OFF TO THE EXHIBITION

Later today I'm going to Aberystwyth for the private view of Open Books at the National Library of Wales on Saturday. Back home on Monday with photos and a report. 

Very sorry for the long gaps lately - I've had a bad case of blogging fatigue but I think the blurge and blenergy are returning. Stick around my loyal little band of friends, there's life in your Blaugustine yet. 

 

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MY LIFE CAN NOW BE IN YOUR HANDS

Now that the original accordion will be gone for a long time, I wanted to make some kind of copy and BLURB seemed a good way to go about it. They did an excellent job of the Open Books exhibition catalogue so I downloaded their software and have been busy putting together an 8" x 10" book of My Life Unfolds. 

I ordered a copy for myself only yesterday so I can't give a final verdict yet but the whole book is previewed on my Blurb page. It's 30 pages with all the images included, plus a few extra. Obviously I had to alter the original dimensions to fit into the portrait format and of course flattening the accordion folds into double page spreads loses the original three-dimensional effect. But it seems to work well as a normal book too. It would be good to know what y'all think. 

It can already be ordered in soft or hardback binding from my new Blurb store page. You do want to order it, don't you? 

 
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FRAGMENTS OF A LIFE, Number One

Each artist in the Open Books exhibition was asked to send a framed work relevant to their accordion books, to be displayed alongside. So, after spreading all the stencils on my work table and staring at them for hours, I picked out just a few and moved them around until they seemed to fit together in a new and intriguing way. I pasted the assemblage down on a firm support, gave it a protective coat of acrylic, then painted it with oils. It's finished, framed and carefully packed to be sent to Wales by courier next week.

Fragments of a Life 1   2012   Collage, acrylic and oil on canvas board.  Approx size (framed): 37cms X 50cms 

 

I didn't consciously set out to tell a story in this picture and I'm still trying to figure out what it is telling me. The stencils I made had specific meanings in My Life Unfolds but recycling gives them new roles and I find this process stimulating, not unlike the I-Ching or Tarot, but with my own set of symbols. I will definitely be re-assembling the rest of them, perhaps as studies for paintings.

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APOLOGY TO COMMENTERS WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THEIR COMMENTS

My face is bright red with embarassment. I've only just noticed that I was supposed to approve comments before they appear and since I never got any notices, I just assumed there weren't any. But now I see there have been quite a few awaiting moderation and I never moderated any of them and of course none of them got replies. Sorry sorry sorry!

AAAAAAARGH!!!

Comments are now restored, I've deleted the moderation thingy and beg forgiveness to all of you who so kindly commented. Come back and speak to me and I will answer next time. Thank you!

And you know, you can always go to my main Blaugustine blog, where the comments are working. At least they are at the moment.
 
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FRAGMENTS

Spread out on the floor of my studio, the many stencils I drew and cut out to monoprint my unfolded life, too many to photograph all together. They make such interesting random patterns that I'm going to collage them as separate pictures - an opportunity to recycle and re-arrange one's life doesn't come along very often!

Below those are a couple of shots taken at the private view on Sunday before guests arrived. The fully opened book was displayed on a long table covered in white linen, in a serenely empty white room, sunlight softly streaming in from the garden - a marvellous space for a marvellous evening. I couldn't have imagined a better ambiance to preview this work before sending it out into the world. Thank you , mon Genie. 

The catalogue of the forthcoming Open Books exhibition, designed and edited by Mary Husted (with cover design by Clive Hicks-Jenkins) is now viewable online at this link. Printed copies can be ordered there as well. It includes four pages for each of us participating artists.

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THE FINAL PANELS

 Apart from some fine tuning and tidying up, they're done! Here are the last pages, scanned hurriedly so I could post them here. I'll try to get some better photos and make a slide show of the whole thing.

On Monday My Life Unfolds has to go to Wales but tomorrow my good friend and wonderful abstract artist Genie Poretsky-Lee is very kindly hosting a private viewing for London friends at her house, which is also the Lotus Foundation . 

More on that later but now I'm going to sleep.

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ACCORDION DEADLINE LOOMING

Deadline approaching fast and still another six double pages to be done!

Panic is a constant presence in my studio, not least because of the impossible task I've undertaken of squeezing my long life into fifty-two small folded panels. The approach I've chosen is to focus only on some of the emotions which have deeply marked me, leaving out large chunks concerning family relationships and creative work. To include all of those would require folds stretching out for several miles so, for the time being, an abbreviated and highly selective version will have to do. 

One of the wondrous things about the accordion format for this subject matter is that if you stand back, you can see the past at the same time as the present and future and if you come up close, you are wholly in the moment.

When this project is finished, I want to continue exploring the accordion format, trying supports other than paper. I'm really grateful to Clive Hicks-Jenkins and to Mary Husted for bringing me into this marvellous adventure. 

 
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IF IT LOOKS LIKE FLORENCE...

That' s because it is. And can you spot the art reference?

We are slowly travelling along the constantly changing settings of my life - or rather, fragments of it. Reflections from the gold ink at the bottom make these pages difficult to photograph.

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LATEST ACCORDION IMAGES

Just have to add a bit of detail to the tiny painting-within-painting.

 
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NINE YEARS OF BLAUGUSTINE

It's the Blaug's birthday today. We are among the veterans, those who started and kept going in a cyber world that was still a novelty nine or ten years ago. People used to ask: what's a blog? Now everybody knows and nearly everybody blogs, even politicians. Along with FaceBook, Twitter and umpteen other forms of internet-based socialising, blogging has become as ubiquitous as a mobile phone.

I'm certainly not one of the most regular or consistent bloggers but I'm hanging in there and I hope that what I do post has some interest and value to others. On the other hand, even if no one was coming to see what's up on Blaugustine, it would still be valuable for me to keep blogging. It gives me a window to look out of and look into, a way to escape from ivory-towerism. And it's provided me with some wonderfully creative new friends and connected me to the world in ways that would never have happened in the pre-blog era. 

So happy birthday to Blaugustine and thank you very much to all who have visited her and all who have stayed and all who drop in and all who comment. We are truly, deeply appreciative of your support. 

Here, to celebrate, is a photo of a puppet I made some time ago to practice stop-motion animation and two ferocious creatures found at the Natural History Museum which she seems to be taming.

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