Under a Cold North Sky - a book of snow and ice

 

Long dark winter months, with an absence of the usual diversions.

Trying to keep busy. These have not been easy days for many. A short interlude for Christmas, and then back to very quiet times.

Covid days.

Time to make a book. Always a happy diversion.

This one was created for the Instagram #areyoubookenough challenge on the topic of frozen. The challenge was started in 2017 by the book artist Sarah Maker, and brings together book artists from all around the world.

I have many images of snow and ice, and many happy memories of trips north, so the topic of 'frozen' had instant appeal.

A dive into my hard drive seemed like a good a place to start.

I searched for 'ice' and 'snow'. Up popped many images that are long forgotten.

Images from Iceland, Greenland, Finland, Yukon and Norway.  Some of the places that I am missing the most.




Firstly, a small fragment of ice from Disko Bay. Ice that has made its way down a glacier, and then broken into fragments as it fall into the icy water of Disko Bay; an iceberg graveyard.

Greenlandic ice fragment

Crystals of watery ice from a glacier.

glacial ice formation

Broken ice from a grassy puddle. This from Lofoten, where I was attracted by the texture of the snow crushed grass.

Grassy ice puddle

There are tiny fragments, and wide views. It is the juxtaposition of scale that I enjoyed when making this book.

Lofoten mountains

Initially I  printed out many small images.
I  then experimented with different combinations and juxtapositions.
Some images were rejected, as they didn't work with the others, or were just too ambiguous.

Icy reflections from Disko Bay were tempting to include, but the water was not actually frozen, so these were rejected.

Icy water in Disko Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

mini prints for layout experiments

 

 

For the start of the book I chose images of snow falling at night, and a lump of ice. The raw elements of icy landscapes.

I remember vividly standing under a lampost in Finland capturing snow falling in the early evening, the snow lit by the artificial light; blowing around wildly in the wind.

falling snow

glacial ice

Then I moved through gradually larger landscapes, trying to find pairings that complemented each other.

Grass and ice.

Black on white, white on black.

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A 'landscape' of ice crystals on snow beside a tree in a field.


The images are printed on bamboo paper 110gsm, made into a concertina. The hard cover is covered with a Lotka polka dot paper in black and white. Lotka paper is Nepalese, and is easy to fold around the cover of a book.

'Under a Cold North Sky' - concertina book

'Under a Cold North Sky' - front cover

I don't know when spontaneous travel will be possible again. My plans to return northwards in February are very likely to be thwarted.

But as soon as I am able, I will be heading in that direction once more.

 

You can see a slideshow of all the images here

A winter visit to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020

 

Colour notes | paper relief prints| Christopher Le Brun PPRA

Be grateful for small things.
That is my new motto. As more and more is taken away from us due to Covid-19, it is the little things that matter.

My other half (OH) and I have been holed up together for a very long time, and a chance to make a trip to London to see the Summer exhibition at the Royal Academy was a rare treat.

Our tickets had been previously cancelled due to lockdown, so this trip was all the more anticipated by our culture starved selves.

So on a rainy December Monday we crept up to London on the quiet mid day train, walked the empty streets of Picadilly, and made our way around the exhibition in our masks.


The first work that caught my eye was a collage.

Untitled | collage with paper pins | Frida Orupabo

Frida Orupabo is a Nigerian-Norwegian; one of several invited black artists on show.
I had to do some research to fully understand what Frida was trying to convey. According to her website;
'Frida Orupabo is a sociologist and artist living and working in Oslo, Norway. Her work consists of digital and physical collages in various forms, which explore questions related to race, family relations, gender, sexuality, violence and identity.'

Heavy stuff for starters. Race and politics. I had been attracted to it as I was thinking about collage, and how so much can be said with a few pieces of paper reaaranged on a page.

OH had already disappeared off to view the galleries at his own pace. Conscious that 'lunchtime' was the most important item on his agenda I resolved to move at a reasonable pace, and stop only at those works that really caught my eye.

Socially distanced viewing at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition 2020

It was a treat to have so much room to view.  The galleries never felt crowded, and I felt completely safe.

The fact that the following day we were thrown into Tier 4 made me realise how lucky we were to have made the trip.

Legs | photographs | Hans Peter Feldmann

Legs caught my eye next. No frame; just some photos stuck to the wall.

As a conceptual artist Hans-Peter sells similar works for $20,000, so he is doing something right. Further research about him led me to another work of his that confirmed a dry sense of humour; something I cannot resist...

