Australia – new collaborations bursary

I have spent two days in Canberra and it has been an amazing whirlwind tour. Thanks to the abbe conference in Brisbane I met Caren Florance who is currently undertaking a creative Doctorate at the University of Canberra ANU on material poetics and the creative book.  Caren also teaches letterpress and books arts at ANU and invited me to join her class on Thursday 30th July as well as taking me on a print tour of Canberra. A selection of artist books were available to look at whilst at the university and I was given a tour of the universities printmaking facilities. After class we visited John Loane a local master printer then on to Megalo an open access studio with incredible facilities.

Today is why I can to Canberra to take a look at the Ken Tyler Collection. Unfortunately I am unable to post pictures but you can check out the collection through this link http://nga.gov.au/InternationalPrints/Tyler/Default.cfm

Emilie Owens and Rose Montebello who both work in the collection study room and with the Tyler collection were incredible, allowing me to spend a whole day looking at prints and paper pulp works by David Hockeny, Caro, Robert Motherwell and Robert Rauschenberg. They researched and had answers for all the technical questions I threw at them and were incredibly generous with their time and expertise. I only wish I had more time to explore more of the collection.

My time with Tim and learning his pulp printing process has been amazing. I feel as though I have achieved what I came out here to do, which was to learn the process and be able to carry it out independently without Tim’s assistance. This hopefully means that once I gather up all the equipment and material I’m going to need, I should be able to carry on making pulp prints back in the UK. So if anyone knows of some one with a Hollander in the UK who would be prepared to help me make prepare the pulp then let me know!

Next stop Canberra to check out the Ken Tyler collection at the NGA, visit the art school, look at artist books and check out Megalo an open access print studio

Teaching students at Queensland College of Art over the past couple of days has been an amazing experience. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy teaching the process and getting students excited about the endless potential lithography has to offer.