Procrastination, or expediency?

There are two projects, long planned in outline, one of which at least I should be starting now.  Meantime it is the tennis season, continuing next week, and I need work in hand for that - then with Wimbledon fortnight not long after Queen's.  As I do not want to rush into one of the bigger projects - also not fully decided which should be the first - and not completely comfortable with the outline plans yet, ... or is that my excuse for putting them off?... I have instead printed off three smaller pieces to work on.  After all, I not only have the tennis to think of, but also a few days away for which I always like to have stitching with me.
So I have printed one design which has been in the pipeline for some time, but tells me it's ready now.  

And I have worked on another design which has been hanging around in bits, so to speak both digitally and in my mind.  Suddenly today I had an idea which brought all the pieces together.

The third design arose from contemplating all the greens in the garden and the countryside around at this time of year.

The great thing about stitching is that it is such a facilitator of thinking and working out, so doubtless when July comes around and I am sated with tennis, I shall be ready to plunge into the bigger projects.  Now of course my next decision is which of these three to start with? - I'll put off the decision until I have allocated appropriate threads.

Bad planning!

I have completed the stitching of a batch of Readers, which are now ready for pressing, stretching, and mounting.  But I have left myself with no stitching to hand as the French Open tennis gets more interesting.  I cannot just sit and watch - the Calvinist half of my upbringing makes me uncomfortable 'wasting time' thus.
It's not as if I have no other things to do - apart from finishing the Readers, I have lots else in the queue - but away from the tennis.  So, seeking an interim project, I uncovered an image (above) which originally had been generated for an exercise in the days of intensive development with my duodidactic friend.  I had forgotten how much I liked this image - so, I've now printed it onto an A3 sheet of silk, and now have something to see me through the French Open.  I shall have to think further to cover Queen's and Wimbledon.

Another adjustment I've made today is to my website.  Folks seem to be interested in what goes into my digital collages, so I've added a Development page showing the 'ingredients' of a particular work.  I will change the deconstructed work from time to time.

Wrestling with myself, and an exemplar to admire

Pause
One of the aspects of my creative output which causes me guilt is that it adds stuff to an already overburdened planet.  At my most depressed moments I think that my self-fulfillment is otherwise simply creating more landfill in the long term, and causing me storage problems in the short term. 
My husband's photographs are mostly stored digitally, and thank goodness most of my own designs similarly never get beyond the digital.   And recently I came across a wondrous artist's book which is digital - so appropriate as litter is its subject.

Caroline Fraser: page from On the moon (image from here where the book is explained)
I had no idea that the astronauts who visited the moon left behind such litter - I am appalled, but certainly not surprised.  I am so cheered, however by Caroline Fraser's book pointing out the thoughtless trail of detritus.

I think that with my own work, at present I cannot stop the physical manifestation because the feel, the stitching, the display are all part of what I need for myself.  But I shall try to cut down as much as possible the creation of detritus, and perhaps think more about digital projects.

Curiosity

Flora, and some of the joys of Spring

Flora (lino print)

Flora (detail, on cloth, stitched)

A most enjoyable exercise

Spread 6
I judge the Diving In book project a success for me.  It is not a good design - I once worked with a brilliant designer who became a friend, and I hope she does not see this.  It is not a good book: I included too many spreads, and thus the spine does not work.  There are many faults which I can see, and no doubt more which I cannot, but not only did I enjoy the process, I think of it like a successful preliminary sketch - even if it is never developed further.

Spread 7
The exercise also worked as distraction therapy for me.

Spread 8
After too long I have written a post in my work blog about the making of the spreads.  The remaining spreads can be seen there.  

Spread 10

Spread 11

Spread 12

Spread 13

Really diving in

The approach to this project was to ponder as little as possible.  I wanted decisions to be instinctive with no or minimum mulling.  The book was going to cost me an amount which I was willing to pay for this experiment, this first pull of a print, so to speak.

Spread 2
The only rule (and that is too definite a term) I set myself was to include all sea and strand related images worked up in my files.

Spread 3

Spread 4

Spread 5

Quick experimental project

 

At the end of last year I was in a plunge of depression, and in order not to disappear without trace I needed something to occupy all my time.  My husband was going away for a few days which gave me the specific time to launch myself into something.

Photobox had been bombarding me with offers of photo books at up to 70% off in the lead up to the festive season, and so I decided to use that as my project.

Over the years I have developed many images to do with the sea and the edge of the sea - several in finished stitched work, and others which have only got as far as digital designs.

So, over a long weekend I put together 17 double page spreads.  It was all-absorbing for all of each of those days.  It is not brilliant, but I am relatively pleased with the result, given the short time spent.

Photobox provide choice of layout, and do also have provision for text.  I decided however to put the text on the original digital images.  I made the common mistake of making the text too big - it's a fault I seem to repeat when designing using a monitor.  I should really have learned by now!

I'll put the rest of the spreads on the blog over the next few posts.

Surfacing before another plunge under

Surfacing
Yesterday evening I finished reading the recently published ninth novel in Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series, and am more than happy to leave it finally ended.  It was just what I needed - my hibernation.  

