The Beginning of the End. -Pulp Redux, Alicia's book, the 'Museum of Forgotten Things".

I have been deep in the darkest depths of the studio for some time now finalising the piece for Alicia's book, "The museum of forgotten things'. Suffice to say I think the rest of the Pulp Redux collaborator's probably think I have forgotten all about it! Not true dear ones! It has taken a long time to finalise this piece. It is quite large and required such a lot of detail. Of course if you have jumped over from the Pulp Redux blog you will know all about the before part of the story. If you haven't here's a quick wrap up for you...

The main charachter is Hester who has recently died. She found out her husband was having an affair years ago and murdered him in an arson incident. After the murder Hester finds she is pregnant to her deceased husband and gives birth to a son, Thomas who dies in infancy. After this Hester embarks on an affair with Hans, the affair peters out and Hester has a child, Charlotte whom she gives up thinking she will have a better life this way.
There you are that's the short version, LOL! Breathe!!! LOL!

Okay so now you are up to speed. The question is Kim, what are you going to do to wrap up this story?


(Good question by the way!)

It seems to me that the tragedies here are compounding throughout as each participant's pieces unfold.

Secrets by their very nature eat away at us.
We are consumed by them, both in wanting to know them, then being horrified by that knowledge at the same time.

But, in the end, the thrill of the secret is in the sharing.




Wise words indeed.

And so I have created the book of secrets.

Able to stand on it's own as a piece but also well able to join with the rest of the participants pieces here, a book structure.

(What can I say, I love books!)







Some sneaky peeks from the inside.



Ladies white lace gloves. What do they keep hidden?

A tragic tale of a family doomed by the guilt and secrets that they keep.

But what happened to everyone, I hear you ask? Hester, and the child Charlotte.



As for the tale, well as you peruse the texture images from the piece I will tell you a little about it.



You see Hester gave up the child to her younger sister Iva who raised her as her own, but renamed the child Anna. (Remember that Hester was survived by her sister and a niece Anna?)

But of course it all went horribly wrong.




Anna (Charlotte) grows up well loved and happy, never suspecting her aunt is her mother and her mother is really her aunt.

She follows the family tradition and becomes a seamstress.

Meets a wonderfully handsome young man and they marry.

They have a child, Anne, but soon after Charlotte's husband is killed in the first world war.

Life continues but Hester becomes consumed in her later life by what will later be revealed as guilt and rage, but for the present is thought to be old age memory loss.


On Hesters death, Anna, (Charlotte) and Iva are clearing out Hester's papers and Hester's secrets are revealed.

And so...

Anna, or Charlotte as she now discovers herself to be, is enraged by the secrecy. Unable to come to terms with the lies and deceit she takes her own life, drowning herself in a local river. Filled with grief, Iva confesses all to Anne who is ignorant of the whole mess. Saddened by the loss of her mother through suicide and the stunning news of Hester's secrets and her murder of Richard, Anne decides to leave and start her life anew. Somewhere where she can forget all the pain and secretive lies of the past. She constructs the book of secrets and donates all the pieces of the puzzle to the Museum of Forgotten Things, finding in the museum's title an apt place to lay to rest the pieces of the lives she is leaving behind.



And there it is folks. I should say that the piece here is part of an art quilt. Measuring 34" x 22" in size the piece detaches completely from the book base if preferred and can be hung complete on a wall as is if Alicia would like to. Now I guess you can all see why it has taken so long to complete. Constructed of three layers of cloth and a mix of both machine and hand stitching it has been a mammoth task to finish in any sort of reasonable timetable, but here it is complete at last, my needle population decimated as I have literally worn out about 8 handsewing needles in it's construction, yikes!

I would love to show you it all in detail of course but that's all you get for now. All the last pieces of the Pulp Redux collaboration will be shown together in an online exhibition in the near future. We will of course give you those details later as they become available and you will be able to view all the last pieces of each book in full at that time.
But for now that's it for the museum of forgotten things.

I hope Alicia enjoys the piece. It will be winging it's way home in the next week dear one!

