The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon

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The Year Of

Thursday 31, August

Most years seem to have a label of some kind attached to them these days. This is the Year of the Dog according to the Chinese animal zodiac, and 2007 is the Year of the Surf Lifesaver. There must be some prints in that! Well yes. There are plenty of printmakers leaping into the Year of the Dog with some really funny, interesting and beautiful results. The lifesaver project (Australia) sounds like a fun print theme too. Hunter Island Press are involved in an exhibition with three other printmaking groups and the show will travel about with the aim of raising awareness of the challenging job the lifesavers have. Growing up in Queensland on the Sunshine Coast we were very aware of the role of the lifesavers and always comforted by their presence. I was only visited once by an on duty young man, and that was during a particularly rough sea after a storm. There was a strong rip dragging a large number of people out to sea and I was just on the edge holding ground. He swam up to me and asked if I was ok, then getting the 'ok' nod he took off in pursuit of others further out. It took me about 15 minutes to manage to get myself out of the rip and into calmer water, where of course I surfed in to the beach, and I was more than aware of every muscle in my body and just how powerful the surf can be. So my hats off and printmaking tools out. It should be a good exhibition!

Locating The Photographic

Tuesday 29, August

The current exhibition at the Plimsoll gallery is a fabulous collection of works that cover a broad range of interests and tastes. Superb ceramics, fun and intriguing sculpture, beautiful print and obscure messages are ripe for the finding in the show. The exhibition runs until the fifteenth of September and the gallery is located at the University of Tasmania School of Art on Hunter Street, Hobart.

Spinning Talent

Tuesday 29, August

Spinning wool is a beautiful, theraputic and ancient kind of art. Interestingly I see that knitting has become a new wave of modern art, so I wonder how long it will be before some homepsun wool hits the highs of prestigious art. Of course knitted goodies have always had a place in an artistic sense, but it is the shift from crafty art to fine art that has got people talking. I also hear that there is a bit of a cult type movement with people knitting in public places - bringing the wool and knitting needles out of the spongey lounge chair. It's all good I reckon!

The section of knitting above is not from a work of fine art, but it is a work of art in my book. Spun from various wools and knitted into a big squarre it is my cosy rug in the evenings and a shawl by day. There is a skill in choosing colours to mix in the spinning, and talent in combining the balls of wool for the project and not to be under estimated, there is endless hours of patience and skill in the knitting. Thanks Mary! While I would love to pick up the needles myself at the moment, just to have a gentle space in the day, it is sewing that I will be turning to next as I have decided to try again to work with sewn work in my printmaking! Is it just an excuse? Don't know.

Studio Clean Up

Saturday 26, August

Gradually the student who had been occupying the studio space I am now in is removing his bits and pieces. Gradually. But its happening! Slowly I am settling in, shifting things about, and cleaning. Beats me how people for years will virtually live in these spaces and never do so much as sweep the floor! Actually this room has been the hiding spot for a few painters, and the floor is a speckled mass of colour. The walls have a few spots here and there, and a big red line - not very good for checking your work out as the strong colour you in the face and affects the image your looking at. So the walls have to be painted, but the floor is just getting a rug, because in the end I don't know how long I can expect to be in the studio space. But here's hopring that there are no more moves until I finish the MFA.

Holding Ground

Thursday 24, August

Dear Dad, sometimes my skin feels so thin that I can feel a mere breath pass right through... Sometimes I sink into the depths of self indulgent disbelief in myself, and there is nothing anyone can say or do to reverse the spiralling plummet. It just passes with time. I have, in contradiction, a letter which helps me through. Dad wrote to me about 19 years ago when I first had a go at painting, and he opened up in a way that I had never experienced before, and never did again. Typed on foolscap paper, it is yellowed with age and feels vulnerable to the touch, but its words resonate with excitment and enthusiasm that can't be matched. The words tell me to remain strong in independant spirit, free up my ideas and let my imagination run without concern for any rules - there are no rules - he says, apart from the rules that "apply to a compromise with the commercial market when a 'painting' has to conform with the 'art world', ... and one needs a thick skin to enter it." Dad had one exhibition in Brisbane, which sold out, but he never had another. Why? Perhaps the answer is already here.

