Keeping At It

Posted on by Sandy Webster

This morning on our walk at the dam. I love how the mist stays low and hugs the ground as the sky tries to pull it up.

And here is last night outside the dining room window.

The light is at a nice angle as we approach fall and things in the yard just get more interesting.

I wanted another large leaved plant for the bog garden below the kitchen window. Where I usually shop for plants in the Asheville area I was told this one would be interesting with its white marks. So I bought it. It is no where near the size of the purplish/green one from the past few years. It took its sweet time showing the “white” and hardly grew much larger than when I bought it. But I do like the watercolorish look of the color panels through the center.

Two days ago at least six fawns showed up with their mothers. Here are four of them outside the dining room window.  Another sign of fall is the changing color of the deer….back to a taupe tone.

This week I carved a small linoleum block. A magpie, gum nuts and leaves. I wanted to try color on them. First the watercolors made from Australian soils, then other watercolors and then gauche. It was very hard to get any even-ness to the color washes.

But then I decided to just go with fewer colors and like it better. It seems my way of working is pile it on, then take it off. Why can’t I just see the obvious in the first place?! I go through a lot of erasers.

I made nine usable prints on plain white printmaking paper. The non-usable became the test prints for adding color, but still ended up in the waste bin.

Then something I have been wanting to do….print the image on pages from a book. Here they are printed on pages from the Australian book, Songlines. The book is frankly a tedious read. Lots of conversation and not so much the description of landscape that one would expect from its reputation. But an interesting backdrop for the image….and an interesting title for the series.

I have two more linoleum blocks this size to use up. The next will be the head of an emu with a banksia pod and leaves. And the other a sulfur crested cockatoo with a pink gum blossom.  I will show you those when I get them designed and printed.

The ones without the Songlines background text I will turn into sets of cards to take down under in March. With the original prints and cards I should be able to pick up some spending money for my time there. I canceled my first teaching venue as it is on the east coast and few if any sign ups this early. I did it because I know the other classes are filled or likely to be and I really want to control more of my time and who I spend it with while in Australia this time. I am cutting down on any stress whatsoever and going for pure enjoyment.

It is tempting to just say “yes” when asked to teach a workshop. The pay is fun to spend in the country while finding interesting things to bring back to the studio to use or just buy gifts that can only come from there. I love buying from fellow artists/craftsmen and at the airport shops where just one more silly souvenir is irresistible.  And whatever I buy as a gift is so appreciated by those who will only know Australia from those wonderful travel images of outback and empty endless beaches.

On another subject altogether. A friend told me about a woman who is making books in black and white photography to jog memories and conversations with those having forms of dementia. In my vast amount of saved pictures I am collecting images that should be familiar to Lee. Adjusting them to black and white and resizing them for a picture book, I will make a book for Lee to have. Or more likely those visiting him can show to him and perhaps start a conversation or a smile to cross his face. We are no where near that now, but I know it is coming.

Some days it is like the tangling of these small trees on another walk we take closer to home so we can get back here before the cleaning lady shows up at eight am.

I like this image and how dense the growth is. I think Lee’s mind must get like this as he struggles to find the word and often gives up. I know him well enough to just fill in. But for others that haven’t spent over fifty years listening to what matters to him, it can be hard to understand what he is trying to say. The best of them will just fill in a blank or change the subject. Just saying, “A lovely bird went by the window”, or “How’s your sandwich?” is such an easy way to distract his anxiety.

Now he is out using his new battery operated weed eater and leaf blower. The ones that took gas and a hard pull to start have been removed from sight. The batteries only last an hour or so and then he has to quit and come in and rest….a good thing.

I think this will be the cover for the book I am making him. Inside will be pictures of house construction, his cats, deer, rabbits, trees, birds, gardens, food…..lots of things that are in there somewhere.

Til next time.

Australia Finished and a Break

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I finished the Australia journal case. It ended up being a box because of how everything would fit and be protected. Here on the cover I used a watercolor I made of Tasmania’s soils turned into watercolors and my own colors from North Carolina making tracks through the land. The box is about 11″ x 8″ x 3.5″.

