You Call It The Studio, I’ll Call It The Kitchen Table

Recently Charlie Hillhouse (of Small House Books) dropped round to take some photos for the folks at Mild Manners. I was in the middle of finishing the last woodcut that will be in next week’s show. This is where I spend most of my days off. Around meal time it’s the kitchen table – the rest of the time it’s where all the projects that are strewn around the house are worked on.

StudioVisit_1

While most of the time is spent carving the woodblock, once a woodcut is finished up, I head downstairs to the spare room which doubles as my makeshift printing room. On this day I was going back and printing a woodcut I hadn’t touched for over a year and had not gotten around to editioning. Everything is pretty much DIY. A jig from some left over timber. Inking glass that’s from an old picture frame. A drying rack that was once a clothes rack. Whatever gets the job done really.

StudioVisit_2

The vast majority of my prints are printed by hand (I don’t actually own a printing press). This means that when using a baren (the little bamboo disc beside the print there) I usually need to make a few passes of the print – ink the block, apply the paper, ink the block, re-apply the paper and so on.

StudioVisit_3

This is the fun part where I get to see if the woodblock has worked and eventually with the right amount of ink, the image starts to come off the block

StudioVisit_4

And if everything goes according to plan then I’ll end up with a rich image with just enough wood-grain to complement the carved lines and add some texture.

StudioVisit_5

So while I might take days, weeks or even longer to carve out a woodblock, I can usually have a few prints made in a couple of hours. A satisfying way to end the creative process.

Thanks to Charlie for the snapshots of me at work.

2013
05/17
CATEGORY
Printing
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Artist Book #6 – Documenting Memories

The trick to doing something repeatedly is to make it easier the subsequent times you do it. The fun part of making things for me is the challenges I need to problem solve. Those two things don’t always happen at the same time which means it is often interesting how different the outcome usually is to the initial motivating thought.

Making small-run handmade books is really fun. All it is (no joke) is some paper, sticky tape, scissors and sometimes a needle and thread! This latest book has been made specifically to go with my solo exhibition next week and it was supposed to be a piece of cake! At least that’s what I was thinking a month ago.

Artist Book-1

The not to uncommon scenario occurred where the book kept getting slicker and fancier with each new design step but hey I’m not complaining, I love how much like an actual small book this one looks like. I’ve covered some copies in metallic grey Japanese parer and some in metallic blue Japanese Paper. I’ve built the Obi strip into the front cover and hand-bound the spine.

Inside the book are some of the newest woodcuts I’ve completed over the last 12 months. While I’d love them all to be original prints, the variance in size and shape of my woodcuts means that high-quality reproductions was the most practical way to showcase the works. Artist Book-3     Artist Book-4

Of course though It wouldn’t be right to not include an original print so you can see and feel the tactile nature of the image. The roughness, the embossing of the wood into the paper. A hand printed image is always far superior to something spat out of a machine. This print is in an edition of 20 and will only be made available with the book (which is obviously also an edition of 20). For those with good memories (or search skills of this blog), this little bird came to exist on a skateboard last year but seeing as that was a one off creation and I loved how the bird turned out, I’m using this book as an excuse to bring him back and one for myself to keep.

Artist Book-2

I will have all these at the opening night of my exhibition, next Thursday night 23rd from 6pm.  I will also have the last three copies of THIS book available on the night. More details have been put up on the Mild Manners site and of course there’s stuff on Facebook too.

Artist Book-5

2013
05/15
CATEGORY
Artist Books
Exhibition
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Making Records For Woodcuts (Or The Other Way Around)

I’ve got to say it is both fun and a lot of pressure doing artwork for albums or singles or any music to be released. Trying to match the sounds to images and translate other people’s thoughts on the music they have made is not always a seemless process. Luckily for me, my latest project has been my own. By that I mean I’ve been calling the shots which has made the final outcome that much more important to me.

The back story is late last year, one of my closest friends and I made some music together of which I thought it was good and decided to make it something more than just a few jams in a room. From there I got more friends to help me extract what I heard in my head and even went so far as to learn a new instrument (the musical saw no less). Now I am happy to be in possession of the 10-inch record below. It’s a little country, a little heavy and kinda weird but I dig it!

10inch-1

Now that might have next to nothing to do with printmaking or woodcuts. But you see, I get no greater pleasure than when I’m creating something out of nothing. Playing drums, playing instruments that belong in a hardware store, carving a woodblock or making a book – when you step back and look at what you’ve made, it’s pretty cool.

So apart from the 100 copies of the record that I hope to eventually send out into the world, I decided to spend the last few days making a single copy of the record that had all my creative loves fused into one artifact. I am really proud of what I finished off today, to me it’s an artist book, it’s a record, it’s some of my best woodcuts to date and as someone who also likes collecting records, it’s the most deluxe release I could come up with (with some ink, paper, tape and scissors).

It is hardcover and adorned with four original woodcuts and I’ve even put the test-pressing of the record in there. This one-off creation will be on show (and available) at my exhibition opening on the 23rd May (see the invite below) even though I really would like to keep this one for myself!

Front and back cover

10inch-6 Inside gatefold10inch-5 Back cover10inch-4

Front Cover10inch-3 Inside 10inch-2

2013
05/13
CATEGORY
Artist Books
Exhibition
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You’re Invited!

Alex-Gillies-web

2013
05/11
CATEGORY
Exhibition
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South Of The Border – East Of The City

I don’t head down to James St in the valley often enough. This is my loss seeing as that means I don’t get to go hang out at Jamie’s Espresso nearly as much as I’d like to. Jamie, Carmella, Bo and the lovely ladies who work there are a super bunch.

