ahhh 2012 how you snuck up on me! despite this, i’ve managed to batten down the hatches and be more creative in this first month than a lot of last year. stress can, on ocassion, suit me. so here’s my submission for the 2012 Sketchbook Project through Art House Coop. Rebound sketchbook made from the pages from a vintage book on witchcraft, coptic stitched spine then muddled pages, white acrylic, typed on an Olympia Splendid 33, cut out snowflakes, and finally biro and indian ink to finish. I opted to fill it with a new vilanelle - yes, i like my finickity structures for such things - it has an interesting repetitive structure which encourages emphasis on certain lines and themes which hopefully works with the mood. my only thought is that due to my line placement it’s not hugely clear on how to read.. but yeah. that’s my fault. the typed line wouldn’t fit on a single portrait page, so i opted to stretch across the spread awkwardly.. though again, i suppose i’m partially playing with the page and the spread as a canvas in terms of word placement, particularly towards the end. and i’m rusty at all of this. :>
]]>“it’s winter where you are”
Haunted: your ghost leaves a memory like a scar
(cut deep with stolen moments, darkened doorways, hot skin)
but now, after all this time, it’s winter where you are.
Drinking left me empty, I looked for you in every bar -
scoured couples sprawled in corners, indulging secret sins.
(haunted: your ghost leaves a memory like a scar
which spasms arrhythmically – it keeps my mind ajar
by your ghost wreaking havoc: incessant phrenic din)
But now, after all this time, it’s winter where you are
and snow muffles memory, you’ve never been more afar
yet still I cling to you, to this ghostly fictive kin.
Haunted: your ghost leaves a memory like a scar
and this damage shapes your form - your ghost is tar
distilled from destroying any hope at calm within
but now, after all this time, it’s winter where you are
and still I carry this with me, I carry this mar
of not keeping you, not being enough, such potent chagrin
haunted: your ghost leaves a memory like a scar
but now, after all this time, it’s winter where you are.
i’m terrible. i know it. i advocate the art of blogging to everyone i meet, and mean it - but then don’t manage to find the time to blog on here. it’s been more than 6 months since i last wrote! and in that time frilly has grown and developed and we have offices and projects aplenty (although nothing much after march - which i imagine is a common challenge for pretty much anyone not working in the commercial sector! thanks a lot, government. good job.) and so at the moment we’re mostly run off our feet.
on the plus side, we have enough money to survive for the time being, and we’re still working for ourselves - which means we don’t have to worry about poor leadership or direction or questionable decisions because we’re the ones making those choices now.
i worry that i don’t manage to get my work/life balance quite right. it’s saturday after all, and here i am sat in the office. admittedly, today i’m going to be working on LAP and not doing frilly stuff - looking at shuffling around some squarespace elements to give his site a bit of a spring clean and update sections which i’ve much neglected.
first of all though, it’s that time of week where i must write to Heidi. she was born just two weeks ago to two of my loveliest friends, and as i’ll never be a mother myself, i find myself drawn into imagining projects i can do that revolve around her and her existence. so this is the first one. every week for the first year of her life, i’m writing her a letter which will be full of musings over the current state of the country, information about who i am, who her parents are, what the world is like in 2011, and other observations - such as how at 2 weeks old you won’t yet have developed a hatred of mondays - but that’ll probably come with time. it’s not the ‘artiest’ project i’ve ever conceived, but i love the idea that she will have a year’s worth of time captured in letters and musings by me - covering music and politics and ideas and memories and anything else i can fit in. a year long time capsule made just for her.
as if i wasn’t already busy enough. :>
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mainly, it’s all to do with my new company, frilly, which is a partnership between myself and my old boss kirsty hillyer. together we make an awesome arts team, and have been CRAZILY busy since starting - trying to juggle applying for projects, sorting out business banking, general admin, looking for office space, delivering projects, juggling our 7 day weeks and somewhere in there i’ve also been trying to keep making my own stuff too. i am busy and feel a bit dead on my feet.
on the plus side, we do now have an office - based over in the jewellery quarter of birmingham. we have bright pink carpet, grass green kitchen flooring, shiny black and white kitchen, cracked glass desktop, antique furniture, giant chalkboard and a big doily clock. it is a lovely space. hurrah!
now that we’re in, i’ve been cracking on with some more printing. little sneak peeks can be seen below.. these are photos from two projects: firstly my friend thom’s birthday card (with a suitably academic Camus quote) and secondly a larger print for an arthouse coop project i signed up for.
the Camus quote says:
At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures - be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.
the arthouse project contains a different quote - this time by psychologist Adam Phillips:
At its best monogamy may be the wish to find someone to die with; at its worst it is a cure for the terrors of aliveness. They are easily confused.
the theme of the project was “It’ll be fun, I swear” - which was not especially inspiring as ‘fun’ is not something i thrive (artistically speaking!) on. i dug out a 1950s printing plate for a ‘whist’ game card and began thinking about gambling, and the gamble people take when falling in love. having just read ‘monogamy’, this quote sprung to mind. i was thinking about the reluctant romantic - someone who isn’t looking for love or commitment, but is coerced into it anyway through the naive view that it’ll be ‘just a bit of fun, no harm..’ etc. ha!
consequently, my images are somewhat.. empty, and a little grimy. next year i have ideas of a non-west midlands place to go, but that’ll have to be kept under wraps for the time being.
there were some poignant moments - we followed a cloud of seagulls who were very vocal despite the time of day. we successfully avoided a large bleeding semi naked drunk man and his friends. his head was covered in blood. no idea where his top had gone - and it was FREEZING. i imagine he’ll be feeling worse for wear today, if the ambulance ever managed to find him.
anyway. photos. in the order i took them - all shot on a 5DMKI, with a lensbaby composer at 5.6.