Here it is opened. The map is folded and placed in a built in pocket inside the lid. The small leather covered journals line up between added walls with the small burned driftwood sticks made by Toni Rogers in Queensland.  The sienna toned papers were purchased in Australia from my favorite paper vendor at the conferences. The one that lines the box and covers the outside is a leather-feeling one that is not easy to find here in this country.

The coptic bound book of botanical impressions was made at Beautiful Silks. Each folio is stitched individually. The paper that lines the bottom of the box is an old map of Sydney….the welcoming place for people coming into the country.

Here you can see more of the city map and end walls supporting Toni’s small sticks. Everything comes out and is placed on the map.

I love the tumbled-ness of how this looks. Each piece is about taking a closer look of what was seen in the country, and what caught my attention for further documentation.

I had a chance to get away for an overnight in Asheville with friends and a terrific dinner out starting with a cucumber/basil martini, then watermelon whipped feta/strawberry salad and finally seared tuna that is so hard to get here where I live.

So this wraps up the final work I will do about Australia. It has been such a thrill to revisit the country this way. Heading back in March 2019 is anticipated with just as much enthusiasm.

Another topic later this weekend after company goes back home and we get back to the new normal.

Til then.

 

Working on Australia, Etc.

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Australia is a beautiful country. I love how it looks from a low altitude.  The pilot who took me out there ten years ago still heads into the outback. Mike and Fay just sent me almost endless images of their recent excursion into the dry harsh land. It is inspiring to see the intrepidness of those two and their traveling companions.

Packing for precautions seems to be the most serious preparation. Towns are few and far between. Red sand must work its way into everything you put on your body or plan on eating. You have to be born with a desire to do this over and over again. When it was just Mike and I in his plane we found pubs/hotels to stay in and if I wanted to enjoy the magnificent night skies of Australia, I only had to step outside the door. They think it is better seen lying in your swag on the red, red dirt.

The reason they wanted me to have the pictures of their trip is because some of their destinations  were the same as Mike and mine. The Dig Tree still stands along the Cooper and reminds all who make their way into the area just how hard traveling across Australia can be.

I have a student in Australia who recorded her outback trek by keeping a pen on paper as they bounced over the track. She turned it into a long, long landscape book of just that line with marks of where stops were made for fuel, food and rest. It records the time, distance and difficulty of going into the outback with very few words.

I have been working on the map to go with the fourteen small bound journals and coptic stitched pigments pages.

I started with a large piece of kozo paper and a National Geographic map that a friend gave me.

After tracing around the country, I colored it in with watercolors made from the soils of Australia. Then I used a fusible bonding on the back to stiffen the paper and make it more durable.

Each state or territory was painted a different color. And when they dried lighter than in this image I wrote the name of each like they were on the original map. Then marked all the places I visited with a brown dot.

 

I did a bit more shading and made sure to color around the country with a blue paint so it would be obvious that Australia is an island.

Then I connected the brown dots with tiny white travel lines. I wanted to use my pigments from here in North Carolina to mark my travel lines but they were too similar to the Australia land colors.

There was not enough space to write the names of the places so I just stayed with the brown dots.

Then I waxed the entire sheet with paste wax and buffed it the following day.

Now I have the problem of how to back the map and fit it into something with the small journals and pigments pages. This piece of rusted fabric will likely be used to back the map and/or cover the satchel that holds all the pieces.

I am considering wetting this fabric and sticking it to the large glass door and slathering it with corn starch and sticking the map to it. The result might be too stiff to fold up, so maybe not. But I could sew it to the back like the one below was done. Just put right sides together, sew around three sides, pull right side out and hand stitch the last side. The map might be more flexible that way….without the added layer of paste.

What I think I would like is to fix the center back of the map on a bit of covered board and then fold the sides, top and bottom into a bundle holding the other components. I like how the fourteen small books just tumble into a pile some opened, some closed. And the pigments book looks interesting any way it falls.

I may have to think on that for a bit and for now concentrate on how to fold the map.