I should add here that this collaboration has been an absolute joy. For me the prurpose of joining in was to both better aquaint myself with each of the participants, each and everyone of which I was already a fan of their work, and also to push myself. To tackle new mediums, ideas and make them work within the limitations of the structures provided. To boldly go where I had never been before...

Okay I digress, but you get the picture.

I must say the collaboration has in everyway lived up to those original aims and expectations. I have indeed pushed myself way... way, out of my comfort zone. Had to tackle completely new ideas to integrate a piece or problem solve the how the heck am I going to get that idea over thought. I would strongly recommend the process to anyone. Go into it with your eyes open. It will be harder and challenge you more than you ever thought, but the rewards...

Unbelievable!

Would I leap in again, especially so soon after just completing this one... you betcha!

In a heartbeat.

The bonds of friendship I have gained, and the insight into my own artistic abilities, creativity and concepts have been the singularly most insightful process I have ever had the priviledge to be a part of. Yup, as I said ... in a heatbeat. Thank you girls for the bestest and most creative fun ever. Mwah!

Soon there will be more exciting things to show you as I delve into some projects which have had to take a backward step in recent months.
Stay tuned.
Also don't forget to visit Seth's blog, The Altered Page for all the latest goss from his new editions of the pulse, which I am happy to say I have again taken part in. It is such fun to find out what everyone is up to, thinking, participating in. I love interactive sites like his and he does such a colossal amount of work to collate it all and get it out there to everyone. If you haven't popped in to join in the fun, where have you been?

That's it. I'm off! See you all again soon with more fun and games!
(Well, at least the latest doings here anyway)!

Postcards from the Heart

Have I left you all in suspense for long enough?

It's probably time to put you all out of your misery and let you all in what has been going on in the studio for the last few months!

As many of you know I have been buried deep in the Pulp Redux collaboration and am really enjoying it too, but what I haven't let out before is that I am also involved in another collaboration with the gorgeous Caterina from La Dolce Vita.

When Caterina and myself decided to embark on a collaboration together I had all the usual ideas but somehow it wasn't working for me. I just wasn't satisfied with how things were shaping up in an already existing book structure so decided to make my own.

Introducing...

Postcards from the Heart.

The book is constructed entirely from fabrics, many hand dyed along with the embellishments.

The story is set in the late 1800's and finds our heroine about to undertake a tour of the continent, something reasonably common amongst the well to do families of the time. The story is told through a series of fabric constructed postcards sent by our heroine back to her friend in England. The pictures on the postcards are actual photographs of various european cities taken during the late 1800's and transferred onto the fabric. The reverse or postcard side of the cards is also achieved using transfers and are also photographs of actual period postcard documents. Each postcard sits inside a pocket on the page and is an interactive element.

The pages themselves reflect the nature of the postcards they contain, contributing to the overall theme and feel for the story.

Of course the story remains unfinished until Caterina adds her own piece to the whole so you will only be able to view the goings on so far as I have done them. There are a number of pieces of prose throughout the book contributing to our knowledge of our heroine for whom you never find out a name. She signs everything only with an 'A'.

To bring you to a starting place I will give you this piece which is included in the first page of the book. The words by James Kavanaugh provided me with a wonderful starting point for the story.

Some people do not have to search - they find their niche early in life and rest there, seemingly contented and resigned. They do not seem to ask much of life, sometimes they do not seem to take it seriously. At times I envy them, but usually I do not understand them - seldom do they understand me. I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach - we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with the one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it is to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we want to love and be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love. We are wanderers, dreamers and lovers, lonely souls who dare ask of life everything good and beautiful. - - James Kavanaugh

So would you like to take a peek at the book now?

Enjoy the slideshow!

(You can click to bring it up full screen size)

I can't wait to see what Caterina does with the storyline, or what happens to our girl. The photographs used in the book are all curtesy of the Commons project and available to the public under a commons licence through Flickr. Many thanks to all those institutions for their continued support of a wonderful resource.

