GREAT NEW CONNECTION

My New Year is starting off with a bang: not only is the Trans-Siberian ready to leave the station but I've also hooked up with a beautiful Pomegranate....what could be better than that?

Pomegranate Fine Art is Bill Garnett's online gallery and the above link leads to his FaceBook page where today he uploaded photos of some of my etchings from The Creation from the Book of Enoch, an artist's book I made in 1992. You can see details about it here as well as on Pomegranate. I still have a few unique proofs in colour and some black and white double sheets (including text) and these are all now for sale on Pomegranate Fine Art. The colour prints are also displayed on the Printed Editions website. 

Five and a half Hours in Paradise was the subtitle of The Creation from the Book of Enoch.
It's also the title of this image.

Sugar-lift etching and aquatint on painted paper. 37 x 28.5cms. 1992

ANNOUNCEMENT

I'm copying below (you can see it larger on my main blog) the Newsletter that The Old Stile Press is sending out to their mailing list because I'm impatient to let everybody know about our wonderful collaborative production. If, when you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you gasp when you see the prices, allow me to make a little speech.

This is not the kind of book that you will buy on Amazon or see on the shelves of your local bookstore. It is more like an artwork than a normal printed book, although it is also a printed book. What makes it different is that there are only 150 copies (plus 10 Specials) signed and numbered, and that they are all exquisitely hand-printed and bound, and that they contain 43 original images - not reproductions - printed by Nicolas McDowall from the blocks which I drew, cut and proofed, and that Dick Jones' contemporary translation is closer to Cendrars' spirit and language than any previous ones published, and that it has the imprimatur of Blaise Cendrars' daughter Miriam Gilou Cendrars, and that the text is beautifully laid out and printed in 24 different colours, and that the binding is a joy to touch and stroke....I could go on!

But if you still think that such a book is expensive, consider how much it costs to buy a fine original print in a gallery. How much a case of fine wine? Dinner for two in a gourmet restaurant? You get my drift.

This isn't sales talk (well, sort of) but simply trying to change a mind-set which says that a book...a book!...at this price is outrageous. No. It is not. In this digital age when the physical presence of books may soon become only a memory, it's good to know that works like this can still be made.

RESOLUTIONS

Be kinder to everyone, including myself. Less impatient. Less judgemental.
Stop wasting time. Focus more on less.
Get fit (have started the 5:2 fast diet).
Clear the backlog 'To Do' list completely.
Create, to the best of my ability.

Trivial, in view of tragic world events. But no words I can think of are adequate or relevant enough to encompass the enormity of tragedies afflicting humanity at this time.

So perhaps tiny gestures, tiny steps towards making things better  is at least something.

Pay attention, noticing whoever needs help, understanding or support in my immediate environment, whether friend, family or stranger.
Be open and honest and direct in my rapport with others, whatever the circumstances.
Forgive and forget real or imagined slights or failures in communication.
Switch off the robot in my mind which endlessly repeats worn-out old patterns and stops me from moving on.

That's my New Year resolutions.