ELSEWHERE

And again!

Tiny as a soul, there comes the rabbit. (Familiar?)

As a detail, and how it looks framed, this is the last of my show and tell for a spell.

And now I must return to the film festival. Thus far, I have seen eight films. Or has it been more? My mind is in a haze. Thus far it's been grand!

See you at the cinema. See you in the queue.

Spotted in the park again

When photographing framed prints in the park Gracia and I find it most enjoyable to vary the backdrop as much as possible. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

We recognise this scene set, with its moon above and stars left on.

Moving forward in the way of all things.

From this bed, with the wings of a bird, I flew to the sea as I slept last night. (II)

Four-colour lithographic offset print, coloured pencil and collage on Aquarelle Arches 100% pure cotton hot-pressed 300gsm paper.

Edition of 15.

This piece has been re-worked by hand with much colour pencil and several collage elements over the top of a four-colour lithographic offset print some of you will be most familiar with. Look closely, can you spot the additions? Any extra fish swimming perhaps.

Spotted in the park

There are cities one will not see again. A new work, in detail.

On Sunday it rained and everything felt oh so very and delightfully wintery. It was the sort of day when the sky is grey from horizon to horizon and the air is frosty from waking until head hits pillow later that eve. The very sort of day I love because it provides the perfect cover for a self-confessed hermit who loves nothing better than working at home on an artists’ book, a forthcoming book for the APC and reading War & Peace for extended lengths of time. Sunday was the perfect sort of a day for me.

Another sort of day I’m fond of is the sort where the air is crisp but it’s not raining so one can venture out into a park with five newly framed prints and photograph them before delivering them in person to Craft Victoria for an upcoming exhibition all about childhood. This sort of day is light-hearted and jovial, and can only made better by also including a delicious Japanese lunch with a dear friend.

Raphus cucullatus

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is the icon of extinction and one of the most well known specimens in the Museum. No mounted skins of this world-famous bird have survived, so we can only display a skeleton and a model reconstruction to depict what it may have looked like in life. The model, reputedly made with feathers from a cygnet illegally removed from under Hammersmith Bridge, shows it as being a rather fat bird, but recent evidence suggests it wasn't as comically round as we thought. The dodo was a relative of the pigeon and lived on the island of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa. With no predators, it prospered, searching for fruit and nuts from the ground, its breastbone too small to support the strong muscles needed for flight. Its peaceful existence was shattered, however in the early 1600s when humans arrived. They brought with them rats, cats and pigs, for all of whom the dodo's ground nests were easy pickings. As forests were cut down, the dodo's food supply dwindled, and so by the end of the seventeenth century the last one had died.

Treasures of the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum, London
2010

The Water Carrier

Sometime ago now, I showed you a little of an astrological project I was a part of for Blanket magazine. Today, on this grey and perfect afternoon, I have a little more of it to share with you.

Interview for The Cosmos Issue, Blanket magazine, Issue 22, 2010

I am from the eleventh sign of the zodiac. I am an Aquarian, born in the second week of February many years ago now. For this project based upon star signs, I thought about all the things to do with being a water bearer. Our element is Air and we are ruled by the planet Saturn, this I know, but I am not someone who reads my star sign forecast weekly. We are meant to be changeable too, aren't we?

Researching this project, I realized that there seems little else I know of my sign. I decided to look into it further and using water as a general springboard, I set about planning to either draw or photograph a collection of water jugs and various vessels. From this initial idea, it all fell neatly into place. Once I started, ideas came freely. My love of birds needed to be incorporated. I buried my nose in the bird books I own and ones I borrowed from the library. I wanted to draw birds that were extinct or rare.

I drew especially for this project, a Pacific Gull and a Papa Westray Great Auk. The Pacific Gull I drew was once common on Sydney Harbour. In the twentieth century the common kelp gull drove it out. The Great Auk I selected second, as it "is one of the most powerful symbols of the damage humans can cause". I drew from a photograph of a museum specimen, the last one known in existence. It is from 1813. It is penguin-like in appearance and it "is now extinct, not because of habitat loss, but rather intense human exploitation" (Treasures of the Natural History Museum, Natural History Museum, London).

I wanted to draw these water birds as my companions. I drew them quite large on the page and then with a sharp blade, I cut around my drawing, almost as if setting them free. I planned to photograph them by the ocean. Creating a scene, picnic-like, of me as the Aquarian with my water bird companions sipping water and carrying water vessels by the sea. I wanted blues, the ocean and the sky.

The drawings themselves took a week or so to draw and slowly cut out. Gracia and I then spent a grey autumn day both photographing the drawings in their new environment. In some of the photos, I feature, holding my water birds. Other photos I took. From near to eighty photos, I made my choice. I wanted to paint a scene of an Aquarian water bearer that was not too obvious yet clear. I wanted you to be able to see the pencil markings on my drawing. I wanted to make a drawing that was more than a work on paper; I wanted it to be part of a scene created at the end of a windy pier.

I had a great deal of fun with this project. I enjoyed researching the history of the two birds and coming up with something that summed up my star sign to me.

(Interview: Louise Jennison)

All printed and done

The passage home was long.


A possible shortcut is considered.

A moment to hold close to the chest.


Looking for a way in.


A chance sighting.


One moonlit night with little to no prospect of success.


They had returned.


It was worth it if only to see the stars scuttle across the shore.

Not 1, not 2, not even 3. No, the number I’m talking about is the same as the number of pages I still have to read in War and Peace minus 792. It follows 7 and precedes 9 and it is divisible by a 1, a 2 and a 4. It is, of course, eight. 8! Why am I so excited about eight? Well, simply because eight is the number of new prints Gracia has just finished. Eight postcard collage prints, all four-colour lithographic offset and editions of 15, printed on Fabriano bright-white hot-pressed 300gsm paper. Printed by Redwood Prints, each measures 16cm (high) x 20cm (wide). They are all gorgeous and I hope will all find splendid homes in the coming weeks.

If you are such an owner of such a home, skip this way to our webstore where all eight new postcard collage prints are temporarily housed.

A windy day

On what was the coldest day of the year, Gracia and I ventured out to photograph our very recently completed square for Project Patchwork. It features a little fabric bird, a necklace-wearing rabbit, and a scarlet branch with fabric blossom.
 
While photographing said linen square, the wind was so bitter I thought my un-gloved fingers would freeze. I tried to put on a brave face, telling myself it is not nearly as cold here as say Vermont or Stockholm in December but it felt very cold to me and I soon skipped back to a warmer environment than the park.



As a rule I love winter, it is my favourite season, but that declaration is usually made whilst cosy indoors and all rugged up by the heater roaring. It is under these conditions that this photo below was taken. Here is Moving forward in the way of all things, a new print, hot off the press. All five of Gracia and my new lithographic offset prints are now complete, signed and edition 1/15 of each is sitting at the framers. In a week, they can be collected and I shall hopefully smile contentedly as I do so.

Enjoy what remains of your wintry week, or perhaps your summery one.

Moving forward in the way of all things.
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Four-colour lithographic offset print on Fabriano bright-white 300gsm paper
Printed by Redwood Prints
Edition of 15, 2010