Residency at Geelong Grammar School

From 23 May - 3 June 2022 I was artist-in-residence at the Corio campus of Geelong Grammar School, a richly rewarding experience I’ll long remember. 

During my residency I developed designs for three linocuts that will be included in a forthcoming artist book. My protagonists’ body decorations are based on compositional elements from the works of prolific British Arts and Crafts designer May Morris.

 

The two works below will also be part of The Artist’s Garden, a Goldfield Printmakers exhibition travelling to Bristol, UK in September 2022 for IMPACT 12, a biennial international printmaking conference. The tattoos on these figures are based on motifs in The heavens declare…, a panel designed and embroidered by May Morris in the 1910s (reproduced third from top).

Click on images for a clearer view. For more about the Geelong Grammar School residency, visit my Art Blog HERE, HERE and HERE. 

More bookplates

Lately I’ve been working on a linocut bookplate (not pictured) that I plan to enter into the upcoming Australian Bookplate Design Award. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years, but each time the biennial award comes around it seems to coincide with a particularly busy period and I’ve never quite been able to find the time. With the October deadline fast approaching, it’s not surprising that bookplates have been very much on my mind (see also last post). 

A recent post on my Art Blog, prompted by Mark Cousin’s remarkable 14-hour documentary, Women Make Film that was recently screened at the 2020 Melbourne International Film Festival, focuses on a suite of linocuts I made back in the 1990s that draw their inspiration from Film Noir and the genre known as the woman’s film.

As I developed my linocut, it seemed to me that the Film Noir/woman’s film images could also be reimagined as bookplates and I set about making a series of experiments on my iPad. All up, there are nine of them. They are still works in progress and haven’t yet been proofed. A small selection are reproduced here and the remaining designs will feature in a future post.

FRANKENSTEIN'S WOMEN - a progress report

Lino blocks for Frankenstein's Women, 20 x 15 cm (each block)

The blocks for Frankenstein's Women, my forthcoming artist book, are almost ready for the next stage, namely, printing.

For those who have been following the development of this project since it began life at Melbourne Athenaeum Library during a residency for Melbourne Rare Book Week 2018, here is an overview of the work to date. (Click on images to enlarge).

As noted in my last post, the block for the title page of Frankenstein's Women (pictured third from top) was new and hadn't begun to harden. As a result, the surface was very brittle. In what turned out to be an ill-starred combination, my linocut tool, a Speedball with an interchangeable No. 1 cutter, was also new, but far from sharp, causing areas of the lino to crumble away during carving. For many   years, I've found this particular cutter indispensable for producing very fine lines. Sadly, however, the current Speedball cutters are poorly made; they are blunt, rusty and frankly, shouldn't even be on the market.

There is hope for the future, however, thanks to my friend Paul Compton, who recently presented me with a most thoughtful and generous gift - the elegant linocut tool pictured directly below. I've never seen one like it before. According to the accompanying label, it's a 'TRAD SANKKAKUTO Vee Gouge'. Some of the blocks could use some minor tweaking; this tool cuts through them like butter.

Homo-insecta: An unnatural history portfolio

The unbound artist book Homo-insecta: An unnatural history portfolio (2013, hand coloured linocuts with text, ed: 10) was originally created for the group show Wonder Room, a contemporary take on the Wunderkammer, at Maroondah Art Gallery back in 2013

From 30 June - 7 July the book will be exhibited at Melbourne Athenaeum Library during my residency for Melbourne Rare Book Week.

It's no coincidence that the re-emergence of Homo-insecta: An unnatural history portfolio corresponds with the bicentenary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This significant anniversary is commemorated on a grand scale in My Monster at RMIT Gallery (29 June - 18 August). Three of my 'unnatural history' watercolours are part of that show. A plethora of rare Homo-insecta specimens can also be viewed in PATTERNS OF COLLECTING: From the Bower at The Johnston Collection, current until 18 September.

I’ll be setting up the exhibition at Melbourne Athenaeum Library next Friday, 29 June. My residency commences the following day, Saturday, 30 June and concludes on Saturday, July 7. If you're planning to sample some of the many delights of Melbourne Rare Book Week, do drop in and say hello.

Library hours: 
Saturday: 10 am - 2 pm
Monday, Tuesday & Thursday: 10 am - 6 pm
Wednesday: 10 am - 8 pm
Friday: 10 am - 4 pm

Artist talk: Wednesday, 4 July  6 -7 pm

Looming Deadlines

On this, another wet, wintry Ballarat morning, I soak up the vista from my work table: another table with another pile of work with another hovering deadline. 

Above, foreground: ink drawings on linoleum blocks, preparatory work for my forthcoming residency at Melbourne Athenaeum Library, beginning late June. 

On the second work table (most of it not visible in this view): artwork and related paraphernalia for PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/From the Bower at the Johnston Collection, opening June 4. (The framed insect collection on the far wall will shortly be packed up for the same show).

Below: A lino block for the AIR, drawn up and ready to go.

Preparations for Melbourne Athenaeum Library Residency

Work in progress, pigmented drawing ink and gesso on lino block, 20 x 15 cm

Pictured above: a lino block drawn up and ready for carving, the first of several planned for two artist’s books influenced by female characters in the Gothic Novel - in particular, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Both of these hugely influential works have bicentennials in 2018 (it’s the 200th anniversary of Brontë’s birth and the publication of  Shelley’s novel).

