collage cards

Before nearly every special occasion (holiday, birthday, anniversary) I get out my materials for making cards and work away. I have previously blogged about collage cards here and here.While I use print and drawing media in cardmaking, I tend to make collages most frequently. I do not cut paper, I carefull rip shapes from it and only use a steel edge ruler for helping to tear straignt edges, such as when I want a coloured background or in landscape images. While liquid glue and an old credit card are good for spreading, a glue stick is the most convenient.

The detritus in the picture above was caused from tearing egg shapes from patterned wrapping paper. I always save scraps of different papers if I can imagine them being repurposed at a later date, and this is a good example of that.

Often cards are related to artwork I am going to make or have already made. This 1988 St Patrick's Day card (made for my "new" boyfriend - now my husband!) refers to a dream I had in the early '80s and subsequent artwork, Ocean of Life. I had also studied the poetry of Wallace Stevens in 1986 and adored the poem Our Stars Come from Ireland, inspiring the imagery of the green stars in churning water.

This postcard from 1988 was also based on a dream: on my first visit to British Columbia; although I didn't see any whales on my ferry trip from Vancouver to Victoria, my mind really wanted to! I remember wanting a durable backing for the card to make it from BC to Toronto, so I made do with a piece of cardboard from a cereal box.

Other cards have also been inspired by travel. This card was inspired by my visit to Sicily in 1997 where I saw some Greek ruins at Segesta.

Quite often I simply make cards from what is in front of me. In this case I simply reproduced the image of my avocado houseplant. I used some patterned green wrapping paper that I had saved in my re-use paper file.

Likewise, this get well card, made for my daughter in 2008. simplified the fish tank in her bedroom.

I am often lazy with images too, simply using egg shapes for Easter (as above), shamrock shapes for St Patrick's Day, and hearts for Valentine's Day...

Often I reuse images in the same year, if I am obsessively working on a project. In 2015-2016 I was hard at work on The Skipping Project (I refer to it here, here, here, and here), a multi-media project that was to be my MA thesis project (for personal reasons the project was never finished). I used the child's feet skipping rope in a number of cards. The rope in this card was made from a collage tape I made (using double-sided tape) from chocolate wrapper foil.

I used the skipping image again for Paddy's Day, though I replaced the shoes with traditional dancing hornpipes and drew the rope in as shamrocks.

easy peasy delicious bean patties

I had a hankering to make some simple bean burgers, but was told they tasted very similar to falafels, so I am calling them "patties". I tried to keep an eye on actual amounts, since I planned to write down this recipe for future use (if it worked, and it did produce something tasty - which it did!) but my measurements are always approximate. Here is a list of ingredients:

prepared kidney beans (equivalent to approx 1.5-2 drained cans), 2 tblsp olive oil, 1 onion, 1 egg, 1/3 tube of tomato paste (or 1 little tin if that is the way it is sold in your country), 125 g bread crumbs, 100 g oats, 2 tsp mixed spices (I happened to have this Smoky Brae rub of mixed spices that included cumin, dried garlic, chilli flakes, and other things, but you may just prefer to add a clove of fresh garlic and some salt & pepper - to your own taste!)

I use dried kidney beans, so I soak them the night before and boil them up the next day. I have started adding a bay leaf to the pot as they are boiling. 

I whizzed the beans in a food processor with the oil (necessary to keep the processor working) then added everything together in a big bowl

and mixed it up thoroughly.

Form into patties, like you would burgers and place on oiled cookie sheets.

Bake at 190C about 15 mins, then flip and bake for another 15 mins. They are a bit dry on their own, but either treat as a burger (with toppings) or eat with sweet chilli sauce, mango chutney or raita (or anything you like) as you would a falafel. Very nutritious and delicious! They freeze just like any meat burger and are great on the bbq.

Preparations for new work!

In addition to the work that I'll be doing for Precariat Press (details here and here) and the writing during the annual NaPoWriMo beginning tomorrow, I am also getting ready to embark on further work for the series Memory Is My Homeland (details of other work in this series here, here, here and here). I primed some small canvases last year, stretching them on wood, which have just been patiently waiting for my return to them.

As with most of my work where the surface has been primed, I always put a ground coat of quinacridone violet over the entire surface, before I begin the painting or drawing. I have plans for both these small formats, likely to be completed with oilstick & graphite.

Before I could prepare for another large piece (Knockeen - my second home in Kerry - is taking shape in my head) I had to take down Kingswood. It was interesting to see the reverse side of the pressed cloth painting, where the "watermark" is more apparent. This is actually the front side, had I used it for its true purpose, a roller blind, but this design would have repelled the paint too much.

I needed a bit of help to affix the large piec of pressed cloth to the wood beam on the wall.

I decided to cut the piece from the roll, weighing it down a bit with another beam of wood. Almost ready to begin!

