Judi ParkinsonMultimedia Artist

Artists’ Books

Are any of you doing a Domestika Online Course? I have started a Bookbinding course for my Artist Books projects.

The Feature Image for this Blog shows the Set of Ten Pelican Artist’s Books that I created in 1993 when I was studying for a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Fine Art at Queensland College of Art Griffith University. Two of the books were later purchased by the State Libraries of Queensland and Victoria.

To bind the books I used fishing line as this is a major hazard for pelicans along beaches and seaways. For the ‘past’ image in the Domestika link I used wool to bind the pages and lock the book. To me, the wool represented domesticity and there is a recurring theme of knitting. The book was a finalist in the Noosa International Artists Book competition in 2007. The theme for the exhibition was The Impossible Dream – my book title was The Perfect Wife.

This first project this week asked for a little “About My Art”. What do you think? Click the image or here to view. The cover is Eco-dyed paper of fresh leaves, with dried leaves, cotton bow, stitching and paraffin.

It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in the media of Artists Books. I’m looking forward to learning new ways to present and bind my works. There are quite a few WIPs in my cupboard, and boxes of preciousness, gifts from nature, that I’ve been holding on to for a long time. I’ll keep you up to date with my actual tactile Artist Book as I move on from this first lesson.

Feel free to add a comment here 🙂

A Day at the Botanica Exhibition

Yesterday was my duty day at the Arts Connect Inc members’ exhibition at Mary Cairncross Reserve in Maleny. My husband Greg shared the responsibilities with me. We met so many lovely visitors, some locals, others were travelers, and some were re-visiting with different friends which is a great compliment to the quality of the exhibition. There were many comments on the high standard of artwork presented. People were genuinely interested and spent a lot of time viewing works, and there was a keen interest and inquiry in to the techniques and materials that our members had used.

I took along just a few leaves and feathers, from my collections of found flora, wings, insects, and feathers etc., with the intention of sketching some. There wasn’t much sketching completed which was all good 🙂 as many visitors were interested in the cyanotype processes I use, and as I mentioned other artists’ media. So the box of samples ended up being the perfect support for describing some of the techniques for my cyanotypes that were on display. I was also asked to do a workshop for an art group, and others asked if I teach drawing, which I might get back to doing in the future. Please let me know if you are interested in a workshop in 2021 and I’ll keep you in the loop. Happy to say that I sold three small cyanotypes, and several printed cards.

The show closes Sunday, so if you haven’t been along then do try and pop in. Beautiful paintings in various media, prints, wood carving, ceramics, to name a few. Lunch or coffee at the Mountain View Cafe is a perfect addition to your visit, or BYO picnic to the gardens 🙂