Off to the post- Where Next? Blog 5

Well I have posted the Memoir to Brooklyn. Quite exciting and a job well done. I have decided that this is just a start of using my past to inform my new work. I am still working on the textile piece which is very relaxing to dip in and out of. I am cleaning an old indian printing block to experiment with. All the work that is being done will hopefully be the basis for my part in a group exhibition with fellow artists called Interwoven Journeys.

I have just contacted Glasszoo about experimental glasswork. The idea of layering, transparency and memory. This may mean looking at enamelling, printing on glass and decals. We will see where this leads. 

Blue thread, a needle and a piece of carpet

Well the Memoir is finished, bound and ready to send to the USA. The end happened quickly and exactly in time for me to return to commission work. During the past month I had bought some hand letter stamps which I really enjoyed using on the cover.

I hope to use them in art work that goes on beyond the memoir. I visited an exhibition on art and caligraphy at The Beaney in Canterbury last week and hope to look at the idea of when is writing drawing. I had had to guess how many pages for the book as I had dismembered the original notebook from The Sketchbook project. There is a place on the website where people talk about how to use the books and I found one person very helpful when sewing the binding. I chose blue cotton embroidery thread that I am  using in a textile piece linked with the memoir and punched holes with a sharp point using carpet underneath to receive the impact. It was very satisfying.

Today (April 26th) I copied the book and then had 5 copies made and bound. These will go to family and I will be able to send away the original. I set out to write about my childhood travelling in time to meet The Memoir Project deadline but this is only the beginning. The textile piece is moving on in vibrant Indian colours. I hope to use the written words as a starter for more art based work and am looking forward to the journey continuing- writing as drawing and drawing as writing.

Pens and paper - having to choose the right one!

Well I have started to write up the Memoir. Not as easy as I thought as I found, after I had dismembered the note book from America , that fountain pen bled through the paper. I have moved to Uni Ball (other brands of pen available!) and have now found that this bleeds through other lined paper I am using...... so hello BIRO!!
My hand and shoulder are still a problem so I can only do a little at a time. After trying different things I have decided to add photos directly into the text as it is hard to work out two page spreads as I don't know how many pages the book will end  up with. Today I did a small amount of writing and started work on the cover which I will reveal next blog. My husband is proof reading and I am pleased that I am not making too many errors. He is enjoying using a red pen!
The fabric I started dyeing is finished and looks like a spice market. I am beginning to sew bits together and overlay colours and have decided to hand sew. This is a project to do alongside the Memoir and it might involve some block printing too. My commission work is beginning to reappear so I am using the last of the waiting time between projects to write the Memoir.

Blog 2 A Reader's Pass

As my arm has been hurting I have had to cut down how much actual writing I do. This has led me to find other things to do related to the Memoir. Yesterday I went to the British Library after getting my Reader's Pass and looked at a book by Clive Ball 'Seven Years with Samantha". Samantha was a pale blue and black 1929 Austin Seven and we met on a beach in Karachi in 1965. Because of the Indo Pakistan war , all overlanders were stranded waiting for a boat to sail to Bombay and we had a camp in the sand dunes at Hawks Bay. He hadn't written much about Karachi as his book covered a round the world trip but there was a picture of the car being loaded onto the boat as I remember it.
   The experience of getting my pass and going into the Library was exciting. This was a library, as in the past ,with helpful , efficient librarians and silent reading. There were public areas and cafes and people eating sandwiches but there was also a stillness and sense of learning. I met an Australian lady who was researching Hannah Marshman a distant relative who was the first English woman  missionary to India in about 1800. I wondered how many people had special stories to tell of relatives and who we all were walking around this big space.
   I have also been dyeing old linen that mum had stored in bright colours of India. I have decided to make a textile quilt about my journeys. I don't know what it will look like as it is process led and will evolve. The old linen and lace is natural fibre so takes colour brilliantly. There is something wonderful about enjoying pure colour for what it is and layering different colour lace to see the colours react.
  I am only allowing about 15mins of handwriting a day, its annoying as I want to get the rough finished for proof reading but I am having to go with reality and allow other ideas to surface. I enjoyed my library experience and went to Mughal India Art exhibition too. There was a lovely minature showing a locust and a Monarch Butterfly wing- both insects I remember- watch this space.....

Blog 1 - Starting a Memoir

Writing age 9yrs with charcoal burners and my Dad in Syria.

Among my Mum's papers I found the two sheets of paper, pot marked with typewritten punctuation. The tightly packed text had bled out on the Indian paper through age but I was looking at myself age 11yrs and the account I wrote of the day when the King of Nepal and I celebrated our birthdays together on June 11th 1966. This together with my Mum's diaries has encouraged me to join The Memoir project 500 handwritten books which will be based in the Brooklyn Art Library. This is run by The Sketchbook Project. My Mum had always intended to share her writing but the need to work and life in general got in the way. Her death has encouraged me to share my rather unusual childhood and to look at how my travels influenced my work as an Artist .
The hand writing has caused some physical problems because I got a bit over enthusiastic and am now having to rest and try different activities.
I have decided to go on a personal journey this year which will involve travel , The Memoir and some art work under the heading Interwoven Journeys.
www.sketchbookproject.com