iceland

Iceland: Part 6

Afternoon walk today, the wind picked up and made my ears hurt. It's now whistling all around, the clouds are moving unbelievably fast. Looking, listening, picking up things. Painting bones. Making little scratches. Happy. 

 :: treasure! I hid it and am coming back for it ::

 :: "orange peel fungus," or Aleuria aurantia ::
 
:: tangled threads and nets ::

 :: seaweed ::

 :: collecting ::

:: little messages ::

Iceland: Part 4

:: Herhusid house ::

Today was bright and clear. Working on a big drawing, and little silverpoint drawings. Drawing shapes I am drawn to, that hold significance and memory for me. Fish scales, nets, animal heads, bows, pyramids, and bones. Old shapes. Thinking about the sea. Feeling a little under the weather, but went for a walk to my favorite place, the beach behind the industrial buildings, and the dump, where the waves break.

"On the sea, sea, sea, where the gods sit."


:: favorite place ::




Iceland: Part 3

It is snowing today, when I woke up the mountains were clouded in white. Yesterday, I started making little studies in silverpoint, pencil, and gouache. Grass, coastlines, mountain shapes, muted colors, layers of white. Today, I started a large drawing on the wall. This evening, I sat around a table with the director of the residency and others and I listened to and sang along to Icelandic folk songs. It was amazing.

 :: snowy mountain ::

 :: the studio ::

 :: the studio, with big paper on the wall ::

:: little study, silverpoint, graphite, and gouache ::


:: little studies ::

Iceland Part 2

First impressions of this island. There is so much texture, everywhere, I don't know if it's the air but there's a clarity and detail in the landscape that is overwhelming. The air smells like salt and earth. It's a beautiful smell that is something forgotten. The feeling of something forgotten. Monolithic shapes, black against white. White bone, white snow, black and white birds, black rocks, black bread. The grass that leans against itself, like sleeping heads. 








Iceland Part 1

I am spending a month in as an artist in residence at Herhúsið in the town of Siglufjörður on the Northern coast of Iceland. I've been fascinated by the North for a long time. I've never traveled to a foreign country alone, and now after 24 hours of planes, buses, and taxis, I feel like I am at the edge of the world. It's beautiful and strange and interesting, and my plan is to write and draw and take pictures, and share that with you on this blog and when I get home, hopefully make some sense of it all.

Today, I found a red hair on my head. I can only imagine this is an auspicious sign of things to come...







Stem and Stave

Wave runes shall you make
If you desire to ward
Your sail-steeds on the sound.
On the stem shall they be cut
And on the steering blade
And burn them on the oar.
No broad breaker will fall
Nor waves of blue,
And you will come safe from the sea,

- from the Saga of Volsungs

 :: Stem and Stave, Marianne Dages, 2013, letterpress print, polymer and type ::

:: detail ::
 :: detail ::

Collecting, Preparing...

This last week, I started preparing for my trip to Iceland in October. I didn't know where to start so I started with the practical things, what to bring, what to pack. I learned a few interesting things, that I should bring my own cold medicine, it's difficult to find, and that a bathing suit is a must, because in the words of a blogger, "swimming is socializing" in Iceland. 

When I was looking up the town of Siglufjordur, I found a lovely picture of the Herhusid house where I'll be staying, from the website of a previous resident, Julia Lohmann. She even had pictures of an incredible haul of mushrooms! It's like destiny.

:: The Herhusid House, which will be my home in October ::
:: another view, in the show from resident and poet, Mark Wunderlich ::

Siglufjordur is in the Northwest part of the island, the country's northernmost town in fact. It is 40 km from the Arctic circle and is home to about 1300 people. The town has a great deal of history connected to the herring industry, it was only connected by road to the rest of the island in 1940. 

:: Siglufjordur, the town where I'll be staying ::

I am in awe of the landscape already.

:: Wren feathers, ceramic, and shell ::

As my departure comes closer, I'm thinking more and more about what I will be creating. I don't know for sure what it will look like, but I do know I want to observe and collect, think and write, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

July!


:: summer in the studio ::

Hello! I hope your summer is going well!

:: handmade bookbinding tools, handmade by me ::

I just got back from a two week workshop at Penland School of Crafts in toolmaking for book artists. The workshop was taught by Shanna Leino, who makes beautiful unique handmade books and tools. It was amazing, challenging, fun, and incredibly satisfying to make a set of tools that I will use every day. I made a paring knife for thinning leather, with a blind tooled leather handle and case. Working with leather is incredibly fun, I would love to do more.

Let's see what else, this post is a bit of a catchup post to share projects that may have been overlooked.
I mentioned a few weeks ago about an unusual opportunity, me and my studio were filmed for a commercial. That commercial finally came out and you can see a peak of the Huldra Press shop and desk in the footage. Here's a link to the video on Youtube.


:: I was in a commercial! ::

That was a crazy day. I've also been keeping busy in the studio, making books, cards, working on a collaborative and custom projects, making new little things...


:: books all in a row ::

:: a new design, leather business card holder ::

:: a custom portfolio for a talented photographer, Katrina d'Autremont ::

I got to visit artist Gerard Brown, the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts run by Amanda D'Amico and look at the giant presses and chat with Gerard about his amazing signal flag inspired print in progress.

:: Gerard working on the registration for his offset edition print ::

:: me, photo courtesy Gerard Brown ::

I had a piece in a group show titled Facts and Fictions in New York at Recession Art Gallery. This same print, Red Fire, will be included in the Penland School of Crafts Annual Benefit Auction.

:: a piece in a show in New York! ::

The biggest thing on my mind though has been my upcoming residency in Iceland at Herhusid in Siglufjörður and the Due North exhibit in January. Due North will be an exhibit in conjunction with Philagrafika projects. I've been reading and collecting images, thoughts, ideas, theories, in preparation. One book I read was Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. There was a passage in Arctic Dreams that particularly struck me. where the author observes that the Arctic ecosystem is the youngest ecosystem, the last to develop post Ice Age, and that is why it's unvaried and simple relative to other ecosystems like the jungle. What he posits and what I keep thinking about is his observation that the Arctic ecosystem and landscape as we know it today is the same age as us, modern man. So we are in a way evolving, figuring it out together...


:: Siglufjörður, photo by Andres Thorarinsson::



This week

This week has been an interesting one with unexpected opportunities and surprises. I won't give away the secret just yet, but I will say that my studio will be featured in totally unexpected, and very cool, way. On film...

I've been working on prints for this mystery project.

 :: mystery words ::

 :: more mystery words ::

This week. I keep looking at minerals! I don't know what it means yet, but I'm fascinated how minerals mirror larger geological, meteorological, and other natural phenomena.

 :: a mineral disc ::

 :: more minerals ::

:: go forward ::

Serpents, Scales and Pyramids

Recurring Images and dreams.

:: Tile Scales ::

:: Louise Bourgouis, Swaying, 2006 ::

:: Agnes Denes, The Human Argument, 1974 ::

:: source unknown ::

:: Koryak armor ::

:: Marianne Dages, Quoin ::

:: Marianne dages, Chymia ::

:: marianne dages, i had that dream again ::

:: waves, from a very old book I own ::

:: Iceland, herringbone pattern in house, photograph by Andrew Frederick ::


:: Animal figures and patterns from various Udeghe shaman’s costumes, shoes and bands ::

Language is a virus


 :: Yukaghir "love letter" ::

:: Drumconwell Ogham Stone ::


:: Icelandic Magic Staves ::

 :: Saami Runebomme ::

 :: Chinese Bamboo Annals ::

:: Traditional Croatian Tattoos ::

:: my print, Small Fires No. 3 ::

I'm very interested in pictographic images as modes of communication and their relationship to folklore. I've also been looking at the distortion of language and information that occurs as cultural objects
and stories are viewed out of context by outsiders.

 The images I make are a personal and idiosyncratic dictionary of symbols with pictographic imagery rooted in the history and folklore of the Arctic. They are an attempt to communicate with the long gone and far away, and to create a new personal narrative and connection to these far off places.

The Iceland Book

Making progress on the design for my new book. I've spent the last month doing sketches of sorts. Little pictographic drawings, imaginary maps, experimental prints, etc. to get a feel for what I want the look and feel of the book to be. It's getting there.

The inspiration for the book is Iceland. New worlds. Far travel. That's all I'll say for now.

 :: drawings ::

This will be the first time I've digitally designed a book before letterpress printing it. The editions I've made before this have been handset and the imagery hand-carved or manually produced some other way. This book will include many drawings, but I wanted to incorporate photo imagery and to use a typeface that is not available in metal. So InDesign it is.

:: first draft - computer printout ::

I finished my first draft and printed it on a laserjet to get a feel for the scale. Boy does it look different than on screen! 

Everything needs tweaking...


:: first draft - computer print out ::

I've wanted to go to north for years, since I read Bulfinch's Mythology and of The Hyperborea, the land beyond the Northern Wind. I know this book will bring me there, in some way, shape, or form.  

:: Islande ::