The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon

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Ross Langdon's Twenty Four

Sunday 31, October

The end of the month is about to roll over and Ross celebrates his birthday! He has a lot to celebrate this year as it is his final year of the long architecture degree. Great stuff Ross, so many options lay ahead for you!

On the uni front it is time to wind up all the projects and peel the layers of test prints form the wall. The picute shows how much I have dominated the shared space - lucky Iona is a part-time student and is only just starting to warm up to producing work and making mess. This week begins the task of laying all the work out, deciding which prints are best and putting together the displays. Also starting this week is the completion of the main plate work that will form my gallery presentation. The plates are in the process of being turned into steel forms that closley resemble a painters canvas in depth, and each being 900mm x 700mm will hopefully be a strong work.

Paper Everywhere

Thursday 28, October

Apart from having stacks of prints drying or waiting between sheets of newsprint paper, and of course the paper prints themselves, 'The Paper' is the main topic of conversation in the hallways and hideholes of the art school. Everyone is waiting for the moment they can relinquish the burden of the written word and get back to enjoying the last gasp of creating arty stuff. No I haven't finished my paper yet, but it is its final writhing squirms of the editors critique (thats me and hopefully Steve when he gets over his exam today) and then it can be cast into the hands of the mysterious six who stand in judgment upon my year of hard labour. Also happening about the place is the final burst of self-promotion as email and hard copy invitations to events drift about the system. One I would like to pass on is the website of James Newitt . He has quite a range of work and deserves a bit of adoration for it!

I Can See The End!

Tuesday 26, October

Printing all morning I had a lot of things brewing in my head - seems to be a gurgling effect of four years of printmaking study coming to a conclusion. Bubbling up are all the issues, highlights and lows. But for the day, the high note has to be that I can actually see my project coming together and meeting the deadline! Phew! My steel plates are being turned into 3D art works as I write by the head metal shop guy - thanks Stuart! It will be such a relief to see the first one, the vision in my head, come to fruition. Its a heavy load when you are the only one who can see what the end result is, and I'm hangin' out to unburden!

Queensland Gardens

Monday 25, October

Every time I visit my family in Queensland I can't resist taking plenty of snaps of my brother and sisters' gardens. They each have unique qualites, but with the one common factor that gardens grow so much faster in the steamy north. It is awesome to go back to the old stomping ground and find that everything is twice as grown over as it was last time. It can be disconcerting at times. Wandering around the streets near my old home in Buderim was a major spin as a lot of the really big old trees had gone, and so for me I had lost my identifiers of place. Apart from being gone, in their place was a jungle of growth bursting out of a jungle of houses! The massive growth brings a mass of life with it and the air is full of sound from the birds and rustle of leaves as tiny lives make their way. The Sunshine Coast is a great place to be.

Honing The Exhibition

Sunday 24, October

The honours group has been busy trying to get all the details pinned down for the exhibition. It is opening on the 19th of November and we will have a guest speaker to indulge us with an opening speech at 6.15pm. Of course all the artists involved are neck deep in getting our work finalised, let alone chasing after sponsors and helpers to keep the cost down. We are just poorly artists after all! I had a play in photoshop and put together this invitation for web readers, the photo being a swirl of water beside the yacht I was on when I travelled to Sarah Island on a geography/art excursion. Anyone who is in Hobart from the 19th to Sunday the 28th of November is welcome to browse through the honours exhibition at the Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania Art School, Hunter Street, Hobart.

Psycroptic Youth

Saturday 23, October

Working in the printroom today I couldn't help but wonder what has happened to the music obbsessed youth years. I guess that most have their choice plugged firmly into their ears and are oblivious to what is going on about them and equally so don't share what their into. I have to ask though, is classical music really essential in the printroom? Every time I have worked late or out of hours the radio is on full bore with classical, opera or jazz (yes jazz) belting out. I'm sorry ladies and gents, I just don't get it. Surely something a bit uplifting would stimulate the creative juices? Perhaps I'm missing the cultured gene.

Apparently not a problem for the band Psycroptic though. Members David and Joe Haley are old friends of my sons and seeing these mild boys create the most noise out of them all still astounds me! They are about to set off on a European tour and have a fabulous following in the heavy metal world. So good on you guys and good luck!

