contemplation

My contribution to Margin Releases

~ cloudytype ~ 3 Comments

A few years ago, I started making a piece of typewriter art. I am so grateful to the editors of the final edition of Cold Hard Type for selecting that work for inclusion in Margin Releases. It feels like the perfect place for the artwork after years of not being able to decide how to get the pieces out into the world.

I don’t want to give too much away, because I hope that people will buy the book and enjoy all the contributions fresh, with no big spoilers.

And so I will just share some photos of the machine I used to make the artworks.

The machine itself became part of the artwork.
The week I acquired this machine, I received the results of my dna ancestry test. The results, showing that I have European Jewish ancestry contributed to my desire to make the artwork.

July sky

~ cloudytype ~ 3 Comments

I’ve had the same set of watercolours in a Windsor and Newton black enamel tin since I was a first year art student at Falmouth. Over the years the pans of colours have been renewed but it’s one of those little constants I return to that makes me feel secure. I started doing quick sketches in watercolour of lockdown skies in March. I didn’t think I would need to make another sketchbook to contain them all. Yesterday it was an even pale grey all day so I didn’t bother painting it. Today it looks more interesting so I may well do several. There are no rules other than to be guided by the wind.

In progress

~ cloudytype ~ 1 Comment

Unfinished ( only just started) altered portrait number 3. I tend to start with the eyes or an eyebrow. Who knows how it will turn out… The eyes are speaking to me so I will carry on.

I’m making these portraits using a vintage studio portrait as my starting point.

She looks like a movie star in the photograph, but I am not interested in replicating what the photographer had in mind.

Last week I went to the Frieze Art Show in London. There were no typewriters but many pairs of fancy pants parading around. It was a lot of fun and it made me think hard about what I want to do when I make marks on paper. I had a deep discussion about the origins of art and it transpires I’m a romantic. Not really a surprise!

Ok, have a good weekend x

Come in, have a cup of tea. It’s National Poetry Day in the U.K.

~ cloudytype ~ 2 Comments

Friends, I invite you to browse sections of my poetry shelves wherever you are in the world, because every day is poetry day. I think we need poetry more than ever, and I think we need to read it in solitude on paper and to hear it spoken in a crowd, we need to read each other poetry at bedtime, and over a breakfast coffee. Leave a poem in a random place. When the world flips its middle finger at you, flip a poem right back at it. With love.