Glimpsing Infinity and Other Musings

Untitled

One of the many things I meant to write about while I was working on the Anonymous: The Diary Drawings series (see recent posts!) was the idea of glimpsing infinity. I know, of course, that infinity is a notion, a concept and not quite something that you catch a glimpse of, but still....the idea resurfaces each time I sit down to draw. The notion of glimpsing infinity lingers with me, so I will attempt to explain and see if the idea or the experience resonates with you.

The Journey

A drawing, or any artwork for that matter, is created through a series of decisions....sometimes split-second decisions, sometimes ones that involve more contemplation and thought. What occurs to me as I am working is that there are virtually unlimited possibilities from which to choose. Any mark that I make could be otherwise, its location could be otherwise on the page, which might be of a different material entirely. If you do a little thought experiment and multiply the many tools you might use to work with, by the surfaces there are on which to work, by the placement on the page, by the countless colors that could be employed, by the ideas in your head....well, it makes me dizzy! 

The Book of a Layered Land

The idea that it's all been done before, that there is nothing new under the sun, doesn't quite hold water if you open yourself to all the endless possibilities before you. Multiply all those things above by all the different moments in time, by the various incarnations of the self that evolve over time....well, it really is endless. I can't buy into the notion that there is nothing new to say or any new ways to say something that's already been said time and again. The world is wide, the possibilities are infinite. There is always room for what you have to express, because each one of us embodies our own set of infinite possibilities. The marks and images that land on the page through the work of my hands are the expression of my experience....that's my calling...to make those marks. And your calling is to make those marks only you can make, through whatever means you have at your disposal....at any time and place in the sea of infinity.

Until next time....enjoy the possibilities!

Blessings and Curses (of the Internet)

Notes From The Ancestors no.20

Many contented hours were spent stitching on this latest piece in the Notes From the Ancestors series. I'd lost count, but when I went back to the files, I see that this is no. 20! That's a nice round number and I think this will be the final piece in this ongoing series. Something else will emerge, I'm sure. 

I thought I'd devote a portion of this post to sending out an alert to all my artists friends in the blogging world. As we all know, the internet has made possible the amazing connections between people across the world whose paths would never otherwise cross. It is such a positive vehicle for connection and for broadening horizons in so many ways. But, as with everything, there is always at least another side that is unleashed, which is not so positive. The internet also paves the way for all manner of interesting ways to scam people and now I've had a chance to experience it first hand. Scammers prey on all sorts of folks, through a variety of means and making a query to purchase art is just one of them. 

I was the victim of what is known as the Distant Buyer scam....well, almost a victim, in that I caught it in time. I was contacted by someone to purchase two pieces from the Art of Wonder series that they had seen on my website. The correspondence went back and forth for a couple of weeks and rather than purchase the pieces through Etsy, which was what I suggested, this buyer wanted to send a check. Here's the crux of the scam, in case you are unfamiliar with how it works. You come to some agreement with this distant buyer (they are basically smooth operators, but there are tiny red flags along the way, alas) and when the "check" arrives it is for an amount far beyond the agreed upon price. They then direct you to go ahead and deposit the check and just send a check to refund them for the difference. When this happened to me a couple of weeks ago, the buyer (who was supposedly in Miami) sent a check that had a return address of North Carolina, drawn on a bank in Minnesota. In this scam, the check is bogus of course, and if you are caught in the snare, you will deposit it and send back the balance before it comes to light that the check is no good. Apparently, this happens fairly often in the buying and selling of all manner of things on the internet. As I don't engage in anything but selling my artwork, I never thought I'd be entangled in such a scam. So, all is well, as I learned quickly enough what was happening and didn't fall for it, but I just want to remind folks to pay attention to those little internal red flags that go up when something doesn't seem right. We all know the old saying, "buyer beware", but in this case and in these times, "seller beware".

On a ligher note....another little book has come together....The Book of Endless Time. It's a theme I often return to...the magic of the written word, which I describe through lines of dots and a kind of handwritten pseudo text. On top of the text that alternates the dots with the looping writing, a series of little spirals forms scatter across the pages. The pages are made with pencil and white ink on Japanese paper that is then dipped in beeswax. I love the translucency and how wonderful the beeswaxed paper feels in your hands. Time seems to flow in a linear fashion, but there are moments when it does feel circular and indeed endless, which is hard to quite fathom.

Just the other day, I had the desk all cleared and ready to work. It doesn't take long to turn into a little whirlwind of chaos....now that the Notes From the Ancestors is finished, time to head back downstairs, regroup and put things back in order.

