Xmas tree.

I made this year's tree from white plastic bottle tops which I prestikked onto the wall.

I then printed out teeny pictures of family and friends and stuck them on the inside of the bottle tops.

The very top of the tree is one of those transparent plastic bubbles which you find on detergent bottles. I put a small battery-operated candle inside.

Somehow this year the festive season made me feel sad and melancholic ... but I think my tree is a pretty nice idea when you have to celebrate Xmas without so many of your family and friends ...

Merry Xmas 2013.

Have a Merry Xmas, All!
May you have someone guarding your prezzies...

New(s) Scribbles 3, 4 and 5.

 New scribbles about news articles ...

Do the Math  (dry point etching)

China Moon (dry point etching)

Die Here Slaap Nie (dry point etching)

New(s) Scribbles 1 and 2 - new versions.

I have added text.

The Protest (dry point etching)

The Two Z's (dry point etching)

No more.

Rest in peace, Madiba.

New(s) Scribbles.

A new series of etchings based on scribbles and doodles of the news reports I read in the mornings.

Give and Take (dry point etching)

The Two Z's (dry point etching)

For the Fair.

Brooches and pins made for the fair tomorrow:

Crocheted brooches stitched to Nepalese felt.

Dry point etchings on Italian paper, with encaustic, stitched to vintage German linen.

Badges.

I intended to make brooches with these small etchings, but in the end I decided to turn them into badges for my denim jacket.

Whatever (dry point etching, hand-coloured and waxed)

Do the math, genius (dry point etching, hand-coloured, waxed)

A Song Bird and a Blue Bird.

A song bird that is not necessarily a songbird and a blue bird that is not a bluebird. For the Christmas Fair.

Song Bird (drypoint etching with original music sheet collage)

Blue Bird (drypoint etching with stitching)

Work I, II and III - stitched.

I have finished stitching the three Work etchings, yippee yay. (I used three live ants, had them walk over an A4 page and traced the trails with different coloured pencils, then used this as a template to stitch the etchings.) I used muted colours for the three separate trails so that they do not stand out too harshly from the etched lines and plate tone.

Inside Out - an assemblage.

The requirements -  to make an assemblage piece with the theme "inside out", using at least one piece of wood and incorporating at least two techniques (apart from gluing and nailing stuff). I transferred a picture to wood (using acrylic matt medium), tapped the tap (no pun intended) into the wood with the help of L'Usband, drilled a hole for the lens, and glued on the rest of the items. Incorporated is an etching of an ant which you will recognise from my Work series, and I attached to the tap five inked perspex etching plates with ants. I seem to still be obsessed by issues involving work. the creative process, and ants.

Inside Out (assemblage with wood, paint, transfer, dry point etching, collage, perspex etching plates, brass tap, glass lens and keyboard letters).

4th adoption birthday.

For her adoption birthday we took Snous to The Lighthouse for lunch ...

where she waited patiently for her birthday nibble ...

And then off to the penguins we went ...

where she studiously ignored the penguins and marvelled at the view.
Happy Adoption Birthday my Loveliest, Sweetest, Cleverest Doggie-in-the-Universe!!

Two books.

I 'discovered' these two books at exactly the right time. Slow Motion - stories about walking by Andie Miller is a book that I found on a library shelf - without looking for it. Well worth reading for anyone interested in slowing down & walking mindfully.

Art & Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland was recommended to me by my art teacher. A fantastic book that felt as though it was written especially for me :

Offrenda.

In memory of my mom and dad.

Napier Moments.

We visited Napier again last week - such a lovely place. Some moments I captured for you:

Work III - Nine Ants.

Work III - Nine Ants (drypoint etching).

Work II - Two Ants.

Work II - Two Ants (dry point etching)

On Work and Ants.

I have been thinking a lot about work recently. Actually, since before I started the profiteri series of etchings. How people choose a profession, why we can't necessarily make a living from our passions, the joys of working (and specifically of working with one's hands), the psychological necessity to work, the compromises involved in working for a living. I have also been reading a lot about ants since I did the Complex Systems MOOC at Santa Fe. Ants are amazing, and how they work together is even more amazing ...

Work I - Three Ants (dry point etching)
Yes, yes, don't point out the scale, please! These are meant to be huge ants!

Work I - Three Ants EV 1 (dry point etching with collage)

I have decided to stitch onto the first etching - ant trails. I caught three ants in the garden and one by one let them walk over a page of the same size and followed the trails with different coloured pencils.

I hope to finish the stitching this weekend, and will post a picture then ...

A bit of weed ...

... can be beautiful.

All together now ...

14 professions ... but now that I have stitched them and am ready for framing, I am wondering whether I should not make a 15th etching. My initial idea was to do 14 etchings only and frame them in one looooooooong (horizontal) frame, intended for a specific narrow horizontal space in my home. Unfortunately the 14 etchings in one looooooooong frame will be too long for the intended location. If I have 15 etchings, my options for arranging and framing them are more varied.
So I have been pondering a few ponders: First of all, I wonder how often practical considerations (such as the one above) influence what and how artists create? And secondly, if I decide to do a 15th etching, what profession do you think I should add? And thirdly, should I perhaps have 16 etchings, which have even more possibilities for combining? Oh dear, this is becoming rather complicated ...

A Sad Experiment.

You may remember that I experimented with monoprints some time ago. Under the expert tutelage of artist Andre Stead, I slathered on ink, measured stuff (can't quite remember what, but rulers and pencils and masking tape were involved), flopped down my paper, drew joyously on the back of it, and then rubbed (I think - but what did I use? My hand? A tool? Or perhaps I did not rub at all? It is a mystery to me, as by now the process has disappeared - like a sock - into the dark tumble dryer that is my mind.

So last weekend I experimented by myself, using a glass plate, lino cut ink, and a wooden spoon. It went all squishy on me. 

Not my proudest moment, although with time I have come to like the two on the right hand side. (A little.) 

So then I thought, when all else fails, RTFM!!! and I googled and landed up with a set of quite clear instructions which involved sanding a perspex plate, painting on liquid soap and letting it dry, then painting the image with poster paint, letting it dry a little, wetting the paper, placing it on top, and rubbing vigorously with the back of a wooden spoon. This was the result:

Back to Andre, I think.

Mail Art.

This is my submission for the Associação de Gravura da Amadora (postcard) mail art call. The theme was A Day Like This. I used this existing plate which I adapted, printed and embroidered. I posted it to Portugal ten days ago, and I do hope that it will not go missing as did my previous two attempts at mail art (one to the UK and one to the US)!

A Day Like This (drypoint etching with embroidery).

PS This etching is in preparation of a series which I have been planning for some time now, reflecting on the events at Marikana on 16 August 2012.  I have been delaying starting to work on it properly, perhaps because the subject is controversial, tragic and depressing.

Transformation.

Over the past two weeks I have been transforming my profiteri etchings with stitching in bright colours - orange, red, yellow, different greens and blues, pink, brown, purple ...
They have been transformed into colourful saints, their haloes shining brightly.

From the profiteri series (drypoint etchings. embroidery thread).

profiteri #14 - The Actress.

profiteri - (Latin) 'declare publicly' (see profess). sense 1 derives from the notion of an occupation that one ‘professes’ to be skilled in.

This is the last one in the series. In my next post I will show you what I have done to them to liven them up a little!

profiteri #14 - The Actress (drypoint etching)

profiteri #13 - The Artist.

profiteri - (Latin) 'declare publicly' (see profess). sense 1 derives from the notion of an occupation that one ‘professes’ to be skilled in.

profiteri #13 - The Artist (drypoint etching)