Hans -Peter Feldmann | Pictures of car radios taken while good music was playing | 2004

 

In 2010 he won  the Guggenheim Hugo Boss art prize. He celebrated by pinning the £100,000 prize onto the gallery walls as 100,000 $1 notes, raising questions about the value of art.

It was good to see paintings by Fred Cuming from the Rye area and Camber Sands.
His work is immediately identifiable to me after getting to know it in local Rye galleries. He  visited my studio on an open studio visit a few years ago, and is a truly charming gentleman who has a way with clouds.....

Paintings by Fred Cuming RA

I particularly enjoyed his painting of a February peasmarsh landscape, with its low wintry light.

February landscape, Peasmarsh | Fred Cuming RA

I also fell in love with a series of works by Cornelia Parker RA. These were a series of polymer gravure etchings based on the shadows of simple objects such as flowers and household objects, captured on light senstive paper.

Jug full of shadows | Cornelia parker RA | 2020

OH had 'done' the show in the blink of any eye.

His favourite was a work ' where you can see what it is.....'

I have no problem with that. It seems a lot of other visitors felt the same way,

Fuen Seow Cheen | LOST WONDERS OF THE SEA | Etching

There were a lot of dogs and portraits.

My favourite portraits were pencil drawings of cardboard faces by Russell Herron.

I had to get really close to see that thses were drawings and not cardboard collages. Sadly all sold.

Cardboard portrait 12 | Russell Herron

Cardboard portrait 11 | Russell Herron

I was also taken with a dog portrait by Ilona Arndt. He had so much more character than the standard labrador poses.

Hund NR 2 | Ilona Arndt

But lunch was beckoning.... there was too much to take in, as always.

Too much to take in at the RA Summer Exhibition

Different galleries had very different characters.

I enjoyed this quiet monochrome corner.

But if I had been allowed to take one work home it would have been a newspaper boat made of stone.

A playful sculpture.

A reminder of childhood days spent by the sea. Dreams of adventure.

I forgot to record who made it, so apologies for that.

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Looking at the Curator's selection I realise that there is so much work that I didn't even look at.

It is an overwhelming exhibition always.

But for one who had not looked at any new art for several months it was a welcome diversion, and a reminder that everyone has different taste.

Lunch was good!

These different days..... on making art during the corona virus pandemic

these different days

Week one of self isolation is over.

A frantic, tiring week of getting used to be home all day and locked in with OH ( my other half).

We usually keep very busy out and about. Going our different ways much of the time.

So how to adjust to being together all day every day?

1. gardening like maniacs, digging up lawn to create a vegetable patch.... digging for sanity - DFS
2. watching Breaking Bad from the beginning... one episode a day
3. walking up and down a big hill every day ( me)
4. cycling up and down a big hill every day (OH)
5. making soup (OH)
6. eating soup (me)
7. You tube exercise videos ( me)
8. making books ( not OH obviously.....)

We made it into week 2, and who knows what that will bring.

So what was the book?

I am a member of an Instagram group #areyoubookenough , started by Sarah Maker of Editions Studio in Seattle.

Each month there is a given subject, and if you wish to join in then you make a book themed to the subject.
It is an incredibly friendly group of like minded book loving creatives, and the ideas that people come up with never cease to amaze.

So for March we had 'Hexagon'.

Very mathematical , geometric.....

these different days©caroline fraser2020

I got out a pencil and compass, and re-learned how to draw a hexagon. I have forgotten all my maths.

I googled hexagons in nature

I couldn't get inspired.

I played with shapes. Still nothing.

I definately didn't want to make a book about bees and honeycombs, or turtles.

I learned that pencils are hexagonal so they don't run off the table.....

I was getting nowhere fast.

And then I discovered a template in Photoshop that contains geometric shapes.

I used it to make shapes with images from my computer; old images that felt suitable for a graphic creation.

I went a bit crazy for the next few days, playing and experimenting. Layering and blending.

I used images from the sea wall at Camber sands .

these different days © Caroline Fraser 2020

I used mountains from Norway

These different days © Caroline Fraser 2020

Birds from Aberystwyth

These different days © Caroline Fraser 2020

 and trees from an ancient oak forest inWales

These different days © Caroline Fraser 2020

These different days © Caroline Fraser 2020

And when I had finished I had a motley collection of images that didn't all work together.

Next I wrote some words.

These different days

They asked me to make a book;

‘Hexagon’

but all around the world was changing.