You Can Touch!-Part 2 of Kim's Contribution to Lisa's Pulp Redux Labyrinth Book

I don't say this every day but...







YOU CAN TOUCH!!!



I knew you would be so excited!


Now I last left you deep in the labyrinth. If you were left a little anxious after the last post about what was going to come next...



well now you can relax!


The second section of my contribution to Lisa's book revolves around nature, how we as artists are wont to reproduce it and the beauty it provides us with. It seems since man first stuck his finger in the mud and painted on a cave wall, artists have constantly reinvented, recreated and reproduced the natural world in their artwork. Nature has apparently got the goods when it comes to creative inspiration. So how does that translate into the labyrinth theme of Lisa's book?


When I was thinking about this idea I started to notice the myriad things we are surrounded with every day and how labrynthine the structures of some of these items are. I was gazing at probably the most awful plastic placemat in history in a cheapy store when suddenly it occured to me how much the plastic reminded me of vines or ivy climbing up a wall. Said revolting placemat suddenly wasn't such a bad evil item and promptly came home with me for the grand sum of 20cents AUS, and into the book it went. Some creative chopping here and there, a little copper and voila!



The page is a reflection on mans constant reproduction of nature in art. How we take the forms we find around us and find new ways with available materials to reproduce those forms. The found poetry from the underlying page reads:

Then inspiration came,
too wild this burst of sentiment interrupted true reason?

I think creative ideas are frequently like this. A sudden burst overtakes us and for good or bad out it flows until it's finished. Sometimes the ideas and execution are great, at other times...
well no-one is perfect everyday!



The next page also reflects man's continued drive to represent the labyrinthine form in art, but has taken a somewhat 90 dgree turn in thinking. The page is a representation of celtic knotwork. Celtic knotwork sprang into being around the 8th century AD. It is supposed that originally the forms were created to represent particular significance, but unfortunately the knowledge no longer exists and art historians can come to no consensus on the matter. What is agreed upon in general is that the interlacing patterns represent the unending continuum of life. The crossing and recrossing of the plaits is symbolic of the ongoing connection between the physical and spiritual planes. The three lobed Triquetra (the design used below is a derivative of this form), symbolises the connection between the three planes of existance, mind body and spirit.

The page was designed to look like old crumbling plasterwork. Why, just because I wanted to, OKAY! :)
(I like old plasterwork, and I wanted to see if I could!)

Here's the double page spread as it appears in the book.

So having looked at man's continued drive to represent nature in his art, that leads us back to the inspirational forms found in nature itself.

Over the page we go and...





Nature produced the original labyrinths for us as inspiration and we have been reproducing them ever since.
The intricasies of a leaf that reveals its innner skeletal structure as it decomposes. A flower from my garden.

On the other side of the page...


something a little different.




As some of you know, I'm fond of doors in my art.




Couldn't resist this opportunity could I?

(Apologies to Lisa, the book will never close again!)




Under the door the cabinet contains...




some of natures best efforts!





The page contains some exhibits including, coral, bees wax, a shell fragment and an insect wing.
What better examples of natures labyrinths could I find!
(Okay, ones that will fit in the book people!)

The pages have been cast in resin then attached to the book. When I first pondered the idea of natural labyrinths and their inclusion in the book I couldn't work out how I was going to be able to post the book successfully across the world. It has to travel constantly between the States, Australia and New Zealand. This constituted a customs nightmare trying to include these items in an altered book until I hit upon the idea of casting the pages in resin. Hopefully Mr. Customs man will have no objections now and the book can travel safely through everyone's hands!

So now you can touch!



The page as it appears fully opened.




The pieces although encased in resin still reveal their structure if you touch them. You can still feel the the items under the resin.

I have created a small magnifier that detaches from the page to help one examine the exhibits in the cabinet.

And so to the end of my contribution to Lisa's book. I have had so much fun with this theme and enjoyed finding solutions to obstacles that came with the ideas I wanted to include here. I can't wait for the next book to fly it's way over the waters to me. It will be Lisa Jurists gorgeous book and I am so looking forward to seeing and touching the already gorgeous work that Lisa and Lisa (NO it's not a mistake Lisa J posted to Lisa S!) have put into it!

