Typewriter Art : A Modern Anthology





The wonderful artist, designer and typewriter aficionado Barrie Tullet recently had his Typewriter Art book published by Lawrence King. He purchased a copy of my edition 'A Fair Place to Live' during Edinburgh Fruitmarket Gallery's 'BookMarket' event. He was kind enough to feature the work in his Anthology.

 A little bit about the book
'The first typewriter artist to find fame was Flora F. F. Stacey, with her butterfly drawing of 1898; but since the very beginning of the typewriter’s existence, artists, designers, poets, and writers have used this rigorous medium to produce an astounding range of creative work.

This beautiful book brings together some of the best examples by typewriter artists around the world. As well as key historical work from the Bauhaus, H. N. Werkman, and the concrete poets, there is art by contemporary practitioners, both typewriter artists who use the keyboard as a "palette" to create artworks, and artists/typographers using the form as a compositional device. The book will appeal to graphic designers, typographers, artists, and illustrators, and anyone fascinated by predigital technology.
And about the lovely author
Barrie Tullett is Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design at the Lincoln School of Art and Design, and cofounder of The Caseroom Press, an independent publisher of artists' books based in Lincoln and Edinburgh. As a freelance graphic designer, his clients have included Canongate Books, Princeton University Press and Penguin Books, amongst others.

Early Autumn Home Light












Days are full of making and though I spend more time indoors, the early autumn light floods through the shojigami and tiptoes onto the walls. It is a magical light time of year and the house still smells of the sun on wood and warm tatami. I anticipate the turning of the leaves during koyo and feasting on chestnut rice and the fruits of the ginkgo tree. October marks the rice harvest, matsuri, bamboo lanterns, pumpkins and the welcome return of steaming onsen on crisp cold days.  It's a time of year to love. 

International Mokuhanga Conference 2014 - Tokyo






The 2nd International Mokuhanga Conference was hosted by Tokyo University of the Arts, with the Satellite show held at 3331 Arts Chiyoda. On Thursday I attended the Washi Dialogue - Printmakers Meet Papermakers after spending some time in the gallery absorbed in the Printmaking Studio / AIR Showcase exhibition. Feeling excited and moved by some of the possibilities and potential of Mokuhanga and impressed by the artists I met (Melbourne Printmaking), my hands were itching to get carving. 

Friday brought the opportunity to browse the wondrous Isetatsu paper shop to stock up on decorative woodblock printed papers, wander the haunting Yanaka Rei-en cemetery and visit Scai the Bathhouse gallery. I hot-footed it to Omotesando to catch the Letterpress From London exhibition at Paul Smith Space, where a collection of inspiring London-based printer makers presented an eclectic selection of Letterpress broadsides, books and ephemera. The exquisite work of Harrington and Squires made me feel homesick for England and for my own Adana press. 

I returned to 3331 Arts Chiyoda later on to listen to the The AIR Open Forum, where printmaking studios introduced their workshops and artist-in-residence programs. The opening reception was a good opportunity to talk to the directors and representatives of international studios and meet talented artists such as Dolores de Sade of East London Printmakers and Toshihiko Ikeda currently showing at Museum of Machida. 




On Sunday I spent the day at the main site of the IMC as a delegate attending a packed schedule of lectures and exhibition viewing. The speakers lectured on a huge variety of subjects and were so informative and inspiring. A few highlights for me were the artists' talks by Norwegian artist Karen Helga Murstig who spoke of Nordic light, snow, paper and print, and Katie Baldwin whose collaborative project 'Wood Paper Box' described a ten year friendship bound by Mokuhanga evolving into a 1 year project between the 3 printmakers with stunning results. A beautifully titled paper 'Handing out Happiness' delivered by the magnetic Tuula Moilanen was pure inspiration, focusing on  Japanese subjects of happiness in the form of mokuhanga ephemera. I was privileged to hear Yuasa Katsutoshi discuss the concern in the decline of Japanese elementary school children being taught mokuhanga in the current curriculum, and lucky to hear Kitamura Shouichi, master woodblock carver talk about his recent printmaking collaboration with Ogawa Eitaro in Shanghai. 









During the lunch break I explored the group exhibition 'The Content', where I could view the beautiful 'Wood Paper Box' collaboration as well as 'Yuki', a small collection of artists' print responses to the notion of snow. The Artist Print Book Exhibition 'Mokuhan-Ehon' showed treasures from the talented Karen Kunc and the lovely Sumi Perera . The wonderful humour and simplicity of the book by Tuula Moilanen stayed with me, as did the stunning mokuhanga works of a current student at Tokyo University of the Arts, who beautifully depicted moments titled 'Sigh' in woodblock and watercolour. The conference filled me with ideas and knowledge in an area I long to flourish, yet am only a sapling. 

