New Years Eve

I've been meaning to post some images of recent work

 for awhile and already its the end of the year.  

I want to celebrate with pieces that reflect

 the rediscovery of my identity.

 

These images explore current preoccupations 

and loosely refer to memory and childhood

New Work Part 1 - October 2012

The faber art books have provided a format and backdrop to the development of the work. 

I like to incorporate the incidental text and the serrated edge.

Significant Summer Developments 3

At the end of the summer I went back to the family home and found a number of  old and worn Penguin books from the 1940s. They are in a fantastic dilapidated state.  I photographed the fronts, backs and spines, but was also attracted to the adverts in the back which has also begun to feature in my work alongside the newspaper bookmark from that period

More recently I bought  some penguin paperbacks from the same period on eBay,  I was disappointed to discover that the description promising very poor and torn  didn't quite live up to my expectations

Significant Summer Developments 2

When discussing the development of the work, during the summer with my friend Stella, she recommended Gum Arabic printing. I found a gum arabic workshop at Neo Artists Studio in Bolton and it was a revelation! The "plate" is created using an old style carbon photocopier which lent itself perfectly to my work. I was amazed by the quality prints and have since used both those prints that I created and further prints to develop my work 

I also liked it as the plates began to break up and arranged the fragments from different prints together

Significant Summer Developments 1

Printing Blocks

 This summer a number of unexpected events happened that had a fortuitous effect, advancing the direction of my work.  I was given a lot of old faber and faber art pamphlet/ books which were about to be thrown out. The pages are faded to a light greyish brown and disfigured by previous users with smudges of paint and marks by the librarian.  They have become a mainstay for printing, creating collages and the titles and text also offer an extra dimension to the work.

An opportunity to use old letter printing blocks and printing plates led to a couple of wonderful afternoons  printing onto the pamphlet pages, a variety of papers and colour photocopies. I find it intriguing that work created in this way without specific direction can have such a huge impact and inform the development of the work

These are some of my favourites created in an intuitive manner.  I had begun to tire of the photocopy surface, so I like the way that the printing transforms the image.

Carousel Books

Another device I use for generating images  are making carousel books.  

   

I often start with an A3 photocopy and fold it up and then unfold it and work on it as one piece.

                                         

I call them carousel books because any of the pages can become the cover and this can be changed as the piece develops

                                               

When it is refolded into a carousel book, accidental compositions / conversations arrive; they are added to future work at a range of scales                 

                                       

Occasionally  I don't feel the the refolded carousel book works; then it is cut up and re-assembled into a different arrangement

Altered Books

Altered Books

I have always worked in altered books using the subject matter/ images to inspire my work. I usually choose books that are related to my work in some way but also from the past, as the language is more formal with forgotten phrases and outdated terminology.  A favourite altered book from 1998 was entitled “A Students Handbook of Housewifery”, which was certainly not connected to a love of housework.

 I found  “Where and Which Way” in a local charity shop about 10 or 12 years ago. It is a primer book for learning to read from the early 1970s; what attracted me was the white text on a black background and the unusual language, which inspired the work. It is this book which has inspired the name of the blog and the work I am making now. Although on  completion I was unsure how to take it further; I found when I returned to it that by making photocopy reproductions I could play with scale, enlarging details and combining images together. 

The text is used both in and out of context, fragmented and combined with new images. It has provided a lifeblood to my work and the use of text has become a constant from many other sources.

Pages from my Altered Books

Where and Which Way

The History of Toys

 

The Complete Book of Handicrafts

 

These collages produced in the altered books provide the starting point for the subsequent work, either as a whole or in fragments. As the work is processed through photocopying, printing and image transfer techniques so the fragments gain new identities

(For some reason the titles are refusing to play ball - not sure why)

Another Gem

 A new book arrived in the post today and I know this is going to be a cracker.  I saw it last week in "Special Collections" at MMU ( a new discovery - also likely to have a big impact on my work). 

  
"The Lakes to Tyneside" published in 1951 by Festival of Britain office - it is a wonderful collection of maps, photographs, natural history "its people and their work and characteristics".  It is part of a series  so I'm sure at 99p I shall but more.
I have connections with Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, the Lake District and Manchester and references to these places feature in my work