Reworking old prints into Artist Books

You know you've got too much art stuff when you can't find something you know you have, especially if you saw it yesterday......  OK, I admit its also to do with getting older, but I know I have too much paper and art supplies.  Something has to be done!

So this was the impetus for a reorganisation of my art studio and storage room, starting with the recent acquisition of new plan drawers in which to store my extensive paper collection.  And I've continued to use that energy to keep sorting through the rest of my studio.

Sorting through folios, I've found heaps of prints. Mostly reject monoprints from past series, where I've sold the best ones and I'm left with the not-so-good ones.  The ones where the composition or colours aren't quite right, they don't work as a whole but have plenty of interesting marks and textures.  Not a frame-able masterpiece but not worth shredding for the compost bin.

These are the prints that are destined to become artist books.  Cut down, folded, glued and taped - they become a new object with a fresh story.

I saw an interesting book design on facebook.  The book starts with a hexagon shape (I love hexagons!), with 3 valley folds and 1 mountain fold.  The hexagons can be joined all facing in the same direction so the book stands up on its own (as per my examples) or you can alternate the direction of the hexagons for an interesting 'reading' experience.

Here's photos of a couple of artist books that I've made recently using that design.  It was an experiment just for fun to see what these old prints could give me second time around.

Ok now its time to get back to sorting, labeling, shredding, and adding to the growing pile of goodies to donate.......

My new plan drawers, filled with my papers and labeled appropriately.
Now that I can find all of my papers, I know I DON"T need any more ...!

Looking down at the book of Scrub Turkey images,
turkeys running in all directions  :-)

The covers of the book were made with mat board offcuts
and covered with prints

One of the pages of the turkey book,
showing the folds

Another book of the same design, this time
using prints from a Silvereye series.

Another view of the Silvereye book,
I love the textures and imagery in this one.

Riding, camping and sketching

I love it when I can incorporate my art practice into my travels, I feel like I'm capturing a moment of the new place I'm in.

Over the past few months, my partner Craig and I have been doing short bike rides with overnight camping in the local D'Aguilar National Park, within an hour of my home.  Its a no-fuss low-cost excuse to indulge our love of camping.

As the campsite isn't accessible by motor vehicles, its peaceful, quiet and we get it all to ourselves.  Our most recent excursion was to the Lightline Road Camp, a beautiful spot in the middle of the forest.  It had great facilities though no toilet or shower, which I'm OK to give up for one night.  I love the extensive local birdlife, with a melody of whip birds, bell birds and wrens surrounding the camp.

As this is a very lightweight camp (Craig carries most of the gear in his bike trailer), I have to pare down my art supplies to the very basic - a couple of pens/pencils and some paper.  But its all I need. I think its distracting to have too many art supplies when I only have an hour or two of light to work in.  Keeping it simple makes me focus on just doing something rather than deciding what materials to use.

The camp with Craig's bike and trailer in the foreground.
I carry our food in a backpack, so I get the easy job!

My sketching kit,  - 1 pen, 2 pencils, and two pieces of cardboard
secured with rubber bands holding a few sheets of toned paper.
I carried it in my backpack.

The contents of my sketching kit and some leaves,
and also the necessary glasses to help me see what
I'm doing!

Sketching quietly, listening to the birdsong
and the wind rustling through the canopy of trees.

A leaf and the subsequent drawing.
That's all I had time to do before I lost the light.
Not a masterpiece but fun to do - worth taking my kit for.

Relaxing by the fire before dinner.
Heaven!