Australian Book Arts Journal

I've been featured in the first edition of this local publication, Australian Book Arts Journal.  For the article, I was interviewed by the publisher and editor, Linda Douglas - we discussed my art career, influences, and working ethics. The article spans 6 pages, including photos, some colour.

Linda found me through my Traffic Signal Box artworks around northern Brisbane.

Australian Book Arts Journal was launched at the 5th Australian Artists' Book Forum at Mackay earlier this month.  Linda will be publishing the magazine quarterly and is available by subscription.  Linda's email is theraggededge@hotmail.com.

There are some very interesting articles about galleries, artists and artist books - in Linda's words "this journal is about people and their life's work, their inner thoughts and their soul."

Coochie - the simple life!

The week long art retreat at Coochiemudlo Island is over!  And what a FABULOUS time we had.....
Heavenly days of kayaking amongst the mangroves followed by hours and hours of printing and book making at Cathy's family shack.
Cathy worked on her wonderful artists book based on turtle bones and beachcombing - creating interesting pages using drawing, monoprints, rubbings, scratching etc.  And I created more than 70 monotypes on my press 'Thumper', 32 of these monotypes are to form the basis of 2 artists books reflecting my Coochie experience.
The mangroves, curlews, white-bellied sea eagles, and found objects were a major influence on our artwork.

We've vowed to do the Coochie Art Project again and are now confident about working on a collaborative project together at a residency somewhere in Australia next year.

In the news.....

My work from the Pine Apples Exhibition has been featured in a couple of blogs and articles -

Thanks to Amanda Watson-Will who made favourable mention of my Pine Apple prints...
http://amandawatson-will.blogspot.com/2010/03/pine-apples-exhibition-opening.html

And you'll see my prints in the background of a news article on the opening of the Myrtle Street Studio... http://myrtlestreetstudio.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/and-we-open/

Also some photos of the exhibition space with the prints on the walls...
http://myrtlestreetstudio.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/pine-apples-highlights/

making paper as meditation

The last couple of days I have been 'in the zone' making paper on our deck.  I've had bags of cooked plant fibre choking the freezer so I siezed the opportunity of a long weekend to process the fibre into those wonderful sheets of paper destined for my handmade books.

Firstly I made corn husk paper - very fine texture and light in colour.  I also experimented with broccoli - very fibrous and a surprise to work with after the delicateness of the corn husk.  I mixed in some bleached banana fibre to give it more body and ended up with some beautiful sheets of off-white paper with interesting patterns of pale fibres through them.  The fibres are about an inch long and really give this paper its character.

The sheets I create are VERY uneven and adhoc, I love the randomness of it and it contrasts well with the mass-manufactured watercolour paper I use in my books.  The process is like meditation to me, an enjoyable but lengthy process that produces something unique, delicate and beautiful.