Disappointing, but not entirely wasted effort

Gone Shopping, 2015

A friend told me about a call for entry from Canada that sounded right up my street - art created on public transit. So, I created some art on public transit, making "travel lines" (aka travel-writing and journey lines) on tubes and buses and the Overground, like I've been doing for about five years now (intermittently). I experimented with different kinds of paper, pre-treated in different ways, and thought some more about What Does It All Mean. All good fun.

My images were ready before the deadline. I put them on a website, as requested in the submission rules (as sent to me by the friend) - and while re-reading those rules, suddenly noticed the link to a website with more information. Ah. Looking at the website, it was immediately apparent that  my work wasn't quite right, in fact it was totally off the wall ... they want faces of commuters, basically - art that will be interesting to other commuters when shown on screens on subway platforms.

I'm so glad I didn't look at the website earlier - or else I wouldn't have made the work. Now, something exists that surprises me and is a "development" - I'm interested in the  travel lines theme again. Perhaps it can go even further, who knows, in the next five years.

Plus, links on the website led to other artwork that's being made (and commissioned) to adorn public transit systems. http://vimeo.com/69673716 is a trailer for "Advice for the Living" - people over 70 and under 7 give us nuggets of wisdom: "Eat breakfast after ... bedtime" says one young sweetie.

The "The things we lose" project looks good too (http://vimeo.com/106426256?from=outro-local).

Here in the UK, we have occasional uprisings of multitudinous public art, usually on public transit - Many of the "art is everywhere" posters supplied by the Art Fund were in train stations around the country. London has Poetry on the Underground ... and every now and then a new Art on the Underground project ...

Obviously there's no chance, with this submission, of being given a second look, but I sent my link and statement along anyway. The aim of the exercise, its mark of completion, was to submit the work, and in order to do that, to make work. Tick that box.

Another insight was discovering, after the work was made, a great lump of reluctance to make the small further effort of checking the guidelines and doing the actual submitting. Usually I'm right up against the deadline, so there's simply no time to be reluctant - do it now or miss the boat. This time, with a week in hand, I kept putting it off - the "oh I'll do it tomorrow first thing" promise that keeps getting broken. Shocking behaviour in an adult, don't you think? What would your advice be?

Red reconstruction

Thanks to the charity shop at Hampstead Heath, a red cashmere cardigan came my way - the price reduced because of "small hole in sleeve". I'd been walking along thinking about my loss-of-language project and holes-in-the-brain, so it seemed a good idea to take the cardi home in case it could be part of my project - I imagined adding holes to it while sitting around at the final show. Perhaps it would become a sort of performance.  I was thinking about Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece", where the audience cut away her garments - but as my work isn't about crossing boundaries in that way, I wouldn't be asking visitors to the show to snip away at the sweater. I was thinking about making holes and then darning them with invisible thread ... an idea for another time perhaps....

I started wearing the cardigan (we're having a cold spell this midsummer) and now am even more reluctant to destroy it. So cosy! Such a warm colour! But those ruffles ... and the pearl buttons ... they gotta go ...

The next step in this rescue mission is to cut off the ruffles, machine stitch round the edges, and add some 1/4" bias binding. These silks, printed with my journeylines last year, will look quite different as bias binding -

In the surgery and reconstruction, the little hole will disappear and the sleeves will become the right length.

Decisions about couching

Until I figure out how to do the couching project -- working title, Journey To The Studio -- I can't get on with actually doing it. These samples explore background and type of thread - 

 Front and back, on repurposed linen and colourcatcher, using rayon cord and various couching threads -

Just add ink and it looks rather different! Mostly I put the ink on the back so that it could seep through the fabric, hopefully leaving the thread the original colour - and making the rather messy back a nice, uniform black. Type and consistency of ink make a difference.

I like the ikat effect of the seeping ink into linen that's been sprayed with water before the ink is added, and also the way that sometimes the colour of the couching thread is left.

Book du jour - couching II

Turning the "journey lines" into stitch - to represent "the journey to the studio" - perhaps this is a good way to start the day, with a little stitching? A way to ease into studio-time? Or just feeding my need to stitch....

