken at a museum (ah but which one...) in Ghent, Belgium, in December 2009 - outside, snow muffled sound and the air was crisp, that I do remember.

Winter journey

The bare trees - temporarily bare, showing their shapes, and letting the sky shine through - are the best thing about winter.

These photos were taken as we were leaving Belgium, December 2009 - at least we thought we were leaving. We didn't know there were problems with Eurostar and that we'd be stuck in Brussels for two extra days - or that we'd get a compensatory Eurostar ticket which, used the following December to get to Amsterdam, would again involve a return fraught with delays because of snow, resulting in yet another compensatory Eurostar ticket ... which was used (Paris, December 2011) without further incident.

Mirror, mirror

Autumnal

This is just to say...

... that for the next wee while, blog posts will be of a semi-nostalgic nature. I've been trawling through my  files, doing a little housecleaning of photos. It seems a good time to prepare some posts, as I'll be away for a couple of weeks - in Berlin this time. (Too much travel lately! I hope to be able to settle back into some sort of routine on return.)

On my previous trip to Berlin, three years ago, I did quite a lot of drawing in museums.

These pages were filled at the applied arts museum and I soon used the drawing of "Schloss" (top left) for a project in the foundation course. Schloss means both "castle" and "lock" in German - but even while drawing the keyhole, the second meaning didn't impinge on me - I could only see it as a strange sort of castle. Thus are we bound by our assumptions!

The object at the bottom of the left page was the "best" thing I saw at that museum - a simple(?) ceramic box, with lid. It was big, it was porcelain, it was blackened: I wanted to take it home ... so here it is in a drawing, figuratively in my possession. Of the maker, Mechthild Poschlod, I know nothing other than she lives in Kassel.

Drawing in other museums wasn't as memorable, except for these objects:

Looking at the drawing of "Veneration of the Stupa" brings back the entire atmosphere of the museum, as well as some other objects in that room -- and isn't that one of the reasons we draw in museums? Not just to  record the object, or even to get to know it well, but to stop and take time to absorb the experience of not just the object itself but the place that it is in - sounds and smells and light levels and the comings and goings of the patient friend we might with.

The bronze skull bowl, from Nepal, was in a different part of the museum. I was intrigued then, and have followed it up now. Kapalas are considered a legacy of a tradition of human sacrifice, and were used in Tibet to make offerings to wrathful deities. Some are made of actual skulls, but this one is cast in bronze. I think the holes were damage to the metal, rather than part of the design.

Last time I took a large sketchbook - part of the project was to Draw Big (hence one object per page) - but this time will be taking only my usual A5-size notebook. To avoid getting back to that bad old habit of putting too many pix on one page, I've set myself the goal of filling the remaining pages - about 2/5 of a 160-page book, yikes! Another bad old habit is always using the same pen, but that's ok by me - the primary aim is to look, to experience the object and the surroundings rather than make a stunning picture. And - less to carry, easier to keep track of.

Knitting & Stitching show

Highlights of the show, for me, were the 62 Group display, the Colour Improvisations quilts curated by Nancy Crow, the hand stitch exhibit (must get the book, eds Jane Keating and Alice Kettle) - so much stimulation in one day made for a rich meal and will take me a while to digest! For now, here are some artists I enjoyed talking with. To see more of their work, follow the links.

At the 62 Group show, Marilyn Rathbone explained how she made "100 Metres Dash" - making the braid involved training sprints and time trials (and a lucet). We also talked a bit about using randomness in making work. Her earlier works are here -

Zoe Cox's work involves intense stitching and minute pieces of fabric, carefully placed, as in the actual butterfly wings. See her earlier work here. She's a member of 02 Textiles -

In the Graduate Showcase, Karin Boyes had taken the subject of soldier-casualties in Afghanistan to make work with depth and feeling. I forgot to get a photo of Karin with her work - this is how it looked in her show at Eastleigh College (pic from her website) -

The Sketchbook Project is open for business at Canada Water Library. Hours are:

Sat 13 Oct, 11am-5pm

Mon 15 - Fri 19 Oct, 4-8pm

You get a library card (it's free) and then can sign out two sketchbooks at a time.

 I looked at many books on my own chosen topic, Along the Line. The first I saw, by Australian calligrapher Tricia Smout, went beyond the "sketchbook" concept into artists book. I admired its cohesion - a line went through the book, and along it were various quotes -

 Another book with a unified concept was by another Australian, Cameron Hibbs - the spirals got smaller as you went through the book -

 These lines in Sandra Borbach's sketchbook appealed to me -

See all of Claire Heminsley's sketchbook here -

This is by Nicola Perren -

Sandy was looking at the Stitches & Folds category, and found this gorgeous book by Henriette Coppes of the Netherlands, who gives a website but unfortunately I can't access it... Black paper, treated with slashes, piercing, pencil marks, alternates with pages of cloth treated in various ways -

Art I like - Dominie Nash

"Big Leaf 25" is in Dominie Nash's solo show in Frederick, MD. She has long been fascinated with the shape and structure of leaves, and has printed fabric with very large leaves in tones of black, gray and white to produce the 13 quilts in the exhibit. You can see the entire Big Leaf series at www.dominienash.com/leaf.html.

