elsewhere

2X2X2=

A sunny Wednesday and I am sitting here sewing a parcel of round-bellied penguins for Craft Victoria’s forthcoming White Christmas. I have Omar for company, and he absolutely loves this hot spell. He sits on the couch and occasionally looks up to make sure I am still working.

Tonight I will be conducting a bookbinding workshop at Craft Victoria. You can find further details here, in a recent post I penned for Clog. You can also see all the pages of Gracia and my collaborative book stacked one on top of the other though not in the sequence they appear in the bound book. For that you will have to head to the gallery in person.

(Two double-spread page details from an artists' book you are seeing a great deal of at the moment. Click to enlarge in order to see the detail better.)

(Good journey to you, Brian. Looking forward to your London life blogged. (See further.))

Put two and two together

It is Sunday morning and I have time to share with you two more page details from Gracia and my most recent collaborative artists’ book. Time to post this here and then brew a second coffee.
 
This evening, however, I am thinking of things past.
12 page concertina, four-colour lithographic offset print and colour pencil on Fabriano bright white 300gsm paper
Title page, watercolour and pencil Fabriano bright white 640gsm paper
Housed in a balsa wood case with binding cloth bound by Jennison
Edition of 12, printed by Redwood Prints

In other news, Gracia has recently posted a second post to Craft Victoria's Clog featuring several of her postcard collages. You can read it here, or peruse all posts in one swoop here. And dear Leah of Milly Sleeping crosses our path and we miss once again.

(Especially for you, Shari, cloud forming rounded masses.)

Yet another view

Earlier this week, Gracia and I turned the pages of her 21 collaged artists’ books currently being exhibited at Craft Victoria. I know each page well, having had the joy of seeing them being created these past months. We plan to turn the pages at least once a week. It’s a fiddly job, but much fun and the reward of a celebratory coffee always follows. 

You can see more images of Gracia's beautiful books here, in a first of several guest blog appearances on Clog.

Here, too, is a detail from our collaborative artists’ book which you can see sitting upon a shelf below the gallery window. Hoping you have a lovely weekend.

So much to show you

This time last week, Gracia and I were setting up our work in gallery two. We were probably, late on Tuesday afternoon, scratching our heads and thinking of having another coffee. It feels a long time ago already.

Magic forests, bizarre circus folk... The interior worlds of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf have inspired a collection of beautiful lithographic works by collaborative duo Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison. The pair have worked together for over a decade since graduating from RMIT. Titled A key to help make your own world visible from a quote in Hesse’s novel, the exhibition is a continuation of the pair's work in building miniature worlds in artists' books and on paper.

Dylan Rainforth, The Age, p.19, 23.10.09

(Jumping forward from the installation, here is how it looked at the opening. G & I look ever so slightly nervous and overwhelmed by the attention. To those of you who came along: thank you!)

A thing installed

On the first day of installing A key to help make your own world visible, G and I commenced with the walls. We laid out on the floor our collaborative prints in their frames and my drawings, wrapped in many protective layers of tissue, on the floor. We mapped the space and tried many arrangements before many hours later hitting upon the most fitting way. We had too much work, we soon realised, and many pieces had to go.

On the second day, we set up the two tables running vertically through the space.  A long shelf was also kindly installed underneath one of the two windows (thanks Erik), the perfect spot for our concertina book and my loose drawings housed in a balsa wood box, one of many I had made especially.

On both days, much coffee was needed.

From these photos, rosy though they are, you can get a better sense of the scale of my drawings. frequently shown here on this blog You can also see more behind the scene photos on G's post here, and Craft Victoria's post here... with more to come all round throughout the week.

A key to help make your own world visible
23rd October – 28th November, 2009

Gallery 2, Craft Victoria
31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne


 

Thanks Michi Girl for the super sweet mention of our exhibition and (then forthcoming) opening. (Click to read)

Thanks, also, to Sunday Arts for featuring a little of our work on last week's episode.

With ink on my paws

An invitation especially for you. Do come along and say hi, those of you in Melbourne. (Please click to enlarge, it will make reading the opening time all the easier.)

Things draw ever nearer with each day and so far all is ticking along to loose plan. All printing now complete, all that remains is the hand-colouring still to be done on the pages of this recent artists' book of ours. A concertina, twelve pages long, it will be the longest book we have ever been able to print in glorious full-colour.

I am keen to show you this once bound and housed in its wooden casing. Until then, here is how it looks behind-the-scenes. I hope you enjoy this preview.

Take a look,

Here is a small taste of things to come. A look at two page details from Gracia and my most recent artists' book. This collaborative book features many of my watercoloured drawings as its base, and some will be most familiar to regular readers of this blog.

There will be more to come soon, if all goes to plan, but right now I need to polish my skates and put them on... bound for the printers, I am. There is a colour proof I need to cast my eye over.

An eagle and its prey on a Monday

The subject of today's painting is a little gory, I think. What an imagination Wenzel Jamnitzer must have had, creating an incredibly detailed vessel with Trochus shell and a silver gilt mount of an eagle attacking a snail (1570).

A writing box on a Friday

My reinterpreted cabinet of curiosities continues after a momentary pause.

Wednesday and Thursday speed by so quickly, and Friday seems like a good day to catch up on correspondence. Perhaps an intricate silver box such as this would be the perfect place to keep letters received or paper and tools for letters to write. This particular one is crafted by Wenzel Jamnitzer in 1570 whom cast lizards, frogs and insects in silver to place upon its lid.

An ivory face on a Tuesday

Not as handsome as Monday's owl perhaps, but interesting nevertheless. Today's drawing is a  French 19th century ivory carving.

Mid morning addition:
New Wave: artists' publishing in the 21st Century (15th – 19th September) was a recent exhibition at the University of West England, Bristol, UK, and it included my Tweak, Tweaked, Tweet (2009) zine and Gracia's Good evening, good evening. So nice of you to come all this way (2008) zine. What a thrill.