I’ve been deeply immersed in the wondrously weird little world of my crow’s nest studio, much more appealing now that C.P. McDill helped me re-organize it and found a way to make it reasonably warm. Another important part of “gathering mojo” for the working mode has been treasure hunting for dusty old books and their pages. I guess this replaces beach combing and gardening since I do tend to switch to antiquing in the winter months.

I’ve also been listening alternately to two amazing internet radio stations, both of which I highly recommend. My current favorite is the recently discovered Ancient FM which plays medieval and early music. I also madly love the ambient otherworldly atmosphere of Drone Zone at http://somafm.com/ and not just because they occasionally play tracks by yours truly although that is always appreciated. Both stations have a nice flow to them. I am rarely taken out of my own zone or distracted from what I am working on.

The photograph (above) is a corner of the studio arranged with newly adopted books and cheese crates, along with an antique paper cutter, restructured wooden cigar boxes, and more books from the last successful raid.

Gorgeous book from 1905 illustrated by Will Carqueville.

This is not only a nicely tattered old book. It’s actually a useful music lesson primer. I’m beginning classical guitar lessons next week so it’s just what I needed.

Oh yes! Peacocks and columns.

No idea what these are! Embroidery cards?

Last but not least, deep in some arid desert is a cool cave, an abundance of life within finding refuge from the brutal noontime heat beyond. Small luminescent creatures dwell on the walls of the black interior, making unintentional constellations to delight the eye.

Size: 6″ x 6″
Mixed media: oil, paper, ink, and varnish on canvas.

That’s all for now. I’ll be in the cave.

While sorting through the old books at the Horticultural Center, I picked up a musty old tome which I thought was a history of gardening. It turned out to be a book about alchemy and the construction of various types of stills. Most chapters focus on use of plants by the Puritans of New England for herbal medicines and tonics. However, it does occasionally veer off into herbal lore and “the chemical art” of the early alchemists. The book was in rough shape, water damaged and falling apart so the scans are not so nice. Of course, I had to offer up a few bits of it, since this blog threads together the subjects of my fascination – art, old books, gardening, and alchemy. Included among these tattered pages, is a hand drawn map from the 1600s of the area where I now live and work. Sadly, it was too faded and ink smeared to scan well.

“The fifth chapter deals with the sum total of background knowledge applied by the settlers to their task of growing, distilling, and preserving all they would need for both meate and medicine. The sixth deals with ‘the meate’ and the seventh with ‘the medicine’ for which they felt sure so many plants were intended”. – Anne Leighton

“A satirical portrait of the vain Englishman of the time, Henry VIII, so keen on being in the latest style that he strides along with a length of woolen cloth over his arm, unable to decide what rayment to wear”.

In William Lawson’s ‘New Orchard and Garden’ the "falling gardens" are shown below 2 large squares devoted to fruit trees, one for an elaborate design of garden knots, and two for the kitchen gardens.

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”

This quote scrolled past me today, somewhere in my travels. I liked it and snagged it. Now I forget who said it. Bill Cosby?

C.P. McDill and I have been talking about fear and anxiety in this context. I always pay attention to synchronicity. Sometimes inspirational quotes are thought of as hokey. I think they are helpful. Besides, it’s okay to be hokey. Why not? Fear literally is the mind killer. It can also be a mind virus that is spread around to others. What I observe is that the media and various authorities in our lives attempt to keep us in a constant state of anxiety and fear. Why? Sometimes it is a bad habit and not deliberate. There is quite a lot of subtle peer approval awarded for negativity and cynicism. We become trained to police each other in this manner.

