7th Annual Artist Retreat, part 3

The morning light as it begins to sneak into Pam's studio is glorious.

For a few seconds yesterday morning, before the sunlight drifted to the side, it made the recycled Macy's shopping bag handles of my newly created paper bag journal glow. 

Thursday was dedicated to finishing the black, white and red scroll. After all, it was home and it wanted to be completed here...to move on to its next life. 

So I listened and obliged.

 Sewing

and cropping, 

aligning

 and joining.

We had both machines fairly humming most of the day. I always enjoy a bit of a chuckle when Pam and I sit at opposite ends of her worktable and begin stitching - Pam at her George and me at the full metal Elna that was once her mother's. Can't help but think of dueling sewing machines...

Pam's creation is exquisite. I need her permission to share photos though.

At some point around mid-day, Pam looked out the window and spied this little fellow searching for his lunch. He's so tiny - would fit in the palm of your hand. 

Back at work, the black, white and red scroll has become a double-sided accordion book. 

front

back

a different view

The last day of the retreat has arrived far too soon. I feel like I wasted half the time trying to do regular work. On one hand, I did. On the other...well, my folly proved once and for all that this time at Pam's truly is sacred play time. And we are serious about play. All bets are off, there are no mistakes, no bad ideas. And that is a very good place to be. 

5th Annual Artist Retreat - Day 6, quiet

As I reflect on Friday, it seems a quieter day in the studio. We knew at the beginning that it was a shorter day - had a date to meet another friend and watch a printmaking event at the arts center.

 black tea painted on Kozo paper

No skipping going out to dinner as we had Wednesday night or skipping getting all gussied up to attend an event at the Spencer Museum of Art complete with cocktails et al as we did Thursday because we were hot...on a mark making streak that we dared not interrupt.

So yesterday morning, after posting about Thursday and breakfasting, I ventured downstairs to see how the black tea painted sections of Kozo paper dried. Quite nicely, actually.

Then I laid out a piece of mylar, took a bit of graphite in my right hand (lefty here), closed my eyes, took a breath and simply wrote.

It was such a wonderfully freeing feeling...just as when I painted the wave...letting the studio fates/muses guide my hand. Guess what I'll be doing once back home.

Since we knew that black works well with the natural Kozo, Pam thought to see how white would do

and what effect matte medium would have.

She splattered a bit of white paint on the mylar as well. You can't see it here, but the effect was beautiful. 

As paint dried in the annex, 

we began arranging pages in the remaining covers, 

 deciding front from back.

Once back from our journey out into the world, 

I began the process of packing. Our week really was coming to an end. 

But first, all the books got together for one last chat. Roughly constructed with pamphlet stitch binding, our sample books are our 5th annual artist retreat. They convey the fun and laughter, the trust and respect, the willingness to let go of control, to say what if and then just do it.  

5th Annual Artist Retreat - Day 5, journals

It's Friday morning as I write this post. This week has passed so quickly. Time really does zip by when you're having a truly wonderful time, doesn't it? It's always that way here in Oz. Seems the week has just started when the time comes to return to the airport. That's for tomorrow though - today is another studio day.

Thursday found Pam and I making a few marks - my tiny X's

were added to Pam's splatters (highly technical, that) and O's. 

While Pam stitched a page from painted cotton, 

I took the sheets of Rives BFK

and cut them into 5 inch strips

for use as pages in our journals.

6 sheets in all were cropped and piled together, shuffled and reshuffled to mix them well.
Pam began ritual of picking 

and did a little happy dance when she selected the apex of the wave I'd painted. 

18 pages each - Pam's above, mine below.

 
As we pondered the possibilities and considered which pages would go with which cover,

we turned to view the tags, all 95 of them.

They soon found their way into a bin and were jostled this way and that

so that we could blindly reach in to select one at a time. There were smiles and happy dances (me) and exclamations of delight (Pam) at having selected a favorite.

My group above. Pam's below. It's funny to look at the photos now and realize the tags were already sort of laid out as they ended up being turned into books.

 I sewed the tops and bottoms together

to create a very long accordion book

while Pam stitched the sides.

Surefooted

and stunning in their display, this approach is my favorite.

In between constructing journals (5 each so far), we'd walk into the annex to mark other papers.

I've fallen in love with printmaking paper - with their ability to soak up color and display it so vividly. The tan sections above and below were achieved with black tea. Just black tea.

Oh yes! The ideas are flowing and I can't wait to discover how well rust plays with some of the papers we've used this week. Those experiments will wait until my return to Connecticut.

 One last view before calling it a night...Pam's journals. 

Time to hit the publish button, eat a bit of breakfast and change into studio clothes. Stay tuned!