Studio Saturday - a couple of shelves

Encouraged by the clear surfaces, but appalled by the general pandemonium, I took my camera into the room "to photograph a few details" - ie, without the clutter.

The overflow of my cloth bag collection hangs in the studio -

 ... next to the bookshelf, on which were two old atlases, from 1928 and 189? -

The embroidery on top of the books has its own history, dating back to the 1990s.

A quick look through an art catalogue turned up some more ideas for the upcoming reduction print -

 This possible starting point is from "Ernabella Batiks" book -

Also among the books was the calendar put together by Camden Age Concern, illustrated by artworks based on items in the British Museum.

It was made for CQ's "Celtic Connections" challenge in 2009. Machine-quilting the rust fabric put an end to quite a few needles as they hit heavy-metal patches.

In no time at all, two short shelves were tidy, even roomy, with a few books de-selected for redistribution when that becomes possible. (A pile is growing, in a dark corner.)

Reading ...

Something for Freya to be getting on with

... with Granny Helen -

25 November

22 December

24 December

27 December - she's getting good at turning the pages

... with G.Ma (g.ma? g-ma? Geemaw???) - Granny Margaret -

18 December

... and in the library -

16 December

Studio Saturday - this week's research

Textures in a photo displayed at Charing Cross station

how a manga artist shows a jazz riff 

more textures from the Manga exhibition at the BM

ceramic AND woodblock inspiration from Yo Thom's work at Contemporary Ceramics

shadows so often go unnoticed

unusual sky...

... echoed in a coffee cup ...

... and perhaps in this glass bowl

rediscovering a book on my shelf...

... and lusting after this one ...

Poetry Thursday - Brown Penny by W B Yeats

Among the lovely selection of poetry at the British Library Bookshop I found a new collection of short(ish) poems -

Centre, top shelf -  The Zoo of the New

"The Zoo of the New" is subtitled "A Book of Exceptional Poems from Sappho to Paul Muldoon" - but, why "new" if some of the poems are so old? Possibly because poetry is "news that stays news"... also, why "zoo" ... I don't have an answer for that.

The poems have been selected by Nick Laird and Don Paterson.  (And the zingy cover was designed by Richard Green.)

Opening the book at random ... here is Brown Penny by W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) -

Brown Penny

I whispered, ‘I am too young,’
And then, ‘I am old enough’;
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
‘Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.’
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

(via)

A "man of unsteady heart" (or just confusion; love and confusion are often associated)  reflects on the many kinds of love encountered throughout life (a full analysis is here).

A good source for dipping

Notebook / sketchbook, where are you...

 The little (A6) black book that was started six months ago

 and which contains all sorts of jottings

has only a couple more blank pages ...

 and will soon join these

on the shelf with the other, bigger books that have accumulated since 2008, when I started the art foundation course (others dating back to the 1980s are stowed elsewhere) -

But where oh where is the stash of small, unused books? I bought about a dozen when Rymans was about to stop stocking them. I poked around in the "studio" (storeroom) and was overwhelmed at the thought of having to riffle through absolutely everything, a task that was sure to lead to a lot of time-consuming decision making about what should go and what can stay... not ready for that, at the moment ...

There is a section of shelving with unused blank books of various sizes. Either of these (A6) could be Plan B -

So, back to the living room for a bit of a tidy-up before going out to a nice event at the British Library later...

And - ah the value of tidying up!! - it was while returning a book to the shelf that I noticed, higher up

 the missing books  -

Calloo callay, oh frabjous day!

Woodblock Wednesday

 A new term starts. Carol's 1855 woodblock-printed book gets passed around and we marvel at the skill of cutting both text and illustrations -

The inside front cover (read from right to left) and the start of the story

Looking at the moon (possibly from  Hokusai's Lost Manga)

 Mixing up the available colours to get "the" red -

My ersatz registration system - using masking tape to centre the image on the paper -

 ... was not terribly successful -

Large prints are tricky, and thin paper doesn't help. This is a project for continuing at home, where I can spread out a bit more.