Pegging Down The Image

Thursday 21, October

With only a couple of weeks to go I am still working on new images and printing up the ones I have been developing. Madness I think. I also think that no matter how long you develop technical skill in an area, there will always be something that will jump up and bite you on the bum when you least expect it. Our honours room doesn't really have much to offer space wise when it comes to laying prints out to dry. The hanging racks are the obvious choice and is usually the way to dry the lithograph prints. Except, as I now know, when you have given the paper a thorough coating of a backgroud colour. Apparently, as I now know, the lithograph ink that goes on top can't penetrate at all, thus creating a wet surface that takes a long time to dry and if you happen to PEG the image up, then you will be left with nasty little peg marks where the soft ink has been squashed and absorbed into the peg or paper that overlays the print (presumably to prevent peg marks). Well its back to the press for me...

e.e.cummings

Wednesday 20, October

Reaserching for my honours project can sometimes lead me off on a meandering path rather than a direct line. Of course this can be a good thing considering how dull life would be if we never ventured beyond the normative boundaries laid down social and moral expectations. e.e. cummings has been such a delicious distraction from my printmaking turmoil that I felt compelled to pass on this one enriching piece of poetry that has become an element in one of my prints and a rhythum in my head. Thanks Steve for pointing me to it, and remarkably reciting it having learnt it twenty years ago - unbelievable!

• somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
• any experience,your eyes have their silence:
• in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
• or which i cannot touch becuase they are too near
• your slightest look easily will unclose me
• though i have closed myself as fingers,
• you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
• (touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
• or if your wish to be close to me,i and
• my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
• as when the heart of this flower imagines
• the snow carefully everywhere descending;
• nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
• the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
• compels me with the colour of its countries,
• rendering death and forever with each breathing
• (i do not know what it is about you that closes
• and opens;only something in me understands
• the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
• nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

Anyone For Coffee?

Saturday 16, October

It could only be at art school that you see such a range of coffee wannabees. With hardly an 'N' amongst them, this pile of mysterious looking substances expand, disssolve or brew into apparently drinkable solutions. Perhaps I should take note considering that I am allergic to the well known 'N' coffee. I'm told it is probably the chemicals that are used to extract the last tiny drops of flavour from the coffee beans, or perhaps its the magical stuff they put in to the coffee 'instant'. Anyway, I'll have to stick to freshly ground and brewed coffee - poor me!

From A Constructed Tasmanian World

Saturday 16, October

Currently on exhibition in Fitzroy at the Port Jackson Press are seven printmakers who are either currently teaching or are past students of the Tasmanian University Art School. Raymond Arnold, Milan Milojevic, Barbie Kjar, Karen Lunn, Tracey Cockburn, Michael Schlitz and Susan Pickering have come togther to create an awsome exhibtion of recent work. The Port Jackson website has some excellent images of their work. Just go to exhibitions in the menu bar, then scroll to the 'From A Constructed Tasmanian World' link to the images. Scary to think that all but Susan Pickering have been my teachers over the last four years! Now there's a high bar!

Paul Zika

Wednesday 13, October

Our illustrious leader for honours is Paul Zika, a confident man with what seems to be a mostly permanent curve upwards in the corners of his mouth (although his picture on the link defies me). Perhaps it is his device for avoiding the tug of student oppressive demand, or perhaps he harbours a secret that brings joy to his footsteps every moment of the day. He let loose his mothers secret to great poppyseed cake - grinding the milk soaked seed prior to mixing into the cake, straight from Europe and the heart of the home. His artwork has a context all on its own and sighs with indepth research and understanding.

Print Stack At Two Meters High

Tuesday 12, October

I'm a bit of a hoarder, well yes it would be nice to be able to move about the garage freely, and maybe even get the car in (hehehe), but there are times when a hoard of something is really the 'thing' that identifies a person for who they are in a most personal and intimate way. I feel like that about my prints, and despite a friend pointing out that by the time I give the game away I will have a two meter high stack to contend with even though I only keep one of each print. And? Surely there could be no better way for distant relatives in a distant time to be able to see who there great great grandma was. Of course chances are by then the prints will have become mulch in the gardens of time, and only shreds will remain, but the intention is there.

William Kentridge

Monday 11, October

Ross recently went to an exhibition featuring William Kentridge and was very taken by this mans skill and ability to express through his work. There is a lot on the net about his life and work, so worth a 'google' if your interested, or check his work out live at the Museum Of Contempory Art, Sydney if your in that city. Their website has a selection of images from the exhibition and a really cool Flash menue too!

Wandering Craig

Monday 11, October

My oldest son Craig is currently residing and working in London after having a trip about Europe and spending time with his partners Irish family. Not due back in Australia for a few more months, a package arrived recently with a bundle of films for processing. Its a good way to get around the excess baggage problem when a backpack is your only suitcase. So I have been busy having the films developed a couple at a time and the story of his stay in England is unfolding! I take my hat off to the travellers, they're getting on with living and all that modern lifestyle can offer! Oh, and here's a glimpse of one of your photos Craig!

