17 January 2015
GREAT NEW CONNECTION
My New Year is starting off with a bang: not only is the Trans-Siberian ready to leave the station but I've also hooked up with a beautiful Pomegranate....what could be better than that?
Pomegranate Fine Art is Bill Garnett's online gallery and the above link leads to his FaceBook page where today he uploaded photos of some of my etchings from The Creation from the Book of Enoch, an artist's book I made in 1992. You can see details about it here as well as on Pomegranate. I still have a few unique proofs in colour and some black and white double sheets (including text) and these are all now for sale on Pomegranate Fine Art. The colour prints are also displayed on the Printed Editions website.
Five and a half Hours in Paradise was the subtitle of The Creation from the Book of Enoch. It's also the title of this image.
Sugar-lift etching and aquatint on painted paper. 37 x 28.5cms. 1992
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15 January 2015
ANNOUNCEMENT
I'm copying below the Newsletter that The Old Stile Press is sending out to their mailing list because I'm impatient to let everybody know about our wonderful collaborative production. If, when you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you gasp when you see the prices, allow me to make a little speech.
This is not the kind of book that you will buy on Amazon or see on the shelves of your local bookstore. It is more like an artwork than a normal printed book, although it is also a printed book. What makes it different is that there are only 150 copies (plus 10 Specials) signed and numbered, and that they are all exquisitely hand-printed and bound, and that they contain 43 original images - not reproductions - printed by Nicolas McDowall from the blocks which I drew, cut and proofed, and that Dick Jones' contemporary translation is closer to Cendrars' spirit and language than any previous ones published, and that it has the imprimatur of Blaise Cendrars' daughter Miriam Gilou Cendrars, and that the text is beautifully laid out and printed in 24 different colours, and that the binding is a joy to touch and stroke....I could go on!
But if you still think that such a book is expensive, consider how much it costs to buy a fine original print in a gallery. How much a case of fine wine? Dinner for two in a gourmet restaurant? You get my drift.
This isn't sales talk (well, sort of) but simply trying to change a mind-set which says that a book...a book!...at this price is outrageous. No. It is not. In this digital age when the physical presence of books may soon become only a memory, it's good to know that works like this can still be made.
A slideshow of the whole book is on the Old Stile Press website at this link.
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11 January 2015
RESOLUTIONS
Be kinder to everyone, including myself. Less impatient. Less judgemental.
Stop wasting time. Focus more on less.
Get fit (have started the 5:2 fast diet).
Clear the backlog 'To Do' list completely.
Create, to the best of my ability.Trivial, in view of tragic world events. But no words I can think of are adequate or relevant enough to encompass the enormity of tragedies afflicting humanity at this time.
So perhaps tiny gestures, tiny steps towards making things better in every area of my life, is at least something. Paying attention, noticing whoever needs help, understanding or support in my immediate environment, whether friend, family or stranger. Being open and honest and direct in my rapport with others, whatever the circumstances. Forgiving and forgetting real or imagined slights or failures in communication. Switching off the robot in my mind which endlessly repeats worn-out old patterns and stops me from moving on.
That's my New Year resolutions.
To comment please go to my Mirror Blog
21 December 2014
IT'S THE SEASON
I've done two versions: the first one can be interpreted as a traditional image but I intended it as a memorial for all the children...and their mothers...and their fathers... who perished this year because of conflicts and disease and poverty and other disasters. It's a sad card, not in tune with all the jollity and buying and selling and eating and drinking.
I cut the image in a vinyl block. The print below is on gold handmade paper but most of the others I printed were in black on white paper.
My second card is more cheerful and represents a hopeful star in a hopeless world.
I drew it on a graphic tablet using ArtRage software then printed a few on fine art digital paper.
I wish you all a serene and hopeful holiday, however you celebrate or escape from it, and may the New Year bring us, and the whole world, all the joy and peace we deserve.
Thank you for stopping by over here, my friends, you are always welcome and always appreciated.
To comment please go to my Mirror Blog
14 December 2014
TRANS-SIBERIAN PROSODY AND LITTLE JEANNE FROM FRANCE IS ON THE TABLE !
Just the first two bound copies, not yet the full edition, but enough to show the beautiful printing and binding, the beautiful translation and the beautiful images. Congratulations to Nicolas and Frances McDowall (The Old Stile Press), to their binders in Northumberland, to Dick Jones and of course to yours truly, for all the hard work of completing this demanding, exciting and historic project. The final pages include afterwords by Dick Jones, Miriam Cendrars (Blaise Cendrars' daughter) and myself. Actual publication date, prices and the whereabouts of a launch are yet to be announced but watch this space and the OSP website.
As far as we know, this is the only illustrated version of Blaise Cendrars' famous poem to appear since the original edition of 1913, published and typeset by Cendrars himself with abstract images by Sonia Delaunay. A very interesting article about Cendrars appeared recently in the Times Literary Supplement which you can read here.
Technical details: the bound book in its slipcase measures 35.5 x 30.8 cms (14 x 13.5 inches). The slipcase is covered in bronze-coloured metallic cloth with a blocked-on image of Cendrars which I did for the half-title page. The binding is in red and blue Fabriano paper on boards with cloth spine. The standard edition consists of 150 copies bound as above. There are also 10 Special copies in a solander box containing the book plus a folder with 4 extra prints: two new images and two from the edition, all printed by me on paper I pre-coloured in acrylics (see photos below). I am informed by Frances that all but one of the Special copies have already been ordered.
The shadow stripes in the above and some other photos are not on the paper but from blinds on my window.
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NOW GO TO MY ARCHIVE TO SEE ALL PREVIOUS BLAUGUSTINE POSTS
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