There are phases in my life when, before I go to sleep, I think about my art. I wake up thinking about what I made the day before. As soon as possible, I go to that piece in order to find out what it has to say. The paintings, drawings and photographs are tumbling out of my body. Without judging, I keep going.
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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
Zellig 2000
Limited edition of 20 with 4 artist’s proofs
Letterpress, iris prints, vellum UV Ultra 11 white, Somerset 175 gram soft white,
Rives heavyweight buff and Lamili Lokta paper
Images and poems by the artist
Original drawing
8 x 8 inches
This book is in the following collections:
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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.
We interrupt this travel series on Artist’s Books, poems and abstract art to bring you an up date on Radiation – 80 Drawings in 80 Days. Six months later and I thought I’d be rid of it all. Spinal accessory nerve injury from surgery resulted in trapezius paralysis and neck stiffness. I couldn’t move my arms up in front of me or up out to the side – not at all. Just finished physical therapy on that one. I graduated with honors.
My speech therapist has put me on a maintenance schedule for strengthening my swallowing. Hopefully, time will heal my voice a little more. I am to continue to let it rest and recuperate after increased usage. Don’t talk on the phone or in noisy resturants. Keep your vocal cords moist. Drink ginger tea. It is an anti-inflammatory treatment. Along with a cancer tumor under the back of my tongue, 70 lymph nodes were taken out so liquids have become my saliva. My taste buds are coming back slowly, but I don’t like chocolate, spaghetti with parmesan cheese, wine, beer! I hope these taste buds comes back.
Listening to NPR I discovered a band called Stew and The Negro Problem. He wrote a song called ‘Speed.’ I weigh 94 pounds. Clothes look great on me. But, the docs want me to gain weight. (I’ve always had the opposite problem) Maybe it’s time to get a little cannabis, eat and stay up late creating brilliant art.
So I woke up to an image on my phone. Someone had been mugged, badly roughed up. It’s my brother! Now he is a tough guy. A tough guy who races automobiles. Jeeze, he’s been in an accident. No word, just a photograph he must have taken the picture of himself with his phone so at least he is conscious. Turns out, you know those electric powered scooters with big wheels? You stand on them and lean forward or backward to make them go. Guess he tried out a Segway and hit a transition in the road. Broke two ribs and really roughed up his eye. Being the artist in the family I immediately uploaded the photo and did a little touchup in Lightroom. Pretty cool colors. Maybe he’ll send me another when the eye is yellow green. Go back to NASCAR racing. It’s safer.
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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.