Deep in the Labyrinth-Pulp Redux Update Lisa's Book

From an age of myths and legends...






come stories of strange beasts...






beautiful maidens...







and the heros that saved them.






Welcome to the labyrinth...






and what it contained.





From ancient Greece...






a tale of treachery...






forbidden love...






and death.



Lisa's book for the Pulp Redux collaboration is themed, Labyrinth. The theme is one which brought so many ideas to mind I was having trouble deciding on one, so in true Kim fashion decided to do two! The first part of my contribution outlines the ancient Greek myth concerning the Labyrinth of Crete.


The sea God, Poseidon, sent to King Minos of Crete, a beautiful white bull to be sacrificed in his honour. Minos so admired the bull that he refused to kill it, and decided to keep it for himself. Poseidon was so angry with Minos, that he cast a spell upon Minos' wife, Pasiphae causing her to fall inlove with the bull. Pasiphae unable to resist the God's spell fell in love with the bull and mated with it. The offspring of their union was the Minotaur.
The Minotaur grew to become ferocious and untamable, so King Minos had a prison built to contain the Minotaur by his servant Daedalus. So Daedalus built for the Minotaur a labyrinth, in which the Minotaur was imprisoned.

Years later, the people of Athens killed one of Minos sons and the King called a plague upon their city. The only way Minos would agree to remove the plague was if the people of Athens agreed that each year they would send seven young men and seven young women to Crete, where Minos sent them into the labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur.

Prince Theseus of Athens was determined to stop the slaughter of the Athenian youths and volunteered to go to Crete as a sacrificial victim where he would find a way to destroy the Minotaur. On his arrival in Crete Ariadne, who was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae saw Theseus and fell in love with him. She provided Theseus with a ball of string and urged him to tie one of the ends to the exit as he entered the Labyrinth, then he would be able to find his way out again. Theseus did as Ariadne bade him and deep in the heart of the Labyrinth he met the Minotaur and killed it, then fled taking Ariadne and the remaining Athenian youths.



I have constructed a set of doors in Lisa's book where I have set out the story of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. It is an interesting tale and one which I thought should be included in the book.

The second part of my addition to the book is quite different, but as I haven't quite finished it yet you will have to wait a little while longer for a sneaky peek at that part.

A Photograph, some History, a Book- Pulp Redux update

It began slowly...






I was intrigued by a photograph...

that led me to search...






where I discovered a map...













that caused me to think...







about a nations beliefs...

and then it began...





Time for a short history lesson.


I'll try to stay brief.


I have been watching with interest as libraries and museums around the world take up the opportunity to make a number of their historical photographs available to the public through a commons licence. (Fabulous effort to all and I applaude loudly at this generous effort by those who have taken it up. Thankyou for the material that has become available!) In browsing through the various photographs I became intrigued by pictures from the first world war, and in particular those relating to the Anzacs and their part in the Gallipoli campaign. Here's where the lesson kicks in.


For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, Gallipoli in Turkey was the scene of a major catastrophe that resulted in a huge loss of life, for all participants on both sides of the divide during the first world war. For Australians and New Zealanders in particular it has reshaped our nations and united us with a bond that remains so strong it has never left us. Anzac is an acronym touted during the war that stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The word came to have such significance attached, and to represent such heroism that during the first world war when it was touted, the acronym was officially dropped and the word Anzac, was granted status as a word in its own right. On April 25th 1915, Great Britain and her troops from colonial India, Australia, New Zealand and her ally in France, attacked the Turkish coast first on the beaches of what is known to us as Anzac Cove and then around the rest of that headland. The next few months saw the cream of the nations men die in a futile attempt to take possession of a strip of land that would result in the deaths of thousands of men from both sides and that they would then withdraw from a few months later, resulting in a victory to the Ottoman empire. Almost 500,00 men from both sides lost their lives in a 9 month campaign.

It changed our nation.