On Tokyo Time



The window view from my temporary home, in Asakusa, East Tokyo.






An afternoon stroll around Asakusa & Senso-ji.





 A meander around Yanaka, browsing delicious paper shops, 
tasting homemade kinako omochi, basking in the Tokyo sunlight. 



A late night unpredictable karaoke treat with 20 wonderful Australian printmakers.






A lovely 'Crafternoon' with Hello Sandwich at 'East side Tokyo', making envelopes 
alongside new friends. Sharing oishii ramen, (tokyo style) and a long walk-it-off.





Stumbling into 2K540 Aki-oka Artisan on Saturday afternoon delivered 30 minutes
of wonder at an imono workshop, where I cast my own o-sake cup, with the help of a 
bevy of young craftsmen. Boy bands in Shinjuku freestyle jazzing and bidding a 
snappy sayonara to Tokyo as I skipped through Ueno park to catch a flight home. 

Contemplating Obsession





‘ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT’
75 years ago Homer Collyer was found dead in an armchair in the 5th Avenue Brownstone mansion he shared with his brother Langley. The NYPD emptied the house of 130 tons of refuse including 1 horse’s jawbone, 25 thousand books, 14 pianos, 5 dressmaker’s dummies, several guns and 15 year’s worth of daily newspapers. 19 days later they discovered Langley’s body less than 10 feet from where his brother had died, suffocated under the weight of his collapsed hoardings.
In an ode to brotherly love and the Collyers’ obsessive compulsive hoarding, I created this ghost edition of the New York Times distills 15 years of minor news stories taken from the NYTimes archive between 1933-1947. Re-printed and re-published for the benefit of the late blind Homer Collyer as a comment on the futility and sadness of saving everything.
Letterpress printed broadsheet, white ink hand printed on 50gsm newsprint, 597mm x 374mm, edition of 5 2012.  

 In addition to the broadsheet I created twin mausoleums housing interpretive personal collections reflecting some of the objects discovered in the Collyer home.

I gather and keep my own hair in jam jars. I collected thimbles as a child and was consequently teased. I hold onto a defunct Adana printing press, whose instruction manual is useless. I own a dead mans collection of ambiguous printing plates. I have rooms worth of miniature furniture yet no dolls house to house them in. 

Specimen boxes contain Sunograph prints, Letterpress prints, inkjet digital prints, and various objects. The coffins are not to be separated, and only exhibited as a pair, re-visited in 2014.

Shift.








As we drain the last of our shared summer days, we make time to look, time to make, time to rest, time to read, time to love, time to rearrange. We see everything anew as September beckons us with less balmy arms and promises of a shift, a return to feeling free. I embrace (with all my might) the opportunity to draw, carve, print, sculpt, write and notice all the wonder of here. I am fierce with it. 

Nagasaki gateway















Three Chinatown kakunimanju
Misplaced canal-side yatai
Wooden historical Dejima
Cable-car nun-nightscape
Peace peace park
rose shaped ice
Koi river wonder
Texting sailor high-rise

Hashima / Gunkanjima / Battleship Island












Set sail from Nagasaki port to a tiny island abandoned, 
Coal mining community long gone,  
architectural skeletal remnants. 
The 'Nations first high' rise still standing, concrete.
But sea beaten, typhoon whipped, sun bleached. 
Haunting emptiness, tempting exploration.
Decades of decay prompt snapshot narratives, 
BondJamesBond villain comparison.
Head count on, head count off.
Head full of Bond girl fantasies.

On Okinawan time






Okinawa tastes of ice cold 'Orion B', of satiating Awamori roku, of prickly goya cucumber, of juicy green skiikwaasaa, of sweet purple benimo. The soundtrack to everywhere is a captivating Sanshin, the beat of a drum, the melodic chant of locals.   





 Snaking a line from Naha to Nago, past the long U.S bases we see shisa lion-dragons, we feast on miniature tacos, we visit ingenious kilns and pottery workshops.






Nago is early Obon. Nago is Eisa dances at dusk. It's waking from a tatami hut and padding to a cove for a pre-breakfast swim. Nago is the generosity of new friends, of secret snorkelling spots, of burning sun and shady tropical trees and the cooling taste of love.