This week my new watercolors came and I added them to the paint box. No more watercolors for me. There is enough here to make any color I want.

I also have a whole new set of tiny brushes.

Anyway that is about enough for now. The other thing I wanted to talk about can wait til next week. Our son is coming to spend time with his dad and me and I am hoping to get away for a day and night in Asheville while he is here.

Til later.

 

Loose Threads

Posted on by Sandy Webster

This morning at the dam watching geese swim into the fog. It is cooler. We can sense the fall approaching.

I am thinking that it is time to find something different to wear to the gym. Every Monday through Friday for the past few years I have put the same thing on. An old large black long sleeved tee shirt and some indestructible pants that were dyed with mollusk shells in Tasmania, then over dyed with rust. It is getting tattered and I think the others working out in their snazzy outfits wonder if I even own other clothes.

It makes me feel “Australian” to wear things til they tear and then mend them and wear them some more. But I think it is time to go through the closet and find something different for the gym workout. It won’t be new. It won’t be those workout tights that look a bit silly on a bulging older woman. It will be something that fits on the shelf in the closet where I reach in the dark at four in the morning. It has to fit in one hand while I hold the iphone to see where I am going. It has to be comfortable and has to have had a previous life as something I wore almost to death in a daily studio practice. But it can’t look messy. It is hard to be comfortable and not look homeless at my age.

I have gone a bit slack lately. I noticed when I wanted to put my earrings in that the right one wouldn’t go through. I suppose the ears close up if you don’t go somewhere with earrings hanging. But I shoved it in and decided to at least once a week, put earrings in to wear around the house. It seems like a small thing but making meals and cleaning up afterwards wearing earrings make me feel good. A practice I can hold onto.

I also decided to wear more necklaces….not for doing dishes….but just have them handy in case the neckline of a shirt exposes too much of a neck and chest that didn’t look the same just a few years ago. If I really worked at it I could be like that grey haired old model that shows up everywhere in her arm bangles, piled neck pieces and over-sized glasses. I bet she needs a person on each side of her just to get out of a chair. I don’t think she is vacuuming in those outfits either. Something about aging makes us just want to keep piling things on, cover things up.

I found this in an old jewelry box this morning and wore it to the brewery for lunch. There was no one there but us and the fellow who makes the beer and owns the place. His wife and he have politically conservative leanings. When we got there the fellow had Fox News channel on. Lee asked what was happening as he looked at the screen. I told him it was Fox and therefore could be anything but actual facts and the channel was switched to the national little league finals. I asked if there were any girls on the teams and was promptly told the teams were for “boys only.” To which I replied that I thought we were past that.

I left a large tip for putting up with me today and think I will keep opinions to myself from now on. It is good beer, a cozy place and we pretty much have it to ourselves at eleven in the morning on Thursdays.

And really, I worked out some of my political aggressions by making four anti-trump books this week. I posted them on facebook but will show them here as well.

The lies continue to run in and out of his mouth.

He drains himself in the swamp.

He watches himself on Fox (Fake) News and repeats everything he hears.

And his rallies have to attract some of the most non-thinking people ever!

Back to old clothes. About fifteen years ago I found some Egyptian cotton at a local barn sized place that carried factory remnants. I made some pajamas. Last month I had to throw out the bottoms and today I saw that the top not only had a large hole under the right arm (it was how I knew which way to put it on) but the sleeve had actually worn through. Just threads in one direction only. I can’t throw it out. It would make such good patches for something else.

Is it an age thing? Not being able to let go? Maybe it is just me.

I am going over to the studio across the hall and pick through old jewelry and carefully fold that old holey pj top up and put it with other old bits. I am going to put away all the red white and blue papers and think hard about what to do with the small leather journals.

Art group comes this weekend and I need something to show besides these anti trump books. They (the art group) are not as politically, socially, environmentally driven as my fellow students in undergraduate and graduate school. Maybe it is the times we live in….sort of a state of partial exhaustion. Little room for passions that demand attention and production.

Okay, I am off.

Til next time.