Australians entered the war having implicit faith in the dominance of the British Empire, proud to be a part of that empire. We came out the other side, a nation altered, forged by war, really united together as Australians, for the first time. It has helped to shape our identity and it remains strong to this day.

Anzac day is a traditional holiday here. Thousands attend dawn services and line the streets to watch the marches of our veterans. The number of original Anzacs has dwindled with the passage of time to a few old men, but the places of those others who have passed away is held by their sons and grandsons who march for them, maintaining their place in the ranks of men. It is a touching sight. My own son has marched holding a placard inscribed with the name of a man who no longer lives or has any family to maintain his own place. In this way these men, and the sacrifices they made, are never forgotten.

And so the lesson ends.

I have wanted to do a piece representing the Anzacs for some time. It has been quietly smoldering away in the background, insisting on being heard as these things are sometimes want to do, but how to achieve that?

And then along came Fragments, Vestiges and Remains, my book in the Pulp Redux collaboration.

An opportunity to represent some small fragment of this time, these men and the reshaping of a nation.

And so, to the piece...

I cannot show you the before pictures or how the piece developed and was put together. I would like to, but was so caught up in it's creation that I forgot to take any photographs!

I can tell you that the background was constructed using gesso, acrylic paint washes, metallic waxes and walnut ink. I quite liked the patina it produces, it just took ages to dry!

The left side of the page is dominated by a map of the Dardanelles campaign. A reproduction curtesy of the Australian War Memorial.




While researching the campaign, I came across the papers of Pte. Francis William Edwards. Pte. Edwards joined the Australian Lighthorse in 1914 at the tender age of 22. After training, young Francis shipped out with his comrades to Egypt then onto Gallipoli. He lost his life there in May 1915.


Under the map, a glimpse of a life lived.






The piece is representational of the lives of the men who fought in this campaign.

I have constructed a niche in the book pages and gathered some possessions to represent the life of a soldier.
What remains of his belongings, and a life lived.

Included here are copies of some of the papers of Pte. Edwards, pictures of some of the Anzacs, and some items which would have been typical of a mans belongings at this time. I could not however in my research find any photograph of Pte. Edwards himself. ( Many thanks to Australian War Memorial for their photographs which are reproduced here under a commons licence).

I have also reproduced a diary and included excerpts from diaries kept by some of the original Anzac soldiers. Just a few that pertain to the events portrayed here.



The page as it looks under the map.

A reminder of those lives lost on the opposite page.

This page contains a dedication to those men who died in this campaign.

A series of doors and windows.






A closer view...






The words spoken so eloquently then, resound just as poignantly today.

The words are not my own but reproduced from a newspaper article of the time in 1917 (I think!!!). I don't have the original paper it came from. With the rise of the popularity of the term Anzac came a profusion of businesses trying to trade in on the sentiments of the nation. Anyone and everyone tried to cash in, until eventually the government of the times stepped in and prevented anyone from using the word without licence to do so. Hence the loss of the acronym and the infusion of the word Anzac into our national heritage.


And then there's the ode...

The ode is recited at every official Anzac day memorial service held today.




Opposite the ode, a fragment of a letter, chosen to represent those thousands of letters sent from home to the boys at the front.

And then...


The remains of our flag, tattered and torn...





representing the vestiges of the nations beliefs...




reborn and reshaped...





into something far stronger.





And a picture is chosen...




of a young soldier...





to represent thousands of others, long since gone.

I could not resist this boys eyes in the photograph.
An unknown Australian soldier.
He too lost his life. He could be Francis.

At least he can be, here.

(Picture courtesy of the Australian War Memorial and reproduced here under a commons licence).


And so the end of a very long post. Hope you weren't bored.

So now the book will be winging its way accross oceans to Alicia and the then the rest of the girls, with a little suprise inside! I can't wait to see what they all do in the book. Of course their input will be completely different as I have not set any topic for this book but want it to reflect each artists individual take on the theme. I have reserved the last section of the book for something else by myself but you will have to wait for those fragments until it wings its way back home again at a later date.