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In Morocco, moushrabiyas or geometrical screens keep Muslim women hidden from view. These screens allow women to observe their surroundings without themselves being seen.

When making an Artists’ Book with this beautiful young lady, I asked her in sign language if she had some scissors. She took me to her room where she flicked on the TV. A static zig zag pattern filled the screen. The room was set up for her family, three outfits hung on rope across one corner of the room. We tore the sheet of paper, folded it and sewed it together with a piece of thread we found. I wondered what this girls’ future was going to be. This idea was the impetus for my book.  Zellig, also spelled Zellige, is a collage of patterns making up the tile decoration in Morocco. When making the book I used a collage of my work made up of my poems, paintings, drawings and photography.

Iris printing, on Somerset 175 gram soft white, by Urban Digital Color.

Typography and letterpress printing by Norman Clayton One Heart Press.

A limited edition of twenty copies and three artists proofs
Bound by John DeMerritt, Emeryville.
Copyright by Carla Trefethen Saunders
San Francisco, California 2000 $750.00

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One of the pleasures of traveling is meeting people and being invited to visit their homes. In Egypt we were sailing down the Nile in a felucca when we were invited to stop by our guide’s home on an island. We shared a pot of tea and he showed us his neighborhood. In Bhutan I had an impromptu lunch prepared by my friend’s sister. Our hosts in Japan treated us to a traditional tea ceremony in a little tea house in their garden.

One evening we struck up a conversation with some travelers visiting our city. Wanting to continue our conversation we brought them home. In the kitchen we found walnuts, raisins and port. The evening was filled with stories and laughter. The next morning the table and the floor were covered with walnut shells, a few raisins and an empty bottle of port. We had a good time.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57402101-93/instagram-clicks-with-hipstamatic/

I’ve had hipstamatic on my phone for about a year but never really used it. I tried it out on some tulips. Wow, I like the results. I had nothing to do with it. I have no idea what I am doing. So here we are – thinking about Gauguin in San Francisco.

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We are going backwards here. The top image is the last one painted. This is the first painting I’ve done in over a year. Here is your official notification Terry,  http://terrygreenepainting.wordpress.com/paintings-2011/  I’ve been following Terry’s just another painter blog. Gail, http://www.gailtrobertson.com/helped get me to this point, also. This little series of 6″ x 8″ images started out with me going to to a friend’s house and making collages. I didn’t know what I was doing – no inspiration. I came home with nothing. The next morning at 5 am I was tearing up magazines. Abstract eight – Shadow was born. That reminded me of a photograph I had taken showing the shadow of a sculpture in my apartment. Early morning sun hit the stone sculpture in a way that created a soft realistic shadow of a nude.

click on image of Impalas

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I was thinking about Terry Greene’s work on edges. http://terrygreenepainting.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/de-kooning-on-painting/