Choice Made!

Did you see my post about what sketchbook to use?  You'll be pleased to know that I made a decision!  This one:

Yes, the octopus one.  Mostly because it resembles - admittedly vaguely - the way maps fold up and maps are my inspiration for my next project.

I think calling it a sketchbook from now on is probably incorrect.  It's going to be a workbook, as it's the place I'm going to record my research and hhow my work is progressing.

I spent a few days researching maps and artists who use maps as inspiration and then assembled it all in the workbook.  There are lot of photographs as I have photographed the whole 4 page folded section plus double page closeups.  I hope it isn't too many.

The right hand page above opens up to reveal pages on the history of maps.  It's very incomplete - just the bits that interested me - the Mappa Mundi, Nolli, John Ogilby and the Ordnance Survey.

I found various poems and quotes about maps.

Alongside looking at artists' work, I asked the question What is a map?  They all had different replies in their artist's statement.

I started with Jill K Berry in her book Personal Geographies.

The right hand page unfolds to reveal the work of Alicia Merrett, Diane Savona and Valerie S Goodwin.

Turning over the page we come to the amazing work of Eszter Bornemisza.

Moving on now towards how I might approach the topic.

This was from a Jeanne Oliver workshop.  Is this a map?  There's room for me to answer that!

And then more on my response to the work of the artists I found.

 

Where all this will lead me I have no idea.

As I don't usually work in this way it will be interesting to see where it all takes me.

If you've made it all the way to the end with me, thank you.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

What format?

Do you struggle when you start a new project?  Does indecision make your choice difficult?  I can be pretty hopeless about making decisions about something really simple.  Choosing a journal to use for my word of the year!!!  Or choosing a sketchbook for a project!

In the photo above there are 4 sketchbooks laid out.  The purple one is an 11" square spiral bound sketchbook.

There's an A4 and an A5 concertina sketchbook.

Or there's this Seawhite Octopus sketchbook.

And that doesn't include any of the clothbound standard sketchbooks I could use.

My problem is that there's far too much choice available.  The same applies to food, wallpaper, carpets, clothes - I could go on!  Life was probably easier in the time of Henry Ford when he said "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black".

In my last post I mentioned I am about to start a new project.  Unusually for me, I have done some research and I want to record it in a sketchook.

But which one to choose!

Any of the four above would work.  Why do I find it so hard?

If you have to make choices how do you deal with it?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

5 pieces

Do you remember I made these two long flowing pieces?

I decided the way I wanted to hang them in an exhibition - if they ever get into an exhibition - wouldn't work.  So I chopped them up, and using the mechanism Roger made me for my first piece, I made three long pieces from the original two.

This is the first piece I made in the canal series

 There are two other pieces.  One I finished in February

And the one I finished last week which could have been Venice but fits better with these canal pieces.  So think aqueducts!

I've been working on one more canal piece.  I decided to take all the leftover bits of fabric from all the other pieces above and make them into one last hanging.

None of the photos are really wonderful.  I don't have anywhere I can hang the pieces of work to photograph them.

I thought I would try mocking up what the pieces might look like as an exhibition.

I rather like it.

I'm going to have a rest from canals now but I shall probably come back to them.

For now I'm going to delve into something different.  And no, not Venice!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice