Looking back over aspects of art & life in 2020

 

If you asked me what the main art themes and works for 2020 were I could not answer you. This is where regular blogging comes in handy - one can review the year by checking out the annual posts. 

Apart from the pandemic, this year has been a big year for Fiona and I in that we moved Fiona's studio and the letterpress into a commercial premises, sold our house on Mountain View Road, moved into a two bedroom town house in Maleny Grove village and secured workshop space for my metal and sculptural work. 

The first photo above of the timber logs and cubes was part of my preparation to move - a big clean up in January and using materials where I could. We did put the house on the market in March but then took it off almost immediately as covid hit and realestate inspections was not a thing. 

The Deckled Edge Press studio-gallery-shop was leased in February and we moved the Fiona's studio and the letterpress studio - no small task  - but of course  we couldn't open our doors because of covid. We eventually opened to the public in June 2021 - limited numbers and lots of covid conditions.

Though Deckled Edge Press was not open to the public (March-June), the new space and covid closure gave us a great opportunity to really set up the studio and shop; and also start doing more printing. The first project Fiona and I did was to jointly print a rainbow of kindness - seven mini posters in colours of the rainbow.

Hope and kindness became a two strong themes in my printing in the in the March- June period. In the challenging times we all needed to remember hope.

Because the house was off the market and we had cleared out my sculpture stash at 601 I balanced letterpress printing at Deckled Edge Press with small art creations including: earrings, daily leaf word sets, and product for Maleny Additions.

Dusting powder also became a bit of a thing for me in 2020. As part of the hope theme I printed give-away cards including the out of darkness series. I liked how the purple words popped out of the black with a bit go bling. 

To give ourselves a more creative challenge Fiona and I decided to make an artist book each based on an agreed framework, words of a friend and images (found or our own). I decided on a single page book using words from a poem (love heals) by our friend Mary-Jane Dodd. Printed on vellum like paper with an image of one of my fractured vessels on the reverse side of the sheet.

The house at 601 went back on the market and sold in August - we had to make a decision about the peace bell. In the end custodianship was given to friends Sue and Steve who live in a rainforest and had a special hanging frame  for the bell - it is still rung for significant occasions.

In the last quarter of the year I have become more and more agitated about the impact of male patriarchy and gender inequality; and some of my posters have reflected that 

Whilst our federal government has done some good things in the early half of the pandemic it is now reverting to type and once again ignoring gender inequality, the unemployed, poverty and the environment. My frustration regarding the latter found expression in the 'rewild the world' poster.

To build local knowledge about our studio and shop we have had a couple of open studios in the second half of the year. Our last one was in late November - so good to have many of our lovely and generous supporters visiting and also buying our work. The photo below is of the set up for open studio in November.

The year has come to an end but before it did I was able to share my new workshop with a couple of young men. Maybe sharing my workshop will become a bit more of a feature of my art life in the future if people want to do that.

So you can see from the fragments above 2020 has been a challenging year; but it has also offered Fiona and I a new start and opportunity to our art life and our life in general. It will be interesting to see how 2021 unfolds and what opportunities we will grasp.

Three cubes that were cut at 601 in January have weathered nicely in place in our garden at 119.