Precariat Press

It's been a good few years that I have been thinking of putting together a collection of my poetry and wondering how I should go about it. While self-publishing has, in contemporary times, always gotten a bad rap as "vanity", historically it was crucial to artistic survival: the Woolfs founded the Hogarth Press and printed Virginia's work, and earlier, across an ocean, Walt Whitman published his enduring work Leaves of Grass himself. Most recently I have been inspired by American writer, Jim Trainer, who vowed to publish a collection of his poetry annually for ten years (I have 2018 & 2019 collections, but I think he started in 2015). I was originally drawn to his writing through his monthly article, The Coarse Grind, and his own blog of personal journalism, Going for the Throat, before I discovered that he was a poet too. So, in good company I set about founding my own press. After sessions of brainstorming with my husband, artist James Hayes, a name for the press and an image for its logo were decided. James designed this logo in record time for me.

I had already decided that my first collection would be a chapbook, with the title and cover image based on the bon voyage card I made for my grandparents after first meeting them in 1967. I gave an explanation of what led to that meeting and images of the original card in my blog post last week. Here is the idea sketch for the cover. I will do a full drawing as it will be a lino block print. I was dithering about handpainting areas of colour, but it is most likely to be monochromatic. While I have use of a printing press, I plan to print the front and back covers as one page, also making a linocut of the logo, so colour has yet to be decided.

Home Sweet Home Goodbye

It was in 1967 that my family won a St Patrick's Day competition from the "Toronto Today" news and current events tv show. As a child it was exciting for me to appear on tv with my very large Irish immigrant family, but the prize was most exciting of all: to bring relatives over from Ireland for a holiday in Toronto. This allowed me, as a seven year old child, to finally meet my grandparents for the very first time! I would meet my father's dad a few years later, but my mother's parents were both still living. I adored them and was heartbroken when they left. In the 1960s air travel was not as frequent as now, and the fact of immigration was very much that you never knew when you would see a loved one again. When my grandparents were due to leave, I made them a going away card. This card was found in my grandmother's purse, in 1980 when she died, and made its way back to me. The simple landscape is what I, as a child, thought Ireland must look like.

Of course I was very familiar with the Irish flag, which I illustrated on the inside of the card, along with my good wishes. During their visit, my grandparents nicknamed me "you know what" as I was constantly telling them things, preceding my revelations with this question phrase. I think now that I must have been driving them crazy, but they never showed any annoyance with me or discouraged my attention.

I didn't get to see them the next year, but they came for a holiday the following year, and perhaps both of them again one more time. I saw my grandmother again three more times after my grandfather's death, but through the years we wrote to each other often. I still think it is interesting that as a child I saw the creative use of a sliding puzzle (I think it came in a gum machine as a prize). I removed all the numbers and used the base as a frame for my mini-painting on the front of the card.

A Short Walk to Fort Carré - linoprints

Towards the end of my studio residency at Signal Arts Centre in 2018, I started working on some drawings with the intention of turning them into future lino blocks. As I had been offered a further residency at Signal in 2019, I decided I would shelve the drawings and get back to them at a later date. I previously blogged about the progress of this work here.

The images from this series are all based upon things I particularly noticed in Antibes while going on a short walk, on a hot August morning a few years ago, from the apartment in Antibes, where I was staying, to Fort Carré on a promontory on the edge of the town.

Aloe plants were on the side of the footpath, and shadows were very strong in the sunlight. Palm leaves brushed the pavement in some areas.

From under a palm tree, I thought the branches and bark seemed somewhat prehistoric.

I could see why palm branches would be used as fans.

In the heat the succulent plants thrived.

The shadows of trees were amazing.

After years of visiting Antibes, it was delightful to finally see Fort Carré up close. It is a 16th C fort on a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean. Further information on the fort may be found here. One of the things I concentrated on at my Signal residency in 2019 was printmaking. I cut the lino blocks and printed them up before xmas and bound the series of prints into portfolios (edition of three) last month (Feb 2020). I previously posted information on the binding process here.

Perfect Roast Potatoes!

Well, it only took about 30 years of trying, but shortly before xmas last year, I discovered that the secret to making perfect roast potatoes lay in the variety of potato used. Who knew? I live in Ireland and there are so many potatoes to choose from but shortly before xmas I was told that Maris Pipers were the absolute best for making perfect roast potatoes. Apparently this type of potato is very specific to Ireland and the British Isles, so elsewhere make sure you get a potato with similar qualities, ie a floury potato, like Russet or Golden Yukon (though English ex-pats are not too happy with them...). Anyway, there are only 3 people in my household, so 1.5 kg is enough for us for a dinner and some leftovers to hash up for a lunch.

Peel and halve (or cut in three for larger potatoes).

Parboil 10 minutes at most.

Preheat your oven (about 180C) and your baking dish so the butter and veg oil will melt together.

When the potatoes are ready at parboil stage, drain, and shake your pot so the potatoes get all scuffed up on the outside.

Place in your dish (don't forget the bits that were around the edge of the pot) and turn about so that they are coated with the melted butter and oil. Put them in the preheated oven (the dish should already be hot).

After about half an hour, check on your potatoes and turn them in the dish - they tend to brown on the bottom, and it's an all-over effect that is extra delicious.

Roast for another half hour, getting the rest of your dinner ready in the meantime.  These are so delicious -  perfectly crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth fluffy on the inside. One of the reasons I think it took so long to make such delicious potatoes is that I love other roasted veggies and would put them all in the same dish. The moisture from the other vegetables I think kept the potatoes from browning and crisping, so I cook them separately now!