Hope your week is going well! It's a beautiful autumn day here in my corner of South Dakota. I know it is not calm many places and my heart goes out to the victims of the hurricane Matthew....hope it will skirt the U.S. and cause no further damage.

Cheers!

Reflections and Notes from the Commonplace Book

The Book of Disappearing Wisdom

I do a lot of reading and this morning noted the following quote in my commonplace book. It is taken from Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, and reflects some of the sentiment behind my penchant for documenting (see Discovering Logbooks). Jahren is reflecting back on the memory of a spruce tree that grew just outside her bedroom window throughout her childhood and adolescent years. She's just learned the tree has died and has had to be taken down.

"Time has also changed me, my perception of my tree, and my perception of my tree's perception of itself. Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life. It has also convinced me that carefully writing everything down is the only real defense we have against forgetting something important that once was and is no more, including the spruce tree that should have outlived me but did not."

It's the taking note, the paying attention to the small things, which may seem insignificant now or in the whirl of the events of everyday life. But we can't know, can we, what will come to be important....either to ourselves in later years, or to historians or the next generation looking back? I think about the huge gaps we are creating in the record of our collective days, as so much of our lives is lived online. We no longer write letters to one another on paper, diaries seem to be a quaint relic of a bygone are and the very busy lives we live result in little documentation that is tangible. 

The little book above, The Book of Disappearing Wisdom, is new to my shop and is a reflection of these thoughts....tiny dots that resemble writing line the pages and clusters of colored dots seem to move across and through and then disappear. We think we are wise, but I suspect generation after generation spends much of its time learning the lessons of their ancestors. Much is gained by the progress we make, but much is lost and there is a certain ambiguity that fills our days.

Thanks for taking the time to slow down and read these posts! Enjoy your weekend....cheers!

Settling Into Summer

Greetings, friends! I hope I don't sound like a broken record when I say that I feel like I'm finally getting on top of things. I am more relaxed now in the studio and some looming deadlines for other things have now come and gone, so I'm feeling good. I am settling into a rhythm with the new daily format....black and white 6 x 6" pieces for the weekdays and the teabags mounted on bristol for the weekends. I've also found some time in the last day or so to finish up a couple new pieces for MissouriBendStudio, along with adding more dots to a Transcendence piece in the works. I meant to do a blogpost at the end of the week, but better late than never....I can still try for two a week, although it may not always work out. I still haven't had a chance to get caught up on blog reading, which I miss, but that's the next step. The weather has, for the most part, been delightful and we're outside enjoying the fresh air or working in the garden beds when we can....might as well enjoy the summer weather before it becomes beastly hot! I am always grateful for the faithful support I have here....you all are wonderful readers and fans and I thank you for the patience and messages of good cheer! Now, it looks like we've got some catching up to do...nearly a week of dailies since I was last here!

June 20, 2012

June 21, 2012

June 22, 2012

June 23, 2012

June 24, 2012

I made a couple of little books with some of the collage pieces I started last fall....both have pages that are dipped in beeswax....creates a delicious translucency! They are just a few pages, held together with a pamphlet stitch. I've just listed this one in the MissouriBendStudio shop, where you can find some detail views of the pages.

Mysterious Panoramas Transforming

The second book, Book of Civilizations Lost and Found will be listed there tomorrow....hope you'll check it out!

Okay....there's still some time left in the afternoon to get back in the studio before Johntimothy comes home and we head out to Sioux City on an errand run!  Hope you have a fantastic week!

Made By Hand: Fiona Dempster

Peace is every step

(Thich Nhat Hanh)

Ancora Imparo

(Michelangelo)

Two concise and simple statements. Only six words, yet they help chart my path as an artist and as a person. 

I am guided by the approach of Buddhist monk, scholar and poet Thich Nhat Hanh, who lives a philosophy of mindfulness and walking meditation, encouraging us to consider a peaceful way of being in the world with each and every step that we take.

I try to reflect a sense of peace in my work and believe that by reflecting and sharing peace in beautiful ways, we can create calm and peace in our lives.

I am still learning. Attributed to Michelangelo this quote also guides me in my life and in my art as I continue to seek knowledge, to learn new things, to reflect on interactions and to gather new perceptions, and become more self-aware.

I love that life continues to be an adventure in which we are exposed to new thoughts and understandings; fresh approaches are revealed; creative experiences are shared; alternative paths are explored; and that all along the way I am still learning.