Mandy Renard Exhibition

Thursday 24, August

If Mandy's invitation is anything to measure by (and I'm sure it is) then this upcoming exhibition is well worth making the effort to check out on opening night. "Tasmanian Beauties" opens at the Handmark Gallery, 77 Salamanca Place at 11am on the third of September. Mandy has been working with dry point etchings which she has continued to develop enviable skill with. The exhibition is in conjunction with Derek Smith, a ceramist with considerable skill and beautiful quality.

Tracey Wins Hobart Art Prize

Wednesday 23, August

It was good news for Tracey Cockburn as she was announced the winner of the Hobart Art Prize for printmaking. For several years Tracey has been working with fragments of china she found when she was renovating her Hobart home. Tracey describes her work; "In these works it is the idea of the fragment that is paramount - the fragment as representative of a lost and, through a process of representation, a possible recoverable past, representative of lives lived and the daily existence of those who might have resided there.".

You can read more about Tracey's work and win on the Hunter Island Press website where she also has an artists profile. Congratulations Tracey!

Flickr

Wednesday 23, August

I've been looking for ways to reduce the pressure on my hosting account, and Flickr had one answer for me! Acknowledging the tendancy to put quite a few pictures up at times, I figured there was no harm in using this free service for the groups of photos from trips or whatever else is in teh eye of the lens. At the moment I have uploaded just one group of photos from my Brisbane trip, and I'll post any new collections once I get the hang of the Flickr options!

Print

Monday 21, August

There's still one print left for sale. I forgot to put it in my post that they are up on the site, but you can contact me through the contact form for information, or simply use the pay pal system. Check it out on the retail page.

Sunday Arts

Sunday 20, August

I have found myself sitting in the lounge in front of the telly. This isn't what I would call a normal thing for me to do during the day, but it is becoming a bit of a habit. It's Sunday Arts that keeps me there. They have some really great segments, some weeks, some of the time. I have been introduced to some very interesting artists, broad views and a mad blend of cultural diversity. Sometimes it's good to turn it off, and do something else, of course. But I do find it to be a great way to find a breathing space to work on an etching, draw in the journal, conceptualise about images or just zone out for a while. This week they had a segment about knitting as an artists tool - now there's a thought...

I've Been In Brisbane

Friday 18, August

It was a good stay in Brisbane - great to catch up with family and for a change I was staying with a friend at Southbank. This is an area that was developed post my departure from Queensland. Actually, it was originally developed for the Brisbane Expo in 1988. My brother was the sound man for the entire site - from working out where everything needed to be to the installation, with a bit of help of course! Anyway, this is the first time I have had the opportunity to really check out what they have done with it, and I must say that it is impressive! For once the council and local government have considered the people and Southbank is now a beautiful balance of native bush, flowering beauties, cafe's and shops, swimming (yes there is a beach like pool and more pools being built) and just superb walkways with a stunning arbour that runs most of the length of the parkland.

The arbour is planted with Bougainvillea to give some essential shade in the summer months, but they seem to keep it very tightly pruned. The curves bend in and out and the path twists its way around the site. One of the most impressive surprises is when you come across the Nepalese Temple, carved in Nepal as a celebration of peace and then transported to Brisbane and erected amognst a stunning stand of bamboo. I took a whole film there so hopefully something will come out ok from that!

Anyway, must be time to check in with uni and step back into the print zone...

Hobart Art Prize

Wednesday 9, August

The City of Hobart Art Prize this year is for jewellery and printmaking. Opening on the 19th of August and running until October 1st, the display of work will be a feature at the Tasmanian Museum and Art gallery.

The Sunshine Coast Art Prize is currently running at the Caloundra Regional Art gallery. The official luanch is on the 11th of August, and the exhibition runs until the 27th August. Check out their website for more details. Of course I mention this as I am heading up to Queensland for a few days whirlwind visit. Its the exhibition at the QUT museum I looking forward to! And the sunshine, and visiting my lovely daughter, and the Sunshine Coast gang, and...

