New Year wishes and a new bookplate

The last Moth Woman Press project for 2020 continues our current focus on bookplates.

Intended for the Australian Bookplate Design Award 2020, it was a pleasure to work on from start to finish. Our cat Alice, a delightful companion during this year’s lockdowns, was my model for the feline figure. She’s pictured below closely examining the newly carved lino block. After printing, the block was hand-coloured with watercolour (see final photo). Measurements are 15 x 12.5 cm (image) on A4 sized paper.

For more about this bookplate, including additional progress views, visit my art blog HERE.

Due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19, the Award has been postponed until 2021, although I’ve posted my entry ahead of time. 

Revised dates for the Australian Bookplate Design Award are still TBA. Meanwhile, warmest wishes to you all for a bright, happy, healthy and creative New Year. 

Life at the Top of the Art World - a survival guide by Alice

So you’ve reached the top of the Art World. Well, it sure doesn’t end there. In eight not-easy steps, Alice demonstrates how to sidestep the painful slide down that most slippery of slopes - and how to avoid getting splinters if you do. An essential instruction manual, Life at the Top of the Art World - a survival guide by Alice, (2020), is presented from the singular perspective of one who was catapulted into mega-stardom while still a kitten. Click on images to enlarge.

Initially Alice assumed a supervisory role in the production of her latest mini-zine, but before long, her contribution became more paws-on. 

Life at the Top of the Art World will be launched at the 2020 STICKY INSTITUTE FESTIVAL OF THE PHOTOCOPIER ZINE FAIR, Meat Market, 3 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne, 3051, on Sunday 9 February, 12 – 5 pm. 

This and all Moth Woman Press limited-edition mini-zines will offered at the special FOTP 2020 price of $4.00, with all proceeds donated to a cause that’s close to Alice’s heart:  Wildlife Victoria’s Victorian Bushfire Appeal:  https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/ 

Alice at FOTP 2020

Alice has starred in no less than three Moth Woman Press mini-zines, including the eponymous Alice, (2019), a suite of eight pastoral scenes set to a poem, also titled Alice, by Christina Rossetti. The poem was penned way back in the nineteenth century, but the prophetic Rossetti clearly had our Alice in mind. 

Shameless self-promoter Alice wants it known that all three Alice-themed zines will be featured in the upcoming 2020 STICKY INSTITUTE FESTIVAL OF THE PHOTOCOPIER ZINE FAIR at the Meat Market, 3 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne, 3051, Sunday 9 February, 12 – 5 pm. 

Moth Woman Press limited-edition mini-zines will be offered at the special FOTP 2020 price of $4.00, with all proceeds donated to Wildlife Victoria’s Victorian Bushfire Appeal: https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/

ALICE (Part 2)

Featured in this post are page views of our latest Moth Woman Press publication, Alice, a mini-zine jointly inspired by a children's poem by Victorian poet Christina Rossetti and our cat, Alice. (See previous post).

It feels like Rossetti has reached across the centuries to pen this verse for our little Alice, so aptly does it describe her.

Despite the poem's references to hilltops and flowering valleys, all the photos in the Alice zine were taken in our back garden at Ballarat. It's one of Alice's favourite haunts - and she really does regard our 'cottage' as a palace.

(Click on images for a clearer view).

Copies of Alice are now available at Playing in the Attic in Ballarat. The zine retails for $4.00 and is limited to an edition of 60.

Pictured above in Playing in the Attic: Bev Murray, our houseguest from London and one of my oldest friends, peruses Moth Woman Press publications.

Playing in the Attic
119a Sturt Street
Ballarat Victoria 3350
AUSTRALIA

Hours: Wednesday - Saturday 10 am - 4pm
Phone: 0428580309
Email: trudymac@bigpond.com.au

ALICE - a new zine

Recently I was rummaging around in a second-hand market in Smythesdale, a small town several kilometres from our Ballarat home, and came across a vintage poetry book intended for very young readers. It was somewhat the worse for wear, but the simple illustrations scattered through it were enchanting and, as if by magic, the little book initially opened onto a poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) titled Alice.

As visitors to Moth Woman Press may be aware, this just happens to be the name of our much-loved cat, already the subject of an earlier MWP zine, Alice's Wonderland ( 2018). Although Rossetti's poem was written two centuries ago, it captures our 'Merry little Alice' with uncanny accuracy.

After tending the princessly sum of 50 cents to the proprietor, the book was mine. 

I'm constantly photographing Alice, and among the images I've accumulated lately, found several that matched Rossetti's verse surprisingly well (aside from the reference to lambkins). Despite resolving to place all zine-making on temporary hold in order to concentrate on a major painting project, I couldn’t resist the temptation to combine Rossetti’s prophetic, endearingly daggy words with my photos in the cut and folded mini-zine previewed here.

The zine is a limited edition of 60. It is available for purchase at the delightful Playing in the Attic in Ballarat for $4.00. Further details, including individual page views, will feature in our next post.

IMPRESSIONS 2018

Tomorrow evening at 6 pm, when the Australian Print Workshop finally throws open its doors to IMPRESSIONS 2018, its eagerly-anticipated biennial fundraiser, I’ll still be scratching my head and wondering where the last two years went to.

As a preview of sorts, here is Alice casting a critical eye over my IMPRESSIONS lino block shortly after I had finished the carving.

My linocut was printed by APW master printer Simon White and is limited edition of 20. Without giving too much away, Simon has cleverly incorporated Chine-collé into the work, a serendipitous, as well as aesthetically pleasing decision, as it turns out. I’ve just noticed that his choice of paper is a pretty close match to the colour of Alice’s eyes.

Opening night is Friday, 16 November 2018, from 6 – 8 pm. 

IMPRESSIONS 2018,

Australian Print Workshop Gallery,

210 Gertrude Street,

Fitzroy, Vic.

Gallery hours: 10 am - 5pm Tuesday to Saturday

The exhibition runs to 16 February, 2019.

FOTP2018 Stowaway

Alice’s plans to join us for this afternoon’s Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair at Melbourne Town Hall are about to be thwarted. She’ll be there in spirit, however, in her very first zine, Alice’s Wonderland (made with a little help from me). 

I’ll be at the Moth Woman Press stall from 12 - 5 pm with that and other MWP publications, feeling mighty thankful that the heatwave has ended. If you're in the area, do drop by and say hello.

FOTP2018 #3: Alice's Wonderland

I have to admit that the third of three zines set to debut at next Sunday's Festival of the Photocopier is the one that's closest to my heart. Followers of my Art Blog will be aware that late last year my partner Shane Jones and I adopted a rescue kitten.

We're forever indebted to our friends and fellow zinesters Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison (who have a furry household of their own, and regularly foster cats for the RSPCA) for rescuing the kitten now known as Alice, her brother and their father from a tightly taped box with no air holes and taking them to the Lost Cat's Home.

The rest of the little family were adopted fairly soon, but it seemed that nobody wanted Alice. Gracia helpfully posted a photo of the orphan on social media, and I found I couldn't get that little face with its wide, inquisitive eyes and glorious Groucho Marx moustache out of my head. Minutes after meeting her for the first time, we recognised her zest for life and a gift for comedy to equal the great Groucho's.

Despite a rocky start in life, Alice finds everything in her world simply wonderful. And so a humble duster becomes a much-loved toy (a far more durable one than her more conventional toys) and a weather-beaten set of wind chimes a musical punching bag.

Alice's Wonderland will be documented more fully in a future post. But there's no need to wait until then. If you're in Melbourne this coming Sunday, 11 February, join the throng at Melbourne Town Hall for the annual Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair and grab yourself a copy. The fair runs between midday and 5 pm.