A busy end to 2016 and a busy start to 2017. Towering Dead/Sullen Art... etc

 Earlier in 2016 I began work on a fantastic book .. a collaborative work with the New York based artist Marshall Weber. Towering  Dead/Sullen Art started to take over most of the studio.

 The really liberating aspect of this project was the fact that I was to add to the text block, indeed pages had been left blank or incomplete.

 First was the end papers using heelball I took rubbings of the pavement and areas around Studio 5.

 The end papers tied in to the text block , I wanted to create a seamless feel to the work, that all important narrative.

 Type set printing and the creation of layers.

 A spread.

 Detail of the image above. whAT has been scored using sand paper. The paint takes to the paper in a slightly different way.

 However, not all the time was spent with Towering. A wonderful miniature commission... Wines From My Garden arrived. a lino cut of tomatoes on the vine. Experimentation with different colours.

 I enjoy the simple nature of the lino cut. The execution can be very quick enabling for almost a spontaneous way of working.

As the nights began to creep into the day earlier and earlier the need to concentrate on Towering began in earnest. I was in formed that the completed book needed to be ready by the middle of January 2017.

 After sometime experimenting with various processes and materials a was able to make a number of artistic and design decisions. I desired texture, colour and simplicity.

 Using hand letters and type formed the title out of still workable, air drying modelers clay. I wanted the text to appear to have been formed in wet cement.

 The text block was sewn up and cased into the binding before any of the wet clay work was done and the before the text block was completed. This meant that I was working very much in the 3D, more of a sculpture than a book perhaps.

 I find this way of working very stimulating as I am able to work directly with the text block and the binding  simultaneously. To really work with the narrative of the complete book.

As the work both inside and outside the book began to take on the final form I found myself being able to fully immerse myself into the book.

 What was happening on the outside being translated and some cases being almost transcribed to the inside and visa versa.

 The rich tecture of the text block being echoed in the binding.

 The final binding.

 Detail, colour and texture all adding up.

 Final art work.

In many ways I am so sad that the project has come to an end, but end it must.... because....

Wine From My Garden  beckons......

Nor The Towering Dead. Sullen Art. Collaberative Book Art with Marshall Weber.

 I think that I am lucky in many aspects of my life. Towards the top of the list is being involved in the creative world. I suppose, that for many readers, I am perhaps best known for bookbinding. However, my first love was and continues to be for the arts in general. Book binding is just one of the mediums with which I try to explore the expressive vein in my being.

 The joy of looking at other peoples work and sharing is never to be underestimated. Never. Which is why I delight in being able to collaborate with artists and maker working in similar and dissimilar mediums. Bookbinding and book arts is a curious area of the applied and fine arts, always changing and in constant flux. One such artist is  Marshall Weber

 How nice it is to get things in the post that excite and elicit response. The size of the text block is not so big, one can get a rough idea by looking at the small one cm squares on the cutting mat just visible around the left hand side of some of the posted images.

 The pages invite our gaze to linger and caress. The longer we look into the pages, the swirling lines and heavy blocks of worked wax  begin to release the text contained. With this particular text block the page content is from the streets of Manhattan (USA) as Marshall uses coloured wax blocks much in the same way  I used to. Mine rubbings were somewhat more archaic as I used to rub monumental brasses in churches and later in the Lincoln Brass Rubbing Centre... Perhaps more about that another time.

 It is often the case, that from the unforced or natural elements of my work I feel more at ease. Aspects of the unexpected and happen-chance, to be able to go with the flow as it were. So, you ask, where do I come into all of this ?... well this is a true collaboration,  though Marshall has done nearly all the text block he is encouraging me to work on the page surface, to integrate my thoughts etc so that the work I do with bringing the work together is not just en papers and binding.

There is so much more to this than meets the first casual flirtation.