Some news …
Today, I am not in the Library its a holiday and so a snapshot would not do! It is quiet in BlogLand its seems that the world is on holiday. So I thought I would take this opportunity to share some news; it is pretty insignificant to most people but what the heck they are away from their internet connection and won’t read it anyway.
I think today I became a print maker!
I began practicing 2 or 3 years ago with erasers and even became quite creative and adventurous. Truthfully, while there was a degree of artistry I did need to address the deficiencies! It had been 50 years since I had drawn a picture. So I found an art teacher who took me back to basics; to schoolgirl stuff and now beyond. I began to draw and paint and who knows the future. Meanwhile, I continued to develop the printing and now working with wood and lino and again there are more options to explore.
Now, I am in a position to find an Open Studio and a group (s) where I can continue learning, also showing and sharing my work and new found knowledge. Not from academic place but a place of greed and urgency. While I honour and respect those with the academic background, mine resurrected from the wood shavings of my father’s boat building workshop needs a space too.
Last night I showed my a sample of my work to a small local group in Reading; not only did they accept me as a member but they gave me advice and guidance as my next steps to join larger and more influential groups. This will mean I have to show a more distinct portfolio, a CV and an letter of intent … so today I begin a another leg of my journey.
Alphabe Thursday T is for the Taoist monk … etc.
This week I go back to the other side of the world to China;to where walkers in the mountains, often portrayed in ancient poetry and paintings, didn’t celebrate the mountains but the wanderings. To ‘wander’ is the Taoist code for becoming ecstatic; the arriving was sometimes regarded as a non-event . A common theme in 8th century poetry by Li Po, is the search for a Taoist master in the mountains and then not finding him. Mountains had both physical and symbolic geography so that literal walking has metaphorical overtones:
a poem by the humourous Buddhist Hermit Han Shan a contemporary of Li Po.
“People ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain? There is no road that goes through …
How can you hope to get there by aping me?
Your heart and mine are not alike.”
It would seem that walking is a good thing to do but not without hardships and diversions on the way. For life is a journey through a wilderness. This concept, universal to the point of banality, could not survived unless it were biologically true.
None of our revolutionary heroes is worth a thing until he has been on a long walk. Che Guevera spoke of the ‘nomadic phase ‘ of the Cuban Revolution, Mao Tse-Tung did the Long March, Moses the Exodus then there was Odysseus’ epic journey home after the Trojan War.
Robert Burton writes in his Anatomy of Melancholy ‘Movement is the best cure for melancholy.
Wednesday’s print-maker from Brazil …
As I start to count the weeks before I go to Brazil; I found another artist whose work I would like to see while I am there; not that I will be short of things to do. I do like visiting art galleries while I am not familiar with the artists of Brazil I find myself wandering aimless; it is useful to be armed with a list and a vision.
Again the Poetica da resistencia ; aspectos da gravura Brasileira has given me another couple of images and a little background information in Portuguese to add to the list.
Anna Bella Geiger, (b. 1933) who is a Brazilian artist of Jewish-Polish background and professor at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage and lives in Rio de Janeiro she is of international acclaim and an artist renown for her interest in and use of multimedia.
Before moving from Rio to New York to study art in 1954 Geiger had previously graduated in literature and language. She returned to Rio and began teaching engraving at the Museo de Arte Modern in the 1960s. It was in the 1970s when she began to include other representational elements into her work.
I understand she is still working and hope to see more of her contemporary works while in Rio
Weekly Photo Challenge … Ephemeral
I work in the Special collections department of the University of Reading. I am in the business of preserving books, also ephemera; the other materials that are connected with the books and their publication. Stuff, that is considered temporary some even worthless, letters, documents, leaflets, brochures, piles of papers are catalogued, and archived in carefully monitored conditions. Nothing is considered ephemeral. So on on one hand I work hard at keeping stuff and on the other I truly believe that nothing even the most robust have no lasting qualities; no matter how precious.
To enjoy the moment is preferable even if it is during the tea break or coffee break! Because for sure that is not lasting.
