Two Books

I made two new books for the Artist Book fair at Limerick School of Art and Design.

I'm not entirely happy with either of them for the reason that I don't think there is a complete synergy between the idea, the form and the execution.

You can't really just decide to make a book without thinking everything through and then thinking it all through again, then starting and always being willing to abandon an idea if it isn't working.  I think artist books teach you to have a very elastically creative mind but then giving up on an idea, especially when hours of work are there in front of you, is very difficult.  I gave up some ideas but never really started again from scratch and I think these books aren't 100% because of that.

Book 1:  Irish Bus
A set of 11 postcards detailing a bus journey from Hospital, Co. Limerick to Oranmore in Co. Galway wrapped in a hand-reproduced bus timetable for route 51.  I love travelling by bus and kept a diary, recording conversations, things overheard on the radio, and things I saw.  I also took photos and made 11 little scenarios out of my notes.  Currently Bus Eireann is in severe financial difficulty and may not survive for too much longer so these anachronistic postcards my turn out to be a record of an anachronistic journey.

Book2: To See Your Own Light
I often listen to Hildegard von Bingen while drawing and made a drawing into a single page book, housed in a folder.  The outside of the drawing has one of her pieces of writing that I thought especially pertinent written on it;

We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.  An interpreted world is not a hope.  Part of the terror is take back our own listening.  To use own our voice.  To see our own light.

Sunshine

Sunshine is my Jack Russell/Chihuahua cross.  He is the greediest creature I know.  He actually trembles when he is watching you eat.  When he has eaten his dinner, he is as round as a barrel.

He has no coat to speak off.  No fur hardly on his chest and just bare patches under his 'arms'.  In winter I put jumpers on him which he likes but he is so small and wriggly that they usually fall off him again.  I drew this quickly when he was sat up in a purple jumper like a little man watching me.  His head really is that small.

Origami Printing

For Christmas I got some origami paper.  It was beautiful and as I've never tried anything like this before, I followed some online instructions to make a few origami pieces.  I found it very addictive to the point where every day I try and learn a new piece or practice making ones I've already learned.  My memory is shocking and I frequently forget after a few days how each one is made if I don't keep practicing.

So then, looking at the flat origami shapes, I thought about making larger versions and printing from them.  It worked after a little trial and error and here are the results.

(It is only a coincedence that I am posting this now, so close to Valentines Day as I am not sentimental, nor into any of that gushy, once a year, lovey-dove fest.)

I thought that the ghost print of the origami would be the best and I tried it in gold.  It was NOT GOOD.  There was no detail and the sewing on the paper origami 'plate' didn't help.

The actual print from the origami itself was better.

So I tried it in black ink against a roughly inked up background to contrast with the lines and precision of the origami

The different levels of ink on the origami give different results but what was really nice and intriguing were the ghost prints from the back of the origami

Then I printed a star.  The origami has to be flat so I need to learn a few more to continue this series.

Crane*

*Not suitable for printing!

Winter Morning Moonset

The moon set at 8.08 am and we had snow.

Old Stuff # 6

Maggie's Moustache Entertains

In November Maggie's Moustache 4 came into being.  It is called Maggie's Moustache Entertains and is one of the best ones yet, being an uplifting tale of country and western music, attempted suicide and glitter.  I know I would say that but it was about a year in the making and I think it really captures the surrealness of a moustache that goes about in the world as a separate entity to it's 'host' and also the feeling of that particular part of K where I live and where time seems to have stood still since about 1982.

It was the same fantastically low production values as all the other, ie printed at the local library and I sold it at the Yulefest open studio in Kilkenny and gave a couple away to friends and edition one is all gone.  I am already writing Maggie's Moustache 5 which is going to be feature length - whatever that means for zines.  What I mean is is that it's going to be a long story and they are sometimes the best of all ...

Old Stuff #5 and A Story

In the fields this morning, the dog was barking and barking at something in the next field.  He wouldn't come back when I whistled him but kept on barking - a threatening, 'don't come any closer' bark.  I thought it must be hunters - on Sundays they come into these fields with lurchers and terriers looking for rabbits.

When I got to the dog, he was staring into the next field but there was nothing there.  Absolutely nothing there.  Nothing to be seen or heard.  I called him to follow me into the field but he wouldn't.  He went the long way round and caught up with me further up the field.