First Proof

Sunday 6, August

It must look a bit strange when someone does their first proof. I know Steve finds it a bit disconcerting to have me standing-sitting-lying for long periods of time gazing into the same piece of paper. It's just part of the process, and an important one. The first proof tells a big story, and it takes a lot of thought and careful viewing to pick out details, interest (or whatever) which takes the print 'to the next level' as they say.

The proof is usually done on a piece of paper that is a bit cheaper than the one you would use for the edition or artist proof, so that has be taken into consideration when you look at how well the ink has taken to the paper, and the level of detail. It is also the calm moment of contemplation after a long flurry of developing the idea, working drawings and considering all the technical possibilties that would best suit the print that you want to make. Sometimes the process is short, sometimes it takes weeks, months or even years to actually get to the point where you are looking at the print you have been visualising in your head. No wonders artists have a reputation for being preoccupied at times!

So from here the etching needs to have all options considered - colour, paper, size of paper, and the detail within it - does it reflect the print that I had visualised? The plate can be reworked by either resurfacing with a ground and re-etching to strengthen areas or add detail, or drypoint. But for this plate I am happy to move on to print it with the colour that I had planned, as it is a part of a group of prints and that dictates its printing to a degree.

Etching Copper

Friday 4, August

Copper has qualities about it that are very seductive to me. Perhaps it is because my father did a lot of beautiful copper enamelling work, making bowls and pendants with stunning colours. He had his timber mold set up under the huge spread of the African Tulip tree and he would fire up the oxy torch to heat the metal then tap it into form over the mold. I have plenty of memories of watching him at work, and at times holding the torch while he patiently moved the copper (grasped firmly with big tongs) back and forth for a consistant heat. It was especially exciting to visit the Queenstown copper mine, undoubtedly a source for some of the copper that my father used. Its huge gaping wound of earth plunging into the copper core is a dramatic precipice which brought home the hungry quest for human interest. Digging forever deeper.

Anyway, I like to use copper for my printmaking for a number of reasons. Reasons that are needing to be justified and repeated frequently these days as other students or people interested in printmaking ask why I use it, in light of the fact that it is going up in price, and up and up. The softness of copper means that it can be used for drypoint, yet it has characteristics which mean that when it is etched the acid, or solution, will eat directly down into the scratched out area, rather than spreading horizontally as happens with steel for example. So the mark that you make is the mark that you get. It is also resilient, so you can use the other side, which is economical. It doesn't rust away in storage, and polishes up like new when you need it to! But apart from all that, it is just such a beautiful colour, and feels good, and that has to be the best of it!

The plate above is coated with bitumen, and then the design was marked onto the dry bitumen, and finally the design was scratched out to expose the copper. This is now in the etching process, having had one etch, I will now cover some areas (with more bitumen) that I want to be lighter than others, and etch it again. The deeper the etch the more ink it will hold, and so the deeper areas are the darker areas on the final print. This print is part of a group that are referring to sound - as triggers for memory of stress or trauma, but the final judgement isn't in yet! Heaps of work still to come! The design is casuarina needles, which I used as they make an eerie sound when the wind whistles through them. Quite enchanting if your feeling confident, spooky if your afraid (at night perhaps).

Exhibitions

Wednesday 2, August

Here is a bunch of exhibition notices I have gathered in the last few days...

• Larter Family Values - The work of Richard and Pat Larter, on at the Plimsoll Gallery until the 18th of August.
• John Lendis - examination exhibition at the Plimsoll Gallery - only open for the weekend from the 4th of August to Sunday the 6th.
• Schoolhouse Gallery Open Art Exhibition - opening on Sunday the 6th at 2pm and with over a hundred works it should be a good show! Open until August 27th.
• The Winnowing of the Grain - The Red Wall Gallery, Republic Bar and Cafe - no end date on the invite, but it looks like an interesting collection of artists including Dawn Csutoros and Geoffrey Dyer.
• Resonate, and exhibition by Liz Goulding at Entrepot, opening August 10th and again no end date on the invite.
• Also worth mentioning is the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery which offer artists working and talking live inthe gallery on every first Saturday of the month between 2pm and 4pm. The Big Draw from Tas uni are up on the 5th, and Hunter Island Press are demonstrating on September 2nd.