Big Smoke Little Smoke @ Dogwood Crossing, Miles

It's been a while between posts, as I've been busy preparing artwork then traveling out to Miles for installation of my joint exhibition 'Big Smoke Little Smoke' with fellow artist Joanne Taylor.

Here are some photos from the exhibition -

The Gallery building at Miles, based on the iconic Bottle Tree

"Interconnection" made up of
hexagons of prints and papers.
Its a comment on pollination, with the pattern
reflecting the brood of a native bee hive.

Detail of my installation, "Interconnection".

One of my new works, "Natural History", using blueprints
on wooden insect shapes.
Once again my artwork reflects my fascination
with museum collections.

Another new artwork, "I'll meet you at the Mall",
completed during my POD residency last year.
Its drawings of urban birds on takeaway bags,
with textures inspired by the landscape.

Joanne and I at the opening night function.

Thanks to Lyn and Paul for the photos.

Research and Reading

Its been a month since I returned from my residency in Tasmania, and since then I've been busy finalising artworks for my upcoming exhibition.

I'm exhibiting 'Big Smoke Little Smoke' with fellow artist Jo Taylor at the Dogwood Crossing Art Gallery at Miles during February and March this year.  This is a follow up to our exhibition at Tambo early last year.  The exhibition space at Miles is bigger than Tambo so Jo and I have both been working on new artworks to make the most of the new space.

My focus for the exhibition is on my favourite theme of urbanisation of nature.  I've been reading a lot of books relating to introduced animals and historical accounts of how today's Australia was shaped by a lot of bad behaviour by colonial settlers.  I've been blissfully diverted by tales of Tasmanian Thylacines (extinct or roaming Tassie somewhere?) as well as reading about how our national identity is linked to the animals around us, both native and introduced species.

As part of my art practice, I read a lot of books that focus on the conceptual side of my art. Gone are the days where I just read novels and technique based books.  A wide range of reading sources have really helped me to develop the ideas or conceptual side of my art practice.  I've been able to use my research to spark interesting ideas and lines of investigation which I then develop further into artworks.  I learnt this from attending workshops with artist/writer/educator Ruth Hadlow.

As I read my books, I flag interesting paragraphs and sentences. Then after I finish reading the book, I refer back to the flagged pages and write notes in my ruled A4 notebook, its nothing flash or visually exciting.  I write down details of the book, where I got the book from (eg local library or my bookshelf), and the page numbers of each note that I make so I can refer back to that section of the book if I need to.

These notes then become my resource when developing artworks or writing exhibition/grant proposals.

Ruth Hadlow also had another great tip which I use frequently - read the references section at the end of each book, it gives hints on other sources and books to look at on related topics.  Its almost like a rainy day spent on the internet, where you go from one YouTube video to the next, drift along happily in Pinterest etc.  You never know where it may lead you.

For me, I don't just want to make an artwork that may be decorative or pretty.  I now take the time to research and read widely to broaden my thinking and develop my ideas from external influences.  Its not just all about technique, which of course is the fun bit, but I also want to have a story worth sharing with my viewer.

A4 Notebook and books I'm currently reading

Sample page from my Notebook

You can see the flags I use, like
mini Post-It notes

Invitation for my exhibition (front)

Invitation - reverse side

Big Smoke, Little Smoke Exhibition - Road Trip to Tambo and Beyond

Craig and I have just returned from a road trip to Tambo in Central Western Queensland to install my exhibition 'Big Smoke Little Smoke' with fellow artist Joanne Taylor.

Not much time for art and unfortunately too hot to do any monoprinting (of course I took my gel plate!), but we enjoyed a week of camping in the outdoors and seeing plenty of interesting things along the way.

And the exhibition looks great too!  Images of some works from the exhibition are on my website http://www.sandrapearce.com.au/2016-big-smoke-little-smoke.html

Joanne and I are planning to exhibit the exhibition closer to Brisbane some time in the next 12 months, so that it gets some time in the 'Big Smoke'...!

Camping at the Bunya Mountains....misty and cool.
A stark contrast to the rest of the week.

Myall Park Botanic Gardens -
ticked off my bucket list!

On the road

A shower of rain over pasture lands.  The grass is
thick from previous rain but drying out quickly
in the hot temperatures.

Grasslands Art Gallery at Tambo,
where 'Big Smoke, Little Smoke' will be held
until the end of April

I'm installing 'Interconnection' - 200 handcut hexagons
arranged in a stingless bee hive pattern.
Surprisingly fun to install and all done by eye, no
pencil marks to guide me.
For the hexagons, I cut up maps and old prints - the process
of sorting, revisiting and cutting up prints connects my
previous bodies of work with one of my current themes - pollination.

Me again... installing 'Dispersal' - 50 monoprints of weeds
on the inside of envelopes, attached to the wall
with tacs and magnets.
The weed plants were sourced from my own garden,
turning something unwanted into a plant to be
cultivated and pressed like a valuable museum specimen.
Its interesting that this kind of unexpected meaning
develops during the process of creation.
Also, this form of installation with prints flowing down the wall
was something I've been keen to do for some time,
but I had to find the right venue for it.

Here I am with fellow artist Joanne Taylor
at our exhibition opening.

One of the Bottle Trees in the main street of Tambo.
I love their unique sculptural quality.

And only in Australia,
 this portly Green Tree Frog was occupying more than
his fair share of room in a toilet bowl at a public loo in Augathella.
FYI - I found another toilet to use!  

Pedestrian Artist Book

One of my final projects for my upcoming exhibition 'Big Smoke, Little Smoke' was a set of 5 artist books titled 'Pedestrian' primarily using photographic images - something quite different from my usual printmaking techniques.

