blackfisharts ABOUT my art

Early Summer i went on a #getaway to Boat Harbour - spent 3 days there soaking up the sun, isolation and beach.  A nice visit from V and lunch at the restaurant was a highlight.  I treat all my #getaways as a 'residency' and go on long walks, photography and do drawings, writing and reading. the drawings en plein air shown in the earlier blog post led to these two little books. fine art photography of my time at Boat Harbour can be found  here a short video of a beach walk at Boat Harbour #Tasmania

  Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 11 - artist books. I create books using photography, abstraction, altered books, books holding creative exercises, ICM, chemigrams and more on various projects. i also hold occasional (winter) workshops on creating artist books.

  Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 10 - IPAD i love using the ipad to create images - inspired by Hockney and Warhol and abstraction.

Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 9 - poetry i have over 150 poems published in print and online -Drifting Sands (Aus), the herons nest, the Aurora Review, Eucalypt (Aus) Contemporary Haibun, Cloudspeak, Ripples, Modern English Tanka, LYNX, Modern Haiku, Kokako (NZ), Moonset, Simply Haiku, 

Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 7 -collage & stitching

Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 6 -asemic

  Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 4 - flora

Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 2 - #pocketfinds - a series of works underway whereby 'pocket finds' on daily walks are put together and photographed - currently, with a book in mind - artist book and published book

Slow stitching for me is mostly wall hangings, fabric style collage and richly layered with stitches using mainly running stitch, back stitch and couching. I find an enormous amount of diversity in limiting the stitching and utilising different weights, colours and types of thread and materials. I rarely stitch anything 'practical' but found i needed something to keep my needles under control. So i created these two variations of a needle book - they came about from playing around with ideas from bookbinding (a scroll and Japanese style binding). a short video below on the needle books I made using bits of woollen blanket from my collection. (above) video on needle books with boo boo !

 in this time of looking back in order to move forward in my daily doings in the studio i found this altered book that i created during travels from Tasmania to Tokyo to catch up with family. A wonderful trip - so lovely to spend time with family filled with new sights, sounds and smells This is an altered book ... a 1963 (abridged) copy of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". I had a great time re-reading this book whilst altering it during my time in Tokyo. And how wonderful to explore all the sights and find new places to see art, gardens and fish ! I am a quiet fan of Koi and goldfish. I attended galleries in small alleys, big exhibitions in magnificent buildings, found sculptures and outdoor happenings, an antique shop and great food. Not so great coffee except my daughter had an excellent coffee machine at home so i could start the day filled with vigour. In this altered book pages include collage, additional new 'pages' that fold out, windows, mark making, fou...

After working through a prototype of an idea i had in mind I printed out the pages. I took images from one of my beach escapes #getaway. I worked through the idea of a particular binding to take the concertina folds, cut the back and the two stable door front openings out of acid free book board and covered them in the prints i had chosen. The prototype went well ... but this, what i thought was the 'final' book is not quite what i wanted. It looks nice enough but its not right enough. The images are of #getaway to Denison Beach , Tasmania two minutes out of Bicheno - a beach I visit, with a friend, on regular #getaways ... I chose images that play with longer exposures to create a lovely abstract notion of the beachscape, without losing the idea of the beach. I love the colours and the feeling of being there. There will be a few more surprises when the book is finally created and this comes from working through the 'plan'.