A stitch in time - best laid plans !


On October 15th 2009 I started tracking my daily activity on the computer (using a graphics tablet/ pen and paper and carbon). Every day I tape a new piece of A6 paper/ carbon to the tablet and the just use the computer to do whatever I need to do - the carbon transfers the marks to the paper and I have a 'drawing' of that days activity. Year one of the 'activity' series is now almost half way through and I needed to start thinking about presentation. They have been stored chronologically in cellophane packets a week at a time - and look great just pinned to the wall (maybe Year 2 using transparent/ translucent paper??). However, I really wanted to present them in a way which potentially showed all 365 drawings. The carbon paper reveals the negative mark but is clearer when held up to the light so I considered joining them (one set positive/ 1 set negative) so they could be hung/ folded in a variety of ways depending on the space they were shown in, allowing for a light source.... After much testing I decided to laminate them and join with stitches (24 stitches/ 60cm thread ) so they became like a giant concertina book which could be opened/ closed/ hung etc. in a variety of ways. I did my my tests with blank paper/ carbon and all seemed fine but when I started to laminate I realised the carbon paper doesn't like heat and the marks almost disappeared! So now I shall go ahead as planned with the transfer drawings but have to rethink what I'm going to do with the carbon.....

On my wish list!

Although my own work tends to be low tech (pencil and paper) and I love writing by hand (preferably with a flex fountain pen) I'm also a bit of a gadget girl and have been searching for a long while for some way of keeping a digital sketch book. Since my original psion and through zodiacs, palms and currently smartphone nothing has done everything I want and in particular nothing has come close to replacing my paper notebooks/ sketchbooks. So I currently have lots of things on my computer (weblinks/ photos/ online stuff), a pile of notebooks and no way of effectively combining the two. Thought the i-pad might work but no stylus so no good! (you can get a third party stylus but as the i pad hasn't been designed with it in mind it has limited use) I need to be able to take handwritten notes, do quick sketches and insert anything I want from the web. Microsoft's courier above looks perfect. More info here. Not sure when it will be released (rumours of late 2010) or how much it will cost but it is definitely no. 1 on my wish list. I want one!!

Il Lee - ballpoint drawings

BL-092, 2007, ballpoint pen on paper, 65 x 51.5 inches. Courtesy of artist and Art Projects International, New York

Really interesting item from the Drawing Center here about some fascinating ballpoint drawings by Il Lee. Caught my eye because one of the things I've been thinking about a lot is the universal experience of drawing and the resulting audience understanding of the physical activity inherent in making a drawing (and because I love drawing with ballpoint pens!)