Out of the closet - or rather, the wardrobe

Since my art school days, round about 2010, I've been wearing jeans, black jeans, on a rotational basis - one pair on the body, the other in the wash. It's been a liberation to be freed of "the tyranny of the closet", never being able to find the "right" thing to wear. So much easier to put on the jeans, add a teeshirt and other layer, and it's all done, you're set for the day.

And, in theory, it reduces the number of garments in one's wardrobe.

But recently I bought a dress, and then another, "just for a change". In the past few years, dresses have been flooding onto the market. Goodness, I even made one last winter.

Also recently, I became aware that the dresses, and much else, are simply languishing in the closet, probably picking up that unwelcome whiff of oldness that starts to inhabit clothes that rarely see the light of day.

As a result of these actions and thoughts, I came up with a personal project: 

Jeans-Free July

Can a jeans addict wear other garments for an entire month? Are YOU a jeans addict - would you like to try??

Excited by the idea, I had a little rummage in the closet and put a few outfits together in readiness. (Only 10 days to go!)

Dresses -

Latest acquisition - I felt the need of some COLOUR

"Just a long loose teeshirt" - but the golden colour
is so wonderful!

The smocky dress is bit short, needs leggings...

Without the teeshirt, this is perfect in the heat

Oldies but goodies - in fabulous fabrics. I whipped up
the jacket back in the 80s from a remnant, as one did
in those good old days

 Skirts -

That's probably enough* to be starting with, whatever the weather -

Just in case the weather turns chilly, as it can and has done, a number of LBJs (little black jackets) are ready for action. I do love an LBJ...

Leggings, if I dare, "at my age" - and why not! -

With other teeshirts, other shoes....

Love those long loose linen shirts!

Various non-jean trousers emerged, along with some other beloved linen shirts -

Candidates for studio-wear

... and a drawerful of teeshirts -

Too many stripes? No! You can never have too many stripes!!

*A while back I purged my wardrobe, with the help of a friend, in a couple of days of "japanese tidying". This involves gathering everything and going through it piece by piece. In our so-rich western culture, when we gather everything together, it becomes plain that we (I use "we" loosely, there are exceptions...) have SO much and often too much in our fortunate lives ... but that's another story.

At the risk of becoming a little old lady who is still wearing the clothes she bought during her working life - clothes that are now looking a little tired, emitting a gentle whiff and hanging loosely on her gaunt frame - I probably need buy nothing more for the next two decades, just rotate what's already there.

But goodness, isn't it nice to have something new to wear!! 

Submitting work online - the second scroll

Last month I came up with a little project to help keep me going creatively - namely, submitting old work to new shows. The point is to be creative with the old work, and the first submission involved reformulating what the work was about.

This month I'm using much the same statement to support the submission of "the second scroll".
It was started while the first was being exhibited somewhere, I forget where ... I loved that way of working, and how it slowly but surely grew. At the time I was using this stitching as a way to start my studio-time, trying to focus on what I was planning to work on that day.

No.2 is shorter, 206cm rather than 370cm (they are 26cm wide). I photographed the siblings together -

The box in which No.2 is kept also contained the colour-catchers onto which the strips of newspaper are stitched - but they haven't been inked. It's a beautiful day and I'm determined to get away from the computer and do some sewing while in the garden. So some colour-catchers have been inked up and are drying. They are very absorbent, and I experimented with how to extend the ink - how far could it be diluted? Haven't finally answered that question; my experiment involved spraying the fabric and loading the brush with neat (chinese) ink

 On the left, the right side was sprayed before ink was applied; on the right is the back of the piece, with the left side sprayed after ink was applied. So, the ink spread nicely but didn't soak right through, the water got there first. Whereas, once the back had been sprayed with water, the ink came through and spread.

While getting the sheets nice and dark, I messed about with a little mark-making - nice dark, soft marks scribbled with the end of a paintbrush -

Next experiment, dilute the ink and apply liberally.

 Top, 50%; middle, 25%, bottom, sheet folded and 25% added liberally. Applied with sponge brush.

These are the "monoprints" (footprints?) of the three -

 And then I piled up the sheets on top of a fresh one, to see how much ink might be forced onto it -

The marks aren't as black as "spilt ink" would be, but it's certainly an easy way of filling a dauntingly white page!

The proof will be in the pudding - how dark will the diluted sheets be? Did it actually save ink to do that - a teaspoon of ink stretched to three sheets. It was certainly quick to do ... if you don't get sidetracked into markmaking.

