Ruth's Book - The Happy Accident of finding good Coffee

This piece and post tells the tale of wandering randomly around Frankfurt one day, because I had a spare hour before a dance show I wanted to see and suddenly coming across a long, LONG queue outside a shop, like out the door and round the corner long.

So I stopped to investigate and saw that this was a coffee shop. I haven't seen this happen since Mexico and my beloved Jarocho's,

so felt that I had to stop and find out what all the fuss was about, and this is how I discovered Wacker's Kaffee, which is basically the best coffee in town by a mile.

So why has it taken me so long to put the post together. Well......, when I was working on the piece for Petr's book, I borrowed/stole some material from a quilter I know. When I went over there to pick the pieces up I saw something she had done, which was to transfer images onto the material herself.
It's easy she said - and I knew it was something I wanted to try - but trying to get this to work has resulted in about 20 different starts and attempts - until I finally had this.
The moral of the tale is be cautious when someone who routinely makes double bed size pieces of textile art says something is easy!

The backing of the main part is the foil cover of a Wacker's Coffee bag (which you can see peeking through, covered with a transferred map of Frankfurt centre with my little wander embroidered on it - and finally covered with an embroidered Wacker's emblem - which is what took the time - I ended up embroidering through a photocopy then removing the paper - old school is sometimes best.

It sort of worked. I hated the top layer the moment I finished it as the lettering wasn't as clear as I wanted, but rather than throw another attempt at this piece in the bin, decided to sleep on it.
It grew on me with a bit of distance and I sort of like the fuzziness of the emblem and that it blurs the edges of the piece.

The good news is that I now sort of get this transferring stuff, so Erin's book is going to get a super-kitsch entry next.

Petr, I miss you dude!

ERIN'S BOOK / PETR'S ENTRY

I read Erin’s sketchbook as a series of tributes to a place, or an aspect of a place. Prague keeps on being such an essential part of my heart, such an incredible place to live, I feel like I’m in sync with the rhythm and tune of this place since my first days here and it’s just getting better, though I most likely don’t make the best out of all the opportunities it brings. I’m fascinated by cities – organisms of concrete, iron and glass. I keep on imagining empty cities and realize that we’re indeed the blood of a city – the circulatory system of human movement – people and their lives and how they shape their closest environments. People I find fascinating too – strangers, neighbours, friends – carriers of stories known and unknown, mysteries ordinary, unbelievable & unraveled. Walking streets, travelling public transport, every moment I try to imagine stories of anonymous by passers, what do they carry within, and how interconnected all is. I decided to pay my tribute to Prague through paying tribute to its people. This series in a way is an illustration of a music vid to a song Planet Prague by my friend Vladimir – the song too is a tribute to the people who bring life to my city. I made drawings of some of the vid characters on a tracing paper, overlaid them over another tracing paper featuring various maps of Prague and overlaid both over a sewing pattern from an old German magazine for women – this pattern provided the basis of numerous interconnected lines – fates – destinies. Finding the maps was a brilliant exercise, I realized how differently we navigate our environments, depending on our purposes, aims and goals in a given space and time. Some of the featured maps map intensity of traffic, level of sound pollution, public transport maps – day and night and plenty more.

Lindsey for Petr Book

Hmmm. I'm not sure this copied correctly. As I was reflecting about this entry and some of my favorite Springsteen's lyrics, I stumbled onto this one: "The BEST music, you can seek some shelter in it momentarily, BUT it's essentially there to provide you something to face the world..." The last winter I was in Prague, I went to  Nuremberg Christmas market and bought a handful of  of old beautiful stamps. My favorite was of this cool globe, so I wanted to use it as the backdrop of a piece. From there, I found this quote. I often use music as a mood regulator (perhaps we all do) and this image of a female warrior (bottom left corner) came to mind. She's doing a great job of facing the world head on. With my move to Toronto, getting married, changing jobs, etc, I've had to take a lot of leaps of faith. No matter how extroverted one person is, it's difficult to move to new cities and build new communities. Although I'd rather live in a city where I don't need a car, my job is in a far off suburb, and I've embraced this commute by making it full of music and podcasts- the are my emotional support for processing my day- and help me "face the world!"

Erin's Book, Ruth's Entry

Erin, your book got me thinking but there was so much to think about I got bogged. I know these pages need something more but I'm a bit stumped. I wish I had more materials. I have gone back to my 'making do' and yes, there may be lipstick on this piece.

I took from Erin a couple of things. Roughly the theme of my city, my life. And riffed off the repeated colours and shapes idea that were used, just in a different way. My little windows are in some cases as subtle as a sledgehammer. Yes, that IS a kangaroo. And others...too disconnected to explain (that's my stance and I'm sticking to it).

I am loving this city. Last night a friend and I cycled down to the river in town to grab something to eat and then cycled on to an outdoor concert in the Botanical Gardens: 'Arcade Fire'. Canadian. The city is alive with great things to do and the centre of town is less than 10 minutes along a bike track. It's a beautiful summer at last and I'm making the most of it.

Petr, you are next with this. Have a play with my pages to extend. This is where I miss not being able to stroll over to your lovely art space, inappropriate music playing, and get some advice. It is only a beginning of an idea. It needs a hell of a lot more. Just not sure what. I'm also reluctant to hang onto it longer given my late start.

Love to you all! Come visit!

