Monday 30 April 2012

two books meet ...


This afternoon my daughter Pip, who is visiting from Sydney for a couple of days, and I visited Fiona to bring our books together for their photo shoot.  Fiona and I have created two magical books this week to celebrate World Book Day.  Not perfect books, but magical.  I chose this word quite carefully as there has been a sense of wonder and unexpected surprise, a gorgeous alchemy of our thoughts, words, marks and effort as our books began, merged and finally unveiled.





The light in the studio was luminous and even so, it was quite difficult to capture the books together .  Fiona's long and lean, crisp and rigid, mine rectangular and softly bound, mellow, not wanting to stand.





Of the many taken, a few images stood out for me - these really just show the structure of our books and not the content.  They actually blend together tenderly with their threads and markings, tracemarks and  images echoing each other's and yet they remain simultaneously individual.


shadow play





My completed book although this photo was taken before I titled it 'In Between the Mountains'.  There is a story about this which I will share at the end of this blog.


Fiona's words concealed through scratched transparencies 

etchings  and pierced translucent paper

hidden etchings - the transparent layer lifts to reveal these in detail


Fiona's white pages and thread from our day working together 
My last page bringing all the ideas I had together 


Fiona's delicious threads

This shared collaborative experience has been both intriguing and absorbing.  Throughout, our sensibilities have been in tune with each other and I think this remained so right until the finishing touches were being made on the books.

I must share this story with you ...........

I brought along my book, with eight pages, to be worked into by Fiona.  All I had done was make two of those pages from some of my etchings and suggested was that I was doing a soft cover book which I wanted to be read in landscape format which meant that the binding was on the top of the pages, not left or right.  Fiona introduced her beautiful words to my book, though did so on tracing paper in order that I could conceal them in my mountains, or let them peek in between.  She also worked two of my pages with smaller white pages secured under thread lines.  Beautiful.  Once I began to work back into the book I decided I really wanted to have Fiona's words visible between the mountains and I pondered hard over whether I should just copy them or trace them onto the page.  Somehow it didn't seem right so I asked Fiona if I could bring my pages back for her to rewrite the words onto the page ..... and of course she was more than happy to oblige.

It was not until I was home again, fiddling with the last touches, that I realised that Fiona had actually written a second verse instead of using her initial verse twice.  She had absorbed what I had worked into my pages, into the story I was telling, and I think tied it all together in the second verse. By so doing she had supplied my book with the cohesion it needed.

Here are the two verses that Fiona has written in my book (the first verse written by Aaron Siskind and lent to me!) because you can't read them without holding the book, taking back the transparent layer and looking closely 'In Between the Mountains' ...

'if you look very intensely
     and slowly
         things will happen
                 that you never dreamed of before'


'in the hollows
      and the voids
             between the mountains
                    quiet dreams of beauty are born.'


That says it all.



19 comments:

  1. Susan....what a wonderful experience for you and Fiona....you work so well together! These books are just gorgeous and I love the way the marks and surfaces work so well together.....the translucent paper layers make me swoon! Thanks for sharing the work and the joy!

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  2. They are wonderful! The etchings and the translucent paper go together so well. I just want to sit down and pour over these books slowly, taking in all the wonderful sensuality of them. You must both be so pleased. What a magical experience to have shared with someone else.

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    1. Thanks Sam - yes, I agree. I have really enjoyed working with the transparencies again - this time instead of rusting them or using inks or pencil, I scratched into them. For me it was an experiment I tested before applying. Had never seen it done but it works well - I think I prefer it to using white ink.

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  3. Lovely! I came over to your blog via Fiona's, to 'hear' the other half of the story. What an inspiration it's been to follow your magical collaboration. I've enjoyed not only the enticing images of your books, but your description of the journey as well.
    - Lisa

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    1. Thank you for coming by Lisa - I am always happy when Fiona's blogging friends come visiting me! I am about to start a large body of etching work so it was fun just dipping back into work I have used before.

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  4. Oh, I love every element of the books- the transparency, the poetry, scratching, etchings, pokings, reference to rocks yet mountains - beautiful works, ladies xoxoxo

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    1. Thanks heaps Noela, it really has been a glorious experience. A shot in the arm really as I am brimming with all sorts of other ideas for my own work, and some more collaborative as well. Fun to come out of a dry spell running. Guess it has much to do with the fact that I am back in a studio and very happily settled.

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  5. Wonderful collaboration, I love the books - and Fiona's words!

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    1. thank you V - had to edit my blog and attribute the first verse of the writing which I thought was Fiona's to Aaron Siskind whose words she reflagged and then shared with me. The second verse is all hers and ties my book together really well though ........

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  6. A lovely collaboration - I particularly like the transparencies and the pierced paper.

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    1. mmmm it is a lovely combination isn't it. I also like the scratching and will work a great deal more with that on transparent paper i think. It is more subtle that white ink.

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  7. S-congratulations to you two - such beautiful works that emerged from a casual exchange to get together and create. It demonstrated both the respect and trust you had for each other and for each other's work; the ability to go with the flow; and to celebrate the outcomes that were the product of the combined creativity. I'm sure there will be many more. Go well. B

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    1. as usual you have picked out the most important point - that trust and respect we have for each other and our work. It makes for a harmonious collaboration and I am sure this effort was just the beginning for us. Thanks B x

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  8. Oh it was such a lovely and fitting way to finish the work - the two books together and sitting so happily side by side, like sisters (not twins) - they've their own unique identity but share the same heritage in a way...

    Ahhh, I still love just looking at the images of them and turning the pages of mine...thank you!

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    1. our books are certainly relations, sisters sound best. Certainly drawn from the same artistic blood line ... :-)

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  9. wow. this is what collaboration can do! wonderful!

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    1. thanks Velma - certainly was fun and we are both looking forward to more of the same! Did I read/hear that you may be coming out to Australia?

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I appreciate your comments - thank you!