Submitting work online

There's nothing like a deadline... so when I found an exhibition with the theme of "line" and a deadline of 31 July, it seemed like a good idea to enter something. That was in mid-July - and the first step was to go back to Studio136 and see if I could lay my hands on the work I had in mind. (Why make new work when some of the finished work hasn't seen the light of day yet?)

There was no way to get hold of the piece I had in mind, but something else turned up that would do as well, in terms of a submission on the theme of line. It's been exhibited several times - any chance I get, really - and between times it lives in its special shoebox

When it came to being rephotographed, it fell into a new configuration -

which shows its double-sided configuration. It measures 25 cm wide and 380 cm long.

The piece used to be called Journey to the Studio, but has now become "The Daily Round", to fit in with the artist's statement I quickly wrote, which talks about quotidional repetitiveness, the ever-extending line incorporating the ephemerality of the daily news. Or could/should have, but at the 11th hour those sorts of thoughts hadn't yet risen and the statement ended up like this:

"The Daily Round" is a meditation, evolving day after day, on matters exterior and interior. The probing stitches laboriously fasten the ephemerality of daily news to the solid base, and the thin line of newspaper strips goes around and around, making the piece sculptural rather than two-dimensional.

Margaret Cooter's cross-media practice (ceramics, drawing, printmaking, books, textiles) is largely focused on the use of time in daily travel (commuting) and the input of labour in domestic maintenance, as part of the larger topic of the concept of home.

Not sure how absolutely "true" this is,  but you sometimes have to reinvent your intentions as circumstances change. "Travel lines" have given way to the Home project.

The point of the exercise was to enter something, somewhere - to keep going creatively, to get impetus for the next part of the project. 

The deadline for this call has been extended to 31 August - my next goal. But this involves making something new, as works have to be about "nature" (in the widest sense) and on an envelope.

All things right and dutiful

Much if not all of my time is currently taken up with getting Tony's photos ready for the "Four States Four Minds" exhibition - 16 photos to frame, and yet more to be mounted and bagged for the browser. And everything labelled.

So far, the preparations haven't been easy. My deadline is 10am tomorrow. There's no time to be lost.

(The "party" is on Saturday 2 July, 2pm-6pm, at Hastings Art Forum gallery, St Leonards, should you be in the neighbourhood.)

All shall be well, and all shall be well.

(next day)

Here they are, framed and labelled and cosy in their bubble wrap, 14 photos in five groupings (indicated by the different stickers) -

A further couple of dozen photos have been put in mounts for the browser, for immediate purchase and taking home. Getting this all together  hasn't been straightforward, but it's ready.

I'm really looking forward to seeing all the photos - three others were on the trip, after all - together.

(later) - a review of the show is here.

Getting clay books ready for the book fair

The porcelain "pages"  are ready for lacing together - these are thin enough to let daylight through -

This one is thicker, and needs to have a strong light source behind it to show the detail "inside" -

The multi-page books are quite opaque -

As for the "maze" books, dipped in slip - these are rather fragile and transport (by train) is difficult. I'm making a box for each one, and a "nest" inside the box. And the boxes will be carefully packed within another box.

(This post is linked to Off the Wall Fridays.)

Turn the Page book fair, Norwich, 3-4 May

If you're near Norwich, do come to the fair. It's in a venue - the atrium of the Forum - that has lots of people passing through, expecting to see "something different" going on, and last year they weren't disappointed. For many visitors, artists' books were something quite new to them, and I overheard many interesting conversations (and had some myself). A lot of talking goes on at book fairs!

Certainly the organisers are doing a super job of promoting the fair - read more about it on the website, turnthepage.org.uk.

Books... but not as you know them 

Limited editions, sculptural books, altered books, multiples,

book art installations and more

all this will be on display to browse, wonder at and buy...

We have an exciting programme of events including Poetry Readings, Demonstrations, Storytelling, Drop-in Workshops,

and the fabulous 1950's French Citreon van 'Dolores' which has been beautifully converted into a mobile artists library by book artist

Lucy-May Schofield

Currently I'm considering and reconsidering what to take along. Something to catch people's eye, something they might want to buy - these need not necessarily be the same thing. 

Aftermath

Friday was the day for taking down the show. The calm white room became a bustle of activity, a chaos of objects in limbo, and a space echoing with several conversations at once.

It was "Making a Disintegration" all right!

