2014! Since I met textile artist Kirsten Ingemar last April (we shared tutors quarters in the beautiful Blue Mountains), I have been eco-dyeing papers for grounds for my calligraphy. I have fully immersed myself in dyeing and am bubbling with enthusiasm as I trial more and more. I like to experiment. I am not one who particularly copies or follows someone else's creative journey so I experiment a lot and I take research notes dye-pot after dye-pot. Needless to say, I have a plethora of papers. So, to my ALaW for 2014.
I have chosen my first alphabet to be sense of place. All the papers come from my "plethora bundle" and are dyed using plant materials from my garden. For a calligrapher type is so alluring. I purchased these woodblocks (some of you may have seen them before), all varying in shape size and alphabet, from an antique store tucked away up the Derwent River in New Norfolk. As a connection to both the land here (the plant dyeing) and the people who came here to Tasmania many generations ago (the type) ... I offer my ALaW sense of place through this the leaf letter book. I hope you enjoy it unfold ...
I chose my first letter at random!
It was a Q.
Q is such an amazing letter, it is so sumptuous that I decided my first four letters for the four weeks of January would be QUEO, the Latin word for to be able! I felt this very appropriate for two reasons: firstly, I am aging (aren't we all) and as I think about that, the aging process, I am very grateful to be able to create art. I am not hung up on ageing but I ponder age ... a lot! Secondly; to be able is something we are all fortunate to have as an innate power. We are able to do whatever it is we set our minds to. For now it is my contribution to the wonderful ALaW project ... thanks Fiona!
I placed the practice Q around the page to find the right balance.
Then did the same with the others
E detail
