orbis floris (world flower)

Over the past 24hrs I have been making and binding like a little demon.... trying to complete a piece for 'Atlas' - the annual artists books exhibition at Artisan Books in Melbourne. The deadline for images and details is close of today or tomorrow.... and I had forgotten all about the event until ummmmm yesterday! so needless to say I had to get busy and work FAST!


Phew - I got it finished and pics sent away (and it's already confirmed as one of the selected pieces..... double phew!)

Orbis Floris (World Flower)

approx 34cm dia and 5cm 'high'

My 20 word art statement (yes - just twenty words..... gulp) to go with this piece reads:


"Created from a reclaimed atlas and inspired by permaculture, 'Orbis-floris' is an exploration in material, form and technique."


(and by now most regular readers would know that the 'exploration' pun was intended... hee hee hee)

(detail shots)

And talking of regular viewers - you folk will no doubt see that this piece owes its construction to all those circular coptic bound forms that I have been playing with.... even if I haven't come up with a pain-free (or profanity-free) method of making, I think I've managed to iron out some of the pesky problems for a more 'finished' piece here..... so I'm feeling rather happy with myself this afternoon......

time to go play with the kidlins who have just returned from a hard day at school (the first of the new term)


..

virtues....

Just in case, after my last post, you're worried that I'm falling into a sea of sin I thought I'd share the 'other half' of my most recent work.....

The seven cardinal virtues*.....

This work features another (matching) set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica, hand cut paper letters, dirt, moss and lichens (gathered from the property here at Sams Creek) - again it is an ephemeral piece, it was set up, photographed then the moss was re-established in and around my garden.

(detail)

Just like the vice work previously mentioned, this piece started out very differently from where it finished. Originally I thought that this piece would feature 'carved'/ cut lettering into the encyclopaedia page edges, (just as I had done initially with vices) but I changed my mind after all that time spent cutting 'vices' and I shelved this work along with the vices......waiting for the 'solution' to materialise

After I set 'vices' ablaze I knew that virtues would be a very different creature - it took a while for me to arrive at the solution - but I knew that I wanted it to 'speak' of the virtue of soil......

So I decided to cover all the page edges in yummy sams creek soil.... I thought about seeding this with grasses or the like, but I wanted to allude to something else...... so I set about gathering moss and lichens from some of my special sams creek places...

Moss and lichens are simple organisms - (and so it is easy to think of them as innocents) but their simplicity hides some of their amazing characteristics. Moss as most folk know, can only exist in moist conditions, yet many are remarkably resilient to desertification (and if they indeed do dry out, many can be 'brought back to life' with a liberal application of water). Lichens on the other hand are not really plants (and they certainly aren't animals!) - they are found in some of the most inhospitable environments - and so when I imagine the future, where most other life-forms may be fried by climate change, maybe the little lichen will live on..... but then it's important to also remember that lichens glean all of their nutrients from the air - so they are particularly vulnerable to pollutants..... Perhaps it is better to think of moss and lichens as the harbingers of environmental truth.....

and anyway I like lichens, and moss, with its moist, delicious, green fecundity is just a delight to behold! But as much as I like moss and lichens - many people find them pesky..... moss on pavers is not so much fun...

Suffice to say, depending on where you are coming from, moss and lichens may be considered either good or bad.....


somewhat like information and 'knowledge' eh?

* Seven Cardinal Virtues (with English translation)

Patientia - Patience
Temperentia - Temperance
Humanitas - Kindness
Industria - Diligence
Humilitas - Humility
Castitas - Chastity
Caritas - Charity

Each one of the seven cardinal virtues is meant to counteract one of the seven deadly sins - so patience conquers wrath, charity defeats greed, temperance beats gluttony, humility wins over pride, kindness overcomes envy, and of course chastity whacks lust......

...

vices...

Time to share another something-something I've been working on.....


Towards the end of last year I began meticulously cut/carving a set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica. My idea was to carve the seven deadly sins* (in Latin) into the page edges of the books -

ira (wrath)
luxuria (lust)
gula (gluttony)
avaritia (avarice/greed)
invidia (envy)
socordia (sloth)
superbia (pride)

It took months of hard labour to get all seven words completed - these are not laser cut, but are created very slowly by hand - cutting carefully with a scalpel, a few pages at a time - after the initial cutting, the page edges are then sanded.... (have you ever sanded the edge of a page? crazy!)


so here they were - after all that work.....

I was.....ummmmmm...... underwhelmed by the results - so I put the set away for a while to decide if they were worth keeping.....


then a few weeks ago I had the solution......

set the little suckers on FIRE!

OH YES!

NOW they REEK of SIN! (and of charred paper....)

And now they were the realisation of my initial intention - albeit in a very different form than originally anticipated ...... isn't that always the way? and isn't it the most exciting part of being an artist? well it is for me....

I've never considered myself a designer - even when design and meticulous crafting is an integral aspect of the creative process, I'm mindful that they need to serve the piece and not the other way around..... in other words - for me the process is only precious if it upholds/enhances the final results. soooooo it was no big thing to set fire to hours and hours of labour (in the hope that I may get one or two decent pics of the work aflame....)


but I was just as startled to discover I even like the remnants of charred books - as they shed ash ex-pages at the slightest invitation.....

And I'm loving the thought of these smelly, messy things in a pristine white space at some point in the future..... ahhhhhhhh spreading a little of their knowing sin to all and sundry.....





** in case you are wondering - the first three words are carved on the top of the pages - out of view in these pics - and the last four words are on the page fore-edge

book hurl anyone?

A BAO friend, having a bit of a lark, dropped this ever so slightly modified cartoon into my inbox early this sunday morning......

**thanks di for injecting a bit of silliness into my day!

reflections....

I had a spectacular four days down at monash uni gippsland - simply fab-ul-ous!

this is the fourth year I've headed south for the annual winter symposium - and it was by far the bestest trip yet - I had a marvelous (albeit looooooong) drive down in the super-duper subaru (I'm in love) - shared on-campus accommodation with a great bunch of gals (more love - especially for josephine-the-kitchen-queen woof woof what a cook!) - had a marvelous bunch of super-duper creative folk in my 'critique' group (I loves youse all! especially you neale!) - with not one, but two excellent arty leaders..... ros atkins and my supervisor susan purdy (super monster love here! these two ladies are SPECTACULAR artists - and I am feeling sooooooooooooooooo lucky to have susan as my supervisor I'm almost busting at the seams!) and if all that wasn't enough - on wednesday night monash wheeled in john wolseley as their guest speaker (bestill my beating heart! john has long been one of my art heroes - and he was simply the most charming and humble and delightful speakers imaginable).

(this is another of the works I showed during my turn for show and tell...... more to follow.....
I'm currently in recovery mode - and school hols have now started here at sams creek......
time to do all those things I've been promising my patient kidlins)