The linocuts will be developed during my residency at Melbourne Athenaeum Library from 21 June, in conjunction with Melbourne Rare Book Week, which runs from 29 June - 8 July.

Full details of both events will be posted nearer the time.

LINOCUT FOR ARTISTS & DESIGNERS arrives at Moth Woman Press

Included in the package from Nick were this delightful hand-made
bookplate and card

Linocut for artists & designers, by Margate-based artist and illustrator, Nick Morley, was published in the United Kingdom back in June, 2016. It includes a chapter on my own linocuts:

The double-page spread on my work. I'm one of eight international artists
to be represented in the book

Recently I collected my copy from the post office and am thrilled with it. The book is an essential reference, both for linocut practitioners and lovers of the medium, born out by the fact that it has already entered its second edition. Linocut for artists & designers is now firmly ensconced in the Moth Woman Press atelier at Ballarat, where it will be put to very good use.

To purchase a copy of the book, visit:

http://linocutboy.bigcartel.com/product/linocut-for-artists-and-designers-book

To see examples Nick Morley's work, go to: 

www.linocutboy.com and www.helloprintstudio.com

For selected page views of Linocut for artists & designers, go HERE.

KEEP THE DATE!

Further to my last post, here is some key information about my 30 year printmaking retrospective at Tacit Contemporary Art, scheduled for 29 November - 17 December, 2017. The idea for the exhibition grew from PRINTS 1987 - 2016, the mini-survey show that has just finished its run at Tacit. Not surprisingly, next year's survey is still very much in the early planning stages. Next time around the show will span 4 gallery spaces, which will enable a far wider overview of my printmaking practice, including the artist books and zines that have become an increasingly significant part of it over the past several years.

PRINTS 1987 - 2016

 

Thalaina macfarlandi Moth Mask (2009, hand coloured linocut, 15 x 15 cm) 

Thalaina macfarlandi Moth Mask (2009) is one of four Moth Masks linocuts (1) selected by curator TJ Bateson for my solo show, PRINTS 1987 - 2016 at Tacit Contemporary Art. 

The exhibition launch is this evening, 14 September, from 6.30 – 8 pm. 

The Moth Masks series was the inspiration for one of my first fairytales, The Story of the Moth Masks, (2) and several of the moth-masked women appeared in my artist book, Women With Wings (2010). Moreover, the Moth Women were precursors to the dark and dangerous Moth Women Vigilantes, already the subject of numerous Moth Woman Press publications.

Tacit Contemporary Art

312 Johnston Street,

Abbotsford, Vic, 3067

tacitart.com.au

Phone: 0423 323 1888

Hours: Wednesday - Friday 11 am - 6 pm
Saturday - Sunday 11 - 5 pm

PRINTS 1987 – 2016 runs until 2 October.

(1) The other three are:
Cyana mericki Moth Mask (2009)
Birthana cleis Moth Mask (2009) and
Scoliacma biclora Moth Mask (2009).

(2) First published in There was once... the collected fairy tales, Moth Woman Press, 2009

Linocut Workshop at NGV International

Tonight and next Wednesday evening I'm giving two linocut workshops for NGV Members at the National Gallery of Victoria. I'll be taking along some demonstration lino blocks, including the four linocut portraits of Moth Women Vigilantes gang members pictured above.

The classes will run from 6 - 8.30 pm. They are primarily aimed at beginners, each of whom will make their own linocut and learn to print it without the need of a press. I'm delighted to say that both sessions have sold out.

'Eventide' Floor Talk

The Story of the Moth Masks, 2016, mini-zine,
signed limited edition of 100

Busy times at Moth Woman Press

Lately, in tandem with developing a new mini-zine for a special event (more about this very soon) we have been making up extra copies of The Story of the Moth Masks, a mini-zine commemorating the current relief printmaking exhibition, Eventide, at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. Gracing the front cover is Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman, the linocut I created for the show. Copies of the zine will be available at the gallery during the show's run and afterwards through Moth Woman Press.

Eventide was curated by Rona Green. This Sunday, 26 June, between 2 - 3 pm, Eventide artists Rona, Euan Heng and I will be in conversation at MPRG. If you’re free, do come along and join in.

For those who can’t make it, but plan to visit the show, the exhibition runs until 3 July.

LINOCUT for artists and designers

Page views from Linocut for artists and designers, featuring my linocut
Hover fly Winged Woman, artist book Women with Wings and linocut
Lace Face

Moth Woman Press is delighted to announce that the eagerly awaited book, Linocut for artists and designers by UK artist and illustrator Nick Morley will be published in the United Kingdom on 10 June. I'm one of 8 international artists and designers whose work is featured. (See above).

To preview additional pages from the book, go to my Art Blog HERE.

For complete details and to pre-order a copy of Linocut for artists and designers, visit: 

http://linocutboy.bigcartel.com/product/linocut-for-artists-and-designers-book

To view examples of Nick Morley's own work, go to: 

www.linocutboy.com and www.helloprintstudio.com