Sandra Brownlee - tactile journals and the written word

this week i had the great pleasure of being a student in a class led by my friend Sandra Brownlee

she surprised us each with a gift of paper

together with a candle and a box of matches

and an exquisitely bound stone heart

after asking us to talk about the relevance of the notebook to our practice

[i had to admit i begin a notebook with exquisite attention to detail

arranging things as though the pages were a secret chamber in a wunderkammer...

which doesn't last as within a short space of time those pristine pages

resemble nothing so much as a piece of sticky flypaper

hanging in some grungy ktichen]

her first instructions were

"cover your notebook so that you want to hold it"

so

i did.

i think i'll cover all of my notebooks with padding and cloth 

from now on

it makes them good to hold

and

having cloth inside the back cover is rather useful for wiping messy fingers.

+  +  +

each morning began with a ritual drawing session

to focus mind and body on the task at hand

Sandra presented us with an abundance of things to read and gaze at

pegged out nicely on a clothesline

we worked with letters and words

and i overcame an inherent mistrust of embroidery hoops

there may be more of them in my future
+  +  +

at the end of today

i farewelled the view

the dog

and the river

and friends from near and far 
but not for too long

as 

i will be back in June next year

to take Michel Garcia's indigo class

and work on a shared exhibition project with a local sculptor