The title 'Pedestrian' alludes to the banalness of the urban environment from a bicycle point of view. I often ride my bike along local roads and bike paths to go shopping etc.  One day I realised the extent of urban structure around me - road markings, signage, poles, bins, drains etc. There's so much of it, pointing us in the 'right' direction, guiding us through our journeys, and modifying the natural environment.  So banal, so much sameness, it all just becomes a blur in the background.  They are the stage props against which we act out our daily lives.

To create the layout for the 5 concertina books, I engaged the services of a graphic designer, Wendy Clark.  I had originally intended these to be circle accordion formats with a self-cover but a hiccup in the printing process meant that I had to change plans slightly and so my first books in the edition have self-made covers from box board and binding tape.  I also made a simple slipcase to house the books.  The low-tech cover and slipcase contrast nicely against the semi-gloss of the monotone photographs.

'Pedestrian' is designed to look a bit urban grungy and this first version certainly fits the bill.  

A Mock-Up or Two

Today I finished another artist book that I've been working on for my upcoming partnered solo exhibition "Big Smoke Little Smoke" opening on 5 March at the Grasslands Art Gallery at Tambo.

I was inspired by an artist book format I found in the book 'Playing with Paper' by Helen Hiebert.

My book is called 'Entomophobia'.  I used atlas pages to make envelopes then cut hexagon windows and inserted insect imagery printed on organza.  The book comes together with piano hinges and when installed, will be arranged in a closed hexagon.  The hexagon shapes are repeated in one of my other artworks for the exhibition, and refers to beehive combs.

When I make artist books I usually avoid making mock ups as I've always felt it drained my creativity and enthusiasm.  But this time, I knew that I needed to do some testing and playing before I made the actual book.  It was a good idea, as I had to make a couple of mock up books before I found the papers that would do the job.  Making the mock ups also allowed me to expend all of my 'frantic' creative energy on the test pieces, thus ensuring when I was working on my final piece I was calmly measuring, cutting and THINKING mindfully, not allowing my knife to get ahead of my brain!

The structure and images I have used in this book express the idea that humans have significantly changed the global landscape and thus impacted on insect populations.  The title of the book 'Entomophobia' alludes to our general attitude towards insects - an inconvenience and nuisance within our homes and gardens.  Perhaps we should be also considering the importance of insects in the natural world, where they are part of the food chain, help break down plant material and of course pollinate plants.

Cutting out hexagon windows in my handmade atlas envelopes

I printed my insect imagery onto organza sheets

The mock up artist books

The final book, side view

Top View, the concertina will be installed
closed like this in a hexagon pattern

Close up of one of the piano hinges,
using a bamboo skewer to secure it

Collagraph Plates and Prints

Fellow artist Joanne Taylor and I are collaborating on an artist book for our joint exhibition "Big Smoke Little Smoke", opening at Tambo's Grasslands Art Gallery in March.

For the book, we have each prepared 2 collagraph plates.  Collagraphs are bits of cardboard and other materials collaged with glue onto another piece of cardboard, then sealed to create a printing plate.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon printing the plates multiple times in blue, black and brown colours. When dry, the prints will be sliced up and attached to a Venetian-blind style artist book to be hung on the gallery wall.  The book will be approx 60cm wide by 150cm long.

The book's title is 'Viewpoint' - referring to the idea of looking out of a window and seeing the landscape.  From Jo's viewpoint, its the landscape of wide open spaces, gidgee trees and her local wildlife.  From my viewpoint, its fences, buildings and geometric patterns.

The book will come together in the next couple of weeks.... a very basic technique to create a unique artist book.

One of Jo's collagraph plates in progress

The collagraph plates

Inking up one of the plates

Printing Joanne's plate

Joanne's Emu Feather print

My Studio Etching Press - a Hill Dav, I
bought second hand a couple of years ago

The finished prints...now just have to wait until they dry before
I start assembling the book!

Drypoint and Carborundum

I'm currently working towards an exhibition in March at Grassland Art Gallery in Tambo with fellow artist Jo Taylor from Barcaldine.  The exhibition is titled "Big Smoke Little Smoke' and explores our personal relationships of where we live in relation to the natural world around us.

I'll be posting snippets of my progress to my blog as I create new works for the exhibition.

In the past week I've been working on a large drypoint for a piece titled 'Call of the Currawong, Brisbane CBD'.  This work is based on a personal experience - I observed a pair of Currawongs living in the Brisbane city area amongst the tall office buildings.  It struck me how very different that landscape is to their natural area in the Great Dividing Range, and I wondered how they had adapted to it.  And why did they choose the CBD as their habitat?

The essence of the work is the feeling of the movement of the birds as they fly between the buildings and their calls echoing off the solid structures, as opposed to the thick lush canopy of the forest.

So in my drypoint I used flowing lines and imagery of currawongs in flight, with carborundum grit to add dimension and tone.

The plate is a cardboard product I hadn't tried before, though I have used homemade plates of sealed mat board.  Its slightly bigger than A3, so quite a job to ink up.

My first few attempts to print onto tissue weren't overly successful but it did print nicely on soaked fabriano.  I plan to cut and collage the finished prints onto boards - this would have been easier with the tissue but I'll sit and think some more about the next step before I proceed.  Such is the nature of art and experimenting - things don't always go to plan and I always need to keep an open mind when on the 'journey' of creating!

Wiping off the ink to reveal the imagery

The inked plate

Finished print (detail)

Finished print (detail)

I took this photo as I cleaned up the plate,
I loved the tones left behind