Well I’d like to thank them for giving me the best reason to go hang there during the month of May as some of my woodcuts will be adorning their walls. This will be a preview of sorts of new works leading up to my solo show in a couple of weeks (just down the road at Ksubi).

Painting El Pajaro

Here is me putting the finishing touches of paint to a print that will be hanging there. I’ve gone and expanded on a series of prints I started in the summer of 2011/2012 of Mexican Loteria cards.

Loteria: is the Spanish word for lottery. Loteria is a Latin American game of chance, similar to bingo but using images on a deck of cards instead of plain numbers on ping-pong balls. The deck is composed of a set of 54 different images, each one in a card.

To start the game, the caller randomly selects a card from the deck and announces it to the players by its name, sometimes using a riddle instead of reading the card name. The players with a matching pictogram on their board mark it off with a chip or other kind of marker such as small rocks or pinto beans. The first player with four chips in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row, a squared pattern or fills the tabla first shouts “Lotería!” (Lottery!) and is the winner.

The Prints will be hanging at Jamie’s from this Thursday 2nd May and I will be hanging out at Jamie’s Thurdsday night from around 5pm if you want to come down and check it all out/catch up/have a chat!

In the real world Jamie’s is at 49 James Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. In the not so real world, Jamie’s can also be found here: http://jamies.com.au

2013
04/29
CATEGORY
Exhibition
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This Is How Memories Are Made

Draw filmMild Manners Presents

This Is How Memories Are Made

Woodcuts & Artwork By Alex Gillies

Opening Thursday 23 May 6pm
Showing until Sunday 30 June

Upstairs at Ksubi
Shop 2/30 James St,
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
QLD 4006 Australia

http://www.mild-manners.com

It’s been a few years between solo art shows but thankfully due to that, I have a few years of artwork that I will be showing as part of this show.
More details will be coming along in the next few days but until then you will find a portion of what’s on display over on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/againstthewoodgrain

2013
04/27
CATEGORY
Exhibition
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Print in Print

Firstly a quick thank you to all the terrific folks who came along to the Wasted Dream group art show over the last week and checked out not only my prints but all the great artwork on display. My good friend Murdoch absolutely killed it with some of his new drawings. There were two of them that were my favourites!

Here’s what I had on display…

3

So last night we pulled down that show and tonight there’s something a little different happening across town.

My friends at Mild Manners are making the Ksubi artspace in Fortitude Valley their new home for 2013 and they’re kicking off proceedings with a group show (check it out here or here) and publication launch (care of Small House Books) tonight from 6pm. I’m in said publication and you can pick up a free copy at the show or if you keep your eye out, probably around town.

Koma Mag

Koma Mag-2

The reason for my inclusion is that I’m going to be having a solo show at the Ksubi artspace soon and so this is a nice little lead into that. I’ll be sure to put up full details of my show once it’s all ready to roll! Until then, Maybe I’ll see you tonight, maybe I’ll see you round town…

2013
04/18
CATEGORY
Exhibition
Artist Books
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Wasted Dream III

Wasted Dream III

Yep. So this is coming up in a few weeks time and it is just the first of several exciting announcements and events that I have coming up over the next few months – I’m going to be all over the place and loving it.

This time around for the third installment of the show we have moved out of the DIY music venue and into the DIY art space. The Box Gallery is nestled in the heart of West End (http://theboxwestend.com), we’re definitly coming up in the world. I will have three new works on show which will be nestled in amongst a whole heap of great made by my friends.

If you want to have a sticky-beak at some of the works that are being made then you should head over to http://wasteddreambrisbane.blogspot.com.au or better still, go join the facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/121084578073428/ and share/invite your friends to come along too!

2013
04/01
CATEGORY
Exhibition
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HAZE XXL

As someone who is devoted to printmaking as much as I am to music. I find that a lot of the people who inspire me don’t necessarily come from the standard cannon of historically successful artists. Sure I can look at Hiroshige or Durer and appreciate what they helped create but in this day and age it’s the hands on artists that I love the most. Mix into that the DIY aesthetic that fuels punk rock music and you get people like Tom Hazelmyer from Minneapolis in the US – quite easily the person who’s artistic perspective I admire above anyone else. Everyone needs people to look up to so they can say to themselves “I can do that” and “I want to be as good as them” – and that’s not coming from a style perspective but from one of attitude.

Here’s a really cool clip I just watched on Tom that showcases his printmaking endevours. You don’t need to like the music to like where he’s taking art but it certainly helps…

and here’s a linocut poster that Tom made that hangs above my stereo.

Lino-poster

2013
02/12
CATEGORY
Friends
Inspiration
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New Found Harmony

Back in 2011 one of my favourite bands in Australia asked me to do up the coverart for their debut 7″. I was both excited and nervous at the prospect of working with Melbourne’s Harmony (which I elaborated on here).

Well, clearly I did something right because late last year they asked me to have another shot with the first single from their second full-length album.

Harmony

…and this is what arrived in the mail a few days ago. Not to boast but wow it came up great. Harmony are a band that always make good looking releases and I think they did a great job turning my woodcut into the cover illustration of their single.

The image came from listening to the two songs on repeat, in particular the second track ‘ I Wait All Night For You…’. Their music  a strange mix of beauty and torment – kind of like a georgous woman standing on the railing of a bridge… you want a happy ending but it might not likely come.

Their new album will be out in a couple of months. Until then you can get the 7-inch from their bandcamp page and you should before its limited run sells out.

CHECK OUT HARMONY

BUY THEIR NEW SINGLE

2013
01/27
CATEGORY
Friends
1 comment
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