DREAM AND VARIATIONS

Dream and Variations (1988) is another one-of-a-kind bookwork. It is happily at home in the collection of Frances and Nicolas McDowall who are, besides being their inimitable individual selves, also the legendary Old Stile Press (that's 'stile' not 'style'). I'm proud to be one of the many artists who have been privileged to work with them. My next post will feature three books we collaborated on.

The process of making Dream and Variations involved drawing then cutting all the shapes out of thin card, inking each one with oil-based pigments, then printing them one at a time in multiple layers on black paper. If it sounds complicated that's because it is. I love this sort of complexity because it's fun and allows for a great deal of improvisation. The folio is held in a fabric bag which I asked Blanche, my mother, to embroider -another bit of un-planned improvisation which added to the total effect.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Not many people know this. But not many people know about artists' books and even if they do, not so many people know that they can go to public institutions, museums, university and other libraries who have such things in their collections and ASK TO SEE THEM!

If you're a fan of contemporary art, you can see, up close, examples from the hand of super-famous artists like Matisse - his magnificent livre d'artiste Jazz for instance, a copy of which is the Victoria & Albert Museum Library - and also from not-so-famous ones like, ahem, me. By the way, the V&A Library has quite a few bookworks of mine and gave me an exhibition in 1990.

Public collections are exactly that: open to the public. They may have different rules for accessing items, but nothing off-putting. The brilliant British Library in London, for example, asks that you register for a reader's card if you want to consult the Library - not a problem! Go and check out work of mine (quite a lot of it) in their collections, including recent acquisitions described at that link.

I'D RATHER BE A MASOCHIST...

Still some air left in the trumpet so here's something more or less completely different. I'd Rather Be a Masochist Than An Analyst. 1988. One-of-a-kind bookwork.

If you're a visual artist, what's your reply if someone asks you to describe your style? I have as much trouble answering that question as I've had with saying what my age is. The truthful reply to both questions is: it varies.

QUANTUM LEAPING

You might not see my Quantum Leap as a book and I wouldn't blame you. Art objects in the genre Artists’ Books can have all kinds of odd characteristics which make them unsuitable for bookshelves. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France has categories such as livre d'artiste, livre-objet, livre de peintre etc. to describe the variety of artist-made book-like things which grace their special collections. These un-bookish expensive artefacts are stored away, unless visitors specifically ask to see them, because if they were constantly handled they would gradually disintegrate. So, of course, would paintings, drawings, sculpture etc. in museums if they were daily caressed by the crowds.

If they consider the definition of ‘book’ to mean what it familiarly does, some people see the price of certain artists’ books as exorbitant. The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. bought my one-of-a-kind Quantum Leap for $5000 in 1990. Some people would say “They paid that for a book?” Yet if it was not classed as 'book' but simply as 'art' then the price would seem to them normal, or even low. Perception, context!

As a painter/printmaker/writer/builder the artist’s book genre was a way to bring together my interests and skills so I started NdA Press in 1974. It’s a 'press' only in the loosest sense and an etching press is my only printing equipment. Visual content is my principal focus. The bookworks I’ve made are either very small editions or consist of just one copy. Text is usually brief and my own but occasionally by others.

MOZART, MATISSE, BLANCHE ET MOI

Trumpeting for today. Another artist's book: Mozart, Matisse, Blanche et Moi. Drypoints, 32 pages.
Below are a couple of the images.

Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking technique. The difference between a drypoint, an engraving and an etching (all three of which are intaglio) is that lines drawn on a metal plate with a drypoint needle don't break the surface very deeply. The tool cuts a rather jagged furrow which, when filled with oily printing ink, produces a furry, shadowy line. An engraving is drawn with a much harder, chisel-like tool (burin) which cuts a deep groove in the metal. When inked and printed, engraved lines have a sharp, precise look. Etching, which relies on acid biting unprotected areas of a metal plate, can achieve a wide variety of effects in line and tone according to the length of time in the acid bath and other factors.

TRUMPETING BEGINS: For a Song

Okay, trumpet blowing in the wind. For a start, I'll post a daily selection of some of my artist's books.
 Here's For A Song seven poems and etchings.

TO BLOW OR NOT TO BLOW?

When is the right time to blow one's own trumpet, loud enough to reach the ears one would like to reach? You know what I mean.

If, as a child and later on as well, you often felt you weren't heard, a plaintive desire to be heard persists. But you learn how to be quietly modest (or comically boastful) about your achievements.

Time to beat the drum?

CATEGORIES. NOT

Categories. I hate categories. But to function efficiently, successfully, our society demands that you define your category.

Who goes there?
Me. Moi. Io. Eu. Ya......
What category is that?
I don't want to define it.

Then you can't expect to be given the kind of recognition you're asking for. You have to be a product, a brand. You have to fit into a slot. 

I want to redesign my website completely. Built it myself in 2002 and I tweak it now and then but I think It's got too many doors leading to other doors.

Would any of you like to take a slow virtual walk through it and tell me if you agree it's overloaded?

HOW IT HAPPENED

At the end of 2007 I was joint winner of the Mary Stott competition held by the Guardian. On my main blog Blaugustine I wrote on the 8th November 2007 (see blog archive November 2007).
about the Guardian party where I found out I'd won. (The cartoon below was about the painful boots I wore for the occasion.) The prize was to spend a week at the Guardian as guest editor of the section then called Guardian Women.

That week was fun and focused. I wrote Where are all the older female geeks? (Guardian 13 June 2008), comissioned an interview of Paula Rego by Emine Saner Age shall not wither her (Guardian 18 June 2008) and in that same issue wrote a piece Choosing art means you have permission to be a child forever.The geeks article was reprinted in another publication and quoted on line, an organisation asked me to speak and I was invited to be one of the guest speakers (all expenses paid!) at the Women’s Global Forum held in Deauville in 2013.

A few weeks ago, in the small hours of the night, I had a sudden urge to write about why I fear admitting my age. Scribbled a few lines then thought: why not ask the Guardian if they’ll commision an article? I contacted the features editor I met in 2008, sent her a brief outline and reminded her of my stint in her office 11 years ago. Didn’t mind whether I’d get a Yes or a No - I wasn’t even sure I really wanted to make a public confession. It was just one of those late night things.

So when I got a positive response I was chuffed and, as chance would have it, the Guardian was planning a feature on ageing in the first week of January. So my idea arrived exactly at the right moment. The article was commissioned, I wrote it fast, met the 30th December deadline. Et voilà!

CELEBRITY AND GLOONING

Might as well milk this for all it's worth, tomorrow or the next day it will be forgotten and I'll slink back to comfortable and safe obscurity.

Here are photos of the G2 cover and of the article inside, for the benefit of those who didn't rush out to get the paper Guardian today (shame on you!) and those who are too far away from metropolitan centres to obtain it.

Today I spent all day, ALL DAY, gloating. No, what's a better word for what I mean?... glooning?...over the effects of this sudden media exposure. I checked facebook about 100 times, logged into the online version of my article about 100 times, read the comments below it maybe three times, then after I bought the printed newspaper spent about an hour in the cafe re-reading my article and glooning. Now, suppose this mini-version of actual celebrity was a daily thing in my life, would I become a total and absolute and irreparable GLOON?? This is too horrible to even contemplate so I'll stop right here. In my next post I'll tell you exactly how this media thing came about.