Recently I …
I began my printmaking journey some years ago when I discovered the work of Peter Hay. I was struck by his intricate (and not so) designs made from prints engraved in erasers from W.H. Smiths with a craft knife; not just his illustrations but the stories they told. I attempted to ‘copy’ him, but my works, paled into insignificance or better, perhaps told a different story?
I did continue making pictures, illustrated a couple of books (not published) and even designed a published book cover. I have progressed, and now use lino, wood and tried other printing methods with mixed results.
But Peter with his illustrated message often dark and sometimes joyful, holds a torch for me, blinking and encouraging ….
So when the Two Rivers Press recently held a sale of his work I was in the queue. He was a gifted fine artist,so the display was varied, very wonderful and would grace any wall or gallery. I have neither, my tiny home heaves and to find a space a shoe horn is required.
I was looking for something particular and small; I was not disappointed.
While they are not signed or even finished; I had them framed and delighted Thanks Peter!
Silent Sunday
Saturday and the Peace Puzzle Project …
About a month ago I received a wood block in the post from Maria Arango Diener. Before that I had donated 45 dollars to a charity that is hoping to raise funds to make a huge 1000 piece Peace Puzzle.
All the applicants over the world have received their pieces and will engrave an image that represents the word ‘Peace’ So in time the pieces will be sent back and the puzzle complete and a print made and a book published.
I thought long and hard about my ‘picture’ because Peace is a big word with many meanings. Not just a peaceful scene that we might see and feel in our gardens, parks and countryside; but the direct opposite to war, conflict and adversity!
There are many children in this world who rarely experience peace not even in their beds at night. They and their families fight for peace with every living breath.
I live in a country where we have enjoyed peace for a long time; but our children, while safe need to be educated and be aware of the big picture.
In the 1990s my youngest child went on a demonstration in London to march against a war in Afghanistan. It was a massive rally and she wore a ‘T’ shirt designed and made by a colleague in the Library, bearing a peace sign. Her DMs not black like a soldier might wear but bright blue and dotted with red flowers. She and thousands more marched that day singing songs of peace and hope. While they didn’t win that day; we did go to war; the experience instilled in her a mistrust of authority and the need to continue marching for active, long lasting peace that we take so much for granted.
I hope my tiny investment in the project will go some way to raise awareness and promote the need for peace and peaceful action against adversity not with more weapons but pictures.
Friday’s Library Snapshot
Today is the last day of term, the students take a break and return for exams in the summer. The library will prepare for that over the next weeks. So our holiday has not yet begun; in Special Collections life goes on as usual.
Alphabe Thursday … S is for George Sand
It would seem that walking in the city during the 19th century was an adventure. It was an wilderness to be explored; so much so that one had to dress the part. George Sand for instance, found that “ on the Paris pavement I was like a boat on ice. My delicate shoes cracked open in two days, my pattens sent me spilling, and I always forgot to lift my dress. I was muddy, tired and runny-nosed, and I watch my clothes … go to rack and ruin with alarming rapidity”. She put on men’s clothes, although it seemed a subversive social act; she saw it was a practical choice. Her new outfit gave her a freedom to move, which she enjoyed; “ I can’t convey how much my boots delight me … with those steel-tipped heels I was solid on the sidewalk at last. I dashed back and forth across Paris and felt I was going around the world. My clothes were weatherproof too. I was out and about in all weathers, came home at all hours, was in the pits of all theaters”.
For more reading Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit.
Wednesday’s print maker from Brazil
Anna Letycia Frames (1929) of whom I know nothing; except that she studied art in Rio de Janeiro and in 1950 she learned engraving at National School of Fine Arts and then with Oswaldo Goeldi in the School of Art of Brazil. Later, she attended the Modern Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro invited by Edith Behring, here she continued to teach printmaking until 1966. I understand she went on to teach engraving at the Museum of Inga in Niteroi until 1998.
Meanwhile she she maintained and developed a career in as a set and costume designer.
As usual my knowledge of the fine and busy artists falls short and I would value further information.
Coat Hanger Doll's House 