HIGH UP IN THE TREES

Return.

{What my Mum has seen.}

My Mum has been away in the north of Italy, drawing and painting these past three weeks. She is now home and I am rapt. This time last week, she was in Moreno eating sardines. Today she is eating warm croissants with my Dad.

Here is a little of what she saw.












{Who is for a holiday?}

+ And here is a little more of what she photographed (and, in time, drew in her sketchbook) on her blog, Pasadena Mansions.

A part of the process.

{From this bed, with the wings of a bird, I flew to the sea as I slept last night, signed.}

I’d quite forgotten how much I enjoy the signing of a print. It is a full stop to a sentence. (No, perhaps it is more than that.) It is relaxing to me.  A row of pencils (traditional 2B with red and black striped markings) at the ready begins the process undertaken with care; there’s little room for error. This is the recent print you are well familiar with now, being signed some weeks past now.

+ Something new to see

Preparing to say fare-thee-well.

{At home.}

Though it pains me to say, Cilla the chinchilla will not be staying with us any longer. It’s been six months or perhaps a little more since we took her in and she has stolen both my heart and Louise’s too. She is one lovely ball of fluffy whiteness with silvered tips and when she runs into a room, she looks like a tiny cloud on the move or an airborne flokati rug. She trills, she rolls, she is utterly charming, charm personified. Her cheeks grow fluffier by the day and are extending outwards in comical beautiful appearance. She sleeps with her head on the keyboard and sometimes she sends emails to dear friends. NIDOSfbosaidjnsjkfmkldsvdf fdsgkjngsdf or the like, she communicates in mysterious ways. Moreover, she snores, paws tucked close to her chest. Sadly, though, Olive has not taken to her, much as we have tried. Even with their separate parts of the house and their multiple nesting spots, Olive is unhappy and stressed and so we have been slowly trying to find a good and loving home for Cilla. I wish that they could all have got along, but I am sure that many of you with pets and or those who are in the habit of adopting orphaned animals know, sometimes you cannot keep them all.

 

We are in the process of finding Cilla a good home. A very good home. We wouldn’t have it otherwise. She must have companionship, cuddles and love showered upon her in order that she continues her fine life of snoozing and snoring and charming (just as she is doing now beside me on the floor).

+ A recent zine now in Natsumi's hands.

Equivalent to the sum of two and three.

{Not Egypt. Not Brittany either. A collaborative work made with Louise especially for our part in a forthcoming group exhibition. This is one of four new prints. (Click to enlarge.)}

In continuation of last week’s revival of Five Senses Friday, here is another sensory taste from that which has been.

 
SEE

The costumes, all sequins and tulle, befitting of both Harvest Festival and a workshop for the making of living dolls, in the AB’s production of Coppélia. It is not hard to imagine the large cauldrons required for the dyeing of the midnight blue tutus worn in the Dance Of The Hours nor the making of the pom-pom sunrise-evocative Dawn headpiece.

 
HEAR

The sound of my teeth being cleaned and scraped and polished by my dentist. It is raining outside but I have no idea of this at the time. I am too busy focusing my gaze on the ceiling and trying to coax my shoulders down from about my ears.

FEEL

Paper and thread as I reacquaint my hands with the process of making journals for a handful of special orders placed. My fingers move slowly at first as they pull tight the thread that makes the exposed spine come together. Slowly they become more nimble.

 
SMELL

The cold night air as I walk from crowded theatre lobby across the bridge to the tram stop, homeward bound with my programme held close to my chest, my scarf knotted tight.

 
TASTE

Olive bread dunked in my potato and leek soup all spiced with herbs and utterly warming. So perfect a feast enjoyed in the middle of the day.

+ A new collaborative print, one of the four we are making, can be seen here in Louise’s recent post.

+ Beck, Ritva and Aris, you will be happy to know that next week your postcard prints will be one step closer to being yours. I am looking forward to posting them to each of you soon.
+ My parcel posted recently to the Netherlands arrives safe and sound.
+ Louise and I are taking part in Project Patchwork, and are featured here.

Bound for the Netherlands.