Sometimes though, it is part of a design to keep us in a state of mind that is dis-empowered, more easily controlled, and perhaps more accepting of injustices and absurdities. One certainly can not be audacious if the mind is kept focused on fear and failure. As always, I am speaking to myself as much as to anyone else when I write up this kind of thing. Expel the “bad fairies” from your mind.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

These are the art books that were left out of my art books are love post on Valentine’s Day. They were spread all about the studio and when collected made quite a pile. I thought I should include them, seeing as these are the books most currently referenced, they are probably the most important. The difficult to read titles are Ray Johnson’s “Correspondence” and Shirin Neshat’s catalog from one of the most amazing art exhibitions I have ever experienced. It was in Edinburgh’s fabulous Fruitmarket Gallery and it literally choked me up. That doesn’t happen often, especially at modern art shows. The rest of the studio book collection is in this previously mentioned post

This is my studio spook and that right there is a glare of love.

From the artist’s website.

Jim Denevan makes freehand drawings in sand. At low tide on wide beaches Jim searches the shore for a wave tossed stick. After finding a good stick and composing himself in the near and far environment Jim draws– laboring up to 7 hours and walking as many as 30 miles. The resulting sand drawing is made entirely freehand w/ no measuring aids whatsoever. From the ground, these drawn environments are experienced as places. Places to explore and be, and to see relation and distance. For a time these tangible specific places exist in the indeterminate environment of ocean shore. From high above the marks are seen as isolated phenomena, much like clouds, rivers or buildings. Soon after Jim’s motions and marks are completed water moves over and through, leaving nothing.

This is another experiment with working dry. I “painted” the surface with composted endpapers by ripping it strategically and hand-stitching it to linen. Then I drew on the paper (ink, pastel, crayon, pencil) and embellished it with embroidery.

C.P. McDill and I just finished completely gutting my workspace and the creative process along with it. The “crow’s nest” that we use for a studio is the attic of our tiny cottage. It has a low ceiling of only 6′ at the highest point. The previous owner had installed a drop ceiling and glued down wall to wall carpet which made it seem even more cramped and office like. We ripped out the drop ceiling, liberated the wooden rafters, exposed and sanded down the lovely hidden wood floorboards. C.P. installed full spectrum lighting and painted the walls and ceiling a warm brilliant white. The difference is amazing. It’s so bright and warm as well as feeling much larger than it actually is. Then we created a more open floor plan with two work tables, one for wet media and the other for textiles and paper.

We’ve been working on it all winter. C.P. is responsible for making such a truly tiny space look and feel so spacious and full of light. He’s so good. The room is 12′ x 15′ which is about a quarter of the size of my old studio and our cottage has no storage. We plan to remove the ridiculously low drop ceiling. It won’t make the room much higher, not even enough for C.P. to stand up straight, but it will feel less cramped with cross beams exposed…and I can then hang thingies from them.

This is from the artist statement for Su Blackwell. These are called book cut sculptures. I found the link through Blue Tea and I’ve never seen anything like them. It was fascinating to read Su Blackwell’s description of her process and how it relates to my own work with books and manuscripts, even though our results are so different. It’s nice to find another book pirate who loves the alchemical transformation of pages into artifacts as much as I do. She also uses mythic and storybook themes in her work.

“The wear on my books, as physical objects, holds their history and makes my relationship with their contents immediate and visceral. The books I carry when I travel get stained and frayed, and the damage tells a story. I love second-hand books that have been marked up with pencil because I can see what was important to the person who read it before me.”

“Western culture in particular has a certain hysteria when it comes to insects. They are symbols of dirtiness, disease and decay. In other cultures, insects hold religious significance or at least a measure of respect, be they food, medicine, embellishment or pets. ” – Jennifer Angus, Artist’s Statement

“I am an ant wrangler. And ants are, as we all know, tireless workers. So if you get a project that they can do, they’ll do it. And there’s no questions asked. No unions. I had ants in my kitchen, and they are little, small what they call I think sugar ants, but they are coming in I think for water. I made a small head of cheese and turkey. I put a ball of cheese and turkey together and then cased it with clay, and mounted it on a small coathanger. I made an opening in the mouth, I exposed some turkey in the eye and in the ears. Now the ants found the coathanger, began climbing in for four days and nights non-stop and emptied the entire head of turkey and cheese.” – David Lynch