;)
what to do..;)
type-porn!
since the redundancy, i’ve been a busy busy bee. i have plans to start a couple of smaller experimental ‘things’ (and am still superstitiously loathe to go into much detail about them here as yet.. although there are clues in the following images!) but one of those things i’m extremely happy about: making!
i’ve been thinking for some time about going back to printing. i have a small silkscreen and inks, but it’s extremely messy and labour intensive in many ways, and currently my ideas seem very text based. so the logical alternative seemed to be letterpress - except having never done any, i wasn’t sure where to start. luckily i have a lovely new friend, simon goode, who is a bit of a print&paper boffin who has been helping advise me on how to go about dipping in my toe (he’s also an ebay-enabler - so if you don’t want to obsess over expensive listings then don’t mention your interest to him! ;)
this led to me stumbling upon harrington & squires, and after seeing someone else blog about doing a workshop with them i decided it would be worthwhile forking out the cash to have a crash course in using the adanas i won on ebay.
;)
adana inked with lime green
;)
frilly in lime
h&s have a deceptively cosy/airy studio/workshop in tufnell park. super easy to find, and a joy to spend a day in. named ‘the corridor’ for obvious reasons, it’s an homage to storage solutions with hidden drawers and pullout/drop down elements on every wall and every corner. Vicky and Chrissie are knowledgeable and friendly and lovely, and made the day a real treat. i got rather sweaty letterpressing my arms to death, but came away with a wide range of samples as well as a bit of an obsession with all things print.
frilly - first test
in total, i ran a batch of business cards for lee, a batch of postcards for frilly [which may or may not be a secret still!], a few test samples for a bride i know, and i also quickly ran off two vintage images on the proofing press just to see how they’d turn out.
;)
frilly en masse, stage one;)
business cards en masse
everything looked so beautiful, and seemed so straight forward! i’ve now got to schedule time into my busyish week to sort through my trays of type and get everything in some kind of order so that i can really begin creating my own short runs from home.
frilly - ronde type in a galley
business card - gill sans type on a composing stick
i got really messy, so now have to make or acquire a hardcore denim apron for future printing escapades. i also need to figure out how to keep my hands and arms clean - but not rubber gloves! suggestions?
;)
messy arms;)
messy hands
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CiB reflections... Dumped from my iPhone having played with some ttv/lomo-style filters in homage to Mr Ashton. Good work men - shop is a fab place and I just hope it marks the beginning of something longer term and amazing.
]]>re·dun·dant
[ri-duhn-duh
nt] –adjective
- characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition in expressing ideas; prolix: a redundant style.
- being in excess; exceeding what is usual or natural: a redundant part.
- having some unusual or extra part or feature.
- characterized by superabundance or superfluity: lush, redundant vegetation.
i don’t really mind thinking about it in terms of definition #3 - it makes me feel special. not something to be thrown away. however, as it is, it’s not just me being thrown away. it’s over half the company. and it is bizarre and nonsensical.
however, as i was told numerous times - i’m not the director. (because if i was, we wouldn’t be in this situation.)
so, my key learning from this situation:
moving forwards - i have a couple of plans and ideas.
number 1: i need to be better at supporting Lee with his business - in particular, album design and marketing. in conjunction with that - i’m tentatively branching out into letterpress - something i’ve been toying with for some time. i’ve been mostly inspired/supported in my quest for letterpress knowledge by the amazingly talented Simon Goode, (whose work on the Secret Library project is all very exciting!), and Lee has been chivvying me along for some time to just START MAKING. having now acquired a number of Adana’s, i’m at the very start of my letterpress journey which i’ll almost certainly document on here - but with plans to branch out into bespoke stationery (with wedding options) which can sit alongside the products Lee already offers.
number 2: keep doing what i’m doing! there’s plans afoot, but i’m loathe to jinx anything for the time being. so that’ll be a secret surprise for later on, hopefully.
number 3: writing! i write and write and love writing and love words and the craft of constructing them into inspiring imagery-laden sentences… but have never given myself the time or the push to work at it. so that will be something i am focusing more energy on.
number 4: art. finally, making use of my years of training, this will be my opportunity to make and submit art to shows and galleries. i’m a total beginner at the world of commercial art, so will slip up and stumble - but regardless i’m going to keep on making. i already have my sights on two exhibition opportunities - so need to get stuck in and get making. again, evidence of this will appear on here at some point.
this is long and text heavy, so to those of you who hate words - sorry. but i’m working on it. :)
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beginning to play again.
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old-world cuckoo
just enough charm to manipulate
this parasite into my nest
it grows. dark ideas sprout forth
and blacken my brood,
make black my mind
(implied delicacy overwhelms
any sense of propriety -
I lose myself)
embrace his thickened shell
it repels my heat, repels my touch, my need,
I cradle the cracks that develop
nurture the birth of something unpleasant
damaging, a one-sided love
wrings me out in it’s wake
[unfinished]
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