Multimedia At Tafe

Monday 11, October

Now here's a thing - regret is an unecessary word to a very large degree in my vocabulary. Whats the point in reflecting on life and seeing where things could have been different or better or oh so life affecting if choices had been made to walk a different path. Ultimately we are creatures of life's patina, so with that in mind and without that 'r' word holding me back I have been doing an online Tafe multimedia course that has filled many hours of spare time with some often mind bending torment and just as often a relaxing after uni kind of thing to do. OK, so I'm a bit addicted to study, I can think of worse! Anyway, one project was to produce a small website, with certain criteria like sound on the buttons and using a range of the Flash skills we had learnt. It is basic, but hey, you gotta start somewhere! At the moment we are learning some Dreamweaver basics and then on to some 3D mind twisting which is set to take me through to March next year....and then I guess I'll have to reassess my study addiction - printmaking masters? multimedia diploma?

Another Week Gone

Friday 8, October

Never to return is the week that was. Full of flu the days seemed to be flashing by at an even more alarming rate than they usually do. Perhaps its the euphoric nature of the eucalyptus anticol lollies I have been living on in a desperate attempt to maintain then necessary momentum to get this honours year project wound up. I have two spaces to hang my work in, one being tha main gallery space and the other is a section of the painting area on the third floor of the university arts center. The work that will be in the Plimsoll Gallery has to be a cohesive single work, while the other space can have all the 'other stuff', displayed in a tastful manner of course! It kind of helps to know what the space is going to look like, giving me dimensions and a 'feel' (ooo how arty) for the display environment, considering things like lighting and floor and wall surfaces. Now all I have to do is finish the work...

Handspun Mary Scarf

Wednesday 6, October

Mary has been busy this winter wrapping the Tassie branch of the family in fabulous handspun scarves that resemble treasures just as much as they do a practicle item of clothing! Her last one arrived just on the cusp of spring and is a blend of wool, alpaca and silk in a super colour brew. Almost enough to ask for more cold days...almost...

Pressure Cooker Steaming

Tuesday 5, October

Although we have a booking system for the postgrad presses, it is still a matter of being sensible and giving way when someone is in the middle of something, or you can work at a different time. But its pressure time, and that means that in the next few weeks there will be challenges to importance as the ego trippers get out of hand and start pushing into space they feel they deserve. It seems to be a disease of young and old, but definately more prominent in the younger crowd. Perhaps they are making their mark on the world. Oh ho hum.

Coloured Background Options

Monday 4, October

There has been a few conversations echoing about the printroom recently regarding the various ways applying a coloured background to paper prior to printing an image. Textured backgrounds can be achieved by using collograph or the marked surface of a plate (my last one was achieved by rubbing the plate across a concrete surface!) which is then either rolled up rubbed with ink to form degrees of tone and marks. For a smooth colour an unmarked plate is rolled up evenly. The intensity of the colour can be influenced by the treatment of the paper prior to printing the background. Soaking the paper in water will allow the ink to seep into the paper, thus producing a softer tone, while using dry paper retains a more intense colour. This can be enhanced by printing the paper with white ink prior to printing the colour, which ensures maximum colour retention. There are no doubt many ways to apply background colour, so experimentation is the best method of all!

Outback Dreaming

Sunday 3, October

My mum has been travelling to some amazing remote places in the Australian outback for several years now. It is her escape from the Tasmanian winter and perhaps more importantly, an extension of her central self that cirlces back to years she spent as a child on a remote sheepstation in Queensland. Her affinity with the ancient landscape of sculpted rocks and oceans of sandy soil; the result of a seemingly endless onslaught of weathering without the refreshing turbulance created by unstable earth crust conditions, is reflected in her passion to exist in the most minimalist way within the landscape and capture moments on film so that housebound people like me can feel a part of her way of seeing. Her photography has moved in leaps in bounds along with her ability to embrace the challenges of travelling solo. Enjoy!

Sprung Out Foetal

Friday 1, October

The new month rolling on finds me curled up in that foetal position wishing the days were longer and the nights needed no sleep. But as the day went on and the swelling between my ribs was just an inflamed bone from exercise exertion and not a hernia (thanks doc), the leg prints I have been struggling to bring to life do have another life hidden away that I am tracking down and three weeks is really a long time in the life of a printmaker if you dedicate yourself to it. So bottoms up at the art school ball tonight, and onward to crunch time!