Book du jour

The "ghost children" idea evolved from the urge to use the fancy edges of childhood photos "somehow" - I was thinking vaguely of erasure of memory. Photocopies made lid-up (to get the black background) emphasised the framing. But inking-over beloved people in treasured photos was simply not a possibility, even in the photocopies, so I started by waxing the figures and frames and blacking out the background. It really wasn't going anywhere that could be part of my project, but one last attempt - using the figures in "ribbon books".

The simplified shapes of the tracings allowed waxing onto rice paper, after which I (carefully) wet the paper in the waxed areas and inked the dry bits, so that the ink would be grey rather than black around the figures. Wouldn't you know, I managed to get half the figures upside down on the strip... Next attempt, adding some rubbings with wax ... and then some attempts with just rubbings (losing interest in the idea...)

Having got this far with photos, wax, and ink, I came across this photo (by Alexandra Beier) illustrating a review of Paul Farley's latest volume of poetry, in a Sunday paper -

It has the "dark clouds clearing" qualities I'm trying to incorporate. (And having found this interview with Paul Farley, I'm definitely going to read some of his poems!)