Another highly desirable book -

December's reading

Published in 1993

The Anni Albers exhibition took me to "Women's Work: textile art from the Bauhaus", which has been on my shelves for about 20 years, to look for information on the other (female) weavers trained in the Bauhaus, and their successors: "In exile, Anni Albers and Marli Ehrman educated a new generation of students, who have since become teachers, designers or both".

In the post-1960s upsurge of serious attention to the history of the Bauhaus, the Weaving Workshop has received little attention, says the introduction. "It has had two strikes against it: in the hierarchy of art and design, textiles and women share equally low positions. Moreover, like women, textiles have equally been cast in the supportive role: one notices the chair, but not the cover."

First published in 1944

"Temple spent most of the following morning delving into the files of the Egyptologists' Journal ... This ;monthly publication, published from an obscure address near the ritish Museum, presented a most forbidding appearance to any layman not interested in its particular subject, with its severe buff colour, endless pages of small print and very dull pictures rather indifferently reproduced.

"Somewhat to his surprise, Temple found the two articles by Sir Felix Raybourn countained an occasional flash of whimsical humour to relieve their rather erudite discourse. Both concerned a series of excav ations undertaken by Sir Felix, which, as far as Temple could see, had proved singularly unproductive save for a few ancient weapons in very poor condition, and a vessel containing a strange liquid which had not been analysed. Sir Felix dilated at some length upon the medicines of ancient Egypt and the cures they were reputed to have effected, and thus hecleverly concealed the paucity of the actual results of his expedition. As a writer himself, Temple admired the ingenious manner in which Sir Felix had contrived this little deception."

As someone familiar with the world of academic journals through working as librarian and editor, I found that passage most amusing, and admired Durbridge's dexterity in avoiding the potentially confusing "he" in the second paragraph.

2012; "152 illustrations, 135 in colour"

"More than 75 contemporary artists" (some are pairs of collaborators) choose an influential work by another artist to write about. The book includes these women artists, many of whom were new to me:

Tomma Abts

Eija-Liisa Ahtila - https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/eija-liisa-ahtila - video works

Eleanor Antin - american performance artist - https://www.moma.org/artists/8183

Vija Celmins

Spartacus [now Monster] Chetwynd - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/monster-chetwynd-12108 - mixed/cross media

Tacita Dean

Marlene Dumas

Katharina Fritsch - http://whitecube.com/artists/artist/katharina_fritsch - sculpture, including blue rooster on 4th plinth

Susan Hiller

Candida Hoefer - german photographer of empty interiors - http://www.artnet.com/artists/candida-h%C3%B6fer/

Cristina Iglesias

Annette Messager

Beatriz Milhazes - brazilian; painting, drawing, collage - https://whitecube.com/artists/artist/beatriz_milhazes

Cornelia Parker

Sophie Ristelhueber - french photographer of territory and effects of war - https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1996/newphoto12/sophie.ristelhueber.html

Gillian Wearing

Rachel Whiteread

Lots of food for thought here. I could have spent a day copying down great chunks... but it's due back at the library.

Virago Classic "with an introduction by the author"

 It was the cover and the pithy wit of the introduction (2004) that attacted me, in the charity shop, so it came home. Unfortunately the story (1983) wasn't up to the introduction, or the wit had worn thin. Back to the shop it goes.

Sometimes you buy a book to give as a present, and it doesn't leave your hands. On dipping into Dava Sobell's "The Glass Universe", I was gripped by the storytelling. It's "the hidden history of the women who took the measure of the stars" - they were called "computers" because of the calculations they did; they worked at Harvard's astronomical observatory, and by extension the book is a history of the observatory itself and of developments in astronomy in the decades either side of 1900. Highly recommended, even if you don't know Betelgeuse from Polaris, or what a spectroscope is (a woman is important in that, too).