one year
gosh where has the time gone?
yes I know I've said it before... but it only seems like last week that I started this journey
and now a year (52 weeks) has disappeared in a cloud of smoke (and books!)
here's a quick recap....
When you see them all together like this a number of 'themes' start to be rather obvious... the first of course is that every week included something with, made from, about BOOKS (derrrrrr like you needed to wait until now to be told this) .... it MAY surprise you to learn however that I didn't start out with this in mind (it was somewhere around week 6 that I realised everything I was doing had books..... so I thought I'd ride that pony as far as it took me..... after 52 weeks of booky gestures it's now clear to me that I could go on and on and on with my books FOREVER).
Another unintentional bit was the repeating palette (look at them - they're all B&W, red, blue and a tiny bit of yellow/green..... huh! again - not intentional... indeed the red didn't really emerge until week 6... then it kept popping up!). I DID however start out with one thing that I knew would be a part of each week's work - every single 'gesture' was captured with my batphone using the hipstamatic app (and minimal rework before upload - and I really do mean minimal - mostly resizing for the blog and that's it) this restriction proved both a discipline and an education...
There are other things about the series that may not be quite as obvious - every 'gesture' was created at home/near to home (Bermagui, the next town over from Cobargo, was a far as the series travelled) and our small creek featured heavily (there I was wading and splashing on weeks 9, 21, 31, 39, 41 and 49). Most of the works were in response to the week's weather or events: flood (W9), winter frosts (W32), blossom burst (W35), family wedding (W50)... Many weeks involved a lot of physicality - like lugging tonnes of books
to the beach (W8), forest (W24), farm hill (W26), creek (W39, W49) - thank
goodness for small children with big muscles I say, because my back has long been a wrecked mess!
The 'gestures' that I enjoyed the most were the unexpected ones.... a found nest hinted to a work (W51), a found hole that proved just perfect for books (W47), a ploughed paddock was prime for planting (W22), found tracks begged to be followed (W37)... I also perversely enjoyed when my original idea met with radical modifications as the work unfolded (W35 book page blossom started out as something completely different... not that you could know that!) - I
grew to love the unpredictable nature of collaborations (W14 surf surge -
oooops!).
Not every week/ gesture was gold... but I'm surprised now by how many of these I DO like - for an ephemeral, casual, unpremeditated, off-hand bit of artyness, I think it made for a nice art experience (wellll at least it did for me! you have *no* idea how silly/happy I was creating some of these things..... at times I would break out in fits of giggles - its fortunate I didn't have a large audience standing nearby!)
This series was specifically created for online viewing and sharing - essentially it was made for YOU --- and I really appreciated all of you who dropped by over the year and took an interest - thank you, thank you for all your lovely comments and notes...
To thank you properly I've made a little something (a few little somethings actually) that I'd like to give to you in return for a favour --- I'd like to know what gesture/ week or individual image was YOUR favourite -- you can pop your answer in the comments below or leave a note on my fb page (
rhonda ayliffe - artist) or email me: (rhonda[dot]ayliffe[at]gmail[dot]com) ..... I'd love to hear from any new folk (who may have felt a bit shy to comment earlier) just as much as all the lovely loyal supporters that I like to think of as friends.....
Tomorrow I'll post piccies of the special something I've created to give to one of you -- but I'll send all of you a little something if you tell me your fav pic and email me your postal details...
thanks so much
