There we will sit upon the rocks.

{All mended. Collage on Camera Studies small photograph.}

{Watched over. Collage on Camera Studies small photograph.}

{Safe passage. Collage on Camera Studies small photograph.}

From my Mum I recently borrowed her Parker fountain pen and now I am enjoying how it feels in hand. It is the perfect fit for today. It is made for swift movements and also for steady hand. It is a sword to cut through tangled vines and clouded thought. It writes well. It makes me miss pen and paper days of my youth and I am reluctant to hand it back. I am writing titles for new collages and I am writing a list of things I wish not to forget. I am writing facts as Sir David Frederick Attenborough narrates them to me. I am writing a list of all I want to do this week. It is proving a long list; I’ll need to change the ink.

Today as I work, I have in my head the sounds of the Penguin Orchestra Café (the films Malcolm and Napoleon Dynamite may be called to mind, yes?) thanks to Joanne (it played on her blog last week). Whenever I am cutting collage pieces I listen to music. I try to keep up and I often don’t succeed. Whenever I am working on a collage and near to gluing the pieces in place I listen only to the thoughts in my head. These thoughts are sometimes in relation to what lies directly before me, but more often than not, they are incongruous and pedestrian. Sometimes though the wings of such pedestrian thoughts come laced with a little whimsy, for want of better word. Armchair philosophy also plays part as well but never the lion’s share.

In pyjamas usually, I work. Hair tied back and lost to thoughts in my head. It is a heady and intoxicating feeling and one that makes me think to myself that I ought partake in this drug more often.

When not hand-to-paper working, I am reading Stevie Smith’s The Holiday. Here's to beautiful melancholy suspended.

('There we will sit upon the rocks' is a line I have borrowed from Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.)

+ Thank you for the sweet mention, Heather.

Comments

[Tracey]

Wonderful post as always (it's always such a visual and reading pleasure to visit you here).

Your level of incredible creative energy and creative output astounds me... (in other words you impress me to no end).

I too am a lover of fountain pens, though being a left-hander sometimes I have trouble with not smudging my words...

[Helen]

Thanks to Heather's mention, I re-found you and this space! I'd popped in some time ago, before I was maintaining a list of favorite places, and I'd just recently been fretting that I'd never find my way back here ... when Heather mentioned Gracia Louise and I felt instant recognition! Hurray!

I'm off to collect some Stevie Smith. After reading the article you linked to, I'm utterly intrigued.

Your work is full of tenderness. I cannot get enough of it.

[Rachel]

It sounds like you enjoy stream of consciousness thinking as much as I do! I find that it works best right before I go to sleep, when I can let my mind wander freely and come to its own conclusions. Some of my best ideas have come that way- without force, without conscious intention.
To agree with Tracey, your creativity amazes me. There's a certain mood to your collages that I can't quite put into words... somewhat mysterious, always magical.
Have a good rest of winter, as I experience a quite different, hotter season up here!

[joanne]

penguin cafe orchestra should be fun to make collages to! i wonder what the music looks like, translated into a visual medium :)

[heather smith jones]

oh the blue bird in the "watched over" piece seems to hold the figures by a string in his beak.

and words flow out of you like the thread in honeysuckle, that holds the nectar on it's tip.

you always inspire me gracia. always.

[Mary-Laure]

You know, I too have an old Parker fountain pen my grandma gave me but I never used it; maybe I should give it a try!

[aimee]

that bird is brave to sit on 'the broken bridge'... and how interesting that you mention using a parker. using a fountain pen makes the process of writing feel so much more authentic to me than writing with a cheap ballpoint. i used to be a pen buyer (we called them 'writing instruments') and it was a fascinating business. i still have a little collection of watermans and parkers. maybe it's time to dig them out again.

[Christine]

I love your way with words, G, as well as your way with the scissors and glue. Beautiful and poetic post. xo

[katrina]

love these collages. they make me want to cheer!

[shari]

i am eager to read some stevie smith. i love the words beautiful+melancholy next to each other. xox

[mansuetude]

i also have some old fountain pens i hardly use, though you are right, they do balance in the hand.

love the way said by you, "I’ll need to change the ink." Says it all! Happy list making.

[nathalie et cetera]

I miss writing long texts by hand. And thank you for saying that you work in your pyjamas. It make me feel less guilty of doing so :)
Superb collages. Those postcards are magnificent!

[lisa s]

mmmm catching up with you i am transported to so many worlds... what a pleasure.

and i am such a sucker for fountain pens. truly.
xo

[Anairam]

I love the titles of your collages - I always find it so unsettling when an artwork is labelled "Untitled". Although I interpret a work myself, I still like to know what the artist was thinking, and the title gives an indication. (But then, some artists do play around a little, not wanting to give away too much, and sometimes make their titles deliberately misleading!)

[Hila]

I haven't left my pyjamas in a while these days :) Although technically, they are just my boyfriend's t-shirt, so I don't look too silly all day. I know the feeling though - I don't really feel like stepping back into reality just yet.

[julie]

i really like the bird pieces. and fountain pens take me back to high school..the flow of your words fits the flow of the ink. lovely. hope youre having a great weekend dear g xx

[Thereza]

fountain pens are great. and so are those collages! i wonder what type of sharp scisors you use. mine is a hair one :)

[natsumi]

I am always amazed by you finding beautiful old photos! The colors are so beautiful!