I thought of honeycombs and basalt columns

turtle shells and snowflakes

Saturn’s hexagonal clouds.

But they matter not.

For outside in the brilliant sunshine

while spring is doing its thing,

inside there is darkness, 

anxiety and apprehension.

How to create work in these different days?

Hexagons of no relevance right now.

As the anxiety rose I turned to my library of images

and began to work.

Layering and sifting,

mixing and blending,

cutting and pasting,

sequencing and printing.

Circles, triangles (and hexagons too).

I kept working until time ran out

and I realised that what mattered was not the book

but the thinking, distraction and experimentation

that had buffered my thoughts,

and kept me going 

through these different days.

And once I had the words then the book had to be constructed.

I printed out images and sequenced them, quickly realising that I needed to limit the colour palette for it to work.

I chose orange, grey and turquoise.....

orange, grey and turquoise

These different days © Caroline Fraser 2020

I printed the words onto one sheet of paper, and made a concertina with the abstract images.

The final book was completed on the 7th day of the first week.

And here is the final product with yours truly reading the words in a very serious voice.....

The next topic is machine 

I think my typewriter Olympia will want to be in on that one.

Let's see what tomorrow brings....

thinking about rain and making books as artist in residence at createspace wales

hand made books 

I am returned from Wales.

Many people thought it was a foolish decision to set foot into the country where 'it always rains....'.

I, however, could think of nothing better than two weeks in the countryside, beside the west wales coast, as an artist in residence at Createspace Wales.

If it rained, I would be an artist. If the sun came out, I would go out for a walk with my camera.

I arrived in the land of Ceridigion ( Cardiganshire) and was struck by the many signs in a foreign language. So many consonants, and so few vowels. I wondered what Dim Parcio meant ( no parking- it transpired-  dim if you do.....)


I settled into my palatial studio

createspace wales

Set my typewriter on my dining table

Olympia Splendid typewriter

And went out to look for some rain.

Cardigan, Wales

How wrong all those folk were. How little it rained.


What magnificent cliff top walks I had.

What wild moorland and ancient woodlands I explored.

Coed ty Canol

Ancient oaks at Coed ty Canol

And because of all the pessimists that I encountered before I left home, I kept on thinking about rain.

I found that the Welsh have many words for rain

welsh words for rain

Such beautiful words. So unpronounceable to one ignorant of the language.

Pistyllio - fountain rain.

What does that look like?

raindrops of ink

I played with book structures and inks.

I had no printer , so no choice but to make work without photographs. My choice.



I made a fish bone structure from Hedi Kyle's book The Art of the Fold.

fishbone book structure

I  added typewritten rain words.

and a rain splattered cover

glaw - rain book

I came across a reference to ink and bleach art.

I became and ink and bleach art student, experimenting with different papers and wetness of my inks.

ink and bleach experiments

 I made some ink and bleach rain books.

pistyllio - fountain rain- ink and bleach

ink and bleach on somerset satin 300gsm paper

I made books every day. No prevarication allowed.

My rule for the residency.

crown structure book made with greaseproof paper

And sometimes I got stuck for ideas, so made books about sheep and how to overcome creative block.

the grass is always greener...... 

It turns out that the best cure for creative block is a walk up a windy hill with my camera.

where the wind blows © Caroline Fraser 2020

You will be wondering what I ate in Wales.... it being so remote, and there being no proper shops.

I ate very healthy food from the local superstore.

what I ate

All plastic free.....



Nothing made me happier than seeing startlings mumurating in local fields and on Aberystwyth pier at dusk.

local starlings

Aberystwyth starlings at dusk

When I wasn't thinking about rain words I thought about lichen words. I learned a lot about lichens; there are a significant number of endangered species on the Lichen Red Data List for wales . 

Therein lies a future project.

Who could not fall in love with a lichen named  Strigula Stigmatella var stigmatella

Lichens on rocks. Lichens on trees. I find them very appealing. I see maps and imaginary creatures.

A lady dancing with a duck....

lady dancing with duck

A shy smile....

shy smile lichen

At the end of two weeks I had a collection of small books.

And quite a lot of sticks.

books made at Createspace wales

It is suprising how much can be achieved in the right circumstances.

I am incredibly grateful to the artist Rose Sanderson for allowing me the opportunity to stay at her beautiful residency.

 One day I hope to return.

 For now I need to get back to mopping up the mess from all the suburban rain.......

the ancient trees at Coed ty Canol