RUTH'S BOOK / PETR'S ENTRY

All right, so it looks like I've gone a little nuts with how many spreads I dare to "take" but I figured that since we're only 5 in this rotation why not to fill in some, hope, Ruth, you won't mind ...

I dig your entry, Ruth, and immediately upon opening your book I knew that I'll work with the motif of clouds as I find them a fitting symbol of hope - hoping for happy accidents is your theme. As I was looking through my drawers for various materials to cut the clouds from I came upon this stencil like chocolate box I once found in a recycle bin and decided to use it as a stencil to spray paint over various images somewhat resonating with the theme of happiness - a child's smile, angel, wedding photo, hands in the process of making, intersecting paths, and a narval - especially for you, Ruth.

I gotta say I had so much fun working in your book! See my workspace and some details.

Hoping For Happy Accidents

I'm so pleased to get back to this. Just sorry it took so long for inspiration to strike. The theme of my book is 'Hoping for Happy Accidents'. Coming back to your own country, where supposedly you belong, inevitably forces you to take stock of things so far. Nothing very original, but nonetheless pretty powerful. I have decided that my life has been a serious of unplanned events, crazy diversions and random experiences. I wouldn't change it for the world but what do you do with that mode of living when you find yourself trying to 'settle down'. To be honest I don't even know what that looks like so I guess I can't fuck it up (can you swear on this blog?). Anyway, crazy year full of wonder that has been balanced by the sometimes not so great. It turns out that it is true that you learn a lot from the crap. The tiny text on my collage reads 'Grey is often misunderstood'.
I'm going to dedicate this to my pop who died this week (can you mention death on this blog?) He was 97. He was a sheep wheat farmer in the flat brown of the Australian wilderness. He had a hand like a baseball mitt.
xx  

Lindsey for Anne- Missing Praha

Around the holidays I get very nostalgic about my time spent in Prague. The Christmas markets and winter festivities are so amazingly done in Europe, that almost anything else feels like a let-down. I was shopping in Toronto and ran across a super cute stationary store on Bloor St. I love stationary! There were a few shelves in the back that had stickers and images from a few select cities around the world- like Hong Kong, Paris, London, etc...and then, there was Prague. I knew I had to buy them and do something with the images. Completing this entry was a lovely walk down memory lane. Tis my Ode to Praha.

Magic - Part 2

Just finished my response for Petr's book in good old fashioned style - on the bus to Spindleruv Mlyn with Nikki at my side.
The idea being to illustrate the song Magic by Bruce Springstein, I started with the hanging men that Petr had finished with, but let them hang a little differently. I sort of went for the last two lines before the refrain in each verse and mix them up together, so the rabbit is hiding in the magicians hat which normally he tries to draw a bunch of flowers from, but this time he's gotten a whole forest for the ghosts to hang from.
This piece is a whole lot bigger than the pieces I've done before, basically the story kept on getting more complex, at one point I thought I'd turned into Ruth, with this fantastic story for how the men had escaped from their fate in the trees and caught a ride into this new world…………

I got a rabbit in the hat
If you wanna come and see
This is what will be
This is what will be


Trust none of what you hear
And less of what you see
This is what will be (This is what will be)
This is what will be

Driftin' like a ghost amongst the trees
This is what will be
This is what will be (This is what will be)


Bodies hanging in the trees
This is what will be (This is what will be)
This is what will be

Erin's Book

So, Sketchers, take 3?!  It's hard to believe that this is my third Sketchers book, time does truly fly.  I am attempting to find myself as an artist.   Things still look better in my head than they do on paper.  I don't really have a theme for this book, my mind is all over the place as I experience a new work environment and a new city, so technically my first few pieces are about some of my impressions of Sao Paulo.   It is the 7th largest city in the world and there is a lot going on.   I haven't had much of a chance to explore yet, but as I do I'll hopefully be able to add some of those experiences to further pieces of work.

I've put a few pieces in my book to start with, one about food, one about colour and culture and one about the contrasts in my neighbourhood.

Anne's Book - the continuing story

Hi All,

My book is now on it's 3rd year of existence. I liked my themes and decided that I wasn't ready to be done with it yet. Petr's fabulous sketches of everyone gave me an idea about how I'm going to fill in any spaces when I get my book back at the end of this year.

So you have 2 themes
The Little Things in Life
Strangely Normal

There are also 5 places where you can put your piece - just join on to any existing piece and use as little or as much space as you like.

My piece to start is a mixture of both - the little things in life is seeing the last leaf on a tree. It's strangely normal, as I keep on with my embroidery theme but wanted to explore something different, so went for a barely there approach - keeping the colours very close to the colour of the material.

It's a bit too subtle in the photo, the 3D effect of the embroidery adds a bit more in real life.

Petr's Book / Entry One

I was considering quite a few themes for my book and in the end decided for one I had on mind for quite a long time throughout the many exchanges. I'd like to ask all who will contribute in this book to interpret/illustrate a segment of or an entirety of a lyric - namely Bruce Springsteen's "Magic". This lyric (and the song) have got a real magic to it - at least for me - hence my choice. 

I decided to illustrate various parts of the song in a flow of imagery across a couple spreads. I chose black and white and red as my key colours and went for simple silhouette-like images. I wanted to create something similar in ink for quite a while and so I really appreciated this opportunity.

Hope you'll have as much fun as I did!

Music here 

Lyric including my initial sketch below: