A Third Lakeland Sketchbook

The second step in dealing with binder's block is to take yourself off to your binding bench and start working on something mundane that doesn't require too much agonising about design or detail. I've set myself some forwarding tasks on the rebinding of a copy of Arthur Wainwright's A Third Lakeland Sketchbook and it seems to be doing the trick. My enthusiasm is returning and I'm feeling about ready to deal with a backlog of exhibition and other commitments and even starting to think about ideas for new projects.

Books ... beyond words

Over the years I've developed what, so far, has been a sure-fire way of working through binder's block. It's a two stage process, the first step of which involves just getting out and looking at what others are doing - not as a potential source of inspiration but simply a way of getting excited again. Step 1 is now complete with last weekend spent in Bairnsdale for the opening of East Gippsland Art Gallery's Books ... beyond words exhibition. The exhibition (which runs until 4 September) features over eighty artists' books from Australia and overseas and is a treat. There was a real buzz around the opening on Saturday evening and I was thrilled that my entry Cartographica (detail above) was awarded a Judges' commendation. The fun continued on Sunday morning with an opportunity to present my work as part of a series of floor talks by local book artists. More information on the exhibition can be found here.

Binder's block

Back from a month's walking on the Arnhem Land Plateau and suffering from a bad case of binder's block. Usually I'd come back all inspired and ready to go but this trip was physically more demanding than most and I fear that I'm just worn out. There's no enthusiasm to get back to work in the bindery, despite opportunities to take part in interesting projects, a new bunch of students looming and lots of work to do curating an exhibition that opens in Canberra next month. I took the photo above (a local rock platform detail) a few days ago in the hope that it will provide the inspiration for the cover board design for a landscape format book of sketches that I'm intending to submit for a fine binding exhibition scheduled for Sydney in November.