Ishigaki jima





Dining on famed Okinawa soba and coffee kakigori. Secret breakfast tofu sets in the heart of inaka.




Hours under the sea at Yonehara beach befriending schools of luminous species. 







Eye-swimming in Kabira bay's turquoise sea and moonscape coral seen through glass-bottomed boats. Stray David Bowie eyed cats beg for a lick of ben-imo soft cream.




Cycling around Taketomi island, counting 'shisa' lined roofs, swerving ox, searching for star shaped sand.



 Dusk snorkelling at Sunset Beach in the company of poisonous yet shy scorpion fish and bikini-matching zebra varieties.


*Ishigaki jima is a short flight south from mainland Okinawa, closer to Taiwan and China, geographically and culturally, than the rest of Japan, and absolute paradise.

Hanabi / Fireworks !







Hanabi at Ohori Koen was a yukata catwalk,
a 90 minute spectacular firework symphony, 
a mouth tingling obento feast,  
an extended family pond side picnic,
a breathtaking light hypnosis.

Fukuoka Ramblings











The hazy days of Fukuoka's August, where salary men unbutton their dampened white collars and their pace slows to an amble. Where everything green grows wild and unruly. Where gargantuan watermelons wait to be sliced, their redness relished. Where only sushi stalls can satiate the thirst for cooling the city's tongue. Where neko-chan search for shaded stone to stretch out and unfold their fury limbs. Where cold soba noodle shops beckon, providing shade for my squinting unaccustomed blue eyes. Where terrapins bask in the afternoon heat, heads bobbing atop a box on a backstreet. This is Summer in the city.

A Book on Bookmaking


Last year, before moving to Japan, I was invited to contribute to a new publication by Charlotte Rivers & Esther K.Smith titled 'The little book of bookmaking'. Some of my artist's publications are featured within the pages on 'Folded bindings' along with a description of some techniques I employ in making the editions. The book is published this month and is well worth a read. You can find more details here.




やまかさ Yamakasa













July in Fukuoka means
Hakata Gion Yamakasa. 
4:59am July 15th. 
Thousands of men in loincloths from 
seven local districts carry 
one ton floats through 
the dawn break streets of the city.
A 750 year old elegant tradition.
Bare bottoms, bear strength.
Cooling water, racing, chanting.
Ropes, shoulders, jikatabi. 

Typhoon Numbers 8 & 11












Much of the Japanese Summer is punctuated by threatening typhoons spiraling up the coastline. Typhoon watch is a daily news worthy intermission. We sit, windows rattling in the first winds, skies imminent with storm-calm, umbrellas dancing inside-out. And we wait, eyes glued to over-analytical reporters with anxious hypotheses of the brewing clouds. Stay indoors. We pick up the ukulele and compose Typhoon symphony Number 8, over a soundtrack of Japanese TV, as we await the arrival of not only the winds but of far away friends blowing in from the West with gifts of news and embraces from a land I love. False alarms, we venture out, to the sea, to the shops, to examine the sky and ask where Number 8 blew. We mark our rain drenched indoor Summer by changing the Shoji gami panels, to let all of the light in. We are lucky to be sparred the typhoons, the landslides, the unpredictability, the fearful reality of this Summers weather. 

Hold Fast.


Hot Days / Time Poor












Snatched precious Sundays have meant boarding boats with a hazy head.
Drinking in the vitamin D like a hydrangea thirsts for water.
Finding the coolest corner of the paper glass house and just being still. 
Nomihoudai mistakes after long tiring days. 
Basking in the return of Ohori's terrapins from the swan boat bridge. 
Watching Spider monkey acrobatic ballet while the flamingos curl up. 
Home brewing umeshu to kanpai next year.
Chopping back the wilderness and examining island poppies. 
Our time together is precious. Me, him and the sun. 

ひさしぶり　Long time no see

One of my favourite Japanese phrases is Hisashiburi meaning long time, no see. 
It's been a few months of catching up with visiting friends and family with short and long trips away to the Japanese countryside, along with new Island discoveries. With little time to make but time enough to discover the Summer traditions and festivities of Japan. Many days have been spent outdoors. Having dreaded the arrival of the Summer heat, my initiation to the unusual cooler days and prolonged rainy season this Summer have brought relief. Though the sun shows her strength when the clouds clear, there are many ways to keep cool in the ceaseless heat. 

 Parasol protection, o-bento botanical garden picnics, cool summer yukata , cycling to the sea for a post-work dip, ice cold nama beer or shochou on the rocks, saltwater sandals without socks.