{From this bed, with the wings of a bird, I flew to the sea as I slept last night. (As with the print details in an earlier post, it's best to click and enlarge.)}

Here is my finished piece for the group project Of Birds and Fishes. It is a five-colour print (the fifth plate being a green to enhance the scales of the fish and the feathers of the duck to really make them sing) and it now weaves way by plane to Holland. The print will form a page in a concertina binding of ten artists, myself included. Editions of the print I have sent as well. An edition of twenty, it will be exhibited in the coming months and I wish only that I, too, could fit in that box.






{Walking to the Post Office on a chilly day.}

Thanks Alexandra for inviting me to be a part of this project. And Kitty, Aris, Klaartje, Caroline, Francis, Inge, Juliana and Titi, I am thrilled to have met you through this project.

The faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch, and three winners announced.

{With nothing out of place.}

SEE
Woollen vests and cardigans drying

A zine of ours in Finland arrives
Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800–1815, Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rilke: four new treasures purchased from the wonderful Greville Street Bookstore (which sadly closes its doors forever on the 19th of this month)

HEAR
Coppélia (in anticipation of next week’s performance)
The pleasing hum of the heater
Cilla’s snores

FEEL
New shoes with braided trim on my feet
The broom in my hand as I sweep the garden
Warm cheeks from sitting by the heater

SMELL
Sweet Paprika and Rosemary on my fingertips

Notes of angelica, lavender and geranium in my shampoo and conditioner

Hot chocolate, cooling

TASTE
Mandarin pieces
White chocolate squares

Tofu bibimbap with egg (A dish to recreate at home if ever there was)

Thank you for playing along with my giveaway now closed and for making my decision all the easier as to which postcard collages I should print. From my hat, I pulled the names of three winners. Congratulations to you, Beck (one half of handmadelife), Aris and Ritva. Were I able I’d give away more, one to each of you for your help. It was most insightful to learn which ones you favoured.

More soon, I promise.

+ Introducing: Artists' Books (It was great meeting you, too, Ali, and showing you a few of our artists' books)

A giveaway for your assistance.

{Any favourites you can spot? (Click to enlarge, if it is easier.)}

I am printing six of my postcard collages as full-colur prints of roughly the same size as the original work. The prints will be 20cm X 16cm on Fabriano bright white 300gsm cotton paper. Only thing stopping the plates from being made and the ink rolling is my decision and I. Can you help me decide which six collages I should print. The prints will be an edition of ten. Above are a few for you to pick from, sixteen in fact. However, if you have a favourite postcard collage of mine not seen above, sing out and I will add it to the running tally.

For your help, I will be giving away three different prints to three different souls. Just leave a comment below, be it brief or long, with which work or works you think I should make into a print and you will go into the running.

 

Thank you, all of you, in advance.

 

+ A square and a plus symbol equal a further look at Louise and my recent work for a forthcoming artists’ book to be released this August.

In cahoots

A rainy Sunday is good for working indoors. The view outside is pleasing and all the greener for the downpour, and I am indoors, wrapped head to toe in woolens and warm layers of striped finery. I am working on several new collaborative collage pieces with Louise that will soon  be printed. New work is taking shape for a group exhibition in early August at Craft Victoria, and it is exciting. The exhibition dates draw ever nearer. And nearer still. We are making a new artists’ book especially for our part in Playing Fields and several new prints too.

Here is a taste for you, to brighten your winter days, my friends in the southern hemisphere, and to sparkle brighter the summer, my northern hemisphere friends.

+ Louise’s secret project is announced. She features in Astrology Psychology in issue 22, The Cosmos Issue, of Blanket magazine.
+ Thanks Fanja. It's wonderful to see our zines in your hands and home. Enjoy!
+ Thanks Thereza for including us in your recent Zines / A labour of Love post on Doodlers Anonymous. We'd both love to meet up with you at the London Zine Symposium one year.

The nature of things.

{Perched securely atop Diamond Rock and Unsure of my direction, I pressed on are two recent postcard collages that feature in A menagerie of common and exotic animals. You can purchase the zine here. (All orders come with a little something extra.)}

Wednesday calls for more collage. Let us seek refuge in the wilderness, or by the mountains or the sea, build a little hut for you and me. Let us listen to the monkeys bellow at first light and embrace the noise of nature. Nature can be deafening. No safe haven, no sanctum, is ever truly quiet, but still it provides a refuge within grasp.

+ Thanks for all your zine orders of late. It has been pleasantly overwhelming. Shall be wending way to Post Office shortly. After coffee and perhaps a little something sweet, of course.