Now I am enjoying revisiting the Elisabeth Frink exhibition through the catalogue, but was wondering what to embark on for my bedtime reading.  I try to read at least one book from the current Man Booker prize longlist, and another from the shortlist.  From the 2018 longlist I read Belinda Bauer's Snap.
I had read Bauer's Blacklands which I thought was a great novel, but had become increasingly disappointed with her second and third titles.  It was Val McDermid's recommendation of Snap as the best crime novel she had read in a long time which decided me to try again.  I did enjoy it, but I must admit that I cannot remember it now.  However, I still remember the emotions and surprises from Blacklands.

Anyway - now I've decided to try something from the 2018 shortlist: Daisy Johnson's Everything under. (Another review is here.)  It sounds like a complex read, and that's what I want now, I think, - another way of hibernating, or sticking my head in the sand (or under water!).

Objective obscured

Cawing of the crows

Bird (image from here)
The title of the Elisabeth Frink exhibition is Humans and Other Animals.  One category of those animals which always has an effect on me is her birds.  Ravens and the crow family generally come with menacing baggage, and although I can see why, I also find them of great interest.  I find jackdaws playful in their gang, and persistent in attacking the bird feeder.  My father used to hate the crow family largely because they walk like man which he described as obscene.

Laura Ford: Bird boy (image from here)
He definitely would not have warmed to Laura Ford's sculptures which match children's legs and stance with bird bodies and heads. And I must admit that I find the one I have seen at the New Art Centre sent creeps up my spine - while also attracting my positive curiosity.

Douglas Gordon: Looking down with his black black ee (image from here)
With the Frink works and those of influences there were two contemporary artists, one of whom was Douglas Gordon.  We were fascinated by his three video piece, and the sound of the cawing could be heard in the room where Frink's birds were displayed, adding to the atmosphere.  The title of Gordon's piece is from a Scottish poem which begins  
A corbie sits at the tap o' thon tree
And he's looking doon with his black black ee, ....

Corvids are popular in folk tales, and there is a lovely one The Stolen Sun written and illustrated by Amanda Hall, with whom I had the pleasure of working many years ago. (images above and below from here)

A couple of years ago I read an interesting book: Corvus: A life with birds by Esther Woolfson.

I am attracted to the rook/crow etc. family in my work as seen in Stretch, below.

Several pages now

Quite a series is now developing from my rescued book.  I have stitched three pages so far.   It is a pleasantly relatively speedy process as the total size of the cloth is A4, and I am mainly stitching the figure only.  It's too dark indoors even to snap them at present, so here are the digital images above and below.

The one I'm stitching at present is below,

and here are some more in the queue:

I am enjoying the process of designing them - not sticking slavishly to any rules except using the same size, a page behind a woman reading in each case.  But trying not to make them too different from each other either.

There are even more in the pipeline.

Decisive workshop

I thought that it might be interesting to describe what helped me to make a big decision about how I shall take my work forward.  It also was a vital ingredient in forming my criteria for downsizing stuff.

In January I attended a fascinating workshop given by Debbie Lyddon which I wrote about here.  Given that I turned 70 this year I had already determined that I wanted to focus my making.  I have a great admiration for DL's work, and with my ongoing wondering about 3D, a workshop within a half hour drive of home was too good to miss.
I learned a lot over the two days, and even though DL was talking about 3D textiles she also was happy to talk about her textile collages.  Indeed, I realised that her workshop on the collages was what I would have preferred, had it been on offer.  

Rather than just going with the flow of the new techniques I was learning - as I usually do on a workshop - I was curious this time to see if I could make a final piece which looked as if it had been made by me.  Previous 3D workshops have seen me come away with examples of techniques which bear no relation to what I do day to day.  This had meant that 3D remained a tantalising 'what if, perhaps ...' not generating any ideas.  This time I wanted to be more personally rigorous, taking all the 3D thinking I had been swilling around over the years along with the new techniques.
I was quite pleased with myself that I managed to put together a little maquette which used what might be called signature elements from my work while also carrying some meaning for me.  (I had been thinking about the refugees in the Mediterranean.)  I came away with some 2D waxing/stiffening techniques too.

But, ... a lot of thoughts developed after the workshop was over.

The satisfaction which came with the maquette was for having come up with something in the workshop.  I was not satisfied with the idea, nor did I feel a deep impulse to refine it, make it into a complete work.  I decided that I do not want to play around with experimentation for the sake of itself.  Fundamentally, what is important is that I want to improve the work that I am doing now where ideas build on themselves.  From time to time when strong ideas drive me to do something different I will perhaps pursue them, as I did with Acrobats electric (below).

Rather than exploring techniques in 3D in order to find ideas for work, I want to build on the ideas I already generate and develop any necessary additional techniques to make them into complete pieces.
Given that I want to downsize stuff in general, that decision about my work helped me to cut out all extra stuff which was/is in my cupboards just in case it might be useful.  And I have not at all regretted that decision.  A really positive feeling has ensued.  I shall hang on to the little maquette because it means more to me than just technique, but I have already disposed of the part-made komodo dragon and the papier mache mythical beastess that I made in previous workshops.