Fiona Dempster

www.paperponderings.blogspot.com

www.fionadempster.com

A Walk Through The Universe: The Book of Hours

Welcome to another weekly feature of A Walk Through The Universe.  The topic this week was The Book of Hours, based on a connection from last week's topic of palimpsest.  As many palimpsests were prayer books on ancient vellum that had been scraped and written over, the Book of Hours, a prayer book very prevalent during the middle ages, provided the path for this week's amble.  The trouble is, I kind of got lost in the woods, and couldn't find my compass for much of the week.  I did a good number of searches on Book of Hours and turned up more sites and images than I knew what to do with!  The easiest place to start a quick investigation is with a stop at Wikipedia, which you can get to here. As I began to understand it, these prayers books were quite widely collected in the middle ages by all classes of people. While the beautifully illuminated volumes commissioned by the wealthy have been handed down to us and are more well known, many of the prayer books were quite spare and may have had only decorated capital letters.  Containing a wide variety of texts, including among other things, psalms, prayers, saints days, church teachings and calendar of important days, these books were used throughout the day for meditation and devotion, in order to give the laity a more direct access to God. 


As I contemplated how I might handle the post for this week, I began looking for contemporary versions of the Book of Hours and found quite a few, not only in the form of handmade books and visual art, but in music and literature as well.  I didn't quite think that any of these pointed me in quite the right direction, and while I tried to find a link to the world view of an "everyman" of the time period, I couldn't make a real connection that made sense to me. The same questions kept arising...what was it like to live in the Middle Ages with the Church such a dominant force in daily life and what were the joys and fears of people five hundred years ago as they lived from day to day?  While no doubt beautiful and intimate as a book, just how was daily life structured by a Book of Hours? Life was vastly different then, to be sure, but at our core, are we so very different as human beings now? I am aware that a few hundred years from now, people may look back at the early 21st century and wonder how we could not have known all the things that they will have taken for granted. I am careful then, to remember these were people living in a particular time and place, just as we are. Five hundred years, in the scheme of things, is really no time at all and I think human beings are still human beings...and as such, are we not all searching for meaning, for answers and for a connection to a larger context so that we can find our place in the universe?  Are we not looking for a peaceful way, for solace and safe passage? Do we not, in various ways, try to make sense of the vastness, the mystery, and the wonder of existence?  Do we not feel the need to leave behind even the faintest trace of our journey, no matter what our religious views? 


Trusting my instinct that I would find my own truly connecting thread to this week's topic, I contacted Fiona Dempster, a calligraphic and book artist whose work I had recently discovered through her wonderful blog, Paper Ponderings.  I knew right away I had found the path through Fiona -- we have had a wonderful correspondence over the last several days.  Spare, elegant and meditative, her work is a beautiful tribute to her ongoing investigations into all these ideas of connection, place, the journey.


With Fiona's permission, I quote a bit of her end of the conversation:

"...My love of books and text is what drives my art.  I love the intimate nature of artists books - the ability for you to have a one on one experience with somebody's creativity. To hold books and feel them; move them and go back and forth to rediscover messages and beauty.  I think its the personal and intimate nature of artists books that appeal so much.  

My work is also quiet. It doesn't shout or grab attention; I think it invites people to quietly spend time with it, reflect and ponder.  I hope that people get a sense of stillness and peacefulness when they engage with my work..."


"Finding My Place" is a lovely dos-a-dos book that reflects the journey and finding a sense of place. She describes it beautifully in her own writing on a recent blog post found here.

Another book, "In the Silence", seen below, is described by Fiona: 

"...also a meditative book - each page has a letter of the alphabet 'pulled' out of copper leaf; leaving the coloured pastel underneath the copper leaf revealed.  Each letter suggest a word for reflection - perhaps for just opening up and seeing what you may be encouraged to focus on for that day.  I felt it was precious enough to make a box for it - interestingly with an "x" within a circle, within a square. All symbols I have been re-using in my journey and home works. I like the notion of having a daily focus - in amongst our busy lives, pausing to find a word that encourages us to reflect, ponder, think, or focus on that element and how it plays in our lives. Even if only for a brief moment before the chaos returns."

And so, I've found another kindred spirit whose work touches a deep chord.  More than once in our conversation we had "aha" moments where we encountered our very own sentiments expressed almost verbatim by the other...about the content of our artistic investigations and about books, hand held and allowing for an intimate one-on-one experience with the work.  I still have a lot of reading to do at Fiona's blog and if you're not familiar with Paper Ponderings, I encourage you to visit her blog here.

That brings me to the subject of the coming week's meandering walk and I think the topic is "place"...guess it'll be another busy week!

Thanks for stopping by MissouriBendStudio.  I'd love to hear from you with comments, ideas and even corrections, if they are in order!

Have a great week...see you soon with mid-week posts!