ABCD: May 2020

Artists’ Book Club (Dove) had a second Zoom meeting yesterday. Nina was the only member who could not join in, so there were thirteen of us on screen.

Thalia was the first to report. Her work has been inspired by vivid dreams and Irish folklore.

Judy has been writing a friend’s English version of Dante’s Divine Comedy in what she described as angry calligraphy. She showed us a small blizzard book housing name-tags for every crew-member and passenger aboard the Mayflower.

Carol has been playing with paper-folding. And she is printing and collaging in an old book to make a lockdown journal.

Clare has been painting in a field near her home.

Kate has a project for her next book. She’s meeting , drawing and interviewing craftsmen. She mentioned a dry-stone-waller and a farrier, and showed us some paintings and charcoal drawings.

Jane has been drawing on Chalice Hill and the Tor.

Janine is making stitched boxes and books, using up scraps.

Caroline is illustrating her hedge and the birds that appear in it. She’s started making prints from cross-sections of branches.

Pauline’s folded book alternately conceals and reveals aspects of life under lockdown.

Judith took an online tutorial by the London Drawing Group. This one was about Matisse. Here are some examples of her freehand drawing with scissors.

I (Ama) have made a second leporello, Deepwords, a companion to Downwords. Digital print and rubber stamps on recycled papers. Closed, the book is about 15x20cm. Open, it is 20x167cm. Deepwords is inspired by this animation.

“The deep sea is the least explored of all habitats …
an estimated 33 to 91% of species in our oceans
remain uncollected or undescribed.” – John Spicer

And I’m dyeing Khadi rag paper with red cabbage (blue) and red onion (yellow/brown).

Clare and I have been knitting. Here are Clare’s version of Katie’s Kep by Wilma Malcolmson, and my version of Sarah Swett’s Sweater Somewhat Slanted. I love both the aesthetic and the content of Sarah’s blog A Field Guide to Needlework, and recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in spinning, dyeing, knitting and/or weaving. I am now two inches into a Katie’s Kep.

Pat made her entrance wearing a mask of fresh leaves. As I think I have mentioned before, she is weaving a hedge. Dyeing wool with (pickled) walnuts and lichens, spinning and weaving it. She showed us a basket of luscious colours.

Lastly, Bron, who has been “busy doing nothing”. The nothings are quite something: a Scarecorona guardian for the Tree House and other willow sculptures. And a rather mysterious serpent.

And because we are all missing our visits to the Dove, here is Bron’s photo of cowslips in the Tree Circle.

Next Zoom meeting: 6th June.

May Dove-droppings

life’s not too short for
my magical relationship
with mutable pale people

disembodied learning
drawing with scissors
the eye of the dragon

up Chalice Hill
sky and weather
a lone piper

squirrels and moorhens
modern stoicism
just staying alive

ivy and a few oak leaves
a little blizzard
for the Mayflower

I went out with a lot of old craftsmen
I’ve broken the law
I’ve run out of thread

the descent into hell
no work no money
the empty room

a sadness all the time
I’ve forgotten how to speak
here comes the cat

prints from the wood
they do smell a bit cabbagey
try pickling them

cows huffled all around me
a fox came and peed on it
deer have eaten the orchids

a special map
an angry virus book
a star book and a cascade

Irish fairy-tales
English cantos
angry calligraphy

in the evenings I spin
lichen colours
red and purple willows

his house is full of chicks
click and collect is the most exciting thing
an hour’s drive across Dartmoor

a memory box
the way it opened and closed
both sides of the story