On her website she says: "I have been asked numerous times why I don’t paint instead of making quilts, since my work seems far from its traditional roots. My answer is that the work would not be the same; there are qualities inherent in art made of fabric and thread: the particular depth of the colors, the layers, and the texture of the stitches, that can’t be duplicated in another medium. Handling and placing the fabric to create a composition is a totally different process than working with brush and canvas or paper. I don’t wish to emulate or compete with painting, but rather to make good quilts, which reflect these special characteristics."

The "Stills from a Life" series has intrigued me for quite a while now. In #41, it's the way the colours work that appeals - how the colours interlace with the rhythm of the shapes -

In #12 (2003), I like the juxtaposition of the two different viewpoints - looking from one to the other, you seem to be moving in the physical space of the room; or does it show the evolution of the scene over time, some elements moved slightly or replaced by similar ones ... you keep looking back and forth to check -

Moreso, it's the monochrome work that really grabs me. This smaller piece is New Leaf Improvisations #3

In relation to monochrome, the saying that comes to mind is "Tone does the work, but colour gets the credit". Not to forget that composition is important too ... and perseverance with an idea. Do go to Dominie's website for inspiration on how to develop a series.

Found art Friday

Book du jour - double-fold accordion

For my research/experimentation toward books for the al-Mutanabbi Street project, I've been considering a street of rooms -

Reading rooms perhaps -

The valley folds will be sewn together and there will be a solid, flat cover at both ends.

I still have it very much in mind to use graphite and ink - a lot of graphite and a lot of ink! The details of just how to do that will be the next phase of research/experimentation.

So far, I've been using papers that have been lying around, waiting to be used. Sometimes they suggest things themselves - finding a set of origami paper, folded in half, suggested that the "street" could have "rooms". Finding and using the photocopies in the top photo brought home just how much of a memory paper has - the stack of A3 paper had been folded over, hence the wiggles, despite my best efforts to straighten them out. Even on the dummy run, you want it to be right, don't you?

Back to folding and stitching...

Poem for the week - a poetry project

To my delight, I find myself able to remember the poem I learned last week. OK, it's only 6 lines long, and I did "rehearse" it rather a lot, both in writing and by saying it out loud. My reward is not only the pleasure of having "a new companion" but also the opportunity to put it into a bookwork - either on its own (that would be a small book, though...) or as part of a collection.

Working towards the bigger book, I am setting myself the project of learning a poem every week - a short poem, and for a minimum of six weeks. 

This week, I have chosen, pretty much at random, from New Poems on the Underground 2006 - the book opened to "Words in Time" by Archibald Macleish (1892-1982):

This poem is twice as long as last week's, so either there's half the chance I'll remember it, or I'll have to work twice as hard on it. At first reading it seems rather bewildering (which is, imho, a good sign!) ... I look forward to getting to know it. First step: copy it into my constant companion, The Black Notebook.

This project will continue as long as it continues to interest me. Please join me by learning a poem of your choice - and let me know what you've chosen!

Tate Modern - the tanks

Such a pleasure to sit in "the red room" - a metal cylinder lit by a red light bulb - looking out at the speeded-up video of "The Crystal Quilt" performance (1987) and listening to what the women had to say about the process of ageing and being their older age.

 The women talked, among other things, about
-the need for a vocabulary to describe what's beautiful about older people
-respect for ourselves as a picture to the world around us
-living a richer life because you're experiencing things more
and, of "women's values" - being willing to work with impermanent things.

Also at the tanks: a double-projector work by Lis Rhodes (Light Music, 1975) - "an innovative work presented originally as a performance that experiments with celluloid and sound to push the formal, spatial and performative boundaries of cinema" -

Looking around, you see remnants of the former life of this space -

A few steps away, in the big bookshop, lots to choose from - this is a bilingual sort of art-slogan book (The Future will be ... China; impromptu thoughts about what's to come) -

Book(s) du jour

A day of bookmaking and exhibition planning started with this prezzie from Janet - one of her books with gold spines - the subject is  "Spectacles" and I happened to have to hand some frames found on a walk -

 To her gold books, Janet has added a quote on page 46 [why 46? see her DNA-related explanation here].

It reads: "As sight is in the body, so is reason in the soul" and was said by Aristotle.

The product of the afternoon  was an experiment with embossing/debossing -

I'm calling these "cupboard books" because the "doors" open at the centre, making for a long format when open. Karen (the arrows) used the bookcloth cover to join the back and fronts, and will be sewing a signature into each side, whereas Janet (black) and I covered the boards separately, using the paper inside to hold them together. We'll either draw or write on that paper, or glue in something else.

Threads and their labels

My current Morning Stitching needed some green, so I took this one out of the box of stranded* cotton - the box with threads passed on to me by friends whose mothers hadn't used them in their lifetime. (*Doesn't that give a new meaning to "stranded cotton"?)

Though "vintage", it's a brand new skein -  neatly tied up so you can easily find the end of the thread and carefully pull it out. And look at the lovely lines on the label! They prompted me to look closer at other labels - a mini-history of the evolution of Coats Anchor, and a glimpse at other brands -

Looking for information on the history or manufacture of embroidery threads, I found this, and was not tempted -

460 colours! (DMC has 465...) Just as with those huge sets of crayons we lusted for a children, some colours would disappear quickly and others would be left sadly around for years. Also, it was instructive to see that individual skeins (8 metres) now sell for prices randing from 47p to 77p - or,  three or four skeins for the price of a cup of coffee.