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roots and clouds

roots and clouds, originally uploaded by aesop.

[gasping out moonlight/ at grass thrust/ down flat]

squall

squall, originally uploaded by aesop.

['no sound of swifts now']

listen

listen, originally uploaded by aesop.

['while the wind-miller listens/to sweeps bidden into motion/by the shortening days.']

Another one that I think will benefit from some digital jiggery pokery.

One thing that's a benefit of deciding to do this thing with digital print is that I can now think about greys (and even colours!) again. I might also incorporate

cullin-stones

cullin-stones, originally uploaded by aesop.

turndust

Untitled-23, originally uploaded by aesop.

Turndust is going to be digital

Having thought long and hard about it, I've decided to reverse my decision to make turndust a screenprinted book. I simply won't have time to do the work I'd need to to do the best possible job before April. However, I still mean to commit to this book and do it right. Moreover, I still intend to use silscreen more: but I simply haven't the time to pull this large project out in time. I'll post about my plans for the book shortly.

dust down

dust down, originally uploaded by aesop.

[text: 'but you must keep the dust down.']

I'm fairly happy with this as is. I might do a bit of retouching though.

burn eight hours

burn eight hours, originally uploaded by aesop.

[text reads: 'go all night.They'll burn eight hours.']
At the time I thought this was a pretty good way to work with the patience and watchful trust in the machinery that I wanted to be part of the book. But I think now that it needs some reworking. Not least because the figure looks distinctly like he's going to drool on his chest. However, I think I'll keep the lighting/sihouette arrangement, and the winfdow becomes a kind of spatial anchor later in the series when the internal space of the windmill goes bonkers. I'll definitely be reworking this.

John Piper

I've been looking at 'Quality and Experiment': the prints of John Piper today. I knew I liked Piper, but now I find that I really want to be making things right now in order to study his work all the more deeply. I really love the combination of colour and markmaking he used- so serious and yet so interesting. He's the link between the 30's drawing that was going on in England and a much more European traition that has much more colour and gesture to it. It's possible to look at Piper again now and see the concerns he reflected through my own, particularly in my Whistling Copse series.

It does make me yearn for a smaller print project so that I could simply dive into the colour and marks without all the planning and sheer quality control that putting together a book-long thing is requiring of me. I must also note to myself that I haven't moved the process along very much in the last couple of weeks, despite staying busy. It's really time to start doing the computer work I promised myself I'd do, and to visualize some colour for the project. The Arnolfini fair looms...

adjusting the damsel

adjusting the damsel, originally uploaded by aesop.

[text reads: 'Go all night. They'll burn eight hours,']

I'm still not happy with this version, but it does have some of the darkness and enclosed feeling I want.