First some decisions:
-on paper or on fabric?
-what size
-what kind (thickness, colour) of thread to couch down
-what kind of thread to couch with
-how much to do each day

I'm inspired by Judy Martin's ongoing daily stitched journal/journey (see it here).

Before the work on the actual piece can start I'm making a few samples. The one above uses overspun rayon, held down with cotton, sewn onto japanese paper. The width is the width of the roll; the depth is as much as can comfortably be held while stitching -- I don't believe in fighting with the materials. These could be sewn together but the practicalities and my preferences have me leaning towards using fabric, which can be scrunched while stitching ... and feels more congenial than paper!

Next, some experiments with colour - different inks (the blue bits in between are Quink). I quite like to have a bit of the colour showing. The next pic shows how the light shines through the parts the ink didn't reach -

Next, experiments with fabric (linen? I have a lot of recycled linen...) and a careful look through my threads, and thinking about whether to leave the original colour(s) or to ink it up or dye-paint it.

Page du jour - coffee bag

As my book arts course moves into Phase 2 - concentration on the final project - my task is to focus on the "lines" themselves (I'll worry about the structure of the eventual "book" later). So instead of making books, I'm making pages, trying out materials and how to make lines (visual "text") with them.

A coffee bag was lying on the desk and a dressmaker's wheel was to hand, so I opened up the bag, added more folds, and went at it from both sides to make a variety of punctured lines. Couldn't resist sprinkling a bit of thread on it, and adding coloured reflections -

Along the lines - Metropolitan line

For the Sketchbook Project I'm "writing the lines" - each of the lines that make up what used to be known as London Underground - in alphabetical order. I won't bore you with each one; this is an example. I started in July and have just one left to do - Waterloo & City line - which is just one stop. 

One of the longer lines is the Metropolitan line (67 km - 42 miles, of which only 6 miles is underground). The first underground line in the world, its first section was opened in 1863. The line is now is used by about 190,000 passengers on a weekday (map from here) -

When I get to the end of each line (and some lines have more than two ends!) I take a few photos and sometimes leave the station to have a coffee or look for interesting shops. At Uxbridge, Frank's Coffee Shop, inside the station, was more interesting than the "chains" outside -

The station has a few "original features" -

One of the photos that is part of my "rules for this project" is the poster of train times. At each station along the line these posters give times for travelling to other stations. Producing them must be a small industry in itself -

Part of my journey was on the old-style cars (A stock) -

The new-style trains (S stock) have more standing room, and you can walk the length of the train - but they no longer are "metropolitan line purple" (real name: Corporate Magenta) -

The journey so far -

Hmmmm .... I started at King's Cross and dutifully travelled to the four western ends of the line - Uxbridge, Amersham, Chesham, Watford - but omitted going to the eastern end, Aldgate. With any luck, there will be room at the end of the sketchbook for a "Metropolitan line appendix" - it's only 5 stops.

New materials

Exciting to see the work made by design team Glithero. The video of "Bench Mold" on the first page of their website gives me ideas about how to make my "lines" in relief, as I focus on trying out various materials -

Another process is shown in Burn Burn Burn - a flame travels along a line of flammable paint -

 They developed the paint in their kitchen, but - "Don't try this at home."

Xmas pop-up at Artisan till 23 Dec

17 artists are exhibiting - tapestry, photography, glass, ceramics, knitting, jewellery, cards, lamps, even furniture -

and the gallery looks filled & festive -

The bags and t-shirts have "a certain presence" -

The unisex t-shirts are organic cotton, available in white or grey in sizes S, M, L, and sell for £22. The bags are priced at £25 - each is unique, with comfortable handles and inside pockets.

Scribbly trees

Tangential to my research on the writing/drawing continuum is a scribble that occurs in nature - under the bark of some 20 species of eucalyptus trees, mainly on the east coast of Australia. It's made by the larvae of Ogmograptis scribula. There are half a dozen species, and at least five distinct scribble patterns.

Scribbles are caused by moth larvae feeding on photosynthetic tissue just below the epidermal cells in the tree trunk.

Pix from here and here.