Six Questions

'Six Questions: An interview with....' is a series of micro books.
In each book six questions are put to and answered by an object.

This series of books has been met with amusement by viewers, but once they have read the interviews they are pleasantly surprised! I was fortunate to attend a creative writing class, where students were asked to have a conversation with an object.....my book ideas started to form straight away!

It's been a really enjoyable task, and a break from extracting text for book works.

'Six Questions' 2016

Front cover: 74 x 105mm inkjet printed on 90g paper in white

Inside page: Set in 10pt Gill Sans

Dot Dash

'Dot Dash' 2016

A ten page A6 booklet based on the theme 'Dot Dash'.
To be included in an online exhibition at www.weloveyourbooks.com 

www.flickr.com/photos/rejectamenta/albums/72157674702248456


Translated from lines in poems about the sea, the morse code in this book offers a stark, simple mark on the page, suggestive of the harshness of a maritime distress call. It is in contrast to a romantic notion of life at sea, portrayed in the selected poems (see below).

Using a sewing machine to stitch lines across tracing paper gave an interesting dot dash effect. The hand printed title fitted between the lines completely by accident! I love it when that happens!

'Dot Dash' 2016

A6

Hand printed on 270gsm Colorplan white frost and machine

stitched on tracing paper.

Inside:
Inkjet printed on 135gsm Colorplan white frost.

Selected lines from poems:

But the tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me.

Till my soul is full of longing

For the secret of the sea.

Themselves the verge of seas to be.

So the stars wheeled round, and the darkness past.

And some are drowned in deep water.

Feast them upon the wideness of the sea.

Home is the sailor, home from the sea.

For the ship's my wife, and the breath of life.

The world of water is our home.

On went she, and due north her journey took.

Counter Plymouth Book Fair

A interesting and successful day at Counter Plymouth Book Fair on 24th October 2015.

My books were displayed amongst other artist's books, zines and paper ephemera. It was great to meet, chat and make new friends with a shared interest in hand made artist books.

A lady who bought a copy of 'This Grey Wind', suggested that the rhythm in the poems made them feel like lyrics and wondered about setting them to music. An interesting idea!

Six from Ireland

A book of six poems inspired by a visit to Southern Ireland.

The beauty of the south west of Ireland was hugely inspirational and the poems came quite quickly. Creating a painting for the cover was a new part of the book making process and one that was influenced by a visit to Red Fox Press on Achill Island.

Cover Six from Ireland, 2015

148 X 148mm

Inkjet printed on 120g Colorplan paper in sandstone.

Inkjet printed original painting by artist.

Inside page.

Inkjet printed on 120g Colorset paper in natural.

Blackbird

A two page A6 book about the blackbird.

I have been thinking about birds a lot and think that their inspiration is probably unlimited!

The poems is a sombre reflection on my desire to reconnect with my mother who died 12 years ago.

Front cover 'Blackbird' 2015. 

Card, paper, inkjet printing

Inside page 'Blackbird' 2015. 

Card, paper, inkjet printing

Women in Art

A fan book featuring negative quotes about women artists and their work.

This book came about after digging through some old sketchbooks and finding the list of quotes, which were part of another, unresolved project.

It fired up my inner feminist and I do feel that more ideas could come from this book.

'Women in Art' 2015

100mm x 40mm

Inkjet printed on 160gsm white card

A sample of text from the book:

'her family were against her becoming a painter'

'reserved only for her male colleagues'

Journeys #2

The second of a series of books about journeys.

A handwritten list of company names seen on lorries during a coach journey between Exeter and London.

I mainly produced this book to be suitable as a series of multiples, which are popular at book fairs. However, on reflection, I feel that  a much longer list or series of lists, bound together into a larger book, would have greater appeal to me, if not to visitors to book fairs. Having said that, people did buy a few!

I particularly like the methodical, even meditative process of hand writing lists of words/objects, or in this case company names. Aside from the process, the visual quality of handwritten text in capitals appeals to me, and, I think works very well.

Journeys #2 2015

148 x 105mm

Hand written on newsprint.

Inkjet printed on 160gsm card in bright blue.