In the evening, a pot-luck supper, with delicious contributions from Japan, China, and Tex-Mex land -

followed by Di's beautiful pavlova with home-made lemon curd, and Mariana's spiced baked pears -

Much fun and photography -

Many cameras were set on timer for a group pic, including a polaroid; my photo of it is blurry because it was towards the end of a "refreshing" evening ....

What is needed now

Today is the final day of the show, and I'll be adding the final layers of the "book of my life":  names of people I've met through art, textile, etc courses and through the quilting groups I continue to belong to, including online groups. These names all have to be written on slips of paper before I leave for college.

The final layer of the big red ball will consist of the names of everyone who has kindly signed my book during the show - encounters that have led to some extremely interesting and enriching conversations.

Today is the last time I'll be printing off yet more of my little cards - I seem to be getting through about 50 a day -

And the many batteries used up in the LED lights are going into the special battery disposal box at college.

As well, the battery charger has been in use constantly. Even so, the lights that make The Blue Distance glow haven't kept the desired brightness - next time, a different system is needed.

The red ball is getting hard to handle. And the yarn is getting used up ever more quickly as the circumference increases - will there be enough??

Before the event

Thank you, friends, for your good wishes, both via email and in the post -

It's a strange sort of day, waiting for the Big Event of the exhibition opening ... for a few hours it will all be frantic activity and loads of people milling about, and then ... what ...

Copies of the catalogue will be for sale at the show - it's a "proper book" with a page made by each student, and a foreword written by the course leader, Susan Johanknecht -

We've set up a blog, camberwellmabookarts.blogspot.co.uk, showing our work.

I've had the haircut and painted the toenails, and am off to college now, to deal with the finishing touches -- taking the assessment material out of the space, turning on the lights in The Blue Distance, and starting work on the Big Red Ball of Connection - which I'll be continuing between 12 and 2pm, and from 5pm to 7pm (or 8pm) throughout the show. (Not quite sure what I've taken on there... we'll see....)

Final preparations

The signs are up throughout the building

The labels are up throughout the show

The shop is being stocked

Once the exam board meets we can take our "assessment bits" out of the exhibition space.

Once the space is cleared, in the early afternoon, there will be a walk-through crit ... so at least we get a bit of immediate feedback.

Waiting for the opening of the show is like waiting for Christmas.  And still there are many teeny-tiny things that need doing!

Make your own business cards

Why pay ££ for a batch of hundreds of cards - when you can easily make them at home as needed?

Sarah needed some business cards to give out at her market stall, where she's selling her etchings - so she cut up an unsuccessful print and simply wrote her details on the back. (The paper is too thick to go through the printer.)

I have a template ready and printed the back of some "journey lines" screenprinted pages, then did a little snipping and interlocking - the "fish" flatten down, and the cards show the back side of the page as well as the contact details.

Each card is a unique little artwork. The etchings especially.

ps - it's been brought to my attention (thanks, Judy!) that Thomas Heatherwick, the designer, made his own business cards for his MA show thus:
Using his kitchen stove and a specially created branding iron, he branded his name and details onto the wooden sticks used by doctors to depress your tongue.  Then he made chocolate-dipped icecream lollies on the sticks.  It took him four weeks, working overnight at a local icecream factory.

A few more things to sort out

Back to college at the end of the week to meet in the exhibition space and sort out a few things. This involved a lot of milling about, not only in the exhibition

but also, thanks to the fire alarm going off, outside in the glorious, though rather autumnal, sunshine, awaiting the arrival of the fire engine -

Eventually the labels got put up on the walls and onto the tables, it was decided where to put the business cards, and those who were left turned their attention to the shop, which we share with the printmakers who are exhibiting in adjacent rooms. Strictly from a size point of view (and perhaps in price too) the prints overwhelm the books, and the "shop" isn't really set up for selling ... nowhere to put a cash box, for instance, or extra copies of stock, or a table on which to write receipts - but it looks cool, yes? -

After the assessment, some people had "suggestions" on which works to remove and what to replace them with. I found some books - including all the books made up of my blog writings - moved from the floor into my "little library" and wonder if that's a "suggestion" that they belong there.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a bit of last-minute making of books for the shop - 10 copies of "Seepage" (my laborious typography project) and 10 copies of "Brainstorm".

As well, I'm spending 15-minute chunks of time updating my website (it's still a bit of a shambles but improving all the time) -- which has made me resolve  forthwith and henceforth to do a number of things:

- give files useful names (so they can be found!)

- make folders and give them useful names (to help with finding files!)

- file photos by subject

and to try to 

- keep up to date ... whatever that means ...